#divided into three parts after 1977

[cosmicanger]

Marcia Hafif Wall Paintings: “After hanging the monochrome paintings together on walls in a traditional manner I chose to make independent paintings each related to the wall alone. One painting in casein covered a 35 x 10 foot wall, another on canvas was longer than the wall as it was divided in three parts, still others fit the space floor to ceiling. In addition each presented a different medium or technique: casein, oil, encaustic, glaze, egg tempera.”; 1. Wall Painting: Prussian Blue, Julian Pretto Gallery, 1975, 2. Wall Painting: Red and Green, MoCA Chicago, 1977, 3. Wall Painting: Grayed Cobalt Blue, Sonnabend Gallery, NY, 1975, 4. Wall Paintings: Red Ochre, Strontium Yellow Chromate, Sonnabend Gallery, Paris, 1975

[polishwomenartists-sztukakobiet]

Polish Women Artists Archives | House of Nuremberg in Cracow Dom Norymberski w Krakowie | The Womenal #Poland | 2019

https://facebook.com/events/s/wystawa-femina%C5%82/450834802194681/

The exhibition titled The Womenal derived from Günter Grass’s novel called The Flounder. Its leading theme is the feminist history of the world according to Grass, the relation between men and women, as well as the criticism of patriarchy and male dominance.

Artists / Artystki: Agata Agatowska, Iwona Demko, Georgia Fambris, Urszula Kluz-Knopek, Natalia Kopytko, Katarzyna Kukuła, Ewa Kulka, Jasmin Lothert, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Agata Norek, Anna Orbaczewska, Elena Provata, Ulrika Segerberg, Małgorzata Wielek-Mandrela

+ Günter Grass

Curators / Kuratorki: Iwona Demko, Renata Kopyto, Marta Wróblewska

House of Nuremberg in Cracow, ul. Skałeczna 2,

Opening: 11.10.2019 at 7 pm.

The exhibition entitled The Womenal derived from Günter Grass’s novel called The Flounder. Its leading theme is the feminist history of the world according to Grass, the relation between men and women, as well as the criticism of patriarchy and male dominance.

The Flounder by Günter Grass was published in Germany in 1977, almost 10 years after social transformations which took place in 1968, during which the second wave of feminism went through West Germany. This book fitted into the atmosphere which was in the air in those times. And despite the harsh criticism it received from the contemporary feminist milieus, from today’s perspective it can be seen as prophetic.

The starting point for this tale about the history of mankind as the history of male emancipation from the power of matriarchy, is the well-known brothers Grimm story which in Polish version is entitled About the Fisherman and Golden Fish, and in German - About the Fisherman and His Wife. In the book two versions are interwoven: in the first one, the caught fish (Grass’s flounder in this case) makes all dreams of the greedy fisherman’s wife come true; in the second one, it is the man who keeps wanting more and more things and power to help him rule the world. Certainly, it leads to a catastrophe and final disaster.

The circle of history described by the author encompasses the primeval tribes from the matriarchy epoch, through the middle ages, after that renaissance, followed by Prussian State, up till contemporary times, that is the 70s of 20th century. Exactly then, three feminists catch the speaking flounder in the North Sea. The fish becomes the personification of the whole male-kind and tells a story how it inspired men to break free from the power of women. He appoints himself the director of the story of humankind and the author of the script for this narration. The book is divided into nine chapters parallel to nine months of pregnancy. The story that is being told is at the same time the interrogation of the big fish in front of a feminist tribunal, the so calledThe Womenal. The emancipation of the male-kind is at the same time the story of women’s subjugation and exclusion from active life. We can trace how they are deprived of the influence on their own lives, and how they are gradually undergoing the oppressive rules of functioning in the patriarchal society.

One of the places they were assigned, apart from bedroom and church, was the kitchen. Grass sees in cooking and perfecting this skill by introducing new ingredients and creating new dishes, a kind of magic, curing witchcraft, the power to control the strength and weakness of the body. Nine women cooks are the protagonists of the novel. They are, according to Grass, an integral part of the local history of Pomerania, and perhaps the global history too. In the prehistoric times women were born with the third breast to feed the men with their own milk, as this ritual had a sedative effect on them. Later on, thanks to introducing potato to the menu, women protected many people from famine, and with the help of warm thick soup they would disarm the tyrants. Enemies were eliminated by adding poisonous ingredients taken from the natural resources and included in the dishes. The Flounder contains numerous recipes and shows their evolution: from milk dishes, through meat and fish diet, up to the discovery of forest fruits and plant cuisine.

If women did not consider marriage as the biggest happiness in their lives, they could go to the nunnery. It was the place where they could finally renounce the sexual services like Dorothea of Montau who, according to Grass “was the first woman (in our region) to rebel against the patriarchal tyranny of medieval marriage” (The Founder, p. 166). Or, on opposite, they could enjoy full sexual freedom like Margarete Rusch. The promiscuous Abbess of Saint Bridget’s Convent “solved the bitterly earnest question of the century, the question of how to serve up the bread and wine, the Lord’s Supper, in her own way, to wit, bedwise, by acrobatically moving her twat into the vertical and offering is as a chalice, which was then filled with red wine” (The Flounder, p. 209).

Despite the considerable understanding for the political and social situation in Germany in the 70s, and the effort to understand and describe the situation of women with empathy, Grass’s novel contains fragments which were unacceptable for the feminist movements, nor for any women working in arts. Professor Maria Janion points out some of the controversial theses uttered by the Flounder, that “only men are equipped with the ability to experience metaphysical feelings”, “making art is only the male domain”, “woman with her ‘moist warmth’ can be at best the source of creative inspiration for men, his silent muse”, “woman should remain unmoved like the ‘mossy earth’ and be happy she can serve.”

Women, who have been able to study and make art at the academies only for the last 100 years, 40 years after The Flounder has been written are able to prove how Grass’s fish was wrong. Among the themes undertaken within the exhibition. The Flounder himself, held responsible for this state of affairs, and put to court, thus announces prophetically: “I gave you the knowledge and power, but all you wanted was war and misery. Nature was entrusted to you, and what did you do, you despoiled it (…). In short: you men are finished” (The Flounder, p. 453). From today’s point of view one can add: also within the domains which the author is willing to defend in the above quotes. One thing is certain though: in this exhibition art is the domain of women. Renata Kopyto

🇵🇱 Tematem wystawy Feminał są wątki z powieści Güntera Grassa pt.: Turbot: feministyczna historia świata według Grassa, jego postrzeganie kobiet i ich relacji z mężczyznami, ale też krytyka patriarchatu i męskiej dominacji. Pierwsza odsłona ekspozycji miała miejsce w Gdańskiej Galerii Güntera Grassa, od 27.04 do 22.06.2019.

Turbot Güntera Grassa ukazał się w Niemczech w 1977 roku, prawie 10 lat po przemianach społecznych, jakie miały miejsce w roku 1968, podczas których przez zachodnioniemiecką republikę przetoczyła się druga fala feminizmu. Książka noblisty wpisywała się w atmosferę, jaka wtedy panowała. I chociaż ówczesne środowiska feministyczne mocno ją skrytykowały, z dzisiejszej perspektywy można tę powieść uznać za proroczą.

Punktem wyjścia do opowieści o dziejach ludzkości jako historii męskiej emancypacji spod władzy matriarchatu jest doskonale znana baśń braci Grimm nosząca w polskiej wersji tytuł O rybaku i złotej rybce, a w niemieckiej O rybaku i jego żonie. W książce pojawiają się jej dwa warianty: w pierwszym wyłowiona ryba, którą u Grassa jest właśnie tytułowy turbot, spełnia wszystkie zachcianki zachłannej żony rybaka, w drugim to mężczyzna jest tym, który ciągle pożąda nowych rzeczy i władzy pozwalającej mu zapanować nad światem. Prowadzi to rzecz jasna do katastrofy i ostatecznej zagłady.

Koło historii, które autor kreśli w powieści, obejmuje pierwotne społeczności epoki matriarchatu, następnie średniowiecze, potem przechodzi do renesansu, dalej z kolei do państwa pruskiego, aż wreszcie do czasów mu współczesnych, czyli lat 70. XX wieku. Wtedy to właśnie trzy feministki wyławiają z Morza Północnego turbota mówiącego ludzkim głosem, który staje się personifikacją całego męskiego rodzaju i opowiada, jak to z jego inspiracji mężczyznom udało się wyzwolić spod władzy kobiet. To on mianuje się reżyserem ludzkich dziejów i autorem scenariusza tej narracji. Zostaje ona podzielona na dziewięć rozdziałów odpowiadającym dziewięciu miesiącom ciąży. Snuta opowieść to jednocześnie przesłuchanie wielkiej ryby przed feministycznym trybunałem, zwanym w powieści Feminałem. Ta emancypacja męskiego gatunku jest także symultaniczną historią zniewolenia kobiet i procesu wykluczania ich z aktywnego życia. Możemy prześledzić jak pozbawia się ich wpływu na własne losy i jak stopniowo poddawane są opresyjnym zasadom funkcjonowania w patriarchalnym społeczeństwie.

Jednym z miejsc, które kobietom wyznaczono, obok sypialni i kościoła, była kuchnia. U Grassa gotowanie, doskonalenie tej sztuki poprzez wprowadzanie nowych produktów i przypraw oraz poprzez kreowanie nowych dań ma urok czarów, znachorstwa, mocy panowania nad ciałem, jego siłą i słabością. Dziewięć kucharek przewijających się przez karty powieści zapisało się na zawsze, według gdańskiego pisarza, w dziejach Pomorza, a może i całego świata. W czasach prehistorycznych wyposażone w trzecią pierś, karmiły własnym mlekiem mężczyzn, na których rytuał ten działał jak środek uspokajający, później dzięki wprowadzeniu do jadłospisu ziemniaka, uchroniły wielu ludzi od klęski głodu, a za pomocą ciepłej i pożywnej zupy rozbrajały tyranów. Wrogów eliminowały zaś wykorzystując umiejętności przyprawiania dań darami natury o śmiertelnym działaniu. W Turbocie znaleźć można sporo kulinarnych przepisów i prześledzić jak one ewoluowały: od potraw mlecznych poprzez mięsne i rybne, aż do odkrywania owoców lasu i kuchni roślinnej.

Jeśli kobiety nie uznawały małżeństwa za swoje największe szczęście, mogły udać się do klasztoru. Było to miejsce, gdzie wreszcie mogły odmówić usług seksualnych jak Dorota z Mątowów, która według relacji Grassa - „była (w naszym regionie) pierwszą kobietą, która zbuntowała się przeciwko patriarchalnemu przymusowi małżeństwa” (Turbot, s. 173), albo wręcz przeciwnie, korzystać z pełnej obyczajowej swobody, jak Margareta Rusch. Powieściowa przeorysza klasztoru św. Brygidy „śmiertelnie poważną kwestię sporną swego stulecia, jak należy podawać chleb i wino, komunię, rozstrzygnęła na swój, a więc łóżkowy sposób, ekwilibrystycznie ustawiając swą cipkę pionowo i oferując jako kielich, do którego się nalewało” (Turbot, s. 214).

Mimo ogromnego wyczucia sytuacji polityczno-społecznej w Niemczech lat 70. oraz próby zrozumienia i opisania z empatią sytuacji kobiet na przestrzeni wieków, w opowieści Grassa pojawiają się pasaże, które były i są nie do przyjęcia ani dla ruchów feministycznych, ani dla jakiejkolwiek kobiety działającej twórczo. Pisze o tym w swojej przedmowie do książki Maria Janion, wymieniając niektóre przekonania głoszone przez turbota: „…tylko mężczyźni wyposażeni są w zdolność do uczuć metafizycznych” lub „Uprawianie sztuki to domena mężczyzn, twórczość artystyczna jest wyłącznie męskim zajęciem. (…) Kobieta wraz z jej <<wilgotnym ciepłem>> może być w najlepszym wypadku źródłem twórczości mężczyzny. Właśnie jego milczącą muzą. (…) Kobieta powinna trwać w bezruchu jako <<mszysta gleba>> i cieszyć się, że służy”.

Kobiety, którym dopiero od 100 lat dane jest studiować na artystycznych uczelniach i uprawiać sztukę, 40 lat po napisaniu powieści mogą pokazać jak bardzo grassowski turbot się mylił. Odpowiedzialny za ten stan rzeczy i postawiony przed sądem ogłasza proroczo: „Dałem wam wiedzę i władzę lecz wy mieliście tylko wojny na myśli. Powierzyłem Wam naturę, a wy zbrukaliście ją. (…) Męska sprawa wykończyła sama siebie” (Turbot, 443). Z dzisiejszego punktu widzenia można dodać: także w dziedzinach, których autor powieści próbuje bronić w przytoczonych powyżej cytatach. Na tej wystawie uprawianie sztuki jest z pewnością domeną kobiet. Renata Kopyto

#ArchiwumSztukiKobiet #PolishWomenArtists #womensart #polishart #sztukakobiet #palianshow

[memynissanandi]

What Makes The Nissan Qashqai A Great Family SUV

All-round competence distinguishes the best family cars and allows them to slot seamlessly into a life of school runs, supermarket car parks, day trips and visits to the beach. This article sees how the new Nissan Qashqai measures up

The original Nissan Qashqai, which went on sale in 2007, was one of the most significant cars of recent years.

Ubiquity - for it went on to become a top 10 best-seller, year after year after year... - and its prosaic nature - this is a family car, no more and no less - as well as the passage of time has perhaps softened the impact made by this strangely-named, British-built vehicle.

But it was the Qashqai that lit the blue touchpaper under the shift from the family hatchbacks that populated our roads then towards the SUVs they are awash with now.

As with the Apple iPhone, which launched in the same year, Nissan had come up with a product that the public would really want - even if they hadn't realised it just yet.

The Qashqai concept, which has gone on to become the template for pretty much every family SUV since is a simple one. It's a family car with the approximate footprint of a hatchback and just as easy to drive and as affordable to run, but 'crossed over' with the advantage of some 4x4-esque elevated ride height, a raised driving position and a bit more room for passengers.

Nissan wasn't the first to come up with a 'crossover'. Notably, three Japanese competitors got there first, in the shapes of the Toyota RAV4 (1994), Honda CR-V (1996) and Subaru Forester (1997). Those with longer memories may even recall the Matra Rancho - in production from 1977 to 1984) as an even earlier European effort on the theme.

However, with the Qashqai, Nissan managed to hit European car buyers' sweet spot - its crossover was the right size, the right price, and the right car at the right time.

It was the gateway drug that led to the plethora of SUVs and crossovers - a semantic distinction, really - that flood our roads these days.

The Qashqai may have a host of imitators and rivals, but it still sells very well, thank you very much. It's become one of those cars that people repeat-buy because it fits into their lives so well.

That being said, though it was still a strong seller, the second-generation Qashqai had become rather off-the-pace by the time Covid started sweeping around the world.

The all-new third-generation model was launched abroad at the start of 2021 but, as with many cars which debuted during the pandemic, you could be forgiven for missing its arrival because other, more important things were going on at the time.

Which would be something of a shame, for this new Qashqai is a rather fine family car. It doesn't do anything particularly extraordinary, but it does do all the important things very well.

It is this all-around competence that distinguishes the best family cars, that allows them to slot seamlessly into a life of school runs, supermarket car parks, day trips and visits to the beach.

Some might regard these as humble - humdrum even - duties, but what higher calling is there for a family car than to become part of the family?

After selling millions of Qashqais, Nissan has the brief nailed. Here are just two examples of the way they've thought about how to make your life easier.

First, the back doors open really wide - I didn't have a protractor to hand, but they must swing by almost 90 degrees. Anyone with experience of loading children into car seats and checking seat belts is fastened properly will know how important that sort of access is.

Second, the boot is properly useful. Of course, it's large and can obviously carry lots of stuff. But it's the way the boot floor works that elevates the Qashqai. There's a two-part false floor - carpeted on one side, with a sort of rubber on the other for whenever mucky wellies and scooters are getting carted about - which can be used to divide the boot into two large sections. Your shopping need never rolls around again. Or your family's wet coats and shoes soak the things that have to be kept dry. Yes, other cars have something similar. But honestly, it's just easy to use it in the Nissan.

The back seat is generous, and the headroom is notably good even for lankier rear passengers. The hump in the middle of the floor is low too, so the middle passenger in a three-abreast arrangement shouldn't have much to complain about. There are also USB sockets back there, to keep teenagers happy...

Those in the front will feel as if they are in a far more spacious car than the last Qashqai. This new model is a big step up not only in perceived space but in the quality of the materials and build. The dashboard is nicely designed, though a slightly retro feel to the graphics on the digital dashboard and central infotainment screen rather jar with the crisp modernity of the rest of the interior.

At least Nissan has managed to do the sensible thing and keep real knobs and switches for the heating controls, rather than bury them in a touchscreen sub-menu.

To these eyes, the exterior styling is a massive improvement on the previous Qashqai, which was rather inoffensive and bland. This new Qashqai has a bold, in yer face front treatment, all sharp creases and attitude, with LED slashes for the lights and a very large Nissan badge. There's an unmistakable family identity shared with the latest Juke and the new electric SUV, the Ariya.

That being said, the front treatment isn't as wilfully odd as a Hyundai Tucson; it is eye-catching though, perhaps the new Kia Sportage is in similar visual territory.

Nor is the Nissan as adventurous as those cars once your eye moves from the front towards the back of the vehicle. But it is a cohesive, neat design, and one we will doubtless become very familiar with.

Engines are 1.3-litre petrol - you can't buy a diesel any longer - in either 96kW or 110kW tune - and you can have a six-speed manual or a CVT automatic transmission. You can specify four-wheel-drive, though only with the more powerful engine and CVT combination.

None of those set-ups is going to make the hairs stand up on the back of the neck of a keen driver, but the Qashqai isn't that sort of car. It just goes about its business, getting you and the family from A to B in a quiet, fuss-free manner. The handling is similarly low-key. But that's OK - as I've emphasised, the Qashqai is the essence of family transport, not a hot hatch in disguise, which is clearly what Nissan knows its customers want.

They also want many safety gadgets, judging by the sheer quantity of 'systems' aboard the Qashqai - and very good they are, too.

It's worth noting that a new electrified drivetrain should arrive later. Called 'e-power', it uses a petrol engine to generate electricity, which is stored in a battery, which in turn is used to power an electric motor.

The petrol engine is not connected to the wheels at all, meaning the e-power car is essentially an electric car with its own onboard charging station.

It certainly addresses range anxiety - though perhaps 'charger anxiety' is more accurate - and could be a useful step between petrol engines and a fully electric near future. Alternatively, it could be a bunch of over-complicated compromises... We'll have to wait to try it and find out for ourselves.

The Nissan Qashqai was once a truly distinctive product, but that has been lost in the face of its own popularity and the explosion in demand for SUVs in general. The latest version has taken the family SUV template and refined it even further, with Nissan creating a car that is highly competent in all areas and greater than the sum of its parts. It's an excellent family car and comes highly recommended.

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Article shared from https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/motorsdrive/

[douglashockett]

Denver Broncos Championship History

The Denver Broncos football franchise began in 1960. Since that time the organization has made eight Super Bowl appearances, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys for second most in the history of the National Football League (NFL). Denver’s championship appearances can largely be divided into three distinct eras.

Following the same struggles many new sports franchises encounter, the Broncos managed double-digit regular season wins for the first time in 1977, the team’s eighteenth season. It was the team’s first season with head coach Red Miller. The team went 12-2 thanks in large part to one of the league’s strongest defenses. In the postseason Denver scored 34-21 and 20-17 victories over the Steelers and Oakland Raiders, respectively, to deliver the franchise its first Super Bowl appearance, but fell to the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 27-10.

This marked the start of Denver’s early championship aspirations. The franchise maintained a team capable of recording double-digit victories in the regular season, for the most part, for 12 years. During this period coach Dan Reeves led the team to three more Super Bowl appearances. Unfortunately, the team’s record in championship games fell to 0-4, culminating in a disappointing 55-10 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers in 1989.

The franchise experienced a few uneven seasons before making a triumphant return to the contender’s circle. The Mike Shanahan era began in 1995 with an unremarkable 8-8 season, just a one win improvement from the previous season. However, the 1996 team, still powered by quarterback John Elway, won 13 games, Denver’s best result in over a decade. The Broncos lost a tough 30-27 playoff game to the Jacksonville Jaguars to end their season and fell to 12-4 the following year, but the franchise’s championship drought was about to end.

Running back Terrell Davis, drafted by Denver in 1995, paired well with Shanahan and Elway, helping the team maintain a league best offense that put up nearly 5,900 yards during the regular season. The Broncos were forced to compete in a wildcard game to reach the postseason, but did so in dominant fashion, defeating the Jaguars 42-17. The Broncos advanced to a fifth Super Bowl and avoided a fifth defeat by beating the Green Bay Packers 31-24.

One year after Denver’s first Super Bowl win, the franchise etched itself into the annals of NFL history by defeating the Atlanta Falcons and defending their Super Bowl title in 1998. The second consecutive victory was especially sweet, as it marked the end of Elway’s career. The quarterback retired as a two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP of that year’s game.

This ended Denver’s profile as a Super Bowl threat for a brief period. The team’s two most recent Super Bowl appearances have come under quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning led the franchise back to the Super Bowl for the first time in nearly two decades in 2013, but Denver again suffered one of the biggest defeats in Super Bowl history, a 43-8 drubbing by the Seattle Seahawks. Fortunately, Manning and the Broncos had a second chance at a championship just two seasons later. This time, Denver made good with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers for the franchise’s third Super Bowl win.

[whatisonthemoon]

Psychosis and Mental Illness at Barrytown - Moon and Salonen should be held responsible

A post from "Don Diligent," originally submitted to WIOTM on August 8, 2016, titled "Mr. Moon! You caused psychological damage to young people at Barrytown! Don't deny it! You too, Neil Salonen!"

Interview With Reverend Moon - Frederick Sontag - 1977

Sontag: The goal of your church is to unite all churches and to produce the unified family. Yet in Korea and now here, you have built up such tension; you have begun by separating families and rousing the opposition of churches. Do you see that as an irony? How will you move to accomplish your goal? Moon:…I have never divided families or broken homes…families are trying to blame me for damage that was done long before.

FBI Records- Pages 109 - 111

The pressure is severe. A local hospital admitted 4 cases of hysteria from Barrytown in 4 months. Bill Giannattasio ran away from Barrytown and would up at the hospital, diagnosed by Doctor Ernest Giovanoli. “He had an acute psychotic reaction manifested by confusion. His thinking was completely disorganized. He was irrelevant, irrational, incoherent. Initially, when he came into the emergency room, he was terribly frightened of an experience he had had. Giannattasio was inverviewed after 12 days in Rhode Island Hospital; "Near the latter part of the 7 Day Workshop, I had an experience where I thought I was going out of my mind…I was very tired and very fatigued…I thought that I had been taken over by Satan.” Giannattasio is still under psychiatric care. Another Barrytown resident became a bizarre suicide…23 year old Bill Daly of Elmont, Long Island, had been a member of Unification Church for 4 months. He wandered to this spot on the Amtrak line, took off all his clothes, lay face up, his arms outstrethched - and put his head on the rail…A spokesman for the Unification Church told Daly’s family that he had been taken over by an outside force - presumably Satanic. New Yorker, Steve Pouchie lives at nearby Bard College while still an associate-member at Barrytown…“There were times when I used to go out of that place running…I had seen the movie The Exorcist, and it was just like it…And then this other woman started screaming, because she had, she had been in a mental asylum, she said, and this was just like it. And all these kids left and right were doing this. And they would take them away, I don’t know where they took this girl, I never saw her again.”

FBI Records - Page 156

Michael Mazzarella, hospital administrator, said recently that over a four-month period during the past year, more than 30 church members and trainees sought medical aid for “lacerations, broken bones, contusions, ect. "This is an unusually high number of traumatic injuries for a group like that”, Mazzerella declared. Dr. Ernest Giovanoli, a hospital psychiatrist, confirmed that at least one of those patients had slashed wrists while four were “hysterical kids scared to death” as a result of what they experienced in Barrytown. “They said Satan has the power to kill you for one year after you leave”, explained Shelley Turner, 21, of Warwick R.I. Ms. Turner belonged to the Unification Church for 14 months. Ms. Turner and residents who live near Barrytown reported seeing Unification Church leaders persuing members who tried to leave the center: “I’ve seen kids who left a lecture picked up and brought back to their seats.” Ms. Turner remarked. About a month ago, according to 17 year-old Preston Moore of Red Hook, a “very scared” young man who had been in Barrytown for a workshop drove into the gas station where Moore works and asked for directions to Connecticut…While they were talking, according to Moore, three other church members arrived and stood in the youth’s path in the gas station driveway…He said to me, “What should I do” I’m scared". I told him to run ‘em over and I think he would have too!“ Moore exclaimed. The trainee left without incident. The most serious allegation that members of Unification are restrained in Barrytown came in February from a Rhode Island youth, William Giannattasio, who told Police Chief Rexford Maine of Red Hook that he had to jump from a bathroom window in Barrytown to escape. While Salonen admitted the "brainwashing charges are the most difficult accusations to deal with”, he emphatically denied that Unificationists physically restrain people.

Related links below

On Salonen, Moon, and U.S. Politics

More Questions about Young Oon Kim, and What is Clear

Moonies Were Brainwashed by The CIA As Soldiers In The Cold War

Arrests, Brainwashing Charges: Controversy Dogs Moon as Power, Converts Grow (1987)

How the CIA backed research on mind control

Psychology Today - U.S. Government Mind Control Experiments

Robert Jay Lifton: Anti-Communist Tool with Helpful Insights

How Lifton Sought to Discredit the Working and Colonized People of the World

Mind Control U.S.A. (1979)

Some questions and reflections on the missing pieces to leaving the Church as an ex-2nd generation

We should have seen Tetsuya’s violent act coming

[rudrjobdesk]

झारखंड विधानसभा चुनाव 2019:  महज तीन चुनाव ही देख सका जरीडीह विधानसभा क्षेत्र 

आजादी के बाद एकीकृत बिहार राज्य में 1977 से पूर्व तक जिले का जरीडीह विधानसभा क्षेत्र था। 1977 के बाद यह तीन हिस्सों में बंट गया। जरीडीह प्रखंड बेरमो, पेटरवार प्रखंड गोमिया और गोला प्रखंड की छह… Source link

[trashmenace]

Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies

Woe be to the Alfred Hitchcock anthology completist.

Genius director and garbage can of a human being Alfred Hitchcock's name has been attached to over a hundred books and hundreds of digest magazine installments with thousands of stories of mystery and suspense. With a possible exception of the very beginning, he neither selected the stories nor wrote the introductions in his name.

A better history is at Casual Debris. A 95% accurate and complete bibliography at Casual Debris and The Hitchcock Zone. A cover gallery and an index for the magazine is at Galactic Central.

After a handful of scattered titles in the 40s, things picked up after the beginning of the 1955 TV series. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine began in 1956, and a book series followed in 1957. I don't think they were formally connected, but they had some synergy, with the books reprinting and the TV show filming some magazine stories.

Most of the books came out in hardback and dividing in half for two paperbacks. Some of the paperback titles had a first installment sharing the hardback title, such as Stories for Late at Night, with the second half as More Stories for Late at Night, or with a different title such as Skeleton Crew. So you get the same book with multiple titles, and multiple books with the same title. The hardbacks during this era were mostly from Random House and the paperbacks from Dell, but there are exceptions.

On top of that, there were different editions with different art, and on rare occasions slightly different story lineups, or abridged versions with a couple stories shaved off.

There was a series aimed at children, with the same caliber of stories, and a British series edited by Peter Haining, possibly the hardest to find. There were several French editions, but I haven't compared the table of contents to see if they are straight translations or new lineups.

Meanwhile the digest magazines have been published continuously since 1956 to this day, the second longest running mystery digest next to its sister title Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. There were reprint titles in the UK, Australia, and India. From 1957 to 1968, mostly in the fall, there was a sampler magazine. These were literally three random unsold magazines with the covers ripped off and stuck in a generic cover. I have a couple with the same cover and each has different titles underneath.

Things get confusing again with the series of 27 anthologies more directly linked with the magazine, edited by Eleanor Sullivan and Cathleen Jordan, published between 1977 and 1989. Some were numbered editions in thicker digest format, some also reprinted in hardcover, some reprinted in two large print hard covers as part one and two, some reprinted in the numbered series Alfred Hitchcock's Book of Horror Stories. Despite being more closely tied to the magazine, not all the stories came from there.

The hardback anthologies continued through the 90s, and began to be combined with stories from Ellery Queen. Cynthia Mason edited the later anthologies, with the theming focusing on theme (holidays, cats, etc) and the mention of Alfred Hitchcock being minimized.

[lailoken]

‘Holy thorn (Crataegus monogyna cv. 'Biflora')’

“The Holy or Glastonbury Thorn is a variety of the common HAWTHORN which produces flowers in winter as well as at the usual time in early summer. What appears to be the earliest reference to the Thorn is found in a lengthy poem, entitled Here begynneth the lyfe of Joseph of Armathia, which is believed to have been written at the opening of the sixteenth century. The poem states that there were three thorn trees growing on Wearyall Hill, just south of Glastonbury in Somerset, which:

Do burge and bere grene leaues at Christmas

As fresihe as other in May when ye nightingale

Wrestes out her notes musycall as pure glas.

[Anon., 1520]

However, there is some slight evidence to suggest that the Thorn may have been in existence almost 400 years earlier. At Appleton Thorn in Cheshire a custom known as 'Bawming the Thorn' used to be per- formed each year. Basically the custom consisted of decorating a thorn tree which grows in the centre of the village. Local tradition states that a tree has stood on this site since 1125, when an offshoot of the Holy Thorn was planted by Adam de Dutton [Hole, 1976: 26]. If there is any truth in this tradition, it would imply that there was a thorn tree at Glastonbury early in the twelfth century, when the Benedictine monks at its abbey were busily accumulating their massive, but poorly authenticated, collection of relics, which was destroyed in a disastrous fire in 1184. It is quite possible that a hawthorn which produced flowers at Christmas time might have been added to the attractions provided to stimulate pilgrimages to the abbey.

The lyfe of Joseph gives no information on the trees' origins, and does not mention the production of winter flowers. Fifteen years after its publication, four years before the suppression of Glastonbury Abbey, the Christmas flowering of the Thorn was first recorded. On 24 Au- gust 1535 Dr Layton, the visitor sent to the Abbey, wrote to Thomas Cromwell from Bristol, and enclosed two pieces of a tree which blossomed on Christmas Eve.

By this bringer, my servant, I send you Relicks: First two flowers wraped in white and black sarsnet, that on Christen Mass Even, hora ipsa qua Christus natus fuerat, will spring and burge and bare blossoms. Quod expertum est, saith the Prior of Mayden Bradley. [Batten, 1881: 116]

During the reign of Elizabeth I the Thorn growing on Wearyall had two trunks:

when a puritan exterminated one, and left the other, which was the size of a common man, to be viewed in wonder by strangers; and the blossoms thereof were esteemed such curiosities by people of all nations that Bristol merchants made traffick of them and exported them to foreign parts. [Collinson, 179I: 265]

Or, according to an earlier, more credulous account:

It had two Trunks or Bodies till the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, in whose days a Saint like Puritan, taking offence at it, hewed down the biggest of the Trunks, and had cut down the other Body in all likelyhood, had he not bin miraculously punished (saith my Author) by cutting his Leg, and one of the Chips flying up to his Head, which put out one of his Eyes. Though the Trunk cut off was separated quite from the root, excepting a little of the Bark which stuck to the rest of the Body, and laid above the Ground above thirty Years together; yet it still continued to flourish as the other Part did which was left standing; after this again, when it was quite taken away and cast into a Ditch, it flourished and budded as it used to do before. A Year after this, it was stolen away, not known by whom or whither. [Rawlinson, 1722: 109]

Later, during the reign of James I, the Thorn enjoyed some popularity as a garden curiosity, and the aristocracy, including the King's consort Anne of Denmark, paid large sums for cuttings [Collinson, 1791: 265). It is possible that this fashion of growing thorns in private gardens saved the plant from extinction, for during the civil unrest later in the century the surviving trunk of the original tree was destroyed by a Roundhead, who 'being over zealous did cut it downe in pure devotion' (Taylor, 1649: 6]. In 1653 Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, lamented: "The White Thorn at Glastonbury which did usually blossome on Christmas Day was cut down: yet I did not heare that the party was punisheď [Rawlinson, 1722: 301].

In 1645 the Revd John Eachard described the Glastonbury Thorn, which was then much mutilated by visitors who cut off pieces of it for souvenirs, as being of the kind 'wherewith Christ was crowned'. An elaboration of this belief relates how St Joseph of Arimathea brought two treasures to Glastonbury: silver containers holding the blood and sweat of Christ (which seem to have become confused or equated with the Holy Grail) and a thorn from Christ's Crown of Thorns, which grew and proved its holiness by flowering each year at the time of Christ's birth [Hole, 1965: 39].

Seventy years after Eachard wrote, an oral tradition collected from a Glastonbury inn-keeper explained how the Thorn had grown from a STAFF carried by St Joseph of Arimathea [Rawlinson, 1722: 1). According to tradition, the Apostles divided the world between them, St Philip being sent to Gaul, accompanied by St Joseph of Arimathea, who is usually considered to be an uncle of the Virgin Mary. After some years Joseph left the Apostle and accompanied by eleven others set out for Britain, arriving at Glastonbury, and eventually founding the first church to be built on British soil, in AD 63 [Hole, 1965: 35]- When Joseph reached Glastonbury he rested on Wearyall Hill and thrust his staff into the ground, where it grew and became the original Holy Thorn [Rawlinson, 1722: 2]. Some writers have asserted that it was this miracle which caused Joseph to settle in Glastonbury.

A second version of the legend relates how St Joseph landed on the Welsh coast, or possibly at Barrow Bay in Somerset, but found the natives hostile. He continued his wanderings and reached the land of King Arviragus. Although Joseph was unable to convert the monarch, he made a sufficiently good impression for land at Ynyswitrin—Glastonbury—to be granted to him and his companions. However the local inhabitants showed little enthusiasm for the new faith. It was not until Joseph fixed his staff in the ground and prayed, whereupon it immediately produced blossoms, that people began to pay serious attention to the missionaries' preaching [Anon., n.d.: 6 and 23]. It is sometimes claimed that Joseph performed this miracle on Christmas Day and hence the Thorn has flowered on this day ever since [Wilks, 1972: 98].

Some recent writers have asserted that there is some truth in the various legends and suggest that the Thorn originated from stock brought from the Holy Land, or at least a country bordering the Mediterranean. The winter flowering of the tree is explained by the suggestion that it belongs to a variety of hawthorn native to the Middle East [Batten, 1881: 125]. The Revd Alan Clarkson, Vicar of St John's church in Glastonbury, in a pamphlet produced in 1977 in aid of church restoration funds, claimed that: 'Whatever the legend may say, a Thorn has been growing here for 2,000 years and it came from Palestine.' A recent study of hawthorns states:

In North Africa, flowering in late autumn and early winter is known also in populations of C[rataegus] monogyna that are morphologically fairly similar to the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury. [Christensen, 1992: 111]

A young leafy shoot of hawthorn, labelled 'Oxyacantha autumnalis, from Wells, Joseph of Arymathaea rod’, is preserved in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in London. This specimen was in- cluded in a collection given by the London apothecary Robert Nicholls to the Apothecaries' Company in 1745, and was part of 'a valuable series of plants' presented by the Company to the Museum in 1862 [Vickery, 1991: 81].

It is told that, in the eighteenth century, a miller walked all the way from his home in Wales to visit the Thorn. His English vocabulary was restricted to three words, 'Staff of Joseph', but these were sufficient to ensure that he reached Glastonbury, and he was able to proudly carry home a sprig from the tree [Bett, 1952: 139].

When the calendar was reformed in 1752 the Holy Thorn attracted considerable attention, for people watched the trees to see if they would produce their Christmas blossoms according to the new or old calendar. The Gentleman's Magazine of January 1753 recorded that on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1752, hundreds of people gathered at Glastonbury to see if the several Thorn trees growing there would produce flowers. No flowers appeared, but when the crowds reassembled on Old Christmas Eve, 5 January 1753, they were rewarded and the trees blossomed, confirming the onlookers' doubts about the validity of the new calendar. Later in 1753 a correspondent of the Magazine stated that, after reports of the Thorns' flowering on Old Christmas Eve had been printed in a Hull newspaper, the vicar of Glastonbury had been questioned. According to him, the trees blossomed 'fullest and finest about Christmas Day New Style, or rather sooner' [Gentleman's Magazine, 1753: 578].

At Quainton in Buckinghamshire over two thousand people gathered to watch a thorn they remembered as being a descendant of the Glastonbury tree:

but the people finding no appearance of bud, 'twas agreed by all, that Decemb. 25 N.S. could not be Christmas-Day and accordingly refused going to church, and treating their friends on that day as usual; at length the affair became so serious, that ministers of neighbouring villages, in order to appease the people thought it prudent to give notice, that old Christmas-Day should be kept holy as before. [Gentleman's Magazine, 1753: 49]

Until early in the present century people continued to visit Holy Thorns on Old Christmas Eve.

It is believed that the Holy Thorn blossoms at twelve o'clock on Twelfth Night, the time, so they say, at which Christ was born. The blossoms are thought to open at midnight, and drop off about an hour afterwards. A piece of thorn gathered at this hour brings luck, if kept for the rest of the year. Formerly crowds of people went to see the thorn blossom at this time. I went myself to Wormesley [Herefordshire] in 1908; about forty people were there, and as it was quite dark and the blossom could only be seen by candle light, it was probably the warmth of the candles which made some of the little white buds seem to expand. The tree had really been in bloom for several days, the season being extremely mild. [Leather, 1912: 17]

A thorn in the garden of Kingston Grange in Herefordshire was annually visited by people who came from miles around, and 'were liberally supplied with cake and cider' [Leather, 1912: 17]. However, such convivial gatherings sometimes gave way to unruly behaviour, and some people destroyed thorns growing on their property so that unwelcome visits might be stopped. Near Crewkerne in Somerset, in January 1878:

Immense crowds gathered at a cottage between Hewish and Woolmingstone to witness the supposed blooming of a 'Holy' thorn at midnight on Saturday. The weather was unfavourable and the visitors were impatient. There were buds on the plant, but they did not burst into flower as they were said to have done the previous vear. The crowd started singing and then it degenerated into a quarrel and stones were thrown. The occupier of the cottage, seeing how matters stood, pulled up the thorn and took it inside, receiving a blow on the head from a stone for his pains. A free fight ensued and more will be heard of the affair in the Magistrates' Court. [Pur man's Weekly News, 10 January 1978]

Similarly:

A Holy Thorn made a brief appearance in Dorset in 1844 in the garden of a Mr Keynes of Sutton Poyntz. It was rumoured that it had grown from a cutting of the famous Glastonbury Thorn and was expected to blossom at midnight on Old Christmas Eve. 150 people turned up to see the event. Violent scenes took place, the fence was broken down and the plant so badly damaged that it died. [Waring, 1977: 68]

Not surprisingly, tales were told of misfortunes (many of which were very similar to those which befall people who destroy LONE BUSHES in Ireland) which happened to those who attempted to cut down Holy Thorns. An early attempt to destroy a tree resulted in thorns flying from the tree and blinding the axeman in one eye, so that he was 'made monocular' [Howell, 1640: 86]. A man who attempted to cut down a tree that grew in his garden at Clehonger in Herefordshire was more lucky and was let off with a warning: 'blood flowed from the trunk of the tree and this so alarmed him that he left off at once!' [Leather, 1912: 17]. A farmer who destroyed a thorn at Acton Beauchamp in Worcestershire was successful, but within a year he broke an arm and a leg, and part of his house was destroyed by fire [Lees, 1856: 295].

Shortly before Christmas each year sprays from a Thorn tree which grows in St John's churchyard in Glastonbury are sent to the Queen and Queen Mother. In 1929 the then vicar of Glastonbury, whose sister-in-law was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Mary, sent a sprig to the Queen, reviving, according to some writers, a pre-Reformation custom [Anon., 1977]. A report in the Western Daily Press of 20 December 1973 stated that the custom started in Stuart times, and it is recorded that James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells, sent pieces of the Holy Thorn and Glastonbury's miraculous WALNUT tree to Queen Anne, consort of James I [Rawlinson, 1722: 112]. About a week before Christmas a short religious service is held around the Thorn. Children from St John's Infants' School sing carols and play their recorders, and the vicar and mayor of Glastonbury cut twigs from the tree. It is said that the Queen has her sprays placed on her breakfast table on Christmas morning, while the Queen Mother has hers placed on her writing table. Letters sent by ladies-in-waiting to the vicar, asking him to convey thanks to the people of Glastonbury, are pinned on the church notice board [Vickery, 1979: 12].

The tree in St John's churchyard which had been used for this ceremony died early in 1991, but fortunately there is a younger tree growing in the churchyard, and other Holy Thorns may be found in the Abbey grounds, outside St Benedict's church, and in private gardens in Glastonbury.”

—

Oxford Dictionary of Plant-Lore

by Roy Vickery

[robertreich]

The Real Choice: Social Control or Social Investment

Some societies center on social control, others on social investment. Social-control societies put substantial resources into police, prisons, surveillance, immigration enforcement, and the military. Their purpose is to utilize fear, punishment, and violence to divide people and keep the status quo in place — perpetuating the systemic oppression of Black and brown people, and benefiting no one but wealthy elites. Social-investment societies put more resources into healthcare, education, affordable housing, jobless benefits, and children. Their purpose is to free people from the risks and anxieties of daily life and give everyone a fair shot at making it. Donald Trump epitomizes the former. He calls himself the “law and order” president. He even wants to sic the military on Americans protesting horrific police killings. 

He has created an unaccountable army of federal agents who go into cities like Portland, Oregon -- without showing their identities -- and assault innocent Americans.  Trump is the culmination of forty years of increasing social control in the United States and decreasing social investment – a trend which, given the deep-seated history of racism in the United States, falls disproportionately on Black people, indigeneous people, and people of color. Spending on policing in the United States has almost tripled, from $42.3 billion in 1977 to $114.5 billion in 2017. America now locks away 2.2 million people in prisons and jails. That’s a 500 percent increase from 40 years ago. The nation now has the largest incarcerated population in the world. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has exploded. More people are now in ICE detention than ever in its history. Total military spending in the U.S. has soared from $437 billion in 2003 to $935.8 billion this fiscal year. The more societies spend on social controls, the less they have left for social investment. More police means fewer social services. American taxpayers spend $107.5 billion more on police than on public housing. More prisons means fewer dollars for education. In fact, America is now spending more money on prisons than on public schools. Fifteen states now spend $27,000 more per person in prison than they do per student. As spending on controls has increased, spending on public assistance has shrunk. Fewer people are receiving food stamps. Outlays for public health have declined. America can't even seem to find money to extend unemployment benefits during this pandemic. Societies that skimp on social investment end up spending more on social controls that perpetuate violence and oppression. This trend is a deep-seated part of our history. The United States began as a control society. Slavery – America’s original sin – depended on the harshest conceivable controls. Jim Crow and redlining continued that legacy. But in the decades following World War II, the nation began inching toward social investment – the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and substantial investments in health and education. Then America swung backward to social control. Since Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” four times as many people have been arrested for possessing drugs as for selling them. 

Of those arrested for possession, half have been charged with possessing cannabis for their own use. Nixon’s strategy had a devastating effect on Black people that is still felt today: a Black person is nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person, even though they use it at similar rates.

Bill Clinton put 88,000 additional police on the streets and got Congress to mandate life sentences for people convicted of a felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug offenses. 

This so-called “three strikes you’re out” law was replicated by many states, and, yet again, disproportionately impacted Black Americans. In California, for instance, Black people were 12 times more likely than white people to be incarcerated under three-strikes laws, until the state reformed the law in 2012. Clinton also “reformed” welfare into a restrictive program that does little for families in poverty today. 

Why did America swing back to social control? Part of the answer has to do with widening inequality. As the middle class collapsed and the ranks of the poor grew, those in power viewed social controls as cheaper than social investment, which would require additional taxes and a massive redistribution of both wealth and power. Meanwhile, politicians whose power depends on maintaining the status quo, used racism – from Nixon’s “law and order” and Reagan’s “welfare queens” to Trump’s blatantly racist rhetoric – to deflect the anxieties of an increasingly overwhelmed white working class. It’s the same old strategy. So long as racial animosity exists, the poor and working class won’t join together to topple the system that keeps so many Americans in poverty, and Black Americans oppressed. The last weeks of protests and demonstrations have exposed what’s always been true: social controls are both deadly and unsustainable. They require more and more oppressive means of terrorizing communities and they drain resources that would ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive. 

This moment calls on us to relinquish social control and ramp up our commitment to social investment.

It’s time we invest in affordable housing and education, not tear gas, batons, and state-sanctioned murder. It’s time we invest in keeping children fed and out of poverty, not putting their parents behind bars. It’s time to defund the police, and invest in communities. We have no time to waste.

[justforbooks]

Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. was born on February 12, 1939. He was an American musician, singer, producer, film director, and author. He was best known as a member of the Doors from 1965 to 1973, which he co-founded with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison.

Manzarek was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Doors. He was a co-founding member of Nite City from 1977 to 1978, and of Manzarek–Krieger from 2001 until his death in 2013. USA Today defined him as "one of the best keyboardists ever".

Raymond Daniel Manczarek Jr. was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. He was born to Helena (1918–2012) and Raymond Manczarek Sr. (1914–1987), and was of Polish descent.

In 1956, he matriculated at DePaul University, where he played piano in his fraternity's jazz band (the Beta Pi Mu Combo), participated in intramural football, served as treasurer of the Speech Club, and organized a charity concert with Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck. He graduated from the University's College of Commerce with a degree in economics in 1960.

In the fall of 1961, Manzarek briefly enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Unable to acclimate to the curriculum, he transferred to the Department of Motion Pictures, Television and Radio as a graduate student before dropping out altogether after breaking up with a girlfriend. Although he attempted to enlist in the Army Signal Corps as a camera operator, he was instead assigned to the highly selective Army Security Agency as a prospective intelligence analyst.

Manzarek married fellow UCLA alumna Dorothy Aiko Fujikawa in Los Angeles on December 21, 1967, with Jim Morrison and his longtime companion, Pamela Courson, as witnesses. Manzarek and Fujikawa remained married until his death. They had a son, Pablo born on August 31, 1973, and three grandchildren. In the early 1970s, the Manzareks divided their time between an apartment in West Hollywood, California, and a small penthouse on New York City's Upper West Side. They subsequently resided in Beverly Hills, California (including ten years in a house on Rodeo Drive) for several decades. For the last decade of his life, Manzarek and his wife lived in a refurbished farmhouse near Vichy Springs, California in the Napa Valley.

In March 2013, Manzarek was diagnosed with a rare cancer called cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) and traveled to Germany for special treatment. During that time he reconciled with Densmore, and he spoke to Krieger before his death. He also performed a private concert for his doctors and nurses. Manzarek was "feeling better" until it took a turn for the worse according to his manager. On May 20, 2013, Manzarek died at a hospital in Rosenheim, Germany, at the age of 74. His body was cremated. Krieger said, "I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today. I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him." Densmore said, "There was no keyboard player on the planet more appropriate to support Jim Morrison's words. Ray, I felt totally in sync with you musically. It was like we were of one mind, holding down the foundation for Robby and Jim to float on top of. I will miss my musical brother."

Greg Harris, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said in reaction to Manzarek's death that "The world of rock 'n' roll lost one of its greats with the passing of Ray Manzarek." Harris also said that "he was instrumental in shaping one of the most influential, controversial and revolutionary groups of the '60s. Such memorable tracks as 'Light My Fire', 'People Are Strange' and 'Hello, I Love You' – to name but a few – owe much to Manzarek's innovative playing."

On February 12, 2016, at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, Densmore and Krieger reunited for the first time in 15 years to perform in tribute to Manzarek and benefit Stand Up to Cancer. That day would have been Manzarek's 77th birthday. The night featured Exene Cervenka and John Doe of the band X, Rami Jaffee of the Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots' Robert DeLeo, Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins, Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara and Andrew Watt, among others.

In April 2018, the film Break On Thru: A Celebration of Ray Manzarek and the Doors premiered at the 2018 Asbury Park Music & Film Festival. The film highlights the 2016 concert in honor of what would have been Manzarek's 77th birthday, and new footage and interviews. The film won the APMFF Best Film Feature Award at the festival.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[fiercestpurpose]

Intro Guide to Star Wars Comics

There are a lot of Star Wars comics, and they don’t even all take place in the same timeline as all the other ones, so this is a basic guide. It certainly does not list all the comics. It is just meant to be a useful guide for people who might want to delve deeper into Star Wars continuity.

Continuity note: In 2014, Disney announced that it was going to be making a new Star Wars trilogy. In order to make new continuity, Disney retconned away the Legends continuity that had been built up over the course of nearly forty years. Some things were held over as canon, including (of course) the original trilogy, the sequel trilogy, and The 2008 Clone Wars TV series. However, the novels, stories, video games, and comics that were part of the Legends canon were placed aside in favor of a new Disney canon.

Star Wars comics are divided into three main eras: first Marvel era, Dark Horse era, and second Marvel era , which is the current one. The first Marvel era and the Dark Horse era are in the pre-2014 Legends continuity, and the second Marvel era is in the new Disney canon.

Marvel Comics (1970s and 80s)

The original Star Wars comics were published by Marvel, which acquired the rights to comic book adaptations before the first film was released. Indeed, Star Wars #1 was released a month before Star Wars opened in theaters. These comics are fun and interesting from an historical perspective, but they are not especially important to continuity. Many of the things established in these comics are directly contradicted by later canon (such as Bespin having a solid surface), although some characters introduced here are later important to Legends canon (such as Lumiya).

Star Wars (1977) - The main series. It starts with a retelling of Star Wars and then goes on to fill in the gap between the films. Goes on until after the events of Return of the Jedi. A lot of Luke, Leia, Han, and Lando running around and having episodic adventures.

Star Wars: Ewoks (1985) - This one is fun. Magic, princesses, evil witches, heroes, and, most importantly, ewoks!

Star Wars: Droids (1986) - Read this comic if you want to see Threepio being in love with Artoo. I don’t think anything else happens in this comic, but boy is Threepio in love with Artoo.

Dark Horse (1990s-2010s)

This is where Legends continuity begins to get serious. Many of the comics produced during this time tie into some other piece of media, such as a video game or a novel or a television series, and many of them tie into and influence each other. There are several different eras of Star Wars history here, and the comics are as good a place to start exploring them as any.

Star Wars (1998) - Starting in 2002 with issue #46, this comic was known as Star Wars: Republic. This comic is set primarily during the prequel trilogy and mostly focuses on the Jedi Order and The Clone Wars. Read this to learn more about Quinlan Vos, Ki-Adi Mundi, Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, and the rest of the Jedi before and during The Clone Wars.

Star Wars: Empire (2002) - This comic is set near the end of the Empire’s rule and follows such figures as Darth Vader, Boba Fett, and various Stormtroopers as they attempt to root out enemies and fight rebels. (Spoiler alert: The Empire loses.)

Star Wars Tales (1999) - This series collects multiple shorter stories in each issue. Many of the stories featured here (including the Force-sensitive droid and the time Luke wandered into a sandstorm on Tatooine and met Anakin) are not canon even in Legends continuity, but they are interesting and fun.

Knights of the Old Republic (2006) - A series set during the Old Republic era. It centers on a Padawan who, after being framed for the murder of other Padawans, has to go on the run and find out what is really going on. The comic is set before the video game of the same name.

Dark Empire (1991) - This comic, along with the two sequel miniseries Dark Empire II and Empire’s End, follows Luke, Han, and Leia as they fight against Palpatine, who has resurrected himself via cloning.

Knight Errant (2010) - This comic, along with the two sequels Deluge (2011) and Escape (2012), is about the adventures of a lone Jedi Knight during the Old Republic era who gets stuck all alone in Sith space.

Star Wars: Legacy (2006) and Legacy (2013) - These are set during the Legacy era, more than one hundred years after the end of the original trilogy. The first series follows Cade Skywalker, a Force-sensitive who does not want to be a Jedi, and the second follows Ania Solo, a junkyard owner who is just trying to stay alive. This is as far into the future as the Legends timeline goes.

This is just a small selection. There are a lot of Dark Horse comics in every era of Legends, and once you start getting into the thick of it, you can see that the continuity is pretty complex and interrelated.

Marvel Comics (2010s-present)

I may be biased, but this is probably the best era for comics. These are written and illustrated by some of the most talented people working in comics today (and I am aware that that does make me sound like a press release). The rebooted canon also makes this a great place for people who are not long-time fans of the series to jump in, as you don’t need to worry about all the Legends characters and plot points. (That said, I will always be bitter that Disney decided to end the Legends canon.)

Star Wars (2015) - Like the original 1977 series, this comic takes place in between Episodes IV and V, following the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han as they assist the Rebel Alliance and fight the Empire.

Shattered Empire (2015) - Released in the lead up to The Force Awakens, this comic introduced the characters of Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, Poe’s parents, and follows them in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Endor.

Chewbacca (2015), Lando (2015), Princess Leia (2015) - Marvel released these miniseries to highlight the individual characters. Chewbacca crash lands and finds himself in charge of helping a young girl, Lando pulls off a dangerous heist with the help of some unsavory characters, and Leia struggles with what it means to be the princess of a planet that no longer exists.

Darth Vader (2015) - Follows the adventures of Darth Vader. Closely related to Star Wars (2015) but showing the other side of the story. This comic is also notable for its introduction of the character of Doctor Aphra, who would later get her own spin-off series.

Poe Dameron (2016) - The adventures of Poe and Black Squadron as they fight the First Order under the instruction of General Leia Organa. This series has the best canon characterization of Poe that you’ll find anywhere.

Obi-Wan and Anakin (2016) - Set a few years after The Phantom Menace, this comic tells a story of a time when Anakin almost left the Jedi Order and how Obi-Wan convinced him to stay.

That’s a lot of comics! And that’s just a part of what the wonderful, confusing, exhausting world of Star Wars comics has to offer. I hope this guide provides some useful information for people who might want to get into reading comics in canon either old or new. And if you need or want any more information, Wookiepedia has a complete list of all Star Wars comics that you can refer to.

[fcbayern]

Hallo! Hope you are well! I love your blog and it’s made me really want to understand and get into Bundesliga. How can I know everything I need to know about Bayern so I’m up to date and understand what’s happening within the team? I hope this makes sense? Danke!

hi anon! i’m so sorry it took me so long to reply to this. this week’s been so busy already.

i guess the internet is a good place to start for your research :) of course wikipedia itself is not a bad source, but if you really want to get information, look at the bottom of the wikipedia page for all the teams in the bundesliga, and get the info from the sources there. that’s what wikipedia uses to write their articles, so that should give you even more insight into the bundesliga and its teams, and rules, etc than you already get from the wikipedia article itself.

i’ll try and sum up the most basic info for you - that i know - and if you have any other questions, feel free to send me another message and maybe we can get into more detail:

bundesliga is the highest “class” / tier that you can play in, in germany. it is divided into 2 different tiers: 1. bundesliga and 2. bundesliga.

1. bundesliga consists of 18 teams.

for the upcoming seasons - currently in alphabetical order because the new season doesn’t start until the 18th of September - these are the teams:

DSC Arminia Bielefeld

FC Augsburg

Bayer Leverkusen

FC Bayern München

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Eintracht Frankfurt

1. SC Freiburg

Hertha BSC Berlin

TSG Hoffenheim

1. FC Köln

1. FSV Main 05

Red Bull Leipzig

FC Schalke 04

VfB Stuttgart

Union Berlin

Werder Bremen

VfL Wolfsburg

Arminia Bielefeld were promoted from 2nd league, where they ended up in first place in the season of 2019/2020. The second team that was promoted is VfB Stuttgart. In exchange for these two teams being promoted, two teams have to be relegated. In the season of 2019/2020 those two teams were SC Paderborn 07 and Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Back to the Bundesliga Basics:

The Bundesliga stands under the umbrella of “DFB”, or Deutscher Fußball Bund (German Football Association), which was founded in 1900. In 1904 the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded, which is basically the big boss of football. They keep an eye on a number of football associations across the world and also set up the Men’s and Women’s World Cup. DFB joined the FIFA right away in 1904, and in 1954 DFB also joined the UEFA, which is an acronym for Union des Associations Européennes de Football and therefor takes care of all things football in Europe. Self-explanatory.

UEFA wasn’t founded until 1954 because... things happened in Europe in the 30s and 40s.

During the time of the Nazi regime the DFB was dismantled in 1940 and it didn’t pick up again until 1950, when the Federal German Republic was reformed, and the West German football associations decided to get the DFB back up and running. They re-joined FIFA in 1954, and, as mentioned before, also joined UEFA that same year.

The Bundesliga how we know it, however, was not actually a thing until 28. Juli 1962, starting with the season of 1963/1964. Before that there were a number of clubs and associations throughout Germany who all kind of played side by side, and eventually in the 30s the idea of a “Reichsliga” (league of the German Reich) was brought up, where a certain number of teams would play and one would end up winning the title. Kind of what we do now.

And then the war happened.

And in between the end of that and the 60s, obviously they had brought some ideas back to the table, had tried to figure out a more competitive way and to bring football closer to the people.

In 1962 the idea of the Bundesliga was founded. 16 teams were to play each other in one league, competing against each other. 5 from “Oberliga Süd”, 5 from “Oberliga West”, 3 from “Oberliga Nord”, 2 from “Oberliga Südwest” and one from the Berlin City League - the Western part of Berlin, of course.

They had a super complicated system in place to figure out which teams would eventually be allowed to be the “founding fathers” of the Bundesliga. It had to do with economics, they ended up coming up with a weird system for who gets how many points for winning their own league, adding those up, multiplying, and then somehow they ended up with 16 teams... don’t ask me how, I have dyscalculia, I don’t understand their way of thinking at all. Maybe there was some voodoo involved, God knows, honestly.

Eventually they had their 16 winners from the aforementioned leagues:

Oberliga Süd: Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, TSV 1860 München, VfB Stuttgart Oberliga Nord: Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV Oberliga West: Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln, Meidericher SV, Preußen Münster, FC Schalke 04 Oberliga Südwest: 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Saarbrücken Stadtliga Berlin: Hertha BSC Berlin

In 1963 this “Bundesliga” wasn’t a pro-league, though. And there were a ton of rules in place that would probably make you go “huh?” these days... or maybe you’d think they are great rules and they need to make a comeback. A transfer, for example, could only cost up to 50.000 German Mark (roughly 25.564,50€ / $30.149,62).

Until 1967 you also weren’t allowed to sign more than three players from another team for the upcoming season.

At some point it was decided that football players would also have the benefits of a full-time worker, if they decided on football as a career, and not just something they did on the side.

When East and West Germany were reunited in 1989 / the early 90s, that’s when the Bundesliga really became more of a commercial success not just in Germany, but also throughout non-German Europe and the rest of the world. Which is also largely due to Germany winning the World Cup in 1990, and the European title in 1996, but the Bundesliga was also specifically marketed to popular media. In 1991 the German Football Association of the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Fußball-Verband der DDR) - the East German football association - joined DFB. Thus Germany was one again, not just on paper, but also in football.

Another thing that helped the popularity of the Bundesliga was the fact that in the 90s at least one Bundesliga club reached a European championship semi-final. In 1997 Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League, in 1996 Bayern München won the Europapokal, in 1997 Schalke 04 won the UEFA-Pokal. And in the following championships at least one German team reached the final of said competitions.

Let’s jump to the 2000s!

Since 2000 FC Bayern München has won the Bundesliga 13 times. The other winners were: Borussia Dortmund (2002, 2011, 2012), Werder Bremen (2004), VfB Stuttgart (2007) and VfL Wolfsburg (2009). Bayern München is also the only Bundesliga team in the 2000s to win the Champions League: 2013 and 2020.

After all that knowledge, here’s some random facts and numbers that you might find interesting:

- since it was founded in 1963, a total of 56 teams have played in Germany’s highest league - until the season of 2017/2018 Hamburger SV was part of the 1. Bundesliga for 55 seasons, which was a record. Now Werder Bremen holds this record, with 56 seasons to their name - Bayer Leverkusen holds the nickname of “Vizekusen” (Vice-Kusen), and they were at one point regarded as the “ever-second”, always getting close to the top, but never reaching it - Karl-Heinz Körbel has the most Bundesliga appearances: 602 - for Eintracht Frankfurt. He never lost a final with Frankfurt and was never relegated. - Bernd Stöber was the youngest coach in the season of 1976/1977 a t just 24 years, 1 month and 17 days old. - Brazil is the best-represented nation after Germany, with 159 Bundesliga exports (159), followed by Denmark (129), Austria (119), Croatia (118) and Poland (109). - in the season of 2019/2020 Thomas Müller had the most assists: 21. - retired football player Gerd Müller, whose active career was between 1965-1979, holds the record for the most goals: 365. - Otto Rehhagel holds the record for most matches as a manager: 832.

Now let’s go back to where we started: the season of 2020/2021.

As mentioned above, the 1. Bundesliga has 18 teams. To get you up-to-date I’ll give you some more info on each team, that you might find useful!

DSC Arminia Bielefeld: - founded: May 3rd 1905 - manager: Uwe Neuhaus - stadium: SchücoArena

FC Augsburg: - founded: August 8th 1907 - manager: Heiko Herrlich - stadium: WWK Arena

Bayer 04 Leverkusen: - founded: July 1st 1904 -> rebranded to current name on April 1st 1999 - manager: Peter Bosz - stadium: BayArena

FC Bayern München: - founded: February 27th 1900 - manager: Hansi Flick - stadium: Allianz Arena

Borussia Dortmund: - founded: December 19th 1909 - manager: Lucien Favre - stadium: Signal Iduna Park

Borussia Mönchengladbach: - founded: August 1st 1900 - manager: Marco Rose - stadium: BORUSSIA-PARK

Eintracht Frankfurt: - founded: March 8th 1899 - manager: Adi Hütter - stadium: Deutsche Bank Park

SC Freiburg: - founded: May 30th 1904 - manager: Christian Streich - stadium: Schwarzwald-Stadion

Hertha BSC Berlin: - founded: July 25th 1892 - manager: Bruno Labbadia - stadium: Olympiastadion Berlin

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim: - founded: July 1st 1899 - manager: Sebastian Hoeneß - stadium: Prezero-Arena

1. FC Köln: - founded: February 13th 1948 - manager: Markus Gisdol - RheinEnergieSTADION

1. FSV Mainz 05: - founded: March 16th 1905 - manager: Achim Beierlorzer - stadium: OPEL ARENA

Red Bull Leipzig: - founded: May 19th 2009 - manager: Julian Nagelsmann - Red Bull Arena

FC Schalke 04: - founded: May 4th 1904 - manager: David Wagner - stadium: VELTINS-Arena

VfB Stuttgart: - founded: September 9th 1893 - manager: Pellegrino Matarazzo - Mercedes-Benz Arena

1. FC Union Berlin: - founded: January 20th 1966 (originally 1906) - manager: Urs Fischer - stadium: Stadion An der Alten Försterei

SV Werder Bremen: - founded: February 4th 1899 - manager: Florian Kohfeldt - stadium: Weserstadion

VfL Wolfsburg: - fonded: September 12th 1945 -> rebranded to current name on January 16th 2001 - manager: Oliver Glasner - stadium: Volkswagen Arena

Maybe, to get a feeling for each club, you can check out each club’s YouTube account. Through that you should be able to find their other social media, or just by simply googling the team name:

Arminia Bielefeld ● FC Augsburg ● Bayer 04 Leverkusen ● FC Bayern München  ● Borussia Dortmund ● Borussia Mönchengladbach ● Eintracht Frankfurt ● 1. SC Freiburg ● Hertha BSC Berlin ● TSG Hoffenheim ● 1. FC Köln ● 1. FSV Main 05 ● Red Bull Leipzig ● FC Schalke 04 ● VfB Stuttgart ● Union Berlin ● Werder Bremen ● VfL Wolfsburg

Each football team has 11 players on the pitch. For the new season in 2019 it was decided that instead of 18 players, each team would be allowed to have 20 players in total - which means 9 substitute players on the bench.

During each season a team can win three main cups (the ones that everyone cares about the most, let’s be real): DFB-Pokal, Meistertitel (Bundesliga winner) and Champions League trophy. The last of which is not a German tournament / cup to be won, so I’ll leave that out for now.

DFB Pokal:

The DFB-Pokal is a German knockout competition, starting out with 64 teams. 36 teams are from the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, the top four finishers of the third league are automatically added to the list. 21 slots are given to the cup winners of regional football associations, and the remaining 3 slots are given to the regional associations with the most men’s teams.

Direct quote from Wikipedia, which in turn got their information from here: for the first round, the 64 teams are split into two pots of 32. One pot contains the 18 teams from the previous season of the Bundesliga and the top 14 teams from the previous season of the 2. Bundesliga. The other pot contains the bottom 4 teams from the previous season of the 2. Bundesliga, the top 4 teams from the previous season of the 3. Liga and the 24 amateur teams that qualified through regional football tournaments. Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot. Since 1982, teams from the pot containing amateur teams have played the game at home.For the second round, the teams are again divided into two pots according to the same principles. Depending on the results of the first round, the pots might not be equal in terms of number. Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot until one pot is empty. The remaining teams are then drawn against each other with the team first drawn playing the game at home.For the remaining rounds, other than the final, the teams are drawn from one pot. Since 1985 the final has been held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Meistertitel:

The Meistertitel is rewarded to the team that comes out on top on the last match-day of the season. Of course it can be calculated whether other teams can still catch up - points-wise - but the Meisterschale is not rewarded until the season is over. The current record-holder of most Bundesliga wins is FC Bayern München (29), followed by Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach (5) and Werder Bremen (4) in second and third place.

With the first three Bundesliga wins a team gets a gold star to put on their jersey, with five wins they get a second, ten wins is a third, twenty wins is a forth star. On top of that, the reigning Bundesliga champion gets to wear the Bundesliga logo in gold color on their sleeve.

And that’s that on that.

I don’t know what language you’re fluent in, but here are some football apps that you might enjoy using, to be on track with the upcoming season:

OneFootball

Kicker App

Bundesliga App

11 Freunde App

Amazon Bundesliga Radio

each team’s individual app for updates and news

You can also check out @bundesliga_en on Instagram and Twitter.

One last info for you, so you can jump right into it on the first day of the new Bundesliga season (fixtures are never really 100% until a day or two before the match is supposed to be, so this is preliminary): here is the link for the schedule of the upcoming 1. Bundesliga season.

You can also check out the 2. Bundesliga schedule, because it’s super interesting down there in the second league as well! I highly recommend it (keep your fingers crossed for Paderborn for me!).

I think that’s about everything I can tell you. This reply is already faaaaaaaaar too long, and I apologize! If you have any questions or want me to elaborate, feel free to send me another message.

Have the best time getting used to the Bundesliga, and welcome to the family!

Sources - with more info - under the cut:

fun facts: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/easter-eggs-surprising-facts-and-figures-you-may-not-know-3798

team information / schedule: https://www.dfb.de/bundesliga/spieltagtabelle/

team information / schedule (2nd source): https://www.kicker.de/dfb-pokal/spieltag

general information: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu%C3%9Fball-Bundesliga

app suggestions: https://www.smartmobil.de/magazin/fussball-apps

explanation for how the DFB-Pokal: https://web.archive.org/web/20090609211623/https://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=460546

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 51.07 - Durham vs Trinity, Cam

I am mildly obsessed with Audibooks. I listen to them on the way to and from work, and when I’m shopping, or doing the dishes, or if I’m going on a nice long bike ride. An average of an hour a day, which might not seem like all that much, and there will be people who listen far more than I do, but if a day is missed then you have to do two the next to catch up (because that’s how averages work, if I wasn’t already being facetious enough). Anyway, the other day I checked my listening statistics (if there’s something I love more than audiobooks its statistics) and saw that last Wednesday I supposedly listened to 36 hours of Stephen King’s Wolves of the Calla.

Now, setting aside the fact that the book itself isn’t that long, there is something wrong with that number isn’t there? It’d be good if there were 36 hours in a day, because sometimes it feels like I get home from work and only have to blink before its bedtime. There are so many things I want to be doing with that time and it disappears while I’m trying to choose one of them, and then if I do manage to get around to doing something, I feel annoyed that I haven’t been able to do all of the other things.

Its likely that if there were 36 hours in a day then I’d feel the same way. Procrastination, like the tasks it avoids, grows to fill the time available. So what can we do? There’s never going to be enough time to do everything, no matter how few (or many) episodes of the Americans we binge upon getting back from work. I guess you just have to prioritise, and make a grand plan which hopefully gets you to a place where you have the freedom to be able to do as many of the things you want to do as is possible, but of course that is a lot more difficult than it sounds, and it sounds pretty damn difficult.

This blog is one of the things I choose to prioritise, even if I did have a massive nap on Monday (and have waited until Sunday to actually post it) and watched four episodes of The Americans back to back yesterday, because if I want to be a writer, of any sort, and I do, then I have to write, and this is one of the things I have to write. So here we are.

Durham and Trinity, Cambridge are two of the few teams to have won a University Challenge trophy both sides of the Bamber Gascoigne/Jeremy Paxman ITV/BBC divide, with Durham the victors in 1977 and 2000, and Trinity the champions in 1974 and 1995, as well as 2014. In recent years the pair were defeated semi-finalists in 2020, losing out to Corpus Christi and eventual winners Imperial.

The first starter went to Trinity, with Neogi quickest to identify a series of words which shared the middle letter V. They get three out of three on the bonuses, before Kim chips in with his first (of many) ten pointer as well. He looks delighted to have got it, and Trinity miss their first question on the third bonus, guessing Pride and Prejudice as a Steven Spielberg film on the basis that the Keira Knightley film was released in 2005, which, as someone who has a bizarre memory for movie release years, was a tactic I respected immensely, even if it turned out to be wrong.

Durham get off the mark with the next starter, and also claim a hat-trick of five pointers, which prompts some more childlike glee from their captain Mitchell. One of the most wholesome things on television is quiz contestants' nervous pleasure when they get a question they didn’t think they knew right.

Unfortunately for Durham there would be no innocent wonder on their part for quite some time. A couple more from Kim, with a few from Brekke thrown in as well, allowed Trinity to open up a handsome lead before their Northern rivals could get going again. When they did get a foot in the door, through Hetherington, it must have been a fairly small shoe size (maybe a two or a three), because Trinity were able to slam the door shut again pretty easily.

The door-slamming answer, from Kim again, was probably the most impressive buzz of the evening, with his confident 1780s coming very soon after the first of what would surely have been many clues pertaining to that decade. Paxman says to Durham that there’s plenty of time to catch up. There is, but they don’t.

The Cambridge quartet extend their lead even further with the next two starters. Neogi admits to tuning out of one of the bonuses, but this doesn’t matter. They’ve got it in the bag anyway. Durham manage to give themselves an air of respectability, but don’t come anywhere close to a high-scoring loser total.

Final Score: Durham 90 - 190 Trinity, Cam

Paxman says that Trinity’s score is really quite good, and its not like, bad, but its not exactly incredible. Anything less than 190, especially when their opponents are kept to double digits. Anyway, Paxo seems to be much more easily impressed than he was a few years ago, so this is hardly all that surprising.

As always, thanks for reading, and if you’d like any more UC content, I’ve done exclusive reviews of the 2015/16 series over on Patreon. I’ll be publishing the review of the final over there later this week. See you next week.

[marauderssequels]

the petunia timeline

petunia evans is a character that I think had a lot of potential. I cannot at all commend the person she became as petunia dursley, and I wish so much that she had looked just a little harder in her heart to find space for harry. I can’t forgive her for the nearly two decades of abuse and neglect she inflicted on harry. still, like peter pettigrew and severus snape, she was a child once, before she grew into the horrible woman harry knew. so, who was petunia evans?

Part One: The Evans In Canon

the evans family is a difficult thing to find canon information on. the best we’ve dug up so far is a statement from an interview rowling made when answering if harry’s grandparents were killed. her exact words about the evans were, “...because I do like my backstory: Petunia and Lily’s parents, normal Muggle death.” now, kindly prepare for some english-major bullshit.

death. not deaths, plural. (yes, obviously this is a minute detail, but there’s really not much else to go on.) if the parents had suffered separate deaths, it should’ve been plural. keeping this noun singular suggests that one event took both parents out at once, leaving them both to experience one collective death.*

so, what collective death might they have suffered? well, considering that petunia wasn’t the most imaginative person, let’s remember that the explanation that she gave harry for his parents’ death was a car crash. that certainly fits our requirements for one event taking two people out at the same time, and it qualifies as a “normal Muggle death”. it’s not a far stretch to assume petunia took her answer for harry straight from the way her own parents died.

we know they were dead by the time lily and james died, due to petunia being lily’s only living relative for harry to go to. the conclusion we’ve drawn for petunia’s birth year (which we’ll explain in a later addition to this post) is 1957, three years before lily’s birth. going by british law, if lily’s parents had died before she was eighteen, she would’ve required a legal guardian until she was of age. (remember, 17 is only considered “of age” for wizards, something the muggle government wouldn’t be taking into consideration). since I cannot imagine rowling made the question of legal guardianship a part of lily’s narrative, we’ll set the parameters of her parents’ death for sometime after she had come of age in the eyes of muggle britain but before lily’s death.

lily would turn eighteen on january 30th, 1978, during her final year at hogwarts. her death occurred on october 31st, 1981. that leaves roughly three years for the accident to take place in.

this understanding is important to petunia’s story mainly because these parameters mean she would not be pulled into any sort of court situation regarding lily’s legal guardianship status. her story, according to pottermore, is that she left cokeworth behind forever, which suggests to us that she never once returned. obviously in the real world, this could’ve meant that she moved out permanently but still returned for visits. considering this is coming from rowling, a woman who tends to write in absolutes, it’s more likely to be the “never returning” option. this means that dealing with funeral arrangements, identifying bodies, and putting her parents’ affairs in order were not responsibilities she handled, since that would’ve entailed a return to the town she detested. instead, by the time lily turned eighteen, petunia was already married to vernon dursley and had decidedly left her life there behind. for all intents and purposes, she would’ve considered herself a dursley first and an evans not at all.

we’ll discuss this chapter of the sisters’ lives later; for now, it’s enough to have a rough idea for when petunia’s parents died. not much other information was ever provided about the parental evans, but here’s what we know:

initially, when the girls were younger, mrs. evans told lily she wasn’t allowed to use her magic. after the revelation that lily’s magic made her special, entitling her to attend a wizarding school and study to become a competent witch, both parents were thrilled. the magical world enchanted them both, and lily receives nothing but support from her parents after her acceptance to hogwarts.

young petunia could already identify class, drawing contrasts and divides between her family and the snapes. one of the first insults she punished severus with was a comment on his poor-quality clothing. she knew he came from an impoverished neighborhood and that hers was better, even if not by much. she used that information to immediately cast him in a negative light. she also had the social awareness to ensure no one was around to see lily’s magic, and to detect the insult in the word “muggle” without understanding what it meant. lily being nine years old, petunia would’ve been around twelve, so this social awareness and prideful classist view likely came from her home environment.

while the evans are hardly likely to have been as bad as the malfoys, this is evidence that petunia’s parents placed a great deal of importance on social status. lily only ever mentions her friends questioning her friendship with snape, not her family, so her parents weren’t so extreme to the point of outright forbidding her association with people of a lower status. it’s possible petunia’s younger years saw an economical shift downwards for her parents, leaving her with great pride and a snobbish attitude even once her circumstances turned less fortunate, while lily only ever remembers those circumstances.

moving forward to the next canon information we have concerning petunia, she left cokeworth for london, where she took a typing course. our assumption here is that she left after graduating secondary school, around the age of eighteen or so. once she had her diploma and was a legal adult, she would’ve moved out as soon as possible, to escape the life she hated and the family that favored lily and her magical gifts. assuming she and lily are three years apart, she would’ve left most likely the summer before lily’s fifth or sixth year at hogwarts.

from there, she found an office job, likely at grunnings, the drilling company where vernon was a junior executive, since they met at work. he proposed while lily was in her seventh year at hogwarts, so the engagement took place after lily left for school on september 1st, 1977. they were married by the end of the year and settled into a house together (as petunia tells harry in the first deathly hallows movie that she’s lived in that house for twenty years, during the summer of 1997). this is another part of her story that makes knowing the date of her parents’ death important; because we’ve determined they didn’t die until after january the following year, we know mr. and mrs. evans would have attended petunia’s wedding.

at some point before the wedding but after the proposal, petunia told vernon about lily’s magic. the couple met lily and james for dinner at a muggle restaurant, though the meeting didn’t end well. still, both were invited to the wedding, despite lily pointedly not being made a bridesmaid. afterwards, petunia appears to have sent a present for christmases, and likely birthdays as well, considering that she and vernon generally gave harry at least some type of horrible present for his birthdays. it’s probable lily returned the favor, sending christmas and birthday presents to petunia.

despite being invited, petunia and vernon didn’t attend lily’s wedding. around the autumn of 1979, both evans sisters became pregnant. petunia’s son dudley was born on june 23rd, 1980, just a month before harry’s birth on july 31st. harry’s birth announcement was the last communication petunia ever received from lily (besides the christmas presents they exchanged) before lily’s death the following year on october 31st, 1981. petunia wasn’t aware of her passing until november 2nd, when she discovered her sister’s son on her doorstep along with a letter from albus dumbledore explaining the circumstances of lily’s death and harry’s need for her as his guardian.

this is where the story picks up ten years later in the original series. this is also where our understanding of petunia’s life turns entirely from evidenced speculation and canon to headcanon and theory, unfortunately. in later additions to this post, we’ll explore our theories on petunia’s parents, as well as how her dynamic with lily changed through the years and how her character serves as a mirror to severus’s. already, we’ve made a lot of speculations based on british law, rowling’s writing, and petunia’s character, as well as lily’s, but this first part of her timeline will serve as the canon upon which we’ll be building the rest of her character. any ideas and suggestions for the evans family are more than welcome!

*obviously, this interpretation leans heavily on two large assumptions. firstly, we’re relying on the transcription of the interview having correctly recorded her words, as the link to the original video source is broken. secondly, this conclusion also requires trusting that rowling implements this basic rule of grammar into her everyday speech. any native speaker of english could probably tell you that in day-to-day language, we don’t tend to follow every single rule 100% of the time, as long as our basic meaning can be understood. considering our other deliberate deviations from her canon, however, I think it’s enough to acknowledge the reasoning behind our interpretation of her words and move on.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Sister raped and murdered in 1972. And a European sister was raped during the 1973 Carnegie Hall campaign.

Dr Joseph Sheftick: Then I heard that the sister whom we had witnessed to on the bus team had been raped and murdered [in 1972]. Father said she was an offering and would go to a good place in the spiritual world.

‘40 years in America’ book, page 44

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Hisako Watanabe: When I came to the United States, Father spoke to Mr. Kamiyama and he organized a team to go out and sell tickets for the Carnegie Hall speech—the tickets were about $2. We were a group of international brothers and sisters. A European sister was raped then [September 1973]. Sometimes it was dangerous. Sometimes people said, “Come to my apartment.” I knew it was dangerous to go with them, so I didn’t.

We had a holy ground in Central Park. Mr. Kamiyama gathered us there, and we reported every day. We sang and gave testimonies. We sold a lot of tickets and we had a lot of hope. But very few people came. Like the Bible, the guests were invited to the wedding but they didn’t come. Mr. Kamiyama said to us, “Go outside and get people to come in. Get anyone and tell them it’s free. Don’t sell any more tickets.” Anyone who was walking by we brought in. So then all the members came inside and took seats. We were so sorry to Father that we couldn’t bring people. This was our first opportunity to bring people, but it didn’t work. We had a good feeling, but the reality was so miserable. One old lady stood up and spoke up negatively. It was so intense.

‘40 years in America’ book, page 96

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Dan Fefferman reviews the book:

40 Years in America—an Honest Appraisal of the Life of the Unification Movement (PDF)

The recently released 40 Years in America: An Intimate History of the Unification Movement is an important book for several reasons. First, although size doesn’t count in all things, this is a big, gorgeous book, comprising 602 pages and including an impressive array of photographs from the early days of the US movement to the present day. Second, it is indeed an “intimate history” that presents not only the grand actions of its messianic leader but also the trials, tribulations, victories, and reflections of its rank and file members. Third, and for me most important, it is also a self-reflective book with a refreshingly honest approach to the challenges that US Unification movement has faced so far and will face in the future. Credit for this impressive project goes to editor Mike Inglis for conceiving and coordinating it, to church historian Mike Mickler for the painstakingly researched and thought-provoking history that meanders through its oversized pages, and to designer Jonathan Gullery for making what could be a dry historical treatise an absolute delight to the eyes and heart.

... But one also reads of stagnation in membership growth, an American movement of an increasingly oriental character, division and disillusionment over the Zimbabwean Heung Jin episode, the bombshell effect of Nansook Hong’s book, and a movement facing demoralization even as its leaders proclaim victory after victory. Mickler’s analysis is too far reaching to deal with in depth here. Let me touch briefly on two aspects that I felt were particularly interesting. The first has to do with what went wrong with the movement in the 1970s. The second deals with where we stand as we look toward the future. As most long-time members recognize, the American Unification movement experienced substantial and rapid growth in the early 1970s, virtually doubling in membership every year from 1970-1974. Mickler offers an intriguing thought as to the nature of the brick wall we hit after that. He sees the experimental Barrytown training project in 1975 as symptomatic of a departure from the American tradition that had previously brought such success. He cites four factors: 1) the sharpening of in-out distinctions between the movement and world 2) an extreme emphasis on fallen nature and obedience to central figures 3) a counterproductive shift away from center life and toward individual pioneering by young members and 4) the creation of an unattractive sense of desperation that failed to bring about the hoped for Pentecost. But Barrytown was only one symptom of a larger problem. “To a large extent,” says Mickler, “Barrytown was a Japanese import... The Japanese outlook and modes of operation became even more pervasive in the church’s mobile fundraising teams.” The result was a new church culture. College-aged Americans took on a soldier-like demeanor that had little appeal to their peers. They wore ties while witnessing, spoke urgently of the dangers of Communism, testified less frequently to the joys of their international community, stopped singing popular songs in favor or oriental Holy Songs, and sometimes even spoke in stilted English with a Japanese accent. The American movement may only now be fully recovering from that cultural shift. Even as we create new federations, hold successful meetings, develop high level contacts, build media empires, and establish internal institutions for spiritual renewal, the fact remains that American Unificationism seems incapable of recreating the magic that enables new members to join. As he looks to the future, Mickler sees a movement potentially divided among four alternative approaches to its apparent failures: 1) those who critique the orientalization of American Unificationism and call for a stronger sense of continuity with American culture 2) those who see the problem in terms of lack of faith and seek spiritual renewal through programs such as Cheongpyeong 3) those who call for a renewal of a communitarian approach in which center life and other community expressions of the Divine Principle ideal are emphasized and 4) those who see the solution in terms of a realization of “elder-sonship,” agreeing that we need greater continuity with American culture but presenting this as a natural evolution rather than a criticism of the past. Of course, these categories are not hard and fast, nor are they mutually exclusive. And this only part of the story, about 20 pages out of a 600 page book. Mickler concludes on a hopeful note, looking to the future and the emergence of Hyun Jin Moon as the heir apparent to True Father who can realize the principle of elder-sonship. Mike Mickler is to be commended not only for a stimulating essay, but also for memorializing a tremendous amount of detailed history in what I found to be a highly readable narrative. Yet even if one never gets around to a thorough reading Mickler’s history, 40 Years in America is guaranteed to give readers many hours of enjoyment, reveling in past victories, mourning fallen soldiers who have come and gone, and pondering what the future will hold for our children and grandchildren. ...

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Nansook Hong, transcripts of three interviews, including ‘60 Minutes’

Nansook Hong In The Shadow Of The Moons

Black Heung Jin Nim – Violence in the Moon church

Christiane Coste was raped, stabbed repeatedly, mostly to the face and neck, and strangled in New York on February 24, 1978 while delivering The News World to her area in Harlem.

Jin-joo Byrne was raped and murdered in August 2002. 
She was just 18. She was fundraising on her own with costume jewellery in Charlotte, NC. Some time later it was arranged for Hak Ja Han, on a visit to Seattle, to meet the family. She was not very sympathetic. A Korean person understood what Hak Ja Han said.


The Purity Knife – Jen Kiaba

Hiromi Kazuni disappeared, and was likely killed, while fundraising.

Montreal girl (probably Ruthie) killed while fundraising for the Unification Church in 1977. She was hit by a car.

http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/books/40years/

[kalyan-gullapalli]

Post # 106

Sir Cyril Radcliffe and his bloody lines.

On 12th August, 1947, a British barrister, who had set foot in India only over a month back, who had never been to Asia before and who had never travelled east of Paris, presented to Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, a map with two zigzag lines - one, 553 km long, from Gujarat to the southern tip of Jammu and Kashmir, and the other, 4096 km long, dividing the Bengal presidency into two. His name was Sir Cyril Radcliffe.

Together, these two lines created two new countries - the Republic of India and the Islamic republic of Pakistan (including East Pakistan which later seceded and became Bangladesh).

Lord Mountbatten waited five days before publishing the map on 17th August, 1947. He wanted the Independence Day celebrations to be done with - on 14th August for Pakistan and on 15th August for India. He probably expected trouble. Well, he was right. All hell broke loose!

These lines displaced 14.5 million people on either side of them. About 1 million people died in frustration-triggered riotings, pillage, rapes and looting. The scars have still not faded away. India and Pakistan are sworn enemies since. And will probably remain so for some time.

Together, these two lines are called Radcliffe lines and they represent the boundaries between India and Pakistan.

Sir Cyril Radcliffe is said to have been so appalled by the mayhem created by his infamous lines that he refused his salary of 3000 pounds (Forty Thousand rupees). And till his death in 1977, he maintained that he wasn't to blame for this fiasco, he did the best he could, he simply didn't have enough time. Therein lies a tale!

The details of the events that happened are somewhat like this:

After WW II, Great Britain realised that it simply didn't have the resources to control India any more, nor did it have the will to suppress its demands for independence. So, on 20th February, 1947, Prime Minister Clement Atlee announced that Britain would grant India full independence, latest by 30th June, 1948.

In March, 1947, a glamorous royal named Lord Mountbatten was sent to India as its last Viceroy. His mission was simple and clear: To hand over power to Indians, exit with as little damage to British reputation and if possible, avoid partition. But very soon, he realised that India was at a flash point, a truce between Indian National Congress and Muslim League was impossible and Partition was the only way out.

So on 3rd June, he shocked every one by declaring that the British would leave India on 15th August, 1947, about ten months before his deadline, and that the partition would be done based on religion-majority- demographics.

This was called the Mountbatten plan or the 3rd June plan. Mountbatten was clearly in a rush to exit India ASAP.

The British government back home ratified this decision by passing the Indian Independence Act on 18th July, 1947.

The only thing left to decide was who gets what! Some were simple. Baluchisthan and Sindh had 92% and 73% muslim population respectively. So they went to Pakistan. North West Frontier Province voted in a referendum to join Pakistan. Today, it is called Khyber Pakthunwa.

Princely states were allowed to decide who they wanted to accede to. They could even remain independent if they wanted. So both INC and ML wooed them. Over 560 princely states joined India. Three of them dithered. Junagarh and Hyderabad later joined India and integrated well. The third, Jammu and Kashmir, is a thorn in Indo-Pakistan relationships, even today, decades later. But that's another story. Books can and have been written on it.

All of these were relatively simpler. Punjab and Bengal, each with 54-55% Muslim majority were the tougher ones. Jinnah wanted them both. Nehru and Sardar Patel were adamant. Punjab and Bengal were tough nuts to crack indeed.

Enter Cyril Radcliffe, a complete outsider to this situation. Actually, the selection of Sir Cyril Radcliffe was made because he was a complete outsider and could not be unduly influenced by either the INC or the Muslim League.

He was appointed Joint-Chairman of two boundary committees - one to divide Punjab into East Punjab and West Punjab, and the other to divide Bengal into East Bengal and West Bengal. East Punjab had Hindu majority, West Punjab had Muslim majority. The vice-versa was true in Bengal.

Each committee has two representatives each of INC and Muslim League. No one saw eye to eye. However, they had to distribute village, canal, field and drain - on the basis of religion.

Radcliffe had the responsibility of equitably dividing 450000 sq. km of territory inhabiting 88 million people. And he had just 40 days to do it. Maps were not accurate. Surveying was tough in the July heat in Punjab and Bengal. And Mountbatten would call him twice a day to remind him of his deadline.

So, he bent his back, did the best he could, drew the lines, made the maps, submitted them to Lord Mountbatten - on 12th August, three days ahead of schedule - packed his bags, went back to Britain, burnt his notes, refused his salary and swore never to return to either India or Pakistan. Till the day he died, he knew that he wasn't liked a lot in Punjab or Bengal.

That's the story of Sir Cyril Radcliffe and his blood-smeared Radcliffe lines.

There is a post-script to this story. We are talking about the independence of India and we haven't spoken a word about the guy most responsible for it - Mahatma Gandhi. While all this was happening, the Mahatma grieved in some corner of the country he loved, shocked by the way his dream was turning into a nightmare, not identifying with the "tryst with destiny" that his proteges seemed so cocky about, trying his best to douse the embers of religious hatred in different parts of the country or when tired, retiring to his ashram and spinning his wheel in misery. Less than a year later, an assassin's bullet would rip him apart and he would die with the words "Hey Ram" on his lips.