Why We Have A Body A to Z
Airport Bars:
“A memory talking to a memory”:
I think this could be another way of speaking of the unconscious mind. Memories speak to memories all the time…that is how we connect experiences, by relating one event to another as a way of associating and connecting the things that happen to us over the course of a lifetime.
“Angels slip inside the lock”:
This could be another reference to Mary’s mystical powers as in telepathic fax. Perhaps this is her way of explaining her outlook on the world.
A.P.B.
An all-points bulletin (APB) is a broadcast issued from one US Law Enforcement Agency to another. It typically contains information about a wanted suspect who is to be arrested or a person of interest, for whom law enforcement officers are to look. They are usually dangerous or missing persons. As used by US police, the term dates to at least 1960. An all-points bulletin can also be known as a BOLO orBOL, which stands for "be on the look-out". Such an alert may also be called alookout or ATL ("attempt to locate").
(From Wikipedia)
Aquarius versus Virgo:
Once Virgo and Aquarius team up, you can be certain that they may remain friends for a long time. Although their characters vastly differ, earth (Virgo) and air (Aquarius), the similar attraction to one another will be mostly mental.
Virgo, seeking perfection, is a natural at analyzing anything and everything. This approach appeals to the humanitarian Aquarius mind, which is attracted to mankind, but on a more global level. Another common factor is that both Virgo and Aquarius are a bit independent and know their own minds.
On occasion, Virgo may become irritated or frustrated with Aquarius’ style. Aquarius does not fuss over issues as much as a Virgo will, and is more detached than Virgo. Virgo may not wish to tolerate neglect, while Aquarius is off and running with friends or pursuing a cause. This factor is apt to cause friction between them on occasion. Aquarius must remember to set aside private time with Virgo. Perhaps knowing a schedule is agreed upon may please Virgo, but don’t expect Aquarius to maintain one, for spontaneity is more their style.
Virgo is a mutable sign, adapts easily to changing circumstances, while Aquarius is more fixed and set in their ways. If any changing becomes a requirement within this union, you can be certain that it will not be Aquarius, as freedom is an important issue to them. Virgo must lighten up on the critical speech when conversing with Aquarius for Aquarius may consider it nagging.
Aquarius being somewhat of a free spirit, Virgo may have difficulty getting their point across to Aquarius. A helpful suggestion should this occasion arise, is for Virgo to remember that Aquarius is always aware of circumstances, knowing and understanding many things, however detached they may be. Yes, Aquarius and Virgo must learn to go a bit easier on each other.
Aquarius and Virgo do have common interests in the care and consideration of others. Perhaps you initially met while working on a committee together, through friends, co-workers, or as members of a club or organization. Aquarius needs their friends around and loves to socialize. Since Virgo enjoys planning and perfecting things, Virgo may try organizing a surprise party for Aquarius.
Aquarius can enhance Virgo’s perspective on life and broaden their point of view. Virgo adds practical application to Aquarius’ inventive and intuitive theories. Virgo’s precision can aid the Aquarius quest for the new by structuring all that Aquarian electric sparkle.
VIRGO: Fussy, Critical, Exacting, Service Oriented
AQUARIUS: Inventive, Futuristic, Humanitarian
(From Daily Horoscopes)
Ballooning:
Beverly Hillbillies (Ms. Hathaway):
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971. The series is about a poor backwoods family transplanted to Beverly Hills, California after striking oil on their land. A Filmways production created by writer Paul Henning, it is the first in a genre of "fish out of water" themed television shows, and was followed by other Henning inspired country-cousin series on CBS. In 1963, Henning introduced "Petticoat Junction" and in 1965 he reversed the rags to riches model for Green Acres. Panned by many entertainment critics of its time, it quickly became a huge ratings success for most of its nine-year run on CBS.
The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top twelve most watched series on television for seven of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the number one series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most watched television episodes of all time. (From Wikipedia)
Billy Jean King:
Visionary. Innovator. Champion.
Born: November 22, 1943
Birthplace: Long Beach, Calif.
Residence: New York, N.Y. / Chicago, Ill.
As one of the 20th century's most respected and influential people, Billie Jean King has long been a champion for social justice and equality. She created new inroads for both genders in and out of sports during her legendary career and she continues to make her mark today. Among her many accomplishments are:
• In August 2009 King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The award was presented to King by President Obama on Aug. 12, 2009 in ceremonies at The White House.
• Named one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century” by Life Magazine in 1990.
• Won 39 Grand Slam singles, doubles and mixed doubles tennis titles, including a record 20 titles at Wimbledon.
• In 2008 King authored Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes to commemorate the 35th anniversary of her historic 1973 match against Bobby Riggs.
• Was one of nine players who broke away from the tennis establishment and accepted $1 contracts from tennis promoter Gladys Heldman in Houston. The revolt led to the birth of women’s professional tennis and the formation of the Virginia Slims Tour and Women’s Tennis Association.
• Empowered women and educated men when she defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history – the Battle of the Sexes in 1973. This match is remembered for its effect on society and its contribution to the women’s movement.
• Founded the Women’s Tennis Association (1973), the Women’s Sports Foundation (1974), Women’s Sports Magazine (1974) and co-founded GreenSlam, an environmental initiative for the sports industry (2007).
• Co-founded World TeamTennis (1974), the groundbreaking co-ed professional tennis league and founded the World TeamTennis Recreational League, one of the most popular recreational tennis formats in the U.S.
• Named Global Mentor for Gender Equality by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2008 and received the NCAA President’s Gerald R. Ford Award in 2009, recognizing her contributions to improving higher education and intercollegiate athletics.
• Continues to be a leader in the fight for equality and recognition in the GLBT community, and has been honored by many of the leading GLBT organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD and Lambda Legal Foundation.
• Honored on August 28, 2006, when the National Tennis Center, home of the U. S. Open, was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in honor of King’s contributions to tennis, sports and society both on and off the court. She continues to be involved with the USTA and is currently Honorary Chair of the Tennis in the Parks Committee.
• Currently serves on the boards of the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Boombox:
Brontosaur:
Otherwise known by its true name “Apatosaurus” is a genus of Sauropod dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period and was the largest land animal that ever existed. Its name means “deceptive lizard”.
Bulimia:
Bulimia is an illness in which a person binges on food or has regular episodes of overeating and feels a loss of control. The affected person then uses various methods -- such as vomiting or laxative abuse -- to prevent weight gain.
(From PubMed Health)
Cell Replacement (every 7 years):
This is a myth. Different cells regenerate at different rates. Brain cells never turn over so it just depends on what types of cells one is talking about. Overall, the entire theory has been debunked. For the purposes of Eleanor, her use of this theory as an excuse for her earlier mistakes is faulty and obviously a joke to try and deflect responsibility onto a phenomenon that is out of her control. This way, she can sometimes feel a little less culpable.
Coral Lipstick:
Cornwall, England:
Cretaceous Period: 144 to 65 Million Years Ago
The Cretaceous is usually noted for being the last portion of the "Age of Dinosaurs", but that does not mean that new kinds of dinosaurs did not appear then. It is during the Cretaceous that the first ceratopsian and pachycepalosaurid dinosaurs appeared. Also during this time, we find the first fossils of many insect groups, modern mammal and bird groups, and the first flowering plants.
The breakup of the world-continent Pangaea, which began to disperse during the Jurassic, continued. This led to increased regional differences in floras and faunas between the northern and southern continents.
The end of the Cretaceous brought the end of many previously successful and diverse groups of organisms, such as non-avian dinosaurs and ammonites. This laid open the stage for those groups which had previously taken secondary roles to come to the forefront. The Cretaceous was thus the time in which life as it now exists on Earth came together. It is a part of the Mesozoic Era.
(From the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology)
Crossing Guard:
Dick Tracy:
Dick Tracy is a long-running comic strip featuring a popular and familiar character in American pop culture, Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977.
Don Cherry:
Donald Eugene Cherry (November 18, 1936 – October 19, 1995) was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.
Don Johnson:
Duck-Billed Dinosaur:
Fly Fishing:
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting. Fly fishermen use hand tied flies that resemble natural invertebrates or other food organisms, or 'lures' to provoke the fish to strike. Author Izaak Walton called fly fishing “The Contemplative Man’s Recreation”.
Geodesic Dome:
A geodesic dome uses a pattern of self-bracing triangles in a pattern that gives maximum structural advantage, thus theoretically using the least material possible. (A "geodesic" line on a sphere is the shortest distance between any two points.) You can frequently see them in children’s playgrounds as domed climbing structures.
Grasshopper:
Hand Signals:
Harriet the Spy:
Eleven-year-old Harriet M. Welsch is an aspiring writer who lives in the Upper East Side of New York City. A precocious and enthusiastic girl, Harriet enjoys writing and she aspires to become a spy. Her best friends are Sport, who lives with his father, and Janie, who wants to be scientist. Most afternoons she follows her spy route and secretly observes her classmates, neighbors, and friends.
Harriet's routine life becomes chaotic when her parents attend a party. Ole Golly and her suitor, Mr. Waldenstein take Harriet out for dessert and a movie. When they return home, they discover that the Welsch's have returned early to an empty house. When Mrs. Welsch attempts to fire Ole Golly, Mr. Waldenstein discloses to the Welsch's that he proposed to Ole Golly that evening and she has accepted. In an astonishing about-face, Mrs. Welsch exclaims: 'You can't leave, what will we do without you?!' Ole Golly replies that she had planned to leave soon because she believes it is time because Harriet is old enough to care for herself. Harriet is crushed by the loss of her nanny, who she was very close to.
Later at school, during a game of tag, Harriet loses her notebook. Her classmates find it and are appalled at the mean things she has written about them. For instance, she compares Sport to "a little old woman" for his continual worrying about his father. The students form a "Spy Catcher Club" in which they think up ways to make Harriet's life miserable, such as stealing her lunch, passing nasty notes about her in class and spilling ink on her.
Harriet regularly spies on them through a back fence, and concocts vengeful ways to punish them. She realizes the consequences of the mean things she wrote, but though she is hurt and lonely, she still thinks up special punishments for each one. After getting into trouble for some of her plans, Harriet tries to resume her friendship with Sport and Janie as if nothing ever happened, but they both reject her. Harriet spends all her time in class writing in her notebook as a part of her plan to punish the Spy Catcher Club. As a result of never doing her schoolwork, her grades suffer. This leads Harriet's parents to confiscate her notebook. Hearing of Harriet's troubles, Ole Golly writes to her, telling her that if anyone ever reads her notebook, "you have to do two things, and you don't like either one of them. 1: You have to apologize. 2: You have to lie. If she doesn't, she going to lose her friends.
Meanwhile, dissent is rippling through the Spy Catcher Club. Marion, the teacher's pet, and her best friend Rachel are calling all the shots, and Sport and Janie are tired of being bossed around. When they quit the club most of their other classmates do the same.
Harriet's parents speak with her teacher and the headmistress, and Harriet is appointed editor of the class newspaper. The newspaper—featuring stories about the people on Harriet's spy route and the students' parents—becomes an instant success. Harriet also uses the paper to make amends by printing a retraction, and is forgiven. (From Wikipedia)
Hearing “voices”:
Hearing voices is a common type of auditory hallucination; hallucinations are sensations or perceptions that occur in a wakeful state and seem real, but are created by the brain. The voices in auditory hallucinations can be pleasant or threatening.
Hearing voices can be associated with some psychiatric disorders or medical conditions. Psychiatric conditions associated with hearing voices include bipolar disorder, psychotic depression, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders, and schizophrenia. Medical conditions affecting the central nervous system, such as brain tumors, delirium, dementia, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, and stroke, can be associated with hearing voices. Voices may also be associated with high fevers.
Some people abuse certain substances because those items can cause hallucinations, including hearing voices. Auditory and other hallucinations can also be associated with other substances, such as alcohol, when used in large quantities or during withdrawal. They can also be a side effect of some medications and may occur with hearing loss, sleep deprivation, or severe fatigue. The specific cause of hallucinations, including hearing voices, is not known.
Hearing voices can be a symptom of serious, and even life-threatening, conditions. Seek immediate medical care (call 911) if you cannot distinguish the voices from reality or if the voices are accompanied by bluish coloration of the lips or fingernails; chest pain or pressure; cold, clammy or dry, hot skin; confusion or loss of consciousness for even a moment; high fever (higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit); persistent vomiting; rapid, slow or absent pulse; respiratory or breathing problems, such as rapid or slow breathing, shortness of breath, or no breathing; seizure; serious injury; severe abdominal pain; or threatening, irrational or suicidal behavior. Also seek immediate medical care if the voices you hear are telling you to harm yourself or others.
(From Better Medicine)
Hero complex:
The hero syndrome is a phenomenon affecting people who seek heroism or recognition, usually by creating a desperate situation which they can resolve. This can include unlawful acts, such as arson. The phenomenon has been noted to affect civil servants, such as firefighters, nurses, police officers, and security guards. Acts linked with the hero syndrome should not be confused with acts of malicious intent, such as revenge on the part of a suspended firefighter or an insatiable level of excitement, as was found in a federal study of more than 75 firefighter arsonists. However, acts of the hero syndrome have been linked to previously failed heroism. The hero syndrome may also be a more general yearning for self-worth.
In Homer’s Iliad, we are brought into a world where Time and Kleos, (meaning honor and glory) are the two most important virtues to the Greek heroes. The need to achieve both of these qualities is emblematic of the hero and is often responsible for driving a person to madness. Such behavior in modern society is often seen in individuals who exhibit signs of the hero complex. Unfortunately the hero complex is now (more often than not) linked to mental illness when in ancient times up through early-modern history, it was the definition of greatness.
Hydraulic Airbrush:
This item is rarely used by archeologists and can more frequently be found in tattoo parlors, tanning salons and professional make-up studios.
Ice Fishing:
Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and fishhooks or spears through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. Ice anglers may sit on the stool in the open on a frozen lake, or in a heated cabin on the ice, some with bunks and amenities.
“It’s not your fault that you don’t listen to your unconscious mind. That’s why it’s there”:
It is interesting that Mary chooses to say “unconscious” rather than “subconscious”, the difference being your mind’s occupation while awake as opposed to while sleeping. One is capable of listening to one’s subconscious mind…although this takes effort and large quantities of self-insight. Listening to one’s unconscious mind might be akin to listening to one’s dreams, which we are occasionally capable of. Perhaps Mary is saying that we aren’t responsible for what we can’t remember or tap into. Our unconscious mind is there to host our imaginations, but is purposefully fleeting so that we don’t pay it too close attention to that which we cannot hope to fully comprehend.
Jo (From Facts of Life):
Joanna "Jo" Marie Polniaczek was played by Nancy McKeon. Jo was first introduced in 1980, arriving at the Eastland Academy on her motorcycle. Her age throughout the series was roughly 15 to 23. She almost immediately formed a dislike for Blair Warner; Jo found Blair stuck-up, and Blair found Jo classless and manly. In a memorable introduction, Blair introduced herself to Jo, to which Jo replied, "Charmed; I'm Gloria Vanderbilt." Jo is Polish American.
Jo convinced the gang to steal the school van and use fake IDs to buy drinks at a bar. The van was wrecked and the girls were forced to work in the Eastland cafeteria to make up the repair costs. The girls were also placed on house probation and were forced to live in a room adjoining Mrs. Garrett's for a year; when the punishment expired, all four girls found other living arrangements, but were responsible for cleaning and painting their former room. While painting, their friendship began to rekindle, culminating into an all-out paint fight, which severely damaged the hardwood floor, requiring expensive repairs. The girls, once again close friends, decided to move back in together and continued to work in the kitchen to pay off the bill for the damaged floor.
Blair's attitude toward Jo worsened when Blair's boyfriend asked Jo to a country club dance. However, Blair stood up for Jo when her would-be love interest tried to assault and humiliate her on the ninth green. When asked why Blair stood up for Jo, Blair stated, "At least when I insult her, I know what I'm talking about!" Another problem for Jo came when she shoplifted a blouse for Mrs. Garrett's birthday; Mrs. Garrett was subsequently arrested when she went to exchange the blouse for the smaller size, not knowing the garment was stolen.
Early on, Jo's sailor boyfriend, Eddie Brennan (actor Clark Brandon), came to Eastland and convinced her to marry him. They planned to elope to West Virginia, where the marriage age was lower, but Mrs. Garrett and Blair tracked her down at a nearby motel to stop her. Jo had by that point already begun to change her mind when she realized just how difficult teenage marriage would be. Jo returned to Peekskill without Eddie. Eddie visited again the following season, but things had changed between them. They were moving in different directions, and keeping the long distance relationship going was proving to be very difficult, so they decided to see other people for the time being. Eddie returned late in the fifth season, now an officer in the Marines, but Tootie discovers he was married to a girl in Italy.
Sometime later, Jo developed a friendship with her 26 year old English teacher, Miss Gail Gallagher, (played by Deborah Harmon) who was raised in a similar environment to that of Jo. Gail inspired Jo to think about becoming a teacher herself and Jo went as far as to calling her by her first name. When Jo learned from Blair that Gail was quitting Eastland, she became very disappointed, believing that the reason was for a higher-paying job. She was then crushed when she found out from Mrs. Garrett that it was because of something unthinkable – terminal illness. Jo was so shocked that she stopped going to Gail's class and shunned her completely. She tried to keep herself busy with things that would distract her from thoughts of Gail and went as far as breaking her evening curfew. When Mrs. Garrett and Tootie confronted her about her strange behavior, she managed to overcome the shock and fear and come to terms with Gail. Jo associated the fact that Gail's dying with her friend Gloria's death.
Many of Jo's stories revolved around her tomboyish ways. Jo got into verbal spars with girls who didn't think she was "feminine enough," and boys (including some of her boyfriends) were threatened by her mechanical aptitude, which she displayed by getting a job at a local garage.
In the later seasons, Jo's tomboyish image softened considerably, and was rarely raised as an issue again. Her relationship with Blair became more friendly as time went on (Jo would even refer to Blair as her best friend by the last season), although the two still argued, traded wisecracks and made fun of each other from time to time. Jo graduated from Eastland as valedictorian of her class, and attended Langley College with Blair, graduating with a degree in education. In one flashback-heavy episode, Jo relayed her latest ongoing spat with Blair to a computer, which analyzed the data and concluded that Jo should stop being friends with Blair. At the end of the episode, Jo quietly threw the computer's printout away. In the last season, Jo married Rick Bonner, a concert musician, and she asked Blair to be her maid of honor.
Jo did not appear at the reunion TV special because it was stated that she was now a police officer and was working; however, Rick and their daughter Jamie did attend. This also coincided with Nancy McKeon's role as a policewoman in the drama series, The Division since the reason she couldn't participate in the reunion was a conflict in her working schedule.
(From Wikipedia)
Joan of Arc:
Joan of Arc, in French, Jeanne d'Arc, also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. She was born the third of five children to a farmer, Jacques Darc and his wife Isabelle de Vouthon in the town of Domremy on the border of provinces of Champagne and Lorraine. Her childhood was spent attending her father's herds in the fields and learning religion and housekeeping skills from her mother.
When Joan was about 12 years old, she began hearing "voices" of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret believing them to have been sent by God. These voices told her that it was her divine mission to free her country from the English and help the dauphin gain the French throne. They told her to cut her hair, dress in man's uniform and to pick up the arms.
By 1429 the English with the help of their Burgundian allies occupied Paris and all of France north of the Loire. The resistance was minimal due to lack of leadership and a sense of hopelessness. Henry VI of England was claiming the French throne.
Joan convinced the captain of the dauphin's forces, and then the dauphin himself of her calling. After passing an examination by a board of theologians, she was given troops to command and the rank of captain.
At the battle of Orleans in May 1429, Joan led the troops to a miraculous victory over the English. She continued fighting the enemy in other locations along the Loire. Fear of troops under her leadership was so formidable that when she approached Lord Talbot's army at Patay, most of the English troops and Commander Sir John Fastolfe fled the battlefield. Fastolfe was later stripped of his Order of the Garter for this act of cowardice. Although Lord Talbot stood his ground, he lost the battle and was captured along with a hundred English noblemen and lost 1800 of his soldiers.
Charles VII was crowned king of France on July 17, 1429 in Reims Cathedral. At the coronation, Joan was given a place of honor next to the king. Later, she was ennobled for her services to the country.
In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English, in turn, handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen led by Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English Bishop of Beauvais, to be tried for witchcraft and heresy. Much was made of her insistence on wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told her to change, as well as for protection from sexual abuse by her jailors) was seen as defiance and finally sealed her fate. Joan was convicted after a fourteen-month interrogation and on May 30, 1431 she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace. She was nineteen years old. Charles VII made no attempt to come to her rescue.
In 1456 a second trial was held and she was pronounced innocent of the charges against her. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. (www.distinguishedwomen.com Contributed by Danuta Bois, 1999)
"One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying."
- Joan of Arc
Jodie Foster:
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress.
John Travolta:
Kalahari Desert:
The Kalahari Desert (Dorsland in Afrikaans) is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. It usually receives 3–7.5 inches (76–190 mm) of rain per year. The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000 sq mi) extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The only permanent river, the Okavango, flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Ancient dry riverbeds—called omuramba—traverse the Central Northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season. Previously havens for wild animals from elephant to giraffe, and for predators such as lion and cheetah, the riverbeds are now mostly grazing spots, though leopard or cheetah can still be found.
Kundalini Tours:
This is a made up tour company. Kundalini translates to mean “coiled” in English and is most often discussed in Yoga as a kind of corporeal energy in reference to an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti that lies coiled at the base of the spine. There is a Kundalini tour guide group in Nepal, but that is merely coincidence.
La Pucelle:
Literally translates to “the maid” and was one of Joan of Arc’s nicknames.
LL Bean:
The company L.L.Bean was founded in 1912 by its namesake, avid hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean in Greenwood, Maine. Bean had developed a waterproof boot (a combination of lightweight leather uppers and rubber bottoms) that he sold to hunters. He obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders, prepared a descriptive mail order circular, set up a shop in his brother's basement in Freeport, Maine, and started a nationwide mail order business. By 1912, he was selling the "Bean Boot", or Maine Hunting Shoe, through a four-page mail-order catalog, and the boot remains a staple of the company's outdoor image.
(From L.L. Bean)
Literal V. Metaphor:
It would be more accurate to compare a literal interpretation to a figurative one as metaphor is a kind of figurative language. In the context of the play, Mary is incapable of metaphor because she sees and experiences life without the benefit of an inner eye. Lili on the other hand, is hopelessly metaphorical even to her own detriment. One usually associates metaphor with imagination, which would seem to be Mary’s strong suit; however, the disconnect is in the ability to distinguish the literal from the figurative. Mary is incapable of metaphor because at times, she cannot even distinguish the real from the imaginary.
Madame Curie:
Madame Curie was one of the FIRST WOMAN scientists and one of the GREAT SCIENTISTS of the 20th Century. She discovered radium and paved the way to nuclear physics and cancer therapy. Madame Curie fought chauvinism, prejudices, sexism and plain stupidity of those who tried to stop her advancements in science.
(From the Madame Curie Biography)
Margaret Mead:
Margaret Mead was a distinguished anthropologist, an intellectual and a scientist. She is the author of numerous books on primitive societies and she also wrote about many contemporary issues. Some of the areas in which she was prominent were education, ecology, the women's movement, the bomb, and student uprisings.
Margaret Mead was a woman who blended knowledge and action. Time Magazine, in fact, named her "Mother of the World" in 1969. In the political realm she served as a diplomat, without a portfolio, to many presidents in the areas of ecology and nutrition. She also had a great deal of concern about the role of science and technology in world politics.
(From Webster)
Mariel Hemingway:
Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise (née Whittlesey) Hemingway andJack Hemingway, a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway (born 1950) and Margaux Hemingway (born 1954). Margaux, who became an actress and model, died of a barbiturate overdose in 1996 at age 42.
Her paternal grandparents were Hadley Richardson and writer Ernest Hemingway (who committed suicide several months before she was born). She was named after the Cuban port of Mariel—her father and grandfather visited the village regularly to go fishing. Her middle name is from her paternal grandmother.
Hemingway grew up primarily in Ketchum, Idaho, where her father lived, and where her paternal grandfather had spent a great deal of time as a sportsman and writer. Mariel also spent part of her adolescence growing up in New York City,New York, and Los Angeles, California.
Hemingway's first role was with her sister Margaux in the film Lipstick (1976). The movie was not considered especially good, but Mariel received notice for her acting and was nominated as "Best Newcomer" for the Golden Globes Award that year.
Hemingway's most famous role was in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979), a romantic comedy in which she plays Allen's seventeen-year-old lover. Only sixteen during filming, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In Personal Best (1982), she played a bisexual track and field athlete in a film noted for some explicit (by mainstream standards) lesbian love scenes. In connection with Personal Best, she appeared in a pictorial in the April 1982 issue of Playboy and was also on the cover.
She starred as Dorothy Stratten in Star 80 (1983), a film about the Playboymodel's life and murder. Reports circulated for years that Hemingway had had her breasts enlarged to play the role of Stratten, but during a 2007 appearance on the late-night talk and variety show, Fashionably Late with Stacy London, she said she had had the surgery before Star 80. Her breast implants were removed years later after they had ruptured.
Hemingway was also featured in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) as Lacy Warfield. Subsequently released additional footage footage showed an expansion of her role. It was released in a very rough edit with unfinished visual effects in a November 2006 deluxe edition DVD and as part of The Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition. She also co-starred in the 1991-93 ABC series Civil Wars.
Hemingway has played a lesbian or bisexual woman in several films and television shows, including, Personal Best, The Sex Monster, In Her Line of Fire, and episodes of the TV series "Roseanne" ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "December Bride”) andCrossing Jordan. Hemingway, however, is not gay. She has said she formed a "big connection with the gay-and-lesbian community" after Personal Best and enjoys taking roles in "cutting-edge" productions.
Hemingway has a perfume, "Mariel", by H2O+.
She is currently the host of Spiritual Cinema, a monthly television show dedicated to spiritual films. She has begun hosting a series of yoga practice videosYoga Now, with guru Rodney Yee.
(From Wikipedia)
Medications for schizophrenia:
The first antipsychotic drug was discovered by accident and then used for schizophrenia. This was Thorazine, which was soon followed by medications such asHaldol, Prolixin, Navane, Stelazine, Trilafon, and Mellaril. These drugs have become known as "neuroleptics" because, although effective in treating positive symptoms (acute symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, loose associations, ambivalence, or emotional lability), they cause side effects, many of which affect the nervous system. These older medications are not as effective against symptoms such as decreased motivation and lack of emotional expressiveness.
In 1989, a new class of antipsychotics -- called atypical antipsychotics -- has been introduced. At the correct doses, few of these neurological side effects -- which often include such symptoms as muscular rigidity, painful spasms, restlessness, or tremors -- are seen.
The first of the new class, Clozaril is the only drug that has been shown to be effective where other antipsychotics have failed. It is not linked with the side effects mentioned above, but it does produce other side effects, including possible decrease in the number of white cells, so the blood needs to be monitored every week during the first six months of treatment and then every two weeks to catch this side effect early if it occurs.
Other atypical antipsychotics include Abilify, Geodon, Invega, Risperdal,Saphris,Seroquel, and Zyprexa. The use of these medications has allowed successful treatment and release back to their homes and the community for many people suffering from schizophrenia.
Although more effective and better tolerated, the use of these drugs is also associated with side effects, and current medical practice is developing better ways of understanding these effects, identifying people at risk, and monitoring for the emergence of complications.
Most of these medications take two to four weeks to take effect. Patience is required if the dose needs to be adjusted, the specific medication changed, and another medication added. In order to be able to determine whether an antipsychotic is effective or not, it should be tried for at least six to eight weeks (or even longer with Clozaril).
Because the risk of relapse of illness is higher when antipsychotic drugs are taken irregularly or discontinued, it is important that people with schizophrenia follow a treatment plan developed in collaboration with their doctors and with their families. The treatment plan will involve taking the prescribed medication in the correct amount and at the times recommended, attending follow-up appointments, and following other treatment recommendations.
People with schizophrenia often do not believe that they are ill or that they need treatment. Other possible things that may interfere with the treatment plan include side effects from medications, substance abuse, negative attitudes towards treatment from families and friends, or even unrealistic expectations. When present, these issues need to be acknowledged and addressed for the treatment to be successful.
(From WebMD)
Mesozoic Era:
The Mesozoic is divided into three time periods: the Triassic (245-208 Million Years Ago), the Jurassic (208-146 Million Years Ago), and the Cretaceous (146-65 Million Years Ago).
Mesozoic means "middle animals", and is the time during which the world fauna changed drastically from that which had been seen in the Paleozoic. Dinosaurs, which are perhaps the most popular organisms of the Mesozoic, evolved in the Triassic, but were not very diverse until the Jurassic. Except for birds, dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Some of the last dinosaurs to have lived are found in the late Cretaceous deposits of Montana in the United States.
The Mesozoic was also a time of great change in the terrestrial vegetation. The early Mesozoic was dominated by ferns, cycads, ginkgophytes, bennettitaleans, and other unusual plants. Modern gymnosperms, such as conifers, first appeared in their current recognizable forms in the early Triassic. By the middle of the Cretaceous, the earliest angiosperms had appeared and began to diversify, largely taking over from the other plant groups.
(From the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology)
Mission Impossible (TV Series):
Multiple Personality Disorder:
More commonly known now as dissociative identity disorder:
Omar Sharif:
Omar Sharif born Michael Demitri Shalhoub; April 10, 1932 is an Egyptian-born actor who has starred in Hollywood films, most famously inLawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl.
Ophelia:
Ophelia is the tragic daughter of Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After Hamlet murders her father, Ophelia goes mad, bids everyone “good night” and throws herself into the brook next to the castle and drowns. She is frequently associated with wild flowers, nymphs, and virginity, the feminist nightmare and of course, madness. She has been the inspiration for countless books, poems, films, songs, and societies and is almost the antithesis of Joan of Arc. Both women die tragic deaths, but Joan dies by force defending her beliefs and Ophelia takes her own life because she cannot escape the devastation of enforced circumstances. Ophelia is a sacrificial lamb, Joan a religious martyr.
Paella:
There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish: paella mixta), but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables, and sometimes beans. Most paella chefs use calasparra or bomba rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil.
Palenque, Yucatan:
Set in the foothills of the Tumbalá Mountains of Chiapas Mexico, Palenque is situated on a ledge overlooking the swampy plains that stretch northward all the way to the Gulf coast. Perhaps it is this positioning between two worlds, that gives Palenque a mystical charm that enchants scientist and tourist alike. The vista of the flat plains to the north, and the misty green of the lush mountain backdrop to the south, capture the imagination of modern visitors and most certainly inspired ancient artists and architects.
This ancient Maya site is located at the western frontier of the lowland Maya region. While the name Palenque comes from a nearby village, it is possible that the village was named after the ancient city or something similar sounding - bahlam kin - jaguar sun - the place where the sun descends into the underworld, the realm of the jaguar.
It was the flood plain of the Usumacinta to the north that most likely provided Palenque's inhabitants with the resources to construct their extraordinary city. Blessed with the highest average rainfall in Mexico, this fertile alluvial plain could have been successfully farmed with raised beds, and would have produced a harvest that not only could sustain a large workforce but would also have provided an abundance that could be traded along the great Usumacinta. It seems that the gods were as enchanted with Palenque as today's visitors.
From Sacred Sites
Paleontologist:
Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). As a "historical science" it tries to explain causes rather than conduct experiments to observe effects. Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier’s work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. Fossils found in China since the 1990s have provided new information about the earliest evolution of animals, early fish, dinosaurs and the evolution of birds and mammals. Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, and shares with archaeology a border that is difficult to define. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics and engineering. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialized sub-divisions, some of which focus on different types of fossil organisms while others study ecology and environmental history, such as ancient climates. (From Wikipedia)
Parachuting:
Pith Helmet:
The pith helmet (also known as the safari helmet, sun helmet, topee, sola topee, salacot or topi) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith (typically pith from the sola, Aeschynomene aspera, an Indian swamp plant, or A.paludosa, or a similar plant). Designed to shade the wearer's head and face from the sun, pith helmets were once often worn by white people in the tropics, but have also been used in other contexts.
Pre-frontal cortex:
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.
This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors; personality expression, decision-making and moderating correct social behavior. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.
The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially-unacceptable outcomes).
Prison Orange:
Prison Pay Phone:
Private Investigator:
Private detectives and investigators assist individuals, businesses, and attorneys by finding and analyzing information. They connect clues to uncover facts about legal, financial, or personal matters. Private detectives and investigators offer many services, including executive, corporate, and celebrity protection; preemployment verification; and individual background profiles. Some investigate computer crimes, such as identity theft, harassing e-mails, and illegal downloading of copyrighted material. They also provide assistance in criminal and civil liability cases, insurance claims and fraud cases, child custody and protection cases, missing-persons cases, and premarital screening. They are sometimes hired to investigate individuals to prove or disprove infidelity.
Private detectives and investigators may use many methods to determine the facts in a case. Much of their work is done with a computer. For example, they often recover deleted e-mails and documents. They also may perform computer database searches or work with someone who does. Computers allow investigators to quickly obtain huge amounts of information, such as records of a subject's prior arrests, convictions, and civil legal judgments; telephone numbers; information about motor vehicle registrations; records of association and club memberships; social networking site details; and even photographs.
Detectives and investigators also perform various other types of surveillance or searches. To verify facts, such as an individual's income or place of employment, they may make phone calls or visit a subject's workplace. In other cases, especially those involving missing persons and background checks, investigators interview people to gather as much information as possible about an individual. Sometimes investigators go undercover, pretending to be someone else in order to get information or to observe a subject inconspicuously. They even arrange to be hired in businesses to observe workers for wrongdoing.
Most detectives and investigators are trained to perform physical surveillance, which may be high tech or low tech. They may observe a site, such as the home of a subject, from an inconspicuous location or a vehicle. Using photographic and video cameras, binoculars, cell phones, and GPS systems, detectives gather information on an individual. Surveillance can be time consuming.
The duties of private detectives and investigators depend on the needs of their clients. In cases that involve fraudulent workers' compensation claims, for example, investigators may carry out long-term covert observation of a person suspected of fraud. If an investigator observes the person performing an activity that contradicts injuries stated in a worker's compensation claim, the investigator would take video or still photographs to document the activity and report it to the client.
Detectives and investigators must be mindful of the law in conducting investigations. They keep up with Federal, State, and local legislation, such as privacy laws and other legal issues affecting their work. The legality of certain methods may be unclear, and investigators and detectives must make judgment calls in deciding how to pursue a case. They must also know how to collect evidence properly so that they do not compromise its admissibility in court.
Private detectives and investigators often specialize. Those who focus on intellectual property theft, for example, investigate and document acts of piracy, help clients stop illegal activity, and provide intelligence for prosecution and civil action. Other investigators specialize in developing financial profiles and carrying out asset searches. Their reports reflect information gathered through interviews, investigation and surveillance, and research, including reviews of public documents.
Computer forensic investigators specialize in recovering, analyzing, and presenting data from computers for use in investigations or as evidence. They determine the details of intrusions into computer systems, recover data from encrypted or erased files, and recover e-mails and deleted passwords.
Legal investigators assist in preparing criminal defenses, locating witnesses, serving legal documents, interviewing police and prospective witnesses, and gathering and reviewing evidence. Legal investigators also may collect information on the parties to a litigation, take photographs, testify in court, and assemble evidence and reports for trials. They often work for law firms or lawyers.
Corporate investigators conduct internal and external investigations for corporations. In internal investigations, they may investigate drug use in the workplace, ensure that expense accounts are not abused, or determine whether employees are stealing assets, merchandise, or information. External investigations attempt to thwart criminal schemes from outside the corporation, such as fraudulent billing by a supplier. Investigators may spend months posing as employees of the company in order to find misconduct.
Financial investigators may be hired to develop confidential financial profiles of individuals or companies that are prospective parties to large financial transactions. These investigators often are certified public accountants (CPAs) who work closely with investment bankers and other accountants. They also might search for assets in order to recover damages awarded by a court in fraud or theft cases.
Detectives who work for retail stores or hotels are responsible for controlling losses and protecting assets. Store detectives, also known asloss prevention agents, safeguard the assets of retail stores by apprehending anyone attempting to steal merchandise or destroy store property. They prevent theft by shoplifters, vendor representatives, delivery personnel, and store employees. Store detectives also conduct periodic inspections of stock areas, dressing rooms, and rest rooms, and sometimes assist in opening and closing the store. They may prepare loss prevention and security reports for management and testify in court against people they apprehend. Hotel detectives protect guests of the establishment from theft of their belongings and preserve order in hotel restaurants and bars. They also may keep undesirable individuals, such as known thieves, off the premises.
Work environment. Many detectives and investigators spend time away from their offices conducting interviews or doing surveillance, but some work in the office most of the day conducting computer searches and making phone calls. When an investigator is working on a case, the environment might range from plush boardrooms to seedy bars. Store and hotel detectives work in the businesses that they protect.
Investigators generally work alone, but they sometimes work with others, especially during surveillance or when they follow a subject. Some of the work involves confrontation, so the job can be stressful and dangerous. Some situations, such as certain bodyguard assignments for corporate or celebrity clients, call for the investigator to be armed. In most cases, however, a weapon is not necessary, because the purpose of the work is gathering information and not law enforcement or criminal apprehension. Owners of investigative agencies have the added stress of having to deal with demanding and sometimes distraught clients. Although considered a dangerous occupation, private detectives and investigators have a relatively low incidence of nonfatal work-related injuries.
Private detectives and investigators often work irregular hours because of the need to conduct surveillance and contact people who are not available during normal working hours. Early morning, evening, weekend, and holiday work is common.
Repetition compulsion:
In psychoanalytic theory, repetition compulsion is the impulse to reenact earlier emotional experiences. It was considered by Freud to be more fundamental than the pleasure principle. It is frequently associated with those suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.
Schizophrenic Brain V. Normal Brain:
Rotary Phone:
Sauropod:
Sauropods are a subgroup of the saurischian, or "lizard-hipped," dinosaurs. This group of quadrupedal (four-legged), herbivorous animals had a relatively simple body plan which varied only slightly throughout the group. Early relatives of the sauropods, the Late Triassic plateosaurs or prosauropods, may have occasionally stood on their hind legs. True sauropods, such as Diplodocus shown here, appeared in the Late Triassic and began to diversify in the Middle Jurassic, about 180 million years ago. They had very long necks and tails, relatively small skulls and brains, and erect limbs reminiscent of the limbs of elephants. The nostrils of these animals were located high up on the skulls, rather than being located at the end of the snout like those of so many other terrestrial vertebrates. In fact, in some examples these nostril openings were so far up the skull that they were very close to the eye openings. Still another unusual feature which appeared in some of the later sauropods was rudimentary body armor.
Geographically, these animals were widespread, with remains, in the form of bones or footprints, having been found on all of the continents except Antarctica. In addition to their wide geographic distribution, sauropods are one of the most long-lived groups of dinosaurs, spanning some 100 or so million years, from the Lower Jurassic to the Upper Cretaceous. The end of the Jurassic represents, in terms of abundance, the zenith in sauropod history.
(From the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology)
Sexual Preference:
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to males, females, both, or neither. These attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality. According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation is enduring and also refers to a person's sense of "personal and social identity based on those attractions, behaviors expressing them, and membership in a community of others who share them." The term sexual preference largely overlaps with sexual orientation, but is distinguished in psychological research. A person who identifies as bisexual, for example, may sexually prefer one sex over the other. "Sexual preference" may also suggest a degree of voluntary choice, which is disputed in terms of sexual formation. In the context of the play, a misnomer.
Shrapnel:
Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions, which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually. They relied almost entirely on the shell's velocity for their lethality. The munition has been obsolete since the end of World War I for anti-personnel use, when it was superseded by high-explosive shells for that role.
Smith & Hawkins:
Smith & Hawken was an upscale garden retail outlet with 56 stores and catalog sales in the United States. On July 10, 2009, it was announced that all Smith & Hawken stores would cease operation. Smith & Hawken stores were located in upscale retail locations in 22 states.
Smith & Hawken was founded by Dave Smith and Paul Hawken in 1979, originally as a garden tool supplier. Their first retail store opened in 1982 in Mill Valley, California. Smith left the business in 1988. When Hawken retired in 1993, the company was acquired by a retail conglomerate, the CML Group, which sold it to DDJ Capital Management in 1999, after going bankrupt. The company was acquired by Scotts Miracle-Gro company in 2004 for $72 million dollars. When Smith & Hawken closed, it had approximately 700 employees in its stores and the Novato, California headquarters.
Scotts Miracle-Gro chairman and CEO, Jim Hagedorn, cited the continuing weak economy and "lack of scale" as the primary drivers behind Smith Hawken's closure. According to Scotts' May 2009 quarterly report, Smith & Hawken net sales were down 22.4% for the first half of fiscal 2009.
Smith & Hawken's founders were reportedly not upset to learn the company they founded 30 years earlier was closing. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Dave Smith and Paul Hawken were relieved by the announcement, stating that "Scotts couldn't have been a worse corporate owner." Smith said he asked friends not to shop there after Scotts purchased the company in 2004. On January 8, 2010, Target Corporation announced it acquired the Smith & Hawken brand.
Smithsonian:
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world's largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. Smithsonian Homepage
Speed Racer:
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime,Mach Go Go Go, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha. From 1967 to 1968 it ran as a television series in the United States, with 52 episodes. Selected chapters of the manga were released by NOW Comics in the 1990s under the title Speed Racer Classics, later released by the DC Comics division, Wildstorm Productions under the title Speed Racer: The Original Manga. In 2008, under the name of its Americanized title, Speed Racer, Mach GoGoGo, in its entirety, was re-published in the United States by Digital Manga Publishing and was released as a box set, used to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary and also served as a tie-in to coincide with the 2008 film. It was published under the title Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go as part of the company's DMP Platinum imprint. The actual television series itself is an early example of an anime becoming a successful franchise in the United States, which spawned multiple spinoff versions, in both print and broadcast media.
(From Wikipedia)
State Department:
Department Mission Statement: Advance freedom for the benefit of the American people and the international community by helping to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world composed of well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread poverty, and act responsibly within the international system.
Studies of the Female Brain:
Studies of the Lesbian Brain:
Subterranean Life:
This literally means life beneath the earth’s surface, but in the context of the play it is referring to a more ethereal, spiritual realm of certain energies that live and breath just out of touch of our conscious minds. It is more about what we feel, but do not need to say…subtext or subconscious thoughts and impulses would fit into this category.
Surveillance:
This word originally comes from the French word for “watching over”. It is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people and often in a surreptitious manner. It most usually refers to observation of individuals or groups by government organizations, but disease surveillance, for example, is monitoring the progress of a disease in a community.
“Surrender Dorothy”:
This is the famous sentence written in black smoke by the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy has just reached the emerald city when the Wicked Witch appears in the sky above and with her broom writes the words “surrender Dorothy” in black smoke. The phrase is popular with graffiti artists and is often used as a political, anti-establishment statement across the world.
Sylvia Plath:
Born to middle class parents in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath published her first poem when she was eight. Sensitive, intelligent, compelled toward perfection in everything she attempted, she was, on the surface, a model daughter, popular in school, earning straight A's, winning the best prizes. By the time she entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950 she already had an impressive list of publications, and while at Smith she wrote over four hundred poems.
Sylvia's surface perfection was however underlain by grave personal discontinuities, some of which doubtless had their origin in the death of her father (he was a college professor and an expert on bees) when she was eight. During the summer following her junior year at Smith, having returned from a stay in New York City where she had been a student ``guest editor'' at Mademoiselle Magazine, Sylvia nearly succeeded in killing herself by swallowing sleeping pills. She later described this experience in an autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, published in 1963. After a period of recovery involving electroshock and psychotherapy Sylvia resumed her pursuit of academic and literary success, graduating from Smith summa cum laudein 1955 and winning a Fulbright scholarship to study at Cambridge, England.
In 1956 she married the English poet Ted Hughes , and in 1960, when she was 28, her first book, The Colossus, was published in England. The poems in this book---formally precise, well wrought---show clearly the dedication with which Sylvia had served her apprenticeship; yet they give only glimpses of what was to come in the poems she would begin writing early in 1961. She and Ted Hughes settled for a while in an English country village in Devon, but less than two years after the birth of their first child the marriage broke apart.
The winter of 1962-63, one of the coldest in centuries, found Sylvia living in a small London flat, now with two children, ill with flu and low on money. The hardness of her life seemed to increase her need to write, and she often worked between four and eight in the morning, before the children woke, sometimes finishing a poem a day. In these last poems it is as if some deeper, powerful self has grabbed control; death is given a cruel physical allure and psychic pain becomes almost tactile.
On February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath killed herself with cooking gas at the age of 30. Two years later Ariel, a collection of some of her last poems, was published; this was followed by Crossing the Water and Winter Trees in 1971, and, in 1981, The Collected Poems appeared, edited by Ted Hughes.
(Biography by Bill Gilson)
"I think I would like to call myself 'the girl who wanted to be God'. Yet if I were not in this body, where would I be--perhaps I am destined to be classified and qualified. But, oh, I cry out against it." -Sylvia Plath
Tatum O’Neal:
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal (born November 5, 1963) is an American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10, which she won for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (1973) opposite her father Ryan O'Neal.
Tin Tin:
The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of classic comic books created by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi(1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in more than 80 languages and more than 350 million copies of the books sold to date. Its popularity around the world has been attributed to its "universal appeal" and its ability to transcend "time, language and culture.”
“The body holds grudges the body is old…it’s the only thing we take everywhere”:
This quote distills the very essence of the play. The body is our vessel for everything we do, sense, understand and experience over the course of our lifetimes. The play is about these women whose relationships and connections are the result of physical interaction and embodied, living memory. We have a body so that we can harness that ability to be human.
The Lark:
L'Alouette (The Lark) is a 1952 play by Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden. The English adaptation was by Lillian Hellman and the incidental music was by Leonard Bernstein. The two stars of the play reprised their roles in a 1957 television production of the play, as part of the anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame, but it has never been made into a theatrical film, despite being one of Anouilh's best-known works.
The Tonga Room:
Uma Thurman:
Virginia Woolf:
In 1926 Virginia Woolf contributed an introduction to Victorian Photographs of Famous Men & Fair Women by Julia Margaret Cameron. This publication may be seen as a springboard from which to approach Woolf’s life: Virginia saw herself as descending from a distinctive male and female inheritance; Cameron was the famous Victorian photographer and Woolf’s great-aunt; Woolf’s friend Roger Fry also contributed an introduction and leads us to the Bloomsbury Group; and the book was published by the Hogarth Press which Virginia had started with her husband Leonard in 1917.
Adeline Virginia Stephen was born on 25 January 1882 in London. Her father, Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), was a man of letters (and first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography) who came from a family distinguished for public service (part of the ‘intellectual aristocracy' of Victorian England). Her mother, Julia (1846-95), from whom Virginia inherited her looks, was the daughter and niece of the six beautiful Pattle sisters (Julia Margaret Cameron was the seventh: not beautiful but the only one remembered today). Both parents had been married before: her father to the daughter of the novelist, Thackeray, by whom he had a daughter Laura (1870-1945) who was intellectually backward; and her mother to a barrister, Herbert Duckworth (1833-70), by whom she had three children, George (1868-1934), Stella (1869-97), and Gerald (1870-1937). Julia and Leslie Stephen had four children: Vanessa (1879-1961), Thoby (1880-1906), Virginia (1882-1941), and Adrian (1883-1948). All eight children lived with the parents and a number of servants at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
Long summer holidays were spent at Talland House in St Ives, Cornwall, and St Ives played a large part in Virginia’s imagination. It was the setting for her novelTo the Lighthouse, despite its ostensibly being placed on the Isle of Skye. London and/or St Ives provided the principal settings of most of her novels.
In 1895 her mother died unexpectedly, and Virginia suffered her first mental breakdown. Her half-sister Stella took over the running of the household as well as coping with Leslie’s demands for sympathy and emotional support. Stella married Jack Hills in 1897, but she too died suddenly on her return from her honeymoon. The household burden then fell upon Vanessa.
Virginia was allowed uncensored access to her father’s extensive library, and from an early age determined to be a writer. Her education was sketchy and she never went to school. Vanessa trained to become a painter. Their two brothers were sent to preparatory and public schools, and then to Cambridge. There Thoby made friends with Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Lytton Strachey and Maynard Keynes. This was the nucleus of the Bloomsbury Group.
Leslie Stephen died in 1904, and Virginia had a second breakdown. While she was sick, Vanessa arranged for the four siblings to move from 22 Hyde Park Gate to 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. At the end of the year Virginia started reviewing with a clerical paper called the Guardian; in 1905 she started reviewing in the Times Literary Supplement and continued writing for that journal for many years. Following a trip to Greece in 1906, Thoby died of typhoid and in 1907 Vanessa married Clive Bell. Thoby had started ‘Thursday evenings' for his friends to visit, and this kind of arrangement was continued after his death by Vanessa and then by Virginia and Adrian when they moved to 29 Fitzroy Square. In 1911 Virginia moved to 38 Brunswick Square. Leonard Woolf had joined the Ceylon Civil Service in 1904 and returned in 1911 on leave. He soon decided that he wanted to marry Virginia, and she eventually agreed. They were married in St Pancras Registry Office on 10 August 1912. They decided to earn money by writing and journalism.
Since about 1908 Virginia had been writing her first novel The Voyage Out(originally to be called Melymbrosia). It was finished by 1913 but, owing to another severe mental breakdown after her marriage, it was not published until 1915 by Duckworth & Co. (Gerald’s publishing house). The novel was fairly conventional in form. She then began writing her second novel Night and Day - if anything even more conventional - which was published in 1919, also by Duckworth.
From 1911 Virginia had rented small houses near Lewes in Sussex, most notably Asheham House. Her sister Vanessa rented Charleston Farmhouse nearby from 1916 onwards. In 1919 the Woolfs bought Monks House in the village of Rodmell. This was a small weather-boarded house (now owned by the National Trust) which they used principally for summer holidays until they were bombed out of their flat in Mecklenburgh Square in 1940 when it became their home.
In 1917 the Woolfs had bought a small hand printing-press in order to take up printing as a hobby and as therapy for Virginia. By now they were living in Richmond (Surrey) and the Hogarth Press was named after their house. Virginia wrote, printed and published a couple of experimental short stories, 'The Mark on the Wall' and 'Kew Gardens'. The Woolfs continued handprinting until 1932, but in the meantime they increasingly became publishers rather than printers. By about 1922 the Hogarth Press had become a business. From 1921 Virginia always published with the Press, except for a few limited editions.
Nineteen-twenty-one saw Virginia’s first collection of short stories Monday or Tuesday, most of which were experimental in nature. In 1922 her first experimental novel, Jacob’s Room, appeared. In 1924 the Woolfs moved back to London, to 52 Tavistock Square. In 1925 Mrs. Dalloway was published, followed byTo the Lighthouse in 1927, and The Waves in 1931. These three novels are generally considered to be her greatest claim to fame as a modernist writer. Her involvement with the aristocratic novelist and poet Vita Sackville-West led to Orlando (1928), a roman à clef inspired by Vita’s life and ancestors at Knole in Kent. Two talks to women’s colleges at Cambridge in 1928 led to A Room of One’s Own (1929), a discussion of women’s writing and its historical economic and social underpinning.
(Biography from The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain)
Virginia Woolf's Death:
Around noon on March 28, 1941, she walked down to the River Ouse, near her weekend house in Sussex. Leaving her hat and cane on the riverbank, she placed some heavy stones in her coat pocket and drowned herself. Her body was found on April 18, and the coroner declared the death a suicide. Woolf left two similar notes for her husband and sister. In these letters, she admits to "going mad again" and expressed the belief that she would not recover this time.
"Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that - everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V."
(From The Literature Network)
Vita Sackville-West:
Vita Sackville-West was a novelist, poet and gardener. She was born in 1892 at Knole in Kent, home to her parents Lord and Lady Sackville. She started to write poetry and ballads from a young age and between 1906 and 1910 she produced eight novels and five plays.
She married the diplomat Harold Nicholson in 1913 and they moved to Cospoli, Constantinople. They returned to England in 1914 and bought Long Barn, in Kent, and employed their friend the architect Edwin Lutyens to help design a small parterre. They bought Sissinghurst Castle in 1930 in a practically derelict state and set about rebuilding and designing the house and gardens.
Although they remained good friends, Harold was a homosexual and Vita had numerous lesbian affairs, the most notable being with Virginia Wolf.
In the 1920s Sackville-West became romantically involved with the writer, Virginia Woolf, who celebrated this love affair in her novel Orlando (1928). Dedicated to Sackville-West, the book traces the history of the youthful, beautiful, and aristocratic Orlando, and explores the themes of sexual ambiguity. This was followed by the novels, The Edwardians (1930), All Passion Spent (1931) and The Dark Island (1934).
In 1946 Vita was made a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. The following year she began a weekly column in the Observer called In your Garden. In 1948 she became a founder member of the National Trust's garden committee. She died of cancer on 2 June 1962. Harold died six years later.
Sackville-West also published books on travel and literary topics and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. Her unorthodox marriage was described by her son, Nigel Nicholson, in Portrait of a Marriage. Vita Sackville-West died in 1962.
Voodoo:
There are several incarnations of Voodoo depending on the area of the world where it is practiced; however, in general the religion is one of polytheistic worship where each god has a different spiritual significance and is prayed to for specific purposes. The moral code focuses on the vices of greed and dishonor and the goal for a practitioner is represented by personality temperature; cool being ideal and hot being discouraged. Blessings come from commitment to the community and spiritual devotion. Spirits are accessed through raucous worship involving song, dance, instruments and certain ritualistic practices. Unfortunately, the religion is highly misunderstood, misrepresented and frequently abused by those who seek to take advantage of the poor by promising wealth or personal retribution (pin dolls).
Waders:
These are special suits usually made of rubber that fishermen use to wade out part way into the water without getting wet while they cast their lines or nets.
Walkman:
“Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink”:
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in 1797 and published in 1798.
Willie Nelson:
Singer, songwriter, actor, and philanthropist. Born on April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. During his extensive career, Willie Nelson has written more than 2,500 songs and has released close to 300 albums. He is recognized worldwide as an American troubadour and icon, transcended musical genres, and has remained relevant through five decades through his music, his acting, and as the face of such social causes as Farm Aid, development of bio-diesel, and the legalization of Hemp.
“You know what the King of Spain once said, on how to put down a coup d’etat?”
This could be a reference to the failed Tejero Coup of 1981 that is still celebrated as a national holiday in Spain to this day; however this could also refer to the Coup of 1936, which was the initiation of the most recent Spanish Civil War. The result of this particular coup, was the take over of Fascist leader Francisco Franco. There are many possibilities considering the history of Spain, so really this could be a general reference.
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