Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.

The libretto was mainly written in early 1927 and the music was finished in the spring of 1929, although both text and music were to be partly revised by the authors later. An early by-product, however, was the Mahagonny-Songspiel, sometimes known as Das kleine Mahagonny, a concert work for voices and small orchestra commissioned by the Deutsche Kammermusik Festival in Baden-Baden and premiered there on 18 July 1927. The ten numbers, which include the "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song", were duly incorporated into the full opera. The opera had its premiere in Leipzig in March 1930 and played in Berlin in December of the following year. The opera was banned by the Nazis in 1933 and did not have a significant production until the 1960s.
Weill's score uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by The Doors and later David Bowie). The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original (German) language.

EMD F3

The EMD F3 was a 1,500-horsepower (1,100 kW), B-B freight-hauling diesel locomotive produced between July 1945 and February 1949 by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division. Final assembly was at GM-EMD's La Grange, Illinois plant. A total of 1,111 cab-equipped lead A units and 696 cabless booster B units

were built.

The F3 was the third model in GM-EMD's highly successful F-unit series of cab unit freight diesels, and it was the second most produced of the series. The F3 essentially differed from the EMD F2 in that it used the “new” D12 generator to produce more power, and from the later EMD F7 in electrical equipment. Some late-model F3s had the same D27 traction motors used in the F7, and were nicknamed F5 models.

William Patrick Hitler

William Patrick Hitler was the nephew of Adolf Hitler. Born to Adolf's half-brother Alois Hitler, Jr., and his first wife Bridget Dowling, William later moved to Germany and subsequently escaped, eventually going to the United States where he enlisted to fight in World War II.

William Patrick Hitler was born in Liverpool, the son of Alois Hitler, Jr., and his Irish-born wife Bridget Dowling. They had met in Dublin when Alois was living there in 1909, and eloped to Liverpool where William was born in 1911. Hitler's nephew is recalled by elderly former neighbours, and in Liverpool folklore variously as "Billy" or "Paddy" Hitler.

In 1914, Alois returned to Germany, but Bridget refused to join him. Unable to reconnect due to the outbreak of World War I, Alois abandoned the family, leaving William to be brought up by his mother. He remarried, bigamously, but re-established contact in the mid-1920s when he wrote to Bridget asking her to send William to Weimar Republic Germany for a visit. She finally agreed in 1929, when William was 18.

In 1933, William Patrick Hitler returned to Nazi Germany in an attempt to benefit from his uncle's rise to power. His uncle found him a job in a bank. Later, William Patrick worked at an Opel automobile factory, and later as a car salesman. Dissatisfied with these jobs, William Patrick persisted in asking his uncle, Hitler, for a better job, and there were rumors that he might sell embarrassing stories about the family to the newspapers if he did not receive one. Among these rumors would have been his father's bigamous marriage. In 1938, Adolf Hitler asked William to relinquish his British citizenship in exchange for a high-ranking job. Expecting a trap, William decided to flee Nazi Germany.

In 1939, Hitler and his mother went to the United States on a lecture tour on the invitation of the publisher William Randolph Hearst, and they were stranded there when World War II broke out. After making a special request to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hitler was cleared to join the U.S. Navy in 1944.

William Patrick Hitler served in the U.S. Navy as a Pharmacist's Mate until he was discharged in 1947. After leaving the Navy, William Patrick changed his last name to Stuart-Houston, married, and moved to Patchogue, Long Island, N.Y., where he and his wife became the parents of four sons. Stuart-Houston built upon his medical training to establish a business that analyzed blood samples for hospitals. His laboratory, which he called the Brookhaven Laboratories, was located in his home, a two-story clapboard house at 71 Silver Street, Patchogue.

Mr. Stuart-Houston was married to Phyllis Jean-Jacques. After their relationship had begun, William, Phyllis, and Bridget sought anonymity in the United States. William and Phyllis married in 1947, and they had their first son Alexander Adolf in 1949. They later had three more sons, Louis (b. 1951), Howard Ronald (b. 1957, d. 1989), and Brian William (1965).

William died on July 14, 1987 in Patchogue, New York, and his remains were buried alongside those of his mother, Bridget, at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Coram, New York. Phyllis died on November 2, 2004.

Fool

A fool is an English dessert generally made by mixing puréed fruit, whipped cream, sugar, and possibly a flavouring agent like rose water.

Foole is first mentioned as a dessert in 1598 (together with trifle), although the origins of gooseberry fool may date back to the 15th century. The earliest recipe for fruit fool dates to the mid 17th century. Why the word "fool" is used as the name of the this fruit dessert is not clear. Several authors derives it from the French verb fouler meaning “to crush” or “to press” (in the context of pressing grapes for wine), but this derivation is dismissed by the Oxford English Dictionary as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word.

Originally the most common fruit ingredient in fools was gooseberries, although other fruits and berries are known from early recipes, e.g., apples and raspberries. Modern recipes may include any seasonal fruit readily found, but gooseberry fool remains the perennial favorite.

Norfolk fool is an old local variation of the fruit fool which seems to treat the fruit content more as a secondary ingredient, adding it at the end of the recipe.

Nguyễn Ngọc Loan

General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan was the Republic of Vietnam's Chief of National Police. Loan gained international infamy when he executed handcuffed prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém, a Viet Cong soldier, on February 1, 1968 in front of Vo Suu, an NBC cameraman, and Eddie Adams, an Associated Press photographer. The photo (captioned "General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon") and film would become two of the most famous images in journalism and started to change the American public's views on the Vietnam War.

In 1975, during the Fall of Saigon, Loan left South Vietnam. He moved to the United States, and opened a pizza restaurant at Rolling Valley Mall, in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Burke, Virginia. In 1991, Loan was forced into retirement when his identity was publicly disclosed.

Loan was married to Chinh Mai, with whom he had five children. He died of cancer on July 14, 1998 in Burke, Virginia.

Molcajete

A molcajete is a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle tool, similar to the South American batan (stone) used for grinding various food products. The molcajete was used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years, and likely evolved from the more primitive metate grinding slab. Traditionally carved out of a single block of vesicular basalt, molcajetes are typically round in shape and supported by three short legs. They are frequently decorated with the carved head of an animal on the outside edge of the bowl, giving the molcajete the appearance of a short, stout, three-legged animal. The pig is the most common animal head used for decoration of this type. The matching hand-held grinding tool, known as a tejolote, is also made of the same basalt material. Most pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican molcajetes were made of ceramic rather than stone, especially among the Aztecs.

Molcajetes are used to crush and grind spices, and prepare salsas, and guacamole. The rough surface of the basalt stone creates a superb grinding surface that maintains itself over time as tiny bubbles in the basalt are ground down, replenishing the textured surface. As the porous basalt is impossible to fully clean and sanitize, molcajetes are known to "season" (much like cast iron skillets), carrying over flavors from one preparation to another. Salsas and guacamole prepared in molcajetes are known to have a distinctive texture, and some also carry a subtle difference in flavor, from those prepared in blenders. Molcajetes can also be used as a cooking tool, where it is heated to a high temperature using an open fire or hot coals, and then used to heat its food contents. Although true molcajetes are made of basalt, imitations are sometimes made of a mixture of pressed concrete and volcanic rock particles.

Exile in Guyville

Exile in Guyville is American indie rock singer-songwriter Liz Phair's 1993 debut album. In the spring of 1994, the album briefly made it to the U.S. charts, selling over 200,000 copies. As of July 2003, the album has sold 450,000 copies.

In 1991, Phair wrote and recorded songs on audio cassette tapes, which she circulated using the moniker Girly Sound, in Chicago. A Girly Sound tape made it to the head of Matador Records, and they signed Phair. Phair re-recorded several songs from her Girly Sound tapes as well as several new songs, and the resulting album was released in 1993, receiving widespread critical acclaim. It was the number one album in the year-end critics poll in Spin Magazine and the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll.

Phair commented in interviews that the album was a song-by-song reply to the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main Street. Some critics contend that the album is not a clear or obvious song-by-song response, although Phair apparently sequenced her compositions in an attempt to match the song-list and pacing of the 1972 album.

The album frequently appears on many critics' best-of lists. It was ranked 15 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". VH1 named "Exile in Guyville" the 96th Greatest Album Of All-Time ^[4] sound and emotional honesty of Phair's lyrics were frequently cited by critics as outstanding qualities. In 2003, the album was ranked number 328 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Pitchfork Media also called "Exile In Guyville" the 30th greatest album of the 1990s.

Ultimate Nullifier

The Ultimate Nullifier is a fictional item of immense power in the Marvel Universe. The device made its first appearance in Fantastic Four volume 1, issue #50 (May 1966), in which Johnny Storm retrieves it from the home of Galactus -- as directed by Uatu the Watcher—for the Fantastic Four to employ against the threat of Galactus himself. The Nullifier appears as a small, hand-held metallic device with no apparent functionality. When first introduced in 1966 it was described as the only known weapon in the universe capable of inspiring fear in Galactus.

Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS from October 3, 1955 until 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day.

The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Keeshan was the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC.

It had a loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" (later renamed "The Captain's Place"), where the Captain (whose name came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. The show was live for its first four years, and was in black-and-white until 1968. In 1983, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour and moved it to an earlier time-slot. It was canceled by CBS at the end of 1984.

Shooting Brake

A Shooting-brake is a 2-door car body style with a squared-off rear. They generally have hatchbacks although one or a pair of side-hinged doors is also sometimes seen.

The term originated with custom built 2-door luxury estate cars altered for use by hunters and other sportsmen such as golfers and riders requiring easy access to larger storage areas than offered by the typical automobile boot.

In the early 19th century, a brake was a large carriage-frame with no body, used for breaking in young horses. By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to a large waggonette designed for country use. A "shooting brake" carried a driver and gamekeeper facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks.

An early manufacturer of shooting brakes was Albion Motors of Scotland. There are existing examples of custom-built Bentley S2, Mercedes 300, and also the Aston Martin DBS Shooting Brake.

VG, a small US coach builder, offers a model named VGD Shooting Brake.

Some modern manufacturers, such as Audi, have recently referred to some concept cars as shooting brakes. In French-speaking countries estate-bodied cars (including those with four doors) are often referred to as "break" models (note the different spelling), short for "break de chasse", or "hunting break".