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Tim Schafer

Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Broken Age, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. He is well known in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedic writing style, and has been given both a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the industry.

College and LucasArts (1989–2000)
Tim Schafer was born on July 26, 1967, in Sonoma, California, the youngest of five children. His father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse. While studying computer science at UC Berkeley, Schafer became interested in writing, and took inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut, who while a publicist at General Electric wrote short stories in the evenings. Schafer opted for a similar course, interning to help develop databases for small companies while trying to position himself for an opening in a larger corporation such as Atari and Hewlett-Packard, but he was rejected by these. He saw an offering at Lucasfilm Games, looking for programmers who could also write game dialog, which piqued his interest.

During his application process for the job, he had a somewhat disastrous phone interview with David Fox in which he mentioned being a fan of Ballblaster. Fox informed him that the Lucasfilm Games title was Ballblazer, and that only the pirated version was known as Ballblaster, but despite the misstep, Fox asked Schafer to submit his resume for further consideration. To make up for the phone interview, Schafer sent in a comic of himself applying for and getting the job at Lucasfilm Games, drawn as a text adventure.

Schafer was hired by LucasArts in 1989, and his first position was as a "scummlet", a programmer who helped to implement features and ideas proposed by the lead game developers within the LucasArts SCUMM engine. He, alongside Dave Grossman, helped to playtest Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game and implement the NES version of Maniac Mansion. Schafer and Grossman, along with two others, were taught by Ron Gilbert as part of a "SCUMM University" on how to use the engine to set up rooms and puzzles.

Later, Gilbert approached Schafer and Grossman, offering them the chance to work on his new project, which would ultimately become the pirate-themed adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island.

According to series creator Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman were responsible for about two thirds of the game's dialogue. The Secret of Monkey Island became one of the most acclaimed games of its kind. The same team created the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.

In his first lead role on a game project, Schafer co-designed (with Dave Grossman) Day of the Tentacle, a time-travel comedy adventure and the sequel to Ron Gilbert's Maniac Mansion. Schafer's first solo project, the biker adventure Full Throttle, was released in 1995. He went on to design the highly acclaimed Grim Fandango, a noir adventure game set in the Aztec afterlife featuring characters similar to the papier-mâché skeleton decorations from the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos. Grim Fandango won many awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award of 1998.

Double Fine Productions (2000–present)
Schafer worked on an unannounced PlayStation 2 action-adventure game at LucasArts, but it never entered production. Prior to his departure, a number of other developers were leaving LucasArts as the studio shifted away from adventure games. Schafer was approached by his colleagues with the idea of leaving the company to develop PlayStation 2 games on their own; Schafer was initially wary of this believing he felt secure in his position at LucasArts. He left the company in January 2000, to found Double Fine Productions, where he created the platform game Psychonauts. The game was first released on Xbox in North America on April 19, 2005. While the game was met with critical acclaim, including a Game of the Year award from Eurogamer, it sold poorly at its initial release and led to financial troubles for its publisher Majesco Entertainment. Double Fine reacquired full rights to Psychonauts by 2012, allowing them to release the game with improvements for modern systems, and in that year, Schafer stated that "We made more on Psychonauts [in 2012] than we ever have before."

On March 7, 2007, he hosted the annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He later hosted it again in 2009. To coincide, Double Fine released a free Flash minigame entitled Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, a pastiche of Schafer's LucasArts games in which the player takes on the role of Schafer backstage at the GDC Awards.

Schafer led the development of Double Fine's next game, Brütal Legend, released on October 13, 2009, after a tortuous development route due to having its original publisher Vivendi Games drop the title following its merge with Activision in 2008 to be picked up later by Electronic Arts. The game was Schafer's tribute to the music and art of heavy metal and featured voice acting from actor/musician Jack Black and cameos from rock musicians including Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford. Schafer said "For Brütal Legend, I've always seen this overlap between medieval warfare and heavy metal. You see heavy metal singers and they'll have like a brace around their arm and they'll be singing about Orcs. So let's just make a world where that all happens. That all gets put together, the heavy metal, and the rock, and the battling, actually does happen. Let's not flirt around with this; let's just do it."

During Brütal Legend development, Schafer had Double Fine's staff take two weeks away from the game's development to participate in Amnesia Fortnights once a year starting in 2007. This was an internal game jam where the company was split into four teams to make a pitchable game prototype, an idea he compared to what film director Wong Kar-Wai had used previously. After Brütal Legend release, the game had generally positive reviews but did not perform as well as expected, and Electronic Arts cancelled the preliminary work Double Fine had started on the sequel. To keep Double Fine above water financially, Schafer went back to the past Amnesia Fortnight projects and selected games they could reasonably expand into full releases. From these, four smaller games were picked up by publishers, and were the first games in Double Fine's history to have project leaders other than Schafer: Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade and Once upon a Monster. The titles helped to keep Double Fine financially stable, and Schafer has continued to implement the Amnesia Fortnight as a yearly process; most of the games that result from these are led by someone other than Schafer.

On February 1, 2012, Schafer returned to the role of director in the Kinect-based Double Fine Happy Action Theater, a game concept he devised based on Once Upon a Monster to be able to play a game with his two-year-old daughter that she would be able to enjoy as well.

In February 2012, Schafer launched a crowdfunded project for an unnamed adventure game via the crowd-sourced Kickstarter, using the placeholder title "Double Fine Adventure"; Schafer stated that he had found publishers extremely wary of an adventure in the current video game industry, and decided to turn to crowdfunding to seek player interest. The game and accompanying documentary were projected to cost US$400,000 dollars. Contributions exceeded that amount by more than three times in less than 24 hours, making it the first Kickstarter project to reach a $2 million figure, and the second most successful project on the website at the time. When the project ended on March 13, funding reached a level of $3,336,371 in Kickstarter with an additional $110,000 from premium pledges. Ultimately, the project culminated in Broken Age, released in two acts over 2014 and 2015.

Schafer and Double Fine had been able to negotiate with The Walt Disney Company, who acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, to obtain the rights to three of the titles that Schafer had directed there: Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango, by 2014. Double Fine subsequently released remastered versions of all three games over the following years.

Schafer stood in support of Anita Sarkeesian and other game developers that were being harassed by supporters of Gamergate, a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, that started in August 2014.

Schafer hosted the 2015 Game Developer’s Choice Awards on March 5; during the event one of his jokes referenced the #NotYourShield tag connected to the harassment Campaign. Gamergate supporters claimed #NotYourShield was used to demonstrate women and minorities supported their cause, but Schafer's remarks spoke to the wider assessment that the tag's use was largely composed of sockpuppets, which was later proven to be true. Following the event, Gamergate supporters targeted Schafer for harassment by claiming he had been making a joke that mocked the minorities using this hashtag.

Gamergate supporters also found other opportunities to target Schafer for harassment, including a decision to expand the scope of Broken Age after its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign raised far more than the amount asked for, and a later decision to seek additional funding for the studio by offering the game's first half for sale on early access. Since then he continues to be an occasional target of harassment from either GamerGate supporters or those who were swayed by the campaign's claims.

Schafer joined with other industry leaders with crowdfunding experience to help create the crowdfunding platform Fig in August 2015, serving on its advisory board until March 2020. Through Fig, Schafer announced the sequel Psychonauts 2 in December 2015.

In June 2019, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Double Fine as part of Xbox Game Studios. Schafer stated that while he had not been looking to be acquired, he found the opportunity in his talks with Microsoft to be promising; the acquisition would not affect Double Fine's independence and would still allow the company to publish its pending titles on its own choice of platforms, and would provide the financial security needed for Double Fine to be able to concentrate on developing a quality product. Through this support, Double Fine was able to retain several gameplay elements within Psychonauts 2, which was eventually released on August 25, 2021, to critical praise.

Influences and philosophy
In an interview at the Game Developers Conference in 2003, Schafer stated that he strives for integrating story into the gameplay, setting a creative goal of someday creating a video game without any cutscenes at all. Furthermore, he said he often sets a story in an established world:

"'[O]ften, the world is the initial inspiration for the game. One day I was listening to someone tell me their stories of spending the summer in Alaska. They had hung around this one biker bar, with these people with names like Smilin' Rick and Big Phil. And I thought, 'Wow, what a crazy world that is.' It's so apart from everybody's life, and yet it's right there, it's so mundane in a way. And that's where Full Throttle came from.'"

Recognition
The press first previewed Psychonauts at the E3 trade show in 2002, where it won the Game Critics Award for Best Original Game. An hour-long episode of Icons on the G4 Network documented the last week of the production of Psychonauts and explored Schafer's career. At the 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards, Schafer and Erik Wolpaw won the award for Best Writing for Psychonauts. Schafer and Double Fine Executive Producer & COO Caroline Esmurdoc also won the award for Best New Studio. In October 2006, Schafer received a BAFTA video game Best Screenplay award for Psychonauts. In 2012, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) organized the "Game Masters" exhibition, where Schafer was featured as the creator of Grim Fandango, among a few other visionary designers, credited for having "pushed the boundaries of game design and storytelling, introducing new genres, creating our best-loved characters and revolutionising the way we understand and play games" In 2015, he won the Vanguard Award at Bilbao's Fun & Serious Game Festival. Schafer received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards in March 2018. He received a BAFTA Fellowship as "a true pioneer of game design, who has pushed the boundaries of the medium through his extraordinary talents" at the British Academy Games Awards in April 2018. In February 2023, Schafer was recognized as "a beacon of creativity and innovation in the games industry" by being selected as a Hall of Fame Inductee at the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

title: Tim Schafer


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Petroleum jelly

Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white petrolatum, soft paraffin, or multi-hydrocarbon, CAS number 8009-03-8, is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons (with carbon numbers mainly higher than 25), originally promoted as a topical ointment for its healing properties. Vaseline has been an American brand of petroleum jelly since 1870.

After petroleum jelly became a medicine-chest staple, consumers began to use it for cosmetic purposes and for many ailments including toenail fungus, genital rashes (non-STI), nosebleeds, diaper rash, and common colds. Its folkloric medicinal value as a "cure-all" has since been limited by a better scientific understanding of appropriate and inappropriate uses. It is recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an approved over-the-counter (OTC) skin protectant and remains widely used in cosmetic skin care, where it is often loosely referred to as mineral oil.

History
Marco Polo in 1273 described the oil exportation of Baku oil by hundreds of camels and ships for burning and as an ointment for treating mange.

Native Americans discovered the use of petroleum jelly for protecting and healing skin. Sophisticated oil pits had been built as early as 1415–1450 in Western Pennsylvania. In 1859, workers operating the United States's first oil rigs noticed a paraffin-like material forming on rigs in the course of investigating malfunctions. Believing the substance hastened healing, the workers used the jelly on cuts and burns.

Robert Chesebrough, a young chemist whose previous work of distilling fuel from the oil of sperm whales had been rendered obsolete by petroleum, went to Titusville, Pennsylvania, to see what new materials had commercial potential. Chesebrough took the unrefined green-to-gold-colored "rod wax", as the drillers called it, back to his laboratory to refine it and explore potential uses. He discovered that by distilling the lighter, thinner oil products from the rod wax, he could create a light-colored gel. Chesebrough patented the process of making petroleum jelly by in 1872. The process involved vacuum distillation of the crude material followed by filtration of the still residue through bone char. Chesebrough traveled around New York demonstrating the product to encourage sales by burning his skin with acid or an open flame, then spreading the ointment on his injuries and showing his past injuries healed, he said, by his miracle product. He opened his first factory in 1870 in Brooklyn using the name Vaseline.

Physical properties
Petroleum jelly is a mixture of hydrocarbons, with a melting point that depends on the exact proportions. The melting point is typically between 40 and 70 C. It is flammable only when heated to liquid; then the fumes will light, not the liquid itself, so a wick material is needed to ignite petroleum jelly. It is colorless (or of a pale yellow color when not highly distilled), translucent, and devoid of taste and smell when pure. It does not oxidize on exposure to the air and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is insoluble in water. It is soluble in dichloromethane, chloroform, benzene, diethyl ether, carbon disulfide and turpentine. Petroleum jelly is slightly soluble in alcohol. It acts as a plasticizer on polypropylene (PP), but is compatible with most other plastics. It is a semi-solid, in that it holds its shape indefinitely like a solid, but it can be forced to take the shape of its container without breaking apart, like a liquid, though it does not flow on its own. At room temperature, it has 20.9% solid fat content. Its partially crystalline stacks of lamellar sheets, which immobilize the liquid portion, make up its microstructure. In general, only 7–13% of it is made up of high molecular weight paraffins, 30–45% of smaller paraffins, and 48–60% of small paraffins.

Depending on the specific application of petroleum jelly, it may be USP, B.P., or Ph. Eur. grade. This pertains to the processing and handling of the petroleum jelly so it is suitable for medicinal and personal-care applications.

Uses
Petroleum jelly has lubricating and coating properties, including use on dry lips and dry skin. Below are some examples of the uses of petroleum jelly.

Medical treatment
Vaseline brand First Aid Petroleum Jelly, or carbolated petroleum jelly containing phenol to give the jelly additional antibacterial effect, has been discontinued.

During World War II, a variety of petroleum jelly called red veterinary petrolatum, or Red Vet Pet for short, was often included in life raft survival kits. Acting as a sunscreen, it provides protection against ultraviolet rays.

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends keeping skin injuries moist with petroleum jelly to reduce scarring. A verified medicinal use is to protect and prevent moisture loss of the skin of a patient in the initial post-operative period following laser skin resurfacing.

Petroleum jelly is used extensively by otorhinolaryngologists—ear, nose, and throat doctors—for nasal moisture and epistaxis treatment, and to combat nasal crusting. Large studies have found petroleum jelly applied to the nose for short durations to have no significant side effects.

Historically, it was also consumed for internal use and even promoted as "Vaseline confection".

Skin and hair care
Most petroleum jelly today is used as an ingredient in skin lotions and cosmetics, providing various types of skin care and protection by minimizing friction or reducing moisture loss, or by functioning as a grooming aid (e.g., pomade). It is also used for treating dry scalp and dandruff. Although long known as just an occlusive, recent studies show that it is actually able to penetrate into the stratum corneum and helps in better absorption of other cosmetic products.

Preventing moisture loss
By reducing the loss of moisture via transepidermal water loss, petroleum jelly can prevent chapped hands and lips, and soften nail cuticles.

This property is exploited to provide heat insulation: petroleum jelly can be used to keep swimmers warm in water when training, or during channel crossings or long ocean swims. It can prevent chilling of the face due to evaporation of skin moisture during cold weather outdoor sports.

Hair grooming
In the first part of the twentieth century, petroleum jelly, either pure or as an ingredient, was also popular as a hair pomade. When used in a 50/50 mixture with pure beeswax, it makes an effective moustache wax.

Skin lubrication
Petroleum jelly can be used to reduce the friction between skin and clothing during various sport activities, for example to prevent chafing of the seat region of cyclists, or the nipples of long distance runners wearing loose T-shirts, and is commonly used in the groin area of wrestlers and footballers.

Petroleum jelly is commonly used as a personal lubricant, because it does not dry out like water-based lubricants, and has a distinctive "feel", different from that of K-Y and related methylcellulose products. However, it is not recommended for use with condoms during sexual activity, as it increases the chance of rupture. In addition, petroleum jelly is difficult for the body to break down naturally, and may cause vaginal health problems when used for intercourse.

Coating
Petroleum jelly can be used to coat corrosion-prone items such as metallic trinkets, non-stainless steel blades, and gun barrels prior to storage as it serves as an excellent and inexpensive water repellent. It is used as an environmentally friendly underwater antifouling coating for motor boats and sailing yachts. It was recommended in the Porsche owner's manual as a preservative for light alloy (alleny) anodized Fuchs wheels to protect them against corrosion from road salts and brake dust.

Finishing
It can be used to finish and protect wood, much like a mineral oil finish. It is used to condition and protect smooth leather products like bicycle saddles, boots, motorcycle clothing, and used to put a shine on patent leather shoes (when applied in a thin coat and then gently buffed off).

Lubrication
Petroleum jelly can be used to lubricate zippers and slide rules. It was also recommended by Porsche in maintenance training documentation for lubrication (after cleaning) of "Weatherstrips on Doors, Hood, Tailgate, Sun Roof". It is used in bullet lubricant compounds.

Industrial production processes
Petroleum jelly is a useful material when incorporated into candle wax formulas. It softens the overall blend, allows the candle to incorporate additional fragrance oil, and facilitates adhesion to the sidewall of the glass. Petroleum jelly is used to moisten nondrying modelling clay such as plasticine, as part of a mix of hydrocarbons including those with greater (paraffin wax) and lesser (mineral oil) molecular weights. It is used as a tack reducer additive to printing inks to reduce paper lint "picking" from uncalendered paper stocks. It can be used as a release agent for plaster molds and castings. It is used in the leather industry as a waterproofing cream.

Explosives
Petroleum jelly can be mixed with a high proportion of strong inorganic chlorates due to it acting as a plasticizer and a fuel source. An example of this is Cheddite C which consists of a ratio of 9:1, KClO3 to petroleum jelly. This mixture is unable to detonate without the use of a blasting cap. It is also used as a stabiliser in the manufacture of the propellant Cordite.

Mechanical, barrier functions
Petroleum jelly can be used to fill copper or fibre-optic cables using plastic insulation to prevent the ingress of water, see icky-pick.

Petroleum jelly can be used to coat the inner walls of terrariums to prevent animals from crawling out to escape.

A stripe of petroleum jelly can be used to prevent the spread of a liquid (retain or confine a liquid to a specific area). For example, it can be applied close to the hairline when using a home hair dye kit to prevent the hair dye from irritating or staining the skin. It is also used to prevent diaper rash.

Petroleum jelly is sometimes used to protect the terminals on batteries. However, automobiles batteries require a silicone-based battery grease because it is less likely to melt and thus offers better protection.

Surface cleansing
Petroleum jelly is used to gently clean a variety of surfaces, ranging from makeup removal from faces to tar stain removal from leather.

Pet care
Petroleum jelly is used to moisturize the paws of dogs. It is a common ingredient in hairball remedies for domestic cats.

Sports
Some goalkeepers in association football put petroleum jelly on their gloves to make them stickier.

Health
Petroleum jelly contains mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH). Many MOAH, mainly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), are considered carcinogenic. The content of both MOAH and PAH in petroleum jelly products varies. The EU limits PAH content in cosmetics to 0.005%. The risks of PAH exposure through cosmetics have not been comprehensively studied, but food products with low levels (<3%) are not considered carcinogenic (by the EU).

A 2012 scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority stated that mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) and polyaromatics were potentially carcinogenic and may present a health risk.

In 2015, German consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest analyzed cosmetics containing mineral oils, finding significant concentrations of MOAH and polyaromatics in products containing mineral oils. Vaseline products contained the most MOAH of all tested cosmetics (up to 9%). Based on the 2015 results, Stiftung Warentest warned consumers not to use Vaseline or any product that is based on mineral oils for lip care.

A study published in 2017 found levels of MOAH levels to be up to 1% in petroleum jelly and likewise to be less than 1% in petroleum jelly-based beauty products.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Petroleum jelly


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Stoke Mandeville

Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil parish, the village falls within the Aylesbury Urban Area. According to the Census Report the area of this parish is 1460 acre.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital, although named after the village, is located in Aylesbury. The hospital has the largest spinal injuries ward in Europe, and is best known internationally as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement; the Stoke Mandeville Games, instituted at the hospital by Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1948 evolved to become the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960, which were also the 9th Stoke Mandeville Games. Stoke Mandeville hospital and stadium were also joint host of the 1984 Summer Paralympics with New York, with the wheelchair elements of the Games being held at the hospital and stadium.

Stoke Mandeville Stadium, although in Aylesbury, gave its name to the Paralympic Games mascot, Mandeville, in 2012.

History
The village was originally recorded as Stoches in the Domesday Book of 1086, from the Old English word stoc meaning an outlying farm or hamlet. The suffix Mandeville was first recorded in 1284 when the manor was listed as being in the hands of the powerful Norman de Mandeville family.

The former medieval parish church, St Mary the Virgin, unusually stood alone on a damp site 1km from the old village for no apparent reason. Therefore it had been postulated that a Roman mausoleum was present on the site before the church was built. The church was condemned in the mid-20th century and was demolished in January 1966 by the Royal Engineers. In 2018 in preparation for the construction of the HS2 high-speed railway, archaeological excavations began on the site of the old church. As well as excavating the church, the process involved moving the remains of those buried in the churchyard, which dates back to 1080. In September 2021, archaeologists from LP-Archaeology, led by Rachel Wood, announced the discovery of remains on the site of the church. They unearthed a possible square foundation trench enclosed by a circular ditch containing burials and two remarkable Roman statues. In January 2022 the archaeological excavation of the site, and the discovery of significant Roman statuary and burial urns, was featured in the BBC's Digging for Britain.

The newer red brick parish church of St Mary, consecrated in July 1866 by the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, remains as the only church in the village apart from the Methodist church in Eskdale Road.

On 13 May 2000, the new Stoke Mandeville Millennium village sign was unveiled. It stands on a small brick plinth on the green outside the primary school. The sign shows colourful images on both sides of aspects of village life over the centuries.

Transport
Stoke Mandeville railway station is on the London to Aylesbury Line between Aylesbury station and Wendover station, served by Chiltern Railways, which terminates at Aylesbury Vale Parkway northbound and London Marylebone southbound. Arriva Shires & Essex number 50 bus also serves the area on Station Road, as do services 130 and X9/X90 – which stop in the centre of the village. High Speed 2 passes to the southwest of the village, but doesn't stop.

Education
Stoke Mandeville Combined School is a mixed community school which takes children from the age of four through to the age of eleven. (Year r – 6) The school has approximately 220 pupils. It also has a hearing impaired department, which currently helps up to 15 children through their school day.

title: Stoke Mandeville


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Dallas Chaparrals

The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The team moved to San Antonio, Texas, for the 1973–74 season and were renamed the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs joined the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the 1976–77 NBA season as a result of being one of four chosen ABA teams to be absorbed by the elder league following the completion of the ABA–NBA merger.

Origin
The team's founding owners, unable to agree on a name for the franchise during an early organizational meeting at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, named it for the Chaparral Club in which they were meeting at. The team drew poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas. They were lucky to attract crowds in the hundreds. During the 1970–71 season, the team became the Texas Chaparrals and an attempt was made to make the team a regional one, playing games in Fort Worth, at the Tarrant County Coliseum, as well as Lubbock, at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum, but this proved a failure and the team returned full-time to Dallas in time for the 1971–72 season, splitting their games at Moody Coliseum and Dallas Convention Center Arena.

Decline and the move
After missing the playoffs for the first time in their existence in the 1972–73 season, the team was put up for sale. After no credible offers surfaced, the team's original owners leased it to a group of 35 San Antonio businessmen, led by Angelo Drossos and Red McCombs. The deal included a three-year option to buy the team outright, after which it would revert to the Dallas group. The Drossos-McCombs group moved the team to San Antonio for the 1973–74 season and renamed them the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio embraced its new team with open arms; the Spurs surpassed the Chaparrals' entire 1972–73 attendance in only 16 games. Realizing they had a runaway hit on their hands, Drossos and McCombs tore up the lease and completed the purchase after only one year, and the franchise has stayed in San Antonio to this day.

However, Dallas would get its own NBA franchise in the form of the expansion Mavericks, who began play in the 1980-81 season.

Basketball Hall of Famers
Notes:
 * 1 Also served as head coach (1967–1970).

Season-by-season
Lost Semifinals || Dallas 3, Houston 0 New Orleans 4, Dallas 1
 * colspan="6" align=center style=";"| Dallas Chaparrals
 * 1967–68 || 46 || 32 || .580 || Won Division Semifinals
 * 1967–68 || 46 || 32 || .580 || Won Division Semifinals
 * 1967–68 || 46 || 32 || .580 || Won Division Semifinals
 * 1968–69 || 41 || 37 || .520 || Lost Division Semifinals || New Orleans 4, Dallas 3
 * 1969–70 || 45 || 39 || .530 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Dallas 2
 * colspan="6" align=center style=";"| Texas Chaparrals
 * 1970–71 || 30 || 54 || .350 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Texas 0
 * colspan="6" align=center style=";"| Dallas Chaparrals
 * 1971–72 || 42 || 42 || .500 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Dallas 0
 * 1972–73 || 28 || 56 || .330 || colspan=2|Did not qualify
 * 1970–71 || 30 || 54 || .350 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Texas 0
 * colspan="6" align=center style=";"| Dallas Chaparrals
 * 1971–72 || 42 || 42 || .500 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Dallas 0
 * 1972–73 || 28 || 56 || .330 || colspan=2|Did not qualify
 * 1971–72 || 42 || 42 || .500 || Lost Division Semifinals || Utah 4, Dallas 0
 * 1972–73 || 28 || 56 || .330 || colspan=2|Did not qualify
 * 1972–73 || 28 || 56 || .330 || colspan=2|Did not qualify

title: Dallas Chaparrals


text:
Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh

Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh is a civil parish in central Buckinghamshire, England. It is located 5 mi to the south of Aylesbury. The civil parish altogether holds the ancient ecclesiastical villages of Great Kimble, Little Kimble, Kimblewick and Marsh, and an area within Great Kimble called Smokey Row. The two separate parishes with the same name were amalgamated in 1885, but kept their separate churches, St Nicholas for Great Kimble on one part of the hillside and All Saints for Little Kimble on other side at the foot of the hill.

They fall within the Hundred of Stone, which was originally one of the Three Hundreds of Aylesbury, later amalgamated into the Aylesbury Hundred. The parishes lie between Monks Risborough and Ellesborough and, like other parishes on the north side of the Chilterns, their topography are that of long and narrow strip parishes, including a section of the scarp and extending into the vale below. In length the combined parish extends for about 4+1/4 mi from near the Bishopstone Road beyond Marsh to the far end of Pulpit Wood near the road from Great Missenden to Chequers but it is only a mile wide at the widest point. The village of Great Kimble lies about 5.5 mi south of Aylesbury and about 2.5 mi north east from Princes Risborough on the A4010 road.

The parishes of Kimble have first and foremost been a farming community for nearly two thousand years and are something of a historical interest dating back chronologically to Celtic Ages. At the summit of Pulpit Hill in Great Kimble there is a prehistoric Hillfort. When Britain was taken over by Roman occupation a Roman villa was erected in Little Kimble and near St Nicholas's church is a tumulus or a burial mound commonly known as 'Dial Hill' from the same period. After the Norman Conquest of England the parishes were most likely considered too small for a stone fort, so they would have probably kept a motte and bailey castle that later developed into a moated site for a medieval dwellinghouse.

It was here that John Hampden refused to pay his ship-money in 1635, one of the incidents which led to the English Civil War.

The majority of the land surrounding the village and some local amenities such as the pub and the petrol station were once owned by the Russel family until they were lost many years ago to excessive gambling.

Origin and Toponym of Kimble
The exact origin of the name is unknown though there have been many competing theories.

The name 'Kimble' is said to have been first established around Anglo-Saxon times when it appeared with the name 'Cyne Belle', which corresponds to two Anglo-Saxon words. 'Cyne' (meaning royal) and 'Belle' (meaning 'bell') though the exact reason for calling the place 'Cyne Belle' is not certain. The original theory was that the name 'Cyne Belle' originated from the Celtic leader Cunobeline though this has never been proved chronologically. The modern name Cymbeline originates from Shakespeare's play, his proper-spelt name at the time Cunobeline (Cunobelinus in Latin by the Romans) was King of the Celtic 'Cassivellauni' tribe from about 4 BC to about 41 AD. Cunobeline is most likely known to have owned the hillfort on Pulpit Hill. His tribe occupied part of southern Britain at that time, which was about 800 years before the Anglo-Saxon name 'Cyne Belle' first appeared, with 400 years of Roman occupation and several invasions from Europe in the intervening period.

Mawer and Stenton, who published their book on the Place Names of Buckinghamshire in 1925, thought that 'belle' could have meant a hill and suggested that the conspicuous hill at Kimble (now known as Cymbeline's Castle or Cymbeline's Hill) would have impressed itself on the minds of the first settlers and might have called it 'royal' (or given it royal status) for being the largest visible hill in the locality, or that it earned the epithet by reason of some royal burial or other unknown event. However the possibility of a 'royal burial' could have been that of Cunobeline's son Togodumnus who was a short-lived leader before the Roman Campaign, which by local legends has it, died at a battle in Kimble and might've been buried here.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, first published in 1951, interpreted the name as "Royal bell-shaped hill" and the later Oxford Companion to Names (2002) also gives the same meaning. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place Names (2004) gives the translation "Royal Bell, the bell-shaped hill" and says that it is derived from the Old English cyne + belle, probably used as a place-name, and that the reference is to the prominent Pulpit Hill crowned with its hillfort, suggesting that 'royal' referred to Great Kimble for distinction from Little Kimble.

Not all these explanations are completely convincing and there may be more to be said. The precise nature of the Royal Bell in the minds of the inhabitants of Kimble in the 9th century or earlier remains something of a mystery. It must be remembered that Pulpit Hill (or part of it) might then have been unwooded open grassland, which would have made the shape of the hill more apparent from below and the hillfort on the summit (already a thousand years old) would in that case have been clearly visible and impressive and might well have been thought to be a royal castle.

Prehistoric Hillfort on Pulpit Hill
This hillfort is in Pulpit Wood on the summit of Pulpit Hill in Great Kimble, about 3/4 of a mile south-east of St Nicholas' church. It is 813 ft above ordnance datum. It has never been excavated and its precise date is unknown, though almost certainly built during the 1st millennium B.C. Hillforts are usually attributed to the Iron Age, but there are a series of hillforts at intervals along the Chiltern ridge and that at Ivinghoe Beacon, which is not far away, has been excavated and found to have been built in the late Bronze Age.

The Pulpit Hill fort follows the contours at the top of the hill and has an area of 0.9 ha. The boundary is roughly D-shaped (nearly square) with maximum internal dimensions of 104 x. There are still double ramparts and ditches on the North and South East sides, but on the North and South West sides, face very steep slopes down the hill. The outer rampart is hardly apparent and there is no sign of an outer ditch. The builders seem to have relied on the steep natural slopes on these sides, though the original ditches may have been eroded away. The entrance is on the South East side, where the ground is level. The ramparts remain imposing after (probably) about 2,500 years. Although now mere banks of earth, they would originally been revetted with timber and boxed in, so that the faces would have been vertical.

The fort, though in a commanding location, was probably not primarily intended as a fortress in time of war. With its deep embedded location in Pulpit Wood, it is likely to have been either a hunting lodge or a place for storing agricultural produce and used to store grain and to enclose animals from farms in the district (perhaps as protection from cattle raids), as well as being a defensible site if and when the need arose.

There is also evidence that hillforts were used for ritual activities, possibly for religious purposes connected with agriculture. In similar terrain further south of Kimble appears Whiteleaf Cross which has been referenced as a phallic symbol.

Roman Villa and burial mound
At Little Kimble on the east side of the church are indications of the site of a Roman villa. Foundations, wall plaster, tesselated floors, tiles, coins and pottery have been found there over the past two hundred years, but it has never been properly excavated in modern times.

It would have been the dwelling of a substantial landowner, farming a fair-sized estate, probably surrounded by the principal farm buildings. Villas are more common on the south side of the Chilterns, but there are 7 or 8 along the north side below the scarp of which this is one. The reason for this was because back in the Mediterranean climate having a dwelling within the shadow of a hillside could be comfortable in the hot summer weather. (There was another villa built on the north side at Saunderton). Surplus produce would have been sold at Verulamium (St Albans).

A barrow or funeral mound lies on the west side of Great Kimble church of St Nicholas, adjoining the churchyard and fronting on Church Lane. It is known as Dial Hill (from the sundial formerly erected above it) and is believed to date from the Roman period, but has not been properly excavated. Although there were limited amateur investigations in 1887 and 1950. It is scheduled as an ancient monument by English Heritage and their description suggests that it might have held the body of the occupant of the Roman villa.

Norman Conquest and Domesday Book
Before the Norman conquest of England in 1066 both Great Kimble and Little Kimble were owned by royal Thegns, Sired at Great Kimble and Brictric at Little Kimble. Both were dispossessed by the new king, William of Normandy.

Great Kimble (Chenebelle in Domesday Book) was given to Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville in Normandy, who received a total of 107 lordships of land in England, 48 of them in Buckinghamshire. He passed Great Kimble to one of his own followers, sub-granting it to Hugh of Bolbec (a town in Normandy near the mouth of the Seine). Little Kimble (Chenebelle parva) went to Thurston son of Rolf, who sub-granted it to one Albert.

Great Kimble was assessed for taxation at 20 hides, while Little Kimble answered for only 10 hides. The information given in Domesday Book is summarised below. (Numbers of people refer only to the heads of families).

Motte and Bailey Castle
Behind the church at Little Kimble to the east are mounds and banks in the grass which are all that remain of a motte and bailey castle, which would have been built at the order of the Normans soon after the conquest. These timber castles were built all over England and consisted of a high mound (the Motte), surmounted by a wooden tower, with subsidiary buildings surrounded by a rampart with palisades (the Bailey). At Little Kimble there was a motte, which is still 15 feet high, and two separate baileys, but the layout is not easy to recognise on the ground.

Unlike large stone castles, which were built later at strategic points, these wooden forts were built for the local purposes of the manor rather than for military reasons. The Norman landholder, who was surrounded by hostile Englishmen, wanted a safe residence for himself.

Later Manorial history
The later manorial history of Great Kimble is complicated because various sub-manors were created (known as Whitinghams Manor (or Fenels Grove), Uptons Manor and Marshals) and they each descended in different lines. By the 17th century they had come together again and the manor of Great Kimble was held by the Hampdens of Great Hampden and later sold, in 1730, to Sarah Dowager Duchess of Marlborough. Her successors sold it in 1803 to Scrope Bernard (later Sir Scrope Bernard-Morland, a Baronet), who had been lord of the manor of Little Kimble since 1792, He held both manors until his death in 1830 and they were then sold to Robert Greenhill Russell (created a Baronet in 1831). He lived at Chequers Court and already owned the neighbouring manor of Ellesborough in succession to Sir George Russell. The memory of Scrope Bernard and Sir George Russell was preserved in the names of two public houses, the §s at Great Kimble (now closed) and the Russell Arms at Butlers Cross in Ellesborough.

St Nicholas Church, Great Kimble
This church in the 12th century probably consisted only of a nave without aisles and a small chancel. In the middle of the 13th century the north and south aisles were added with the nave arcades and the nave may have been lengthened by one bay. In the first half of the 14th century the chancel arch was added and the chancel rebuilt. The west tower and clerestorey were added later in that century. The nave was re-roofed in the 16th century.

The font (late 12th century) is a finely carved example of the local "Aylesbury" type.

The church was completely restored by J.P. Seddon in 1876–81. All the flint and stone exterior is of that date and the chancel and its aisles were rebuilt. A modern roof was built over the 16th century nave roof.

All Saints Church, Little Kimble
A church with chancel and nave existed before the mid-13th century, when the chancel was widened and the chancel arch inserted. The larger window and lowside window in the north wall of the chancel are early 14th century. The north and south porches and the doors and windows of the nave date from the early to mid 14th century.

There is a simple font of the late12th or early 13th century and in the chancel are 13th century medieval tiles of Chertsey Abbey type (possibly obtained from the ruins of Chertsey Abbey).

The interior is decorated with the remains of early 14th century wall paintings, most of which appear to have represented saints (the church is dedicated to All Saints). They include St Francis preaching to the birds and a large figure of St George, but not all can be identified. There seems to have been a doom on the west wall, where a devil is pushing two women into the mouth of Hell.

Free Church
There is a small chapel in the Tudor style, built in 1922, to the west of the railway bridge at Little Kimble.

St Faiths in Marsh was a small chapel and reading room. It was deconsecrated and became a private house in the twentieth century

Public Houses
The Swan in Great Kimble is the only surviving public house. The Prince of Wales, a thatched 1880's pub in Marsh, is in its original Grade II listed form, but currently closed. Mr Horace King was the last active landlord from 1964 to 2015.

Great Kimble previously had the Bernard Arms known for its connections to Chequers, the Prime Minister's country house nearby. It was the oldest public house in the parish, originally called the "Bear and Cross". It hosted Harold Wilson, John Major and Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President amongst other prominent visitors.

The Crown was on the Aylesbury Road, just beyond the railway bridge at Clanking. After a period as the Kimble Tandoori, it was demolished to make way for residential properties.

The Old Queens Head in Marsh suffered a similar fate.

John Hampden and Ship-money

Great Kimble has a special claim to fame as the parish where John Hampden refused to pay his ship-money in January 1635/6. King Charles I, attempting to govern the country without a parliament, needed money to improve the navy and tried to raise it by levying "ship-money" from all the counties of England. Although the writ requiring the payments was worded as imposing an obligation on each county to provide a ship, in fact the money raised went straight to the treasurer of the Navy and was seen as being a tax. It was a long established principle of the constitution that no tax could be raised by the king without the consent of parliament.

Each county had to raise a stated sum which was then divided between all the parishes in the county. Each parish appointed two Assessors to divide this liability between the individual landowners. John Hampden, who owned land in several parishes in Buckinghamshire, was assessed to £8.4s in his own parish of Great Hampden and he paid this and other assessments in full, showing that he was not objecting to the amount nor rejecting an obligation to defend his country. But in two parishes, where he owned less land, he refused payment on the point of principle and others followed his example. The two parishes where he refused payment were Great Kimble, where he was assessed to pay £1.11s.6d, and Stoke Mandeville, where his liability was £1.

The Assessors for Great Kimble were required to prepare a list of persons failing to pay and this was issued at Great Kimble on 25 January 1635/6. At the head of the list is 'John Hampden 31s.6d.' followed by thirty other names assessed for smaller amounts including the two Assessors themselves and the two parish constables responsible to collect the money.

People throughout the country were refusing payment and the king decided to select one man to be sued in a test case before all the judges in the Court of Exchequer Chamber. He selected John Hampden as the defendant in respect of the round sum of one pound assessed upon him at Stoke Mandeville. (The case did not mention the Great Kimble assessment). Judgment was given for the King but only by a majority decision of seven judges to five, which was seen throughout the country as a moral defeat for the King and was followed by more refusals to pay.

Although the case referred only to Stoke Mandeville, Thomas Carlyle made Great Kimble famous with his description of what had happened, "there, in the cold weather, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills."

Education
Griffin House School, formerly Ladymede School, an independent co-educational school, is located in Little Kimble. It has a capacity of just over 100 day students from ages 3–11.

Notable pupils of Ladymede School

 * Arabella Churchill
 * India Hicks
 * Kelly LeBrock

Notable people

 * Jerome Horsey
 * George Russell (Landowner)
 * John Hampden
 * Russel Family (owned businesses and farmland areas including the peterol station and the village pub)

Transport
The main A4010 road runs through Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh, as does the Chiltern railway line between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough. Where the main road meets the railway is Little Kimble railway station, which has been in operation since 1872, although the station buildings are now a private dwelling. There is a level crossing at Marsh.

Books referred to in the notes

 * Archaeology of the Chilterns from the Ice Age to the Norman Conquest. The; edited by Keith Branigan (Chess Valley Architectural & Historical Society. 1994)
 * Armitage, Ella S.: The Norman Castles of the British Isles (London. 1912)
 * Barker, Louise: Pulpit Hill, Great and Little Kimble, Buckinghamshire (English Heritage Archaeological Investigation Report series AI/16/2001) (English Heritage. 2001)
 * Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names based on the collections of the English Place-Name Society, ed: Victor Watts (Cambridge University Press. 2004)
 * Carlyle, Thomas: The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell (London. 1904 edition, edited by S.C.Lomas) (originally published 1845)
 * Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, ed: Eilert Ekwal (Oxford University Press. 1951)
 * Domesday Book vol 13 Buckinghamshire. Text & translation edited by John Morris (Phillimore, Chichester. 1978)
 * Forde-Johnstone, James: Hillforts of the Iron Age in England & Wales. A survey of the surface evidence (Liverpool U.P. 1976)
 * Lipscomb, George: The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (2 volumes. London. 1847)
 * Mawer, A. and Stenton, F.M: The Place Names of Buckinghamshire (Cambridge, 1925)
 * Nugent, Lord: Some Memorials of John Hampden, his party and his times. 2 volumes (London. 1832)
 * Oxford Companion to Names, ed:, Patrick Hanks, Flavia Hodges, A. D. Mills and Adrian Room (Oxford University Press. 2002)
 * Pevsner, Nikolaus & Elizabeth Williamson: Buckinghamshire (The Buildings of England – Penguin Books. 2nd edition. 1994)
 * RCHMB = Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England): An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire, Volume 1 (1912)
 * Russell, Conrad: Hampden, John (1595–1643) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 24, pp. 975–984 (and in Online edition. 2008)
 * VHCB = Victoria History of the County of Buckingham, Volume 2, ed: William Page F.S.A. (1908)

title: Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh


text:
New York/New Jersey Hitmen

The New York/New Jersey Hitmen were an American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Hitmen were the members of the Eastern Division of the XFL. The team played their home games in Giants Stadium of the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

History
The team's general manager was former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, and New Jersey native, Drew Pearson.

The Hitmen were part of the Eastern Division with the Birmingham Thunderbolts, Orlando Rage and Chicago Enforcers. They finished in 3rd place with a 4-6 record. The head coach was former NFL assistant Rusty Tillman, who was not a fan of the league's gimmicks or personalities – specifically commentator Jesse Ventura, who called him "Gutless Rusty" on a regular basis, as he felt that Tillman's coaching style was too timid. Tillman, ever the professional, brushed off the jabs by Ventura and refused to respond. In the end, Ventura's attempts to goad him failed.

The Hitmen were one of the teams to play in the XFL's inaugural game. Tens of millions of viewers watched the Hitmen, who displayed a stunning lack of competence against the Las Vegas Outlaws in the contest (including a particularly ugly missed field goal and numerous miscues from starting quarterback and New York native Charles Puleri), lose 19–0. The Hitmen's poor performance in that game was a major factor in fan backlash against the league in the weeks that followed and a prime example of the league's failure to live up to expectations; the team benched Puleri in favor of Wally Richardson by Week 3 in hopes of salvaging the season.

The Hitmen's average attendance of roughly 28,000 fans per game was second-highest in the league, behind only the San Francisco Demons.

Revival
In December 2018, a revival of the XFL announced its intent to return to East Rutherford. The new team was named the New York Guardians.

Season

 * 2001 || 4 || 6 || 0 || 3rd Eastern || --
 * }
 * }

Team leaders
Rushing yards: 328, Joe Aska.

Receiving yards: 404, Kirby Dar Dar.

Passing yards: 804, Wally Richardson.

title: New York/New Jersey Hitmen


text:
Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been seen on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, the Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".

Lane made his professional theatre debut in 1978 in an off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. During this time he also briefly appeared as one half of the comedy team of Stack and Lane, until he was cast in the 1982 Broadway revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter directed by and starring George C. Scott. This led to an extensive career onstage, where he had a long friendship and fruitful collaboration with the playwright Terrence McNally which started in 1989 with the Manhattan Theater Club production of The Lisbon Traviata.

A six-time Tony Award nominee, he has won three times, for Best Actor in a Musical for Pseudolus in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996) and Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' The Producers (2001), and Best Featured Actor in a Play for Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner's Angels in America (2018). His other Tony-nominated roles were in Guys and Dolls (1992), The Nance (2013), and The Front Page (2016). Among his 25 Broadway credits are The Man Who Came To Dinner (2000), The Odd Couple (2005), Butley (2006), Waiting For Godot (2009), The Addams Family (2010), It's Only a Play (2014), Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (2019), and Pictures from Home (2023).

Lane has appeared in over 35 films, including The Lion King (1994), The Birdcage (1996), Mouse Hunt (1997), The Producers (2005), and Beau is Afraid (2023). He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the Hulu mystery comedy series Only Murders in the Building in 2022. His other Emmy-nominated roles were for Frasier, Mad About You, Modern Family, and The Good Wife. He has also appeared in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020), and The Gilded Age (2022–).

Early life and education
Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey on February 3, 1956. His father Daniel Joseph Lane was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died in 1967 from alcoholism when Lane was eleven. His mother Nora Veronica (Finnerty) was a housewife and secretary who suffered from bipolar disorder and died in 2000. He has two older brothers Daniel Jr. and Robert. Lane's parents were Catholics and all of his grandparents were Irish immigrants. He is named after his uncle, a Jesuit priest. Lane attended Catholic schools in Jersey City, including Jesuit-run St. Peter's Preparatory School, where he was voted Best Actor in 1974, and years later received the 2011 Prep Hall of Fame Professional Achievement Award.

1978–1993: Rise to prominence
Accepted to Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia on a drama scholarship, Lane was accompanied on what was supposed to be his first day there by his older brother Dan. Discovering that the scholarship would not cover enough of his expenses, he decided to leave, and work for a year to earn some money. His brother said, "I remember him saying to me, 'College is for people who don't know what they want to do.'"

Because there already was a Joseph Lane registered with Actors' Equity, he changed his name to Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the musical Guys and Dolls. He moved to New York City where, after a long struggle, his career began to take off, first with some brief success in the world of stand-up comedy with partner Patrick Stack, and later with Off-Broadway productions at Second Stage Theatre, the Roundabout Theatre, and the Manhattan Theatre Club. He made his Broadway debut in a 1982 revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter as Roland Maule (Drama Desk nomination) with George C. Scott, Kate Burton, Dana Ivey, Bette Henritze, Elizabeth Hubbard, Jim Piddock, and Christine Lahti.

His second Broadway appearance was in the 1983 musical Merlin, starring Chita Rivera and magician Doug Henning. This was followed by Wind in the Willows as Mr. Toad, Some Americans Abroad at Lincoln Center, and the national tour of Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.

Off-Broadway productions included Love (the musical version of Murray Schisgal's Luv), Measure for Measure directed by Joseph Papp in Central Park, for which he received the St. Clair Bayfield Award, The Common Pursuit, The Film Society, In a Pig's Valise, She Stoops to Conquer, The Merry Wives of Windsor and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  He also appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in The School for Scandal and John Guare's Moon Over Miami. His association with Stephen Sondheim began with the workshop reading of Assassins in 1989 where he played Samuel Byck, the would-be murderer of Richard Nixon. Lane also appeared in the television shows Miami Vice and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.

In 1991, Lane appeared with George C. Scott again in a revival of Paul Osborne's On Borrowed Time at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway. In 1992, he starred in the hit revival of Guys and Dolls, playing Nathan Detroit, the character who lent him his name, opposite Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince. For this performance, he received his first Tony nomination, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1992, he won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. His professional association with his close friend the playwright Terrence McNally, whom he met in 1987, includes roles in The Lisbon Traviata (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, and Outer Critics Circle nomination), Bad Habits, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams, which opened in 2005 (Drama Desk nomination),  The Last Mile on PBS' Great Performances, and the film version of Frankie and Johnny.

The early 1990s began a stretch of successful Broadway shows for Lane. In 1993, he portrayed Sid Caesar-like Max Prince in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor, inspired by Simon's early career writing sketches for Your Show of Shows. In 1996, he starred in the hit revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. For his performance he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1998, he appeared Off-Broadway in Jon Robin Baitz's revised 1984 comedy, Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks'.

1994–2009: Breakthrough and acclaim
In 1994, Lane voiced Timon, the meerkat, in Disney's blockbuster animated film The Lion King and reprised the role in its sequels. In 1995, Lane voiced the meerkat in the early episodes of Timon & Pumbaa. In 1995, he played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz in Concert at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT). In 1996 Lane appeared in the film The Birdcage, for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination. The film, an American remake of the classic French farce La Cage aux Folles, was directed by Mike Nichols with a screenplay by Elaine May, and starred Robin Williams, Lane, and Gene Hackman, and went on to be a big success. The Stephen Sondheim song "Little Dream" in The Birdcage was supposedly written especially for him. In 1999, he appeared with Victor Garber in the workshop of the Sondheim musical Wise Guys (later retitled Road Show). His collaboration with Sondheim would continue when Lane revised the original book for and starred in the Broadway debut of the composer's The Frogs at Lincoln Center in 2004.

Lane appeared in the 1997 dark comedy Mouse Hunt, one of the first films to come out of the newly formed DreamWorks Studios, in which he co-starred with British comedian Lee Evans and Christopher Walken. In 1999, he appeared in the Encores! concert revival of Do Re Mi at City Center. That same year he also voiced the role of Snowbell in the family film Stuart Little, opposite his Life With Mikey co-star Michael J. Fox.

He is known for his voice work in two Disney animated series, Teacher's Pet and Timon & Pumbaa, as well as George and Martha on HBO. He received Daytime Emmy Awards for his voice performances in Teacher's Pet and Timon & Pumbaa, as well as a nomination for George and Martha. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1997, and the Tony Awards (once as host for the 50th anniversary telecast, and three times as co-host, with Glenn Close and Gregory Hines; Rosie O'Donnell; and Matthew Broderick respectively). From 1998 to 1999 he starred in the NBC sitcom Encore! Encore! alongside Joan Plowright and Glenne Headly. The New York Times gave a very positive review to the show's debut, writing it possessed the "most accomplished, high-powered cast on television." Despite the positive reviews the series was cancelled. Lane also received Emmy Award nominations for his guest appearances on Frasier and Mad About You in 1995 and 1998, respectively.

Lane starred in the Roundabout revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner as Sheridan Whiteside, with Jean Smart and Harriet Harris in 2000. Charles Isherwood of Variety praised Lane's performance writing, "Nathan Lane, an actor who makes virtually every role he plays seem like a role he was born to play, is the splendidly seething, delightfully acerbic center of Jerry Zaks' splashy production of the 1939 comedy". The production was taped and shown on PBS. That same year he starred in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (2000). He also acted in the comedy Isn't She Great (2000) opposite Bette Midler, the crime drama Trixie (2000), and voiced a character in the animated science fiction film Titan A.E. (2000).

In 2001, he starred as Max Bialystock in the blockbuster musical version of Mel Brooks's The Producers. He acted alongside Matthew Broderick. Chris Jones of Variety wrote "Lane's greatest contribution, though, is this performer's innate sense of pace. He's constantly propelling the show forward and giving all this nonsense a necessary sense of urgency." Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised Lane's performance describing it as his "most delicious performance". He also complimented Lane's and Broderick's chemistry adding "Mr. Lane and Mr. Broderick, have the most dynamic stage chemistry since Natasha Richardson met Liam Neeson in Anna Christie. The role earned him his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

The following year he would go on to reprise his role as Snowbell in Stuart Little 2 (2002). He then appeared as Vincent Crummles in a film adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, for which the cast received the Ensemble Acting award from the National Board of Review. In 2003 he starred Off-Broadway in Trumbo: Red, White, and Blacklisted. In 2004, Lane revised the libretto and portrayed Dionysus in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical The Frogs which opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on Broadway. That same year he replaced Richard Dreyfuss in The Producers in the West End. Dreyfuss was let go just a week before the show's first preview at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Lane went on to win the Olivier Award as Best Actor in a Musical. His performance in the film version, opposite Broadway co-star Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom, earned him his second nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

In 2005, Lane rejoined Broderick for a successful limited run of The Odd Couple. In 2006, he took on a primarily dramatic role in a revival of Simon Gray's Butley, having played the role to great success at The Huntington Theater Company in Boston in 2003. He and Broderick received adjacent stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a joint ceremony on January 9, 2006, and were immortalized in wax as Max and Leo at Madame Tussauds Museum in New York City on January 16, 2009. In 2008, he played the President of the United States in the David Mamet political satire, November, directed by Joe Mantello. This was followed by the critically acclaimed 2009 revival of Waiting for Godot (Outer Critics Circle nomination) in which he played Estragon opposite Bill Irwin's Vladimir. He was a 2008 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. In the 2000s Lane also made guest appearances on Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Absolutely Fabulous, and 30 Rock.

2010–2019: Established actor
In 2009, Lane starred in the musical version of The Addams Family as Gomez in Chicago, a role he reprised on Broadway the following year, receiving Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations. That year he also received a Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater. Committed to starring in a revival of the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2012, Lane assumed the role of Hickey, with Brian Dennehy playing the role of Larry Slade in a production directed by the Goodman's Artistic Director, Robert Falls. Receiving rave reviews, it won six Jeff Awards, including Best Ensemble, director, and Production, and is the most successful play to date in the theater's history. From 2010 to 2019, Lane portrayed Pepper Saltzman in the ABC sitcom Modern Family for which he received three Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nominations. From 2012 to 2014 he played Clarke Hayden in the legal series The Good Wife receiving a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. In the spring of 2013, Lane returned to Broadway in The Nance, a Lincoln Center production of a new play by Douglas Carter Beane that was directed by Jack O'Brien. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised his performance writing, "Lane is masterful, finding new depths in a well-worn sad clown persona" adding, "[The production] at the very least it provides a tremendous vehicle for Lane". He went on to receive Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations and won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 2013 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. The play aired on PBS Live from Lincoln Center in 2014.

In autumn 2014, he appeared in an all-star ensemble of Terrence McNally's revised and updated It's Only a Play, with F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Rupert Grint, Megan Mullally, and Micah Stock. The show became one of the biggest hits of the season. In February 2015 he reprised the role of Hickey in the Robert Falls production of The Iceman Cometh to great acclaim at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Elizabeth Vincentelli of The New York Post wrote of his performance, "Lane, one of his generation's most brilliant comic actors...[hits] the sweet spot between pretend perkiness and self-loathing". He later returned to the Broadway run of It's Only a Play. In 2015, he received the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Monte Cristo Award for his body of work. In March 2016, he opened the play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit Off-Broadway.

Lane played F. Lee Bailey in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, the first season of American Crime Story, which premiered on the FX channel in February 2016. Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter described his performance as "understatedly Machiavellian". Emily St. Jones of Vox declared Lane as "hugely enjoyable" in the series. It received 22 Emmy nominations and went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. In fall of 2016, he returned to Broadway to rave reviews in an all-star revival of Hecht and MacArthur's The Front Page, directed by Jack O'Brien and produced by Scott Rudin. He played the ruthless editor Walter Burns opposite John Slattery as Hildy Johnson and John Goodman as Sheriff Hartman, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He also received nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. During this time he also guest starred on series such as Difficult People (2016) and The Blacklist (2018).

Following that he played Roy Cohn with Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter in the revival of Angels in America, directed by Marianne Elliott at the Lyttlelton Theatre of the National Theatre of Great Britain. Lane reprised his acclaimed portrayal on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre, and won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In March 2019, Lane starred in Taylor Mac's absurdist black comedy Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus at the Booth Theatre directed by George C. Wolfe. The play received seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Play.

2020–present
Lane played the role of Lewis Michener on Showtime's Penny Dreadful: City of Angels which premiered April 26, 2020, and ran for one season. He has a recurring role in the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. This was Lane's first Primetime Emmy Award after a record-breaking seven nominations in the guest actor categories, making him the most nominated guest actor in Emmy history, a record he still holds after receiving his eighth nomination in 2023 in the same category. He also plays the recurring role of Ward McAllister in the HBO period series, The Gilded Age, written by Julian Fellowes, which received a 2024 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series.

In 2023, Lane returned to the Broadway stage, marking his 25th Broadway show, in Pictures from Home, a play adapted from the photo memoir by Larry Sultan. Lane portrayed the father and former razor blade salesman to his son a photographer, played by Danny Burstein, who's remembering his visits with his family. Lane's wife in the play was portrayed by Zoë Wanamaker. The production was directed by Bartlett Sher and was helmed at the Studio 54 theatre. The play received mixed reviews but praise for Lane's performance with Marilyn Stasio of Variety writing, "Lane and Burstein are consummate pros, and there are considerable sparks of familial communication between the father and son they play with such warmth and understanding."

That same year Lane co-starred in Ari Aster's new A24 film, Beau Is Afraid alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Ryan and Patti LuPone. Max Ceo of Esquire praised Aster on the casting of Lane writing, "There's a palpable sense that the director had seasoned character actors such as Nathan Lane in his mind while writing. He milks every dad-ish 'My dude' the script hands him".

He co-starred in another A24 film, Dicks: The Musical, formerly known as Fucking Identical Twins, directed by Larry Charles and written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp based on their Upright Citizens Brigade musical stage show which is a twisted take on The Parent Trap. Jackson and Sharp play the twins with Lane and Megan Mullally as the parents. It also features Bowen Yang and Megan Thee Stallion. The film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews and won the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award. Kristy Puchko of Mashable wrote, "[Lane] who stole scenes earlier this year as a plucky papa in another A24 movie Beau is Afraid — gives his all, committing to bit after bit" adding "In a career of superb comedy, he's in top form here". He will also be part of the voice cast for Spellbound, a new animated film from Skydance for Netflix, as well as the Ryan Murphy miniseries, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, as Dominick Dunne.

Personal life
Lane says that when he told his mother at age 21 that he was gay, she said, "I'd rather you were dead," to which he replied, "I knew you'd understand." He then joked that "Once I got her head out of the oven, everything went fine."

Lane came out publicly in 1999 after the killing of Matthew Shepard, and has been a long-time board member of and fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He was honored with the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vito Russo Award, The Trevor Project Hero Award, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation Making A Difference Award for his work in the LGBT community in 2015.

Lane has made several critical statements against Republican Party figures. He jokingly compared Paul Ryan to the Wicked Witch of the West, due to Ryan's lack of support for Medicaid. In a 2018 interview about playing Roy Cohn in the Broadway revival of Angels in America, Lane pointed out that Donald Trump is a liar, stating: "Really, what you learn is what [Trump] learned from Roy Cohn: There are certain tactics that are very familiar, that Trump picked up from him. You know, always go on the attack. The counterattack. Hit the accuser ten times harder and deflect. Never admit defeat. And outright lying if all else fails." Lane was an active supporter of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, hosting fundraisers for the Democratic Party.

On November 17, 2015, he married his partner of 18 years, theater producer and writer Devlin Elliott. They reside in Manhattan and East Hampton, New York.

Acting credits
Lane has had an extensive career in film, television and the theatre. He has appeared in such films as The Lion King (1994), The Birdcage (1996), Mouse Hunt (1997), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), and the film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Producers (2005). He is also known for numerous guest roles including Frasier, Mad About You, 30 Rock, Absolutely Fabulous, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Blacklist and recurring roles on Modern Family and The Good Wife. He has also received critical praise for his roles as F. Lee Bailey in the limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016) and in the 2020 Showtime series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels as Det. Lewis Michener. His roles in theatre range from musical comedies, Guys and Dolls (1992), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), The Producers (2001) and The Addams Family (2010) to dramatic roles in the work of Terrence McNally, Jon Robin Baitz, and Simon Gray, as well as revivals and new plays such as The Odd Couple (2005), November (2008), Waiting for Godot (2009), The Nance (2013), It's Only a Play (2015), The Iceman Cometh (2015), The Front Page (2016), Angels in America (2018), Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (2019), and Pictures From Home (2023).

Awards and honors
Lane has received six Tony Award nominations for his work on Broadway, winning three times for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), The Producers (2001), and Angels in America (2018). Also for his work in theatre he has received seven Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Obies, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama League Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for The Nance, the Theatre World John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater, the Eugene O'Neill Monte Cristo Award, the New Dramatists Career Achievement Award, the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award, and the Laurence Olivier Award. In 2024 Lane received the Stephen Sondheim Award from the Signature Theatre Company and the Harold S. Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Drama Desk Awards.

Lane has received two Golden Globe Award nominations for The Birdcage and The Producers, the National Board of Review Award for Ensemble Acting for Nicholas Nickleby and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and for Best Performance by a Cast for The Birdcage, winning the latter. For his work on television Lane has received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work in guest starring roles on Frasier, Mad About You, Modern Family, and The Good Wife and won for Only Murders in the Building. He has received two Daytime Emmy Awards for his voice work in Timon & Pumbaa and Teacher's Pet, as well as a nomination for George and Martha for HBO. He has also received the People's Choice Award for Favorite New Actor in a Comedy and an American Comedy Award for The Birdcage and a nomination for Jeffrey.

title: Nathan Lane


text:
Talk:Languedocien dialect

Untitled
The source given here are splitters (rather than lumpers). Anyone want to argue dialect vs. language, go ahead. More on relations, how many speakers, etc. would be good. Vicki Rosenzweig

I'm confused as to the difference between this page and Occitan. Are they identical? The lede seems to imply it. Should they be combined? -- ESP 05:24 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Languedocien is a branch/dialect of Occitan, along with Provençal, Gascon and a couple of others. I'll try to fix the lede. -- Cjmnyc 06:08 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Languedocien dialect