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New Orleans Bowl

The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the game was temporarily moved to Cajun Field in Lafayette, Louisiana, and given the name New Orleans Bowl at Lafayette. Since 2006, the bowl has been sponsored by R+L Carriers and officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The game was previously sponsored by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from 2002 to 2004 and was officially called the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl.

Conference tie-ins
In 2001, the Sun Belt Conference signed a temporary contract to play against the 5th-ranked team from the Mountain West Conference. Beginning in 2002, the New Orleans Bowl established conference tie-ins with the Sun Belt and Conference USA (C-USA). The Sun Belt usually sends its conference champion to the New Orleans Bowl, but can (and has) sent the champion to what is now known as the 68 Ventures Bowl, such as Arkansas State playing in the 2013 GoDaddy.com Bowl. For the 2021 season, the New Orleans Bowl has first pick in the Sun Belt Conference.

In 2010, Ohio represented the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in the New Orleans Bowl, after the Bowl released UTEP to compete in the regional New Mexico Bowl. In 2011 and 2014, a Mountain West team replaced C-USA as the opponent to the Sun Belt representative.

History
In the 2001 inaugural game, Colorado State defeated North Texas, 45–20. Starting in 2002, the Sun Belt signed a multi-year contract with Conference USA, and the two conferences began their bowl rivalry with a North Texas defeat of then-Conference USA member Cincinnati.

Due to damage by Hurricane Katrina to the Superdome, where the game is usually played, the 2005 game was played in Lafayette, Louisiana, at Cajun Field on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and was dubbed the New Orleans Bowl at Lafayette. The game returned to the Superdome for the 2006 edition, with a new corporate sponsor in freight company R+L Carriers, renaming the game the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. That game was won by Troy, co-champions of the Sun Belt Conference, over Rice, making their first bowl appearance since the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl.

The 2011 through 2014 games were each won by the Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns by a combined score of 115–88 over four different opponents. However, the Ragin' Cajuns later had to vacate their 2011 and 2013 victories, due to major NCAA violations including ACT fraud. The Ragin' Cajuns also played in the 2016 edition of the bowl, losing to Southern Miss, and in the 2021 edition as well where they defeated Marshall.

Game results
Rankings per AP Poll prior to the game being played. Source:

(OT)

 * The 2005 game was played at Cajun Field in Lafayette, Louisiana, due to damage to the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina.
 * Louisiana-Lafayette vacated all 9 wins from 2011, including the New Orleans Bowl, and vacated 8 wins from 2013, including the New Orleans Bowl, due to major NCAA violations including ACT fraud.
 * Louisiana–Lafayette has been known simply as Louisiana since the 2017 season.

MVPs
† MVP's team did not win the game MVP's team later vacated its victory

Most appearances
Updated through the December 2023 edition (23 games, 46 total appearances).

† Excludes two vacated wins Louisiana was known as Louisiana–Lafayette prior to the 2017 season.
 * Teams with multiple appearances

Won (5): Colorado State, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Jacksonville State, Western Kentucky Lost (10): Cincinnati, East Carolina, Marshall, Nevada, Ohio, Rice, San Diego State, South Alabama, Tulane, UAB
 * Teams with a single appearance

Appearances by conference
Updated through the December 2023 edition (23 games, 46 total appearances).

Two vacated wins are excluded from the Sun Belt's win–loss record and winning percentage.

Media coverage
Five early editions of the bowl were carried on ESPN2 (2001–2003, 2006, 2007); all other editions have been broadcast by ESPN.

title: New Orleans Bowl


text:
John Dingell

John David Dingell Jr. (July 8, 1926 – February 7, 2019) was an American politician from the state of Michigan who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Dingell holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress in American history.

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dingell attended Georgetown University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1949 and a Juris Doctor in 1952. Dingell began his congressional career by succeeding his father, John Dingell Sr., as representative for MI's 15th congressional district on December 13, 1955. A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell chaired the committee from 1981 to 1995 and from 2007 to 2009. He was Dean of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2015. Dingell was instrumental in the passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act, among other laws. He also helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dingell was one of the final two World War II veterans to have served in Congress; the other was Texas Representative Ralph Hall.

Dingell announced on February 24, 2014, that he would not seek reelection to a 31st term in Congress. His wife, Debbie Dingell, successfully ran to succeed him in the 2014 election. President Barack Obama awarded Dingell the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. Dingell left office on January 3, 2015.

Early life, education, and early career
Dingell was born on July 8, 1926, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of Grace (née Bigler) and John Dingell Sr. (1894–1955). His father was the son of Polish immigrants, and his mother had Swiss and Scots-Irish ancestry. The Dingells were in Colorado in search of a cure for Dingell Sr.'s tuberculosis. The Dingell surname had been Dzięglewicz, and was Americanized by John Dingell Sr.'s father.

The family moved back to Michigan, and in 1932, Dingell Sr. was elected the first representative of Michigan's newly created 15th District. In Washington, D.C., John Jr. attended Georgetown Preparatory School and then the House Page School when he served as a page for the U.S. House of Representatives from 1938 to 1943. He was on the floor of the House when President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous speech after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1944, at the age of 18, Dingell joined the United States Army. He rose to the rank of second lieutenant and received orders to take part in the first wave of a planned invasion of Japan in November 1945; the Congressman said that President Harry S. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war saved his life.

Dingell attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1949 and a Juris Doctor in 1952. He was a lawyer in private practice, a research assistant to U.S. District Court judge Theodore Levin, a congressional employee, a forest ranger, and assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County until 1955.

Elections
In 1955, Dingell's father, John Dingell Sr., died. Dingell, a Democrat, won a special election to succeed him. He won a full term in 1956 and was re-elected 29 times, including runs in 1988 and 2006 with no Republican opponent. Dingell received less than 62% of the vote on only two occasions. In 1994 when the Republican Revolution swept the Republicans into the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1954, Dingell received 59% of the vote. In 2010 when the Republicans re-took control of the House of Representatives, Dingell received 57% of the vote. Between them, he and his father represented the southeastern Michigan area for 80 years. His district was numbered as the 15th District from 1955 to 1965, when redistricting merged it into the Dearborn-based 16th District; in the primary that year, he defeated 16th District incumbent John Lesinski Jr.

In 2002, redistricting merged Dingell's 16th District with the Washtenaw County and western Wayne County-based 13th District, represented by fellow Democratic Representative Lynn Rivers, whom Dingell also bested in the Democratic primary. The 15th District for the 109th Congress included Wayne County suburbs generally southwest of Detroit, the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas in Washtenaw County, and all of Monroe County. For many years, Dingell represented much of western Detroit itself, though Detroit's declining population and the growth of its suburbs pushed all of Detroit into the districts of fellow Democratic representatives, including John Conyers. Dingell always won re-election by double-digit margins, although the increasing conservatism of the mostly white suburbs of Detroit since the 1970s led to several serious Republican challenges in the 1990s.

Dingell announced on February 24, 2014, that he would not seek re-election to a 31st term in Congress.

Tenure
Dingell was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on December 13, 1955.

Dingell was instrumental in the passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act, among others. He also helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dingell was generally classified as a moderately liberal member of the Democratic Party. Throughout his career he was a leading congressional supporter of organized labor, social welfare measures and traditional progressive policies. At the beginning of every Congress, Dingell introduced a bill providing for a national health insurance system, the same bill that his father proposed while he was in Congress. Dingell also strongly supported Bill Clinton's managed-care proposal early in his administration. In October 1998, President Clinton began a Roosevelt Room appearance "by thanking Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Congressman Dingell for their steadfast support of Medicare and their participation in our Medicare Commission."

On some issues, though, Dingell reflected the values of his largely Catholic and working-class district. He supported the Vietnam War until 1971. While he supported all of the civil rights bills, he opposed expanding school desegregation to Detroit suburbs via mandatory busing. He took a fairly moderate position on abortion. He worked to balance clean air legislation with the need to protect manufacturing jobs. As well, in the early 1980s, he was a prominent politician who used "Japan bashing", blaming "little yellow men" for domestic automakers' misfortune, further fostering anti-Japanese racism in Detroit and contributing to the environment that led to the Killing of Vincent Chin, an American man of Chinese descent killed in the Detroit suburbs by two autoworkers who mistakenly thought he was Japanese.

An avid sportsman and hunter, he strongly opposed gun control, and was a former board member of the National Rifle Association of America. For many years, Dingell received an A+ rating from the NRA. Dingell helped make firearms exempt from the 1972 Consumer Product Safety Act so that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had no authority to recall defective guns. Dingell's wife, Representative Debbie Dingell, introduced legislation in 2018 to remove this exemption from the law.

Michael Barone wrote of Dingell in 2002:

"There is something grand about the range of Dingell's experience and about his adherence to his philosophy over a very long career. He is an old-fashioned social Democrat who knows that most voters don't agree with his goals of a single-payer national health insurance plan but presses forward toward that goal as far as he can. 'It's hard to believe that there was once no Social Security or Medicare,' he says. 'The Dingell family helped change that. My father worked on Social Security and for national health insurance, and I sat in the chair and presided over the House as Medicare passed (in 1965). I went with Lyndon Johnson for the signing of Medicare at the Harry S. Truman Library, and I have successfully fought efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare.' Whether you agree or disagree, the social Democratic tradition is one of the great traditions in our history, and John Dingell has fought for it for a very long time."

Dingell was Dean of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2015.

On December 15, 2005, on the floor of the House, Dingell read a poem sharply critical of, among other things, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, and the so-called "War on Christmas". Along with John Conyers, in April 2006, Dingell brought an action against George W. Bush and others alleging violations of the Constitution in the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The case (Conyers v. Bush) was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing.

After winning re-election in 2008 for his 28th consecutive term, Dingell surpassed the record for having the longest tenure in the history of the House of Representatives on February 11, 2009. In honor of the record, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm declared February 11, 2009, to be John Dingell Day.

Dingell was one of the final two World War II veterans to have served in Congress; the other was Texas Representative Ralph Hall.

Dingell left office on January 3, 2015. As of that date, Dingell had served with 2,453 different U.S. Representatives in his career. Dingell served in Congress for more than 59 years, retiring as the longest-tenured member of Congress in the history of the United States. His wife, Debbie Dingell, successfully ran to succeed him in the 2014 election.

Energy and Commerce chairman
A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell chaired the committee from 1981 to 1995 and from 2007 to 2009.

Dingell was well known for his approach to congressional oversight of the executive branch. He subpoenaed numerous government officials to testify before the committee and grilled them for hours. He insisted that all who testified before his committee do so under oath, thus exposing them to perjury charges if they did not tell the truth. He and his committee uncovered numerous instances of corruption and waste, such as the use of $600 toilet seats at the Pentagon. He also claimed that the committee's work led to resignations of many Environmental Protection Agency officials, and uncovered information that led to legal proceedings that sent many Food and Drug Administration officials to jail.

After serving as the committee's ranking Democratic member for 12 years, Dingell regained the chairmanship in 2007. According to Newsweek, he had wanted to investigate the George W. Bush Administration's handling of port security, the Medicare prescription drug program and Dick Cheney's energy task force. Time magazine has stated that he had intended to oversee legislation that addresses global warming and climate change caused by carbon emissions from automobiles, energy companies and industry.

Dingell lost the chairmanship for the 111th Congress to Congressman Henry Waxman of California in a Democratic caucus meeting on November 20, 2008. Waxman mounted a challenge against Dingell on grounds that Dingell was stalling certain environmental legislation, which would have tightened vehicle emissions standards—something that could be detrimental to the Big Three automobile manufacturers that constitute a major source of employment in Dingell's district. Dingell was given the title of Chairman Emeritus in a token of appreciation of his years of service on the committee, and a portrait of him is in the House collection.

Baltimore case
In the 1980s, Dingell led a series of congressional hearings to pursue alleged scientific fraud by Thereza Imanishi-Kari and Nobel Prize-winner David Baltimore. The National Institutes of Health's fraud unit, then called the Office of Scientific Integrity, charged Imanishi-Kari in 1991 of falsifying data and recommended that she be barred from receiving research grants for 10 years. She appealed the decision and the Department of Health and Human Services appeals panel dismissed the charges against Imanishi-Kari and cleared her to receive grants. The findings and negative publicity surrounding them made David Baltimore decide to resign as president of Rockefeller University (after Imanishi-Kari was cleared he became president of the California Institute of Technology). The story of the case is described in Daniel Kevles' 1998 book The Baltimore Case, in a chapter of Horace Freeland Judson's 2004 book The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science, and in a 1993 study by Serge Lang, updated and reprinted in his book Challenges.

Robert Gallo claims
From 1991 to 1995 Dingell's staff investigated claims that Robert Gallo had used samples supplied to him by Luc Montagnier to fraudulently claim to have discovered the AIDS virus. The report concluded that Gallo had engaged in fraud and that the NIH covered up his misappropriation of work by the French team at the Institut Pasteur. The report contended that:

"The real inventors of the HIV blood test were the (Pasteur) scientists. Even more important, the CDC data, together with the extensive data already accumulated by the (Pasteur) scientists, showed that the (Pasteur) virus—discovered long before the putative LTCB virus—was the cause of AIDS."

The report was never formally published as a subcommittee report because of the 1995 change in control of the House from Democratic to Republican. Other accusations against Gallo were dropped, and while Montagnier's group is considered to be the first to isolate the virus, Gallo's has been recognized as first to prove that this virus was the cause of AIDS.

Environment
Dingell was a member of the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.

Dingell opposed raising mandatory automobile fuel efficiency standards, which he helped to write in the 1970s. Instead, he indicated that he intended to pursue a regulatory structure that takes greenhouse gas emissions and oil consumption into account. In a July 2007 interview with The Hill, he said "I have made it very plain that I intend to see to it that CAFE is increased" and pointed out that his plan would have Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards increased tantamount to those in the Senate bill recently passed. In November 2007, working with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Dingell helped draft an energy bill that would mandate 40% increase in fuel efficiency standards.

In June 1999, Dingell released a report in which the General Accounting Office cited concurrent design and construction was the reason for production of high levels of explosive benzene gas. In a statement, Dingell asserted that "mismanagement by the United States Department of Energy and Westinghouse led to an extraordinary, and pathetic, waste of taxpayer money. All we have to show for $500 million is a 20-year delay and the opportunity to risk another $1 billion to make a problematic process work."

In July 2007, Dingell indicated he planned to introduce a new tax on carbon usage in order to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. The policy has been criticized by some, as polling numbers show voters may be unwilling to pay for the changes. A Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that vehicle emissions standards that he supported will not yield any substantial greenhouse gas emissions savings.

As one of his final votes, Dingell voted against the Keystone XL pipeline on November 13, 2014.

Private sector ties
Dingell was closely tied to the automotive industry, as he represented Metro Detroit, where the Big Three automakers of General Motors, Chrysler, and the Ford Motor Company, are headquartered. Dingell encouraged the companies to improve fuel efficiency. During the automotive industry crisis of 2008–10, Dingell advocated for the bailout the companies received. During the electoral span of 1989 through 2006, intermediaries for the aforementioned corporations contributed more than $600,000 to Dingell's campaigns. Dingell also held an unknown quantity, more than $1 million in 2005, in assets through General Motors stock options and savings-stock purchase programs; his wife, Debbie Dingell, is a descendant of one of the Fisher brothers, founders of Fisher Body, a constituent part of General Motors. She worked as a lobbyist for the corporation until they married. She then moved to an administrative position there.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Energy and Commerce
 * Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade
 * Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
 * Subcommittee on Energy and Power (ex officio)
 * Subcommittee on Environment and Economy
 * Subcommittee on Health
 * Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (ex officio)

Personal life
Dingell had four children from his first marriage to Helen Henebry, a flight attendant. They married in 1952 and divorced in 1972. Dingell's son, Christopher D. Dingell, served in the Michigan State Senate and has served as a judge on the Michigan Third Circuit Court.

In 1981, Dingell married Deborah "Debbie" Insley, who was 27 years his junior. In November 2014, Debbie Dingell won the election to succeed her husband as U.S. Representative for Michigan's 12th congressional district. She took office in January 2015. She is the first non-widowed woman to immediately succeed her husband in Congress.

Dingell had surgery in 2014 to correct an abnormal heart rhythm, and the next year had surgery to install a pacemaker. He was hospitalized after a fall in 2017. On September 17, 2018, Dingell suffered an apparent heart attack and was hospitalized at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

In his later years, Dingell became an active Twitter user, and earned over 250,000 followers for his witty and sarcastic posts attacking Republicans, particularly Donald Trump. He earned the nickname "the Dean of Twitter". In 2018, Dingell was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had metastasized. He chose to forgo treatment, and entered hospice care. Dingell died on February 7, 2019, at his home in Dearborn, Michigan. On the day of his death, Dingell authored a column discussing his "last words" for the country; the column was published in The Washington Post.

Legacy
Dingell received the Walter P. Reuther Humanitarian Award from Wayne State University in 2006.

President Barack Obama awarded Dingell the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, named in his honor and signed into law on March 12, 2019, permanently reauthorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund and established multiple areas of land protection.

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

title: John Dingell


text:
Alt.sex

alt.sex is a Usenet newsgroup – a discussion group within the Usenet network – relating to human sexual activity. It was popular in the 1990s. An October 1993 survey by Brian Reid reported an estimated worldwide readership for the alt.sex newsgroup of 3.3 million, that being 8% of the total Usenet readership, with 67% of all Usenet "nodes" (news servers users log in to access the system) carrying the group. At that time, alt.sex had an estimated traffic of 2,300 messages per month.

The newsgroup hierarchy below alt.sex comprises several newsgroups, including alt.sex.stories (which is the biggest newsgroup in the hierarchy after alt.sex itself), alt.sex.pictures, alt.sex.blondes, alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.bestiality, and alt.sex.rape. The former four newsgroups generally feature text and images similar to the type that can be found in mainstream adult magazines, such as Playboy or Penthouse. The latter three newsgroups exemplify a set of sub-groups that deals in more "extreme" or less socially accepted topics. Other sub-groups include some with intentionally humorous names, such as alt.sex.aluminum.baseball.bat, alt.sex.boredom, and alt.sex.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape. There are more newsgroups on the less mainstream topics or sub-cultures, although as of 1998 they were generally far lower in traffic than those that deal in the more mainstream sexual behaviours. In a 1993 analysis of the alt.sex hierarchy, Maureen Furniss concluded that "sexually oriented boards act as a kind of support group for people who post notices to them, especially individuals whose sexual orientations are very marginalized (those who practice sadomasochism or bestiality, for example)."

The first usenet BDSM newsgroup, alt.sex.bondage, was created in 1991. The term BDSM itself was first recorded on a post in alt.sex.bondage in 1991.

The University of Waterloo in 1994 ceased carrying alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex-stories, and alt.sex-stories.d upon the recommendation of its ethics committee, which had expressed concerns that the content of those newsgroups may have violated the Canadian Criminal Code.

alt.sex.cancel is a Usenet newsgroup set up specifically to help combat newsgroup spam cross-posted to the entire alt.sex hierarchy. The newsgroup is a simple "spamtrap" – a trap used to collect samples of unsolicited messages that can then be acted on by an automated anti-spam system. According to its charter, any message posted to alt.sex.cancel may be cancelled automatically.

The well-known mass-mailing macro computer virus called the "Melissa virus" was originally distributed via the alt.sex newsgroup. It was hidden inside a list purporting to contain passwords to pornographic websites. The messages containing the virus were posted with message headers claiming that the post had been written using the America Online (AOL) account of Scott Steinmetz, whose username was "skyroket". Kizza reports that the headers on the post were probably forged by Melissa's author, David L. Smith.

title: Alt.sex


text:
Museum of the Order of St John

The Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, London, tells the story of the Venerable Order of Saint John from its roots as a pan-European Order of Hospitaller Knights founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades, to its present commitment to providing first aid and care in the community through the St John Ambulance Brigade and running an Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem. The museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine.

Building
The Museum is based in St John's Gate, Clerkenwell, a 16th-century gatehouse in London, England that once formed the entrance to the Priory of Clerkenwell. This dates back to the 11th century and was once the English headquarters of the Order of St John. From here Hospitaller Knights went out to the Holy Land and later to Cyprus, Rhodes and Malta. They served in hospitals treating pilgrims, and fought to defend Christian interests in the Holy Land and the Mediterranean.

Tours take visitors to the oldest surviving part of the Medieval Priory, the Norman crypt, as well as the 16th century church above.

They then return to the Gate House, which after the Dissolution of the monasteries was put to many uses, with Shakespeare, Dr Johnson, Hogarth and Dickens all taking part in its story. The Gate was eventually bought back by the Order in the late nineteenth century, and is now beautifully decorated with heraldry, stained glass, gilding and carving to create glowing interiors, designed by John Oldrid Scott. Here visitors can see the fine furniture and painting collections.

The Museum in the Gate House tells the story of the history of the Order of St John and St John Ambulance. The Museum completed a renovation in November 2010. It was supported by funders such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and was designed by leading architects Donald Insall Associates, who had previously written the building's Conservation Plan. Exhibition design company Metaphor undertook the internal exhibit design. This redevelopment has given the Order's internationally significant collection the context it needs, including updating interpretative techniques, bringing more of the collections out of storage, and improving conservation conditions.

Order of St John collections
The collections of artefacts from the history of the Order of St John are extremely varied, covering all aspects of the history of an Order founded in the eleventh century and operating in most European countries.

There are archaeological finds, architectural fragments and social history material relating to the Priory site; seals and numismatics, including an important collection of Crusader coins; arms and armour, mainly European plate armour but also an example of Turkish Ottoman mail; drug jars, mortars and weights from the Hospitallers' pharmacy in Malta; decorative arts (portrait medals, ceramics, glass, silver, furniture, jewellery, insignia, textiles, ecclesiastical vestments) reflecting the tastes of the European aristocrats who joined the Order and became significant patrons of the arts.

The painting collection includes religious art, particularly images of patron saint of the Order, St John the Baptist, portraits of Grand Masters, Knights and clergy, sea and landscapes, depicting naval battles and views of Malta; prints and drawings include portraits of the Knights, topographical views and maps showing the famous fortifications on their island homes, as well as prints of the English Priory and the surrounding area of Clerkenwell.

St John Ambulance collections
St John Ambulance has a history spanning over 125 years and covering over 40 countries worldwide. It was founded by the British Order of St John and inspired by the medical traditions of the Hospitallers. Its story is told in a new exhibition.

Equipment ranges in size from examples of early ambulance transport to a Victorian nurse's miniature first aid kit. There are training books written in numerous languages and first aid information comes in many forms, from cigarette cards to pop-up books and even on bandages.

Uniform includes ceremonial attire, a 1922 cadet uniform and A.R.P gas suit, and posters and advertisements feature uniform of many periods. The collection of medals, trophies and decorative certificates give a real sense of members' achievements and include one certificate made by a forger inside a prisoner-of-war camp. Banners and textiles commemorate special St John occasions.

Personal memorabilia tell what it was like to belong to the movement in different times and places. Nurse Nesbit's cartoons record the lighter moments of serving in a First World War hospital. In an album, Lyn Brown put down her reactions as one of the first people to enter the newly liberated Belsen camp in 1945.

The film archive provides a glimpse into SJA's involvement with the film industry and a huge photographic collection gives insights into individual lives and social change, as well as the changing organisation. Oral histories, particularly strong on the Second World War, also cover topics as diverse as first aid in the depression of the 1930s, setting up a division in Zanzibar in the 1950s and the work of a welfare officer in the Gulf War of 1991.

Opening hours

 * Monday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm
 * Tours - Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, 11am and 2.30pm

Getting there

 * by train - Farringdon station (Tube and Thameslink trains) is the nearest station, 5 minutes walk from the museum.
 * by car - Pay and Display parking spaces are available in St John's Square. Parking restrictions apply Mon-Fri 9am - 6.30pm, Sat 9am - 1.30pm
 * by bus - Farringdon Road (63), Clerkenwell Road (55, 243)

title: Museum of the Order of St John


text:
WPA

WPA may refer to:

Computing

 * Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
 * Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
 * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
 * Windows Performance Analyzer

Organizations

 * Wisconsin Philosophical Association
 * World Pool-Billiard Association
 * World Psychiatric Association

United States

 * Works Progress Administration or Work Projects Administration, a former American New Deal agency
 * Washington Project for the Arts
 * Western Psychological Association
 * Women's Prison Association

United States

 * Whistleblower Protection Act, a law protecting certain whistleblowers in the USA
 * War Powers Resolution or War Powers Act, a limitation of presidential powers
 * War Powers Act of 1941, the authorization for United States entry into World War 2

Other

 * WPA, a 2009 album by Works Progress Administration (band)
 * Win probability added, a baseball statistic
 * Water pinch analysis
 * Woomera Prohibited Area, a tract of land in South Australia covering more than 120,000 sq km of arid 'outback'
 * Waterfowl production area, land protected through easements or purchase to conserve habitat for waterfowl in the United States
 * An abbreviation for Western Pennsylvania

title: WPA


text:
Lemon-rumped warbler

The lemon-rumped warbler or pale-rumped warbler (Phylloscopus chloronotus) is a species of Old World warbler in the family Phylloscopidae. It is found from the western Himalayas to central China.

It is morphologically identical to the Sichuan Leaf Warbler, but differs in vocalizations.

title: Lemon-rumped warbler


text:
Talk:Terrace

In this case, "terrace" has a number of definitions, and it is the *name* of a town. What is the convention for dealing with this assortment of things? I think that it is not right to put "Terrace" (the name) in the list of things terrace *means*. Maybe changing "means" to "refers to" would work... but perhaps there is already a method for dealing with these types of situations. Would moving Terrace (the name) above the list, and changing "Terrace can mean several different things" to "Terrace also means several different things" be better? Please advise. --Alexbatko
 * I like 'refer to'.. it works

title: Talk:Terrace


text:
Butch Byrd

George Edward "Butch" Byrd (born September 20, 1941) is an American former football cornerback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Boston University Terriers and was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fourth round of the 1964 AFL draft.

Professional career
Byrd was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fourth round, with the 25th overall pick, of the 1964 American Football League draft and immediately made an impact in the defensive backfield, with seven interceptions. Such was his impact as a quick athlete that Lance Alworth (star flanker of the San Diego Chargers) stated his preference to go up against Byrd when it came to pass plays despite the Chargers trying to dissuade him, with Alworth stating: "I want to play against the best". Byrd sometimes also played as a punt returner, scoring a punt return touchdown in 1966. He was a five-time AFL All-Star and he was selected for the AFL All-Time Second-team. When he retired in 1971, he was one of thirty players with 40 interceptions (which resulted in him being tied for 15th); in the half-century since he retired, over thirty more players have joined him.

Franchise records
Byrd holds the Bills career records for interceptions with 40, interception return yards with 666 and interceptions returned for touchdowns with 5.

After football
After his career ended, he worked in management for the Chrysler Corporation and Polaroid, working 22 years with the latter company.

Honors
Byrd was inducted into the Boston University Hall of Fame, the LaSalle Institute Athletic Hall of Fame and the Albany Capital District Hall of Fame, all in 1980. He also was named to the All-Time Buffalo Bills Silver Anniversary Team in 1984, and in 2008 was selected to the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Distinguished Service Award in 1994. Despite his records, he has not been named a member of the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame nor the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which has received notice from columnists in the Buffalo media.

title: Butch Byrd


text:
Sde Boker

Sde Boker (שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר) is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population of.

History
A large agricultural farm or small village existed here in the early Islamic period, from the late 7th century to the early 9th century. Remains of dozens of structures exist, including a mosque near which hundreds of Arabic inscriptions were found.

The modern kibbutz was established on 15 May 1952 by former soldiers, including Yehoshua Cohen who assassinated United Nations envoys Folke Bernadotte and André Sérot in 1948. In 1953 Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned from office and moved to the kibbutz. Although he returned to politics in 1955, he continued to live in the kibbutz until his death in 1973, when he was buried nearby at Midreshet Ben-Gurion alongside his wife Paula Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion moved to the kibbutz inspired by his vision of cultivating the Negev desert and building up its surrounding towns such as Yeruham and Dimona. He believed that eventually the Negev would be home to many Jews who would move to Israel, and he felt that Sde Boker was a trailblazer and example for what should follow. His home was later turned into a museum.

In his official writings Ben-Gurion often mused about his efforts at rejuvenating the Negev:

"The desert provides us with the best opportunity to begin again. This is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. For it is in mastering nature that man learns to control himself. It is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent the Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past. It must earn this—which is no small task—a right that can only be acquired in the desert.

When I looked out my window today and saw a tree standing before me, the sight awoke in me a greater sense of beauty and personal satisfaction than all the forests that I have crossed in Switzerland and Scandinavia. For we planted each tree in this place and watered them with the water we provided at the cost of numerous efforts. Why does a mother love her children so? Because they are her creation. Why does the Jew feel an affinity with Israel? Because everything here must still be accomplished. It depends only on him to participate in this privileged act of creation. The trees at Sde Boker speak to me differently than do the trees planted elsewhere. Not only because I participated in their planting and in their maintenance, but also because they are a gift of man to nature and a gift of the Jews to the compost of their culture."

Sde Boker is also well known for its Bedouin tents. In 2014, it was host to the Midburn festival.

On March 27, 2022, Sde Boker was the site of "the Negev Summit" of foreign ministers from the United States, Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

Climate
Sde Boker has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), with cool winters and hot summers.

title: Sde Boker


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Talk:Museum of the Order of St John

I have copyright!!!!!

I thought you did. I've put something to that effect on the votes for deletion page. It would help us if you said who you were when you submitted the page - I guess that you are the Museum as there have been a series of these today. We have a lot of people copying and pasting information from elsewhere on the internet so we are careful. Secretlondon 14:55, Dec 3, 2003 (UTC)

I am from the museum - thanks for your help. I assume I can go back and carry on editing as before now?

 * Yes, please do. - Hephaestos

(Interested parties can note the IP traces directly to St John's Ambulance ). - Hephaestos 15:04, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Moved from article, as how to get there is not part of an encyclopedia article

Getting there:

 * by train: Farringdon (Tube and Thameslink trains) is the nearest station, 5 minutes walk from the museum.
 * by car: Pay and Display parking spaces are available in St. John's Square. Parking restrictions apply Mon-Fri 9am - 6.30pm. Sat 9am - 1.30pm.
 * by bus: Farringdon Road (63), Clerkenwell Road (55, 243)

Opening hours

 * Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm
 * Tour times are Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at 11am and 2.30pm

title: Talk:Museum of the Order of St John


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Larry Felser

Larry Felser (April 5, 1933 – April 24, 2013) was a sports columnist and writer for the Buffalo Courier-Express and later, The Buffalo Evening News, where he was a football beat writer, a columnist, and rose to the position of sports editor. Felser also wrote a column for The Sporting News.

Felser was born in Buffalo, New York. He covered every one of the first 37 Super Bowls, until his retirement, and was an impassioned advocate for American Football League players nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for which he served on the board of selectors. In 1984, he was the youngest writer ever to receive the Dick McCann Memorial Award for long and distinguished reporting of Professional Football. In 2000, he was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

Felser died in Amherst, New York, aged 80. Felser and NFL Films head Steven Sabol were among only a few people to have been present at every Super Bowl game at the time of their respective deaths.

title: Larry Felser


text: Talk:Bruce Dickinson

title: Talk:Bruce Dickinson


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Spectral radius

In mathematics, the spectral radius of a square matrix is the maximum of the absolute values of its eigenvalues. More generally, the spectral radius of a bounded linear operator is the supremum of the absolute values of the elements of its spectrum. The spectral radius is often denoted by $ρ(·)$.

Matrices
Let $λ_{1}, ..., λ_{n}$ be the eigenvalues of a matrix $A ∈ C^{n×n}$. The spectral radius of $A$ is defined as

 * $$\rho(A) = \max \left \{ |\lambda_1|, \dotsc, |\lambda_n| \right \}.$$

The spectral radius can be thought of as an infimum of all norms of a matrix. Indeed, on the one hand, $$ \rho(A) \leqslant \|A\| $$ for every natural matrix norm $$\|\cdot\|$$; and on the other hand, Gelfand's formula states that $$ \rho(A) = \lim_{k\to\infty} \|A^k\|^{1/k} $$. Both of these results are shown below.

However, the spectral radius does not necessarily satisfy $$ \|A\mathbf{v}\| \leqslant \rho(A) \|\mathbf{v}\| $$ for arbitrary vectors $$ \mathbf{v} \in \mathbb{C}^n $$. To see why, let $$r > 1$$ be arbitrary and consider the matrix
 * $$ C_r = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & r^{-1} \\ r & 0 \end{pmatrix} $$.

The characteristic polynomial of $$ C_r $$ is $$ \lambda^2 - 1 $$, so its eigenvalues are $$\{-1, 1\}$$ and thus $$\rho(C_r) = 1$$. However, $$C_r \mathbf{e}_1 = r \mathbf{e}_2$$. As a result,
 * $$ \| C_r \mathbf{e}_1 \| = r > 1 = \rho(C_r) \|\mathbf{e}_1\|. $$

As an illustration of Gelfand's formula, note that $$\|C_r^k\|^{1/k} \to 1$$ as $$k \to \infty$$, since $$C_r^k = I$$ if $$k$$ is even and $$C_r^k = C_r$$ if $$k$$ is odd.

A special case in which $$ \|A\mathbf{v}\| \leqslant \rho(A) \|\mathbf{v}\| $$ for all $$ \mathbf{v} \in \mathbb{C}^n $$ is when $$A$$ is a Hermitian matrix and $$ \|\cdot\| $$ is the Euclidean norm. This is because any Hermitian Matrix is diagonalizable by a unitary matrix, and unitary matrices preserve vector length. As a result,
 * $$ \|A\mathbf{v}\| = \|U^*DU\mathbf{v}\| = \|DU\mathbf{v}\| \leqslant \rho(A) \|U\mathbf{v}\| = \rho(A) \|\mathbf{v}\| .$$

Bounded linear operators
In the context of a bounded linear operator $A$ on a Banach space, the eigenvalues need to be replaced with the elements of the spectrum of the operator, i.e. the values $$\lambda$$ for which $$A - \lambda I$$ is not bijective. We denote the spectrum by
 * $$\sigma(A) = \left\{ \lambda \in \Complex: A - \lambda I \; \text{is not bijective} \right\}$$

The spectral radius is then defined as the supremum of the magnitudes of the elements of the spectrum:
 * $$\rho(A) = \sup_{\lambda \in \sigma(A)} |\lambda|$$

Gelfand's formula, also known as the spectral radius formula, also holds for bounded linear operators: letting $$\|\cdot\|$$ denote the operator norm, we have
 * $$\rho(A) = \lim_{k \to \infty}\|A^k\|^{\frac{1}{k}}=\inf_{k\in\mathbb{N}^*} \|A^k\|^{\frac{1}{k}}.$$

A bounded operator (on a complex Hilbert space) is called a spectraloid operator if its spectral radius coincides with its numerical radius. An example of such an operator is a normal operator.

Graphs
The spectral radius of a finite graph is defined to be the spectral radius of its adjacency matrix.

This definition extends to the case of infinite graphs with bounded degrees of vertices (i.e. there exists some real number $C$ such that the degree of every vertex of the graph is smaller than $C$). In this case, for the graph $G$ define:

 * $$ \ell^2(G) = \left \{ f : V(G) \to \mathbf{R} \ : \ \sum\nolimits_{v \in V(G)} \left \|f(v)^2 \right \| < \infty \right \}.$$

Let $γ$ be the adjacency operator of $G$:

 * $$ \begin{cases} \gamma : \ell^2(G) \to \ell^2(G) \\ (\gamma f)(v) = \sum_{(u,v) \in E(G)} f(u) \end{cases}$$

The spectral radius of $G$ is defined to be the spectral radius of the bounded linear operator $γ$.

Upper bounds on the spectral radius of a matrix
The following proposition gives simple yet useful upper bounds on the spectral radius of a matrix.

Proposition. Let $A ∈ C^{n×n}$ with spectral radius $ρ(A)$ and a consistent matrix norm $⋅$. Then for each integer $$k \geqslant 1$$:

 * $$\rho(A)\leq \|A^k\|^{\frac{1}{k}}.$$

Proof

Let $(v, λ)$ be an eigenvector-eigenvalue pair for a matrix A. By the sub-multiplicativity of the matrix norm, we get:

 * $$|\lambda|^k\|\mathbf{v}\| = \|\lambda^k \mathbf{v}\| = \|A^k \mathbf{v}\| \leq \|A^k\|\cdot\|\mathbf{v}\|.$$

Since $v ≠ 0$, we have

 * $$|\lambda|^k \leq \|A^k\|$$

and therefore

 * $$\rho(A)\leq \|A^k\|^{\frac{1}{k}}.$$

concluding the proof.

Upper bounds for spectral radius of a graph
There are many upper bounds for the spectral radius of a graph in terms of its number n of vertices and its number m of edges. For instance, if

 * $$\frac{(k-2)(k-3)}{2} \leq m-n \leq \frac{k(k-3)}{2}$$

where $$3 \le k \le n$$ is an integer, then

 * $$\rho(G) \leq \sqrt{2 m-n-k+\frac{5}{2}+\sqrt{2 m-2 n+\frac{9}{4}}}$$

Power sequence
The spectral radius is closely related to the behavior of the convergence of the power sequence of a matrix; namely as shown by the following theorem.

Theorem. Let $A ∈ C^{n×n}$ with spectral radius $ρ(A)$. Then $ρ(A) < 1$ if and only if
 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty} A^k = 0.$$

On the other hand, if $ρ(A) > 1$, $$\lim_{k \to \infty} \|A^k\| = \infty$$. The statement holds for any choice of matrix norm on $C^{n×n}$.

Proof

Assume that $$A^k$$ goes to zero as $$k$$ goes to infinity. We will show that $ρ(A) < 1$. Let $(v, λ)$ be an eigenvector-eigenvalue pair for A. Since $A^{k}v = λ^{k}v$, we have

 * $$\begin{align}

0 &= \left(\lim_{k \to \infty} A^k \right) \mathbf{v} \\ &= \lim_{k \to \infty} \left(A^k\mathbf{v} \right ) \\ &= \lim_{k \to \infty} \lambda^k\mathbf{v} \\ &= \mathbf{v} \lim_{k \to \infty} \lambda^k \end{align}$$

Since $v ≠ 0$ by hypothesis, we must have

 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty}\lambda^k = 0,$$

which implies $$|\lambda| < 1$$. Since this must be true for any eigenvalue $$\lambda$$, we can conclude that $ρ(A) < 1$.

Now, assume the radius of $A$ is less than $1$. From the Jordan normal form theorem, we know that for all $A ∈ C^{n×n}$, there exist $V, J ∈ C^{n×n}$ with $V$ non-singular and $J$ block diagonal such that:

 * $$A = VJV^{-1}$$

with

 * $$J=\begin{bmatrix}

J_{m_1}(\lambda_1) & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ 0 & J_{m_2}(\lambda_2) & 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ \vdots & \cdots & \ddots & \cdots & \vdots \\ 0 & \cdots & 0 & J_{m_{s-1}}(\lambda_{s-1}) & 0 \\ 0 & \cdots & \cdots & 0 & J_{m_s}(\lambda_s) \end{bmatrix}$$

where

 * $$J_{m_i}(\lambda_i)=\begin{bmatrix}

\lambda_i & 1 & 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ 0 & \lambda_i & 1 & \cdots & 0 \\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots & \vdots \\ 0 & 0 & \cdots & \lambda_i & 1 \\ 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & \lambda_i \end{bmatrix}\in \mathbf{C}^{m_i \times m_i}, 1\leq i\leq s.$$

It is easy to see that

 * $$A^k=VJ^kV^{-1}$$

and, since $J$ is block-diagonal,

 * $$J^k=\begin{bmatrix}

J_{m_1}^k(\lambda_1) & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ 0 & J_{m_2}^k(\lambda_2) & 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ \vdots & \cdots & \ddots & \cdots & \vdots \\ 0 & \cdots & 0 & J_{m_{s-1}}^k(\lambda_{s-1}) & 0 \\ 0 & \cdots & \cdots & 0 & J_{m_s}^k(\lambda_s) \end{bmatrix}$$

Now, a standard result on the $k$-power of an $$m_i \times m_i$$ Jordan block states that, for $$k \geq m_i-1$$:

 * $$J_{m_i}^k(\lambda_i)=\begin{bmatrix}

\lambda_i^k & {k \choose 1}\lambda_i^{k-1} & {k \choose 2}\lambda_i^{k-2} & \cdots & {k \choose m_i-1}\lambda_i^{k-m_i+1} \\ 0 & \lambda_i^k & {k \choose 1}\lambda_i^{k-1} & \cdots & {k \choose m_i-2}\lambda_i^{k-m_i+2} \\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \ddots & \vdots \\ 0 & 0 & \cdots & \lambda_i^k & {k \choose 1}\lambda_i^{k-1} \\ 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & \lambda_i^k \end{bmatrix}$$

Thus, if $$\rho(A) < 1$$ then for all $i$ $$|\lambda_i| < 1$$. Hence for all $i$ we have:

 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty}J_{m_i}^k=0$$

which implies

 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty} J^k = 0.$$

Therefore,

 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty}A^k=\lim_{k \to \infty}VJ^kV^{-1}=V \left (\lim_{k \to \infty}J^k \right )V^{-1}=0$$

On the other side, if $$\rho(A)>1$$, there is at least one element in $J$ that does not remain bounded as $k$ increases, thereby proving the second part of the statement.

Gelfand's formula
Gelfand's formula, named after Israel Gelfand, gives the spectral radius as a limit of matrix norms.

Theorem
For any matrix norm $⋅,$ we have
 * $$\rho(A)=\lim_{k \to \infty} \left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}}$$.

Moreover, in the case of a consistent matrix norm $$\lim_{k \to \infty} \left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}}$$ approaches $$\rho(A)$$ from above (indeed, in that case $$\rho(A) \leq \left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}}$$ for all $$k$$).

Proof
For any $ε > 0$, let us define the two following matrices:

 * $$A_{\pm}= \frac{1}{\rho(A) \pm\varepsilon}A.$$

Thus,

 * $$\rho \left (A_{\pm} \right ) = \frac{\rho(A)}{\rho(A) \pm \varepsilon}, \qquad \rho (A_+) < 1 < \rho (A_-).$$

We start by applying the previous theorem on limits of power sequences to $A_{+}$:

 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty} A_+^k=0.$$

This shows the existence of $N_{+} ∈ N$ such that, for all $k ≥ N_{+}$,
 * $$\left\|A_+^k \right \| < 1.$$

Therefore,
 * $$\left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}} < \rho(A)+\varepsilon.$$

Similarly, the theorem on power sequences implies that $$\|A_-^k\|$$ is not bounded and that there exists $N_{−} ∈ N$ such that, for all k ≥ N−,
 * $$\left\|A_-^k \right \| > 1.$$

Therefore,
 * $$\left\|A^k \right\|^{\frac{1}{k}} > \rho(A)-\varepsilon.$$

Let $N = max{N_{+}, N_{−}}|undefined$. Then,
 * $$\forall \varepsilon>0\quad \exists N\in\mathbf{N} \quad \forall k\geq N \quad \rho(A)-\varepsilon < \left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}} < \rho(A)+\varepsilon,$$

that is,
 * $$\lim_{k \to \infty} \left \|A^k \right \|^{\frac{1}{k}} = \rho(A).$$

This concludes the proof.

Corollary
Gelfand's formula yields a bound on the spectral radius of a product of commuting matrices: if $$A_1, \ldots, A_n$$ are matrices that all commute, then

 * $$\rho(A_1 \cdots A_n) \leq \rho(A_1) \cdots \rho(A_n).$$

Numerical example
Consider the matrix

 * $$A=\begin{bmatrix}

9 & -1 & 2\\ -2 & 8 & 4\\ 1 & 1 & 8 \end{bmatrix}$$

whose eigenvalues are $5, 10, 10$; by definition, $ρ(A) = 10$. In the following table, the values of $$\|A^k\|^{\frac{1}{k}}$$ for the four most used norms are listed versus several increasing values of k (note that, due to the particular form of this matrix,$$\|.\|_1=\|.\|_\infty$$):

title: Spectral radius


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Jack Horrigan

John P. "Jack" Horrigan (December 30, 1925 – June 2, 1973) was a sportswriter for the Buffalo Evening News and American Football League (AFL) public relations director who went on to serve in public relations for the Buffalo Bills.

Jack Horrigan Award
Since 1974, the Pro Football Writers Association have given an annual award in Horrigan's name, to honor a league or club official "for his or her qualities and professional style in helping the pro football writers do their job." Past winners have included Tom Landry and Dan Rooney.

title: Jack Horrigan


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Harry Lauder

Sir Henry Lauder (4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950) was a Scottish singer and comedian popular in both music hall and vaudeville theatre traditions; he achieved international success.

He was described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador", who "... by his inspiring songs and valiant life, rendered measureless service to the Scottish race and to the British Empire." He became a familiar worldwide figure promoting images like the kilt and the cromach (walking stick) to huge acclaim, especially in America. Among his most popular songs were "Roamin' in the Gloamin'", "A Wee Deoch-an-Doris", "The End of the Road" and, a particularly big hit for him, "I Love a Lassie".

Lauder's understanding of life, its pathos and joys, earned him his popularity. Beniamino Gigli commended his singing voice and clarity. Lauder usually performed in full Highland regalia—kilt, sporran, tam o' shanter, and twisted walking stick, and sang Scottish-themed songs.

By 1911 Lauder had become the highest-paid performer in the world, and was the first British artist to sell a million records; by 1928 he had sold double that. He raised vast amounts of money for the war effort during the First World War, for which he was knighted in 1919. He went into semi-retirement in the mid-1930s, but briefly emerged to entertain troops in the Second World War. By the late 1940s he was suffering from long periods of ill-health. He died in Scotland in 1950.

Early life
Lauder was born on 4 August 1870 in his maternal grandfather's house in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest of seven children. By the time of the 1871 census he and his parents were living at 1 Newbigging Veitchs Cottages, Inveresk. His father, John Lauder, was the grandson of George Lauder of Inverleith Mains & the St Bernard's Well estate, Edinburgh. He claimed in his autobiography that his family were descendants of the feudal barons the Lauders of the Bass; and his mother, Isabella Urquhart MacLeod  McLennan, was born in Arbroath to a family from the Black Isle. John and Isabella married on 26 August 1870. Lauder's father moved to Newbold, Derbyshire, in early 1882 to take up a job designing porcelain, but died on 20 April from pneumonia. Isabella, left with little more than John's life insurance proceeds of £15, moved with the children to be with her family in Arbroath. To finance his education beyond age 11, Harry worked part-time at a flax mill. He made his first public appearance, singing, at a variety concert at Oddfellows' Hall in Arbroath when he was 13 years old, winning first prize for the night (a watch).

In 1884 the family went to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, to live with Isabella's brother, Alexander, who found Harry employment at Eddlewood Colliery at ten shillings per week; he kept this job for a decade.

Miner
On 8 January 1910, the Glasgow Evening Times reported that Lauder had told the New York World that, during his mining career:

I was entombed once for 6 long hours. It seemed like 6 years. There were no visible means of getting out either – we had just to wait. I was once right next to a cave-in when my fire boss was buried alive. As we were working and chatting a big stone twice as big as a trunk came tumbling down on my mate from overhead, doubling him like a jack-knife. It squeezed his face right down on the floor. God knows I wasn't strong enough to lift that rock alone, but by superhuman efforts I did. This gave him a chance to breathe and then I shouted. Some men 70 yards away heard me and came and got him out alive. A chap who worked beside me was killed along with 71 others at Udston, and all they could identify him with was his pin leg. I wasn't there that day.
 * — Harry Lauder

Lauder said he was "proud to be old coal-miner" and in 1911, became an outspoken advocate, "pleading the cause of the poor pit ponies" to Winston Churchill, when introduced to him at the House of Commons and later reported to the Tamworth Herald that he "could talk for hours about my wee four-footed friends of the mine. But I think I convinced that the time has now arrived when something should be done by the law of the land to improve the lot and working conditions of the patient, equine slaves who assist so materially in carrying on the great mining industry of this country."

Performer
Lauder often sang to the miners in Hamilton, who encouraged him to perform in local music halls. While singing in nearby Larkhall, he received 5 shillings—the first time he was paid for singing. He received further engagements including a weekly "go-as-you please" night held by Mrs. Christina Baylis at her Scotia Music Hall/Metropole Theatre in Glasgow. She advised him to gain experience by touring music halls around the country with a concert party, which he did. The tour allowed him to quit the coal mines and become a professional singer. Lauder concentrated his repertoire on comedic routines and songs of Scotland and Ireland.

By 1894, Lauder had turned professional and performed local characterisations at small, Scottish and northern English music halls but had ceased the repertoire by 1900. In March of that year, Lauder travelled to London and reduced the heavy dialect of his act which according to a biographer, Dave Russell, "handicapped Scottish performers in the metropolis". He was an immediate success at the Charing Cross Music Hall and the London Pavilion, venues at which the theatrical paper The Era reported that he had generated "great furore" among his audiences with three of his self-composed songs.

1900–1914
In 1905 Lauder's success in leading the Howard & Wyndham pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, for which he wrote I Love a Lassie, made him a national star, and he obtained contracts with Sir Edward Moss and others. Lauder then made a switch from music hall to variety theatre and undertook a tour of America in 1907. The following year, he performed a private show before Edward VII at Sandringham, and in 1911, he again toured the United States where he commanded $1,000 a night.

In 1912, he was top of the bill at Britain's first ever Royal Command Performance, in front of King George V, organised by Alfred Butt. Lauder undertook world tours extensively during his forty-year career, including 22 trips to the United States—for which he had his own railway train, the Harry Lauder Special, and made several trips to Australia, where his brother John had emigrated.

Lauder was, at one time, the highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of £12,700 a night plus expenses. He was paid £1125 for an engagement at the Glasgow Pavilion Theatre in 1913 and was later considered by the press to earn one of the highest weekly salaries by a theatrical performer during the prewar period. In January 1914 he embarked on a tour that included the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

First World War
The First World War broke out while Lauder was visiting Australia. During the war Lauder promoted recruitment into the services and starred in many concerts for troops at home and abroad. Campaigning for the war effort in 1915, he then wrote "I know that I am voicing the sentiment of thousands and thousands of people when I say that we must retaliate in every possible way regardless of cost. If these German savages want savagery, let them have it".

Following the December 1916 death of his son on the Western Front; Lauder led successful charity fundraising efforts, organised a recruitment tour of music halls and entertained troops in France with a piano. He travelled to Canada in 1917 on a fundraising exercise for the war, where, on 17 November he was guest-of-honour and speaker at the Rotary Club of Toronto Luncheon, when he raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars worth of bonds for Canada's Victory Loan. Through his efforts in organising concerts and fundraising appeals he established the charity, the Harry Lauder Million Pound Fund, for maimed Scottish soldiers and sailors, to help servicemen return to health and civilian life; and he was knighted in May 1919 for Empire service during the War.

Postwar years
After the First World War, Lauder continued to tour variety theatre circuits. In January 1918, he famously visited Charlie Chaplin, and the two leading comedy icons of their time acted in a short film together.

His final tour was in North America in 1932. He made plans for a new house at Strathaven, to be built over the site and ruin of an old manor, called Lauder Ha'. He was semi-retired in the mid-1930s, until his final retirement was announced in 1935. He briefly emerged from retirement to entertain troops during the Second World War and make wireless broadcasts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Australia
Possibly Lauder's strongest connections were with Australia. Both Lauder, his wife and son, brother Matt and his wife, were all in Australia when World War I broke out. Their brother John had already emigrated, about 1906, to Kurri Kurri (and, later, Newcastle), New South Wales, and Matt's eldest son John would also emigrate there in 1920. Lauder wrote that "every time I return to Australia I am filled with genuine enthusiasm.....it is one of the very greatest countries in the world."

Lauder was next in Australia (with his wife and her mother) in 1919, arriving at Sydney on 1 March on board the Oceanic Steamship Company's liner S.S. Ventura, from San Francisco, and he was in situ at the Hotel Australia when he was formally notified that he was to be knighted upon his return to Britain. His next visit was in 1923 when his brother John was on hand in Sydney, with their nephew John (Matt's son), to welcome Lauder, his wife and her brother Tom Vallance, after a four-year absence from Australia. He visited and stayed with his brother John in Newcastle on several occasions, two well-known visits being in 1925, when he gave several performances at Newcastle's Victoria Theatre for three weeks commencing on 8 August, and again in 1929 arriving in Newcastle for a brief visit on 25 July. Lauder departed Sydney for the USA on board the liner SS Ventura on Saturday 27 July 1929, a ship he was familiar with. In 1934–5, his brother John spent 10 months with him in Scotland.

South Africa
Sir Harry Lauder's 1925 reception in South Africa has never been equalled in that country. En route to Australia, he and his wife arrived in Cape Town at Easter. Over twenty thousand people had lined the streets for hours beforehand and it was reported that every policeman in the city plus mounted police were required to keep order. All traffic came to a standstill. He played for two weeks at the Opera House to packed audiences every night, figures "which staggered the management". He moved on to Johannesburg where his reception was equally amazing, described by a reporter who said "never, as long as I live, shall I forget it!"

Works
Lauder wrote most of his own songs, favourites of which were Roamin' In The Gloamin', I Love a Lassie, A Wee Deoch-an-Doris, and Keep Right On To The End of the Road, which is used by Birmingham City Football Club as their club anthem. He starred in three British films: Huntingtower (1927), Auld Lang Syne (1929) and The End of the Road (1936). He also appeared in a test film for the Photokinema sound-on-disc process in 1921. This film is part of the UCLA Film and Television Archive collection; however, the disc is missing. In 1914, Lauder appeared in 14 Selig Polyscope experimental short sound films. In 1907, he appeared in a short film singing "I Love a Lassie" for British Gaumont. The British Film Institute has several reels of what appears to be an unreleased film All for the Sake of Mary (c. 1920) co-starring Effie Vallance and Harry Vallance.

He wrote a number of books, which ran into several editions, including Harry Lauder at Home and on Tour (1912), A Minstrel in France (1918), Between You and Me (1919), Roamin' in the Gloamin' (1928 autobiography), My Best Scotch Stories (1929), Wee Drappies (1931) and Ticklin' Talks (circa 1932).

Recordings
Lauder made his first recordings, resulting in nine selections, for the Gramophone & Typewriter company early in 1902. He continued to record for Gramophone until the middle of 1905, most recordings appearing on the Gramophone label, but others on Zonophone. He then recorded fourteen selections for Pathé Records June 1906. Two months later he was back at Gramophone, and performed for them in several sessions through 1908. That year he made several two and four-minute cylinders for Edison Records. Next year he recorded for Victor in New York. He continued to make some cylinders for Edison, but was primarily associated with His Master's Voice and Victor.

In 1910 Victor introduced a mid-priced purple-label series, the first twelve issues of which were by Lauder. In 1927 Victor promoted Lauder recordings to their Red Seal imprint, making him the only comedic performer to appear on the label primarily associated with operatic celebrities. Lauder is one of three artists shown on Victor's black, purple, blue and red Seal records (the others being Lucy Isabelle Marsh and Reinald Werrenrath). His final recordings were made in 1940, but Lauder records were issued in the new format as current material when RCA Victor introduced the 45rpm record.

Portraits
Lauder is credited with giving the then 21-year-old portrait artist Cowan Dobson his opening into society by commissioning him, in 1915, to paint his portrait. This was considered to be so outstanding that another commission came the following year, to paint his son Captain John Lauder, and again another commission in 1921 to paint Lauder's wife, the latter portrait being after the style of John Singer Sargent. These three portraits remain with the family. The same year, Scottish artist James McBey painted another portrait of Lauder, today in the Glasgow Museums.

In the tradition of the magazine Vanity Fair, there appeared numerous caricatures of Lauder. One is by Al Frueh (1880–1968) in 1911 and published in 1913 in the New York World magazine, another by Henry Mayo Bateman, now in London's National Gallery, and one of 1926 by Alick P.F.Ritchie, for Players Cigarettes, today in the London National Portrait Gallery (ref:NPG D2675).

Personal life
On 19 June 1891 Lauder married Ann, daughter of James Vallance, a colliery manager in Hamilton; their only son, Captain John Currie Lauder, was educated at the City of London School followed by a degree from Jesus College, Cambridge University. John became a captain in the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and was killed in action on 28 December 1916 at Pozières. Encouraged by Ann, Lauder returned to the stage three days after learning of John's death. He wrote the song "The End of the Road" (published as a collaboration with the American William Dillon, 1924) in the wake of John's death, and built a monument for him in the private Lauder cemetery in Glenbranter. (John Lauder was buried in the war cemetery at Ovillers, France).

Lauder was a devout Christian and with the exception of engagements in the United States never performed on Sundays.

Lady Lauder died on 31 July 1927, at 54, a week after surgery. She was buried next to her son's memorial in the private Lauder cemetery on the 14,000 acre Glenbranter estate in Argyll, where her parents would later join her. Lauder's niece, Margaret (1900–1966), subsequently became his secretary and companion until his death.

Lauder bought the Glenbranter Estate on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll on the 13 October 1916, then sold to the Forestry Commission in 1921. The estate later became part of the Argyll Forest Park established in 1935. The Invernoaden Estate house, in Glenbranter was demolished in 1956.

Freemasonry

He was initiated a Freemason on 28 January 1897 in Lodge Dramatic, No. 571, (Glasgow, Scotland) and remained an active Freemason for the rest of his life.

Death
He spent his last years at Lauder Ha (or Hall), his Strathaven home, where he died on 26 February 1950, aged 79. His funeral was held at Cadzow Church in Hamilton on 2 March. It was widely reported, notably by Pathé newsreels. One of the chief mourners was the Duke of Hamilton, a close family friend, who led the funeral procession through Hamilton, and read The Lesson. Wreaths were sent from Queen Elizabeth and Sir Winston Churchill. Lauder was interred with his brother George and their mother in the family plot at Bent Cemetery in Hamilton.

In 1932 he had placed the land at Strathaven where Lauder Hall would stand, and its park, in the name of his niece and secretary, Margaret Lauder to avoid high death duties should he die, as he wanted it preserved as the family seat and a museum to himself. This proved to be a wise move as although he left moveable estate of £358,971, the death duties on this amounted to £207,581. After personal bequests to family totalling £27,000 the residue went to Margaret Lauder.

In literature and popular culture
Lauder's first command performance before Edward VII is satirised by Neil Munro in his Erchie Macpherson story "Harry and the King", first published in the Glasgow Evening News of 14 September 1908.

Posthumous

In the 1941 film "Babes on Broadway", Mickey Rooney, imitating Lauder, sings "She Is Ma Daisy." In the 1942 film Random Harvest, Greer Garson plays a member of a travelling troupe. She sings "She Is Ma Daisy" and tells jokes doing an impression of Lauder. Websites carry much of his material and the Harry Lauder Collection, amassed by entertainer Jimmy Logan, was bought for the nation and donated to the University of Glasgow. When the A199 Portobello bypass opened, it was named the Sir Harry Lauder Road.

On 28 July 1987, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh hosted a luncheon at the Edinburgh City Chambers to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Lauder receiving the Freedom of the City. On 4 August 2001 Gregory Lauder-Frost opened the Sir Harry Lauder Memorial Garden at Portobello Town Hall. BBC2 Scotland broadcast a documentary, Something About Harry, on 30 November 2005. On 29 September 2007, Lauder-Frost rededicated the Burslem Golf Course & Club at Stoke-on-Trent, which had been formally opened exactly a century before by Harry Lauder.

In the 1990s, samples of recordings of Lauder were used on two tracks recorded by the Scottish folk/dance music artist Martyn Bennett.

The Corkscrew hazel ornamental cultivar of common hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') is sometimes known as Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, in reference to the crooked walking stick Lauder often carried.

Selected filmography

 * Huntingtower (1927)
 * Auld Lang Syne (1929)
 * The End of the Road (1936)

title: Harry Lauder


text:
Jerry Magee

Jerome Field Magee (April 11, 1928 – January 2, 2019) was an American newspaper columnist.

Magee was a sports writer in San Diego for 52 years, retiring from the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2008. He began his career more than five decades earlier at the then-San Diego Union and also wrote for Pro Football Weekly.

Biography
Magee, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, was raised in Nebraska. He graduated in 1950 from the University of Nebraska. He served in the Army in Korea.

Career
His first job newspaper job was as a copyboy at the Omaha World-Herald, where one of his tasks was to mix flour and water into the paste used by copy readers. He joined the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1956. Magee was called "an American Football League apologist" by his contemporaries who covered NFL football, adopting it himself and regularly quoting it. He took on what he has called the "NFL apologists," including William Wallace, sports columnist with The New York Times, and Jerry Green of the Detroit Free Press, in Magee's attempt to puncture what he called "NFL myths."

Magee brought attention to the AFL's style of football, including writing about Will McDonough and his service on the American Football League Hall of Fame board of selectors. Magee wrote frequently about interviews he had with American Football League superfan, archivist and historian Ange Coniglio.

Upon Magee's retirement in September 2008, the Union-Tribune published a tribute article about Magee that was written by people he covered and worked with, including former San Diego Chargers running back Hank Bauer.

Recognition
October 29, 2008 was proclaimed "Jerry Magee Day" by the San Diego City Council in recognition of his more than 50 years as "one of the region's top sports writers."

In 1987, Magee was given the Dick McCann Memorial Award from the Professional Football Writers of America organization, which is handed out to reporters who have made "a long and distinguished contribution" to pro football through coverage.

title: Jerry Magee


text:
Dino, Desi & Billy

Dino, Desi & Billy were an American singing trio that existed between 1964 and 1969. The group featured Dean "Dino" Martin (Dean Paul Martin, the son of singer and actor Dean Martin), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Desiderio Arnaz IV, the son of television stars Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball), and their friend Billy Hinsche, the son of Otto “Doc” Hinsche and Celia Bautista. A reconstituted version of the group performed between 1998 and 2010.

History
Dino Martin, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Billy Hinsche first met in grammar school. Due to the family connections of Dino and Desi, the band's first audition was for Frank Sinatra, who founded and still had an interest in Reprise Records, the recording label for Dean Martin. Though Arnaz, whose father was a famous drummer and who had learned to play drums from close family friend Richard Keith (who played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy) was a skilled drummer in his own right, the group did not play their own instruments on most of their records, instead using top session players, producers and songwriters. Producers included Lee Hazlewood, Billy Strange and Jimmy Bowen. Songwriters whose compositions were recorded by the group included Hazlewood, Red West, David Gates, Boyce and Hart, Clint Ballard Jr. and Bonner & Gordon.

Dino, Desi & Billy's best known songs were "I'm a Fool" (1965; U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 17; later covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks for their 1965 album Chipmunks à Go-Go) and "Not the Lovin' Kind" (1965; U.S. No. 25). Both were hits for the group before any group member had reached the age of 15. Following this success, in 1965, they toured as an opening act for the Beach Boys. The group also opened for Paul Revere & the Raiders, Tommy Roe, Sam the Sham, the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas.

The band did not have a top 40 hit after 1965, despite releasing records for five years thereafter.

The group released one album in 1965 and three albums in 1966. Dino, Desi & Billy albums contained primarily versions of Top 40 songs made popular by others, with new content being minor. The three boys made an appearance in the Dean Martin film Murderers' Row and sang the Boyce & Hart song, "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'". From 1966 to 1970, the group continued to release singles, encountering marginal success, which was not altered by a change of label to Columbia Records in 1969. Also in 1969, the group contributed three songs to the soundtrack of the surf film Follow Me. The group received top billing on the soundtrack album, despite the fact that most of the album featured music by composer Stu Phillips. Later in 1969, the group broke up, due in part to Desi joining his mother's television show and Hinsche wishing to commence university studies.

The group was never a favorite of the critics. Writing for AllMusic, music critic Richie Unterberger characterized them as a group that "never had an ounce of credibility", with music that was "innocuously bland in the extreme." These sentiments may be contrasted with the fact that the band was well thought of by the Beach Boys, to the extent that Brian Wilson and Hinsche co-wrote one of the band's original songs, and their final single, "Lady Love". That single was released by Reprise Records in 1970, after the group had broken up. Hinsche's sister, Annie, married Carl Wilson and Hinsche himself worked with the Beach Boys as a backing musician for many years.

Dean Paul Martin became a tennis player, actor and a captain in the California Air National Guard. He was married to actress Olivia Hussey and figure skater Dorothy Hamill, and was killed while piloting an F-4 Phantom jet in 1987.

In 1996, Sundazed Records released The Rebel Kind: The Best of Dino, Desi & Billy, in which all of the group's singles and other non-cover material was collected for the first time on one album.

From 1998 to 2010, a reconfiguration of the group, known as "Ricci, Desi, & Billy", performed at various times, in addition to releasing two live albums. The band performed new material and the original hits, with Ricci Martin, the youngest son of singer Dean Martin, replacing his late older brother, Dean Paul Martin.

Singles

 * "Since You Broke My Heart" / "We Know" — Reprise 0324 — released November 1964
 * "I'm A Fool" / "So Many Ways" — Reprise 0367 – May 1965 (#17 U.S., #23 CAN )
 * "I'm A Fool" / "So Many Ways" / "Since You Broke My Heart" / "We Know" — Reprise 60072 ep (France) – May 1965
 * "Not The Lovin' Kind" / "Chimes of Freedom" — Reprise 0401 – September 1965 (#25 U.S., #15 Canada )
 * "Please Don't Fight It" / "The Rebel Kind" — Reprise 0426 – November 1965 (#25 Canada )
 * "Superman" / "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind" — Reprise 0444 – February 1966 (#94 U.S., #15 Canada )
 * "Tie Me Down" / "It's Just The Way You Are" — Reprise 0462 – April 1966
 * "Look Out Girls (Here We Come)" / "She's So Far Out She's In" — Reprise 0469 – July 1966
 * "I Hope She's There Tonight" / "Josephine" — Reprise 0529 – November 1966
 * "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'" / "Pretty Flamingo" — Reprise 0544 – January 1967 (#128 U.S., #2 CAN ))
 * "Two in the Afternoon" / "Good Luck, Best Wishes to You" — Reprise 0579 – April 1967 (#99 U.S., #5 CAN )
 * "Kitty Doyle" / "Without Hurtin' Some" — Reprise 0619 – August 1967 (#108 U.S.)
 * "My What a Shame" / "The Inside Outside Caspar Milquetoast Eskimo Flash" — Reprise 0653 – January 1968
 * "Tell Someone You Love Them" / "General Outline" — Reprise 0698 – June 1968 (#92 U.S., #67 Canada )
 * "Thru Spray Colored Glasses" / "Someday" — Uni 55127 – April 1969
 * "Hawley" / "Let's Talk it Over" — Columbia 4-44975 – August 1969
 * "Lady Love" / "A Certain Sound" — Reprise 0965 – November 1970

Albums

 * I'm a Fool – Reprise R (Mono)/RS (Stereo) 6176 — U.S. No. 51, September 1965
 * Our Time's Coming— Reprise R/RS 6194 — U.S. No. 119, February 1966
 * Memories Are Made of This — Reprise R/RS 6198 – 1966
 * Souvenir — Reprise R/RS 6224 – 1966
 * Follow Me Original Soundtrack – Uni 73056 – 1969 – Three songs sung by Dino, Desi & Billy, "Thru Spray Colored Glasses" (co-written by Stu Phillips and David Gates), "Like The Wind And Sea" (co-written by Phillips and Ronnie Franklin) and "Just Lookin' For Someone" (co-written by Phillips and Gates)
 * The Rebel Kind: The Best of Dino, Desi & Billy – Sundazed, 1996

title: Dino, Desi & Billy


text:
Trinity Metro

Trinity Metro is a transit agency located in and serving the city of Fort Worth, Texas and its suburbs in surrounding Tarrant County, part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. Since 1983, it was previously known officially as the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (FWTA), and branded itself as The T. As of January 29, 2018 the Board of Directors has voted to rebrand bus services as Trinity Metro, replacing the previous and long standing name. In, the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of.

Trinity Metro primarily operates the region's bus service, and TEXRail, a hybrid rail system connecting downtown Fort Worth with DFW Airport via Northeast Tarrant County. The agency is also involved in the operation of the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) commuter rail line between from downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas in partnership with Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the North Texas Xpress (Route 64) express bus service in partnership with Denton County Transportation Authority.

History
Through the early 1970s, bus transit services in Fort Worth were provided by City Transit Company, a private enterprise. Starting in 1974, the city's Traffic Engineering Department began coordinating bus operations. In 1978, the city established the Fort Worth Department of Transportation, which took over public transit operations. These operations included the City Transit Service (CITRAN) and the Surface Transportation Service (SURTRAN, a service jointly owned between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, shuttling passengers to and from DFW from stops in Dallas (including Dallas Union Station), Fort Worth and Arlington),  with transportation services for the handicapped (MITS) being added in 1979.

On November 8, 1983, voters approved formation of The T. To finance the system, voters levied a half-cent sales tax. The CITRAN, SURTRAN, and MITS services were folded into the new agency, along with carpool and vanpool coordination.

The agency's first addition came on November 5, 1991 when the small suburb of Lake Worth voted 344–206 in favor of joining the T. That prompted three more elections on May 2, 1992 when Blue Mound, Forest Hill and Richland Hills had the issue of joining the agency on the ballot. Blue Mound and Richland Hills voted in favor while Forest Hill declined the measure nearly 2–1.

The T saw its first departure when voters in Lake Worth approved a pullout in September 2003. Service withdrawal became effective on March 21, 2004. Lake Worth had previously tried to pull out in 1996, but that measure failed. On November 8, 2016, Richland Hills residents voted to withdraw from the agency's services. FWTA's final day of service in Richland Hills was November 23, 2016.

In 2001, the FWTA saw its cooperation efforts with DART pay off as the Trinity Railway Express reached downtown Fort Worth. The other end of the line terminates in downtown Dallas.

The TRE commuter line has a daily ridership of 9,100 and is the thirteenth most-ridden commuter rail system in the country.

On August 24, 2016, Trinity Metro broke ground on TEXRail, the second commuter rail project undertaken by the agency, and the first built solely by Trinity Metro. The rail line was initially envisioned to run along the existing Cotton Belt Railway Corridor from DFW airport to the Fort Worth Stockyards, head South along Union Pacific owned track to the Fort Worth Central Station, and continue along Fort Worth & Western Railroad tracks to Benbrook Lake. As of the FWTA 2015 master plan, citing "project costs and other considerations", the agency decided to build the 27 mile Minimum Operable Segment (MOS) between downtown Fort Worth and DFW Terminal B. The other considerations likely included stalled negotiations with Fort Worth & Western, Union Pacific, and DART, over securing right of way for TEXRail trains. The MOS included 2 new stations in Fort Worth, one in Grapevine, two at DFW Airport, and 3 potential stations in North Richland Hills and Haltom City. The three potential stations were conditional on either city joining the Trinity Metro service area, which requires imposing a half-cent sales tax to help fund the agency. North Richland Hills joined Trinity Metro in 2018, while Haltom City never did, as a result, two stations were built in North Richland Hills, and the Haltom City station was not. The MOS was completed, and TEXRail began service between downtown Fort Worth and DFW airport on January 10, 2019, with free rides until January 31, 2019 to " give everyone an opportunity to ride".

On January 29, 2018, the transit agency's board of directors voted to rebrand FWTA/The T as Trinity Metro, and revealed a new logo, that depicts three triangles forming the letter "M" in its negative spaces. The name change officially took place on March 23, 2018 on its website and social media presence.

Member cities
At its creation in 1983, Trinity Metro, then known as the Fort Worth Transit Authority, consisted of only one city, Fort Worth. In the following years, three small communities joined Trinity Metro: Lake Worth, Blue Mound, and Richland Hills. Only Blue Mound remains a member city.

Joining Trinity Metro requires the new member to levy a 1⁄2¢ sales tax. Because the state of Texas caps the total sales tax for a municipality at 2¢, many municipalities are unable to join.

Trinity Metro allows cities to gain service through interlocal agreements. Grapevine and North Richland Hills made agreements in 2006 and 2016, respectively, to obtain stations on the then-planned TEXRail line. While these two cities are usually listed as member cities, including by Trinity Metro itself, they do not pay the 1⁄2¢ sales tax and all non-TEXRail public transit is provided by third parties.

Rail
TEXRail, opened in 2018, is a hybrid rail service connecting downtown Fort Worth and DFW Airport. The train travels through northeast Tarrant County with four stops in Fort Worth, two stops in North Richland Hills and three stops (including at the airport) in Grapevine.

Trinity Railway Express, opened in 1996, is a commuter rail service connecting downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas. The train travels on a former Rock Island throughway with four stops in Fort Worth, one stop in Richland Hills, two stops in Irving, and three stops in Dallas. The line is jointly operated with Dallas Area Rapid Transit; Trinity Metro manages the stations in Tarrant County (from T&P Station to CentrePort/DFW Airport).

Bus routes
, Trinity Metro operates twenty-seven regular bus routes, six Xpress/Limited routes, and four specialty services. The bus network travels throughout Fort Worth, with its main hub at Fort Worth Central Station. The system has three additional transfer locations and five park-and-rides.

Prior to Fort Worth Central's opening in 2001, the main downtown transit hub centered around bus lines all converging along the Houston/Throckmorton corridor, with northbound service on Throckmorton Street and southbound service on Houston Street.

Trolley Routes
Molly the Trolley is a free shuttle route which loops around downtown Fort Worth. It stops at major downtown destinations such as Sundance Square, the Fort Worth Convention Center, and the Fort Worth Water Gardens, as well as Fort Worth Central station. The route uses dark green buses.

The Dash is a shuttle route which travels from Fort Worth Central station to the Museum District, which includes Will Rogers Memorial Center, Dickies Arena, and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The route uses red-colored electric buses.

On-Demand
Launched in July 2019, On-Demand (formerly ZIPZONE) is a curb-to-curb microtransit service operated in partnership with Via Transportation. The service allows riders to book trips on-demand (using an app or phone number) so long as each trip starts and ends within specially designated zones. Travel between zones is not permitted, though some zones overlap. The service costs $1-3 per ride and is included with multi-ride passes.

Trinity Metro previously offered a separate curb-to-curb service in the Alliance neighborhood, which offered a complimentary Lyft ride through a promotional code. The service was replaced with a standard On-Demand zone on July 15, 2024.

Fort Worth Bike Sharing
Operated in association with BCycle, Fort Worth Bike Sharing is a short-term bike rental service. Users check out electric bikes from docking stations across Fort Worth and ride them for up to two hours. This service is not included with any Trinity Metro tickets, though bike-exclusive memberships, which allow unlimited rides for their duration, are available.

VANPOOL
VANPOOL is a service which allows groups of five to fifteen people to collectively rent an SUV or van for travel to and from work, with prices varying based on the type of vehicle and distance traveled by each rider. Trinity Metro covers the cost of registration, insurance, fuel, and maintenance, though they do not cover tolls.

The service is open to riders in eleven counties: Dallas, Ellis, Erath, Hood, Johnson, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise. A similar service operated by DCTA operates in the rest of the Metroplex.

ACCESS Paratransit
ACCESS Paratransit (originally Mobility Impaired Transit Services, or MITS) is an ADA-compliant paratransit service for riders with disabilities that prevent them from using standard Trinity Metro services. The service allows eligible patrons to schedule curb-to-curb transportation to any location in Blue Mound, Fort Worth, or River Oaks.

Current

 * 1 – Hemphill
 * 2 – Camp Bowie
 * 4 – East Rosedale
 * 5 – Evans Ave/TCC South
 * 6 – 8th Ave/McCart
 * 11 – North Beach/Mercantile Center
 * 12 – Samuels/Mercantile Center
 * 15 – Stockyards/North Main
 * 16 – Alliance Town Center/Mercantile Center Station
 * 21 – Boca Raton
 * 22 – Meadowbrook
 * 23 – TCC Northeast Campus/TRE
 * 24 – Berry Street
 * 25 – Miller/E. Seminary
 * 28 – Mansfield Hwy/Sierra Vista
 * 29 - West Seminary/Hulen Mall
 * 33 - Felix/Oak Grove
 * 45 – TCC Northwest/Angle Ave/Azle Ave
 * 46 – Jacksboro Highway
 * 51 – Bryant Irvin
 * 52 – Hulen
 * 53 – University
 * 54 – Riverside/Sylvania
 * 55 – Handley
 * 72 – Hemphill/Sycamore School Rd
 * 89 – SPUR/East Lancaster
 * 91 – Normandale/North Side Station

Xpress/Limited routes

 * 30 – CentrePort Circulator (Amon Carter Loop / East Loop / West Loop)
 * 31 – TRE Link (CentrePort/DFW Airport station–DFW Airport Terminal B station)
 * 61X – Normandale Xpress
 * 63X – North Park & Ride Xpress
 * 65X – South Park & Ride Xpress
 * 66X – Candleridge/Altamesa Xpress

Trolleys/Special services

 * 991 – Juror Shuttle
 * LL – Burnett Plaza Lunch Line
 * Molly the Trolley
 * The Dash

Eliminated

 * 1N North Main (now 15)
 * 1S Hemphill (now 1)
 * 2W Camp Bowie
 * 2E East Lancaster (now 89 SPUR)
 * 3 Riverside/TCC South
 * 7 University Drive
 * 8 Riverside/Evans (Sunday Only)
 * 9 Ramey/Vickery
 * 10 Bailey
 * 16 Downtown Trolley
 * 16 Rosedale/Montgomery
 * 17 Central Avenue
 * 20 Handley
 * 23 Mercantile
 * 26 Ridgmar Mall/Normandale
 * 27 Como/Ridgmar Mall
 * 28 Diamond Hill
 * 29 TCU Frog Shuttle (earlier TCU Circulator)
 * 31 Sycamore School Road
 * 31 Stonegate/TCU Shuttle
 * 32 Bryant Irvin
 * 40 Bridgewood
 * 41 Richland Hills Rider Request
 * 42 Southeast Rider Request
 * 43 Town Center Rider Request/Fixed
 * 44 Central/Azle Ave
 * 44 Alta Mesa Rider Request
 * 45 Forest Park/Mistletoe Heights
 * 46 Lake Worth Rider Request
 * 47 Northsider Rider Request
 * 48 Northside (originally Samuels)
 * 57 Como/Montgomery
 * 60X Eastside Xpress (Temporarily Suspended)
 * 62 Summerfields Express
 * 64 East Lancaster Express
 * 64X North Texas Xpress (Denton)
 * 67X TCC Southeast Campus XPress
 * 67 Dallas Express
 * 67 Lamar Blvd. Park & Ride
 * 68 Park Springs Park & Ride
 * 69 Alliance Express
 * 71 Forest Hill
 * 82 Southeast Zone Rider Request
 * 83 Southeast Zone Rider Request
 * 90 Long
 * 111 Bell Helicopter Shuttle

Labor relations
From November 6, 2006 through November 11, 2006, around 100 of FWTA's union workers went on strike, citing the agency's policy regarding termination of employees who had used up their short-term disability benefits. This represented about a third of the workers represented by Teamsters Local 997. Service continued with delays the next morning by non-striking drivers, and FWTA began advertising for replacement drivers. During the dispute, bus rides on FWTA were free, and the agency announced that monthly pass holders will receive a 25% discount on their December passes. By Friday, replacement workers and other drivers willing to cross the picket lines had restored service to normal levels.

FWTA offered a new contract proposal late in the week, which was rejected on Saturday by a vote of 37 to 21. But because less than half of the 155 union members voted, a 2/3 majority of the vote was required to reject the contract. That would have required 39 of the 58 votes, so the contract was declared "accepted".

Service on the Trinity Railway Express was not affected, as the rail line's employees work under a different contract.

Nine years earlier, a four-day strike in 1997 shut down 75% of The T's service.

title: Trinity Metro


text:
Will McDonough

William McDonough (July 6, 1935 – January 9, 2003) was an American sportswriter for The Boston Globe who also worked as an on-air football reporter for CBS and NBC.

Newspaper career
The youngest of nine children of Irish immigrants, McDonough grew up in working-class South Boston. He attended The English High School, where he starred in baseball as a pitcher and in football as a quarterback. While attending the Northeastern University School of Journalism, McDonough started at the Boston Globe as a co-op intern / copy boy in 1955 to cover school sports, and he was hired by the Globe full-time after graduation in 1957.

In 1960, after McDonough had been promoted to sportswriter, he was assigned as the beat reporter for the Boston Patriots of the start-up American Football League and remained one of the country's premier football reporters until his retirement in 2001. During his 40+ years writing career with the Globe (interrupted only by a brief departure in 1973), McDonough worked with other legendary Globe sportswriters such as Peter Gammons, Bob Ryan, and Leigh Montville. Beginning in 1993, he was named an associate editor of the Globe. Montville has said of McDonough: "He was the scoop guy. He always said: 'I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better.'"

McDonough became a hero among Boston sportswriters after a 1979 altercation with Patriots cornerback Raymond Clayborn, in which the 44-year-old McDonough leveled Clayborn in the locker room after the third-year cornerback had poked him in the eye. However, McDonough's main fame was due to the number of "scoops" and exclusive stories that he broke while with the Globe. At the time of his death, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue called him the "most influential reporter covering the NFL."

Controversy
McDonough's co-workers and supporters referred to him as "Willie" and credited his ability to get such stories to his ability to "get anybody to the phone" and to parlay nuggets of information from his calls into bigger stories. However, even Globe management admitted that he "rewarded his friends and slammed his enemies" in his columns. His critics, meanwhile, said that he only "publishe[d] what's going to reinforce his sources, his friends, his contacts", referring to him as "a management stooge" and "Will the Shill".

Examples of this dichotomy marked his career. He regularly referred to superstar pitcher Roger Clemens as the "Texas Con Man" after Clemens' tenure with the Boston Red Sox;  his bosses said that that was because he saw Clemens as a phony, potentially supported by later allegations of steroid use directed at Clemens, while others claimed that he was defending his friends John Harrington and Dan Duquette, who had stated that Clemens was in the "twilight of his career" in 1996—after which Clemens won four more Cy Young Awards as the best pitcher in the League (1997–98, 2001, 2004). McDonough also repeatedly referred to former Red Sox player Mo Vaughn as "Mo Money" after Vaughn turned down the Sox's contract offer before the 1998 season to become a free agent after the season. He was accused of chauvinism when he questioned the presence of women in the locker room as well as the legitimacy of allegations by then Boston Herald sportswriter Lisa Olson against New England Patriots players in the team locker room in 1990; McDonough claimed he was vindicated two years later when other Globe sportswriters acknowledged the presence of holes in Olson's credibility that were overlooked or ignored at the time, but others claimed that the Globe's report showed that the overall atmosphere of sexual harassment was worse than Olson had alleged.

One of McDonough's biggest scoops came during the week before Super Bowl XXXI when he broke the story that Patriots' head coach Bill Parcells, one of McDonough's best friends, was planning to leave the Patriots after the Super Bowl and become head coach of the New York Jets. The story was 100% correct but still generated controversy because of the contention by McDonough's detractors that Parcells' agent (who was also McDonough's agent) had planted the story at that time to maximize his negotiating leverage.

Broadcasting
In addition to newspaper reporting, McDonough was a pioneer among journalists who became broadcasters in the late 1970s and early 1980s while maintaining their newspaper positions. He originally was hired by CBS, later moving to NBC. His appearances included stints as part of NBC's NFL Live pregame show from 1991 to 1993. About his TV work, McDonough said, "I proved once and for all you don't have to be pretty to be on television." For one season, he also served as an analyst for New England Patriots preseason games. In 1994, NBC was paying him about $400,000 a year to appear on the network.

Personal life
McDonough was married twice, fathering three children (Sean, Erin and Terry) with his first wife Wilma and two (Ryan and Cara) with his second wife Denise. One of his three sons, Sean McDonough, is a sportscaster for ESPN and is also a Boston Red Sox announcer. Another son, Terry McDonough, was vice president, Player Personnel for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. His third son, Ryan McDonough, was the general manager of the Phoenix Suns. Each of the three has a championship ring in a different sport: Sean as an announcer for the 2004 Boston Red Sox (baseball); Terry as a scout for the 2000 Baltimore Ravens (football); and Ryan as a special assistant/video analyst for the 2008 Boston Celtics (basketball).

McDonough remained lifelong friends with two other prominent South Boston Irishmen: Massachusetts political leader William "Billy" Bulger and his older brother, Boston organized crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger. He served as campaign manager for Billy's 1960 run for state representative, and he visited Whitey in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in the 1960s while the Boston Red Sox were in Kansas City. In return, in 1993 Billy successfully lobbied Cablevision to allow McDonough to provide commentary on the cable broadcast of the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast hosted by Billy.

Death
McDonough died of a heart attack at his home in Hingham on January 9, 2003, at age 67.

title: Will McDonough