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Dorian Leigh

Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker (April 23, 1917 – July 7, 2008), known professionally as Dorian Leigh, was an American model and one of the earliest modeling icons of the fashion industry. She is considered one of the first supermodels, and was well known in the United States and Europe.

Early life
Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, Texas, to George and Elizabeth Parker. Her parents married when they were around 17 or 18 years old and Elizabeth promptly gave birth to three daughters in quick succession: Dorian, Florian "Cissie" (1918–2010), and Georgiabell (1921–1988). Thirteen years after the birth of her third daughter, Elizabeth believed she was going through menopause and was shocked to discover that she was pregnant. She gave birth to her fourth daughter, Cecilia (1932–2003), who became known as model and actress Suzy Parker. The family moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, soon after Dorian's birth and later to Metuchen, New Jersey. There, George Parker invented a new form of etching acid, the production of which gave him enough income to retire.

Dorian graduated from Newton High School in Queens, New York, in 1935 and enrolled at Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. In her autobiography, Dorian claimed that she was born in 1920, and graduated from high school early in 1935, at the age of 15. She claimed this was because she loved learning, and she took many classes at once since the school was supposedly overcrowded. But this later proved untrue. She also wrote that she was a 17-year-old college sophomore when she first married, when in fact, she was 20. Her first husband was Marshall Powell Hawkins, whom she married on a whim in North Carolina in 1937. They had two children: Thomas Lofton (T.L.) Hawkins (1939–2014) and Marsha Hawkins (born 1940). The couple separated in the 1940s.

After college, Dorian worked as a file clerk at a department store in Manhattan and as a tabulator, keeping track of radio program ratings. Dorian found that she had an aptitude for math, mechanical engineering, and drawing. She began to go to night school at Rutgers and said she learned about mechanical engineering at New York University. According to her autobiography, she enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and received a B.S. in mechanical engineering. This was after an aptitude-testing laboratory (the Johnson O'Connor Foundation) informed her that she had a talent for engineering.

Dorian worked at Bell Laboratories, then during World War II, was a tool designer at Eastern Air Lines (with their Eastern Aircraft division). Dorian assisted in the design of airplane wings, beginning at 65 cents an hour and ending up with an hourly wage of $1.00. After failing to be promoted because she was a woman and because of a wartime freeze on positions, Dorian quit and took a job with Republic Pictures as an apprentice copywriter. While writing ad copy for the B movies Republic created and distributed to movie houses, she was encouraged by a Mrs. Wayburn to try modeling.

Modeling career
Taking Mrs. Wayburn's advice, in 1944 Dorian went to the Harry Conover modeling agency. At 27, Dorian was not only old by modeling standards, but at barely 5'5", she was shorter than the other models at the agency. Conover immediately sent her to see Diana Vreeland, the editor of Harper's Bazaar. Dorian met with Vreeland and fashion photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe, who were intrigued by her zig-zagged eyebrows. Vreeland warned her, "Do not -- do not do anything to those eyebrows!" Vreeland asked Dorian to return the next day, to be photographed for the cover of the June 1944 issue of Harper's Bazaar, her very first modeling assignment. Conover told her to tell them she was 19-years-old. Later they were shocked to discover her real age (27), and that she already had two children.

Dorian's parents thought modeling was not respectable, so Dorian used only her first and middle name during her career. When Dorian became an enormous success though, they thought it was acceptable that their youngest daughter Suzy use the Parker last name when she also became a famous model. Their second eldest daughter, Florian, also had modeling photos in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, but quit when she married a man in the military, and was living in Oahu when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. Dorian quickly became busy with modeling assignments, landing on the covers of major magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Paris Match, LIFE, and Elle. Because of her schedule, Dorian's two children were sent to live with her parents in Florida, while she was based in New York City and traveling to Europe.

In 1946, Dorian appeared on the cover of six American Vogue magazines. She worked with famous fashion photographers Irving Penn, John Rawlings, Cecil Beaton, and Paul Radkai. She dated Irving Penn, who later married another model, Lisa Fonssagrives. On one assignment, she argued with Paul Radkai's wife Karen, who wanted to be a fashion photographer and to take many extra, and free, photos of Dorian for her portfolio. When Dorian balked at having to pose for Karen without being paid, Karen warned her she would "ruin her." Indeed, Vogue never used Dorian again, and Karen became a Vogue photographer for many years.

Dorian easily transitioned to working with Harper's Bazaar's new, young photographer, Richard Avedon. Avedon would become one of the most famous photographers in history. While living in her apartment in New York, a young author, Truman Capote, visited a friend in an apartment near hers. Capote was fascinated by Dorian's lifestyle of non-stop men, coming and goings, and having a store across the street handle her phone calls, since there were no answering machines back in the early 1950s. He struck up a friendship with Dorian and called her "Happy-go-lucky." Capote's character Holly Golightly in his famous 1958 novel Breakfast at Tiffany's is said to be largely based on Dorian's life, as well as socialite Gloria Vanderbilt's.

Dorian also became well known for her advertising work for Revlon. Revlon began full-page, national, color advertisements around 1944. Dorian's first ad was for "Fatal Apple" and was followed by "Sheer Dynamite," "Ultraviolet", "Fashion Plate", and "Cherries in the Snow." In 1952, when she was 35 years old, Richard Avedon photographed her for Revlon's most famous advertising campaign, Fire and Ice. In this two-page advertisement, Dorian is wearing a very tight, silver sequined gown swathed in a huge red wrap that was copied from a Balenciaga original. The dress had hand-sewn silver sequins on it, and it took so long to create that only the front of the dress was finished in time to be photographed for the ad. The back was non-existent and held in place with safety pins. Dorian also had a silver streak put in her black hair. The original ad had her holding her hand in front of her breast, but the agency considered the photo too risqué, and the photo was re-shot. The ad was accompanied by a provocative quiz written by Kay Daly, and it became an enormous success, winning Advertising Age's "Magazine Advertisement of the Year" award.

Around 1947, Dorian's sister Florian introduced her to Roger Mehle. He was divorced from Aileen Mehle, who later became the very famous gossip columnist known as "Suzy." Florian was married to an army officer and Mehle was the youngest Navy commander and fighter ace during WWII. In August 1948, Dorian was two months pregnant when she married Mehle. Her bridemaids were her teen sister Suzy and Suzy's teen model friend Carmen Dell'Orefice. Dorian's two older children, who were being raised by her parents in Pomona Park, Florida, came to live with the couple in Pennsylvania.

During her marriage to Roger Mehle, Dorian became fed up with Harry Conover's agency. Conover's phones were often busy and it took a very long time for the clients to pay the models for their work. She decided to start her own modeling agency called the Fashion Bureau, and devised a "voucher system" method for paying the models. With this innovative system, the modeling agency would pay the models weekly, instead of the models having to wait to be paid directly by the clients. Often it took companies weeks, months, or even years to pay models for their work.

One day, at a photographer's studio, Dorian met a young fashion stylist named Eileen Ford. Ford asked how Dorian's modeling agency worked and then decided to start an agency of her own. Eileen, along with her husband Gerard W. Ford, started what would become one of the most prestigious modeling agencies in the world, Ford Models.

Dorian closed her agency when she married. She then telephoned Eileen Ford and told her that she would join the Ford Agency if they also signed her 15-year-old sister, Suzy Parker, sight-unseen. Suzy, 15 years younger than Dorian, had already been working for the Huntington Hartford agency making $25 per hour. Dorian told Ford she believed Suzy should be making $40 per hour. The Fords' agency was only two years old, so they were anxious to represent a famous model like Dorian. They agreed to meet Dorian and Suzy for lunch. Dorian was thin, had an extremely small waist, and had black hair and bright blue eyes. The Fords were shocked during their initial meeting to see that Suzy was almost six inches taller than Dorian and had a larger frame, bright red hair, freckles, and green eyes. In the 1950s, Suzy would become even more famous than Dorian and would go on to be a movie and television actress.

Dorian gave birth to her daughter, Young Eve Mehle, on March 27, 1949. The couple had a house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania but rarely saw each other. Roger Mehle's naval career stationed him in Atlantic City, and Dorian commuted to New York City and Paris for modeling work. She also began to work more often in Europe with Richard Avedon. In 1952, Dorian also played the part of a model in the play The Fifth Season. Her job as model, mother, and actress was featured in Look magazine's June 2, 1953, cover story. By then, she had appeared on the covers of more than 50 magazines. On the Look cover, she is quoted as saying, "I would rather have a baby than a mink coat."

The previous summer in Paris, Dorian had met the married Spanish athlete Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca, Marquis of Portago (Alfonso de Portago). Her children were again sent to live with her parents in Florida. Alfonso (Fon), was 11 years younger than Dorian. She was still married to Roger Mehle, and Portago was also married, to an older American showgirl named Carroll McDaniel who later married Milton Petrie. Portago also had a three-year-old daughter with Carroll. He told Dorian that years before he had seen her "Ultraviolet" Revlon ad in a drugstore in Spain and was captivated. Dorian and Fon were both reluctant to divorce their spouses, but carried on an affair all summer in Paris and Biarritz. Dorian became pregnant by him, but chose to have an abortion because she feared Roger Mehle would divorce her and take full custody of their daughter Young Eve. Only weeks later, at the end of the summer, Fon told Dorian that Carroll was pregnant with their second child. Dorian returned to the United States and divorced Roger Mehle on November 24, 1954, in Mexico. Fon then "married" Dorian right away in Mexico, but since he was not divorced, the marriage was not legal.

Dorian continued her affair with Fon, even though his wife Carroll gave birth to their son Anthony de Portago around 1954. Coco Chanel, who was Suzy's friend, told Dorian that she was "throwing her life away on an idiot." Despite this warning, Dorian got pregnant by Portago again, even though he was still married to Carroll. To avoid a scandalous illegitimate pregnancy and the interest of gossip columnists in the United States, Dorian left her three other children with her parents in Florida and fled to Paris and then Switzerland. In Switzerland, she spent time with Charlie Chaplin's large family before giving birth to her son Kim Blas Parker on September 27, 1955. Dorian did not tell her parents about this child and instead lied and told her family that she was in a tuberculosis clinic. She and Portago continued an on-and-off relationship in 1956 and 1957.

Life after modeling
Living in France with her baby son Kim, Dorian was nearing 40. Her career as a model was coming to a close, so she began the first legal modeling agency in France to support her son. She had also lent the financially irresponsible Portago about $15,000.

Portago, still married, was now also openly dating actress Linda Christian, the ex-wife of actor Tyrone Power, in early 1957. On April 23, 1957, Dorian's 40th birthday, Portago told Dorian that he was supposedly finally divorcing Carroll so they could be legally married. He told her that he was entering the famous Mille Miglia car race in Italy on May 8, 1957, and Carroll was supposed to sign their divorce papers on May 9. Instead, on May 8, Dorian received a phone call from his mother Olga, informing Dorian that Fon's tire on his Ferrari race car had blown up because he did not stop in time for a tire change. Fon and his co-driver Edmund Nelson were mutilated and killed in a horrifying crash. As well, when the tire exploded and he lost control of the car, nine spectators, including five children, were killed due to the accident. This catastrophe ended the Mille Miglia forever.

A few days after Portago was killed, Dorian's sister Suzy, while making a movie with Cary Grant, told famous gossip columnist Louella Parsons that Dorian had a son with Portago and she was estranged from her sister because of it. Dorian was shocked that Suzy leaked this secret, and Dorian's parents only learned about the child's existence from reading about it in the newspaper. They were furious and told Dorian that she would never have custody of her children. They also refused to accept Kim.

In 1957, Dorian returned to Florida and visited Young at her parents’ home. She then took her daughter, fled to Paris, and remained mostly in France for the following 21 years. Dorian's two older children had graduated high school by this time. She continued to run her modeling agency in Paris and became pregnant by yet another man in 1958. While in the hospital in Paris on June 6, 1958, she received news that Suzy and her father had been in a serious car accident. Suzy's father had apparently not seen or heard an oncoming train and drove onto the tracks where it slammed into his car. They were on their way to visit Suzy's mother, who was in the hospital with cancer. Their father was killed. Suzy's arms were broken and she remained hospitalized for three months. Dorian then had her gynecologist, Dr. Serge Bordat, abort her baby. Days later, she married Dr. Bordat.

Although Dorian already had four children, she wanted another baby, but Serge claimed he was too young. Dorian moved out of their apartment, but they remained legally married. She kept busy with her Paris modeling agency, which now had branches in Hamburg and London, and often traveled to these offices. During a solo ski vacation to Klosters, Switzerland, over Christmas 1960, 43-year-old Dorian slept with four men in one week in an attempt to get pregnant. Three months later, Serge found out through one of Dorian's models that she was pregnant by one of these men. In September 1961, Dorian gave birth to her fifth child, Miranda, in France. She suspected that a young ski instructor at Klosters was the father. She then divorced Serge.

In 1964, 47-year-old Dorian met 23-year-old Israeli writer Iddo Ben-Gurion and they were married. She then discovered Iddo was a drug addict who was embezzling money from her modeling agencies. She divorced him in 1966, and she remained single for the remainder of her life. Dorian eventually had to close her agencies because so much money had been stolen by Iddo. Most of her modeling fortune had either been stolen or spent recklessly.

In 1972, Dorian became a born-again Christian at the urging of her sister Georgiabell and daughter Young. Living in Paris, she studied at Le Cordon Bleu and opened and ran her own restaurant, Chez Leigh, from 1973 to 1975. She tried to get cooking jobs in Corsica and Orleans, as well. By 1976, she was broke.

In 1977, Dorian received a phone call from the New York City modeling agent Stewart Cowley asking her to work as his office manager, so she agreed to return to New York, which was also where her 21-year-old son Kim was living. Kim's half-brother Anthony de Portago also lived in New York and the two had become good friends. However, Dorian soon discovered that Kim had developed a serious drug addiction, and she sent him to live with her sister Suzy in California briefly. He was told to leave when it was discovered that he was continuing to use drugs in their home. Kim then returned to New York, and only six months after Dorian had resettled and reunited with him, he jumped 33 floors from his apartment window to his death, leaving a suicide note behind. Then, on March 6, 1990, Dorian's son Anthony died of AIDS.

After Kim's death, Dorian lived in Pound Ridge, New York, where she made pâtés for delicatessens and specialty food shops, according to a profile in The New York Times by Enid Nemy. She also worked with Martha Stewart in the early 1980s and wrote two cookbooks, Pancakes: From Flapjacks to Crepes (1987) and Doughnuts: Over 3 Dozen Crullers, Fritters and Other Treats (1994) at the age of 77.

Autobiography
In 1980, Dorian published an autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything (Doubleday).

According to Dorian, she wrote her autobiography for her late son: "I really wrote it for Kim, who will never read it. But perhaps other Kims and their parents may learn from my unhappy experiences".

Death
Dorian died in a Falls Church, Virginia, nursing home from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 91 in 2008. In her obituary, her first son, Thomas Lofton (T.L.) Hawkins, reminisced about his mother's famous "Fire and Ice" photograph.

Dorian was survived by three of her five children: son T.L., who later married Kristie Miller, daughter of Ruth Elizabeth McCormick, and daughters Young Eve and Miranda Olga. Dorian's son Blaise (Kim) and daughter Marsha Lynn predeceased her. She was also survived by several grandchildren and one remaining Parker sister, Florian, who died at the age of 92 in 2010.

title: Dorian Leigh


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Pope John XV

Pope John XV (Ioannes XV; died March 996) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from August 985 until his death. A Roman by birth, he was the first pope who canonized a saint. The origins of the investiture controversy stem from John XV's pontificate, when the dispute about the deposition of Archbishop Arnulf of Reims soured the relationship between the Capetian kings of France and the Holy See.

Early life
John XV was the son of Leo, a Roman presbyter. Before he became pope in August 985, John was cardinal-priest of St. Vitalis.

Pontificate
John XV's venality and nepotism allegedly made him very unpopular with the citizens of Rome. However, Joseph Brusher finds this unproven, as John XV had little authority in Rome at that time. Crescentius II, patrician of Rome, significantly hampered the pope's influence, but the presence of Empress Theophanu in Rome from 989 to 991 restrained Crescentius' ambition.

John was a patron and protector of the reforming monks of Cluny. Through his legate Leo, he mediated a dispute between King Ethelred the Unready of England and Duke Richard the Fearless of Normandy.

French dispute
During this papacy, a serious dispute arose over the deposition in 991 of Archbishop Arnulf of Reims by French churchmen. This affair is sometimes read as an early groundswell of the conflicts between popes and the Capetians, new kings of France, that came to a head later in the Investiture Controversy. King Hugh Capet made Arnulf archbishop of Reims in 988. Arnulf was the scion of the previously ruling dynasty, the Carolingians. Arnulf's uncle Charles invaded to claim the throne for himself. Hugh considered Arnulf a turncoat and demanded his deposition by John XV. The turn of events outran the messages, when Hugh Capet captured both Charles and Archbishop Arnulf and convoked a synod at Reims in June 991, which obediently deposed Arnulf and chose as his successor Gerbert of Aurillac. At the synod, Bishop Arnulf of Orléans accused Pope John XV: "Are any bold enough to maintain that the priests of the Lord all over the world are to take their law from monsters of guilt like these—men branded with ignominy, illiterate men, and ignorant alike of things human and divine? If, holy fathers, we are bound to weigh in the balance the lives, the morals, and the attainments of the humblest candidate for the priestly office, how much more ought we to look to the fitness of him who aspires to be the Lord and Master of all priests! Yet how would it fare with us, if it should happen that the man the most deficient in all these virtues, unworthy of the lowest place in the priesthood, should be chosen to fill the highest place of all? What would you say of such a one, when you see him sitting upon the throne glittering in purple and gold? Must he not be the 'Antichrist, sitting in the temple of God and showing himself as God'?"

The proceedings of the Synod of Reims were repudiated by Rome, although a second synod had ratified the decrees issued at Reims. John XV summoned the French bishops to hold an independent synod outside the French king's realm at Aachen to reconsider the case. When they refused, he called them to Rome, but they protested that the unsettled conditions en route and in Rome made that impossible. The Pope then sent a legate with instructions to call a council of French and German bishops at Mousson, where only the German bishops appeared, the French being stopped on the way by Hugh Capet and his son Robert. Through the exertions of the legate, the deposition of Arnulf was finally pronounced illegal. After Hugh Capet's death on 23 October 996, Arnulf was released from his imprisonment and soon restored to all his dignities. As for Gerbert, he set out for the imperial court at Magdeburg and became the preceptor to Emperor Otto III.

First canonization
At a Roman synod held in the Lateran on 31 January 993, John XV solemnly canonized Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, an event which the pope announced to the French and German bishops in a papal bull dated 3 February. This was the first time in history that a solemn canonization had been made by a pope.

Death
In 996, Otto III undertook a journey to Italy to obtain an imperial coronation from the pope, but John XV died of fever in March 996, while Otto III lingered in Pavia until April 12 to celebrate Easter. The emperor then elevated his own cousin Bruno to the papal dignity under the name of Gregory V.

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

title: Pope John XV


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Theophano

Theophano (Θεοφανώ) may refer to:

 * Theophano of Athens, consort of Staurakios (reigned 811)
 * Theophano Martinakia, first consort of Leo VI the Wise (reigned 886 – 912)
 * Theophano (born Anastaso), consort of Romanos II (reigned 959 – 963) and Nikephoros II (reigned 963 – 969)
 * Theophanu, consort of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 967 – 983)
 * Theophanu, Abbess of Essen from 1039–1058, granddaughter of Empress Theophanu and Otto II

title: Theophano


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State President of South Africa

The State President of the Republic of South Africa (Staatspresident van Republiek van Suid-Afrika) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, outside the Commonwealth of Nations, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be Queen of South Africa. The position of Governor-General of South Africa was accordingly abolished. From 1961 to 1984, the post was largely ceremonial. After constitutional reforms enacted in 1983 and taking effect in 1984, the State President became an executive post, and its holder was both head of state and head of government.

The State President was appointed by both Houses of the Parliament of South Africa (Senate of South Africa and the House of Assembly of South Africa) meeting jointly in the form of an electoral college for this purpose.

The office was abolished in 1994, with the end of Apartheid and the transition to democratic majority rule. Since then, the head of state and head of government is known simply as the President of South Africa.

Prior to 1981, the President of the Senate of South Africa had a dormant commission to act as State President whenever the State Presidency was vacant. This was often the case from 1967 to 1979.

Ceremonial post

Republicanism had long been a plank in the platform of the ruling National Party. However, it was not until 1960, 12 years after it took power, that it was able to hold a referendum on the issue. A narrow majority — 52 percent — of the minority white electorate voted in favour of abolishing the monarchy and declaring South Africa a republic.

The Republic of South Africa was proclaimed on 31 May 1961. Charles Robberts Swart, the last Governor-General, was sworn in as the first State President. The title 'State President' was originally used for the head of state of the Boer Republics, and like them, the holder of the office wore a sash with the Republic's coat of arms. He was elected to a single seven-year term by the Parliament of South Africa, and was not eligible for re-election.

The National Party decided against having an executive presidency, instead adopting a minimalist approach as a conciliatory gesture to those in the English-speaking community who were opposed to a republic. As such, the State President performed mostly ceremonial duties, and was bound by convention to act on the advice of the Prime Minister and the cabinet.

In practice, the post of State President was a sinecure for retired National Party ministers, as the Governor-General's post had been since 1948. Consequently, all State Presidents from 1961 to 1984 were white, Afrikaner, male, and over 60.

The powers of the State President from 1961 to 1984 was essentially the same as that of the Governor-General of South Africa.

Executive post
Following constitutional reforms, in 1984, the office of State President became an executive post, as in the United States. The Prime Minister's post was abolished, and its powers were de facto merged with those of the State President. He was elected by an electoral college of 88 members – 50 Whites, 25 Coloureds, and 13 Indians – from among the members of the Tricameral Parliament. The members of the electoral college were elected by the respective racial groups of the Tricameral Parliament – the white House of Assembly, Coloured House of Representatives and Indian House of Delegates. He held office for the Parliament's duration — in practice, five years. The last Prime Minister, P. W. Botha, was elected as the first executive State President. He succeeded the last ceremonial and non-executive State President, Marais Viljoen.

The State President was vested with sweeping executive powers – in most respects, even greater than those of comparative offices like the President of the United States. He had sole jurisdiction over matters of "national" concern, such as foreign policy and race relations. He was chairman of the President's Council, which resolved disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" legislation. This body consisted of 60 members – 20 members appointed by the House of Assembly, 10 by the House of Representatives, five by the House of Delegates and 25 directly by the State President.

Although the reforms were billed as a power-sharing arrangement, the composition of the electoral college and President's Council made it all but impossible for the white chamber to be outvoted on any substantive matter. Thus, the real power remained in white hands – and in practice, in the hands of the National Party, which had a large majority in the white chamber. As Botha was leader of the National Party, the system placed nearly all governing power in his hands.

Botha resigned in 1989 and was succeeded by F. W. de Klerk, who oversaw the transition to majority rule in 1994.

End of white minority rule
Under South Africa's first non-racial constitution, adopted in 1994, the head of state (and of government) has been known simply as the President. However, since the declaration of the republic in 1961, most non-South African sources had referred to the State President as simply the "President". The leader of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was sworn in as President of South Africa on 10 May 1994.

List of state presidents of South Africa

 * Political parties

 * Symbols

title: State President of South Africa


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Zymology

Zymology, also known as zymurgy, is an applied science that studies the biochemical process of fermentation and its practical uses. Common topics include the selection of fermenting yeast and bacteria species and their use in brewing, wine making, fermenting milk, and the making of other fermented foods.

Fermentation
Fermentation can be simply defined, in this context [in which context??], as the conversion of sugar molecules into ethanol and carbon dioxide by yeast.

Fermentation practices have led to the discovery of ample microbial and antimicrobial cultures on fermented foods and products.

History
French chemist Louis Pasteur was the first 'zymologist' when in 1857 he connected yeast to fermentation. Pasteur originally defined fermentation as "respiration without air".

Pasteur performed careful research and concluded:

"Je pense que la fermentation alcoolique ne se produit jamais sans une organization simultanée, une développement, une multiplication de cellules … . Si l'on me demandai en quoi consiste la réaction chimique par laquelle le sucre et décomposé … je l'ignore complètement. I am of the opinion that alcoholic fermentation never occurs without simultaneous organization, development and multiplication of cells … . If asked, in what consists the chemical act whereby the sugar is decomposed … I am completely ignorant of it."

The German Eduard Buchner, winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize in chemistry, later determined that fermentation was actually caused by a yeast secretion, which he termed 'zymase'.

The research efforts undertaken by the Danish Carlsberg scientists greatly accelerated understanding of yeast and brewing. The Carlsberg scientists are generally acknowledged as having jump-started the entire field of molecular biology.

Products

 * All alcoholic drinks including beer, cider, kombucha, kvass, mead, perry, tibicos, wine, pulque, hard liquors (brandy, rum, vodka, sake, schnapps), and soured by-products including vinegar and alegar
 * Yeast leavened breads including sourdough, salt-rising bread, and others
 * Cheese and some dairy products including kefir and yogurt
 * Chocolate
 * Coffee
 * Dishes including fermented fish, such as garum, surströmming, and Worcestershire sauce
 * Some vegetables such as kimchi, some types of pickles (most are not fermented though), and sauerkraut
 * A wide variety of fermented foods made from soybeans, including fermented bean paste, nattō, tempeh, and soya sauce

title: Zymology


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Rutland Railroad

The Rutland Railroad was a railroad in the northeastern United States, located primarily in the state of Vermont but extending into the state of New York at both its northernmost and southernmost ends. After its closure in 1961, parts of the railroad were taken over by the State of Vermont in early 1963 and are now operated by the Vermont Railway.

Construction and early years
The earliest ancestor of the Rutland, the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, was chartered in 1843 by the state of Vermont to build between Rutland and Burlington. When the Vermont legislature created the state railroad commissioner in 1855 to oversee railway construction, maintenance, and operations, the first person appointed to the position was Charles Linsley, the Rutland and Burlington's counsel, and a member of its board of directors. A number of other railroads were formed in the region, and by 1867 the Rutland & Burlington Railroad had changed its name to simply the Rutland Railroad.

Between 1871 and 1896, the Rutland Railroad was leased to the Central Vermont, regaining its independence when that road entered receivership. The New York Central Railroad briefly had a controlling interest in the Rutland from 1904 but sold half of its shares to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1911.

In 1901, the Rutland Railroad completed construction of a system of causeways and trestles across Lake Champlain, through the Champlain Islands of South Hero and North Hero, to connect Burlington, Vermont and Rouses Point, New York. The purpose of this construction was to give the Rutland access to Canada, independent of the tracks of the competing Central Vermont. Both companies did share the same bridge over the Richelieu River at the final approach to Rouses Point by using an unusual gauntlet track, which allowed sharing without the need for switches: only one train occupying the bridge at any one time. The causeway between Burlington and South Hero was much later converted into a maintained recreational trail called The Island Line Trail. The company also had a line from Rutland southeast to Bellows Falls, in southeastern Vermont on the Connecticut River just opposite North Walpole, New Hampshire (still operated by the Vermont Railway), and a line from Rutland south to North Bennington; thence to Chatham, New York. Chatham was a major junction for connections via the New York Central to New York City and the Boston & Albany Railroad service to Massachusetts, until the Rutland's 1953 abandonment of the branch between North Bennington and Chatham: the first of the railroad's divisions to lose passenger service, in 1931.

The railroad operated a day passenger train called the Green Mountain Flyer. It also operated a night train counterpart, the Mount Royal, from Montreal to New York City, via Burlington and Rutland.

The Rutland's primary freight traffic was derived from dairy products, including milk, that used to move over the system. At its peak, the Rutland served a system extending approximately 400 mi in the shape of an upside-down "L" running from Chatham, New York north to Alburgh, Vermont; thence west to Ogdensburg, New York, situated on the St. Lawrence River. The railroad's northernmost terminus was Noyan, Quebec. In 1925, Rutland reported 259 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 38 million passenger-miles along 413 mi of road and 559 mi of track. In 1960, it had 182 million ton-miles on 391 route-miles and 476 track-miles.

Decline

Lacking a solid financial operation, the Rutland entered receivership for the first time in 1938. Cost cutting, including wage reduction, was implemented to improve its financial standing. The railroad's state was dire enough that, in March, 1939, the state of Vermont agreed to suspend the company's tax payments for 2 years to help it recover. After a strictly-temporary revenue boom resulting from World War II traffic increases, the railroad's revenue decline returned and intensified, necessitating urgent and serious operating cost reductions. The money-losing and decrepit Chatham Division (known as the "Corkscrew" due to its many curves) from North Bennington, VT to Chatham, NY was abandoned accordingly and torn-up in 1953, thus terminating the Rutland's connections with the New York Central's Harlem Division and Boston & Albany mainline at Chatham. Rutland freight trains were then rerouted to Chatham via Troy, NY's NYC connection. A corporate reorganization of the company occurred in 1950, and its name was thereby changed from Rutland Railroad to Rutland Railway. Employees went on strike for three weeks in 1953, which ended the line's historic passenger service. Also in 1953, the Rutland parked and stored (dead) all of its last steam locomotives, which were finally all scrapped by 1955 in return for some much-needed revenue.

In early 1961, following additional worker strikes (see below), including wage-increase demands that the railroad could not afford to pay and survive, the Rutland applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to completely abandon the entire line. The measure was swiftly approved, and the railroad was completely shut-down (but not formally abandoned) in early 1961. The strikes were the result of the employees' unwillingness to accept divisional operating changes that would have moved the center of operations from Rutland to Burlington, requiring many of them to relocate. The changes would also have lengthened the total time of runs from Burlington to both Bellows Falls, Vermont and Ogdensburg, New York, due to their creation of a new overnight stop that would delay returning trains until the following day. Under operating orders in place at the time, crews would make the run from Rutland to Burlington or Bellows Falls and back in a day, or from Malone, New York to Ogdensburg and Burlington and back in a day. Several years later, the national railroad unions agreed to nationwide job changes that allowed this type of change: far too late to save the old Rutland.

The State of Vermont persuaded the Vermont bankruptcy court in 1961 to postpone selling the railroad for net scrap value, so the court gave the State two years to try to find a new operator and thus retain future service potential for the good of the State. A new operator was only secured after the State itself bought much of the line, in 1963.(see below).

Much of the remaining railroad right-of-way, tracks and facilities were purchased by the State of Vermont via the Vermont bankruptcy court following formal abandonment in 1963. However, a 132.4-mile segment between Burlington's Union Station and Norwood, NY, via the Hero Islands and Alburgh, VT and through Rouses Point and Malone to Norwood, NY, was not only closed in 1961 and abandoned in 1963, but was also torn-up in 1964. Unlucky Malone, NY thus went from having one railroad to none, previously reduced from two to one when the northern portion of the New York Central's Adirondack Division through Malone was abandoned and torn-up in 1960. The 26 westernmost miles of the Rutland's Ogdensburg Division, between Ogdensburg and Norwood, remains in tracks. It is operated by Vermont Railway, resulting in all the remaining trackage of the Rutland being operated by one company. Ownership of the 132.4-mile roadbed between Norwood, NY and Burlington, VT has been dispersed, but a 21-mile section from Norwood to Moira, New York is now the multi-use Rutland Trail. Other abandoned sections now make up all or part of the Hudson and Delaware Rail Trail, Corkscrew Rail Trail and the Alburg Recreation Rail Trail. The Rutland Railroad route from Rutland to Burlington has been used by passenger trains since summer, 2022, when Amtrak extended its Ethan Allen Express to Burlington.

Steamtown
Until it was relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, The Steamtown Foundation, located near the Bellows Falls terminus, operated tourist trains between the museum site and Chester, Vermont. Following Steamtown’s departure, several tourist trains were operated using the original Rutland rolling stock.

title: Rutland Railroad


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Pope John XII

Pope John XII (Ioannes XII; c. 930/937 – 14 May 964), born Octavian, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 16 December 955 to his death in 964. He was related to the counts of Tusculum, a powerful Roman family which had dominated papal politics for over half a century. He became pope in his late teenage years or early twenties. In 960, he clashed with the Lombards to the south. Unable to control Rome easily, he sought help from King Otto I of Germany and crowned him emperor. John XII's pontificate became infamous for the alleged depravity and worldliness with which he conducted his office. He soon fell out with Otto, but died before Otto could succeed in his attempt to depose him.

Family and election
Octavianus was the son of Alberic II of Spoleto, patrician and self-styled prince of Rome. His mother is believed to have been Alda of Vienne, Alberic's stepsister and the daughter of King Hugh of Italy. However, there is some doubt about this. Benedict of Soracte recorded that Octavianus was the son of a concubine (Genuit (Alberic) ex his principem ex concubinam filium, imposuit eis nomen Octabianus), but his Latin is unclear. If he was the son of Alda, he would have been 18 when he became pope, but if the son of a concubine he could have been up to 7 years older. He was born in the region of the Via Lata, the aristocratic quarter that was situated between the Quirinal Hill and the Campus Martius. His given name, evoking Augustus, was a clear indicator of how the family saw themselves and his destiny.

Sometime before his death in 954, Alberic administered an oath to the Roman nobles in St. Peter's providing that the next vacancy for the papal chair would be filled by his son Octavian, who by this stage had entered the Church. With his father's death, and without any opposition, he succeeded his father as prince of the Romans, somewhere between the ages of 17 and 24.

With the death of Pope Agapetus II in November 955, Octavian, who was the cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica, was elected his successor on 16 December 955. His adoption of the apostolic name of John XII was the third example of a pontiff taking a regnal name upon elevation to the papal chair, the first being John II (533–535) and the second John III (561–574). Right from the start, in relation to secular issues, the new pope issued his directives under the name of Octavian, while in all matters relating to the Church, he issued papal bulls and other material under his pontifical name of John.

Papal reign
In around 960, John personally led an attack against the Lombard duchies of Beneventum and Capua, presumably to reclaim parts of the Papal States which had been lost to them. Confronted by the sight of John marching at the head of an army of men from Tusculum and Spoleto, the dukes of Beneventum and Capua appealed for help from Gisulf I of Salerno, who came to their aid. John retreated north and entered into negotiations with Gisulf at Terracina. A treaty was secured between the two parties, and the price for Gisulf's non-interference was John agreeing that the papacy would no longer claim Salerno as a Papal patrimony.

John soon found that he was unable to control the powerful Roman nobility as his father had so effortlessly done. At around the same time, King Berengar II of Italy began to attack the territory of the pope. In order to protect himself against political intrigues in Rome and the power of Berengar II, John sent papal legates in 960 to King Otto I of Germany, who had previously been granted the rank of patrician, asking for his aid. Agreeing to John's invitation, Otto entered Italy in 961. Berengar quickly retreated to his strongholds, and Otto proceeded to enter Rome on 31 January 962. There he met with John and proceeded to swear under oath that he would do everything to defend the pope:

"To thee, the Lord Pope John, I, King Otto, promise and swear, by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by the wood of the life-giving cross, and by these relics of the saints, that, if by the will of God I come to Rome, I will exalt to the best of my ability the Holy Roman Church and you its ruler; and never with my will or at my instigation shall you lose life or limb or the honour which you possess. And without your consent never, within the city of Rome, will I hold a placitum (plea) or make any regulation which affects you or the Romans. Whatever territory of St. Peter comes within my grasp, I will give up to you. And to whomsoever I shall entrust the kingdom of Italy, I will make him swear to help you as far as he can to defend the lands of St. Peter."

John then proceeded to crown Otto as emperor, the first in the west since the death of Berengar I of Italy almost 40 years before. The pope and the Roman nobility swore an oath over the buried remains of Saint Peter to be faithful to Otto, and not to provide aid to Berengar II or his son Adalbert. Eleven days later, the pope and emperor ratified the Diploma Ottonianum, under which the emperor became the guarantor of the independence of the Papal States, which ran from Naples and Capua in the south to La Spezia and Venice in the north. This was the first effective guarantee of such protection since the collapse of the Carolingian Empire nearly 100 years before. He also confirmed the freedom of papal elections, but retained the imperial right to agree to the election before the papal consecration, whilst at the same time retaining the clauses of the Constitutio Romana which restricted temporal papal power.

Church affairs

Although Pope John XII was condemned for his worldly ways, he still managed to devote some time towards church affairs. In early 956, he wrote to William of Mayence, the papal legate in Germany, urging him to continue in his work there, especially against those who would "devastate the churches of God". He asked William to inform him of the goings on both in West Francia and Germany. John also wrote to Henry, the new archbishop of Trier, granting him the pallium and encouraging him to lead a good life. In 958, he granted privileges to Subiaco Abbey, on condition that:

"every day by priests and monks should be recited, for the good of our soul and the souls of our successors, a hundred Kyrie-eleisons and a hundred Christe-eleisons, and that thrice each week the priests should offer the Holy Mass to Almighty God for the absolution of our soul and those of our successors."

In 960 John confirmed the appointment of Saint Dunstan as archbishop of Canterbury, who traveled to Rome to receive the pallium directly from John XII's hands.

On 12 February 962, John convened a synod in Rome at the behest of Emperor Otto. In it, John agreed to establish the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Merseburg, bestowed the pallium on the archbishop of Salzburg and archbishop of Trier, and confirmed the appointment of Rather as bishop of Verona. It also passed a resolution excommunicating Bishop Hugh of Vermandois, who had attempted to reclaim his former position as archbishop of Reims. This excommunication was reconfirmed by John at another synod held at Pavia later that same year.

According to Horace Kinder Mann, "ecclesiastical affairs did not seem to have had much attraction for John XII".

Conflict with Otto and death
Otto left Rome on 14 February 962 to bring Berengar II to heel. Before leaving he suggested that John, "who passed his whole life in vanity and adultery", give up his worldly and sensual lifestyle. John ignored this advice and watched with increasing anxiety as Otto quickly drove Berengar out of the Papal States. Growing ever more fearful of the emperor's power, he sent envoys to the Magyars and the Byzantine Empire to form a league against Otto. He also entered into negotiations with Berengar's son Adalbert.

John's ambassadors were captured by Otto I, who sent a deputation to Rome to discover what was happening behind his back. John in the meantime sent his own envoys to Otto, including the future Pope Leo VIII, who tried to reassure the emperor that John was seeking to reform the papal court. However, in 963, Otto next learned that Adalbert had been allowed to enter Rome for discussions with John. With Berengar effectively defeated and imprisoned, Otto returned to Rome, besieging it in the summer of 963. He found a city divided; supporters of the emperor who had reported Adalbert's arrival in Rome had dug themselves in at Joannispolis, a fortified section of Rome centred on the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. John and his supporters meanwhile retained the old Leonine City. At first John prepared to defend the city; appearing in armour, he managed to drive Otto's forces across the Tiber River. However, he quickly decided that he could not continue to defend the city, and so taking the papal treasury with him, he and Adalbert fled to Tibur.

Otto I subsequently summoned a council which demanded that John present himself and defend himself against a number of charges. John responded by threatening to excommunicate anyone who attempted to depose him. Undeterred, the emperor and the council deposed John XII, who by this time had gone hunting in the mountains of Campania, and elected Pope Leo VIII in his stead.

An attempt at a revolt in support of John was mounted by the inhabitants of Rome even before Otto I left the city, but was put down with a large loss of life. However, upon the emperor's departure, John XII returned at the head of a large company of friends and retainers, causing Leo VIII to flee to the emperor for safety. Entering Rome in February 964, John proceeded to summon a synod which pronounced his deposition as uncanonical. After mutilating some of his enemies, he again was the effective ruler of Rome. Sending Otgar, Bishop of Speyer to the emperor, he attempted to come to some accommodation with Otto, but before anything could come of it, John XII died on 14 May 964. According to Liudprand of Cremona, John died whilst enjoying an adulterous sexual encounter outside Rome, either as the result of apoplexy, or at the hands of an outraged husband.

John was buried in the Lateran. Pope Benedict V soon succeeded him, but he was successfully deposed by Leo VIII.

Character and reputation

John's dual role as the secular prince of Rome and the spiritual head of the church saw his behaviour lean towards the former rather than the latter. He was depicted as a coarse, immoral man in the writings which remain about his papacy, whose life was such that the Lateran Palace was spoken of as a brothel, and the moral corruption in Rome became the subject of general disgrace. His lifestyle suited the secular prince he was, and his political enemies would use these accusations to blacken his reputation not only to justify, but to obscure the political dimensions of his deposition.

It is for this purpose that Liudprand of Cremona, a partisan of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, gives an account of the charges levelled against him at the Synod of Rome in 963: "Then, rising up, the cardinal priest Peter testified that he himself had seen John XII celebrate Mass without taking communion. John, bishop of Narni, and John, a cardinal deacon, professed that they themselves saw that a deacon had been ordained in a horse stable, but were unsure of the time. Benedict, cardinal deacon, with other co-deacons and priests, said they knew that he had been paid for ordaining bishops, specifically that he had ordained a ten-year-old bishop in the city of Todi ... They testified about his adultery, which they did not see with their own eyes, but nonetheless knew with certainty: he had fornicated with the widow of Rainier, with Stephana his father's concubine, with the widow Anna, and with his own niece, and he made the sacred palace into a whorehouse. They said that he had gone hunting publicly; that he had blinded his confessor Benedict, and thereafter Benedict had died; that he had killed John, cardinal subdeacon, after castrating him; and that he had set fires, girded on a sword, and put on a helmet and cuirass. All, clerics as well as laymen, declared that he had toasted to the devil with wine. They said when playing at dice, he invoked Jupiter, Venus and other demons. They even said he did not celebrate Matins at the canonical hours nor did he make the sign of the cross."

However, other contemporaries also accused John of immoral behaviour. For example, Ratherius of Verona wrote: "What improvement could be looked for if one who was leading an immoral life, who was bellicose and perjured, and who was devoted to hunting, hawking, gaming, and wine, were to be elected to the Apostolic See?"

In the end though, much of the subsequent extreme condemnation of John XII is derived from the accusations recorded by Liudprand of Cremona. So according to fiercely anti-Catholic Louis Marie DeCormenin:

"John XII was worthy of being the rival of Elagabalus ... a robber, a murderer, and incestuous person, unworthy to represent Christ upon the pontifical throne ... This abominable priest soiled the chair of St. Peter for nine entire years and deserved to be called the most wicked of popes."

The historian Ferdinand Gregorovius was somewhat more sympathetic: "John's princely instincts were stronger than his taste for spiritual duties, and the two natures—that of Octavian and that of John the Twelfth—stood in unequal conflict. Called as he was in the immaturity of youth to a position which gave him claims on the reverence of the world, his judgment deserted him, and he plunged into the most unbridled sensuality. The Lateran palace was turned into an abode of riot and debauchery. The gilded youths of the city were his daily companions ... The son of the glorious Alberic thus fell a sacrifice to his own unbridled passion, and to the anomalous position which he held as Prince and Pope at the same time. His youth, the greatness of his father, the tragic discords of his position, claim for him a lenient judgment."

Even Horace Mann, a papal defender, was forced to acknowledge:

"There cannot be a doubt that John XII was anything but what a Pope, the chief pastor of Christendom, should have been."

Link to Pope Joan legend
Onofrio Panvinio, in the revised edition of Bartolomeo Platina's book about the popes, added an elaborate note indicating that the legend of Pope Joan may be based on a mistress of John XII: "Panvinius, in a note to Platina's account of pope Joan, suggests that the licentiousness of John XII, who, among his numerous mistresses, had one called Joan, who exercised the chief influence at Rome during his pontificate, may have given rise to the story of 'pope Joan'."

title: Pope John XII