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Ether Dome

The Ether Dome is a surgical operating amphitheater in the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, United States. It served as the hospital's operating room from its opening in 1821 until 1867. It was the site of the first public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic on October 16, 1846, otherwise known as Ether Day. Crawford Long, a surgeon in Georgia, had previously administered sulfuric ether in 1842, but this went unpublished until 1849. The Ether Dome event occurred when William Thomas Green Morton, a local dentist, used ether to anesthetize Edward Gilbert Abbott. John Collins Warren, the first dean of Harvard Medical School, then painlessly removed part of a tumor from Abbott's neck. After Warren had finished, and Abbott regained consciousness, Warren asked the patient how he felt. Reportedly, Abbott said, "Feels as if my neck's been scratched". Warren then turned to his medical audience and uttered "Gentlemen, this is no Humbug". This was presumably a reference to the unsuccessful demonstration of nitrous oxide anesthesia by Horace Wells in the same theater the previous year, which was ended by cries of "Humbug!" after the patient groaned with pain.

Pain relief
The practice of pain relief has existed since the time of civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, China, and Greece, in a multitude of various forms. In Ancient Egypt, natural remedies were often used, while in China, acupuncture was developed as a way to restore an imbalance in the qi, or the life force. In Ancient Greece, medical maladies were often attributed to divine influences, and as such, treatments for these ailments would often include visits to temples dedicated to healing.

The use of vapors, which could be inhaled, became more popular in the 18th century as a potential source of pain relief, especially during surgeries, which up to then were generally gory and extremely painful. One of the earliest mentions of the use of an inhaled gas for pain relief comes from the British chemist Humphry Davys, who in his Researches in 1800 noted that, "As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place."

History of ether's application
Horace Wells was a practicing American dentist in Hartford, Connecticut who is considered a pioneer in the use of surgical anesthesia. In 1844, during a laughing-gas roadshow, Wells cited nitrous oxide—colloquially known as “laughing gas”—as having pain-killing properties. After this revelation, Wells used nitrous oxide as a means of performing painless dental work; specifically the extraction of teeth. In January 1845, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston allowed Wells to demonstrate the method of anesthesia. Unfortunately, the patient did not respond to the dose of nitrous oxide given, which resulted in Wells’ endless contempt. Wells continued with extensive self-experimentation, such as repeated inhalation, with various chemicals. There is evidence that suggests a strong correlation between his inhalation of chemicals to a drastic change in personality. In fact, he was imprisoned for throwing acid at individuals walking in New York City and later committed suicide while the Paris Medical Society named him the discoverer of anesthetic gases.

As a former partner in Wells’ practice, William T.G. Morton learned the technique and began experimenting on his own, and in October 1846 Morton successfully demonstrated ether anesthesia. However, Morton's interest in surgical anesthesia was not solely influenced by Horace Wells, but also Charles T. Jackson and Nathan Cooley Keep.

Charles T. Jackson was a professor of chemistry at Harvard University after practicing as a medical doctor for four years before establishing his chemistry laboratory to teach analytical chemistry. It is speculated that Jackson suggested administering a higher dosage and grade of sulfuric ether to successfully anesthetize the patient.

For a short period of time, both Horace Wells and William T.G. Morton were taught and employed by dentist, anesthesiologist, and first Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Nathan Cooley Keep.

The operation
With the help of MGH surgeon Henry Jacob Bigelow, Morton persuaded Warren to allow him to try his technique on a surgical patient. The trial took place in the Ether Dome on October 16, 1846. The patient was a young printer named Gilbert Abbott, who had a vascular neck tumor. Previous anesthetic approaches had utilized alcohol or even a simple blow to the jaw that would render the patient unconscious. However, this was a more delicate surgery, and Abbott had to be tied to his chair so that he would not choke on his own blood.

Morton used a newly developed apparatus, later called the Morton Etherizer, to deliver the diethyl-ether vapors, holding the mouthpiece to Abbott's lips and instructing him to breathe deeply and slowly. Abbott fell into an unconscious, sleeplike state within three to four minutes, and did not react when Morton made the first incision in his neck for the surgery. During the surgery, Warren noted that the blood of the patient was very dark, and thought that the anesthesia might be producing its effect through carbonization of the blood, a remark which was met with a burst of applause. Upon awakening after the surgery, he announced that he had felt a scratching sensation, but no pain. John Collins Warren turned to the observers and proclaimed, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug." Bigelow immediately published an article describing the event and the news quickly traveled to Europe and other parts of America.

The patient
Among the revolving door of noted physicians and important figures supposedly present on the historic Ether Day, one figure remains constant: Edward Gilbert Abbott, the man upon whom the ether and surgery was administered. Abbott was born in Middlesex County, MA in September 1825. His parents, victims of tuberculosis, left him an orphan in 1832. After a career as a printer and editor, in September 1846, he went in to receive a medical evaluation for a tumor he had on the left side of his jaw, even though it had been present his whole life and did not cause him any pain.

Abbott was given enough ether to make him fall unconscious; he left the hospital with an unremarkable change in the size of the tumor. He was assured—as he probably knew, that it was a benign growth and that he had contributed greatly to the history of medicine. He died in 1855 at the age of 30, leaving behind a wife, a daughter, and a son. The Boston Herald included a mere three sentence summary of his life and descendants in its December 1 issue.

The original Morton Etherizer

Commissioned by William Thomas Green Morton, the Original Morton Etherizer was used on Ether Day as a means of inhalation anesthesia. The Etherizer was made of blown glass with brass fittings at the two open ends, a middle chamber, and a mouthpiece. The middle chamber held a sponge that was soaked in ether, and the chamber would create gaseous conditions thereby making inhalants. The two brass fittings serve as ventilation so that the concentration of the gaseous ether the patient would inhale via the mouthpiece gives the appropriate dose to be safely anesthetized.

The improved ether inhaler
On April 9, 1898 Messrs, Mayer, and Meltzer unveiled the newly designed Clover's smaller ether inhaler. The inhaler was modified from the previous inhaler used on Ether Day by adding two circular apertures on both sides of the apparatus located near two small viewing windows. The apertures and windows were used to view the interior of the chamber to facilitate the quantity of ether being administered. Further modifications included the same plated and polished surfaces on the interior as on the exterior. All fixtures on the apparatus are fitted to ensure there is no leakage of chemicals in the chamber or hot-water from the hot-water jacket. The hot-water jacket serves as an insulator to heat the water which then produces condensation. When the condensation is mixed with the ether and is inhaled, it develops the chemical properties of an anesthetic. The hot-water jacket has a detachable screw-stopper that allows the metal cap, chamber, and bag used to anaesthetize the patient to be cleaned of verdigris. All the above-mentioned features were combined with knowledge gained after practice using this inhaler—such as that the slot located near the bag needs to be opened for ventilation after the induction of the patient—combined to develop the new improved ether inhaler.

The ether controversy
Wells, Jackson, Morton and a Georgia doctor, Crawford W. Long, each claimed credit for the innovation of using ether as an anesthetic.

In either December 1841 or January 1842, Long had introduced the use of sulphuric ether as a substitution to nitrous oxide for the use of entertainment at parties. Long was possibly the first to use ether as a way to alleviate pain during surgery. Long had been using ether in surgery since 1842. On March 30, 1842, he removed a tumor from the neck of a young man named James Venable. Over the following years, Long would use ether in his obstetrical practice, however, he never published any of his findings until seeing the December 1846 issue of a Medical Examiner about Morton, who claimed to have used ether as an anesthetic. Long then began to record his findings and write his account of the discovery. He also collected notarized letters from former patients, but after presenting his findings to the Medical College of Georgia, he discovered two others also claimed to be discoverers: Horace Wells and Charles Jackson. When Long entered his claims, this controversy was already in process.

Prior to Morton's public demonstration of ether, he had supposedly met with Jackson (who was known as attempting to steal others inventions) to discuss questions surrounding anesthesia. It is at this meeting where, supposedly, Jackson had suggested to use ether as a means of alleviating surgical pain. Morton had previously experimented with ether, but never on a patient. Jackson and Morton tangled in a bitter legal dispute and pamphleteering war, that lasted 20 years. In 1868 Morton read a newspaper item asserting that Jackson deserved the lion's share of credit. Morton became feverish, threw himself into a pond in New York's Central Park and died, probably from a stroke, soon thereafter. Jackson died insane at McLean Asylum in Belmont, Massachusetts.

In 1845 Wells had attempted to demonstrate the use of nitrous oxide as anesthesia at MGH but it was “dismissed as humbug” because the patient cried out during the procedure although later, the patient denied feeling any pain. His career then began to spiral down. Wells left the practice of dentistry and his family, and went to New York, where he was arrested for throwing acid on prostitutes. He killed himself in jail by slashing an artery after taking chloroform.

While Morton, Long and Jackson sought fame, Long wanted to be recognized, and to alleviate the pain of his patients. Though Long was the first to surgically use ether, he was not the first to introduce it to the world.

The First Operation with Ether
The Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, leading up to the dramatic demonstration in the Ether Dome.

Triumph Over Pain
Triumph Over Pain is a 1940 book by René Fülöp-Miller.

Robert Hinckley's The First Operation with Ether

Painter Robert Cutler Hinckley meticulously researched the event, particularly who was present and participating, for his The First Operation with Ether (1882–1893). He interviewed various Boston physicians and reviewed records and newspaper reports.

Hinckley uses light and line to draw attention to the surgery; the side wall of the gallery draws a clear diagonal line which ends at the surgeon Warren's head. Morton's ether inhaler reflects light so as to make the sponge contained inside visible. Abbott's shirt as well as the cloth and the bowl on the table are starkly white, directing the eye to the operation. However, the viewer is shielded from the point of incision and from any blood, lessening the impact of the image.

A controversy surrounding the painting revolves around those who are painted into it. Hinckley includes Charles Hosea Hildreth, surgeon Abel Lawrence Peirson, surgeon Jonathan Mason Warren, and physician William Williamson Wellington—all individuals who are highly unlikely to have been present during the operation. Furthermore, he did not include two surgeons who were very likely there—Samuel Parkman and George Hayward. Though it is unknown why Hinckley omitted two individuals, he likely added the others because of their role in the medical history of Boston.The painting is now in the Countway Medical Library at Harvard Medical School.

Architecture
The Ether Dome is one of the oldest operating theatres in the United States. Over the years, there has been a concerted effort to restore the original architecture of the Ether Dome while also incorporating modern technology for educational uses today. Architects and designers tried to maintain the authenticity of the space by relying on historical documents and photos. Additionally, specialists analyzed paint chips from the early 19th century in order to help with renovations and to ensure the damages were repaired.

The dome's architecture resembles that of a courtroom or a theatre where surgeries were performed at the center of the dome. An audience can witness the surgeries from amphitheater-style seating.

Also, the location of the dome and the large glass ceiling and windows that compose the dome let in light for operations to be performed. Modern day surgery theaters follow the same concept of the Ether Dome's stylistic arrangement, however do not feature a dome due to modern lighting technology. However, for hygiene purposes the spectators' section is separated from the main gallery by glass. The Ether Dome and its original theatre style architecture has turned into a nationally recognized historical site for interested spectators, especially students of medicine.

The first operating room of MGH
The Ether Dome served as an operating theater from 1821 to 1867, when a new surgical building was constructed. Operating rooms built before electricity were typically located on the top floor of a building to take advantage of available light. Before surgical anesthesia the location was also helpful to muffle the screams of patients for those on the floors below. Because pain often induced shock, surgeons of the day prided themselves on the speed in which they could amputate an arm or a leg. Ninety seconds was considered a good time. Two 19th-century operating chairs famously known as Bigelow Operating chair was built in 1854, are located in the display area behind the seating tiers. Their red velvet upholstery was apparently intended to make bloodstains less visible. It was created in light of this discovery; it was the first of its kind without restraints and had ivory and wooden handles that could be used to position the unconscious, anesthetized patient. The chair quickly fell out of use over the next few decades, however, as it was made from leather rather than metal, which can be sterilized more easily.

The Ether Dome has not always served the purpose of an operating room. From 1821 to 1868, operations were performed, it was then a storage area from 1868 to 1873, a dormitory from 1873 to 1889, a dining room for the nurses employed at MGH from 1889 to 1892, and now it is a teaching space. The hospital commemorated the historical significance of the space in 1896 on the 50th anniversary of the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia. The Ether Dome was designated a National Historic Site in 1965.

While the words "Operating Room" still appear inside the door to the closet on the right of the painting, today the room serves as a place for meetings and lectures. The steel tiers with individual chairs date from about 1930, when fire regulations required the replacement of the old wooden bench seating. The names of the chairs have no known significance—it is likely that hospital donors were given the opportunity to name a chair after a favorite figure from MGH history.

Warren and Lucia Prosperi's Ether Day, 1846
As the 150th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the use of ether anesthesia on October 16, 1846, approached and preparations for the celebration at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) began, it was recognized that a proper commemorative painting was needed. The famous Hinckley image, reproduced many times, was painted 27 years after the event. It is the product of the artist's imagination and portrays, among the actual participants, others who were not really in attendance but are nonetheless "painted into history." Subsequent research has provided a more accurate list of the witnesses.

Accordingly, in 2000 the clinical staff of the MGH voted to commission Warren and Lucia Prosperi, well known for their historically accurate paintings, to "do it right." Artists Warren and Lucia Prosperi created this mural between 2000 and 2001, painting on site in the Ether Dome. To represent the historic operation as realistically as possible, a group of doctors and their spouses, working with the Prosperis, searched out photographs, daguerreotypes, and portraits of the participants. They also consulted vintage photographs and artifacts from the MGH Archives and Special Collections. The theatre department of Emerson College was engaged to provide period costumes and makeup. Much of the original paraphernalia—the ether flask, the operating chair, and various furnishings of the amphitheater—was still in the hospital museum and available for the scene.

On one Sunday in January, 2001, a group convened to re-enact the historic event on site at the original location, MGH's Ether Dome, with the Boston press corps in attendance. Two hours were spent debating the likely orientation of the operating chair and instrument table and who would have been standing where so that everyone, including the students in the gallery, could see the action. Many configurations were tested, and The Prosperis photographed hundred of photographs a cast of 20 men, mostly MGH physicians, who gathered in the Ether Dome in January 2000 dressed in period costumes. Finally the scene was set and recorded.

Over the course of 2001, Warren Prosperi created the painting with its life-size figures on site in the Ether Dome, allowing visitors to witness the emergence of the historic re-enactment. This painting now hangs on the front wall of the amphitheater.

One additional footnote: a special unveiling of Ether Day, 1846 was planned for the meeting of the Halsted Society at the Massachusetts General Hospital on September 12, 2001. Because of the infamous events of the previous day, that meeting was canceled (but held two years later).

As the mural depicts, in the years before antiseptic and aseptic surgery, a surgeon typically operated in a frock coat as was appropriate for the dignity of his profession. The ivory or ebony handles of his surgical instruments signaled his status but made the instruments difficult to clean. Sterile surgery was not achieved at the MGH until the 1880s.

Mummy (the hospital's oldest patient)
On May 4, 1823, Massachusetts General Hospital received an Egyptian mummy from the city of Boston, complete with painted wooden inner and outer coffins. The ensemble had been given to the city by Jacob Van Lennep, a Dutch merchant living in the Greek city of Smyrna in the early 19th century. It is thought that Mr. Van Lennep, who was also the Counsel General of the Netherlands, bought the mummy as a gift to Boston as a way to impress his native New England in-laws.

The mummy arrived in Boston on April 26, 1823, on the British ship the Sally Ann and was the first complete Egyptian burial ensemble in America. He was placed under the care of the ship's captain, Robert B. Edes, along with Bryant P. Tilden, Esq., who ultimately made the decision to give the mummy to Massachusetts General Hospital, whose trustees accepted the gift as "an appropriate ornament of the operating room," while also hoping to exhibit the mummy to raise funds for the hospital. The fledgling hospital, which had opened its doors just two years earlier, was still in need of operating funds that would help it better serve the sick and indigent individuals for whom it had been chartered to provide care. The mummy would help raise those needed funds.

Shortly after his arrival, the mummy was put on display at "Mr. Doggett's Repository of Arts" in Boston, where hundreds of people paid $0.25 to see the first complete human Egyptian mummy in the U.S. That fall, the mummy went on a year-long (1823 to 1824) multi-city tour of the East Coast, raising even more money for the hospital. Upon his return, he was placed in the Ether Dome where he subsequently witnessed more than 6,000 surgeries, including the famous first successful demonstration of surgery under anesthesia on October 16, 1846.

In 1823, John Collins Warren partially unwrapped and examined the mummy. He then published the first American treatise about mummies and mummification. The mummy spent much of the late 19th century at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The mummy's outer coffin has been at the George Walter Vincent Museum in Springfield, MA since 1932.

More than a century later the hospital learned just who the mummy was. In 1960, Dows Dunham, curator emeritus of the Department of Egyptian Art at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, examined and translated the hieroglyphics on the mummy's coffin. Hailing from the 26th Dynasty (663–525 BC) or later, the mummy now had a name—Padihershef, meaning "He whom the god Hershef has given." and a birthplace—Thebes; and an occupation—stonecutter. Newer medical information tells us that Padihershef, or "Padi", was probably between 20 and 30 years of age and was not a stonecutter at all. Rather, he was "tomb finder," or prospector, someone who looked for spaces in the Theban necropolis that could serve as burial spaces.

Padihershef's remains have been studied by means of x-rays and CT scans. In 2013, a donor provided funds for the mummy's restoration. During the procedure, Padihershef was given a full-body CT scan overseen by Massachusetts General Hospital's radiologist Rajiv Gupta. This scan, which provided more than 20,000 scans that were then assembled into 3D renderings of his body. Many of these are replicated in the report prepared by forensic pathologist Jonathan Elias, PhD, of AMSC Research, a mummy research consortium.

One of the outcomes of the project includes a CT facial reconstruction of Padihershef. Using the scans, 3D facial recognition software and a thorough knowledge of mummy forensics, Elias' group undertook a thorough analysis based on all these factors and using a 3D skull model, developed a representation of what Padi may have looked like in life.

The mummy Padishershef has borne witness to many medical milestones during his 190 years in the Massachusetts General Hospital's Ether Dome. Over the decades, visitors to the room have been greeted silently by this unusual host, standing nestled in his beautifully decorated coffin, and often wondered just who he was and how he came to reside at the hospital.

Until this most recent examination, little was known about his life before his death. John Collins Warren, MD, co-founder of MGH and its first surgeon, had performed a post-mortem on "Padi" when he first came to the MGH, which included uncovering the mummy's head, as it remains today. In 1931, and again in 1977, X-rays were taken of Padi in his case, which provided a little more insight into his health. Growth lines show that Padi was so ill as a child that his growth stopped for some time before he was well again. Bone damage reveals that he suffered from arthritis. The extensive report included here provides many details of Padi's life that were unknown to us until his March 2013 scanning examination. Padi has been restored twice before: once in the 1980s and again in 2002. Salt deposits that build up from the embalming elixir have formed on the exposed portions of Padi's face and head need to be removed periodically. The restoration also included replacing the old grass and wood case with the current climate-controlled enclosure.

The Apollo Belvedere Statue
The plaster statue of Apollo in the Ether Dome was given to the M by statesman and orator, Honorable Edward Everett in March 1845. In exchange, the hospital trustees presented to him "their grateful acknowledgments for his beautiful gift, valuable as a memorial, that, amidst his arduous public duties in a foreign country, Mr. Everett feels an undiminished interest in the charitable institutions of his native land." Everett wanted to exude his appreciation of MGH being a charitable institution—a voluntary hospital with a mission of treating the often poor patients who were in dire need of assistance. In return for the gifted statue of Apollo, the trustees of MGH kept this statue in the Ether Dome as a memorial to his philanthropic acts.

The displayed work is a copy of the original Apollo Belvedere, a sculpture unearthed in Rome during the Renaissance. Napoleon looted Rome in the early 19th century and took the Apollo Belvedere from the Vatican to the Louvre in Paris. where the statue that is on display was crafted. The Louvre made and sold plaster casts of the statue, one of which Everett bought and shipped back to Boston. The English sea captain and novelist Frederick Marryat decried, while on a visit to Everett's home, where the statue was draped to cover its near-nakedness, a few years before the donation, the covering as an example of the prudishness of otherwise educated and open-minded Americans.

The Apollo remains a part of the architecture of the Ether Dome as a testament to medicine due to its symbolism. Upon further observing the cast statue, one may notice the snake directly next to Apollo. Snakes are a symbol of renewal and are even displayed in the caduceus—a prominent emblem of healing. Furthermore, the statue is an indicator to visitors that this room represents innovation and the advancement of medicine.

The Hippocrates of Ancient Greek scholars worshipped Apollo, and this inevitably led to teachings that would act as a precedent to modern-day medical personnel. Apollo—the god of medicine and healing—was sacred in the original Hippocratic Oath: “I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.”

Skeleton

The teaching skeleton hanging in the Ether Dome can be seen in the background of daguerreotypes showing the administration of ether anesthesia in 1847. Such skeletons were a common feature in hospitals and medical schools in the 19th century. While the identity of this skeleton is not known, it is possible that it was obtained through the practice of body snatching, a practice prevalent in the 19th century due to a shortage of available bodies for instruction in medical schools. As medical dissection was illegal in many parts of the United States, students often had to rely on the illicit activities of body snatchers, or resort to grave robbing themselves. In 1831, Massachusetts passed the Anatomy Act, allowing the state's medical schools to obtain the bodies of the poor, the insane, and those who died in prison. The aim of this act was to decrease the illicit activities of the body snatchers, though it further contributed to the sense of separation between the well-to-do, who could be buried in respectable cemeteries, and the poor, who were at risk of having their bodies used against their wills after death.

Ether Dome sublevel exhibit
Located through small doors on either side of the Ether Dome theater or through a closed door at the bottom of a steep, downwards stairway behind the top row of the theater, there is an exhibit of various Ether Day artifacts and information, including quotes from the Ether Day event. In the round room under the seats of the Ether Dome theater, the exhibit is designated as the “G. H. Gay Ward, Memorial of George Henry Gay” by a shiny, gold plaque. On the walls there are drawings and paintings of notable figures, such as Dr. William T. G. Morton, and pictures of quotes, like “We have conquered pain.” Alongside the exhibited pictures and quotes, there are artifacts like an operating chair and the wedding clothes of William T. G. Morton, which represent an evidence of wealth and a veneration of ether. The hidden crescent-shaped corridor is a significant part of the Ether Dome exhibit that rarely gets the same attention. With a normal diabetes office inside of the small doors, it is easy to see how the Ether Dome's second half can be mistaken for a locked room or closet behind the Ether Dome.

title: Ether Dome


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Agent X (Marvel Comics)

Agent X (Nijo Minamiyori, alias Alex Hayden) is a fictional mercenary appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Gail Simone and Alvin Lee, the character first appeared in Agent X #1 (Sept 2002), by Gail Simone and UDON.

Publication history
Agent X was born out of experiments with Marvel Comics' long-running Deadpool series, including the "miniseries within a series," (Deadpool: Agent of Weapon X and Deadpool: Funeral for a Freak), in which the main series' numbering was demoted to secondary status below the "miniseries" numbering. Marvel decided to run a "final arc" to close the series, then restart it from #1 with an X in the title to more closely identify it with their popular X-Men franchise. (As part of the same effort, Cable was changed to Soldier X and X-Force to X-Statix.) Rumors circulated among fans that the relaunches were due in part to a royalty dispute with Rob Liefeld, which Liefeld denied. Online humorist Gail Simone was chosen to write Deadpool's final arc and the new series, with art by the UDON studio, which had recently revamped the Taskmaster in a well-received miniseries.

Agent X replaced Deadpool with a similar protagonist, while including ambiguous hints as to the nature of his relationship with the original character. Simone publicly clashed with Marvel's editorial staff as the relaunched title struggled to find a foothold, then left the book after issue 7. The series continued the cynical, slapstick action that had characterized its parent series. A central feature of Agent X was the question of the title character's identity, sometimes implied to be Deadpool himself. Deadpool refers to Agent X as his "Earth-2 Counterpart," a comedic reference to DC Comics' designation of different Earths for different iterations of identical and similar characters.

Towards the end, two of these fill-ins were published to small fanfare: those by noted author Evan Dorkin and the acclaimed art team of Juan Bobillo and Marcelo Sosa. Soon after, Agent X was canceled with issue #12. However, shortly after this announcement, Marvel decided to launch a Cable & Deadpool book as a change in direction, which ended up being a much more successful consolidation of the two characters into one title. This allowed Simone and UDON to complete their initial vision as part of a three-issue arc tying up the loose ends and restoring Deadpool for use in the new book, which was published after a month's hiatus as Agent X #13-15.

Agent X also appeared in Cable & Deadpool #11-12. He would make another appearance in #38-39, where he was captured on a mission against HYDRA, who gave him arthritis using new technology, then morbid obesity so he wouldn't notice the arthritis. He was rescued by Deadpool, who was hired by Sandi and Outlaw. After being rescued, Agent X decided to allow Deadpool to run Agency X until he was cured of his disabilities.

In the "Dear Deadpool" section of #37, the writers jokingly hinted that Agent X may receive a new series sometime.

Fictional character biography
Nijo was an assassin, mercenary, and agent employed by the telepathic German assassin called the Black Swan. He blamed Deadpool for his brother's death as he was among the targets of Deadpool's apparently successful assassination of the Japanese crime lords named the Four Winds. After Black Swan downloaded a mental virus into Deadpool's brain, the mercenary came for both Swan and Nijo at the Swan's castle in Germany. However, Black Swan revealed he had in fact killed the Four Winds, including Nijo's brother, and stabbed him out of boredom with his ranting and disobedience. His vendetta with Deadpool was that the hits had erroneously been credited to the wrong man. A bomb Deadpool had brought went off, and all three were presumed killed.

However, Alex Hayden soon emerged in New York with one goal in mind—to be the best mercenary alive. He was found by Sandi Brandenberg, Deadpool's former secretary, who assumed he was Deadpool by his powers and demeanor. He subconsciously took the name as a combination of composers he liked: Alexander Grieg and Josef Haydn, which Sandi worked out through his fondness for classical music. Sandi's friend and distant romantic interest Taskmaster was sought to help him get his bearings and train him, as was Outlaw, for her shooting skills. Taskmaster noticed Alex was ambidextrous and that he was somehow interfering with his reflex ability while training with him. Taskmaster then knew he couldn't be Deadpool, despite his healing factor and recognition of him and Sandi, and Outlaw corroborated this as Alex proved to be a better gun talent than Deadpool. Sandi and Alex formed a mercenary group, Agency X. The headquarters is located in an amusement park Alex acquired as payment for his first mission.

Alex ran into Outlaw while assigned to try to take out the Punisher and steal his Colt .45 handguns. They failed and were locked up in a phone booth minus their weapons and clothes by Castle. The Punisher then killed the people who had sent them. Afterwards, Outlaw and Alex became romantically involved. However, Taskmaster, who was jealous of Sandi's attachment to Alex, had set up Alex on that mission and he was kicked out of the agency. He then contacted Higashi, the new leader of part of the Four Winds organization and informed them that Alex was Deadpool, who still held the credit for killing the previous four crime heads. The organization, primarily directed by Higashi's enforcer, Saguri, therefore held Alex, Sandi and Taskmaster responsible but with Outlaw's help, the three made a last stand at the amusement park against an army of mercenaries and supervillains, while Sandi was given to Higashi for safekeeping, as his infatuation with her would keep her protected. Agency X were triumphant and Alex blackmailed the crime lords into submission, while killing Saguri after surreptitiously being hired by Higashi to do so. Higashi was also convinced by Sandi that Alex was not Wade Wilson and was now more fully in control of his group, so he agreed to prevent any further reprisals on the foursome. Alex was enthused at what appeared to be a fresh start for the Agency but was hurt when Outlaw announced her desire to return home to the South to care for her dying father instead, while Taskmaster declined a full-time position.

Alex performed his assignments solo from then on, but he found his personal life further muddied when he and Sandi spent a night together. He became disillusioned with his work and decided to shut down the agency, but found himself unable to tell Sandi, who by then had set up a job for him and Taskmaster to act as bodyguards to Higashi as a final act of ceasefire. While on their way to a meeting between the Four Winds families, Alex's group was attacked by a pair of over-cheerful assassins, but after a frantic battle, they  arrived safely to find one of the Four Winds families had ordered the hit on Higashi. Now that Higashi was indebted to them, Alex, Taskmaster and Sandi returned to Sandi's apartment to find Black Swan and a tabula rasa Deadpool waiting. It turned out that all three had partially merged during the explosion when Black Swan used his powers in an act of desperation to save himself. Black Swan psionically acquired Deadpool's healing factor but accidentally made contact with Nijo and personal traits had been mixed around. Swan had also given Nijo's corpse Deadpool's regenerative powers (restoring him to a form of life 5 minutes after his death), as well as part of his personality, while Nijo also gained Swan's firearms talents, ambition, some of his refined tastes, preferences and biases, and also the bodily scarring and outrage he'd received from Deadpool throwing him face first into a white hot fireplace griddle at his home.

Black Swan proposed a three-way mind meld to restore each man to their correct personal states, but doublecrossed them. Outlaw returned in time to help fight the Black Swan, who had now absorbed both Alex and Deadpool's powers to augment himself. Even though Alex called Higashi's favor in and surrounded Swan with hitmen, this proved to be fruitless, so Alex devised a new plan. After Taskmaster and Outlaw distracted him, Deadpool pinned Swan to Taskmaster's explosives-laden van and Alex ignited it. Alex then reversed Black Swan's absorption, but also gave him the memories of being caught in the bomb explosion in Germany. The group then repeatedly shot the Black Swan to make sure he was dead. The body was taxidermied and carried around by each couple (Taskmaster and Sandi, Alex and Inez) as a prop while they went on vacation.

When they later found themselves on opposing sides over the fate of Cable, Alex had another confrontation with Deadpool, which he lost initially, giving Deadpool the opportunity to spell out "Hi, Weasel" with his entrails as a "surprise" for his best friend. Unable to do much damage to each other due to their healing factors, they relented after Wade agreed to hand Alex his pancreas back.

After a botched attempt to steal a device from Hydra, Sandi and Outlaw convinced Deadpool to rescue Alex. Alex had been affected by the device he was supposed to steal, giving him arthritis and "the American gene" (which resulted in making him incredibly fat). This made escape physically impossible - though he would not want to miss out on the many treats and monkey chow that were being given to him as a lab specimen. Deadpool managed to free Alex with the help of Bob, Agent of HYDRA. He then asked Deadpool to run Agency X whilst he got himself back in shape, reasoning with himself that his only other alternatives were to shoot himself or eat Sandi and his business.

In Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2, Outlaw tells Deadpool that Alex has lost 14 lbs thanks to Jenny Craig, though Deadpool implies that he is still overweight. By the events of Domino #1 Alex has regained his former physique, attributing his weight loss to diet shakes.

Powers and abilities
Agent X possesses a superhuman healing factor, allowing him to regenerate damaged or destroyed bodily tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Agent X is able to heal injuries such as slashes, puncture wounds, bullet wounds, and severe burns within moments. His healing factor is developed to the point that he can regrow and reattach missing limbs and organs. His healing factor has allowed him to survive even brain punctures on numerous occasions. With this superior healing factor, he has shown a unique tolerance towards pain. His body is highly resistant to most drugs and toxins. For example, it is extremely difficult, though not impossible, for him to become intoxicated. He can, however, be affected by certain drugs, such as tranquilizers, if he is exposed to a massive enough dosage. Agent X's healing factor also extends to his immune system, rendering him immune to the effects of all known diseases and infections. Agent X's healing factor provides him with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process to an unknown degree. The healing factor causes his brain cells to be in a constant state of flux and regeneration, rendering him immune to psychics such as Professor X and Emma Frost.

Because of his healing factor, Agent X can push his muscles to levels beyond the natural limits of an ordinary human being without sustaining injury, giving him superhuman strength. He is capable of lifting in more than 800 lbs and is shown to lift up to 3 tons. The exact limit of his strength is unknown. His musculature generates considerably less fatigue toxins than the muscles of an ordinary human being, granting him superhuman levels of stamina in all physical activities. He can physically exert himself at peak capacity for at least 18 hours before fatigue begins to impair him. His agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete, on par with Deadpool. His reflexes are similarly enhanced, superior to those of even the finest human athlete.

Additionally, Agent X was trained by Taskmaster in weapons and combat and is also an expert marksman. The most common weapons Agent X uses are pistols, knives, and throwing stars.

Volumes
Scott Thomas of SlashFilm included the comic book series Agent X in their "10 Deadpool Comic Storylines We'd Love To See In Deadpool 3" list. Shaurya Thapa of Screen Rant ranked the comic book series Agent X 5th in their "10 Comics To Read If You Love The Boys" list, writing, "With enough goofy, cynical comedy, the series is a fun read that is bound to impress fans of Deadpool. [...] the comic is iconic as it preceded Cable & Deadpool, and has gained a cult status over time."

Accolades

 * In 2021, Screen Rant ranked Agent X and Deadpool 7th in their "10 Strangest Friendships In Deadpool Comics" list.
 * In 2022, Screen Rant ranked Agent X 5th in their "10 Best Mercenaries In Marvel Comics" list.

House of M
An Asian male wearing yellow goggles and a belt forming an X around his chest is shown under the Sapiens Resistance group in House of M issue 4.

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

title: Agent X (Marvel Comics)


text:
Nicholson Baker

Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as The Mezzanine and Room Temperature were distinguished by their minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness. Out of a total of ten novels, three are erotica: Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes.

Baker also writes non-fiction books. U and I: A True Story, about his relationship with John Updike, was published in 1991. He then wrote about the American library system in his 2001 book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, for which he received a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Calw Hermann Hesse Prize for the German translation. A pacifist, he wrote Human Smoke (2008) about the buildup to World War II.

Baker has published articles in Harper's Magazine, the London Review of Books and The New Yorker, among other periodicals.

Baker created the American Newspaper Repository in 1999. He has also written about and edited Wikipedia.

Life
Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 in New York City.

He studied briefly at the Eastman School of Music and received a B.A. in English from Haverford College.

Baker describes himself as an atheist, although he occasionally visits Quaker meetings. Baker says he has "always had pacifist leanings."

Baker met his wife, Margaret Brentano, in college; they live in Maine and have two grown children.

Career
Baker established a name for himself with the novels The Mezzanine (1988) and Room Temperature (1990). Both novels have for the most part a very limited time span. The Mezzanine occurs over the course of an escalator journey and Room Temperature happens while a father feeds his baby daughter.

U and I: A True Story (1991) is a non-fiction study of how a reader engages with an author's work. It is partly about Baker's appreciation for the work of John Updike and partly a self-exploration. Rather than giving a traditional literary analysis, Baker begins the book by stating that he will read no more Updike than he already has up to that point. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone, and many are inaccurate, with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracies.

Critics group together Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes since they are all erotic novels. Vox (1992) consists of an episode of phone sex between two young single people on a pay-per-minute chat line. The book was Baker's first New York Times bestseller and Monica Lewinsky gave a copy to President Bill Clinton when they were having an affair. In Vox, Baker coined the word femalia. The Fermata (1994) also addresses erotic life and fantasy. The protagonist Arno Strine likes to stop time and take off women's clothes. The work proved controversial with critics. It was also a bestseller. House of Holes (2011) is about a fantastical place where all sexual perversions and fetishes are permitted. It is a collection of stories, more or less connected to each other. The novellas are erotic in the sense of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. The titular House of Holes is a fantasy sex resort in which people can engage in absurd sexual practices, such as groin transference and sex with trees. Akin to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, people enter the House of Holes through such techniques as tumbling through a clothes dryer or through a drinking straw.

Baker is a fervent critic of what he perceives as libraries' unnecessary destruction of paper-based media. He wrote several vehement articles in The New Yorker critical of the San Francisco Public Library for sending thousands of books to a landfill, eliminating card catalogs, and destroying old books and newspapers in favor of microfilm. In 1997, Baker received the San Francisco–based James Madison Freedom of Information Award in recognition of these efforts. In 1999, Baker established a non-profit corporation, the American Newspaper Repository, to rescue old newspapers from destruction by libraries. In 2001, he published Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper about preservation, newspapers, and the American library system. An excerpt first appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past." The exhaustively researched work (there are 63 pages of endnotes and 18 pages of references in the paperback edition) details Baker's quest to uncover the fate of thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced and often destroyed during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s.

The 2004 novel Checkpoint is composed of dialogue between two old high school friends, Jay and Ben, who discuss Jay's plans to assassinate President George W. Bush.

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) is a history of World War II that questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unforgiving actions. It consists largely of official government transcripts and other documents from the time. He suggests that the pacifists were correct in their views.

In March 2008, Baker reviewed John Broughton's  The Missing Manual in the New York Review of Books. In the review, Baker described Wikipedia's beginnings, its culture, and his own editing activities under the username "Wageless". His article "How I fell in love with Wikipedia" was published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK on April 10, 2008.

The Anthologist (2009) is narrated by Paul Chowder, a poet, who is attempting to write an introduction to a poetry anthology. Distracted by problems in his life, he is unable to begin writing, and instead ruminates on poets and poetry throughout history. Also in 2009, Baker reviewed Ken Auletta's Googled: The End of the World as We Know It in the New York Times. Auletta responded by sending a letter to the editor bemoaning what he perceived as the inaccuracy of Baker's review. Here is Baker's rebuttal: "Ken Auletta wrote a thought-provoking book, and I recorded several thoughts provoked. It’s a book review, not a bouillon cube. I don’t “imply” or “suggest” that the author agrees with the people he quotes. There is indeed an absence of warmth in this chronicle of Google as “dreaded disruptor,” but it’s an impartial chilliness, extending in all directions."

In 2014, Baker spent 28 days as a substitute teacher in some Maine public schools as research for his 2016 book Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids. Baker tried to find out "what life in the classroom is really like." He also wrote about the experience for The New York Times Magazine.

Baker wrote a cover story for New York Magazine in January 2021 investigating the COVID-19 lab leak theory and expressing his belief in the theory’s plausibility.

Fiction

 * The Mezzanine (1988, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; ISBN 1-55584-258-5 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-72576-8)
 * Room Temperature (1990, Grove Weidenfeld; ISBN 0-8021-1224-2 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6 / 1990, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014212-6 / 1991, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014021-2)
 * Vox: A Novel (1992, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58995-5 / 1992, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-74211-5 / 1992, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014057-3)
 * The Fermata (1994, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-75933-6)
 * The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998, Random House; ISBN 0-679-43933-1 / 1998, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6)
 * A Box of Matches (2003, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50287-4 / 2003, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-7402-1)
 * Vintage Baker (2004, Vintage; ISBN 9781400078608)
 * Checkpoint (2004, Random House; ISBN 1-4000-4400-6)
 * The Anthologist (2009, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-84737-635-5)
 * House of Holes: A Book of Raunch (2011, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-4391-8951-X)
 * Traveling Sprinkler (2013, Blue Rider Press; ISBN 978-0399160967)

Non-fiction

 * U and I: A True Story (1991, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58994-7 / 1991 Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014226-6 (hard) / 1992, Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014040-9 (paper) /1995, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73575-5 / 1998, Granta; ISBN 1-86207-097-0)
 * The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber (1996, Random House, ISBN 0-679-43932-3 / 1996, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-77624-9 (paper) / 1996, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-6301-1 (hard) / 1997, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-957971-5 (paper))
 * Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50444-3 / 2001, Vintage; ISBN 0-375-72621-7 / 2002, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-942903-9)
 * With Margaret Brentano (his wife). The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898– 1911) (2005, Bulfinch; ISBN 0-8212-6193-2)
 * Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-4165-6784-4)
 * The Way the World Works: Essays (2012, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-4165-7247-3)
 * Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids (2016, Blue Rider Press; ISBN 978-0-399-16098-1)
 * Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act (2020, Penguin Press; ISBN 978-0735215757)
 * Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art (2024, Penguin Press ISBN 978-1984881397)

Music

 * While working on Traveling Sprinkler, Nicholson Baker posted some songs made in the style of protagonist Paul Chowder on YouTube. The ballads combined dance music with protest songs and dealt with foreign policy agenda. Twelve songs were available in a deluxe e-book version of the novel and later on Bandcamp.

Awards

 * 1997: James Madison Freedom of Information Award.
 * 2001: National Book Critics Circle Award for Double Fold.
 * 2014: Baker and his German translator Eike Schönfeld won the Calw Hermann Hesse Prize for the German translation of Double Fold.
 * 2018: Baker was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

title: Nicholson Baker


text:
Eliza R. Snow

Eliza Roxey Snow (January 21, 1804 – December 5, 1887) was one of the most celebrated Latter-day Saint women of the nineteenth century. A renowned poet, she chronicled history, celebrated nature and relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine. Snow was married to Joseph Smith as a plural wife, and was a plural wife to Brigham Young after Smith's death. Snow was the second general president of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which she reestablished in the Utah Territory in 1866. She was also the older sister of Lorenzo Snow, the LDS Church's fifth president.

Early years and education
Eliza Roxey Snow was born in Becket, Massachusetts as the second of seven children (four daughters and three sons) to Oliver Snow III (1775-1845) and Rosetta Leonara Pettibone Snow (1778-1846). Her parents were of English descent and their ancestors were among the earliest settlers of New England. Although her middle name is a namesake from her paternal aunt Roxey Snow (1776-1817), her middle name is also frequently spelled as Roxcy. When she was two years old, her family left New England to settle on a new and fertile farm in the Western Reserve valley, in Mantua Township, Portage County, Ohio. The Snow family valued learning and saw that each child had educational opportunities.

Although a farmer by occupation, Oliver Snow performed much public business, officiating in several responsible positions. His daughter, Eliza, being ten years the senior of her eldest brother, was employed as secretary, as soon as she was competent, in her father's office as justice of the peace. She was skilled in various kinds of needlework and home manufactures. Two years in succession she drew the prize awarded by the committee on manufactures, at the county fair, for the best manufactured leghorn.

Early church involvement
Snow's Baptist parents welcomed a variety of religious believers into their home. In 1828, Snow and her parents joined Alexander Campbell's Christian restorationist movement, the Disciples of Christ. In 1831, when Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, took up residence in Hiram, Ohio, four miles from the family's farm, the Snow family took a strong interest in the new religious movement. Snow's mother and sister joined the Church of the Latter Day Saints early on. Several years later, in 1835, Snow was baptized and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, the headquarters of the church. Upon her arrival, Snow donated her inheritance, a large sum of money, toward the building of the church's Kirtland Temple. In appreciation, the building committee provided her with the title to "a very valuable [lot]-situated near the Temple, with a fruit tree-an excellent spring of water, and house that accommodated two families." Here, Snow taught school for Smith's family and was influential in interesting her younger brother, Lorenzo, in Mormonism. He later became an apostle and the church's fifth president.

Snow moved west with her family and the body of the church, first to Adam-ondi-Ahman, a short-lived settlement in Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. In the 1930s, Alice Merrill Horne wrote in her autobiography that when she was a girl she overheard a conversation that in Missouri during the 1838 Mormon War, Eliza Snow was brutally gang-raped by eight Missourians, which left her unable to have children. Later, according to Horne, Joseph Smith offered her marriage as a plural wife "as a way of promising her that she would still have eternal offspring and that she would be a mother in Zion."

In Nauvoo, Snow again made her living as a school teacher. After Smith's death, Snow stated she had secretly wed him on June 29, 1842, as a plural wife. Snow wrote fondly of Smith, "my beloved husband, the choice of my heart and the crown of my life". However, Snow had organized a petition in that same summer of 1842, with a thousand female signatures, denying that Smith was connected with polygamy and extolling his virtue. As secretary of the Ladies' Relief Society, she organized the publishing of a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying Smith as its creator or participant. Years later, when Snow was informed that Smith's first wife, Emma, had stated on her deathbed that her husband had never been a polygamist. Snow was reported to have stated she doubted the story but "If ... [this] was really [Sister Emma's] testimony she died with a libel on her lips".

After Smith's death, Snow married Brigham Young as a plural wife. She traveled west across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 2, 1847. There, childless Eliza became a prominent member of Young's family, moving into an upper bedroom of Young's Salt Lake City residence, the Lion House.

Relief Society service
The first Relief Society of the LDS Church was organized by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois on March 17, 1842, as a philanthropic and women's educational organization. Snow served as the organization's first secretary, with Smith's wife, Emma, as president. The organization was originally known as "The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo." It later became known simply as "The Relief Society." For the next three years, Snow kept copious notes of the organization's meetings, including Joseph Smith's teachings on how the organization should operate. Members of the original Relief Society stopped meeting shortly after Smith's death in 1844, and the organization soon became defunct.

Brigham Young led a migration of LDS Church members to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and for the next twenty years attempts were periodically made to reestablish the organization. Until 1868, however, activity was limited, and no sustained, church-wide Relief Society existed.

In 1868, Young commissioned Snow with reestablishing the Relief Society. For the next several years, Snow traveled throughout the Utah Territory helping Latter-day Saint bishops again organize Relief Society in their local wards, using the notes she took as secretary in Nauvoo as the founding principles of the reestablished Relief Society. "What is the object of the Female Relief Society?" Snow wrote on one occasion. "I would reply—to do good—to bring into requisition every capacity we possess for doing good, not only in relieving the poor but in saving souls." Local Relief Societies soon fell under the umbrella of a church-wide, general Relief Society of which Snow served as president until 1887.

Snow's presidency emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, and built granaries. In 1872, Snow provided assistance and advice to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication loosely affiliated with the Relief Society—the Woman's Exponent. Snow's responsibilities also extended to young women and children within the church. She was a primary organizer for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association in 1870 and assisted Aurelia Spencer Rogers in establishing the Primary Association in 1878.

Snow served as president of the Relief Society until her death in 1887. By 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 local congregations.

Snow died in Salt Lake City, and was buried in Brigham Young's family cemetery.

Poetry
Snow wrote poetry from a young age, one time even writing school lessons in rhyme. Between 1826 and 1832, she published more than 20 poems in local newspapers under various pen names, including the Western Courier of Ravenna, Ohio, and the Ohio Star. Her first published poem was a requiem she was requested to write for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in light of their simultaneous deaths July 4, 1826. A number of Snow's poems were set to music and have become important Mormon hymns, some of which appear in the current edition of the LDS Church's hymnal. One of her hymns, "Great is the Lord", was published in the first Latter Day Saint hymnal in 1835, the year of her baptism.

In Nauvoo, Snow gained unique distinction as a Mormon poet featured in local newspapers, and she was later called "Zion's Poetess." She continued to write poems as she journeyed to the Salt Lake Valley, documenting the pioneer trail and life in Utah. The first of her two volumes of Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political appeared in 1856, followed by the second in 1877. Some of her poems are:
 * "How Great the Wisdom and the Love"
 * "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother" [retitled "O My Father"]
 * "Be Not Discouraged"
 * "My First View of a Western Prairie"
 * "Mental Gas"
 * "Think not When You Gather to Zion Your Troubles and Trials are Through"
 * "O Awake! My Slumbering Minstrel"

One of her best-known poems, "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother," was written soon after the death of her father and just over a year after the death of Joseph Smith. The poem, renamed "O My Father" after the first line, is included in the LDS Church's current hymnal, as are Snow's hymns "Great is the Lord"; "Again We Meet Around the Board"; "Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake!"; "How Great the Wisdom and the Love"; "The Time Is Far Spent"; "In Our Lovely Deseret"; "Though Deepening Trials"; "Behold the Great Redeemer Die"; and "Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses".

Eliza Snow and her brother, Lorenzo Snow, founded the Polysophical Society in December 1854 in Salt Lake City. Members shared poetry and musical and dramatic performances. Church leaders Jedediah M. Grant and Heber C. Kimball halted the society's activities because of its "adulterous spirit."

Relief Society Magazine
Articles

Poetry

title: Eliza R. Snow


text:
Wrapper

Wrapper generally refers to a type of packaging. It may also refer to:

Computing

 * Wrapper (data mining), a technique used in data mining
 * Wrapper function, a function whose main purpose is to call a second function
 * Wrapper library
 * Driver wrapper, software that functions as an adapter between an operating system and a driver
 * Wrapper pattern, where some computer programming code allows certain classes to work together that otherwise would not
 * Primitive wrapper class, a computer term referring to a Java class in object-oriented programming
 * TCP Wrapper, software used for filtering network access.
 * Service wrapper, software that enables other programs to be run as services or daemons
 * A digital container format containing both data and metadata

Other

 * Wrapper (clothing), a woman's garment which is worn over nightwear in North America, and a colorful garment widely worn in West Africa
 * Wrapper (philately), postal stationery which pays the delivery cost of a newspaper or a periodical
 * Wrapper, the outer leaf of tobacco used in cigar making
 * Newspaper wrapper
 * The dust jacket of a hardcover book

title: Wrapper


text:
Siege of Osaka

The siege of Osaka (大坂の役) was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages, the winter campaign and the summer campaign, it lasted from 1614 to 1615. The siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The end of the conflict is sometimes called the Genna Armistice (元和偃武), because the era name was changed from Keichō to Genna immediately following the siege.

Background
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, Japan came to be governed by the Council of Five Elders, among whom Tokugawa Ieyasu possessed the most authority. After defeating Ishida Mitsunari in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu essentially seized control of Japan for himself and abolished the council. In 1603, the Tokugawa shogunate was established with its capital at Edo. Hideyoshi's son Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother Yodo-dono were allowed to stay at Osaka Castle, a fortress that had served as Hideyoshi's residence. Hideyori remained confined to the castle for several years. In addition, as a mechanism of control, it was agreed that in the year 1603 he would marry the daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada, Senhime, who was related to both clans. Ieyasu sought to establish a powerful and stable regime under the rule of his own clan. Only the Toyotomi clan, led by Hideyori under the influence of Yodo-dono, remained an obstacle to that goal.

In 1611, Hideyori finally left Osaka, meeting with Ieyasu for two hours at Nijō Castle. Ieyasu was surprised by Hideyori's behavior, contrary to popular belief that the boy was just "useless". This belief had been spread by Katagiri Katsumoto, Hideyori's personal guardian assigned by Ieyasu since 1599, and who had the intention of dissuading any aggression against the heir. In 1614, the Toyotomi clan rebuilt Osaka Castle. At the same time, the head of the clan sponsored the rebuilding of Hōkō-ji（Great Buddha of Kyoto） in Kyoto. These temple renovations included the casting of a great bronze bell, with inscriptions that read "May the state be peaceful and prosperous" (国家安康 kokka ankō), and "May noble lord and servants be rich and cheerful" (君臣豊楽 kunshin hōraku). The shogunate interpreted "kokka ankō" (国家安康) as shattering Ieyasu's name (家康) to curse him, and also interpreted "kunshin hōraku" (君臣豊楽) to mean "Toyotomi's force (豊臣) will rise again," which meant treachery against the shogunate. Tensions began to grow between the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi clans and only increased when Toyotomi began to gather a force of rōnin and enemies of the shogunate in Osaka. Ieyasu, despite having passed the title of shōgun to his son in 1605, nevertheless maintained significant influence.

After the Hoko-ji Temple Bell Incident, Yodo-dono sent Lady Okurakyo, Lady Aeba and Katagiri Katsumoto to Sunpu to see Tokugawa Ieyasu. In this meeting, Ieyasu hatched a plot to induce a split among the people of the Toyotomi family. On one hand, Ieyasu proposed a generous demand towards Lady Okurakyo. On the other hand, Ieyasu made severe demands on Katagiri Katsumoto, who represented the moderates and had been separately asking Ieyasu to save the Toyotomi family.

Despite Katagiri Katsumoto's attempts to mediate the situation, Ieyasu found the ideal pretext to take a belligerent attitude against Yodo-dono and Hideyori. The situation worsened in September of that year, when the news reached Edo that in Osaka they were grouping a large quantity of rōnin at the invitation of Hideyori. Katsumoto proposed that Yodo-dono be sent to Edo as a hostage with the desire to avoid hostilities, which she flatly refused. Suspecting him of trying to betray the Toyotomi clan, Yodo-dono banished Katsumoto and several other servants accused of treason from Osaka castle, sending them to the service of the Tokugawa clan. Consequently, any possibility of reaching an agreement with the shogunate was dissolved. This last incident led to the beginning of the siege of Osaka.

Preparations
As preparations, Hideyori sent many letters to most daimyo lords in Japan who he predicted would sympathize with the Toyotomi clan. However, his efforts were largely fruitless as his letters which delivered by his couriers were rejected by many of the applicants. Hachisuka Iemasa at first were hesitant, until his son convinced him to not accept Hideyori invitation to rebels against the Shogunate. meanwhile, Shimazu Tadatsune straightly reject his invitation as Tadatsune stated the Shimazu clan still recovering from the Sekigahara war and has no intention to stand up against Ieyasu. Tadatsune also returned a sword gift from Hideyori. An envoy of Toyotomi clan dispatched to convince Ikeda Tadakatsu, lord of Sumoto in Awaji Island and son of Ikeda Terumasa, also failed, as The Ikeda clan instead arrested the envoys. Furthermore, The Toyotomi clan also failed to convince the Mōri clan under the lead of Mōri Terumoto to join their side. Terumoto instead rather supporting the Tokugawa shogunate, as on November 3, Terumoto ordered his vassals Mōri Motochikazu and Motoyuki Sugimori, who were in charge of Mori Hidemoto's absence, to send half of the troops east if Hidemoto asked them to march out to aid the shogunate fought the Toyotomi, while the remaining half, including Sugimori, Motoyoshi Nishi, and Shichirobei Misawa, were to stay in Chofu as caretakers, and to retreat to Hagi if something happened that would make it impossible to maintain Chofu.

Meanwhile, the shogunate also prepared their war efforts by stockpiling their ammunitions. in May, there is a company of British merchants tried to sell lead in Hirado. However, they failed to find any buyer. but their existence were reported William Adams to the shogunate, who end up bought all leads those merchants sell. Furthermore, in the same month there are also other merchant company from Dutch which also selling lead, and ends up being bought by the Shogunate either. Later in June, Tokugawa Ieyasu purchased a large amount of cannons, gunpowder, and bullets from British merchants, where Adams acted as the middleman, and the prices were 1 kan for cannons, 2.3 bun for gunpowder, and 1.6 bun for bullets.

Winter campaign
In November of 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu decided not to let this force grow any larger, and led 164,000 men to Osaka. The count does not include the troops of Shimazu Tadatsune, an ally of the Toyotomi cause who nevertheless did not send troops to Osaka. The siege began on 19 November, when Ieyasu led 3,000 men across the Kizu River, destroying the fort there. A week later, he attacked the village of Imafuku with 1,500 men, against a defending force of 600. With the aid of a squad wielding arquebuses (a weapon widely used by Japanese forces at this time), the shogunate forces claimed another victory. Several more small forts and villages were attacked before the siege of Osaka Castle itself began on 4 December.

The Sanada-maru was an earthwork barbican defended by Sanada Yukimura and 7,000 men, on behalf of the Toyotomi. The Shōgun's armies were repeatedly repelled, and Sanada and his men launched a number of attacks against the siege lines, breaking through three times. Ieyasu then resorted to artillery (including 17 imported European cannons and 300 domestic wrought iron cannons) and men digging under the walls.

During this siege, the Tokugawa forces also deployed irregular auxiliaries such as Ninja clans from Iga province under the lead of Ii Naotaka, the head of Ii clan. Aside from Naotaka's ninja troops, there were also other Iga ikki warriors under Hattori Hanzō, and Yamaoka Kagetsuge. Aside from the ninja forces, other irregular elements from Iga province such as Tōdō Takatora's Musokunin" (part time samurai) also fought in this battle.

Bombing of Osaka Castle

Ieyasu, realizing that the castle would not fall easily and after consulting with his top advisers, ordered a limited bombing which began on January 8, 1615. For three consecutive days, his forces bombarded the fortress at 10 o'clock at night and at dawn. Meanwhile, miners were making tunnels under the walls and arrows were thrown inwards with messages requesting the surrender of the occupants. By January 15, with no response from the besieged, Ieyasu began an incessant bombardment that had a mainly psychological effect to diminish the morale of the defenders. The stone bases of Japanese castles were invulnerable to the artillery of the era and the structure of the castle remained virtually undamaged.

Realizing that the defenses were extremely strong, Ieyasu tried to convince Sanada Yukimura to change sides. Yukimura, who felt a strong antipathy for Ieyasu, rejected the bribe and made the attempt public. Ieyasu then bribed another captain, a commander named Nanjo Tadashige, asking him to open the castle gates. The attempted treason was discovered and Nanjo beheaded, so Ieyasu changed his strategy. Ieyasu ordered his men to deliberately bomb Yodo-dono's quarters, and when they had found the range, a cannon hit its target, killing two of her maids.

During the night of the 16th, Ban Naotsugu, in charge of the defenses of one of the west side doors, carried out a night attack on the troops of Hachisuka Yoshishige, killing several enemies before retreating. The bombing continued the next day, on the mournful anniversary of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death. Ieyasu thought that on that day Hideyori would be in the temple dedicated to his father, so he ordered that his forces fire towards the place. The projectile almost hit Hideyori's head, hitting one of the pillars of Yodo-dono's quarters. She became terrified and pressed to reach an arrangement with the shogunate.

Peace negotiations

On January 17, Ieyasu sent Honda Masazumi, accompanied by Lady Acha, to meet with Kyōgoku Tadataka, son of Ohatsu, younger sister of Yodo-dono. During the meeting, Lady Acha assured Ohatsu that Ieyasu had no ill will to Hideyori and that he wished to forgive him, but Hidetada was stubborn about taking the castle, so he had thousands of miners working in tunnels under the pits. On the other hand Honda assured that Ieyasu would allow Hideyori to keep Osaka as his fief, but in case he wanted to leave he would give him another one with higher income, besides that all his captains and soldiers would be given free transit when leaving or they could stay inside if they wanted to, but he would need some hostages as a sign of goodwill.

Ohatsu conveyed the terms to Yodo-dono who, in terror, asked Ōno Harunaga, Oda Nobukatsu, and Hideyori's top seven advisers to accept the terms of the surrender. Lady Acha and Honda met again with Ohatsu, Lady Aeba and Ōkurakyō no Tsubone (Yodo-dono's former wet nurse and one of the most influential figures in Osaka castle), and they told him that the outer pit should be filled by Ieyasu's men. On January 21, the Oda delivered their children as hostages and Hideyori sent Kimura to Chausayama to close the agreement. Ieyasu issued a document, sealed with blood from his finger and signed also by Hidetada, which said:"(that) the rōnin in the castle are not found guilty; that Hideyori's income remain the same as before; that Yodo-dono is not asked to live in Edo; that if Hideyori chooses to leave Ōsaka he may choose any other province as his fiefdom; that his person is inviolable."On January 22, Ieyasu received a solemn oath from Hideyori and Yodo-dono that Hideyori would not rebel against Ieyasu or Hidetada and that he would consult any matter directly with him. Both Honda Tadamasa and Honda Masayuri were entrusted to dismantle the castle's exterior defenses, so the soldiers of the shogunate tore down the walls and filled the outer moat. Hideyori did complain indignantly to the workers that this had not been part of the arrangement, but the response he received was that they only followed Ieyasu's orders. Honda Masazumi blamed the workers for having misunderstood their instructions because they were already filling the interior moat as well. Although the work stopped momentarily, soon the soldiers of the shogunate continued, so Yodo-dono sent one of her bridesmaids and Ōno to Kyoto. Several days later Ieyasu gave an elusive official response, where he assured that since he had signed an eternal peace, the walls were not necessary.

During the process of reconciliation, Oda Nagamasu, one of attendant of Osaka castle since before the war, leave the castle and sent his child to the Tokugawa shogunate as a hostage and worked hard to reconcile the Toyotomi side with the shogunate. It was argued that even from the start of war, Nagamasa was working for in Ieyasu's favor to seek peace between the two factions. According to Sunpu-ki record, the Toyotomi clan during this time were divided in three factions:

 * 1) The first faction were led by Ōno Harunaga. This faction favored reconciliation with the shogunate.
 * 2) The second faction were led by Kimura Shigenari. This faction largely indecisive in their attitude.
 * 3) The second faction were led by  Chōsokabe Motochika. This faction consisted of political War hawks who favored continuing the war.

In the end, Nagamasu decided to leave the Osaka castle as he cannot maintain the reconcilliatory faction's voice within the Toyotomi clan.

End of the peace treaty
Ieyasu left Osaka for Kyoto on January 24, meeting with Emperor Go-Mizunoo at a formal hearing on the 28th, where he informed the emperor that the war had come to an end. Hidetada remained in place to supervise the work of destruction of the defenses, arriving in Edo on March 13. By then, news reached the capital that the Toyotomi camp was once again seeking to enlist rōnin into its service. This information led Ieyasu to order Hideyori to relinquish and abandon the Osaka fief.

Even from the moment when peace was being signed, the Toyotomi command proposed to launch a night attack on the Tokugawa camp, although it was finally decided not to do so. Shortly after Hideyori began to receive reports of the true intentions of Ieyasu, so they began the work of digging out the moats and recruiting troops. Hideyori and his main generals agreed that unlike the first campaign, this time it would be appropriate to take the offensive. Also, it was arranged to secure the areas surrounding Osaka and take Kyoto to control the emperor, so that he would declare Ieyasu to be a rebel against the Imperial throne. Following the rumors of what the Toyotomi army planned, the population of Kyoto began to flee from the city, and even a commander of the shogunate, Furuta Shigenari, was sentenced to death, suspected of being part of a plot to burn down Kyoto and apprehend the emperor.

Through his agent, Gotō Shōzaburō, who infiltrated Osaka to gather information on March 12, Ieyasu learned that the Toyotomi has stockpiled rice and kept employing the rōnin mercenaries in Osaka. In response to these reports, Ieyasu issued ban on March 14 to prohibit ships loaded with annual rice from landing in Osaka and selling their provisions, which was implemented particularly to the daimyo governors from western regions of Japan such as Kyushu and Shikoku. facing with those bans, the Toyotomi side began to show signs of internal division due to the problem of rōnin mercenaries roaming in Osaka. Hideyori was troubled that the ever-increasing number of rōnins, prompting a temporary solution by providing them with gold and silver to stop them from running wild, although at the expense of the Toyotomi clan financially. Meanwhile, Ono Harunaga voiced his disagreement with financing the Rōnin as now they had a peace treaty with the Shogunate. Nevertheless, Hideyori decided to allocate most of their trading profits from the Port of Osaka to finance these rōnins despite the crisis. Furthermore, Hideyori tried to solve this problem by requesting one of the neighboring provinces to be handed to him to increase the tax incomes during the meeting with Ieyasu on March 15. However, his request was rejected, causing unrest in Osaka as the provisions in the city became less day by day. Hideyori expressed his decision to move from Osaka to Koriyama in Yamato Province, as Ieyasu instructed which agreed by his vassals. However, the rōnin threaten that if he did that, they will keep fighting Ieyasu even without Hideyori and commit suicide, forcing Hideyori to gave up his decision and agreed with their decision to fight the Shogunate once more.

Ieyasu left Shizuoka on May 3 to Nagoya, where his ninth son married on the 11th of the same month in the castle of that city. The next day he met a traitor from the Toyotomi camp, Oda Yuraku, who informed him that there were several factions within the castle, that the war councils rarely ended in anything conclusive and that Yodo-dono generally intervened in all matters. Later, he went to Nijō Castle, where he arrived on May 17 and met there on the 21 or 22 with Hidetada, who arrived with the troops ready to go to Osaka.

Summer campaign

In April 1615, Ieyasu received word that Toyotomi Hideyori was gathering even more troops than in the previous November, and that he was trying to stop the filling of the moat. Toyotomi forces began to attack contingents of the Tokugawa forces near Osaka. On 26 May (Keichō 20, 29th day of 4th month) at the Battle of Kashii, Toyotomi forces under the command of Ono Harufusa and Ban Danemon engaged with forces of Asano Nagaakira, an ally of the Shōgun. Tachibana Muneshige, who now served as military advisor of the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, as his military strategist and in charge of guarding the area. Muneshige correctly predicted the movements of the general of Toyotomi, Ono Harufusa's troops and guided Hidetada's troops. Toyotomi forces sustained heavy losses and Ban Danemon was killed.

On 2 June (Keichō 20, 6th day of 5th month), the Battle of Dōmyōji took place. Toyotomi forces tried to stop the enemy approaching from Yamato Province along the Yamato-gawa river. Two Toyotomi generals, Gotō Matabei and Susukida Kanesuke, were killed in the fighting. Toyotomi forces commander Sanada Yukimura engaged in a battle with Date Masamune forces, but soon retreated towards Osaka Castle. Tokugawa forces did not pursue Sanada. The same day Chōsokabe Morichika and Tōdō Takatora battled at Yao. Another battle took place at Wakae around the same time, between Kimura Shigenari and Ii Naotaka. Chōsokabe's forces achieved victory, but Kimura Shigenari was deflected by the left wing of Ii Naotaka's army. The main Tokugawa forces moved to assist Todo Takatora after Shigenari's death, and Chōsokabe withdrew for the time being.

Fall of Osaka Castle
After another series of Tokugawa victories on the outskirts of Osaka, the summer campaign came to a head at the battle of Tennōji. Hideyori planned a hammer-and-anvil operation in which 55,000 men would attack the center of the Tokugawa army while a second force, 16,500 men led by Kyōgoku Tadataka, Ishikawa Tadafusa, and Kyōgoku Takatomo, would attack them from the rear. Meanwhile, Ii Naotaka has send his Red Demon ninja unit under the lead of Miura Yo'emon, Shimotani Sanzo, Okuda Kasa'emon, and Saga Kita'emon to aid the Tokugawa's regular soldiers in storming the southern gate of Osaka castle. Another contingent waited in reserve. Ieyasu's army was led by his son, the Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, and numbered around 155,000. They moved in four parallel lines, prepared to make flanking maneuvers of their own. Mistakes on both sides almost altered the outcome of the battle, as Hideyori's rōnin split off from the main group, and Hidetada's reserve force moved up without orders from the main force. In the end, Hideyori's commander Sanada Yukimura was killed by Nishio Munetsugu, destroying the morale of the Toyotomi Army. The smaller force led directly by Hideyori sallied forth from Osaka Castle too late, and was chased right back into the castle by the advancing enemies; there was no time to set up a proper defense of the castle, and it was soon ablaze and pummeled by artillery fire.

The people who were in the castle began to escape. Hidetada knew that his daughter was in the castle, so he sent Ii Naotaka to save her. Senhime managed to escape with her son Toyotomi Kunimatsu (Hideyori's son) accompanied by other women. Kaihime fled with Hideyori's concubine, Oiwa no Kata, and Hideyori's daughter Nāhime. While they retreated, Kaihime personally defended Nāhime from Tokugawa troops. Hideyori and Yodo-dono took refuge in a fireproof warehouse, as much of the castle was in flames. Ōno Harunaga sent Hideyori's wife, Senhime, with his father Hidetada to be forgiven, and to plead for the life of her husband and mother-in-law. Without waiting for answers, Toyotomi Hideyori and Yodo-dono committed seppuku in the flames of Osaka castle, thus ending the Toyotomi dynasty. When the death of the clan leaders was announced, Lady Okurakyo, Lady Aeba, Ono Harunaga, Ono Harufusa and other loyal retainers committed suicide shortly thereafter.

The final major uprising against Tokugawa rule was put to an end, leaving the shogunate unchallenged for approximately 250 years.

Theory
According to an account by an employee of the Dutch East India Company in Hirado, several daimyō set the castle on fire and attempted to defect to Ieyasu. Hideyori executed them by throwing them off the castle wall but could not extinguish the fire, which then led his suicide. The account also stated that about 10,000 people perished in the blaze.

Aftermath

Hideyori's son Toyotomi Kunimatsu, aged eight, was captured by the Tokugawa forces and beheaded in Kyoto. According to legend, before his beheading, little Kunimatsu bravely blamed Ieyasu for his betrayal and brutality against the Toyotomi clan. Nāhime, daughter of Hideyori, was not sentenced to death. Ohatsu and Senhime were able to save Nāhime's life and adopted her; she later became a nun at Kamakura's Tōkei-ji. Hideyoshi's grave, along with Kyoto's Toyokuni Shrine, were destroyed subsequently during the Tokugawa shogunate. Chōsokabe Morichika was beheaded on May 11. There are also records of pillaging and mass rapes by Tokugawa forces at the closing of the siege.

The bakufu obtained 650,000 koku at Osaka and started rebuilding Osaka Castle. Osaka was then made a han (feudal domain), and given to Matsudaira Tadayoshi. In 1619, however, the shogunate replaced Osaka Domain with Osaka Jodai, placed under the command of a bugyō who served the shogunate directly; like many of Japan's other major cities, Osaka was for the remainder of the Edo period not part of a han under the control of a daimyō. A few daimyō including Naitō Nobumasa (Takatsuki Castle, Settsu Province 20,000 koku) and Mizuno Katsushige (Yamato Koriyama, Yamato Province 60,000 koku) moved to Osaka.

The Toyotomi clan was then disbanded.

After the fall of the castle, the shogunate announced laws including ikkoku ichijō (一国一城) (one province can contain only one castle) and Bukeshohatto (or called Law of Buke, which limits each daimyō to own only one castle and obey the castle restrictions). The shogunate's permission had to be obtained prior to any castle construction or repair from then on. Many castles were also forced to be destroyed as a result of compliance with this law.

Despite finally uniting Japan, Ieyasu's health was failing. During the one-year campaign against the Toyotomi clan and its allies, he received wounds that significantly shortened his life. Roughly one year later on June 1, 1616, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the third and last of the great unifiers, died at the age of 75, leaving the shogunate to his descendants.

In popular culture
The siege is the subject of the Hiroshi Inagaki's historical drama "Ōsaka-jō monogatari" (engl. The Tale of Osaka Castle, UK; some other English titles: "Daredevil in the Castle", "Devil in the Castle", "Osaka Castle Story") (1961) with Toshiro Mifune in the leading role. It is also the backdrop for Tai Kato's musical film Brave Records of the Sanada Clan (1963).

The fall of Osaka is (for most of the characters) the final level in the Samurai Warriors series, also serving as the climax of Hattori Hanzō's, Ieyasu's and Yukimura's stories. Called the "Osaka Campaign", it compiles all the battles of the Winter and Summer Campaigns. In the computer game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, the siege of Osaka castle is the setting of the first (and demo) mission.

The siege of Osaka also is the main setting for the tv show, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.

The protagonist, Tsugumo Hanshirō, of the film Harakiri, mentions his status as a veteran of the siege of Osaka Castle.

The events of the siege and its fallout form the backstory for the 1974 Toei TV series Unmeitōge.

The siege campaign serves as the setting for the video game Nioh's final two DLC. The game's second DLC, "Defiant Hope", is set during the Winter campaign whereas the third DLC, "Bloodshed's End", is set during the Summer campaign up through the fall of Osaka castle and the beginning of the Genna Era.

title: Siege of Osaka


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User talk:MOiRe

Hi Moire :) I hope you like the place and choose to stay.

Some links that may be of use:
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * How to edit a page
 * Village pump - ask questions you may have here, or leave a message on my talk page

Here's some stuff you can do, if you want:

Just a point re Bunch - Wikipedia is not a dictionary, so I'm afraid the content may have to be removed or go to the Wiktionary, a Wiki-dictionary.

Thanks and keep contributing :) Dysprosia 05:58, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * It's been moved to the Wiktionary, under Transwiki:Bunch, if you are interested. Dysprosia 06:13, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi MOiRe, I've seen you do a ton of good work here, thanks. I thought I might mention that the article on Richard Feynman Quotes probably ought to be moved over to Wikiquote; articles with just quotes were designed for that server and usually get deleted here. - Hephaestos 08:32, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * That page has now been moved. You can continue work on it at http://wikiquote.org/wiki/Transwiki:Richard_Feynman_Quotes. Angela. 02:31, 1 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Witch of Agnesi image
Where did you get Witch1.gif, the Witch of Agnesi image? Just wondering beecause it needs a licence tag, or it will be deleted (which would be a shame becasue it's great for the article). I'm happy to find the right tag if you tell me where it came from. By the way, I enjoyed the Conan O'Brien speech on your site, thanks. --Commander Keane 07:45, August 6, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:MOiRe


text:
Lists of Marvel Comics publications

Lists of Marvel Comics publications cover publications by Marvel Comics, a publisher of American comic books and related media. The Walt Disney Company acquired the parent company, Marvel Entertainment, in 2009. The lists are organized alphabetically, by primary character and by imprint.

Alphabetic list

 * List of Marvel Comics publications (A)
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By primary character

 * List of Avengers titles
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By imprint

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title: Lists of Marvel Comics publications


text:
List of Marvel Comics people

Marvel Comics is an American comic book company. These are some of the people (artists, editors, executives, writers) who have been associated with the company in its history, as Marvel and its predecessors, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics.

 * Jack Abel a.k.a. "Gary Michaels"
 * Art Adams
 * Dan Adkins
 * Vince Alascia
 * Alfredo Alcala
 * Vicente Alcazar
 * Ross Andru
 * Avi Arad
 * Ruth Atkinson a.k.a. "Ruth Atkinson Ford"
 * Chuck Austen
 * Al Avison
 * Dick Ayers
 * Mark Bagley
 * Ken Bald
 * Brent Peeples
 * Violet Barclay
 * Clive Barker
 * Max Bemis
 * Robert Bernstein a.k.a. "R. Berns"
 * Brian Michael Bendis
 * Tom Brevoort
 * Sol Brodsky
 * Ed Brubaker
 * Frank Brunner
 * Steve Buccellato
 * Rich Buckler
 * Dan Buckley
 * Carl Burgos
 * John Buscema
 * Sal Buscema
 * Kurt Busiek
 * John Byrne
 * Vic Carrabotta
 * Hank Chapman
 * Bobbie Chase
 * Frank Chiaramonte
 * Chris Claremont
 * Dave Cockrum
 * Gene Colan a.k.a. "Adam Austin"
 * Vince Colletta
 * Gerry Conway
 * Johnny Craig
 * Paris Cullins
 * Jon D'Agostino a.k.a. "Johnny Dee"
 * Peter David
 * Gene Day
 * Tom DeFalco
 * Tony DeZuniga
 * Tony DiPreta
 * Steve Dillon
 * Steve Ditko
 * Arnold Drake
 * Jo Duffy a.k.a. Mary Jo Duffy
 * Harlan Ellison
 * Steve Englehart
 * Garth Ennis
 * Steve Epting
 * Mike Esposito (comics) a.k.a. "Mickey Demeo", "Mickey Dee". "Joe Guadioso"
 * Bill Everett
 * Glenn Fabry
 * Vincent Fago
 * Danny Fingeroth
 * Linda Fite
 * Gary Friedrich
 * Mike Friedrich
 * Al Gabriele
 * Neil Gaiman
 * David Gallaher
 * Steve Gerber
 * Frank Giacoia a.k.a. "Frank Ray"
 * Stan Goldberg a.k.a. "Stan G."
 * Michael Golden
 * Archie Goodwin
 * Martin Goodman
 * Billy Graham (comics)
 * Sam Grainger
 * Mark Gruenwald
 * Paul Gulacy
 * Caesar Crawford
 * Paul Gustavson
 * Ed Hannigan
 * Ernie Hart a.k.a. "H.E. Huntley"
 * Bob Harras
 * Al Hartley
 * Russ Heath
 * Don Heck
 * Carl Icahn
 * Tony Isabella
 * Bill Jemas
 * Paul Jenkins
 * Klaus Janson
 * Arvell Jones
 * Carol Kalish
 * Gil Kane a.k.a. "Scott Edwards"
 * Jack Keller (comics)
 * Sam Kieth
 * Fred Kida
 * Jack Kirby
 * George Klein (comics)
 * Annette Kawecki
 * Daniel Keyes
 * Scott Kolins
 * David Anthony Kraft
 * Adam Kubert
 * Andy Kubert
 * Joe Kubert
 * Erik Larsen
 * Leon Lazarus
 * Elaine Lee
 * Jae Lee
 * Jim Lee
 * Stan Lee
 * Steve Leialoha
 * Rick Leonardi
 * Larry Lieber
 * Rob Liefeld
 * Scott Lobdell
 * Pauline Loth
 * Frank Lovece
 * Ralph Macchio
 * David W. Mack
 * Howard Mackie
 * Leonardo Manco
 * Joe Maneely
 * Pablo Marcos
 * Val Mayerik
 * Todd McFarlane
 * Don McGregor
 * Frank McLaughlin
 * Marcus McLaurin
 * Pop Mhan
 * David Michelinie
 * Mike Mignola
 * Mark Millar
 * Frank Miller
 * Peter Milligan
 * Paul S. Newman
 * Doug Moench
 * Jim Mooney
 * Jon J. Muth
 * Charles Nicholas
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 * Alex Niño
 * Ann Nocenti
 * Jim Novak
 * Michael Avon Oeming
 * Mike Okamoto
 * Glynis Oliver
 * Joe Orlando
 * Tom Orzechowski
 * James Owsley (see Christopher Priest)
 * Jimmy Palmiotti
 * Lisa Patrick
 * Ronald Perelman
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 * Don Perlin
 * Ike Perlmutter
 * Mike Ploog
 * Keith Pollard
 * Whilce Portacio
 * Carl Potts
 * Bob Powell (comics)
 * Christopher Priest
 * Howard Purcell
 * Joe Quesada
 * Nestor Redondo
 * Ralph Reese
 * Paul Reinman
 * Don Rico a.k.a. "N. Korok"
 * James Robinson
 * Marshall Rogers
 * John Romita, Jr.
 * John Romita, Sr.
 * Werner Roth (comics) a.k.a. "Jay Gavin"
 * Joe Rosen
 * Sam Rosen
 * Alex Ross
 * George Roussos a.k.a. "George Bell"
 * Josef Rubinstein
 * Greg Rucka
 * Christopher Rule
 * P. Craig Russell
 * Jim Salicrup
 * Christie Scheele
 * Alex Schomburg
 * Mike Sekowsky
 * John Severin
 * Marie Severin
 * Jim Shooter
 * Syd Shores
 * Jerry Siegel
 * Bill Sienkiewicz
 * Marc Silvestri
 * Artie Simek
 * Joe Simon
 * Louise Simonson
 * Walt Simonson
 * Joe Sinnott
 * Steve Skroce
 * Dan Slott
 * Kevin Smith
 * Mickey Spillane
 * Frank Springer
 * Jim Starlin
 * Flo Steinberg
 * Jim Steranko
 * Roger Stern
 * Chic Stone
 * J. Michael Straczynski
 * Tom Sutton
 * John Tartaglione
 * Roy Thomas
 * Pete Tumlinson
 * George Tuska
 * John Verpoorten
 * Brian K. Vaughan
 * Mike Vosburg
 * Mark Waid
 * Larry Wachowski
 * Len Wein
 * Morris Weiss
 * Joss Whedon
 * Ogden Whitney
 * Anthony Williams (comics)
 * Al Williamson
 * Ron Wilson
 * Barry Windsor-Smith a.k.a. "Barry Smith"
 * Ed Winiarski
 * David Wohl
 * Marv Wolfman
 * Wally Wood

title: List of Marvel Comics people