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Portneuf Regional County Municipality

Portneuf is a regional county municipality (RCM) in the Capitale-Nationale administrative region of Quebec, Canada. RCM of Portneuf has been established on January 1, 1982. It is composed of 21 municipalities: nine cities, seven municipalities, two parishes and three unorganized territories. The county seat is located in Cap-Santé.

History
The Regional County Municipality of Portneuf was constituted as a regional administrative entity on November 25, 1981, by a Provincial decree creating the supralocal Regional County Municipality administration based on the (...) and therefore replacing the previously existing historic Portneuf County Corporation. While the new administrative boundary included most of the communities from its previous historic limits, a few municipalities were merged with bordering entities: St-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Sainte-Catherine-de-Portneuf, Notre-Dame-de-Montauban, Quebec. Those municipalities yet remained within the Electoral Federal Riding of Portneuf District (all but Notre-Dame-de-Mautauban).

The administrative county seat remained in Cap-Santé while moving from the County Corporation building to a newly built one located further east on 185, Route 138 at a slight distance from the historic village of Cap-Santé.

Subdivisions
There are 21 subdivisions within the RCM:

 * Cities & Towns (9)
 * Cap-Santé
 * Donnacona
 * Lac-Sergent
 * Neuville
 * Pont-Rouge
 * Portneuf
 * Saint-Basile
 * Saint-Marc-des-Carrières
 * Saint-Raymond

 * Municipalities (7)
 * Deschambault-Grondines
 * Rivière-à-Pierre
 * Saint-Alban
 * Saint-Casimir
 * Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne
 * Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf
 * Saint-Ubalde

 * Parishes (2)
 * Saint-Gilbert
 * Saint-Thuribe

 * Unorganized Territory (3)
 * Lac-Blanc
 * Lac-Lapeyrère
 * Linton

Access Routes
Highways and numbered routes that run through the municipality, including external routes that start or finish at the county border:

 * Autoroutes

 * Principal Highways

 * Secondary Highways

 * External Routes
 * None

title: Portneuf Regional County Municipality


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Cap-Santé

Cap-Santé is a town in the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the county seat of Portneuf Regional County Municipality and was as well the county seat of the designated Portneuf County.

The name of the town means "Cape Health". Cap-Santé is on the northern bank of the Saint Lawrence River, 40 km west of Quebec City. Legend has it that this community's name was coined when soldiers suffering from an unknown disease miraculously recovered from a cure discovered in the village.

The old settlement is situated just west of the nearby Jacques-Cartier River and on the embankment of the Saint Lawrence River.

History
The first settlers arrived around 1679, and in 1714 the village became an official parish.

The present-day church, a historical-registered building, was built from 1754 to 1767. Interrupted during construction by the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), it is one of the last buildings to be constructed under the French regime. The church has a facade and two towers, a baroque interior, a neoclassical reredos, and two tiers of openings on the bell tower, a presbytery (designed by architect Charles Baillargé in 1849) featuring five neatly lined dormer windows. A cemetery encircles the square, leading to the river below.

The Place de l'Église square is crowned with old wells dating back to 1799. Vieux Chemin street was built along the same geographical line as that Chemin-du-Roy, the first road linking Montreal and Quebec City in the 18th century. Wooden and stone homes dot the narrow and shaded street that borders the cape. The quay is on the Saint Lawrence River.

In 1759 following the defeat of the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham during the Seven Years' War, the commander of the French forces, Chevalier de Lévis, ordered the construction of Fort Jacques-Cartier at the mouth of the Jacques-Cartier River from materials originally destined for the construction of a church. The following year, using the fort as a logistics base, Lévis attempted unsuccessfully with 7,000 men to recapture Quebec City from the British. The British captured the fort in September 1760 and kept a garrison there until 1763 after which they abandoned it. Virtually nothing remains of the fort aside from archaeological remains, which is also situated on private land inaccessible to the public on the 'Plateau Jacques-Cartier' district of the municipality. Close by, is the Allsopp House (late 18th century), an old seigneurial manor named after the Allsopp family, now a private property registered as a historical building.

The founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Pasteur, Marie Fitzbach, lived in Cap-Santé from 1826–1840. Gérard Morisset, architect and art historian, was also a resident, and designed the interiors of many of the region's churches.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Cap-Santé had a population of $3,594$ living in $1,509$ of its $1,589$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $3,410$. With a land area of 54.49 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Mother tongue:
 * English as first language: 0.9%
 * French as first language: 97.9%
 * English and French as first language: 0.6%
 * Other as first language: 0.4%

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

title: Cap-Santé


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Gabriella Brum

Gabriella Brum (born 1962) is a German-British former model and beauty queen who won the 1980 Miss World and resigned 18 hours later, initially claiming her boyfriend disapproved. She stated that this was because of the pressure from the news media, though there were also allegations that she had posed nude in a magazine. The first runner-up in the pageant, Kimberley Santos from Guam, then assumed the title.

Biography
Brum's mother, Angelika Roure, had met soldier, Edward Brum from London in 1961, but separated from him after a few years. The daughter, Gabriella Brum attended the Lessing High School in Berlin from 1976 to 1980, but left school in favor of a desired film career. She worked under various pseudonyms and met acting director, cameraman and producer Wolfgang Benno Bellenbaum (1928-1984), with whom she went to Los Angeles where she worked as a model.

Miss Germany (1980)
On 26 June 1980, Brum was crowned Miss Germany at the International Congress Center (ICC) in Berlin. A Time article from July 1980 shows that her election to Miss Germany met with criticism. So it was complained that Brum no longer lived in Germany as the main residence.

Miss World (1980)
On 13 November 1980, Brum won the Miss World pageant in London, making her the second German to win the title, after Petra Schürmann. The runner-up was Kimberley Santos from Guam. The following day, Brum resigned on the grounds that her boyfriend disagreed with her new obligations and she "wanted to be with Benno instead of flying through the world under a strict contract for a year". Later, it was revealed she had been forced to resign because of allegations that there were nude photos of her. In a 2008 interview with Der Spiegel, photographer Wolfgang Heilemann said he had taken the photos of Brum naked in bed having a pillow fight with her boyfriend, as part of a Miss World cover story for Paris Match.

Living in the United States
In the early years, Brum was a successful model in the United States. She appeared in Playboy 5/1981.

In 1981, she married Wolfgang Benno Bellenbaum; they soon separated. Her husband shot himself at the age of 55 in his apartment in Encino, a district of Los Angeles, and his body was identified by Brum. A farewell letter was found.

An article on the January 2012 United States Online News (USSPost) indicated that she was still based in Los Angeles at the time.

title: Gabriella Brum


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Alex Parks

Alexandra Rebecca Parks (born 26 July 1984) is a retired English singer-songwriter. In 2003 Parks won the second series of the BBC Television programme Fame Academy immediately followed by the release of her first album entitled Introduction, which went double platinum in the United Kingdom and gold in several other European countries. In 2005 she released her second album, Honesty, but was subsequently dropped by her record label in February 2006.

Parks has been inactive in music since 2006.

Biography
Alex Parks was born in July 1984 and was raised in the village of Mount Hawke, Cornwall. She is the youngest of four siblings. Parks attended college at The Hub in St Austell.

Parks began fronting a local band, One Trick Pony, which performed mostly cover songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Ani Di Franco and Michelle Branch. For two years they played in bars around Cornwall, but the momentum of the band gradually ran down, leaving Parks in her bedroom with a four-track tape machine and a bunch of her songs-in-progress.

Parks initially planned to move to Amsterdam to learn the art of clowning, but her career path changed when her father submitted an application for the second season of the BBC Television series, Fame Academy.

Parks is gay and before entering Fame Academy had a long-term girlfriend from Newquay.

Fame Academy
Having been prompted by her father to take part in auditions for the show, which threw her in amongst 12,000 hopefuls, the 18-year-old Alex found herself the youngest student chosen for the two-month stay at Witanhurst House in north London.

The final showdown between Parks and Alistair Griffin was screened live and generated so many angry messages from viewers after Daniel Bedingfield who duetted with both finalists, made his feelings clear by urging viewers that they should "just vote for Alex". This outburst by Bedingfield led to claims of favouritism. The BBC was forced to close down the Points of View message boards as negative messages flooded the board. Bedingfield made a public apology to Griffin for his behaviour and outburst. The actual voting figures have never been publicly released. Parks went on to win the show.

Recording career
Her song "Maybe That's What It Takes" was released on 17 November 2003 and peaked at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart the following week. Her debut album Introduction was subsequently released and sold over 500,000 copies. She expressed an interest in a recording career.

Honesty was eventually released in October 2005, preceded by the lead single, "Looking For Water", in October 2005. The album peaked at No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart.

After being dropped by her label, Polydor, Parks wrote a statement to her fans on her official website stating that she had almost no support from the media and that she was disappointed in how things had turned out. She was not sure whether she was not promoted well enough because they did not like her music, her personally or the fact she had become famous via a reality TV programme.

Singles
1 On downloads only

title: Alex Parks


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Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer is an invocation by the petitioner for wisdom to understand the difference between circumstances ("things") that can and cannot be changed, asking courage to take action in the case of the former, and serenity to accept in the case of the latter.

The prayer has achieved very wide distribution, spreading through the YWCA and other groups in the 1930s, and in Alcoholics Anonymous and related organizational materials since at least 1941. Since at least the early 1960s, commercial enterprises such as Hallmark Cards have used the prayer in its greeting cards and gift items. The prayer has also made its way into popular culture, including in works by Bill Watterson, Neil Young, Bryan Lee O'Malley and Sinéad O'Connor, and programming including True Detective.

History
A version of the prayer was originally composed by Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s. Initially popularized by one of his colleagues, the prayer began to spread widely without reference to the original author.

Around 1932, Niebuhr is reported to have first used the prayer as the last part of a longer prayer. In an October 31, 1932 diary entry by American YWCA official Winnifred Wygal, she quotes her colleague Niebuhr:"The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered."Drawing on this, Wygal published a prayer in the March 1933 edition of YWCA periodical The Woman's Press, which was soon shared with a broader audience on the front page of the Santa Cruz Sentinel of March 15, 1933.

It read:"Oh, God, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what can not be helped, and insight to know the one from the other."The prayer was also quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch later that month. Substantial quotes from the prayer were also printed in two Atlanta newspapers that month.

The prayer appeared a few additional times in American and Canadian newspapers in the 1930s, associated with the YWCA or with individual women. In 1937, the prayer was published in a Christian student newsletter, attributing it to Niebuhr.

Wygal published the prayer again in her 1940 book We Plan Our Own Worship Services, and attributed it to Niebuhr. It took this form:"O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other."The prayer became published in English language newspapers much more from 1940, but never attributed to Wygal or Neibuhr. In June 1941, the prayer was published in an obituary in the New York Herald Tribune, and from here became known by the first Alcoholics Anonymous group. The organisation embraced it and spread it widely. It was initially known within the group as "The AA prayer", but by the late 1940s, was known as "the serenity prayer."

Niebuhr presented it in a 1943 sermon at Heath Evangelical Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts. Niebuhr's wife and daughter would later say this was when they understood the prayer was first written and used. It then also appeared in a sermon of Niebuhr's in the 1944 A Book of Prayers and Services for the Armed Forces,  and was printed on cards for American soldiers in WWII. From January 1944, Niebuhr began being cited as the source of the prayer in newspaper articles.

Niebuhr also published it in a magazine column in 1951.

By this stage, the prayer had become commonly quoted as: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. In 1962, Hallmark began using the prayer in its graduation cards, crediting Niebuhr, and in the 1970s they also produced a wall plaque. Posters and household ornaments were produced by others without attribution.

Rhetorician William FitzGerald believes Wygal wrote the prayer, arguing sexism as the reason for misattribution. Quotation researcher Fred Shapiro has alternated in his conclusions over time. In 2021's The New Yale Book of Quotations, and in his discussion of it, says Wygal "was the author of the earliest known occurrence".

Versions
The prayer has appeared in many versions. Reinhold Niebuhr's versions of the prayer were always printed as a single prose sentence; printings that set out the prayer as three lines of verse modify the author's original version. The best-known form is a late version, as it includes a reference to grace not found before 1951:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

The following clauses were added in the AA Origin of the Serenity Prayer: A Historic Paper but were not part of the tripartite original. Niebuhr's daughter in her book The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Time of Peace and War said: "... their message and their tone are not in any way Niebuhrian."

Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as He did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that He will make all things right, If I surrender to His will, That I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

Amen.

A version, apparently quoted from memory and asking for the author of the quotation, appeared in the "Queries and Answers" column in The New York Times Book Review in July 1950, and received a reply in the same column in August 1950, attributing the prayer to Niebuhr, and quoting it as follows: O God and Heavenly Father, Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Some twelve-step recovery programs use a slightly different version: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.

Precursors
1st-century Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote:"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us [eph' hêmin] and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions—in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.'"

The 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar Shantideva of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara suggested: If there's a remedy when trouble strikes, What reason is there for dejection? And if there is no help for it, What use is there in being glum?

The 11th-century Jewish philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol wrote: "And they said: At the head of all understanding – is distinguishing between what is and what cannot be, and the consoling of what is not in our power to change."

A Mother Goose rhyme (dating back to at least 1827 ) has been juxtaposed with Niebuhr's prayer by philosopher W.W. Bartley: For every ailment under the sun There is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.

In 1801, German philosopher Friedrich Schiller wrote:"Blessed is he, who has learned to bear what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity, what he cannot save.'"

Spurious attributions
The prayer has been variously attributed (without evidence) to Thomas Aquinas, Cicero, Augustine, Boethius, Marcus Aurelius, and Francis of Assisi, among others.

Theodor Wilhelm, a professor of education at the University of Kiel, published a German version of the prayer under the pseudonym "Friedrich Oetinger" in 1951. Wilhelm's version of the prayer became popular in West Germany, where it was widely but falsely attributed to the 18th-century philosopher Friedrich Christoph Oetinger. Elisabeth Sifton described Wilhelm's account of the history of the prayer as "dishonest".

Use by twelve-step recovery programs
The prayer became more widely known after being brought to the attention of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1941 by an early member, who came upon it in a caption in a "routine New York Herald Tribune obituary". The original clipping appeared in the May 28, 1941, public notices section: "Mother--God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.  Goodby." AA's co-founder Bill W. and the staff liked the prayer and had it printed in modified form and handed around. It has been part of Alcoholics Anonymous ever since, and has also been used in other twelve-step programs. "Never had we seen so much A.A. in so few words," noted Bill W. The January 1950 edition of the Grapevine (The International Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous) identifies Niebuhr as the author, as does the AA web site.

Adaptations by other authors
In the August 28, 1992, publishing of Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin says:

"Know what I pray for? The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference."In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, the Serenity Prayer appears in Chapter 3: it is displayed in Billy Pilgrim's optometry office; and though it reassures Pilgrim's patients, the Serenity Prayer underscores the irony of Pilgrim's fatalism.

A 1978 newspaper cartoon turned the phrase on its head: "If I'm not home accepting what I can't change, I'm probably out changing what I can't accept"; and a variant has become a popular slogan: "I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I'm changing the things I cannot accept". This form is often, but incorrectly, attributed to the American activist Angela Davis.

Neil Young cites a Latin translation of the Serenity Prayer on the back cover of his 1981 album Re•ac•tor.

Sinéad O'Connor cites the prayer in the intro of the song "Feel So Different", from her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.

The prayer features in season 3 of True Detective.

title: Serenity Prayer


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Von Steuben Day

Von Steuben Day is a holiday traditionally held on a weekend in mid-September (von Steuben was born September 17), celebrating the Prussian-born Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who arrived in the United States as a volunteer offering his services to General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. Von Steuben is still regarded as one of the most important German Americans, as his training of the young American troops made victory against the British possible. Thus, his work helped gain independence for the United States of America. The day is generally considered the German-American event of the year, and many participants wear tracht costumes, including dirndls and lederhosen, to celebrate their heritage. Celebrations focus on parades where participants march, dance, and play music.

Parades
The German-American Steuben Parade is an annual parade traditionally held in cities across the United States on Von Steuben Day.

The New York City parade is held every third Saturday in September. It was founded in 1957 by immigrants from Germany who, part of the most significant self-reported immigrant ancestral group in the United States, wanted to keep the traditions of their German homeland alive.

The Philadelphia parade, founded in 1970, is usually held every fourth Saturday in September.

The Chicago parade was featured in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Many parades were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York
While Steuben Day is celebrated in many cities all across the United States, the largest crowds gather in New York City. Every year on the third Saturday in September, German-Americans celebrate the Annual Steuben Parade on Fifth Avenue and an Oktoberfest-style beer fest complete with food and live music in Central Park. The parade was founded in 1957 and has grown into one of the largest celebrations of German and German-American culture in the United States. In 2007, German-Americans celebrated the 50th anniversary of this affair and welcomed former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as Grand Marshal and former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as Guest of Honor. In 2017, the parade celebrated its 60th anniversary with Grand Marshals Admiral Nielson from the German Navy along with longtime Parade Volunteer and German-American Community Leader Heinz Buck. But three years later, the parade was canceled on the grounds of COVID-19 pandemic and was deferred to 2021.

The first Steuben Parade was held in the German neighborhood of Ridgewood Queens. In 1958, the parade moved to Yorkville, known then as Germantown, and lined up on 86th Street. Over the years, as the event grew more extensive, it drew an ever-larger number of spectators. Soon, it gained the city's recognition and marched up Fifth Avenue, turning onto 86th St, and marching across to First Avenue to cheering crowds. 86th Street was once the heart of Little Germany and was affectionately called the "German Boulevard." It hosted many German shops, Konditereis, Biergartens, Vereins, theaters, restaurants, newspapers, and dance halls.

Today, the parade still marches up Fifth Avenue but now ends only at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. It is led by cadets representing the German Language Club of the Military Academy of West Point, which General von Steuben founded. The three-hour parade is dominated by traditional German groups, spectacular colorful floats, marching bands, clubs, and organizations from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, as well as the US and Canada, wearing their traditional German costumes. The parade honors one or more Grand Marshals, either American citizens with a German background or German citizens with a special relationship to America.

Every year, the German-American Steuben Parade is led by cadets representing the German Language Club of the Military Academy of West Point, which General von Steuben founded. However, it is not a parade in the military tradition. The rest of the about three-hour-long parade is dominated by traditional German brass music groups and marching bands, by clubs and organizations wearing traditional German Tracht, as well as by carnival groups, sharpshooters, or representatives of other traditions. For many years, the parade has had a solid Bavarian theme, dominated by men wearing lederhosen, women in dirndl, and groups dancing the traditional Schuhplattler. Recently, though, the parade opened up to represent more German themes.

Grand Marshal and Guest of Honor
Every year, the German-American Steuben Parade is led by one or more Grand Marshals, either American citizens with a German background or German citizens with a special relationship with America.

The Grand Marshals in 2009 were Congressman Michael McMahon, Fox 5 TV reporter Linda Schmidt, A&P Chairman Christian Haub, and Parade Co-founder Ted Dengler. In previous years, Grand Marshals included Hollywood star Ralf Möller, NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer and Col. Gail Halvorsen, the "Candy-Bomber" from the 1948–49 Berlin Airlift.

In 2007, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the German-American Steuben Parade, the Grand Marshal was former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, born in the Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany. The Guest of Honor was Dr. Klaus Scharioth, the German Ambassador to the United States. Also invited was former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, known to have a deep personal friendship with America. Over the years, many distinguished Germans and Americans have led the Steuben Parade. Former Grand Marshals include Donald Trump, Siegfried & Roy, George Steinbrenner, Carol Alt, Michael Bloomberg, Eric Braeden, John Roland, Louis Freeh, Norbert Schramm. Several Mayors of New York City of non-German background have also led the parade, including Rudolph Giuliani and George Pataki.

Among the Guests of Honor have been three German presidents: Walter Scheel, Richard von Weizsäcker and Johannes Rau, as well as other dignitaries from the political and economic fields, including state prime ministers Erwin Teufel, Kurt Biedenkopf and Bernhard Vogel.

Parade events
While the German-American Steuben Parade is held on the third Saturday in September, starting at noon, other weekend festivities exist. Usually, up to 35 music and costume groups from overseas are greeted at City Hall Park on the Friday preceding the parade. On the eve of the parade, a gala benefit banquet takes place as a fundraiser for the parade.

The parade leads to the German-American Friendship Party in Central Park. This is the most significant beer fest in New York, featuring many German brands on tap, as well as traditional German food such as bratwurst.

Miss German-America
Each May, the German-American Steuben Parade Committee crowns a Miss German-America, who serves as Queen of the Steuben Day Parade in September. She is selected based on her German-American heritage and knowledge of German culture. She is expected to promote the parade, its events, and numerous German festivals throughout the New York region each summer. Past winners include: Nicole Radske (2006), Christina Rom (2007), Melissa Gratzl (2008), Virginia Kovak (2009), Stephanie Russell-Kraft (2010), Denise Manukian (2011), Kirsten Mueller (2012), Kristina Kren (2013) Stefanie Kraker (2014) and Samantha Hart (2015).

Logo
The cornflower is the official flower and the logo of the German-American Steuben Parade of New York City, as it widely grows in both Germany and the United States. Also, the color blue symbolizes friendship and hope. In addition, the Cornflower was the national Flower of Prussia since its introduction by Kaiser Wilhelm I to honor his mother Queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and because of its color (prussian blue).

Organization
The German-American Steuben Parade Committee organizes the parade and all related events. Since 2014, the committee has been led by General Chairman Bob Radske. The two Vice Chairwomen are Nicole Miskiewicz and Melissa Alke-Sparnroft. The committee membership consists of representatives of many German-American organizations from the New York metropolitan area, some involved in founding the parade in 1957. The Steuben Parade is overseen by the German-American Committee of Greater New York, a not-for-profit organization registered in New York with 501(c)3 status.

Philadelphia
To celebrate the accomplishments of Baron von Steuben, the Philadelphia Von Steuben Day Parade is 50 miles from Valley Forge, where Steuben trained the Revolutionary Army. Philadelphia is where the Continental Congress met to sign the Declaration of Independence. It was also home to Benjamin Franklin, sent to France by the Continental Congress. It was during this trip that Franklin was introduced to von Steuben.

In addition, in 1683, William Penn invited the thirteen German families from Krefeld to join his "Grand Experiment". They eventually settled and founded Germantown, now a section of Philadelphia. In 1983, a parade celebrated the 300th anniversary of the founding of Germantown. At that time, a group from Krefeld brought the Tri-Centennial Bike, a thirteen-seat bicycle that has become a feature of our annual parade.

Parade events
While the German–American Steuben Parade is held on the fourth Saturday in September, starting at noon, other weekend festivities exist. On the eve of the parade, a gala benefit banquet is held at the Cannstatter Volksfest Verein.

On Parade day itself, the day begins with an Ecumenical Service at 10:00 am. After the parade, participants are welcome to join the Oktoberfest held by the Bavarian Volksfest Verein on the grounds of the United German-Hungarian Club.

Organization
The Steuben Day Observance Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity organize the parade and all related events. The association is led by General Chairman Thomas Markow and two Vice Chairmen, Werner Fricker and James Schwartz. The association's membership consists of representatives of many German-American organizations from the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The Steuben Day Observance Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity is a not-for-profit organization registered in Pennsylvania with 501(c)3 status.

Von Steuben Day in pop culture
The Chicago parade was in the 1986 John Hughes movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, even though other movie details indicate that the film takes place near the end of the school year, not in September or on a Saturday.

Drunk History, season 2 episode 8 "Philadelphia", as retold by Nick Rutherford features David Cross as Baron von Steuben.

title: Von Steuben Day


text:
Tiger quoll

The tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), also known as the spotted-tailed quoll, spotted quoll, spotted-tailed dasyure, or tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus Dasyurus native to Australia. With males and females weighing around 3.5 and 1.8 kg, respectively, it is the world's second-largest extant carnivorous marsupial, behind the Tasmanian devil. Two subspecies are recognised; the nominate is found in wet forests of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, and a northern subspecies, D. m. gracilis, is found in a small area of northern Queensland and is endangered.

Tiger quolls commonly prey on small mammals, insects, birds, domestic poultry and large marsupials such as wombats. They hunt most of the food that they eat, though they sometimes scavenge when the opportunity arises. When hunting, tiger quolls launch their attack, executing a killing bite to the base of the skull or top of the neck, depending on the size of the prey. The species is listed as near-threatened on the IUCN Red List, and is primarily threatened by habitat loss caused by human activities.

Taxonomy
The tiger quoll is a member of the family Dasyuridae, which includes most carnivorous marsupial mammals. This quoll was first described in 1792 by Robert Kerr, the Scottish writer and naturalist, who placed it in the genus Didelphis, which includes several species of American opossum. The species name, maculatus, indicates this species is spotted.

The tribe Dasyurini, to which quolls belong, also includes the Tasmanian devil, the antechinus, the kowari, and the mulgara. Genetic analysis of cytochrome b DNA and 12S rRNA of the mitochondria indicates the quolls evolved and diversified in the late Miocene between 15 and 5 million years ago, a time of great diversification in marsupials. The ancestors of all current species had diverged by the early Pliocene, around 4 million years ago.

Two subspecies are recognised:
 * D. m. maculatus, found from southern Queensland south to Tasmania
 * D. m. gracilis, found in an isolated population in northeastern Queensland

The following is a phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial genome sequences:

Description

The tiger quoll is the largest of the quolls. It is sexually dimorphic, as adult females are generally smaller and weigh 1.5 times less. Males and females of D. m. maculatus weigh on average 3.5 and 1.8 kg, respectively, and males and females of D. m. gracilis weigh on average 1.60 and 1.15 kg, respectively. The biggest male individuals may weigh 8.85 kg, while the largest females can tip in at over 4.0 kg. The tiger quoll has relatively short legs, but its tail is as long as its body and head combined. It has a thick head and neck and a slightly rounded and elongated snout.

It has five toes on each foot, both front and hind, and the hind feet have well-developed halluces. Its long pink foot pads are ridged, an adaptation for its arboreal lifestyle. This makes up for the fact that its tail is not prehensile. The tiger quoll usually has a reddish-brown pelage (a minority have black fur) with white spots, and colourations do not change seasonally. It is the only quoll species with spots on its tail in addition to its body. Its fur and skin are covered in orange-brown-coloured oil. The underside is typically greyish or creamy white.

The average length of D. m. maculatus is 930 mm for males and 811 mm for females, respectively. For D. m. gracilis, the average length of males and females, respectively, is 801 and 742 mm. The tail is on average 285 to 550 mm long in both subspecies. The tiger quoll has the second-most powerful bite relative to body size of any living mammalian carnivore, exerting a force of 308 N.

Range and ecology

The tiger quoll is found in eastern Australia where more than 600 mm of rain falls per year. Most sightings occur in elevations of at least 600 m. Historically, the quoll was present throughout southeastern Queensland, through eastern New South Wales, Victoria, southeastern South Australia, and Tasmania. European settlement has severely impacted and fragmented the quoll's mainland distribution. Tiger quolls are rare in southeastern Queensland and mainly restricted to national parks. In Victoria, quoll populations have declined by nearly 50%. The range decline was not as severe in New South Wales, but they are still rare. The quoll was probably never very numerous in South Australia, but although considered locally extinct for 130 years, one was captured in the state's south-east in 2023. In Tasmania, the tiger quoll frequents the northern and western areas where rains are seasonal. Tiger quolls were once native to Flinders Island and King Island, but were extirpated since the 20th century, so are not present on Tasmanian offshore islands.

Tiger quolls live in a variety of habitats, but seem to prefer wet forests such as rainforests and closed eucalypt forest. They are arboreal, but only moderately, as 11% of their travelling is done above ground. When they do take to the trees, they may hunt arboreal prey such as opossum, leaping between trees if need be. When descending, they usually go head first.

Prey items eaten by quolls include insects, crayfish, lizards, snakes, birds, domestic poultry, small mammals, platypus, rabbits, arboreal possums, cuscuses, greater gliders, bandicoots, pademelons, small wallabies, and wombats. They may scavenge larger animals such as kangaroos, feral pigs, cattle, and dingoes. However, the tiger quoll does not scavenge as much as the Tasmanian devil. In one study, feral rabbits made up 76% of the diet on the mainland. They can climb high into trees and make nocturnal hunts for possums and birds. The flexibility of their diets suggests their prey base is not detrimentally affected by bushfires. When hunting, a quoll stalks its prey, stopping only when its head is up. It then launches its attack, executing a killing bite to the base of the skull or top of the neck, depending on the size of the prey. The quoll will pin small prey down with its forepaws and then deliver the bite. With large prey, it jumps and latches on its back and bites the neck.

Quolls, in turn, may be preyed on by Tasmanian devils and masked owls in Tasmania and dingos and dogs in mainland Australia. It may also be preyed on by wedge-tailed eagles and large pythons. Tiger quolls yield to adult devils, but will chase subadults away from carcasses. Quolls also probably compete with introduced carnivores, such as foxes, cats, and feral dogs. Tiger quolls are also hosts to numerous species of endoparasites.

Life history
Tiger quolls are generally nocturnal, and rest during the day in dens. However, juveniles and females with young in the den can be seen during the day and may leave their dens when it is light out. Quoll dens take the form of burrows, caves, rock crevices, tree hollows, hollow logs, or under houses or sheds. Quolls move by walking and bounding gaits. Trails are not particularly important for quoll, although they forage and scent mark along runways and roads. Tiger quolls may live in home ranges that range from 580 to 875 ha for males and 90 – for females. Most resident quolls are female, although one population study found both males and females were split between transients and residents. Males have overlapping home ranges, but each has its own core area of at least 128 ha. The home ranges of females may overlap less. Tiger quolls have been recorded traveling 3 to 5 km per day in search of food and other resources. Quolls sometimes share dens during the breeding season. After copulation, females act aggressively towards males, especially when close to parturition. For the tiger quoll, olfactory and auditory signals are used more often than visual signals when communicating. Quolls greet each other with nose-to-nose sniffs, and males will sniff the backsides of females to check for estrus. Quolls also mark themselves with mouth and ear secretions. Some populations have communal latrines, while others do not. Rocky creek beds, cliff bases, and roads serve as locations for latrines.

Tiger quolls are generally not vocal, but vocalisations can be heard in any social interaction. Antagonistic or disturbed vocalisations are guttural huffs, coughs, hisses, and piercing screams. "Cp-cp-cp" sounds are produced by females in estrus. Females communicate with their young with "chh-chh" and "echh-echh" calls. The former are made by females and the latter are made by young. "Juveniles vocalise frequently when fighting and their mother will hiss when they clamber over her." During antagonistic encounters, quolls also threaten each other with open mouths and teeth displays. At this time, the ears are laid back and the eyes are narrowed. Males grasp and bite each other in combat.

Tiger quolls reproduce seasonally. They mate in midwinter (June/July), but females can breed as early as April. Males are not involved in parenting, with females bearing full responsibility. The mating behaviour of the tiger quoll is unique among the quoll species in that the female vocalises when in estrus and easily accepts the male's mounting. In addition, the female's neck swells up. Mating involves the male holding on the female's sides with his paws and holding on the neck with his mouth. Polyestrous, females are in heat for an average of 3 to 5 days within a 28-day cycle. Copulation can last as long as 24 hours. Succeeding a 3-week gestation period, females give birth with their hindquarters raised and their tails curled. Around 2 to 6 young are born, starting life at only 7 mm, and increasing in size by more than 5 times during their first month. For the time the young is in the pouch, a female rests on her sides. After the young have left the pouch, females stay in nests they have built. For their first 50–60 days of life, the young cannot see, so they rely on vocalisations and touch to find their mother or siblings. It stops when their eyes open after 70 days. Young are not carried on the back, but they do rest on their mother and cling to her when frightened. By 100 days the young become more independent of their mothers, and the mothers more aggressive towards their young. Males reach physical maturity at the age of three, and females at two. Both sexes attain sexual maturity at the about same age; one year. They do not usually last more than around three years in the wild.

Conservation status
The tiger quoll is listed by the IUCN on the Red List of Threatened Species with the status "near threatened". , since listing in 2004 under the EPBC Act, the Tasmanian population of Dasyurus maculatus maculatus tiger quoll is regarded as a vulnerable species, while the Queensland population of Dasyurus maculatus maculatus has been listed as endangered since July 2000. An estimated 14,000 mature tiger quolls are left in the world, as of 2018.

This species is vulnerable to decline because it requires certain climates and habitats, it tends to live in low densities, it is likely to compete with introduced predators (mainly foxes and feral cats ) and requires much space, and it does not live very long. The biggest threat to the quoll is habitat destruction. Humans may directly contribute to quoll deaths through persecution, motor collisions, and 1080 poisoning. An outbreak of disease in the 1900s is also cited as another factor. In south-east Queensland, their habitat has been reduced to 30% of what it was in previous decades. Quolls regularly feed off roadkills; this can put them into direct danger of being hit and possibly killed by speeding cars on busy roads. Exposure to introduced species, cleared forest, and farms may lead to high mortality rates.

Conservationists are using population monitoring and public education to preserve the species and intend to preserve their habitat and minimise the impacts of 1080 baiting. Wildlife corridors are being built to insure the survival of the species, along with the management of introduced canids and felids among other things.

title: Tiger quoll


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