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Hoddle Grid

The Hoddle Grid is the contemporary name given to the approximately 1 x grid of streets that form the Melbourne central business district, Australia. Bounded by Flinders Street, Spring Street, La Trobe Street, and Spencer Street, it lies at an angle to the rest of the Melbourne suburban grid, and so is easily recognisable. It is named after the surveyor Robert Hoddle, who marked it out in 1837 (to Lonsdale Street, extended to La Trobe Street the next year), establishing the first formal town plan. This grid of streets, laid out when there were only a few hundred settlers, became the nucleus for what is now Melbourne, a city of over five million people.

History

The grid of streets that is now central Melbourne was laid out by surveyor Robert Hoddle when he arrived in early 1837 with New South Wales Governor Bourke in order to regularise the fledgling unauthorised settlement. The unusual dimensions of the allotments and the incorporation of narrow 'little' streets were the result of compromise between Hoddle's desire to employ the regulations established in 1829 by previous NSW Governor Ralph Darling, requiring square blocks and wide streets, and Bourke's desire for rear access ways (now the 'little' streets).

The placement of the grid was determined firstly by the fact that the fledgling settlement was already established at that point on the Yarra River, next to a natural shipping basin, just below a rocky outcrop known as 'the falls', above which the water was usually fresh. It was placed to run roughly parallel to the course of the river, with its western half closest to the basin, and spanned the mostly gently undulating area between the small hills of Batman's Hill to the west, and Eastern Hill. Elizabeth Street, Melbourne in the centre of the grid coincided with the lowest point and roughly paralleled an existing gully.

The streets were surveyed 1 1/2 chains (a chain being 66ft, so they were 99ft; 30m), the blocks at 10 chain square, with allotments 1 chain wide, as per Darling's Regulations ). However, at Governor Bourke's insistence, 'little streets' were inserted east west through the middle of the blocks to allow for rear access to the long, narrow allotments. These were to be 1 chain, but Bourke's suggestion of keeping the allotments the standard size by making the main streets narrower was resisted by Hoddle, leaving them as surveyed, so they became 1/2 chain (33ft; 10m), taken out of the depth of the blocks either side, the end result making the allotments smaller than usual. As per the Darling regulations, the area around the grid was reserved for future expansion and government purposes, and some blocks and allotments were held back from sale and were allocated for government use, a market and a church. The first land sale, of allotments around a block reserved as the site for the Customs House, took place in the settlement on 1 June 1837.

The lack of a public square or formal open space within the grid was criticised as early as 1850, and it has been claimed that Governor Bourke specifically discouraged the inclusion of such spaces “to deter a ‘spirit of democracy’ from breaking out”. However there is little evidence that Bourke had a view on the matter, and the Darling regulations made no mention of including a central square (as either desirable or not). Instead, simple grid plans, with lots or blocks set aside for public buildings and sometimes a park, were standard practice across Australia in government settlements, to facilitate the creation of regular allotments for sale. Notable exceptions include the five central squares of the privately developed plan of Adelaide (also 1839), and the axially placed, though not central, church square set aside in the 1829 plan for Perth. Most of today's well known public squares, such as King George Square in Brisbane, Martin Place in Sydney, and Melbourne's City Square, were created in the 20th century, by widening streets and demolishing buildings.

Robert Hoddle remained the surveyor for the district until 1853, and laid out all the surrounding subdivisions in a north south, east west grid, excepting the area between La Trobe Street and Victoria Street, which is sometimes included in the 'Hoddle Grid', and is usually officially included in the CBD.

This has meant that the original grid sits at a marked angle to the rest of the city, and is easily recognised on any map. Most inhabitants of Melbourne know all the streets of the Hoddle Grid by name, and the order they occur.

The whole town was at first accommodated within the Hoddle Grid, but the huge surge in immigration brought about by the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s quickly outgrew the grid, spreading into the first suburbs in Fitzroy, South Melbourne (Emerald Hill), and beyond.

The Hoddle Grid and its fringes remained the centre and most active part of the city into the mid 20th century, with retail in the centre, fine hotels, banking and prime office space on Collins Street, medical professionals on the Collins Street hill, legal professions around William Street, and warehousing along Flinders Lane and in the western end. Government buildings like GPO, State Library, Supreme Court, and Customs House occupied various blocks, while Parliament House and a government precinct developed on the east side of Spring Street. The swampy area to the south soon hosted rail lines, with many suburban trains converging on Flinders Street railway station near Princes Bridge, the gateway to the city from the south, and Spencer Street station on the western edge was the terminus for country trains, as well as more suburban lines. Up until 1930s, the river bank west of Queen Street River was lined with wharfs for cargo and passenger ships.

Residential uses, most notably the slums of Little Lonsdale Street, were largely replaced by commercial uses by the 1950s, with residential not making a return until the 1990s with the conversion of older buildings. Since the 2000s this has accelerated with numerous high rise apartment buildings and student housing projects. The CBD still retains a central role for retail, with flagship department stores, specialist shops, and luxury brands, and the upper floors of older buildings and down the city's famous laneways host a busy nightlife of numerous bars and restaurants, and a street art culture.

Use of the phrase
The term 'Hoddle Grid' emerged in common use only in the 21st century. While it has long been well known that Robert Hoddle laid out the central grid of streets most commonly referred to as 'the City', it was not traditionally named after him. In the 19th and early 20th Century the focus was more on Collins Street, the grandest thoroughfare, with the most expensive and exclusive buildings along its length, while the western and northern edges comprised unremarkable low rise residential and light industrial development.

By the 1950s the phrase 'Golden Mile' comes into use, describing Collins Street itself.

The "Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme Report", published by the Board of Works in 1954 refers to the area as 'The Central Business Area'.

The phrase 'CBD' or Central Business District appears in the 1960s, probably within the publication of the 'Borrie Report' in 1964, and the subsequent Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme, enacted in 1968. CBD is still the most common phrase to refer to the central grid area of Melbourne.

Official planning strategies in the 1980s and 90s did not use the phrase 'Hoddle Grid'; for instance the State Government's "Central Melbourne : Framework for the Future", published December 1984, identifies it as 'the formal city grid' (p25), while the City of Melbourne's 'Grids and Greenery', published 1987, picks out the skewed grid of streets in various graphics, but only names it as 'the city centre'.

More recently the Encyclopedia of Melbourne, published in book form in 2005, and online in 2008, calls it the "City Grid', while another entry on Roads, describing the wider subdivision of Melbourne, calls the central area 'the Hoddle grid'.

The phrase appeared in The Age newspaper as early as 2002.

Specifications
All major streets are 1+1/2 chain in width, while all blocks are exactly 10 chain square. The total dimensions, including widths of streets, are thus 93.5 chain by 47.5 chain. The grid's longest axis is oriented 70 degrees clockwise from true north, to align better with the course of the Yarra River. The majority of Melbourne is oriented at 8 degrees clockwise from true north - noting that magnetic north was 8.05° E in 1900, increasing to 11.7° E in 2009.

East-west streets
Parallel to the Yarra River:
 * Flinders Street (southernmost)
 * Flinders Lane 1
 * Collins Street
 * Little Collins Street 2
 * Bourke Street, incorporating Bourke Street Mall
 * Little Bourke Street 3
 * Lonsdale Street
 * Little Lonsdale Street 4
 * La Trobe Street (frequently incorrectly written as Latrobe or LaTrobe) (northernmost)

1 One-way westbound, except two-way between Market and Spencer Streets 2 One-way westbound, except two-way between King and Spencer Streets 3 One-way westbound 4 One-way eastbound

North-south streets

Perpendicular to the Yarra River:
 * Spencer Street (westernmost)
 * King Street
 * William Street
 * Queen Street
 * Elizabeth Street
 * Swanston Street
 * Russell Street
 * Exhibition Street
 * Spring Street (easternmost)

The Mile Grid
Robert Hoddle also surveyed a separate north-south grid of streets at one mile spacing around the central city grid. The origin of this grid, marked on the 1837 map, was on the crest of Batman's Hill, striking magnetic north for one mile, to an east west line (now Victoria Street/Parade) marking the northern extent of the government reserve outside the central grid. The rest of metropolitan Melbourne generally follows this grid pattern.

title: Hoddle Grid


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Judy Finnigan

Judith Adele Finnigan (born 16 May 1948) is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning (1988–2001, 2019–2020) and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.

Early life
Finnigan was born in Newton Heath, Manchester, on 16 May 1948. The second of three children, she has two brothers: Callum, who is older and Roger, who is younger. Finnigan attended the local Briscoe Lane Primary School, which at the time was known as Brookdale Park School. Finnigan then went on to attend Manchester High School for Girls, an independent school in the city, and later studied English and Drama at the University of Bristol.

Career
In 1971, Finnigan joined Granada Television as a researcher and in 1974, she moved to Anglia Television in Norwich to become the first female reporter on the About Anglia news team. In 1980, Finnigan returned to Granada in Manchester, working on a range of programmes including Flying Start (with Anthony Wilson), Granada Reports and Scramble.

This Morning
The couple's best known programme was This Morning, which they hosted from 1988 to 2001. The series, a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery and phone-ins lasted approximately two hours each weekday morning on ITV. It first aired in October 1988 and was broadcast from the Albert Dock in Liverpool, although production moved to London in 1996. Madeley and Finnigan were so closely associated with the show, that many people referred to the show as This Morning with Richard and Judy or simply Richard and Judy. In December 2000, at the 6th National Television Awards, This Morning won the Daytime Programme category. Both Richard and Judy accepted the award, in which Finnigan suffered a wardrobe malfunction which exposed her bra to the audience at the Royal Albert Hall and television viewers. Once Madeley had noticed the malfunction, he said: "If you vote for us next year she'll show you both of them!"

The couple have returned to the show as guests since leaving. In October 2013, they were guests for the show's 25th birthday show live from the Albert Dock in Liverpool – the original home of This Morning.

Richard & Judy
In 2001, the couple left This Morning, having been approached by Channel 4 to host a similar show, simply called Richard & Judy, shown for an hour in the early evenings. The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross' brother, Simon Ross and his wife Amanda.

In February 2007, the couple publicly apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay. On the same show, Madeley and Finnigan made the decision to suspend the daily quiz until further notice. Later that week, the media confirmed that police investigations would be pursued, meaning the couple could be subject to a police interview. Channel 4 have admitted the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. While Madeley and Finnigan urged callers to continue entering, it was confirmed that winners were picked in the first ten minutes of the show. The couple both deny being involved in the scam that was revealed by The Mail on Sunday newspaper after it was sold the story through media publicist Jonathan Hartley.

The television show also launched two very successful "clubs", the Richard & Judy Book Club and the Richard & Judy Wine Club, both of which are similar in style to those made popular by US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey. The book club featured literature by new and unknown writers. One book was reviewed each week and the winner, named "Read of the Year," was announced at an awards ceremony.

In July 2008, Finnigan finally underwent a long-awaited knee operation and took a short leave of absence from the show to recuperate fully from the surgery. During this time, Madeley was joined by guest presenters Emma Bunton and Myleene Klass and on 23 July, he presented the episode by himself. On 22 August 2008, the couple's Channel 4 series aired its final episode.

After seven years at Channel 4, Finnigan and Madeley began hosting a topical prime-time chat show on UKTV's new digital channel, Watch. From 7 October 2008, Richard and Judy's New Position aired on weeknights from 8pm. The programme still contained popular features such as the "Book Club" and "Summer Read". The show attracted very low viewing figures, with only 200,000 people for the first episode, and 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures since had consistently fallen, reaching new lows of just 11,000 viewers; their Channel 4 programme would see figures as high as 2,500,000. Consequently, on 8 May 2009, it was announced that the show would end in July, claiming in a statement that viewers "simply couldn't find us".

Loose Women
On 13 October 2014, it was announced that Finnigan had joined ITV chat show Loose Women as a regular panellist.

On her first day, 13 October 2014, Finnigan was criticised when the panel discussed footballer Ched Evans, who was convicted of rape in 2012 before being acquitted in 2016 after two witnesses, who were offered a £50,000 reward for testimony leading to an acquittal, testified to having consensual sex with Evans' alleged victim around the time of the alleged rape. Finnigan stated that Evans should be able to return to his club as the victim was drunk and the alleged rape was "unpleasant" but "not violent".

Finnigan stated later in the day: "I apologise unreservedly for any offence that I may have caused as a result of the wording I used." She continued to make intermittent appearances on the programme, her final appearance on the series being in 2015. Evans was acquitted of any wrongdoing in October 2016.

Other work
Finnigan presented a series of video-only specials, looking at a particular character of Coronation Street and were released in 1995 to mark the soap's 35th anniversary.

Finnigan, and her husband, Richard Madeley, were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1997 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel live on air while broadcasting This Morning.

In 1998, Finnigan presented the ITV Watchdog style show We Can Work It Out in its first series before Caron Keating took over.

Madeley and Finnigan co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published in 2002 by Hodder & Stoughton. In 2012, her novel, Eloise, was published and became a Sunday Times best seller. A second novel, I Do Not Sleep, followed in 2015 and a further novel, Roseland, in 2023.

Personal life
Finnigan met Madeley in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada TV. At this time, each was in their first marriage. The couple married in 1986 in Manchester and have two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah (born 1987). Finnigan has twin sons – Dan and Tom (born 1977) – from her first marriage with journalist David Henshaw.

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

title: Judy Finnigan


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Richard Madeley

Richard Holt Madeley ( born 13 May 1956) is an English television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, he presented ITV's This Morning (1988–2001) and the Channel 4 chat show Richard & Judy (2001–2008). Madeley's solo projects include the series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway (2007) and covering for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. He was the main relief presenter of Channel 5's The Wright Stuff (2012–2017), and since 2017, he has been one of three main relief presenters of ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain.

Early life
Madeley was born in Romford, Essex on 13 May 1956, the son of journalist Christopher Holt Madeley (died 1977), from a family of tenant farmers at Kiln Farm, Shawbury, Shropshire, and Mary Claire (née McEwan). His mother was Canadian. He attended Shenfield High School in Brentwood.

In 2008, Madeley told The Guardian that his father was physically abusive, with little provocation. He estimated that during a period of two years his father beat him with a stick about 25 times. The final and most vicious beating occurred when Richard was aged 10. His father ordered him to remove his shirt and then hit Richard "repeatedly, dementedly, with a stick". The wounds he suffered kept him away from school. The abuse stopped when his mother, previously out at work so unaware of her husband's harsh discipline, told him that she would call the police if it happened again; Madeley stated that after this, his father gave a full and frank apology and he never hit Richard again.

In 2014, Madeley said he was surprised by the level of media interest the beatings generated, "because to me, it was abnormal not to be hit back then", and said he almost regretted writing about it in his 2008 book Fathers and Sons, noting to the general public the beatings are not the defining thing about his father, and calling his father "fun, bright, warm and tactile". Christopher Madeley had himself been subject to physical abuse by his father, Geoffrey.

Career
Madeley joined BBC Radio Carlisle at the age of 19. He moved to Granada Reports in the early 1980s where he met his future wife Judy Finnigan.

Richard & Judy
The couple left This Morning in 2001, having been approached by Channel 4 to host a similar show, called Richard & Judy, shown for an hour in the early evenings. The show was produced by Cactus TV.

In February 2007, Madeley and Finnigan apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone-in competition You Say We Pay. Madeley and Finnigan took the decision to suspend the daily quiz until further notice. Later that week, the news media confirmed that police investigations would be pursued, meaning the couple could be subject to a police interview. Channel 4 admitted the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. Whilst Madeley and Finnigan had urged callers to continue entering, it was confirmed that winners were picked in the first 10 minutes of the show. The couple both denied being involved in the scam.

Due to low audience numbers, the show ended in July 2009. The presenters stated that viewers "simply couldn't find us".

Madeley and Finnigan's show Richard & Judy Book Club was shown on digital channel Watch.

Other work
Whilst working on their daytime show, the couple have been involved in other projects. Madeley and Finnigan won on the season finale of season 2 of a TV version of the classic board game Cluedo in 1991. Madeley presented the last two seasons of the game show, quiz show Connections, from 1988–1989, and the daytime quiz Runway from 1988–1993. In 1991, he presented a series on the world's wildest weather, Eye of the Storm. He hosted the ITV1 show Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway in 2007, and was the presenter for the unaired pilot of the home video show You've Been Framed in 1990.

Madeley hosted the news quiz Have I Got News for You on 14 December 2007, and then featured as a guest panellist in May 2011. He sat in for Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live. Madeley also covered for Dawn Patrol presenter Sarah Kennedy during the week of 27–30 April 2009, for Zoe Ball for two months until 27 February, and on numerous occasions for Chris Evans' Breakfast Show, all on BBC Radio 2. He appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in April 2009 and was a guest on BBC Question Time in January 2010. In 2011, Madeley was featured in the eighth season of Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his mother's ancestors to Canada and the United States. In April 2013, he appeared as a Dictionary Corner guest on Countdown for five shows.

Madeley presented his own show on Radio 2, Madeley on Sunday (previously Made on Sunday), covering for Terry Wogan's Weekend Wogan over Wogan's holidays. Wogan died in January 2016, and Madeley's show became a semi-permanent replacement. From April 2016, the slot was shared between Madeley and Michael Ball, with Madeley presenting for approximately 10 weeks a year and Ball taking the remainder.

In 2002 the couple co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published by Hodder & Stoughton. In 2008, Madeley wrote the book Fathers and Sons, which charts his family history; it was published by Simon & Schuster. Madeley is the author of three novels: Some Day I'll Find You (2013), The Way You Look Tonight (2014) and The Night Book (2016).

Madeley and Finnigan were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1997 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel live on air while broadcasting This Morning.

Since August 2017 Madeley has been a relief presenter on ITV's breakfast programme Good Morning Britain. He has been compared by viewers to the fictional talk show and radio host Alan Partridge for his perceived parallels to Steve Coogan's bumbling, tone-deaf comedy character. Madeley himself has remarked that he believes this comparison is "a bit unfair".

In November 2018 The Telegraph appointed Madeley as their agony uncle to succeed Graham Norton who had stood down the previous month. In June 2020, he apologised after being criticised for the advice he gave a reader who thought their neighbour could be experiencing domestic violence. It included the line "If they were going to kill each other, they'd have done it by now." The charity Refuge said he had written "appalling and dangerous advice".

In January 2021 Madeley covered for Steph McGovern on her Channel 4 programme Steph's Packed Lunch while she had to self-isolate due to the coronavirus pandemic. In November 2021 Madeley was a contestant on the twenty-first series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!., but withdrew after being taken to hospital due to an unspecified illness.

Personal life
Madeley's first marriage, at age 21, lasted five years and ended in divorce. Madeley has said that he believes the marriage was a mistake, and he had ten affairs during that time. Nine days after the wedding, while the couple were still on their honeymoon, his father died at the age of 49.

Madeley met Judy Finnigan in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada Television. At the time, they were both married to other people. The couple married in 1986 in Manchester. They have two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah (born 1987). They have a second home at Polperro in Cornwall having been on holiday together there before their marriage. Madeley is also stepfather to twins from Finnigan's first marriage.

In October 2011, Madeley was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Anglia Ruskin University for his contribution to television, reading, entertainment and media.

In 1994, while the co-host of This Morning, Madeley faced legal issues when he was arrested at a Tesco supermarket in Manchester for allegedly failing to pay for certain items, including champagne. He was subsequently acquitted of all shoplifting charges. Madeley attributed the incident to a lapse in memory, stating that he had simply forgotten to pay for the champagne while going through the checkout. Reflecting on the experience years later, he described the incident as a 'horrible cropper' and said the negative publicity was 'mortifying', although he has since been able to joke about it.

Political views
Madeley has expressed strong support for former Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a 2001 interview for The Guardian, he said the UK had got better under New Labour, identified independent MP Martin Bell as his favourite politician, and expressed support for the euro. He supported the Iraq War, saying international law on the issue was "incredibly complicated".

Madeley was critical of the UK government's response to the COVID-19 virus, especially the lockdown response after 24 March 2020, saying there was "no point in running away and hiding from the virus".

title: Richard Madeley


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Iidabashi Station

Iidabashi Station (飯田橋駅) is a major interchange railway station which straddles Tokyo's Chiyoda, Shinjuku and Bunkyō wards. It was originally built as Iidamachi Station (albeit in a slightly different location), terminus of the then Kōbu Railway, precursor to today's Chūō Line. The Ōedo Line addition to the station in 2000 was designed by architect Makoto Sei Watanabe.

Lines
Iidabashi Station is served by the following above-ground and subway lines.

Above ground

 * Chūō-Sōbu Line (JB16)

Subway lines

 * Tokyo Metro Tōzai Line (T-06)
 * Tokyo Metro Yūrakuchō Line (Y-13)
 * Tokyo Metro Namboku Line (N-10)
 * Toei Ōedo Line (E-06)

Station layout
The JR East station has one island platform, serving the up and down local lines; there is no platform for the parallel rapid double track (for longer-distance commuter and express Chūō Line trains). The station is located on the inside of the Outer Moat. It is elevated over Mejiro-dori, a major thoroughfare from the Imperial Palace towards Ikebukuro.

History
The present-day JR East station opened on 15 November 1928.

The station facilities of the Tozai, Namboku and Yurakucho Lines were inherited by Tokyo Metro after the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) in 2004.

In 2014, it was announced that the JR East platforms were to be moved and rebuilt approximately 200 m southwest to reduce platform gaps on a sharply curved section of the platform. The new platforms, along with a new west station building, opened on July 12, 2020. In 2022, a large-scale renovation and redevelopment of the station and its environs was launched. With completion scheduled for 2026, the "Iidabashi Station East Area Redevelopment Project" will add a 24-floor mixed-use building to the station complex, containing residential, commercial, and shopping space as well as restaurants.

Passenger statistics
In fiscal 2013, the JR East station was used by an average of 91,196 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), making it the 46th-busiest JR East station. Over the same fiscal year, the Tokyo Metro station was used by an average of 173,224 passengers daily (exiting and entering passengers), making it the twelfth-busiest station operated by Tokyo Metro. In fiscal 2013, the Toei station was used by an average of 14,577 passengers daily (boarding passengers only). The average daily passenger figures for JR East and Tokyo Metro in previous years are as shown below.

 * Note that JR East figures are for boarding passengers only.

Surrounding area
Koishikawa Kōrakuen Garden can be reached by walking from this station. The Iidabashi district extends south and west of the station, and the Kagurazaka extends north and east. The station spans the Kanda River, which separates these two neighborhoods and at this point runs from the southwest towards the northeast.

title: Iidabashi Station


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Eugene

Eugene may refer to:

People and fictional characters

 * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
 * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician Gene Andrusco (1961–2000)
 * Eugene (wrestler), professional wrestler Nick Dinsmore
 * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the singing group S.E.S.

Canada

 * Mount Eugene, in Nunavut; the highest mountain of the United States Range on Ellesmere Island

United States

 * Eugene, Oregon, a city
 * Eugene, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area
 * Eugene (Amtrak station)
 * Eugene Apartments, NRHP-listed apartment complex in Portland, Oregon
 * Eugene, Indiana, an unincorporated town
 * Eugene, Missouri, an unincorporated town

Business

 * Eugene Green Energy Standard, or EUGENE, an international standard to which electricity labelling schemes can be accredited to confirm that they provide genuine environmental benefits
 * Eugene Group, a Korean chaebol
 * Eugen Systems, a gaming company located in France
 * Eugene Textile Center, a fiber arts studio, retail outlet and educational center in Eugene, Oregon

Literature

 * the protagonist of Eugene Onegin, an 1833 novel in verse written by Aleksandr Pushkin
 * Eugene trilogy, a collection of plays by Neil Simon

Fictional characters

 * Eugene (Pokémon) or Eusine, a character in Pokémon
 * a character in the Nickelodeon program Hey Arnold!
 * Eugene Porter, a character in The Walking Dead franchise

Music

 * the title character of Eugene Onegin (opera), an 1879 opera by Tchaikovsky
 * Eugene (1989), an album by Anthony Braxton
 * "Eugene", a song by Arlo Parks, 2020
 * "Eugene", a song from the 2006 album The Evening Call by Greg Brown
 * "Eugene", a song from the 2015 album Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens

Storms

 * March 2017 North American blizzard, also known as Blizzard Eugene
 * Hurricane Eugene, several storms

Other uses

 * Eugene Ballet, an American ballet company based in Eugene, Oregon
 * USS Eugene (PF-40), a 1943 frigate

title: Eugene


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Charles Rocket

Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy and Charles Rocket, was an American actor, comedian, musician, and television news reporter. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, played the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber, and played Dave Dennison in Disney's Hocus Pocus.

Early life
Rocket was born in Bangor, Maine, the son of Mary Aurelia (née Fogler) and Sumner Abbott "Ham" Claverie. He attended Winnacunnet High School and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the late 1960s and was part of the Rhode Island underground culture scene in the 1970s that also included Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and film director Gus Van Sant.

Career
Rocket made several short films and fronted his band, the Fabulous Motels, on accordion (which he later used in an SNL sketch about a crazed criminal who uses an accordion to kill his dates and is killed himself by a bagpipe band). He was then a news anchor at WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado under his own name, and WTVF Nashville under the name Charles Kennedy. He made his network debut on Saturday Night Live in 1980 as Charles Rocket.

Saturday Night Live
Rocket was cast for the 1980–81 season, which followed the departure of the remaining members of the show's original cast and executive producer Lorne Michaels. Singled out by new executive producer Jean Doumanian, he was promoted as a cross between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase. Rocket was tapped to anchor Weekend Update, and was featured in more sketches than any other male cast member that season, with the exception of Joe Piscopo.

Rocket portrayed recurring character Phil Lively, a game show host who took his larger-than-life persona home and treated life as if it were a game show. His celebrity impersonations on SNL included Ronald Reagan, David Rockefeller, Prince Charles, and Marlin Perkins. He also hosted "The Rocket Report", a series of filmed segments where he posed as a roving reporter around New York; in later years, reviewers considered them one of the few consistently strong parts of Doumanian's shows.

Dismissal
The Saturday Night Live episode of February 21, 1981, hosted by Dallas star Charlene Tilton, featured a parody of the famed "Who shot J.R.?" story arc from the popular nighttime soap. During the show a plot line had Rocket and Tilton flirting while other cast members expressed jealousy, leading to Rocket being shot in the chest by a sniper in the middle of a sketch. In the show's closing moments, as cast members gathered with the host to say good night, Tilton asked Rocket how he felt about being shot. In character, Rocket replied "Oh man, it's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who fuckin' did it."

Due partially to the violation of broadcast standards (though FCC rules weren't violated as it was uttered past safe harbor), along with negative press regarding the new cast and declining ratings for both the series and the network in general, NBC replaced Doumanian with Dick Ebersol after one further episode. Ebersol, who placed the show on hiatus for a month to retool, dismissed Rocket, along with several of the writers and fellow cast members Gilbert Gottfried and Ann Risley, before the next episode. A writers' strike led to the suspension of the rest of the season, and when the show returned in October 1981, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy were the only cast members who were held over from Doumanian's era. Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live revealed that Rocket was particularly hostile toward Murphy and Piscopo, as he believed the two isolated themselves from the rest of the cast.

Post-SNL career
Rocket recovered from this early-career setback and worked steadily in film, with roles in such films as Hocus Pocus, Earth Girls Are Easy, It's Pat, Steal Big Steal Little, How I Got into College, Dances with Wolves and Dumb and Dumber, often playing comic foils.

On television, in addition to guest spots on several 1980s sitcoms, he played antagonist network president Ned Grossberg on the cyberpunk series Max Headroom, Richard Addison (brother to Bruce Willis's David Addison) on the comedy-drama Moonlighting, and Adam, an angel of death, on Touched by an Angel. He later guest starred in other series including Wings as Danny, a long time friend to Brian Hackett (Steven Weber), 3rd Rock From The Sun as Grant, a physics professor, and The King of Queens as Steve Moscow, a Russian contractor who is hired to remove mold from Doug and Carrie Heffernan's house.

In addition to his acting work, Rocket played accordion on the David Byrne-produced B-52's album Mesopotamia on the track "Loveland", and the album Amarcord Nino Rota on the track "La Dolce Vita Suite", produced by Saturday Night Live music coordinator Hal Willner.

He also provided the voice of Leo Lionheart Jr. in the "MGM Sing-Alongs" videos in 1996.

Personal life
Rocket married his college girlfriend, Beth Crellin, on board the battleship USS Massachusetts anchored in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1972. Their son, Zane, was born in 1976.

Death
Rocket was found dead in a field on his Connecticut property on October 7, 2005, with his throat slit. He was 56 years old. Ten days later, the state medical examiner ruled the death as suicide. The police investigation determined that there was no criminal aspect to the case.

Music videos

 * 1989 "Yer So Bad" by Tom Petty
 * 1991 "King of the Hill" by Roger McGuinn with Tom Petty
 * 1997 "Good Year" by The Refreshments

title: Charles Rocket


text:
Jean Coutu Group

The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. is a Canadian drugstore chain headquartered in Varennes, Quebec. It has more than 400 franchised locations in New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec under the PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Clinique, and PJC Santé banners. The company was once the third largest distributor and retailer of pharmaceuticals and related products in North America, with nearly 2,200 drug stores. Its American stores have been sold to Rite Aid.

The company is also known for its private line "Personnelle", which produces a wide variety of products such as cosmetics, papers, and pharmaceutical products. Since 2017, the main distribution warehouse is located in Varennes, Quebec (after Longueuil 1976-2015), though there is also a large distribution warehouse in Hawkesbury, Ontario, since 2005.

History
The company was co-founded in 1969 by Jean Coutu and Louis Michaud, as a pharmacy in the east end of Montreal.

The company became incorporated in 1973 under the name Services Farmico, enticed by the five branches already set up in Montreal. The name was changed 13 years later to its current name, the Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc., and was put on the stock exchange. In 1982 it entered the New Brunswick market and then the Ontario market in 1983. Beginning in 1987, the company began a series of acquisitions that continues. Over the past 20 years, the Jean Coutu Group has acquired Cadieux drugstores, twelve Cloutier Pharmacy outlets, sixteen Douglas Drug Inc. outlets, 221 outlets of the Brooks Drug Store, Rite Aid drugstores, retail properties, eight Mayrand drugstores, 19 Cumberland stores, and many more in the United States. The Jean Coutu Group was the first in Canada to set up an online service that allows customers to refill their prescriptions, then a year later expanded this concept by having the same system but that could be done over the telephone. Some of the titles this corporation has earned include "Canada’s Most Respected Corporations", and "The Most Admired Company in Quebec", which it has won seven times.

With the majority of its franchises in Quebec, it is the province from which it receives most of its revenue, although it has also gotten a great deal of profit from the United States. The main competition are Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart, Wal-Mart, Familiprix, Brunet, and Uniprix.

Since the end of the 1980s, the corporation has merged and acquired much of its competition. It has become one of the leading companies in Quebec and has been growing throughout the other provinces and into the United States because of its successful integration of acquisitions. There are many different trademarks and they are continuously increasing due to these mergers. Jean Coutu is a public company and is listed under PJC.A.TO. on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In May 2013, Jean Coutu announced that it would move its head office from Longueuil to Varennes, because the present head office is too small. At a cost of $190 million, the new building will be near Autoroute 30 and it will be ready for 2016.

In September 2017, Jean Coutu announced it was in talks to be acquired by Metro Inc, a Canadian supermarket chain, for approximately C$4.50bn. The deal closed in May 2018.

Jean Coutu Group USA
Coutu's U.S. subsidiary, Warwick, Rhode Island-based Jean Coutu Group (PJC) USA Inc., operated primarily along the east coast, under the Brooks Pharmacy banner in New England and Eckerd Pharmacy from Upstate New York and Pennsylvania south to Georgia. The U.S. operations were sold off in a deal with Rite Aid. Coutu had purchased Brooks in 1994 from the now-defunct Revco drug chain. (Revco had acquired Brooks a few months earlier as part of its acquisition of Hook's-SupeRx, Inc, once a large operator of several pharmacy chains.)

In mid-2004, Coutu acquired more than half of the Eckerd store network (mainly units along the eastern seaboard) from department store retailer J.C. Penney. It continued to operate those stores under the Eckerd name. (The remainder of Eckerd's stores were sold to CVS Pharmacy.) From 1999 to 2004 the chain was the second fastest-growing retailer in the world. In the second quarter of 2005, the company recorded a $19.7 million US foreign exchange loss on items related to the Eckerd acquisition. On August 24, 2006, Rite Aid announced that it would acquire 1,858 Jean Coutu's Eckerd and Brooks U.S. operations for $1.45bn in cash and issuing stock, giving Jean Coutu a 32% equity stake in Rite Aid. Rite Aid announced the acquisition completed on June 4, 2007.

In July 2013, Coutu proceeded to the sale of its last shares of Rite Aid that it held. Jean Coutu no longer holds any shares of Rite Aid.

In 2023, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Despite Jean Coutu being separated from Rite Aid 10 years prior, Jean Coutu was still listed in the filing.

Jean Coutu Controversies
In August 2022, a Quebec pharmacist made headlines by refusing to sell a customer emergency oral contraception, better known as the morning-after pill, because it went against his religious beliefs.

Main competitors

 * Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec)
 * Familiprix
 * Uniprix
 * Proxim

title: Jean Coutu Group


text:
Alès

Alès is a commune and subprefecture in the Gard department in the Occitania region in Southern France. Until 1926, it was officially known as Alais.

Geography
Alès lies 40 km north-northwest of Nîmes, on the left bank of the river Gardon d'Alès, which half surrounds it. It is located at the foot of the Cévennes, near the Cévennes National Park. Alès station has rail connections to Nîmes, Mende and Clermont-Ferrand.

History
Alès may be the modern successor of Arisitum, where, in about 570, Sigebert, King of Austrasia, created a bishopric. In his campaign against the Visigoths, the Merovingian king Theudebert I (533–548) conquered part of the territory of the Diocese of Nîmes. His later successor Sigebert set up the new diocese, comprising fifteen parishes in the area controlled by the Franks, which included a number of towns to the north of the Cevenne: Alès, Le Vigan, Arre, Arrigas, Meyrueis, Saint-Jean-du-Gard, Anduze, and Vissec. The diocese disappeared in the 8th century with the conquest of the whole of Septimania by the Franks. No longer a residential bishopric, Arisitum is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

After the Edict of Nantes, Alès was one of the places de sûreté given to the Huguenots. Louis XIII took back the town in 1629, and the Peace of Alès, signed on 29 June of that year, suppressed the political privileges of the Protestants, while continuing to guarantee toleration.

At the request of Louis XIV, a see was again created at Alais by Pope Innocent XII, in 1694. The future Cardinal de Bausset, Bossuet's biographer, was Bishop of Alais from 1784 to 1790. It was suppressed after the French Revolution, and its territory was divided between the diocese of Avignon and the diocese of Mende.

Economy
Alès is the centre of a mining district and hosts the École des Mines d'Alès.

Historically, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911):
 * "The town is one of the most important markets for raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon supplies power to numerous silk-mills. It is also the centre of a mineral field, which yields large quantities of coal, iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works and engineering works afford employment to many workmen."

Sports
The town has one association football team called Olympique Alès who currently play in the Championnat National.

Sights
Historically, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
 * "The streets are wide and its promenades and fine plane-trees make the town attractive; but the public buildings, the chief of which are the Saint-Jean-Baptiste cathedral, a heavy building of the 18th century, and the citadel, which serves as barracks and prison, are of small interest."

 * Parc botanique de la Tour Vieille

Notable people

 * Rigord (c. 1150), chronicler (probable birthplace)
 * Jean-Pierre des Ours de Mandajors (1679–1747), historian and playwright
 * Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884), chemist
 * Gabriel Montoya (1868–1914), Parisian chansonnier
 * Charles Dugas (1885–1957), archaeologist and hellenist
 * Edgard de Larminat (1895–1962), general
 * Louis Leprince-Ringuet (1901–2000), physicist
 * Lucile Randon (1904–2023), supercentenarian and former world's oldest person
 * Maurice André (1933–2012), trumpeter
 * Catherine Daufès-Roux (born 1963), former Member of Parliament
 * Laurent Blanc (born 1965), footballer
 * Stéphane Sarrazin (born 1975), sportscar racing driver, rally driver
 * Romain Dumas (born 1977), sportscar racing driver
 * Nabil El Zhar (born 1986), footballer
 * Vincent Abril (born 1995), sportscar racing driver

Louis Pasteur did his research on the silkworm disease (pébrine and flacherie) at Alès, and the town dedicated a bust to his memory. There is also a statue of the chemist J.B. Dumas. Alphonse Daudet wrote his semi-autobiographical novel "Le Petit Chose" while teaching at the Collège of Alès.

Twin towns – sister cities
Alès is twinned with:
 * Kilmarnock, Scotland, United Kingdom

title: Alès


text:
Splinter (disambiguation)

A splinter is a sharp fragment of material, usually wood, metal, or fibreglass.

Splinter may also refer to:

People

 * Splinter Johnson (1920–2002), American basketball player
 * Tracy Splinter (born 1971), German-South African writer who has been missing since 2016

Literature

 * Splinter (novel), a 2007 science fiction novel by British writer Adam Roberts
 * Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, a 2024 memoir by Leslie Jamison

Entertainment

 * Splinters (revue), a British revue first staged in the First World WAr

Splinter

 * Splinter (2006 film) by director Michael D. Olmos
 * Splinter (2008 film), a horror film

Splinters

 * Splinters (1929 film), a UK musical comedy film based on the 1915 revue
 * Splinters in the Navy (1931) a sequel of "Splinters (1929 film)"
 * Splinters in the Air (1937) a sequel of "Splinters (1929 film)"
 * Splinters (2018 film), a Canadian drama film

Television

 * "Splinter" (The Walking Dead), an episode of The Walking Dead
 * "Splinter", an episode of the fifth season of Smallville

Music

 * Splinter (band), an English 2-men band
 * Splinter (Sneaker Pimps album) (1999)
 * Splinter (The Offspring album) (2003)
 * "Splinter", a song by Sevendust from album Cold Day Memory (2010)
 * Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind), an album by Gary Numan (2013)
 * "Splinter", a song by Man Overboard from Heavy Love (2015)

Fictional characters

 * Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series
 * Splinter, an insect-like creature in the Nintendo game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
 * Splinter, Woody Woodpecker's niece

Other

 * Splinter group, a smaller division, cell, or faction that has split off from a larger organization or movement
 * Splinter, in contract bridge, a splinter bid meaning a suit with one card or no cards
 * Splinter News, a news and opinion website
 * One of the word or morpheme fragments making up a blend word
 * Splinter (political party), a Dutch political party
 * Splinter pattern camouflage

title: Splinter (disambiguation)