text:
Commercial Bank of Ceylon

Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC (CBC) also known as ComBank is a licensed commercial bank in Sri Lanka and its ownership is private. It was incorporated as a public limited company and it is listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. It is regarded as the largest private bank in Sri Lanka in terms of net worth and capital. The bank is currently the third largest bank in Sri Lanka in terms of total net assets and it lies behind only Bank of Ceylon and People's Bank (both are state commercial banks). It is also the only private sector licensed bank in Sri Lanka to be designated as the higher-tier domestic systemically important bank according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The bank currently operates a network of 268 branches and around 932 ATM machines across Sri Lanka.

It became the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed in among the top 1000 banks in the world according to The Banker when it achieved the feat for the first time in 2008. Commercial Bank has also been ranked among the top 1000 banks in the world for nearly 11 successive years from 2008 to 2021.

It is considered as one of the most systemically important banks in Sri Lanka. It is the largest lender to Sri Lanka's Small and Medium Enterprise sector. The Ministry of Finance of Sri Lanka revealed that the Commercial Bank of Ceylon was the biggest lender to SME sector for the year 2020 amounting to an estimated amount of 21.6 billion rupees which was 15% more than the second biggest lender to SME.

History
The bank was originally formed in 1920 and carried banking practices under the name as Eastern Bank. The first branch of Eastern Bank Ltd. (EBL) was opened at Chatham Street in Fort. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Barclays Bank acquired the shares of the Eastern Bank. The Chartered Bank bought the shares of Eastern Bank from the Barclays Bank in 1957 but the Chartered Bank ran the Eastern Bank for the duration of only four years. On 25 June 1969, Commercial Bank Ceylon Ltd. was incorporated with Eastern Bank holding 40% of its equity. Veteran judge V. Manicavasagar served as the first chairman of Commercial Bank when he was appointed to the position in 1969.

The bank marked its centenary anniversary in 2020 and during the special 100th anniversary, the bank emphasized the main project focus on ‘Smart Classrooms on Science and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to be established in 100 schools in Sri Lanka'.

Sustainability
The bank for several years has emphasized the priority towards attaining sustainability through its banking practices and policies. The bank focuses its sustainability practices across three themes including strategic business alignment, culture and footprint as well as responsibilities beyond the banking business. The three pillars of the sustainability focus by the Commercial Bank are sustainable banking, responsible organization and community impact. The sustainability initiatives of Commercial Bank are monitored and guided by the cross-functional Sustainability Steering Committee (SSC) which consists of key sustainability linked functional areas. The bank implemented and applied the Social and Environmental Risk Assessment System in Sri Lanka to screen lending projects which would pose zero harm to the environment. In 2015, the bank launched a new paperless green banking facility which further demonstrated the bank's focus on prioritizing the green technology and sustainable development.

It became the first and only bank in Sri Lanka to have achieved 100% carbon neutrality status. Thus, the bank achieved carbon neutrality for the entirety of its operations encompassing all of its 268 branches along with the main head office. It is reported that the bank had financed Sri Lanka's first financially viable wind power project and also the first ever commercial-scale solar power project in Sri Lanka. The bank became one of the founding members of the Sri Lanka Banks' Association of the Sustainable Banking Initiative.

Operations
Commercial bank unveiled the online banking procedure to the customers in 2000.

In 2016, the bank launched Sri Lanka's first ever remittance card in order to ease the process of transferring funds from overseas to local beneficiaries.

The bank also launched Sri Lanka's first ever fully-automated cheque deposit machine in 2018. In 2018, the bank also achieved another feat by launching UnionPay cards to make Sri Lanka only the 51st country to launch UnionPay card system. In 2020, the bank launched a missed call alert service under the initiative "card balance by missed call service" for the credit cardholders. Commercial Bank also launched QR code enabled payment option called ComBank Q+ which facilitates cardholders to settle their outstanding credit card dues. It also became the first bank in Sri Lanka to enable the QR code payments to settle credit card bills and also became the first QR based payment app to be launched on LANKAQR platform.

In 2021, the bank opened a banking counter at the Department of Immigration and Emigration for the convenience of clients and staff. In 2021, the bank announced a partnership with a fintech startup called DirectPay to provide Internet Payment Gateway support and operate as the acquiring bank for the cashless payment solutions for the businesses. In 2021, the Commercial Bank joined hands with University of Moratuwa by offering to provide educational loans with preferential interest rates to postgraduate research students of the university.

In 2022, the bank introduced the First Time Home Buyers & Builders scheme that offers a free or discounted Decreasing Term Assurance Policy in order to eliminate or reduce burden of the cost of the loan protection insurance. In 2022, the bank also unveiled another loan scheme titled "Anagi Women's Banking" which was designed in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation to exclusively support and empower the women. The bank has maintained bancassurance partnership with Union Assurance for nearly 10 years whereas the customers of Commercial Bank obtain insurance related products from Union Assurance directly.

The bank launched its groundbreaking digital product "Flash" to facilitate convenient digital banking practices.

Subsidiaries
In July 2003, CBC acquired Credit Agricole Indosuez's two branches in Bangladesh at Dhaka and Chittagong to become the first Sri Lankan private bank to establish operations outside the country. (Banque Indosuez had opened its branches in Bangladesh in 1980.) Also in 2003, the IFC bought 15% of the bank's share capital from Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.

In 2011, the credit rating of the Bangladesh operations of Commercial Bank was upgraded to AAA for long-term credit by the Credit Rating Information and Services Limited. Prior to obtaining Triple A rating, Bangladesh operations of Commercial Bank had maintained AA+ rating for three consecutive years from 2007 to 2010. The Commercial Bank Bangladesh was named as the Best Foreign Bank in Bangladesh and also named as the Most Sustainable Bank in Bangladesh for the year 2021.

Awards and recognition
The bank was included among the Top 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka for the years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Euromoney adjudged Commercial Bank as the Best Bank in Sri Lanka in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The bank won a total of 53 awards locally and internationally in 2019. Out of the 53 awards won, the bank won the Bank of the Year 2019 award from the UK based The Banker magazine as well as the award for the Best Bank in Sri Lanka 2019 from the US-based Global Finance magazine. The bank was rated as the strongest bank brand in Sri Lanka for the years 2020 and 2021 according to the statistics unveiled by Brand Finance.

In February 2022, the bank won the overall award for the Best Sustainability Report 2021 at the ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards.

Controversy
In 2021, the Financial Intelligent Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka imposed a penalty of Rs. 3 million on the bank for failing to comply with the anti-money laundering laws.

title: Commercial Bank of Ceylon


text:
Carl Solomon

Carl Solomon (March 30, 1928 – February 26, 1993) was an American writer. One of his best-known pieces of writing is Report from the Asylum: Afterthoughts of a Shock Patient.

Biography
Solomon was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx. His father's death in 1939 profoundly affected his early life. Solomon later said, "I drifted into indiscipline and intellectual adventure that eventually became complete confusion." Graduating from high school at 15, Solomon attended the City College of New York (CCNY) for a short time before joining the United States Maritime Service in 1944. In his travels overseas, Solomon was exposed to Surrealism and Dada, which inspired him throughout his life. In Paris, he witnessed Antonin Artaud give a screaming poetry reading. This so impressed him that he remained a disciple of Artaud for much of his life. It was shortly after this period that Solomon was voluntarily institutionalized, a gesture he made as a Dadaist symbol of defeat.

Solomon first met Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in the waiting room of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Ginsberg dedicated his 1955 poem Howl to Solomon. The poem's third section uses the refrain "I'm with you in Rockland", an institution Solomon never attended. Solomon had many complaints about Ginsberg and Howl, including that he was "never in Rockland" and that the third section of the poem "garbles history completely". The reference to Rockland appears to be a poetic fabrication. Ginsberg likely used the name because it was more appropriate and emphatic than "New York State Hospital" or "Pilgrim" (Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, another psychiatric hospital to which Solomon was admitted). The poem's first section immortalizes a few of Solomon's personal exploits, such as the line "who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy."

It was at Ginsberg's insistence that William S. Burroughs's first novel, Junkie (1953), was published by Ace Books. Solomon's uncle, Aaron A. Wyn, owned Ace Books, a purveyor of pulp fiction and nonfiction paperbacks. Solomon worked for Ace and was responsible for the Publisher's Note in the first printing of Junkie, as well as the Introduction to the 1964 reprinting.

One of Solomon's best-known pieces of writing is Report from the Asylum: Afterthoughts of a Shock Patient. It is an account of the electroconvulsive therapy used to treat patients in asylums, drawn directly from personal experience. It was written with Artaud somewhat in mind, because he had received the same treatment while unjustly institutionalized by the French government. The piece was included in the 50th-anniversary Howl facsimile, in an appendix.

In the late 1960s, Solomon published two chapbooks of prose poetry with Mary Beach's Beach Books, Texts & Documents, distributed by City Lights Books: Mishaps, Perhaps (1966) and More Mishaps (1968). Emergency Messages (1989) features selections from the two books along with some of Solomon's other autobiographical, critical and poetic writings. He was a frequent contributor to New Directions Annual, American Book Review, and The New Leader.

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

title: Carl Solomon


text:
Hollywood Pictures

Hollywood Pictures Company was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Established in 1989, by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood Pictures was founded to increase the film output of the Walt Disney Studios, and release films similar to those of Touchstone Pictures. These films, featuring more mature themes, were targeted at adult audiences unlike the family-oriented productions of the studio's flagship Walt Disney Pictures division. After years of hiatus, the label was closed in 2007. The studio's most commercially successful film was M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, which grossed over $670 million worldwide upon its release in 1999.

History
Hollywood Pictures Corporation was incorporated on March 30, 1984 and was activated on February 1, 1989. Ricardo Mestres was appointed the division's first president, moving from Disney's Touchstone Pictures. The division was formed to create opportunities for up-and-coming executives and to double Disney's feature-film output in order to fill the gap left by the contraction in the industry, which included closure of MGM/UA's United Artists and financial problems at Lorimar-Telepictures and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. With Touchstone aligned with Hollywood Pictures, the two Disney production divisions would share the same marketing and distribution staffs. Hollywood Pictures was expected to be producing 12 films a year by 1991 and to share funding from the Silver Screen Partners IV. The company's first release was Arachnophobia on July 18, 1990.

On October 23, 1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners to supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios' primary funding source.

After the collapse of their then-recently renewed deal at Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer moved their production company to Hollywood Pictures on January 18, 1991.

The division issued primarily inexpensive comedies for the first six years with a few box office flops, amongst them Holy Matrimony, Aspen Extreme, Super Mario Bros., Swing Kids, Blame It on the Bellboy, Born Yesterday and Guilty as Sin. The division only had one box office success, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and one critical success, The Joy Luck Club, which did not outweigh the general anemic box office record of the division. On April 26, 1994, Mestres was forced to resign after the lackluster performance of the division. Mestres moved to long term production deal with the studio.

On June 27, 1994, Michael Lynton was appointed as new division president after moving from the Disney Publishing Group, where he was senior vice president and oversaw domestic publishing units including Hyperion Books. Mestres left Lynton a few potential hits: Robert Redford's Quiz Show, the Sarah Jessica Parker-Antonio Banderas comedy Miami Rhapsody, and Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1997, Lynton left for a position at Penguin Group. By 2001, Hollywood Pictures had produced 80 films, but its operation had been phased out and its management was merged with that of the flagship Walt Disney Pictures studio.

After being dormant for five years, the brand was reactivated for low-budget genre films. Films released by the repurposed Hollywood Pictures were three horror films: Stay Alive (released on March 24, 2006), Primeval (released on January 12, 2007), and The Invisible (released on April 27, 2007). After the latter release, Disney stopped producing and distributing under the label as it announced a focus on the company's core brands of Disney, Touchstone, ABC, ESPN, and Pixar.

title: Hollywood Pictures


text:
Women's Premier Soccer League

The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States.

History
WPSL is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, and considered the 2nd tier below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The WPSL is the longest-running active women's soccer league as it enters its 25th season in 2023. The WPSL is also the largest women's soccer league in the United States, North America and the world with 130 active teams as of 2023.

The WPSL started as the Western Division of the W-League, before breaking away to form its own league in 1998. The league is sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association, an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). WPSL players consists of collegiate and post-collegiate players, who currently or have played across all divisions of the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA. Former players of the WPSL have taken their playing careers to the next level by signing professional in the NWSL and top leagues overseas. WPSL Alumnae have also reached international status by making international rosters seen in the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Olympics. Notable alumnae include Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, Heather Mitts, Julie Foudy, Shannon Boxx, Alex Morgan and Leslie Osborne. The Jerry Zanelli Cup is awarded to the champion of each WPSL season.

When Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) suspended play in 2012, WPSL moved forward with its ambitions toward professionalism and created the WPSL Elite League. The Elite League was a pro-am league, with at least four fully professional teams, including three former WPS teams. The Elite league operated for just the 2012 season, disbanding in 2013 with the formation of the NWSL, which the three former WPS teams joined.

WPSL U21
In 2021, the WPSL announced its second division, WPSL U21, which is scheduled to begin play in mid-2021.

WPSL PRO
On February 8, 2023, WPSL announced plans to create a Division III professional league named WPSL PRO. The league plans to start in 2025 with ten teams. In August 2023, five teams signed letter of intents to join the WPSL Pro. SouthStar FC, Sioux Falls City FC, Oklahoma City FC (WPSL), Austin Rise FC, and The Town FC will be five of the first ten teams to join WPSL Pro.

On February 6, 2024, the league announced the sixth team will be Georgia Impact FC. The league needs 6 teams to conform with US Soccer Division III Professional League Standards On February 20, 2024, the league announce the seventh team signing a letter of intent was AC Houston Sur for the 2025 season.

On February 22, 2024, the league announced the first team signing a letter of intent for the 2026 season was Dakota Fusion FC.

League Affiliations
On April 2, 2024, WPSL announced they had partnered with the Michigan Super League to provide support to the development of underrepresented leagues. The WPSL will partner with the United States Adult Soccer Association to provide support to these leagues. The Michigan Super League will consist of five teams for the 2024 season.

WPSL champions
.

Executive committee
.
 * Sean Jones – president
 * DeBray Ayala – vice-president
 * Brad Lund – vice-president
 * Kendra Halterman – commissioner
 * Matt Homonoff – deputy commissioner
 * Rich Sparling – commissioner emeritus

Front office
.
 * Nichole Singleton – communications & creative services director
 * Alex Simpson - team services manager (West & East)
 * Jaclyn Purvine - team services manager (Central & South)
 * Lunden Foreman – team services manager (WPSL U21)
 * Rob Kehoe – collegiate relations
 * Josh Fredrickson – match reporting
 * David Simmons – referee coordinator
 * Dr. Vytas Ringus – medical director

Associate commissioners
.
 * Shelley Dougherty – east region
 * Sam Hope – south region
 * Lindsay Eversmeyer – central region
 * Sly Yeates – west region

League Structure
The league is divided into four regions - West, Central, South, and East. Each region is divided into conferences, with the West Region having four conferences, one of which has two divisions, the Central Region having four conferences, two of which has two divisions, the South Region having four conferences, one of which has two divisions, and the East Region having four conferences, one of which has two divisions,.

Former teams

 * AFC Columbia Missouri (2020–2023)
 * ACF Torino USA Maryland (2014–2015)
 * AHFC Royals Texas
 * ASA Charge FC Maryland
 * Ajax America Women California
 * Albuquerque Crush New Mexico (2002)
 * Albuquerque Lady Asylum New Mexico (2007–2008)
 * American Eagles Soccer Club Texas
 * Arizona Sahuaros Arizona (2003)
 * Arkansas Comets Arkansas
 * Atlanta Silverbacks Women Georgia
 * Auto Trader Select SC California (1998–1999)
 * Bat Country FC Texas (2021–2023)
 * Bay Area Breeze California (2011–2012) – Left to join W-League
 * Boston Aztec Massachusetts
 * Brevard County Cocoa Expos Florida (2008)
 * Boulder County United Colorado (2021–2023)
 * Challenge Red Devils Texas
 * Chattanooga FC Women Tennessee (2014-2018, on hiatus for 2019, returning in 2020)
 * CFC Passion Connecticut
 * Central California Gold California (2004)
 * Central California HEAT California
 * Cincinnati Lady Saints Ohio (2014–15)
 * Claremont Stars California (2007-2011)
 * Clermont Phoenix Florida
 * Club Tijuana USA Baja California
 * Colorado Rapids Women Colorado (2019–2023)
 * Colorado Rush (2021–2022)
 * Colorado Springs United Colorado (2007–2008, Colorado Springs Sabers 2006)
 * Corinthians FC of San Antonio Texas
 * CU Diamonds Washington
 * Cultures United Football Club Washington (2020–2023)
 * Diablo Valley Wolves California (2021–2023)
 * DKSC BADTOP Texas
 * Elite Development Academy California (2020–2023)
 * Elk Grove Pride California (2002–2005)
 * Emerald City FC Washington
 * Empire Revs WNY New York (2013–2015)
 * Everton FC America Texas (2005)
 * Eugene Timbers FC Azul Oregon
 * FC Austin Texas
 * FC Dallas Texas
 * FC Metro Magic Missouri (2009–2010, FC St. Louis 2006–2008)
 * FC Milwaukee Nationals Wisconsin
 * FC Sacramento Thunder California (1998–1999)
 * FC St. George Utah
 * FC Surge Florida (2013–2023)
 * FC Ulindi Pennsylvania
 * FC Virginia Virginia (2006)
 * FC Westchester New York
 * Flatirons Rush SC Colorado (2023)
 * Florida Krush Florida
 * Foothill FC California (2000)
 * Fort Lauderdale Fusion Florida (2006)
 * Fort Wayne FC Indiana
 * Fresno FC Ladies California (2018)
 * Georgia Revolution Georgia
 * Houston Aces Texas – moved to United Women's Soccer
 * Houston Stars Texas (2003–2005)
 * Houston Tornadoes Texas (2003)
 * Indiana United Indiana
 * Iowa Raptors FC Iowa (2021–2023)
 * Kingston Capitals New York
 * L.A. Salsa California
 * Lancaster Inferno (WPSL) Pennsylvania – moved to United Women's Soccer
 * Las Vegas Shooters Nevada (1998–1999, 2001)
 * Las Vegas Tabagators Nevada (2004–2006)
 * FC Lehigh Valley Lady Sonic Pennsylvania – Left to join W-League
 * Lions Swarm Maryland
 * Liverpool Lady Warriors Texas
 * Lonestar SC Texas
 * Madison 56ers Wisconsin
 * Maryland Capitols FC Maryland
 * Maryland Pride Maryland (2004–2007, 2009–2010)
 * Massachusetts Stingers Massachusetts (2004–2007)
 * Memphis Mercury Tennessee (2006)
 * Michigan Chill SC Michigan (2016)
 * Michigan Lions Michigan
 * Michigan Phoenix Michigan (2006)
 * Midwest Select SA Muskrats Indiana
 * Mississippi Fuego FC Mississippi
 * Mississippi Fuego FC U23 Mississippi (2012)
 * New England Mutiny Massachusetts – moved to United Women's Soccer
 * New England Mutiny Reserves Massachusetts
 * New Jersey Blaze New Jersey
 * New York Vendaval New York (2003)
 * Norcal Shockwaves California (1998–1999)
 * North Shore Girls Soccer Club British Columbia (2016–2017)
 * Northampton Laurels Pennsylvania (2006–2008)
 * Northern California Blues California (2003–2004)
 * ODFC Cesena
 * Oregon Rush Oregon
 * Orlando Falcons Florida (2006–2007)
 * Ohio Galaxies Ohio
 * Ohio Premier Women's SC Ohio
 * Orange County Waves California (2011)
 * OSA XF Washington (2022–2023)
 * PAO ST. Louis Missouri (2011) no games played
 * Palm City FC Florida
 * Philadelphia Fever Pennsylvania
 * Phoenix U23 Arizona (2012)
 * Pines 1779 Texas
 * Portland Rain Oregon
 * Quad City Eagles Illinois
 * Real Del Mar California (1998)
 * Real Salt Lake Women Utah – moved to United Women's Soccer
 * Real Shore FC New Jersey (2007)
 * Reno Zephyrs Nevada (1999)
 * Rhode Island Rays Rhode Island (2003–2006)
 * River Cities FC Missouri (2006–2007)
 * Rochester Reign New York (2004)
 * San Antonio Blossoms Texas (2018–2023)
 * San Francisco Skyhawks California (1998–1999)
 * San Joaquin Valley Quest California (2003)
 * St. George United Utah
 * St. Louis Archers Missouri (2005)
 * St. Louis Scott Gallagher Elite Missouri (2009–2010, 2023)
 * Silicon Valley Red Devils California (1998–2000)
 * Spokane Shine Washington
 * Sonoma County Sol California (2006–2008)
 * Sonoran Thunder Arizona (2002–2003)
 * SoCal Reds FC California (2023)
 * Soda City FC South Carolina (2022–2023)
 * South Florida Strikers Florida
 * Steel City Sparks Pennsylvania (2004–05)
 * Tampa Bay Elite Florida (2006–2007)
 * Team Boca Blast Florida (2012–2023)
 * Tennessee Lady Blues Tennessee (2006)
 * Texas Football Club Texas
 * Tidewater Sharks Virginia
 * Tkaronto Justice New York (2015)
 * Torch FC Pennsylvania
 * Tri-City Celtics New York
 * Tulsa Soccer Club Oklahoma (2018–2023)
 * United FC Binghamton New York
 * United Soccer Alliance Florida
 * Utah Starzz Utah
 * Vancouver Island FC British Columbia (2019)
 * Vancouver Angels British Columbia (2000)
 * Vermont Fusion Vermont
 * TSS FC Rovers British Columbia (2018-2020)
 * West Texas Pride FC Texas
 * Windsor Essex FC Ontario (2015)

title: Women's Premier Soccer League


title: Template:5d10k


text:
Blackbird Creek (Delaware)

Blackbird Creek is a 16.9 mi river in northern Delaware in the United States.

Course
Blackbird Creek rises in two branches both north and south of Dexter Corners in southern New Castle County, Delaware and flows generally northeast in a meandering course. The northerly branch is contained within Blackbird State Forest, while the southerly branch arises in a swampy wooded buffer in farmland. Both branches join just upstream of Blackbird Pond, which is southwest of the village of Blackbird, Delaware. Just downstream of Blackbird Pond and upstream of US 13, Barlow Branch enters from the left (north). Downstream of US 13, Sandom Branch enters from the right (south) and a little further downstream, Blackbird Creek becomes subject to tidal influence and widens considerably.

Upstream of Blackbird Landing Road, Herring Run enters from the left (north) in an area of freshwater tidal marsh. Downstream of Blackbird Landing Road, another tributary, Beaver Branch, enters from the left (north). Near the mouth of Blackbird Creek, three tidal tributaries enter from the right (south) and include Fishing Creek, Mill Creek, and Gravel Gut. The mouth of Blackbird Creek is located at the north end of Delaware Bay approximately 0.25 mi south of the mouth of the Appoquinimink River and approximately 2 mi north of Taylors Bridge.

Watershed
Blackbird Creek watershed is largely forested and rural. Near its mouth, it is surrounded by extensive salt marshes, with extensive populations of saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) and common reed (Phragmites australis). The lower river upstream from Delaware State Highway 9 is protected as part of the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve, along with portions of the lower Appoquinimink. Blackbird State Forest covers large areas of the headwaters. One small village, Blackbird, is located totally within the watershed, while the city of Townsend is on the northern edge.

River Modifications
Blackbird Pond, a former millpond, is the only dam present on Blackbird Creek.

The damming of this creek was the subject of the 1829 Supreme Court case that gave rise to the theory of the Dormant Commerce Clause.

Natural History
The Blackbird Creek watershed is a focus area in Delaware for “Delmarva Bays”, which are undrained depression deposits that may or may not have a sandy rim. These “bays” have fluctuating hydrology that provide breeding sites for amphibians and habitat for a number of rare plants. Larger versions are generally called “Carolina Bays.”

Geology
Blackbird Creek is located in the High Coastal Plain that originates from glacial outwash of continental deposits (Columbia Formation). The headwaters of Blackbird Creek are located in an area of undrained depression deposits of the Columbia Formation. The northeasterly course of Blackbird Creek takes it through the Lynch Heights Formation, Scotts Corners Formation, and into marsh deposits forming steep valleys along the way.

title: Blackbird Creek (Delaware)


text:
Star of the County Down

"Star of the County Down" is an Irish ballad set near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. The words are by Cathal MacGarvey (1866–1927) from Ramelton, County Donegal. MacGarvey's song was first collected in Herbert Hughes  Irish Country Songs. The tune is traditional, and may be known as "Dives and Lazarus" or (as a hymn tune) "Kingsfold".

The melody was also used in an Irish folk song called "My Love Nell". The lyrics of "My Love Nell" tell the story of a young man who courts a girl but loses her when she emigrates to America. The only real similarity with "Star of the County Down" is that Nell too comes from County Down. This may have inspired MacGarvey to place the heroine of his new song in Down as well. MacGarvey was from Donegal. The chorus of a similar song, "The Flower of the County Down" names landmarks local to Down, in contrast to those in "Star" which are from across Ireland.

"The Star of the County Down" uses a tight rhyme scheme. Each stanza is a double quatrain, and the first and third lines of each quatrain have an internal rhyme on the second and fourth feet: [aa]b[cc]b. The refrain is a single quatrain with the same rhyming pattern.

The song is sung from the point of view of a young man who chances to meet a charming lady by the name of Rose (or Rosie) McCann, referred to as the "star of the County Down". From a brief encounter the writer's infatuation grows until, by the end of the ballad, he imagines himself marrying the girl. The song usually begins with the opening verse:

"Near Banbridge town, in the County Down, One morning last July Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen, And she smiled as she passed me by"

Versions

 * Belfast singer-songwriter Van Morrison recorded a version of the song for the 1988 album Irish Heartbeat, in collaboration with The Chieftains.
 * The Pogues recorded a version of the song that was included the 2005 reissue of their 1989 album Peace and Love.
 * Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt recorded a version of the song for her 2010 album The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
 * Serbian band Orthodox Celts recorded a version of the song for the 1997 album The Celts Strike Again.
 * Israeli singer Ehud Banai recorded a Hebrew version of the song titled "Ha-Kochav shel Mechoz Gush Dan" (הכוכב של מחוז גוש דן or "The Star of Gush Dan District"). It appeared first on his 1998 album Tip Tipa.
 * Dublin folk artist Dylan Walshe recorded a live version of the song which appeared on the 2015 album Soul Hell Cafe released on Muddy Roots Records.
 * German schlager music band Santiano recorded a version of the song called "Mädchen von Haithabu" with the same melody.
 * English progressive and medieval folk rock group Gryphon used the melody in their version of The Unquiet Grave, the sixth track on their self-titled debut album.
 * American folk-jazz band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones included an instrumental arrangement of the song in their 1991 Grammy-nominated album "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo.”
 * Irish-Canadian band The Irish Rovers recorded versions of the song for the 1996 album Gems and the 2020 Saints and Sinners, as well as the 2013 album 50 years Volume 1.
 * Irish YouTuber Colm McGuinness uploaded a version of the song to his channel in 2021 titled "The Star of the County Down (Cover)".
 * British vocal ensemble The King's Singers recorded an arrangement by Howard Goodall on their albums Watching the White Wheat (1985) and Postcards (2014).
 * Irish band The High Kings uploaded a version of the song to their YouTube channel in 2011 titled "Star of the County Down".
 * German metal band Lyriel recorded a version of the song for the 2012 album Leverage as a bonus track.
 * Irish-Scottish band Celtic Thunder released the song on their version of the song in 2015 on their album "The Very Best of Celtic Thunder."

title: Star of the County Down


text:
User:Jerzy/Vfd

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No, there is nothing fake about "gatch gereftani." Actually, I am probably the one who added the article. "Gatch" appears in Hirsch, Arnold, ed., The Book of Torture and Executions (Toronto: Golden Books, 1944); the author's name, Richard Sair, appears only on the Library of Congress catalog card (HV8593 .S3 Delta). I learned the full term "gatch gereftani" from a friend of mine, Dr. Amir Aliakbar Elahi, who—when I asked him about "gatch"—said that his grandfather used to point out various vaguely human figures atop a certain building in Teheran and tell him how prisoners had been subjected to "gatch gereftani" to prepare those figures in the days of "the shah's father," Reza Shah.

You folks just love to delete things of which you're entirely ignorant to show your, er, omniscience. ..

50.128.184.140 (talk) 14:00, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

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VfD Footer section
VfDFooter

title: User:Jerzy/Vfd


text:
Pepper Creek (Delaware)

Pepper Creek is a stream approximately 8 mi (13 km) long in southern Delaware in the United States.

It rises in Cypress Swamp in southern Sussex County, approximately 3 mi (5 km) north of the Maryland state line. It flows generally east-northeast, past Dagsboro and into Indian River Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 2 mi (3 km) northwest of Millville.

The upper course of the creek is connected by channelized ditches through Cypress Swamp to the headwaters of the Pocomoke River.

title: Pepper Creek (Delaware)


text:
ANZ Bank New Zealand

ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited (or simply ANZ) is a New Zealand banking and financial services company, which operates as a subsidiary of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited of Australia. ANZ is one of New Zealand's big four banks, and is the largest bank in New Zealand with approximately 30% of market share as of March 2021.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group bought the National Bank of New Zealand from Lloyds Bank in 2003. The banks operated as separate brands until 2012, when they were unified under the ANZ brand. The company was renamed ANZ Bank New Zealand in 2012, following the withdrawal of the National Bank brand. ANZ provides a number of financial services, including banking services, asset finance, investments and payment services.

19th century
In 1840, Union Bank of Australia (UBA), a British bank with head office in London, agreed with the New Zealand Company to accompany settlers to New Zealand to provide them with banking services. UBA opened a branch in Petone, across the harbour from Wellington, where it transferred the branch shortly thereafter. Between 1840 and 1847 the Union Bank issued its own bank notes for circulation in New Zealand. These were initially issued under British law until 1844 when the New Zealand Governor signed an ordinance allowing the Bank to issue bank notes but required that these be a minimum of 1 pound and redeemable at demand for gold or silver.

In 1848, The Governor withdrew Union Bank's right to issue bank notes and transferred these rights to the Colonial Bank of Issue (CBI). UBA notes in circulation were withdrawn and replaced with CBI bank notes. UBA objected, and every day it took whatever CBI notes it had received that day to the CBI and demanded redemption in gold; when UBA's customers wanted to withdraw money, the bank paid them in gold rather than CBI notes. This policy, when combined with previous confusion related to the issue of NZ Government debt, and support from the local commercial community, resulted in the CBI ultimately being shut down. The same year, UBA opened a branch in Auckland, and a small number of branches elsewhere in the country followed. The following year, UBC resumed issuing bank notes in New Zealand under an act of the New Zealand Parliament. (The Paper Currency Act 1856). In 1864, Bank of Australasia, another London-based bank, opened branches in Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch.

20th century
In 1951, UBA and the Bank of Australasia merged to become the Australia and New Zealand Bank. In 1968, ANZ Bank joined Databank Systems Limited consortium to provide joint data processing services. Two years later, ANZ Bank merged with a third London-based bank, the English, Scottish and Australian Bank, to form ANZ Banking Group. In 1976, ANZ moved its corporate headquarters to Melbourne, Australia. In 1979, An Act of Parliament permitted ANZ to incorporate its branches in New Zealand as ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Ltd. ANZ sold 25% of the shares to the public. In 1983, ANZ opened its New Zealand head office in Wellington. In 1989, ANZ bought PostBank (the Post Office Savings Bank) from the New Zealand government in a privatization. Two years earlier, the Government had separated the Post Office's banking business into a separate entity to prepare it for sale. In 1999, ANZ launched internet banking.

21st century
In 2002, ING and ANZ formed a joint venture under the ING brand The following year, ANZ bought National Bank of New Zealand from Lloyds TSB. In 2008, ANZ launched a mobile application. The same year, ANZ announced around 400 jobs were to be moved to Bangalore, India.

In 2009, ANZ Group CEO Mike Smith announced the Group's "super regional strategy", saying the Bank aims to not be "Kiwi" or "Australian" but a global bank. In September 2010, ANZ New Zealand became the sole owner of ING New Zealand Limited, which formed part of ING; ING provided investment advice for the investment and insurance products sold by ANZ and The National Bank. ING New Zealand Limited changed its name to OnePath Limited in November 2010. The same year, David Hisco replaces outgoing Jenny Fagg as CEO ANZ New Zealand. On 26 September 2012, ANZ National Bank CEO David Hisco announced that the National Bank would re-brand as "ANZ" by the end of October. The name of the company would change to "ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited". The technology of the two banks was brought together from 29 October 2012, with customers being able to use branches branded ANZ or the National Bank from the same date. Branches branded the National Bank would change to the ANZ branding before the bank's trademark license expired in 2014. In May 2019, the Reserve Bank stripped ANZ of its accreditation to set and manage its capital reserves over persistent failures since 2014. In 2013, Onepath rebranded as ANZ Investments. In 2014, ANZ India got approval from Reserve Bank of India to open two branches in India. In 2015, ANZ announced ANZ ETFS joint venture with ETF Securities to offer 6 ETFs on ASX. In 2017, ANZ announced it would sell its online sharebroking service, Direct Broking, to investment bank, First NZ Capital (FNZC), for an undisclosed sum. The sale was completed in December 2018. In 2019, Antonia Watson replaced David Hisco as CEO of ANZ NZ.

In 2020, ANZ sold UDC Finance for $794 million to Shinsei Bank.

Organisational structure
ANZ NZ is wholly owned by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited of Australia via two intermediates; ANZ Holdings (New Zealand) Limited and Pty Funds Limited (incorporated in Australia). The major shareholders of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group are BlackRock Inc, The Vanguard Group and Norges Bank Investment Management.

Subsidiaries
ANZ NZ has previously owned the Direct Broking brand and UDC Finance. In December 2018, Direct Broking was sold to Jarden Securities Limited, however ANZ NZ maintains a strategic alliance with the brand. UDC Finance was sold to Shinsei Bank in September 2020 for NZ$794 million. , ANZ's subsidiaries are:

• ANZ Investment Services (New Zealand) Ltd

• ANZ New Zealand Investments Ltd

• ANZ New Zealand Investments Nominees Ltd

• ANZ New Zealand (Int'l) Ltd

• ANZ Custodial Services New Zealand Ltd

• ANZ New Zealand Securities Ltd

• ANZ National Staff Superannuation Ltd

• Arawata Assets Ltd

• ANZ Wealth New Zealand Ltd

• Karapiro Investments Ltd

• Arawata Finance Ltd

• Endeavour Finance Ltd

• Oneanswer Nominees Ltd

Shareholdings

 * Payments NZ Ltd
 * Precinct Properties New Zealand Ltd
 * Freightways Ltd
 * Investment Link (New Zealand) Ltd
 * Auckland International Airport Ltd

Personal banking
As a part of ANZ's personal banking services, the bank offers a number of different bank accounts, personal loans, home loans, a wealth management service, insurance and investment services.

Investment
ANZ Investments, is ANZ's subsidiary (previously ING) that manages investments. Currently it is the largest fund manager in NZ with approximately 745,000 customers. It is one of the nine Kiwisaver scheme managers appointed by the New Zealand Government in 2014.

Insurance
ANZ offers a number of insurance products through partnerships with different insurance companies including life and living insurance (Cigna Insurance), house insurance (Vero), contents insurance (Vero), car insurance (Vero) and travel insurance (Allianz Australia). The bank used to offer credit card repayment insurance, however since 2020, it no longer provides new policies.

Wealth management
ANZ has a wealth management service called private bank. The service provides investment management services, lending services (for personal, investment and commercial property loans), foreign currency accounts and services for foreign investors.

Advertising and sponsorship
ANZ NZ sponsors a number of sporting entities and charities including New Zealand Cricket, Netball New Zealand, Paralympics New Zealand, the New Zealand Olympic Committee and the New Zealand Cancer Society. As of 2020, ANZ NZ donates NZ$15 million annually.

In 2017, ANZ spent $25 million on advertising annually, higher than any other bank in New Zealand.

2016 Olympic Games
For the 2016 Olympic Games, the New Zealand Olympic Committee and ANZ NZ developed a cross platform mobile app to cover the game. During this advertising campaign, which featured heavy ANZ branding, the company experienced a 2 basis point increase in brand consideration.

COVID-19 pandemic
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ANZ NZ donated $2 million to the Women’s Refuge, Age Concern New Zealand, the Salvation Army, Red Cross and local charities in the Pacific, in addition to a $1 million grant to cricket and netball.

Hisco personal expenses
An internal review, by ANZ's integrity unit, found that former CEO David Hisco was charging chauffeur driven cars and wine storage as expenses without authorisation. The report also found that the CEO "took actions that reduced the likelihood of the personal expenses being detected, and did not report the benefit associated with the expenses".

Hisco family house purchase
In 2011, ANZ purchased a property in Auckland for $7.5 million and rented it to its then-CEO David Hisco free of charge. In 2017, the property was sold to Hisco's wife for $6.9 million when the property's capital value was $10.7 million according to quotable value data. While a Deloitte review cleared ANZ of wrongdoing, the Financial Markets Authority determined that the sale should have been disclosed in ANZ's financial statements.

RBNZ censuring
In May 2019, the Reserve Bank revoked ANZ's accreditation to model its own capital requirements due to "persistent failure in its control and attenuation process". Consequently ANZ is required to use a standardised model and to increase its minimum capital held by approximately 60% to $760 million. A Deloitte review found that "a historically complacent approach, the absence of a comprehensive compliance plan, diffused accountability and inadequate assurance processes, all contributed to the operational risk capital breach not being identified for more than five years". Although the RBNZ placed the responsibility on the directors, ANZ Chairman Sir John Key, maintains that the mistake was made by a junior employee.

Credit card repayment insurance
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) accused ANZ NZ of issuing duplicate credit card repayment insurance policies to customers and failing to cancel policies for ineligible customers. The 390 customers with duplicate policies were still charged for the policies even though they provided no benefit. ANZ NZ acknowledged the bank took too long to report the issue to the FMA and attributed the issue to human error and systems issues. The bank has since issued an apology and compensation of NZD $440,000 to affected customers, however the bank still faces High Court proceedings from the FMA.

Criticism
ANZ has often been a finalist for the Roger Awards, which recognise "The Worst Transnational Corporation[s] operating in New Zealand" and are run by CAFCA and GATT Watchdog. Reports released by CAFCA criticised ANZ NZ for:

 * The highest gross interest margin in 2009 (in the aftermath of the global financial crisis) out of the largest four banks operating in NZ (ANZ, Westpac, BNZ and ASB Bank). ANZ had a gross interest margin of 35.4% compared to Westpac (31%) and BNZ (30.3%).
 * A high floating mortgage rate of 6.06% in 2009 compared to Westpac (5.69%) and BNZ (5.59%).

title: ANZ Bank New Zealand


text:
Tikanga Māori

Tikanga is a Māori concept incorporating practices and values from mātauranga Māori, Māori knowledge. Tikanga is translated into the English language with a wide range of meanings—culture, custom, ethic, etiquette, fashion, formality, lore, manner, meaning, mechanism, method, protocol, style, customary law.

Māori scholar Hirini Moko Mead states that tikanga can be viewed from several perspectives. One view is that tikanga Māori 'controls interpersonal relationships' as it guides the interactions of meetings, and provides identity to individuals. Another view is through ethics, that tikanga Māori is a practised code of conduct. The word tikanga is derived from the Māori word tika meaning 'right' or 'correct' so it follows that it involves moral judgements about what is the right way of doing something.

Lawyers view tikanga Māori through the lens of customary law, which comes from an authority rather than a normative system. This is being tested in the New Zealand judicial system through a few legal cases. For an interpretation of the conflicts between Tikanga Maori and Western/Pākehā jurisprudence, see the case of the burial of James Takamore (2011). In the course of her judgement on that case, Chief Justice of New Zealand Sian Elias stated that "Māori custom according to tikanga is... part of the values of the New Zealand common law." Justice Joe Williams has written and studied tikanga and the New Zealand law. In his future vision there is a phase "when tikanga Māori fuses with New Zealand’s common law tradition to form a hybrid law of Aotearoa that could be developed by judges, case by base."

From about the 1980s the word tikanga began to appear in common New Zealand English. This can be attributed to the Māori renaissance as well as acts of the New Zealand government including the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Resource Management Act (1991) that include the need for separate consultation with local iwi (tribal) representatives.

In March 2001, the New Zealand Law Commission released a report on the influence tikanga Māori on Pākehā (English) law conventions.

On 2 July 2011, the Waitangi Tribunal released its report into the Wai 262 claim, Ko Aotearoa Tēnei ("This is Aotearoa (New Zealand)"). The report considers more than 20 Government departments and agencies and makes recommendations as to reforms of "laws, policies or practices relating to health, education, science, intellectual property, indigenous flora and fauna, resource management, conservation, the Māori language, arts and culture, heritage, and the involvement of Māori in the development of New Zealand’s positions on international instruments affecting indigenous rights." The second volume of the report contains a glossary of te reo Māori terms, including: An example of applied tikanga is an approach by Māori weavers in the gathering of traditional materials such as harakeke. One tikanga is to never cut the inside leaves of the plant, the names of these leaves are the rito and this is metaphorically linked to growth of humans. Practically it ensures the life cycle of the plant, that the harvesting of the fibre does not kill the plant and it also connects the value of the resource to the people that use it.
 * tikanga: traditional rules for conducting life, custom, method, rule, law
 * tikanga Māori: Māori traditional rules, culture

title: Tikanga Māori


text:
Critical graph

In graph theory, a critical graph is an undirected graph all of whose proper subgraphs have smaller chromatic number. In such a graph, every vertex or edge is a critical element, in the sense that its deletion would decrease the number of colors needed in a graph coloring of the given graph. The decrease in the number of colors cannot be by more than one.

Variations
A $$k$$-critical graph is a critical graph with chromatic number $$k$$. A graph $$G$$ with chromatic number $$k$$ is $$k$$-vertex-critical if each of its vertices is a critical element. Critical graphs are the minimal members in terms of chromatic number, which is a very important measure in graph theory.

Some properties of a $$k$$-critical graph $$G$$ with $$n$$ vertices and $$m$$ edges:
 * $$G$$ has only one component.
 * $$G$$ is finite (this is the de Bruijn–Erdős theorem).
 * The minimum degree $$\delta(G)$$ obeys the inequality $$\delta(G)\ge k-1$$. That is, every vertex is adjacent to at least $$k-1$$ others. More strongly, $$G$$ is $$(k-1)$$-edge-connected.
 * If $$G$$ is a regular graph with degree $$k-1$$, meaning every vertex is adjacent to exactly $$k-1$$ others, then $$G$$ is either the complete graph $$K_k$$ with $$n=k$$ vertices, or an odd-length cycle graph. This is Brooks' theorem.
 * $$2m\ge(k-1)n+k-3$$.
 * $$2m\ge (k-1)n+\lfloor(k-3)/(k^2-3)\rfloor n$$.
 * Either $$G$$ may be decomposed into two smaller critical graphs, with an edge between every pair of vertices that includes one vertex from each of the two subgraphs, or $$G$$ has at least $$2k-1$$ vertices. More strongly, either $$G$$ has a decomposition of this type, or for every vertex $$v$$ of $$G$$ there is a $$k$$-coloring in which $$v$$ is the only vertex of its color and every other color class has at least two vertices.

Graph $$G$$ is vertex-critical if and only if for every vertex $$v$$, there is an optimal proper coloring in which $$v$$ is a singleton color class.

As showed, every $$k$$-critical graph may be formed from a complete graph $$K_k$$ by combining the Hajós construction with an operation that identifies two non-adjacent vertices. The graphs formed in this way always require $$k$$ colors in any proper coloring.

A double-critical graph is a connected graph in which the deletion of any pair of adjacent vertices decreases the chromatic number by two. It is an open problem to determine whether $$K_k$$ is the only double-critical $$k$$-chromatic graph.

title: Critical graph


text:
Wendell Berry

Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of The Gift of Good Land (1981) and The Unsettling of America (1977). His attention to the culture and economy of rural communities is also found in the novels and stories of Port William, such as A Place on Earth (1967), Jayber Crow (2000), and That Distant Land (2004).

He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012. He is also a 2013 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, since 2014, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Berry was named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. On January 28, 2015, he became the first living writer to be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Life
Berry was the first of four children to be born to John Marshall Berry, a lawyer and tobacco farmer in Henry County, Kentucky, and Virginia Erdman Berry. The families of both parents had farmed in Henry County for at least five generations. Berry attended secondary school at Millersburg Military Institute and then earned a B.A. (1956) and M.A. (1957) in English at the University of Kentucky. In 1956, at the University of Kentucky he met another Kentucky writer-to-be, Gurney Norman. He completed his M.A. and married Tanya Amyx in 1957. In 1958, he attended Stanford University's creative writing program as a Wallace Stegner Fellow, studying under Stegner in a seminar that included Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, Ernest Gaines, Tillie Olsen, and Ken Kesey. Berry's first novel, Nathan Coulter, was published in April 1960.

A John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship took Berry and his family to Italy and France in 1961, where he came to know Wallace Fowlie, critic and translator of French literature. From 1962 to 1964, he taught English at New York University's University Heights campus in the Bronx. In 1964, he began teaching creative writing at the University of Kentucky, from which he resigned in 1977. During this time in Lexington, he came to know author Guy Davenport, as well as author and monk Thomas Merton and photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

On July 4, 1965, Berry, his wife, and his two children moved to Lane's Landing, a 12 acre that he had purchased, and began growing corn and small grains on what eventually became a homestead of about 117 acre. They bought their first flock of seven Border Cheviot sheep in 1978. Lane's Landing is in Henry County in north central Kentucky near Port Royal, and his parents' birthplaces, and is on the western bank of the Kentucky River, not far from where it flows into the Ohio River. Berry has farmed, resided, and written at Lane's Landing ever since. He has written about his early experiences on the land and about his decision to return to it in essays such as "The Long-Legged House" and "A Native Hill".

From 1977 until 1980, he edited and wrote for Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, including for its publications Organic Gardening and Farming and The New Farm. From 1987 to 1993, he returned to the English Department of the University of Kentucky. Berry has written at least twenty-five books (or chapbooks) of poems, twenty-four volumes of essays, and fifteen novels and short story collections. His writing is grounded in the notion that one's work ought to be rooted in and responsive to one's place.

Activism
Berry delivered "A Statement Against the War in Vietnam" during the Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft on February 10, 1968, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington:

"We seek to preserve peace by fighting a war, or to advance freedom by subsidizing dictatorships, or to 'win the hearts and minds of the people' by poisoning their crops and burning their villages and confining them in concentration camps; we seek to uphold the 'truth' of our cause with lies, or to answer conscientious dissent with threats and slurs and intimidations. . . . I have come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war that I would believe to be either useful or necessary. I would be against any war."

He debated former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz at Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana in November 1977. In this debate Berry defended the longstanding structure of small family farms and rural communities that were being replaced by what Butz saw as the achievements of industrial agriculture. "My basic assumption when talking about agriculture is that there's more to it than just agriculture. That you can't disconnect one part of a society from all the other parts and just look at the results and that alone."

On June 3, 1979, Berry engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience against the construction of a nuclear power plant at Marble Hill, Indiana. He describes "this nearly eventless event" and expands upon his reasons for it in the essay "The Reactor and the Garden."

On February 9, 2003, Berry's essay titled "A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States" was published as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times. Berry opened the essay—a critique of the George W. Bush administration's post-9/11 international strategy —by asserting that "The new National Security Strategy published by the White House in September 2002, if carried out, would amount to a radical revision of the political character of our nation."

On January 4, 2009, Berry and Wes Jackson, president of The Land Institute, published an op-ed article in The New York Times titled "A 50-Year Farm Bill." In July 2009 Berry, Jackson and Fred Kirschenmann, of The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, gathered in Washington DC to promote this idea. Berry and Jackson wrote, "We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities."

Also in January 2009, Berry released a statement against the death penalty, which began, "As I am made deeply uncomfortable by the taking of a human life before birth, I am also made deeply uncomfortable by the taking of a human life after birth." And in November 2009, Berry and 38 other writers from Kentucky wrote to Gov. Steve Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway asking them to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in that state.

On March 2, 2009, Berry joined over 2,000 others in non-violently blocking the gates to a coal-fired power plant in Washington, D.C. No one was arrested.

On May 22, 2009, Berry, at a listening session in Louisville, spoke against the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). He said, "If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you're going to have to send the police for me. I'm 75 years old. I've about completed my responsibilities to my family. I'll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program – and I'll have to do it. Because I will be, in every way that I can conceive of, a non-cooperator."

In October 2009, Berry combined with "the Berea-based Kentucky Environmental Foundation (KEF), along with several other non-profit organizations and rural electric co-op members" to petition against and protest the construction of a coal-burning power plant in Clark County, Kentucky. On February 28, 2011, the Kentucky Public Service Commission approved the cancellation of this power plant.

On December 20, 2009, due to the University of Kentucky's close association with coal interests in the state, Berry removed his papers from the university. He explained to the Lexington Herald-Leader, "I don't think the University of Kentucky can be so ostentatiously friendly to the coal industry … and still be a friend to me and the interests for which I have stood for the last 45 years. … If they love the coal industry that much, I have to cancel my friendship." In August 2012, the papers were donated to The Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort.

On September 28, 2010, Berry participated in a rally in Louisville during an EPA hearing on how to manage coal ash. Berry said, "The EPA knows that coal ash is poison. We ask it only to believe in its own findings on this issue, and do its duty."

Berry, with 14 other protesters, spent the weekend of February 12, 2011, locked in the Kentucky governor's office to demand an end to mountaintop removal coal mining. He was part of the environmental group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth that began their sit-in on Friday and left at midday Monday to join about 1,000 others in a mass outdoor rally.

In 2011, the Berry Center was established at New Castle, Kentucky, "for the purpose of bringing focus, knowledge and cohesiveness to the work of changing our ruinous industrial agriculture system into a system and culture that uses nature as the standard, accepts no permanent damage to the ecosphere, and takes into consideration human health in local communities."

In July 2020, Wendell Berry and his wife Tanya Amyx Berry sued the University of Kentucky to prevent the removal of a mural that has been criticized for being "racially offensive." The mural was commissioned in the 1930s and was done by Ann Rice O'Hanlon, a relative of Tanya Amyx Berry.

In August 2022, at a public hearing of the Henry County, Kentucky planning commission, Wendell Berry spoke against re-zoning agricultural land to allow Angel's Envy distillery to develop the property "for bourbon-barrel storage and the development of an agritourism destination." Despite the testimony by Berry and others, the planning commission granted the re-zoning request.

Ideas
Berry's nonfiction serves as an extended conversation about the life he values. According to him, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, animal husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. The threats Berry finds to this good simple life include: industrial farming and the industrialization of life, ignorance, hubris, greed, violence against others and against the natural world, the eroding topsoil in the United States, global economics, and environmental destruction. As a prominent defender of agrarian values, Berry's appreciation for traditional farming techniques, such as those of the Amish, grew in the 1970s, due in part to exchanges with Draft Horse Journal publisher Maurice Telleen. Berry has long been friendly to and supportive of Wes Jackson, believing that Jackson's agricultural research at The Land Institute lives out the promise of "solving for pattern" and using "nature as model."

Jedediah Britton-Purdy has considered many of Berry's major themes and concerns:"Over the years, he has called himself an agrarian, a pacifist, and a Christian—albeit of an eccentric kind. He has written against all forms of violence and destruction—of land, communities, and human beings—and argued that the modern American way of life is a skein of violence. He is an anti-capitalist moralist and a writer of praise for what he admires: the quiet, mostly uncelebrated labor and affection that keep the world whole and might still redeem it. He is also an acerbic critic of what he dislikes, particularly modern individualism, and his emphasis on family and marriage and his ambivalence toward abortion mark him as an outsider to the left."The concept of "Solving for pattern", coined by Berry in his essay of the same title, is the process of finding solutions that solve multiple problems, while minimizing the creation of new problems. The essay was originally published in the Rodale, Inc. periodical The New Farm. Though Berry's use of the phrase was in direct reference to agriculture, it has since come to enjoy broader use throughout the design community.

Berry, who describes himself as "a person who takes the Gospel seriously," has criticized Christian organizations for failing to challenge cultural complacency about environmental degradation, and has shown a willingness to criticize what he perceives as the arrogance of some Christians. He is an advocate of Christian pacifism, as shown in his book Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness (2005).

Berry's core ideas, and in particular his poem "Sabbaths III, 1989 (Santa Clara Valley)," guided the 2007 documentary feature film The Unforeseen, produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford. In the film Berry narrates his own poem. Director Laura Dunn went on to make the 2016 documentary feature Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, again produced by Malick and Redford.

Poetry
Berry's lyric poetry often appears as a contemporary eclogue, pastoral, or elegy; but he also composes dramatic and historical narratives (such as "Bringer of Water" and "July, 1773", respectively) and occasional and discursive poems ("Against the War in Vietnam" and "Some Further Words", respectively).

Berry's first published poetry book consisted of a single poem, the elegiac November Twenty Six Nineteen Hundred Sixty Three (1964), initiated and illustrated by Ben Shahn, commemorating the death of John F. Kennedy. It begins,

We know The winter earth Upon the body Of the young President, And the early dark Falling;

and continues through ten more stanzas (each propelled by the anaphora of "We know"). The elegiac here and elsewhere, according to Triggs, enables Berry to characterize the connections "that link past and future generations through their common working of the land."

The first full-length collection, The Broken Ground (1964), develops many of Berry's fundamental concerns: "the cycle of life and death, responsiveness to place, pastoral subject matter, and recurring images of the Kentucky River and the hill farms of north-central Kentucky."

According to Angyal, "There is little modernist formalism or postmodernist experimentation in [Berry's] verse." A commitment to the reality and primacy of the actual world stands behind these two rejections. In "Notes: Unspecializing Poetry," Berry writes, "Devotion to order that is not poetical prevents the specialization of poetry." He goes on to note, "Nothing exists for its own sake, but for a harmony greater than itself which includes it. A work of art, which accepts this condition, and exists upon its terms, honors the Creation, and so becomes a part of it."

Lionel Basney placed Berry's poetry within a tradition of didactic poetry that stretches back to Horace: "To say that Berry's poetry can be didactic, then, means that it envisions a specific wisdom, and also the traditional sense of art and culture that gives art the task of teaching this wisdom."

For Berry, poetry exists "at the center of a complex reminding" Both the poet and the reader are reminded of the poem's crafted language, of the poem's formal literary antecedents, of "what is remembered or ought to be remembered," and of "the formal integrity of other works, creatures and structures of the world."

The Sabbath Poems
From 1979 to the present Berry has been writing what he calls "Sabbath poems." They were first collected in A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979–1997. This was followed by Sabbaths from 1998 to 2004 in Given: New Poems; and those from 2005 to 2008 are in Leavings. All Sabbath poems through 2012 are published in This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979 – 2012. Sabbaths 2013 has been published by Larkspur Press. A Small Porch contains nine Sabbath poems from 2014 and sixteen from 2015. One Sabbath poem, "What Passes, What Remains" (VIII from 2016), is published as the epilogue in The Art of Loading Brush. That poem, along with fourteen others, can also be found in Sabbaths 2016, published by Larkspur Press.

The poems are motivated by Berry's longtime habit of walking out onto the land on Sunday mornings. As he puts it, "I go free from the tasks and intentions of my workdays, and so my mind becomes hospitable to unintended thoughts: to what I am very willing to call inspiration." He writes in a poem from 1979, The bell calls in the town Where forebears cleared the shaded land And brought high daylight down To shine on field and trodden road. I hear, but understand Contrarily, and walk into the woods. I leave labor and load, Take up a different story. I keep an inventory Of wonders and of uncommercial goods. The Sabbath poems have been described as "written from a particular place and on particular Sabbaths, and so should be read as part of a spiritual practice and as poems, in some sense, devoted to dwelling, to living thoughtfully in one place." Oehlschlaeger links Berry's project to a key observation by Henry David Thoreau,

"As Thoreau continues in 'Life Without Principle,' he notes the constant busyness of Americans, so engaged in 'infinite bustle' that 'there is no sabbath.' And he notes later that 'there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.' The logic is clear: destruction of the Sabbath is contrary to 'life itself.' That, I suggest, is the context in which we should read the Sabbath poems that Berry has been writing for nearly the last thirty years."

Fiction
Berry's fiction to date consists of eight novels and fifty-seven short stories—all of which are collected in That Distant Land (2004), A Place in Time (2012) and How It Went (2022)—and one verse drama which, when read as a whole, form a chronicle of the fictional small Kentucky town of Port William. Because of his long-term, ongoing exploration of the life of an imagined place, Berry has been compared to William Faulkner. Yet, although Port William is no stranger to murder, suicide, alcoholism, marital discord, and the full range of losses that touch human lives, it lacks the extremes of characterization and plot development that are found in much of Faulkner. Hence Berry is sometimes described as working in an idealized, pastoral, or nostalgic mode, a characterization of his work which he resists: "If your work includes a criticism of history, which mine certainly does, you can't be accused of wanting to go back to something, because you're saying that what we were wasn't good enough."

The effect of profound shifts in the agricultural practices of the United States and the disappearance of traditional agrarian life are two of the major concerns of the Port William fiction, though these themes are often only a background or subtext to the stories themselves. The Port William fiction attempts to portray, on a local scale, what "a human economy … conducted with reverence" looked like in the past—and what civic, domestic, and personal virtues might be elicited by such an economy, were it pursued today. Social as well as seasonal changes mark the passage of time. The Port William stories allow Berry to explore the human dimensions of the decline of the family farm and farm community under the influence of expanding post-World War II agribusiness. But these works rarely fall into simple didacticism, and are never merely tales of decline. Each is grounded in a realistic depiction of character and community. In A Place on Earth (1967), for example, farmer Mat Feltner comes to terms with the loss of his only son, Virgil. In the course of the novel, we see how not only Mat but the entire community wrestles with the acute costs of World War II.

Berry's fiction also allows him to explore the literal and metaphorical implications of marriage as that which binds individuals, families, and communities to each other, and to Nature itself. Yet not all of Port William is happily or conventionally married. "Old Jack" Beechum struggles with significant incompatibilities with his wife, and with a brief yet fulfilling extramarital affair. The barber Jayber Crow lives with a forlorn, secret, and unrequited love for a woman he believes himself "mentally" married to, though she knows nothing about it. Burley Coulter never formalizes his bond with Kate Helen Branch, the mother of his son. Yet, each of these men finds himself firmly bound up in the community, the "membership," of Port William.

Of his fictional project, Berry has written: "I have made the imagined town of Port William, its neighborhood and membership, in an attempt to honor the actual place where I have lived. By means of the imagined place, over the last fifty years, I have learned to see my native landscape and neighborhood as a place unique in the world, a work of God, possessed of an inherent sanctity that mocks any human valuation that can be put upon it." Elsewhere, Berry has said, "The only thing I try to accomplish in fiction is to show how people act when they love each other." The novels and stories can be read in any order.

In January 2018, the Library of America published a volume of Berry's fiction—the first of a projected four volumes of his writing. Wendell Berry: Port William Novels & Stories (The Civil War to World War II) contains four novels and twenty-three short stories in chronological order according to the stories' events. Berry is one of very few living writers currently featured in the Library of America catalog.

Nathan Coulter (1960)
In Berry's first novel, young Nathan "comes of age" through dealing with the death of his mother, the depression of his father, Jarrat, the rugged companionship of his brother Tom, and the mischief of his uncle Burley. Kirkus Review concludes, "A sensitive adolescent theme is handled rather poetically, but so uniform in tone that no drama is generated and no sense of time passing is felt." John Ditsky finds William Faulkner's influence in Nathan Coulter, but notes, "Not only does the work avoid the pitfalls encountered by Faulkner's initial attempts to escape his postage stamp of native soil, but Nathan Coulter also seems a wise attempt to get that autobiographical first novel out of one's system, and to do so [with] honesty."

A Place on Earth (1967/1983)
Set in the critical year of 1945, this novel focuses on farmer Mat Feltner's struggle over the news that his son Virgil has been listed as missing in action while also telling multiple tales of the lives of other Port William residents, such as Burley Coulter, Jack Beechum, Ernest Finley, Ida and Gideon Crop. Reprinting by North Point Press in 1983 allowed Berry to radically revise the novel, removing almost a third of its original length. Jeffrey Bilbro believes that these substantial changes marked growth in Berry's approach. "In Berry's revised edition, his technique caught up with his subject. He allows us, as readers, to participate in the ignorance of his characters, and in doing so, we may be able to understand more fully the painful difficulty of choosing fidelity to the natural order while living in the midst of mystery."

The Memory of Old Jack (1974)
This third novel of Port William begins with Jack Beechum as a very old man in 1952 and continues back into his youth and maturity to uncover his life and work as a dedicated farmer, conflicted husband, and living link to past generations. The story ranges from the Civil War to just past World War II. Josh Hurst comments on Berry's ability to avoid certain narrative pitfalls, "Jack's story could be presented us either as heroic ballad or as cautionary [tale]—and there is much in his life to support both admiration and gentle tisk-tisking—but the gift of this book is how it allows a man's memories to wash over us as though unshaped by narrative or conscious editorializing."

Remembering (1988)
In Berry's fourth novel, an adult Andy Catlett wanders through San Francisco remembering, but feeling alienated from, his native Port William. He struggles to come to terms with himself, his marriage, his farm, and the distorted values of American society. Of Berry's vision here, Charles Solomon writes, "Wendell Berry contrasts modern American agribusiness—which he depicts as an artificial conglomeration of sterile flow charts, debts and mechanization—with the older ideal of farming as a nurturing way of life." But along these lines, Bruce Bawer finds a problem with the novel, "Here, for the first time in a Port William novel, Berry seems more interested in communicating opinions than in portraying sympathetic characters in plausible situations; the opening episode, set at a conference on agricultural policy, paints the ideological conflict between Andy and his adversaries in broad, unsubtle strokes."

A World Lost (1996)
Young Andy Catlett's uncle Andrew had been murdered back in 1944, and now an adult Andy is reconstructing the event and its aftermath. "Looking back with a mixture of a young boy's incomprehension and an older man's nostalgia, Andy evokes the past not as a narrative but as a series of disembodied fragments in the flow of time." In this fifth novel of Port William, Berry considers the violence of men and its impact on the family and community that must come to terms with it. "Berry shows us the psychic costs of misplaced family pride and social rigidity, and yet he also celebrates the benevolent blessing of familial love. This is simple, soul-satisfying storytelling, augmented by understated humor and quiet insight."

Jayber Crow (2000)
Port William's barber recounts his life's journey in Berry's sixth novel. Jayber's early life as an orphan near Port William is followed by studies towards a possible vocation to Church ministry. A questioning mind, however, sends him in other directions until he finds himself back in Port William with an ever-growing commitment to that place and its people. As Publishers Weekly notes, "Crow's life, which begins as WWI is about to erupt, is emblematic of a century of upheaval, and Berry's anecdotal and episodic tale sounds a challenge to contemporary notions of progress. It is to Berry's credit that a novel so freighted with ideas and ideology manages to project such warmth and luminosity."

Hannah Coulter (2004)
Berry's seventh novel presents a concise vision of Port William's "membership." The story encompasses Hannah's life, including the Great Depression, World War II, the postwar industrialization of agriculture, the flight of youth to urban employment, and the consequent remoteness of grandchildren. The tale is told in the voice of an old woman twice widowed, who has experienced much loss yet has never been defeated. Somehow, lying at the center of her strength is the "membership"—the fact that people care for each other and, even in absence, hold each other in a kind of presence. All in all, Hannah Coulter embodies many of the themes of Berry's Port William saga.

Andy Catlett: Early Travels (2006)
Andy Catlett, age nine, makes his first solo journey to visit with both sets of grandparents in Port William. The New York Times reviewer notes, "What the grown-up Andy recalls of that experience is transformed into 'a sort of homage' to a now-vanished world. Title characters from Berry's earlier Port William volumes — Jayber Crow, Old Jack, Hannah Coulter — appear here in affectionate cameos as the adult Andy, echoing Wordsworth, observes that 'in my memory, all who were there ... seem now to be gathered into a love that is at once a boy's and an aging man's.'"

Uncollected short stories

 * "Nothing Living Lives Alone". The Threepenny Review. Spring 2011. PEN/O. Henry Prize Story, 2012 (The third section of this story has been published as "Time Out of Time (1947–2015)" in the 2022 collection How It Went.)
 * "The Stackpole Legend". The Threepenny Review. Spring 2024.

Uncollected essays

 * "KCADP's YouTube Channel." April 24, 2009.
 * "To Break The Silence" Appalachian Heritage Vol 41 (3), Summer 2013, pp 78–84.
 * "To Break The Silence" Appalachian Heritage Vol 41 (3), Summer 2013, pp 78–84.

Interviews

 * Weinreb, Mindy. "A Question a Day: A Written Conversation with Wendell Berry" in Merchant, 1991
 * Beattie, L. Elisabeth (Editor). "Wendell Berry" in Conversations With Kentucky Writers, University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
 * Minick, Jim. "A Citizen and a Native: An Interview with Wendell Berry" Appalachian Journal, Vol. 31, Nos 3–4, (Spring-Summer, 2004)
 * Berger, Rose Marie. "Wendell Berry interview complete text," Sojourner's Magazine, July 2004
 * Brockman, Holly. "How can a family 'live at the center of its own attention?' Wendell Berry's thoughts on the good life", January/February 2006
 * Grubbs, Morris Allen (Editor). Conversations with Wendell Berry, University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN 1578069920
 * Hooks, Bell. "Healing Talk: A Conversation" in "Belonging: A Culture of Place", 2009, Routledge.
 * Smith, Peter. "Wendell Berry's still unsettled in his ways." The Courier-Journal, September 30, 2007, A1.
 * "Wendell Berry: A conversation," The Diane Rehm Show. WAMU 88.5 American University Radio, November 30, 2009.
 * Leonard, Sarah. "Nature as an Ally" Dissent, Vol. 59, No. 2, Spring, 2012
 * "Wendell Berry: Poet & Prophet," Moyers & Company. PBS. October 4, 2013.
 * Lehrer, Brian. The Brian Lehrer Show WYNC, October 17, 2013
 * "Distant Neighbors: Wendell Berry & Gary Snyder", part of 2014 Festival of Faiths: Sacred Earth / Sacred Self
 * "Wendell Berry, Burkean" Interview with Gracy Olmstead. The American Conservative, February 17, 2015.
 * "Going Home with Wendell Berry." Petrusich, Amanda. The New Yorker. July 2019.
 * Fisher-Smith, Jordan. "Field Observations: An Interview with Wendell Berry'"
 * DeChristopher, Tim. "To Live and Love with a Dying World: A conversation between Tim DeCristopher and Wendell Berry". Orion, Spring 2020.
 * "2022 Kentucky Book Festival: Crystal Wilkinson in conversation with Wendell Berry."

title: Wendell Berry