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Silas Wright

Silas Wright Jr. (May 24, 1795 – August 27, 1847) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. A member of the Albany Regency, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, New York State Comptroller, United States Senator, and Governor of New York.

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts and raised in Weybridge, Vermont, Wright graduated from Middlebury College in 1815, studied law, attained admission to the bar, and began a practice in Canton, New York. He soon began a career in politics and government, serving as St. Lawrence County's surrogate judge, a member of the New York State Senate, and a brigadier general in the state militia.

Wright became a member of the Albany Regency, the coterie of friends and supporters of Martin Van Buren who led New York's Democratic Party beginning in the 1820s. As his career progressed, he served in the United States House of Representatives (1827–1829), as State Comptroller (1829–1833), and U.S. Senator (1833–1844). In the Senate, Wright became chairman of the Finance Committee, a post he held from 1836 to 1841. In 1844, Van Buren lost the Democratic presidential nomination to James K. Polk; Polk supporters nominated Wright for vice president as a way to attract Van Buren's support to the ticket, but Wright declined. Later that year he was elected governor, and he served one two-year term. Defeated for reelection in 1846, he retired to his home in Canton. He died in Canton in 1847, and was buried at Old Canton Cemetery.

Early life
Wright was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, one of nine children born to tanner and shoemaker Captain Silas Wright (1760–1843) and Eleanor (Goodale) Wright (1762–1846). The family moved to Weybridge, Vermont in 1796, where they operated a farm on the banks of the Otter Creek. The elder Silas Wright commanded a company of militia during the War of 1812 and took part in the Battle of Plattsburgh. In addition, he was an early adherent of the Democratic-Republican Party, and served in local offices including member of the Vermont House of Representatives. The younger Silas Wright was educated in the public schools of Addison County and at Middlebury Academy.

Wright was an exceptional student, and received his teaching credentials when he was thirteen. He taught school in Rutland and Addison Counties from 1808 to 1810 while preparing to attend college. In 1811 he began attendance at Middlebury College. Following his graduation with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1815, Wright moved to Sandy Hill, New York to study law, first at the law firm headed by Henry C. Martindale, and then with the firm of Roger Skinner, with whom he formed a close friendship that lasted until Skinner's death. Through Skinner, Wright became acquainted with Martin Van Buren and other members of the group known as the Albany Regency, which came to dominate the Democratic Party in New York. Wright was admitted to the bar in 1819 and began to travel through upstate New York looking for a place to establish himself in a legal career.

Start of career
Upon arriving in Canton, Wright met Medad Moody, a family friend from Weybridge who persuaded him to settle there. Wright began a law practice and was soon involved in politics as a Democratic-Republican, and served in local offices including justice of the peace, overseer of roads, town clerk, and school inspector. For several years he served as Canton's postmaster. He was surrogate of St. Lawrence County from 1821 to 1824.

Military service
In 1822, several of Canton's young men formed a militia company, which they elected Wright to lead with the rank of captain. When his company was grouped with several others to form the 7th Regiment in 1825, Wright was appointed commander with the rank of major. In 1826 he was promoted to colonel. In 1827 his regiment was organized as part of the militia's 49th Brigade, 12th Division and the brigade's officers unanimously elected him as commander, which resulted in his promotion to brigadier general. Wright resigned in 1829, when his assumption of the New York State Comptroller's post required him to spend the majority of his time in Albany.

State senator
In 1823, the Democratic-Republican county convention in St. Lawrence County nominated Wright for the New York State Senate. The convention was dominated by supporters of Governor DeWitt Clinton and Wright was known to be a member of the Bucktails faction (adherents of Martin Van Buren), but St. Lawrence County's Democratic-Republicans were anxious to end the Clinton-Van Buren rivalry prior to the 1824 presidential election. As a result, the Clintonians in St. Lawrence County supported Wright. The Federalist Party had all but disappeared, but Clintonians in Washington County nominated Allen R. Moore. The district covered six counties and while Moore ran well in most, Wright's large majority in St. Lawrence County (he received every vote in Canton but his own) was sufficient for him to prevail in the general election. He was elected to a four-year term.

When Wright took his seat in January 1824, he became involved in an Albany Regency effort to remove DeWitt Clinton from the Erie Canal Commission. Clinton had long been identified as the main proponent of the project, and though his political career was at an ebb, voter outrage over his removal propelled Clinton's return to the governorship in 1825.

In 1826, Senator Jasper Ward was accused by the press of corruption in the legislature's approval of acts of incorporation for two insurance companies. Ward requested that the senate investigate, and Wright was named chairman of the committee that examined the question. Wright's committee concluded that most of the charges in the newspapers were false, but that there was enough truth in them to recommend that Ward be expelled from the senate. Ward resigned, and the senate took no further action.

Congressman
In 1826, Wright was elected to the U.S. House as a Bucktail. In the two-member 20th District, Wright and his running mate Rudolph Bunner defeated Clintonians Nicoll Fosdick and Elisha Camp. Wright served in the 20th Congress, March 4, 1827 to February 16, 1829. In the House, Wright supported the protectionist Tariff of 1828 (the Tariff of Abominations), though he later changed his stance and became an advocate of low tariffs to fund the federal government - "for revenue only" in the political language of the day.

Wright was a candidate for reelection to the 21st Congress in 1828, but appeared to lose to George Fisher. Wright contested the results, but Fisher was seated and served from March 4, 1829, to February 5, 1830, when the contest was decided in Wright's favor. Already serving as state comptroller, Wright declined to qualify for the House seat, which remained vacant until Jonah Sanford was seated following a special election in November 1830.

State comptroller
In January 1829, incumbent William L. Marcy resigned as New York State Comptroller in order to accept a judgeship. The comptroller was elected by a joint ballot of the state legislature for a three-year term and the legislators selected Wright to fill the vacancy. In this office, Wright was also an ex officio member of the state canal commission, and his duties included oversight of the state canal system as well as management of the state's general fund. During his term, he focused on the Bucktail priority of avoiding debt, arguing for limited canal maintenance and construction paid for from available funds rather than financing more expansive improvements over time. He was reelected in February 1832 and served until January 4, 1833, when he resigned to accept election to the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Senator
After DeWitt Clinton's death in 1828, Van Buren's Bucktail supporters became known as Jacksonians (followers of Andrew Jackson at the national level) and the Jacksonians eventually adopted the name Democrats. In 1833, Wright was the successful Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of William L. Marcy. He was reelected in 1837 and served from January 4, 1833, to November 26, 1844.

Wright served as chairman of the Finance Committee from 1836 to 1841. He supported Henry Clay's compromise Tariff of 1833 and voted for the Tariff of 1842.

An opponent of centralized banking, Wright defended Andrew Jackson's removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States during the Bank War and opposed the recharter of the United States Bank. He also opposed Clay's plan to distribute surplus federal funds to the states. When Van Buren succeeded Jackson as president in 1837, Wright supported his plan for an Independent Treasury to replace the Bank of the United States.

Wright voted no when John C. Calhoun moved to stop receiving petitions to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but voted yes on excluding anti-slavery materials from U.S. mail in the slave-holding states. In 1838, Wright opposed William Cabell Rives' resolution declaring that citizens of the states had no right to interfere with slavery in the federal territories and that the residents of the territories had jurisdiction.

During the administration of President John Tyler, Wright voted against the treaty for the annexation of Texas, believing immediate annexation would cause unrest on the slavery issue. In 1844, Wright declined Tyler's offer to appoint him to a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.

1844 Democratic national convention
Wright had campaigned for Martin Van Buren in 1840, when Van Buren lost his bid for reelection as president. In 1844, Wright again supported Van Buren for president. Van Buren was initially the front runner at the party's May national convention, but his opposition to Texas annexation cost him support among southern delegates who favored the expansion of slavery, and he could not obtain the two-thirds majority required under the convention's rules. Upon learning that some delegates were considering him as a compromise choice for the presidential nomination, Wright sent a letter to a New York delegate asking to be withdrawn from consideration and pledging his continued support for Van Buren.

When dark horse James K. Polk won the presidential nomination, southern Democrats attempted to appease Van Buren supporters by nominating Wright for vice president. Samuel Morse was in Washington, DC to demonstrate the telegraph, which he used to send and receive convention updates from Baltimore. Upon being informed by telegraph of his selection, Wright declined the nomination, partly from refusal to support a ticket backing the annexation of Texas, and partly to avoid accusations of intriguing against Van Buren to benefit himself. Skeptical delegates then dispatched a committee to Washington by train to confirm the news in person. When Wright told the emissaries his refusal was firm, they returned to Baltimore, then spent the next day sending messages by telegraph in an effort to get him to reconsider. Finally persuaded that he would not change his mind, delegates nominated George M. Dallas for vice president. Despite his misgivings on the Texas question, Wright campaigned for the Polk-Dallas ticket, which won the general election and took office in 1845.

Governor
In August 1844, the New York state Democratic convention nominated Wright for governor. He accepted, and entered the general election contest against Whig nominee Millard Fillmore. Wright defeated Fillmore, and took office in January 1845.

As governor, Wright continued his conservative approach to state finances, vetoing a bill appropriating money for work on the state's canals because he thought the amount was excessive. He also took the side of the patroon landlords in New York's Anti-Rent War. When anti-rent tenants caused unrest in Delaware County, Wright declared a state of insurrection and dispatched the militia to restore order. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1846, losing to Whig nominee John Young, who was supported by the anti-rent tenants.

Death and burial
On August 27, 1847, Wright suffered a heart attack or stroke while at the post office in Canton, which his friends believed was brought on by overwork while tending to outdoor chores at his farm in hot weather. In addition, Wright had recently given up alcohol after years of heavy drinking, and quitting suddenly may have had a negative effect on his health. Medical attention was summoned, and he was soon well enough to walk home, but he collapsed again and died shortly after reaching his house. He was buried at Old Canton Cemetery. Wright's death was sudden and surprised his political supporters, who had been planning to offer him as a candidate in the 1848 presidential election.

Family
In 1833, Wright married Clarissa Moody (1804–1870), the daughter of the family friend who had persuaded him to settle in Canton. They had no children.

Legacy
In 1838, Wright received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont.

In 1848, the people of Weybridge, Vermont erected a monument to Wright; it includes sculptures by Erastus Dow Palmer and stands in the center of town along Vermont Route 23. The Wright memorial inspired the name of a nearby dairy, Monument Farms.

Silas Wright was the namesake of Wright County, Missouri and Wright County, Minnesota. In addition, he was the namesake of Wright, New York, a town in Schoharie County.

Wright Peak, an Adirondack Park mountain in North Elba, New York, is named for Wright.

The Silas Wright House at 3 East Main Street in Canton is now a museum and the home of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association.

title: Silas Wright


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Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium

Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, originally named Memphis Memorial Stadium, and later Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, is a football stadium located at the former Mid-South Fairgrounds in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The stadium is the site of the annual Liberty Bowl, the annual Southern Heritage Classic, and is the home field of the University of Memphis Tigers football team of the American Athletic Conference. It has also been the host of several attempts at professional sports in the city, as well as other local football games and other gatherings.

History
The stadium was originally built as Memphis Memorial Stadium in 1965 for $3 million, as a part of the Mid-South Fairgrounds, then home to one of the South's most popular fairs, but now conducted in neighboring DeSoto County, Mississippi. The fairgrounds also included the now-defunct Mid-South Coliseum (formerly the city's major indoor venue) as well as the now-closed Libertyland amusement park, which has been demolished and replaced with an amateur indoor sports venue. It was dedicated as a memorial to the citizens of Memphis who had served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.

The facility was built partially as a way to bring the Liberty Bowl to a permanent home in Memphis (the game had started in Philadelphia, but because of poor attendance as a northern bowl, it left the city, playing one year in Atlantic City before settling in Memphis). The game was such a success for Memphis that the stadium was renamed Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in December 1975. As originally built, the stadium was lopsided, with the southwest side being taller than the northeast side. A 1987 expansion brought it to its current, balanced configuration, although with a much greater hospitality building topping the northeast section.

Its design is similar to that of old Tampa Stadium ("The Big Sombrero"), with the endzone grandstands being much shorter than the sidelines. The stadium is designed in such a way that all of its seats have a relatively good view of most of the playing surface. This is due primarily to two design factors. The stands are relatively steep for a one-tier, true bowl stadium. Also, there is little space between the side and end lines of the playing surface and the stands.

In December 1983, the playing field was renamed Rex Dockery Field in honor of Rex Dockery, a former Memphis Tigers football coach who had recently died in a plane crash. The field, which had been natural grass since its inception, was replaced with a FieldTurf surface before the 2005 season; this was subsequently replaced with the modern version of AstroTurf.

In 2013, the Liberty Bowl and its setting received a $38 million facelift. It was repainted, and new lighting, new elevators, new turf, renovation of luxury boxes, better handicapped access, were added as part of the design by Memphis architect Tom Marshall of O.T. Marshall Architects. In addition, two new video boards were added, costing $2.5 million and including a Jumbotron, contributed by FedEx, which is headquartered in Memphis. In addition, 17 acre Tiger Lane was created as a green space for tailgating and community events.

On December 19, 2023, the City of Memphis passed a vote to transfer ownership of the stadium to the University of Memphis.

Major tenants
Since its opening, the stadium has hosted the Memphis Tigers football team from the University of Memphis. Before this, the team had spent 29 seasons at Crump Stadium. It was not the first time the team had played at the fairgrounds; before playing at Crump, the team had played two seasons there at a former park. As of the start of the 2006 season, the team had a 130-106-7 record at the stadium.

Also since its opening, the stadium has hosted the Liberty Bowl game. It annually hosts teams from the SEC and Big 12 conference.

Since 2006, the second bid has gone to a team from the SEC, setting up an all-Southern bowl game. As of 2010, the SEC has the right to override the Conference USA champion and instead replace them with an opponent from the Big East Conference, now the American Athletic Conference. At the same time, the PapaJohns.com Bowl was given the option of a Conference USA team instead of a Big East team. They chose not to do this for the first year of this arrangement, allowing C-USA champions UCF to play Georgia.

The stadium is also the host of the "Southern Heritage Classic", a game between two historically black schools, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Tennessee State University. The stadium also has hosted home games of the Tennessee Vols, Ole Miss Rebels, and Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football played in the stadium for its sole season in 2019.

The Memphis Showboats of the United Football League play in the stadium. The Houston Gamblers will played there as a hub team in 2023.

Early professional football
In 1974 and 1975, the stadium hosted the Memphis Southmen, aka "Grizzlies", of the World Football League. The Southmen drew fairly well, at least by WFL standards, in part due to the presence on their roster of some well-known players recruited away from the NFL at considerable expense. By nearly all accounts, they would have been a viable venture had the WFL been better run.

Much, perhaps too much, was read into this relative success at the gate. When the WFL folded, the team formally changed its name to the Grizzlies and made a bid to join the NFL as an expansion team for the 1976 NFL season, with a telethon even being staged for this purpose. Over 40,000 people put down deposits for season tickets for the would-be NFL team. Despite this seemingly overwhelming show of support, the NFL ignored Memphis' pleas and the Southmen folded. Owner John Bassett filed a lawsuit against the league, but was unsuccessful.

In 1984, the original United States Football League added the Memphis Showboats as an expansion team. The Showboats, featuring defensive end Reggie White and coached by flamboyant Memphian Pepper Rodgers, were one of the better draws in the league. They advanced to the semifinals in 1985. Much like the Southmen before them, it was generally believed the Showboats would have been a viable venture had their league been better organized.

However, this attempt caused the city of Memphis to decide on expanding the stadium, in the hopes of luring an NFL franchise to the city. To this end, the Liberty Bowl underwent a $12 million facelift. As mentioned above, the stands were built up to the same level as the west ones, adding about 12,000 seats, and a "skybox" of luxury suites was added to the top of those stands. After the renovation, the then-St. Louis Cardinals played an exhibition game there before a sellout crowd.

Despite its efforts, the city was unsuccessful in luring an NFL team (which would have been called the "Memphis Hound Dogs") to the Liberty Bowl.

Mad Dogs
Not willing to give up on pro football, in 1995 the Liberty Bowl welcomed the Memphis Mad Dogs as part of the Canadian Football League's attempt at bringing their league into American markets.

Due to the design features noted earlier, it was extremely difficult to shoehorn a Canadian football field onto the Liberty Bowl's playing surface. Canadian fields are 10 yards longer and 35 feet wider than in the U.S. version, and the end zones are 20 yards deep rather than 10; few U.S. football stadiums are designed readily to accommodate a playing surface of this size. Had the attempt to play the Canadian game included an attempt to use the full width of that game's field, players not participating in the game and the coaching staffs would have to have been seated in the stands. Likewise, 20 yards past the goal line at the Liberty Bowl puts one several rows up into the end zone stands. AstroTurf sections were added around the grass field to accommodate the required width, while the end zones became half AstroTurf/half grass pentagons in order to bring the field to the required length. However, the end zones were nowhere near regulation; they averaged around 9 yards in length, and no other American stadium had end zones shorter than 15 yards. The stands jutted into the corners of the end zones, creating a distinct safety hazard. The only real concession to the Canadian format that was feasible at the Liberty Bowl was the moving of the goal posts to the goal line, where they are in the Canadian game, as opposed to the end line. The result was what amounted to a hybrid game, played by Canadian rules on essentially a U.S. field.

Despite these limitations, the Mad Dogs, coached by Rodgers, drew fairly well during the early part of the season. However, they were tripped up by quirks in the CFL schedule. The CFL season runs from July to November so as to conclude before the harsh Canadian winters set in and make conditions unbearable for players, coaches, officials, and especially spectators. Its games were generally scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights—the same nights on which high school and college football games are played in the United States. The Mad Dogs knew that once college football season started, most fans preferred to drive across Interstate 40 to watch Tennessee football or down Interstate 55 to watch Ole Miss. (The Birmingham Barracudas faced similar problems due to competition from Alabama and Auburn.) With this in mind, the CFL moved the Mad Dogs and Barracudas' late season home games to Sunday afternoons. While this put both teams in direct competition with NFL television broadcasts, it was initially thought to be an acceptable risk since neither city was particularly loyal to one NFL team. However, even with these changes, the Liberty Bowl became a virtual ghost town late in the season, with several crowds well below 10,000. It soon became apparent that the Mad Dogs were not a viable venture. Although they finished one game out of the playoffs, their dreadful attendance figures caused them to fold at the end of the season along with the other American teams.

Oilers
In 1997, the NFL's Houston Oilers announced that they would play two seasons in Memphis as the Tennessee Oilers before the Adelphia Coliseum, their new stadium in Nashville (now Nissan Stadium), was completed in time for the 1999 season. The largest stadium in Nashville at the time, Vanderbilt Stadium, then seated only 41,000 fans—too few even for temporary use. Vanderbilt University was also unwilling at the time to let beer be sold at games. Although the Vols' Neyland Stadium in Knoxville was slightly closer to Nashville, it was deemed too big (at over 102,000 seats) for an NFL team. Pepper Rodgers was named the Oilers' "Director of Memphis Operations." The team was to live and practice in Nashville, commuting to Memphis only for games.

Although the idea seemed acceptable enough to the league and the team at the time, the 1997 season was a disaster, because of the lack of fan ownership for the temporary team. Many Memphians wanted nothing to do with a team which would be lost in two years —especially to longtime rival Nashville. For their part, Nashvillians were skittish about having to drive 210 mi to see "their" team play. In an unfortunate coincidence, Interstate 40 was undergoing extensive repairs just east of Memphis at the time. This lengthened the normal three-and-a-half hour drive from Nashville to Memphis to five hours or longer. As a result, the Oilers played before some of the smallest home crowds seen in the NFL since the 1950s for most games, and the visiting teams often seemed to have more supporters than the Oilers.

Even though none of the Oilers' first seven games attracted more than 27,000 people, Oilers' owner Bud Adams was initially willing to stick it out in Memphis for one more season. However, that changed with the only game that drew more fans than could have comfortably been accommodated at Vanderbilt, the year's final game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While 50,677 people showed up, the great majority of them (three-fourths of the crowd, by one estimate) were Steeler fans. Adams was so disgusted that he ripped up the Memphis agreement a year early in favor of playing at Vanderbilt in 1998.

Maniax
A subsequent major professional tenant was the Memphis Maniax of the first XFL. The Maniax finished tied for second place in the Western Division at 5–5 with the San Francisco Demons, but did not make the playoffs. The league folded after one season.

Other former tenants
From 1978 to 1980, the Memphis Rogues of the North American Soccer League called the stadium home. The playing surface is somewhat smaller than that generally favored by soccer, but that sport adapts to smaller playing surfaces better than some others (the preferred width of a soccer pitch is 70 to 80 yards, but the rules allow for a pitch as narrow as 50 yards wide). Like the Southmen, the Rogues seemingly did fairly well in a league that wasn't doing all that well as a whole. Despite their success, the team moved to Calgary, although this move was due more to the owner, Nelson Skalbania, a Canadian businessman, wanting to move the team to his home country.

One of the more interesting events held in the stadium was an exhibition Major League Baseball game involving the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers during the 1975 season. The game was sponsored by the Memphis Blues minor league team. The right-field fence was only 174 ft from home plate, about 125 ft shorter than the dimensions of most major league parks.

Future
As of 2021, it is considered highly unlikely that there will be a permanent NFL franchise in the stadium or in the city. The stadium is more than adequate for the Tigers, a team which is currently playing in one of the larger stadiums in its current conference, the American Athletic Conference. The Liberty Bowl game is well-attended and averages crowds just under the stadium's maximum capacity. There are a variety of factors that play into the city's prospects, including:
 * Memphis is considered to be in the Titans’ market under the current television agreements in the NFL. Also, while Memphis is the 25th-largest city in the United States, it has always been only a medium-sized television market (currently 44th), as the surrounding suburbs and rural areas are far smaller in population than the city proper. Its per capita income is less than is customary for a market that is usually under consideration for expansion or relocation of an existing team.
 * The league itself is not in a position to be considering expansion at this time, in part due to there being in place a balanced schedule that works well. In addition, the city is located within 500 mi of six current teams: the Titans, New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, and Indianapolis Colts.
 * Finally, the stadium itself does not meet current NFL standards. It does not have the required number of luxury boxes. Restroom facilities and concession stands seem relatively antiquated compared to those of newer facilities. The facility itself generally shows the wear and tear from five decades of use and Mid-South weather that it has endured. Perhaps the greatest hindrance is the one thing about its design that originally had made it so attractive to many. The single-deck, open bowl design precludes the construction of true "club seats", the luxury seats located between the main lower and upper decks of most modern football stadiums which are a major source of additional revenues to ownership. These factors would make the major upgrades needed to bring the stadium up to NFL standards prohibitively expensive; it would almost be certainly more practical to replace it with an entirely new structure.

On January 1, 2007, then-Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton proposed a new stadium be built in place of the old one. Some in the University of Memphis community prefer the construction of a smaller, on-campus stadium, but such a venue would almost certainly be inadequate (in terms of capacity and amenities) for the Liberty Bowl. Although this proposal did not move ahead, the long-term future of Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium is currently unclear. However, it is thought that a separate on-campus stadium for the Tigers would be fiscally unrealistic if a new municipal stadium were to be built in addition to it.

The most recent professional tenant was the Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football, which played its home games played in the stadium for its sole season in 2019.

It was announced on October 1, 2021 that Simmons Bank and the City of Memphis were in advanced negotiations to have Simmons Bank become the title sponsor for the stadium and renaming it from Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to become Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

On May 12, 2022 officials revealed plans to renovate the stadium before the 2025 football season, costing around $200 million. Completed with help of architecture firm Populous, plans include: Construction should begin after the 2023 football season; the Tigers will continue to play in the stadium during renovations. Seating capacity is expected to remain above 50,000 after the renovations are finished.
 * New premium seating options on the stadium’s west side.
 * A "halo space" surrounding the stadium.
 * Family boxes to the north side and party decks to the south side.
 * Retrofit the east side suite tower.

In the same vote that transferred ownership to the University of Memphis, the City of Memphis also approved $120 million in funding for stadium renovations. In addition, the university received a $50 million grant ahead of the vote from FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith, with the stipulation that they would only receive the money when the university raises another $50 million.

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

title: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium


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Củ Chi tunnels

The tunnels of Củ Chi (Địa đạo Củ Chi) are an immense network of connecting tunnels located in the Củ Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

The tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American and ARVN forces, and helped to counter the growing American military presence.

Life in tunnels
American soldiers used the term "Black Echo" to describe the conditions within the tunnels. For the Viet Cong, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food, and water were scarce, and the tunnels were infested with ants, venomous centipedes, snakes, scorpions, spiders, and rodents. Most of the time, soldiers would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops, or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels, especially malaria, which was the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. A captured Viet Cong report suggests that at any given time, half of a unit of the People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) unit had malaria and that "one-hundred percent had intestinal parasites of significance."

U.S. campaigns against tunnels

The tunnels of Củ Chi were noticed by U.S. officials, who recognized the advantages that the Viet Cong held with the tunnels and so launched several major campaigns to search out and destroy the tunnel system. Among the most important were Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls.

Operation Crimp began on January 7, 1966, with B-52 bombers dropping 30-ton loads of high explosive onto the region of Củ Chi, effectively turning the once lush jungle into a pockmarked moonscape. Eight thousand troops from the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (including an artillery battery of the Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery), and the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment combed the region looking for any clues of PLAF activity.

The operation did not bring about the desired success. For instance, when troops found a tunnel, they would often underestimate its size. No one was usually sent in to search the tunnels, as it was so hazardous. The tunnels were often rigged with explosive booby traps or punji stick pits. The two most common responses in dealing with a tunnel opening would be to flush the entrance with gas, water or hot tar to force the Viet Cong soldiers into the open or to toss a few grenades down the hole and "crimp" off the opening. Those approaches proved ineffective because of the design of the tunnels and the strategic use of trap doors and air filtration systems.

However, an Australian specialist engineering troop, 3 Field Troop, under the command of Captain Alexander "Sandy" MacGregor ventured into the tunnels, which they searched exhaustively for four days, and found ammunition, radio equipment, medical supplies, food, and signs of considerable Viet Cong presence. One of their number, Corporal Robert "Bob" Bowtell, died when he became trapped in a tunnel that turned out to be a dead end. However, the Australians pressed on and revealed for the first time the immense military significance of the tunnels. At an international press conference in Saigon shortly after Operation Crimp, MacGregor referred to his men as "tunnel ferrets." An American journalist who had never heard of ferrets, used the term "tunnel rat," and it stuck. After his troop's discoveries in Củ Chi, MacGregor was awarded a Military Cross.

From its mistakes and the Australians' discoveries, U.S. command realised that it needed a new way to approach the dilemma of the tunnels. A general order was issued by General Williamson, the Allied Forces Commander in South Vietnam, to all Allied forces that tunnels had to be properly searched whenever they were discovered. It began training an elite group of volunteers in the art of tunnel warfare, armed only with a handgun, a knife, a flashlight, and a piece of string. The specialists, commonly known as "tunnel rats", would enter a tunnel by themselves and travel inch-by-inch cautiously looking ahead for booby traps or cornered PLAF. There was no real doctrine for the approach, and despite some very hard work in some sectors of the Army and the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, to provide some sort of training and resources, it was primarily a new approach that the units trained, equipped, and planned for themselves.

Despite the revamped effort at fighting the enemy on their own terms, U.S. operations remained insufficient at eliminating the tunnels completely. In 1967, General William Westmoreland tried to launch a larger assault on Củ Chi and the Iron Triangle. Called Operation Cedar Falls, it was similar to the previous Operation Crimp but was on a larger scale with 30,000 troops, instead of 8,000. On January 18, tunnel rats from the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division uncovered the Viet Cong district headquarters of Củ Chi, containing half a million documents concerning all types of military strategy. Among the documents were maps of U.S. bases, detailed accounts of PLAF movement from Cambodia into Vietnam, lists of political sympathizers, and even plans for a failed assassination attempt on Robert McNamara.

By 1969, B-52s were freed from bombing North Vietnam and started "carpet bombing" Củ Chi and the rest of the Iron Triangle. Towards the end of the war, some of the tunnels were so heavily bombed that some portions actually caved in, and other sections were exposed. But the bombings were not able to destroy most parts of those tunnels.

Throughout the war, the tunnels in and around Củ Chi proved to be a source of frustration for the U.S. military in Saigon. The Viet Cong had been so well entrenched in the area by 1965 that it was in the unique position of being able to control where and when battles would take place. By helping to covertly move supplies and house troops, the tunnels of Củ Chi allowed North Vietnamese fighters in their area of South Vietnam to survive, help prolong the war and increase U.S. costs and casualties until the eventual withdrawal in 1973, and the final defeat of South Vietnam in 1975.

Tourist destinations

The 75 mi-long complex of tunnels at Củ Chi has been preserved by the government of Vietnam after reunification, and turned into a war memorial park with two different tunnel display sites, Ben Dinh and Ben Duoc. The tunnels are a popular tourist attraction in Vietnam, and visitors are invited to crawl around in the safer parts of the tunnel system. The Ben Duoc site contains part of the original tunnel system, and the Ben Dinh site, closer to Ho Chi Minh City, has tunnel reconstructions and some tunnels have been made larger to accommodate tourists. In both sites, low-power lights have been installed in the tunnels to make traveling through them easier, and both sites have displays of the different types of booby traps that were used. Underground conference rooms in which campaigns such as the Tết Offensive were planned in 1968 have been restored.

Above-ground attractions include caged monkeys, vendors selling souvenirs, and a shooting range.

title: Củ Chi tunnels


text:
Talk:Emily Davison

Counting
A couple of counting points:
 * The lead asserts that "she was arrested on nine occasions", but the article, by my count, lists ten... 1909: Mar, Jul, Sep, Oct, probably Oct again; 1910: April, probably Nov; 1911: Apr, Dec. 1912: Nov.
 * There's a source for the lead's "went on hunger strike seven times", but the body mentions six occasions by my count. Is there one missing from the body, or was it mixed up with the incident described as "she did not go on hunger strike, but the authorities required that she be force-fed between 29 February and 7 March 1912"? EddieHugh (talk) 17:56, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
 * There's a list at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/profile-emily-wilding-davison-8631739.html. There seem to be two strikes during the January-June 1909 imprisonment. DrKay (talk) 15:17, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, DrKay, for addressing this. The first point has now been dealt with. Actually, so has the second: I couldn't find it as I was looking at 1909, but the double strike is mentioned (in 1912, rather than 1909). EddieHugh (talk) 18:37, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Theories?
"Several theories have been put forward" - wouldn't 'explanations' be an improvement over 'theories'? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Damorbel (talk • contribs) 07:39, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
 * No. "Theory" is entirely the correct word to use. - SchroCat (talk) 06:43, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

Photograph of part of funeral procession
I registered to be able to edit Wiki articles purely for the purpose of correcting the information that the photogrpah is in Morpeth. My edit has been changed back again to this misinformation so I see no point in repeating my edit.

It most definitely is not any part of Morpeth in the photo. In any case the "procession" - a very different event in Morpeth compared to London, did not go anywhere near the town.

It is easy to pull up a street view and it will show that the railway station, where her body arrived in Morpeth, is well to the south of the town's main street - a single L shaped street with each leg being known as Bridge and Newgate. St Mary's Church is where the town cemetery was in those days and she is buried in it. It too is on the south side of the town, alongside the road A1.

Is there any possibility that someone (perhaps able to identify where the photo was actually taken) could correct the misinformation? Morpeth Reiver (talk) 15:45, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

 * Hi. I've not done this Wikipedia Talk before so bear with me. I changed the caption of the photo of the funeral procession in the past to note that its location is London, not Morpeth. I didn't follow the page so didn't realise it had been reverted until the other day when this article was again on the Wikipedia front page. Seeing this prompted me to do more research and I now have definitive proof that this photo was taken in London. I have also emailed the Imperial War Museum to note the mistake in their 'object description'.
 * Firstly, the date. The date of the funeral procession is freely available on the internet and this link shows photographs of an absolutely amazing guide to the funeral procession, including its route: https://womanandhersphere.com/2012/10/04/collecting-suffrage-emily-wilding-davisons-funeral-programme/. The date is clearly marked: Saturday 14 June 1913. This programme even notes that Group A will have a banner showing "Fight on, and God will give the victory".
 * For the location, we first note the 'Vienna Café Restaurant' that can be seen just to the right of the banner. This is a famous venue that even has its own Wikipedia page: Vienna Café. Note the text 'Vienna Café Restaurant' on the glass windows in the photo of the ground floor interior. There's no photo of the exterior, but we note that the address was apparently 24-28 New Oxford Street.
 * Putting this address into Google Maps shows us that this address is very close to the route of the procession, this having gone along Shaftesbury Avenue and Bloomsbury Way, then called Hart Street (see the programme above). Annoyingly, Google Maps is showing the wrong location for 24, 26 and 28 New Oxford Street, but we note that the Old Crown public house is at 33 New Oxford Street.
 * Now look at this pub in Google Street View: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.517236,-0.1248882,3a,75y,191.38h,92.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s83OtadXNE4Bx4ALkeVtlnA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu. You should recognise it as the corner building in the background to the right of the Vienna Café. Note the stones on the corner alternating between big and small as they go up the side of the building, the two windows per floor of the pub and the two buildings to its right, as well as the stone protrusions above the windows. There's absolutely no doubt that these are the same buildings as in the photograph.
 * This tells us that the photo was taken very close to St George's, Bloomsbury, the church where the funeral service took place. The Vienna Café itself was apparently destroyed during WW2 (http://www.chinarhyming.com/2012/12/20/londons-vienna-cafe-where-the-talk-was-often-of-china/) and has been replaced by a modern building.
 * Finally, this photo shows the same group of marchers (and the banner) at the beginning of the March: https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/6QrPFJjg1q01cZw_MNS-HPZ63Gs=/1000x750/filters:no_upscale/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/10/55/105516f3-6179-4812-9684-865192651dfa/01062015-suffragette-hero-image.jpg. This march formed up in Buckingham Palace Road and this Google Maps view shows the buildings in the photo background with the bay windows: This started in Buckingham Palace Road and Google Maps again allows us to pinpoint the location: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4938249,-0.1469155,3a,75y,262.08h,94.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suXWqa0Z9zS6LRGq4D5y4wQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu. The nearest bay belongs to 126 Buckingham Palace Road.
 * So, there you go.
 * Andy Piggs mcginty (talk) 19:55, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Looked at the London funeral programme in the above URL and tried to add as a citation and image of Morpeth grave from Commons but got deleted and ticked off for re-instating edit to change layout This could go into main biography section rather than lead, I expect, but will leave to another editor. Kaybeesquared (talk) 21:04, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Emily Davison


text:
Talk:Savo Island

Untitled
"crossed the T"? whatever does that mean? Wetman 05:02, 5 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Sounds like some sort of naval manuver. Don't know, however. -Fennec 05:03, May 5, 2004 (UTC)

____

Crossing the T is a classic naval maneuver, allowing the advantage to the fleet passing the top of the T, as all ships can shoot unimpeded broadsides at the enemy, while those on the stem of the T may have their view obscured by smoke and ships will not be able to bring all their guns to bear. Most effective with sailing ships with guns that shoot to the side, but relavant to modern warships. There is a naval tactics page somewhere, so this needs a link. Leonard G. 05:08, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

Attention needed
This article could be improved by dividing it into sections; see Guide to layout. Also, the article does not cite its sources. -,-~ R 'lyeh R isin g  ~-,- 19:04, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Savo Island


text:
Confluence Park

Confluence Park is an urban park encompassing the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in Denver's Lower Downtown (LoDo), a bustling district of 19th-century brick warehouses and storefronts that has been redeveloped since the late 1980s.

Current usage
The park includes concrete trails often filled with walkers, runners, and bikers. Some grassy areas, river overlooks, and park benches are also available. Two pedestrian bridges cross the South Platte River and Cherry Creek at Confluence Park. The eastern edge of the South Platte in Confluence Park has been transformed into a kayak run, immediately across from R.E.I.'s (Recreational Equipment Inc.) Colorado flagship store. The park is adjacent to a number of new up-scale townhouses, apartments, and loft developments, another park bordering the South Platte downstream, train tracks, and Denver's skatepark.

The Platte Valley Trolley originates in Confluence Park, running along the west side of the South Platte River from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, and for all Denver Broncos home games.

History
Confluence Park marks the area where William Greeneberry Russell's party began its local search for gold in May 1858. They found no gold at the confluence, but they turned up "good diggings" at the mouth of Little Dry Creek, about four miles south. The discovery was an immediate cause of the Colorado Gold Rush, and the encampment would become Denver. Part of the site previously hosted an Xcel Energy substation, which was relocated to allow for the expansion of the park.

title: Confluence Park


text:
Talk:Tunnel rat

Opening heading
"Of Puerto Rican descent'? Is that because Puerto Ricans are skinny little guys? Is this factually accurate? Wetman 05:05, 5 May 2004 (UTC) Yes this is accurate. For a good account (and statistics of actual tunnel rats) see the book "the tunnels of cu chi" by Tom Mangold and John Penycate Uh, the Cu Chi tunnels that were found by the Australian Engineer's Division of 4RAR that later were named the Tunnel Rats before it became a popularised American section of militaria you mean?  :P Sorry, I think you might be mistaken.  The Australian's never really refered to themselves as "tunnel rats" but rather "ferrets" instead.  It was the Americans who began using this term. "Ironically, among the favorites were the German Luger and Walther pistols..." Why is this ironic? They're good weapons. Or is this ironic because the United States was once at war with Germany? —Ortchel 03:47, 12 June 2006 (UTC) Excellent question. I'm removing the word "ironically." "The Australian's never really refered to themselves as "tunnel rats" but rather "ferrets" instead." Umm... No. That is wrong. Despite what you may have heard, the australian and Zew Zealander tunnel rats did indeed refer to themselves as "tunnel rats". To that end, I am adding them to the article. CeeWhy 07:47, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Official designation
Is there an official designation for the "tunnel rats"? It doesn't sound like a phrase that would be used by the government. Twin Bird 17:19, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
 * In the book "The Tunnels of Cu Chi" by Tom Mangold and John Penycate they were called 'tunnel soldiers'. I don't imagine they would have an official desigantion, though the military did try to develop technology for them.  But it always came back to handgun and toarch being the best equipment. GraL (talk) 16:44, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

 * IMO 'tunnel rats' was a popular name only (although certainly worthy of an article). The Australian teams were usually military engineers (AKA 'Sappers'), and AFAIK that was their official designation. Anotherclown (talk) 03:24, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Tunnel rats
My husband was an Australian tunnel rat, and can confirm that the Australians used this term.

Snakes, etc. were not just natural inhabitants of the tunnels. A favourite booby trap was to fasten a venomous snake inside a bamboo tube and fix it to the ceiling. Hungry and angry, it would bite the first person to come within reach. Tunnel rats learned quickly to detect the smell of snakes.

removed poem
I've removed the link to the poem because it didn't contain anything of factual significance and the language ('gook' and 'spook') could offend. no wrong —Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.153.55.14 (talk) 18:33, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Forest Gump
How is there not a reference to the movie Forest Gump? There was a scene in which Forest was given gun and a flashlight and crawled into a hole. Now that I know the context, it is clear that he was playing a tunnel rat. Michael.Urban (talk) 20:21, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Gump never climbs down the hole. Hence not a tunnel rat. As I recall he didn't get farther in than his shoulders. 68.153.29.23 (talk) 02:49, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Ethnicity
It seems pretty silly to say the tunnel rats were exclusively white and Hispanic when there's a picture of a black on on this very page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.2.247.88 (talk) 23:54, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Then you should do something about it. Actually, I'm about to, so just go back to sleep :) Limeguin (talk) 02:38, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The quote from the source says "almost exclusively", so one picture of an African American tunnel rat doesn't actually disprove the claim. Unless I hear otherwise within a week or so I will amend the sentence to remove the "disproven" claim but will keep in reference to the picture. 99.240.139.189 (talk) 04:08, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

The Avenger(Book by Frederick Forsythe)
The main character in the book has a spell as a tunnel rat, and the book goes into some detail, for instance regarding the snakes in bamboo tubes, rats, spiders, ants, the u-bends to trap gas and of course the problems encountered with large caliber weapons in such a cramped environment, including the use of grenades and its effect on how much oxygen this leaves you with... Only fiction I know but as always with FF researched pretty well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Narcissus417 (talk • contribs) 14:28, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Neutral Point of view?
This article is written exclusively from the point of view of the US army, with no attempt to record the point of view of the vietnamese who built these tunnels: Should we change the article title to Tunnel warfare? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Filceolaire (talk • contribs) 10:03, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
 * why did they choose to dig tunnels?
 * what were the tunnels used for?
 * Who made these tunnels?

 * The article is about the tunnel rats, not the tunnels so I don't see the POV issue that you raise. Anotherclown (talk) 03:26, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Requested move
do not move, since page Talk:Tunnel rat had concensus not to move. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 14:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC) Tunnel rat (military) → Tunnel rat — A short reason for page name change. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.94.249.50  (talk • contribs)  18:57, 30 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Oppose, no reason give, nor can I think of one. – ukexpat (talk) 02:10, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

 * Support, despite failure to provide reasoning. The disambiguation page at Tunnel rat lists three other meanings besides this one; two are clearly derivative of this one, and the other ("a rat in a tunnel") is just dumb. It makes sense to name this one the primary topic. Propaniac (talk) 16:23, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Moving/dab
I'll be quick, and blunt. You're idiots. I know, I know. That's not very "Wikipedian" of me. But, come on. The "debate" was a three-way vote. You ask large number of people, they'll tell you this name is ambiguous. Come ONNN! Besides, I'm just being bold. Now, if you excuse me, I have some work to finish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.142.152.104 (talk) 03:58, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

 * Okay. You know what, that was wrong. Not most of it, but the "idiots" thing. That's old Ace. Let me just make my case, with four main points: 1. The name is verifibly ambiguous, with at least three popular uses. 2."Searches/views" are invalid because, as one of the debators said, people could easily be looking for something else and just happening upon this page. 3. One reason I left Wikipedia (mostly) was because of bureaucratic formalities like the electoral debates. Three people showed up! That's grounds for trying again with better advertising, not leaving things as is. 4. If I'm wrong,--riight--another debate might bear that out. As people if they think the article should be moved back. I doubt you'd get a consensus. Which, again, is part of the problem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.142.152.104 (talk) 03:51, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Tunnel rat


text:
Twenty Bucks

Twenty Bucks is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Keva Rosenfeld and starring Linda Hunt, Brendan Fraser, Gladys Knight, Elisabeth Shue, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy, David Schwimmer, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Spalding Gray. The film follows the travels of a $20 bill from its delivery via armored car in an unnamed American city through various transactions and incidents from person to person.

For his performance, Christopher Lloyd won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male in 1994.

Plot
An armored truck brings money to load an ATM. A woman withdraws $20 but the bill slips away. A homeless woman, Angeline, grabs the bill and reads the serial number, proclaiming that it is her destiny to win the lottery with those numbers. As she holds the bill, a boy grabs the bill from her and uses it at a bakery. The baker sells an expensive pair of figurines for a wedding cake to Jack Holiday and gives him the bill as change. At the rehearsal dinner for the upcoming wedding of Sam Mastrewski to Anna Holiday, Jack reminisces about exchanging his foreign money for American currency when he first came to America, and he presents Sam with the $20 bill as a wedding present. Sam is taken aback by the perceived cheapness of his father-in-law-to-be, but is quickly "kidnapped" for his bachelor party, where he decides to spend the bill to pay the party's stripper. Anna shows up to explain that the $20 was not the entire present and suggests that Sam frame it to show that he understands its significance. Sam is unable to explain the absence of the bill, when the stripper comes in from the fire escape to offer it back to him. Anna apparently breaks the engagement.

The stripper uses the $20 bill to buy a herbal remedy from Mrs. McCormac. Mrs. McCormac mails the bill to her grandson Bobby as a birthday present. Bobby goes to a convenience store where Frank and Jimmy are engaged in a string of robberies. During their spree, they prevent Angeline from buying a lottery ticket at a liquor store. Not knowing he's a robber, Bobby gives Jimmy the bill to buy him some wine, as he can't buy it himself because he's underage. Jimmy goes into the store to find that Frank has botched the robbery. Jimmy and Frank leave, giving Bobby and his girlfriend Peggy champagne. The police chase the robbers, who hide in a used car lot. After the police pass by, Jimmy and Frank split up the money, but when Frank sees the $20 Jimmy got from the kid, he assumes that Jimmy is holding out on him. Jimmy tries to explain but Frank pulls a shotgun on him. Jimmy shoots Frank and takes all the money they've stolen, but leaves the $20 bill. The bill, now stained with Frank's blood, winds up in the police evidence locker but falls into the wrong box.

Waitress and aspiring writer Emily Adams shows up at the police precinct with boyfriend Neil to claim a box of items the police recovered. The police officer unwittingly includes the $20 bill among the other items. After flying out of the box from the back seat of Emily's convertible, the bill floats around town, and is picked up by a homeless man who uses it to buy groceries. Angeline is again unable to buy a lottery ticket, this time due to a fault with the cashier's computer. The bill is given as change to a wealthy woman who uses it to snort cocaine off the back of her stretch limousine, although she leaves it on her car, where it is picked up by her drug dealer.

The drug dealer also runs a day camp for youth, and he puts the bill into a fish where it is caught by a teen who has it converted to quarters and uses them to call a phone sex hotline in a bowling alley. The bowling alley owner gives the bill to his lover and tells him to go out and have fun. The owner's lover then encounters Sam, who is loitering in a daze behind the bowling alley. Sam turns down an offer of the $20 bill, not knowing it is the cause of his downfall. The owner's lover then uses it to play bingo at a church, where the priest is portrayed by Spalding Gray. Emily's father, Bruce, also plays bingo and receives the bill as change before dying of a heart attack.

At the mortuary, the mortician gives the family Bruce's personal effects, including his wallet with the $20 bill. Emily eventually looks in the wallet and finds the $20 bill in the wallet together with a copy of her first published short story. Her mother Ruth explains that Bruce also wanted to be a writer. Emily decides to go to Europe. At the airport, she explains her decision to her brother Gary, and she melodramatically rips up the bill in front of him (Gary was a witness to one of Jimmy & Frank's robberies). Sam is also at the airport, waiting for a flight to Europe and having a drink with Jack, with the two clearing up the misunderstanding over the $20 bill on good terms. Sam finds a piece of the ripped up bill and uses it as a bookmark, but it falls out without him noticing it as Sam and Emily walk toward their gate, both striking up a conversation. A title reading "The End" is derailed by Angeline collecting pieces of the bill.

Angeline sits down at a coin-operated TV and patches the bill back together with adhesive tape. Just then, the lottery numbers are read, and to her dismay, they match the serial number of the bill. Bringing the taped bill with her to a bank, she asks if it is still any good. The teller explains that if there's more than 51% of the bill left, it is still valid, and hands Angeline a crisp new $20 bill. The homeless woman dramatically reads the serial number of the new bill and leaves the bank.

Production
The film was based on a screenplay that was nearly 60 years old. It was originally written by Endre Bohem in 1935, but was never filmed; his son, Leslie, discovered it in the 1980s and revised it, modernizing the language and some of the plot. This version of the screenplay was then used for the film. The elder Bohem wrote his spec script soon after the release of If I Had a Million.

In one of the production featurettes, Rosenfeld says that the bills used in the production were figured into the production costs of the film. The producers obtained several bills with consecutive serial numbers, as well as "every thousandth bill" so that some bills would have the right first few digits of the serial number and others the right last few digits. The bills were then selectively damaged in specific ways as required by the script. When they were done with the bills, Rosenfeld says the bills were dropped into the petty cash fund money.

Filming locations
Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Minneapolis; the rest and nearly all of the indoor scenes were filmed in Los Angeles. The scene where Angeline captures the bill was filmed on North 4th Street in downtown Minneapolis, in front of Fire Station No. 10 (with traffic driving the wrong way for the movie). The scene where Angeline visits McCormac and McCormac mails the bill (and Jimmy and Frank meet) was filmed in the 1000 block of West Broadway in Minneapolis (now demolished). The supermarket scene was filmed at a Holiday Plus supermarket (now part of the Cub Foods chain) in suburban Minneapolis. The bill floats near the Mississippi River just above St. Anthony Falls; over the 3rd Avenue Bridge; and past the E-Z Stop gas station at 1624 Washington Ave. North. The Adams house was filmed on the Near North side of Minneapolis at 1802 Bryant Ave N near the E-Z Stop station. The final scene was filmed in an actual bank, Marquette Bank Minneapolis at 90 S. 6th Street, which is now a restaurant named Bank.

Critical reception
While many critics saw the film as a series of uneven vignettes, Roger Ebert thought that "the very lightness of the premise gives the film a kind of freedom. We glimpse revealing moments in lives, instead of following them to one of those manufactured movie conclusions that pretends everything has been settled." Ebert was so engrossed by Christopher Lloyd's performance that he almost forgot about the film's title object, and liked the movie as a whole while acknowledging its vignette construction.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times dubbed the film, "A charming, offbeat tale shaped whimsically by the hand of fate. Rosenfeld manages to take a premise that is all contrivance and make it seem natural, as if every bit of legal tender had such a colorful life." Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly said "Rosenfeld impressively summons up the ghosts of Capra and Sturges while keeping this tale firmly in the here and now."

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote, "Thanks to director Keva Rosenfeld, a documentary filmmaker, its story seems to come about serendipitously. The film's pace, bouncy as Lotto balls in a tank, adds to the lightheartedness of this surprisingly droll look at the cost of living." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregated score of 75% based on 8 reviews.

Scholarly assessment
Film scholars have compared this Twenty Bucks to other films and television shows which track a single object traded among various persons (such as Diamond Handcuffs, Tales of Manhattan, The Gun (1974), Dead Man's Gun (1997), The Red Violin, etc.). However, by emphasizing a ubiquitous object rather than a unique object (such as the auction-worthy violin in The Red Violin), this film "ushers the genre into heretofore unexplored territory."

title: Twenty Bucks