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Antu (goddess)

Antu or Antum was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the feminine counterpart and spouse of the sky god, Anu. She was sometimes identified with the earth rather than the sky, though such references are not common. While already attested in the third millennium BCE, she was only a minor goddess, and only came to be worshiped commonly in Uruk in the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods due to religious reforms which elevated her and Anu to the position of tutelary deities of the city. At some point Antu was also incorporated into Hurrian religion, in which she was understood as a primeval deity. In the so-called "Standard Babylonian" edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh Antu is addressed as the mother of Ishtar, but this tradition was not commonly adhered to.

Name and character
Antu's name is etymologically an Akkadian feminine derivative of the theonym Anu. The cuneiform sign representing the latter name, AN, in addition to designating the sky god could also function as an ordinary noun, read as either /an/, "heaven", or /dingir/, "deity". Antu accordingly functioned as the feminine counterpart of Anu. She was also regarded as his spouse. Cases of Anu and Antu being equated with each other are attested too. Paul-Alain Beaulieu interprets this as an indication the cuneiform sign AN could be used as a logogram (sumerogram) to represent the name of Antu. However, as noted by Manfred Krebernik it is also possible that the sky was at some point envisioned as an androgynous being in Mesopotamian tradition.

A small number of sources, including the god list An = Anum, treat Antu as deified earth (ki/erṣetum). An Old Babylonian lexical list, Diri, equates her with Urash, an earth goddess also associated with Anu. It has also been suggested that the phrase AN URAŠ occurring on seals from the Kassite period, agreed to represent a compound of two theonyms, might also have been understood as "Anu-Antu". Antu might have also played the role of earth in formulaic references to Anu, representing the sky, inseminating the ground with his rains. Thorkild Jacobsen in the 1970s asserted that as an extension of this belief rain was believed to come out of Antu’s breasts, which according to his assumption were envisioned as clouds. This conclusion is also supported by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat.

In the Seleucid period, Antu’s name and her epithets became a subject of both theological and philological speculation. A text focused on this topic is preserved on the tablet MLC 1890 (presently in the Morgan Library Collection, part of the Yale Babylonian Collection), dated to the reign of Seleucus III Ceraunus (most likely 225 BCE) and according to its colophon copied by a scribe named Illut-Anu. As already attested in earlier god lists, she could be equated with various primordial deities, same as Anu. For example, an equation between Antu and Anu and, respectively, Kishar and Anshar is preserved in An = Anum. The link between her and Kishar recurs in a later composition from Uruk. An Assyrian expository text (KAR 307), presumably dependent on Babylonian Enūma Eliš, in a paragraph discussing Tiamat states that she can be understood as "Antum who makes offerings for the dead to Anu" alongside other esoteric speculations about her identity. Wilfred G. Lambert suggested that this identification might be derived from the frequent references to Anu being a father of various demons, which would by extension make Antu their mother and thus a suitable figure to identify with Tiamat. Examples of demons directly identified as children of Anu include Asakku (in Lugal-e), Utukku (in Udug-Hul) and Sebitti (in the Epic of Erra). Additionally, Lamashtu was explicitly identified as a daughter of both Antu and Anu.

Antu's association with the underworld attested in KAR 307 is also mentioned in a number of texts compiled by Seleucid kalû clergy, but it remains unknown if this belief was shared by other social groups. In a single case, "great Antu" is attested as a title of Ereshkigal in a funerary ritual prescribing the offering of beer and wine to her, Gilgamesh and a group of figures described as sailors, presumably the crew of a ferry carrying the dead.

Sources from the Seleucid period indicate that in Mesopotamian astronomy Antu and Anu were identified with a pair of circumpolar stars referred to as "Great Anu and Antu of Heaven". However, attestations of the latter astral body are limited to texts from Uruk, and no sources from earlier periods or other cities ever linked any stars to Antu. According to Erica Reiner, it can be assumed that the "Great Antu" was one of the stars of the constellation Ursa Major.

Worship
Antu is already attested in the third millennium BCE, with the oldest possible reference tentatively identified in an Early Dynastic god list from Abu Salabikh. However, prior to the fifth century BCE she was not a commonly worshiped deity, and her position in the Mesopotamian pantheon has been described as “unimportant and elusive” by Paul-Alain Beaulieu. She is attested next to Anu among the deities mentioned in the inscription of Anubanini on the so-called Anubanini rock relief. This king's reign has been dated to the early Isin-Larsa period, and his kingdom, Lullubum, was centered in the area in the proximity of modern Sulaymaniyah. References to Antu also occur in letters from the Old Babylonian period, but they are not common. She also appears alongside Anu in the Agum-Kakrime inscription. In incantations, she is attested in formulas against illness and demons, for example Lamashtu. In Maqlû, she is invoked against witches alongside Anu and Belet-Seri.

In later periods, Antu was worshiped in Uruk. However, no references to her are present in any texts from this city predating the first millennium BCE, and in the Neo-Babylonian period she is only mentioned in a single letter. It mentions that a garment (kusītu) was borrowed for an occasion connected to her from the Eanna temple. Additionally, it describes offerings to her, Bēl-āliya and Mār-bīti. Paul-Alaian Beaulieu points out that the letter was sent from a temple partially subordinate to Eanna, which alongside the fact that its sender bore the name invoking Larsa's tutelary god Shamash, Šamaš-aḫ-iddin, lead him to suggest it might deal with worship of Antu in this city rather than Uruk. A second possibility is that Kullab is meant, as while it is not known if Larsa had its own Bēl-āliya, a “divine mayor”, this title is well attested for Pisangunug in the case of the other settlement.

A change in Antu's status in Uruk occurred over the course of the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, when she was elevated to the position of one of the lead deities of the city alongside Anu. She came to be worshiped alongside him in a newly built temple, Bīt Rēš. Its ceremonial name can be translated as "foremost temple". Antu's cella in it was known as Egašananna, "house of the lady of heaven". One of its chambers was also designated as her bedroom, and was referred to with the ceremonial name Enir, possibly to be understood as Eanir (Akkadian bīt tānēḫi), "house of weariness". According to Andrew R. George and Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Bīt Rēš might have developed from the É.SAG, a sanctuary of Lugalbanda attested in earlier periods whose name was written with the same signs, but this remains hypothetical. Its establishment marked the first time in the history of Uruk when Eanna was not its main temple. This development was a result of the rise of new priestly families in the aftermath of failed revolts which took place in 484 BCE and Xerxes I's retaliation against the participants. The status of the city's former tutelary deity, Ishtar, declined, and some of her attributes were absorbed by Antu. For example, in the text MLC 1890 Ninsianna, the personification of the planet Venus, who in earlier periods could be treated as a form of Ishtar, is instead treated as an epithet of Antu. The kalû clergy of Uruk, responsible for Emesal prayers and formerly associated with Ishtar, came to be linked to the cult of Anu and Antu instead in Seleucid times. In some cases, the change makes it possible to date individual texts with no other direct indication of their age than their authors being a kalû in service of one of these deities. It is not certain if Seleucid kings were involved in the worship of Antu and other deities of Uruk, though it has been argued that the attested building and renovation projects required royal support.

In texts from Seleucid Uruk, Antu almost always appears alongside Anu. As argued by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, the local theologians effectively treated the pair as "one single divine manifestation". She argues that the process of their elevation can therefore be seen as part of a broader phenomenon focused on predominance of city gods (rather than city goddesses) in the late period of Mesopotamian antiquity, which was linked to henotheist tendencies. However, according to Julia Krul speculative henotheist theology, while well attested, never enjoyed much popularity outside of small intellectual circles. It is also known that Antu was celebrated with a procession during the new year festival, during which she was accompanied by a number of deities normally not associated with her and seemingly grouped only for the sake of newly established celebrations: Bēlet-ilī, Shala, Mārāt-Ani ("Daughters of Anu"), Aya, Gula, Ninešgal ("Mistress of the Ešgal temple", a manifestation of Ishtar), Amasagnudi, Sadarnunna, Ašratu and Šarrat-šamê ("Queen of the Heavens", possibly another manifestation of Ishtar). The formula "may it be preserved by the command of Anu and Antu" is attested in scholarly compositions, as well as legal and administrative documents, especially marriage agreements. In addition to direct references to Antu in ritual and economic texts, she is also attested in theophoric names.

Hurrian reception
Antu was at some point incorporated into Hurrian religion, and in this context came to be regarded as one of the primeval deities alongside other figures originating in Mesopotamia, such as Anu, Enlil, Ninlil or Alalu. Most likely this classification reflected their perception in areas located on the periphery of the Mesopotamian cultural sphere. In Hurrian context Antu formed a triad alongside Anu and Apantu. The latter deity's name according to Alfonso Archi was formed in assonance with her own.

In a trilingual edition of the Weidner god list from Ugarit, Antu corresponds to the entries Ašte Anive (in the Hurrian column) and Tahāmatu (in the Ugaritic column). The first of these names does not represent an actual deity, and instead is a neologism invented by the text's compilers, who provided Anu, under a Hurrian variant of his name, with a wife whose Hurrian name would be similarly derived from his own, literally "the wife of Ani". The second can be translated as "the deep waters" and presumably represented the freshwater springs in the proximity of Ugarit. Due to multiple entries considered to be either similar scholarly inventions or scribal word plays, the list is not considered to be an accurate source of information about either Hurrian or Ugaritic religion.

Mythology
Antu is mentioned in the so-called "Standard Babylonian" edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh when Ishtar demands Anu to give her the permission to use the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh (tablet VI, line 83). While she and Anu are addressed as Ishtar's parents in this passage, as pointed out by Paul-Alain Beaulieu the tradition according to which she was a daughter of Nanna and Ningal was more widespread. Walter Burkert has suggested that the passage might have influenced the reference to Aphrodite's mother Dione in the Iliad, with the name Dione being a calque of Antu, as it is a feminine form of Zeus. However, as stressed by Andrew R. George in his discussion of the work of Burkert and other authors who assume Homer was directly influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh, it cannot be established with certainty that any possible similarities arose from direct contact with the Mesopotamian composition. He notes it might be more plausible to assume similar motifs reflect a shared tradition rather than necessarily direct derivation.

According to incantations against Lamashtu, Antu and Anu cast this demon down from heaven and denied her the right to have a sanctuary (parakku) on earth.

While Antu is not attested in Enūma Eliš, and Anu is addressed as the sole parent of Ea in this composition, according to Spencer L. Allen based on supplementary evidence from an esoteric Assyrian commentary it is nonetheless possible that she was implicitly understood as his mother and thus as the grandmother of Marduk in derived tradition.

In a Seleucid astronomical text, Papsukkal is described as the vizier of both Anu and Antu.

title: Antu (goddess)


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Chris Sharma

Chris Omprakash Sharma (born 23 April 1981) is an American rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of the sport. He dominated sport climbing for the decade after his 2001 ascent of Realization/Biographie, the world's first-ever redpoint of a consensus graded route, and ushered in what was called a "technical evolution" in the sport. Sharma carried the mantle of "world's strongest sport climber" from Wolfgang Güllich (who held it for almost a decade from the early 1980s), and passed it to Adam Ondra (who held it from 2012).

In 2008, Sharma redpointed the world's first-ever consensus route with Jumbo Love, and in 2013, became only the second-ever person to climb a  route with La Dura Dura. Sharma is also known for free soloing the world's first-ever deep-water solo route, Es Pontàs in 2006. Sharma became one of the most commercially successful climbers in his sport, and was noted for his "King Lines" – iconic routes that inspired him to spend the months and even years needed to climb them – some of which feature in the award-winning 2007 climbing film, King Lines.

Early life
Chris Omprakash Sharma was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, the only child of Gita Jahn and Bob Sharma. His parents were devotees of the yogi Baba Hari Dass, and adopted the surname Sharma when they got married. He went to Mount Madonna, and attended Soquel High School for a year. Sharma started rock climbing when he was 12 at the Pacific Edge Climbing Gym, and he described himself as "one of the first climbing-gym-generation kids".

1996–2002 (to Realization)
From the outset, Sharma was considered prodigy in the climbing world. At age 14, he won the adult 1996 US Open Bouldering Nationals, and a year later aged 15, he freed Boone Speed's project Necessary Evil in the Virgin River Gorge, the hardest sport climb in North America at the time. The following year, Sharma won silver at the biennial UIAA World Championships at Paris, and gold at the Kranj leg of the UIAA World Cup, both for lead climbing. Still 16, he suffered a serious knee injury that sidelined him for over a year. Aged 18, Sharma moved to Bishop, California, and began a US bouldering revolution with his 1999 film Rampage, and in February 2000, completed the first ascent of The Mandala, a world-famous boulder problem.

On 18 July 2001, aged 19, Sharma completed the extension of the route Biographie in Ceüse in France, and named it Realization; the route was the first consensus  in the world, and has since become an important route in the history of sport climbing, with Climbing magazine noting that "technical rock climbing jumped in its evolution". It was the first confirmed increase in grades since Wolfgang Gullich's ascent of Action Directe, a decade earlier. Sharma's ascent of the route was captured in Josh Lowell's 2002 film, Dosage Volume 1. Days later, Sharma won the Munich leg of the IFSC World Cup in bouldering, only to be disqualified on testing positive for marijuana.

2002–2008 (to Jumbo Love)
After Realization, Sharma considered quitting climbing and went on Buddhist pilgrimages. A 2003 trip to Mallorca, Spain to meet Miquel Riera, a pioneer of deep-water soloing, led him to "fall in love with climbing all over again". Sharma largely abandoned competitions, to focus on "King Lines", a term he adopted for iconic routes that motivated him. In 2004, Sharma solved the boulder problem Practice of the Wild, and in 2005 solved the dramatic roof of Witness the Fitness , followed by redpointing Dreamcatcher , regarded as one of North America's most iconic sport climbs. In 2006, he made an early repeat of La Rambla, and in 2006, after 50 attempts, stuck the crux dyno of Es Pontàs in Mallorca, the world's first-ever DWS route. Some of Sharma's climbs from this era are in the iconic and award-winning 2007 climbing film, King Lines.

In 2007, Sharma moved to Lleida, a town near the Spanish Pyrenees, in Catalonia, Spain, and over the next five years, created an unprecedented series of new to  sport climbs, predominantly in Catalonian limestone crags (namely Oliana, Siurana, Santa Linya and Margalef), starting with the  classic of Papichulo  in May 2008. In September 2008, Sharma made a trip back to the United States and climbed the world's first-ever consensus route when he freed Randy Leavitt's 250 ft bolted route, Jumbo Love in Clark Mountain in California.

2008–2013 (to La Dura Dura)
Sharma said that after climbing Jumbo Love, he needed to change his approach. His previous breakthroughs had been on routes established and bolted by other climbers who had given up on them, and now he needed to find his own limit saying: "I wanted to push myself to the next level. Where is that? I had to discover it. That was a big process in itself. So I bolted all these routes [in Spain]. And a lot of them ended up being that next level". The period saw Sharma bolt and free numerous new extreme -graded "King Lines", including Golpe de Estado (climb) (2008), Neanderthal (2009), and First Round First Minute (2011), each a major project in itself and since regarded as important classics, with Sharma saying "That's the thing about being on the cutting edge. You have to invent it".

In 2011, Sharma invited the then 19-year-old climbing prodigy Adam Ondra, to try an Oliana route he had bolted in 2009 called La Dura Dura, which Sharma himself had given up on saying "I never saw myself being able to climb it.", and "I figured it would be for the next generation". For the next year, the two climbers worked the route in a collaborative process that saw Ondra make the first ascent in February 2013, and Sharma make the first repeat in March 2013. National Geographic called their collaboration a defining moment in the sport of rock climbing, when the title of "world's best climber" had begun to pass from one generation to the next. Both Ondra and Sharma declared the collaboration to be a very positive experience with Sharma saying post his March ascent: "It was a healthy process for both of us, we fed off each other's motivation and through him, I think I became a better climber myself". Their collaboration was documented in Reel Rock 7 (2012), and La Dura Complete (2013).

Post 2013
At, La Dura Dura would hold the rank of "world's hardest climb" until Ondra climbed Silence at in 2017, and while Sharma would put up several more "King Lines" over the next 5 years, it marked the high-point in terms of his hardest route. In 2015, he freed El Bon Combat, considered at the time to be close to, and in 2016 he soloed Alesha, the world's first DWS route. One of Sharma's unfinished projects was a potential  route in Oliana beside La Dura Dura called Le Blond, named in memory of Patrick Edlinger; it remains unfinished. In March 2023, aged 41, Sharma made the first redpoint of Sleeping Lion, a route beside La Rambla in Spain, which he described as the hardest thing he had done in over eight years. After completing the second ascent of the route in January 2024, Alexander Megos proposed that Sleeping Lion be downgraded to. At the same time in 2023, noting that neighboring Golpe de Estado has never had a third ascent, Sharma wondered if it was a really graded route, which would have made it the world's first-ever at that grade.

Legacy
Sharma is widely considered one of the greatest and most important rock climbers in the history of the sport. Sharma took on the title of "world's strongest sport climber" in 2001 from Wolfgang Gullich (who dominated in the decade from the early 1980s to the early 1990s), and passed it on to Adam Ondra (who dominated after 2012). In 2003, the LA Times called him the "greatest natural rock climber in the world". In 2007, Melissa Block on NPR's All Things Considered, introduced him saying "Chris Sharma is hailed as the world's best rock climber, a pioneer who has mastered some of the most spectacular and difficult routes in the history of the sport". In 2016, Outside said "Sharma shaped modern rock climbing. Whatever he thought was cool, we followed. Bouldering. Projecting hard sport routes. Deep water soloing. In 2022, Climbing said: "The pioneering American sport climber is among the best to ever tie in, and was arguably the world's strongest rock climber for almost 20 years".

Sharma is noted for a "humble softly-spoken meditative disposition" (who often leaves it to others to grade his routes) coupled with a "highly aggressive and dynamic" climbing style. In 2016, Climbing said: "Over the past three decades, Sharma has cultivated a mellow Southern California persona, but in reality, he's one of the most competitive, focused, and driven athletes out there". His demeanor has been ascribed to his Buddhist raising; the LA Times called him "the Karma Climber". He has credited Zen meditation techniques with helping him on routes, or when seeking direction and motivation. Sharma was also known for eschewing any gym-based training (including fingerboards or cross-training) or dieting, preferring to climb as his sole method of training.

Sharma is credited with developing the commercial potential of extreme sport climbing, with Climbing saying "Not only did Sharma have the guns to become the first human to climb 5.15, he had the genius to see the potential, coupled with the commitment to spend months and years of his life proving it", and calling Sharma "arguably the highest-paid pro climber in the world". Outside added, "Before Sharma figured out how to balance elite performance with making a living, "professional climber" was an oxymoron. Sharma's commercial appeal, and becoming one of the most filmed climbers, was attributed to his focus on "King Lines", which Sharma described as: "It's not enough to do something hard; it needs to be in an amazing position, a route that asks you to pour your heart and soul into climbing it".

Personal life
Sharma is the founder of the rock climbing gym Sender One, headquartered in Santa Ana, California, which he opened in 2013 as a business partnership with Walltopia, who was a sponsor of Sharma. In 2015, he opened a second gym, Sharma Climbing BCN, in Barcelona in Spain, and in 2021 he opened a third gym, Sharma Climbing Gava, on the outskirts of Barcelona.

Sharma was in a long-term public relationship with the Spanish professional climber Daila Ojeda, and they lived together in Oliana. In August 2015, he married Venezuelan model and television personality Jimena Alarcón, and the couple moved from Oliana to Barcelona. Their first child, a daughter named Alana, was born in June 2016, and their second child, a son, in 2019.

Zen
Sharma's parents were practising Zen Buddhists (although they did not live in at the Mount Madonna ashram) and for long periods Sharma has followed Zen routines (including daily 5.45am temple meditation). Sharma has been on various Asian pilgrimages lasting several months, including the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan that he undertook after climbing Realization in 2001.

The 2010 book Climbing: Because It's There (Philosophy for Everyone) discussed the impact of Zen Buddhism on Sharma saying: "Sharma's affinity for Buddhism, and Zen in particular, is well documented in film and print. He exemplifies the spirit of Zen, being humble (but potent), ordinary (but extraordinary), self-aware, and most of all, authentic".

Sharma has however rejected the label of "spiritual climber", saying in 2011: "To be stereotyped like that definitely detracts from me personally. Like I said, I'm totally happy talking about this stuff. I just don’t want to make some image for myself like I’m some sort of saint or something. I get frustrated, and I get bummed out". Sharma is no longer a practicing Zen Buddhist, and said in 2022: "Climbing is fully engaging… it’s an easy way to access that [meditative] state of mind… easier than sitting down and meditating".

Redpointed routes

 * La Dura Dura – Oliana (ESP) – 23 March 2013. Sharma developed and bolted the route, and made the first repeat after Adam Ondra's February 2013 first ascent.
 * La Dura Dura – Oliana (ESP) – 23 March 2013. Sharma developed and bolted the route, and made the first repeat after Adam Ondra's February 2013 first ascent.

 * Sleeping Lion – Siurana (ESP) – 28 March 2023. First ascent of a route that Sharma developed and bolted. In 2024, Alexander Megos proposed that it be downgraded to.

(5.15b/c):
 * El Bon Combat – Cova de l'Ocell (ESP) – 7 March 2015. First ascent; described by Sharma as a "King Line", now considered closer to 5.15b, but a classic.

 * Jumbo Love – Clark Mountain (USA) – 11 September 2008. First ascent, and world's first-ever route. Repeated by Ethan Pringle (2015), and Jonathan Siegrist (2018).
 * Golpe de Estado (climb) – Siurana (ESP) – 17 December 2008. First ascent, and the first-ever to be repeated when Adam Ondra climbed it in March 2010 (it was Ondra's first-ever 9b). In 2023, noting that it has never had a 3rd ascent, Sharma wondered if it was a.
 * Neanderthal – Santa Linya (ESP) – 18 December 2009. First ascent. Second ascent by Jakob Schubert (2018), and third, after almost a decade of attempts, by Adam Ondra (2019).
 * First Round First Minute – Margalef (ESP) – 19 April 2011. First ascent. First repeat by Adam Ondra (2014), second by Alex Megos (2016), and third by Stefano Ghisolfi (2017).
 * Fight or Flight – Oliana (ESP) – 5 May 2011. First ascent. First repeat by Adam Ondra (2013); the "first 9b" for many others (Jakob Schubert (2015), Sachi Amma (2015), Matty Hong (2018)).
 * Stoking the Fire – Santa Linya (ESP) – 6 February 2013. First ascent. First repeat by Adam Ondra (2016), and like Fight or Flight, a popular 9b route.
 * Stoking the Fire – Santa Linya (ESP) – 6 February 2013. First ascent. First repeat by Adam Ondra (2016), and like Fight or Flight, a popular 9b route.

 * Realization – Céüse (FRA) – 18 July 2001. First ascent and the world's first-ever consensus route; features in Dosage Volume 1.
 * Papichulo – Oliana (ESP) – 31 May 2008. First ascent. First repeat by Adam Ondra (2009), and has since become one of the most repeated and popular 9a+ routes.
 * Demencia Senil – Margalef (ESP) – 20 February 2009. First ascent. First repeated by Iker Pou (2010), and second repeat by Ramón Julián Puigblanqué (2010).
 * Pachamama – Oliana (ESP) – 29 May 2009. First ascent. First repeated by Sachi Amma (2011), and then by Ramón Julián Puigblanqué (2015), and Adam Ondra (2017).
 * First Ley – Margalef (ESP) – 28 February 2010. First ascent. Shorter 15m route that avoids the 9b finish of First Round First Minute; popular "first 9a+" with several repeats.
 * Power Inverter – Oliana (ESP) – December, 2010. First Ascent. First repeated by Ramón Julián Puigblanqué (2014), and then by Sachi Amma (2015).
 * Catxasa – Santa Linya (ESP) – 14 January 2011. First Ascent. First repeated by Ramón Julián Puigblanqué (2012); numerous repeats.
 * La Rambla – Siurana (ESP) – 1 December 2006. Third ascent (just a day after the second ascent), and made Sharma the first climber to have climbed multiple confirmed routes.

 * Dreamcatcher – Squamish, British Columbia (CDN) – September, 2005. First ascent. Bolted with Sonnie Trotter, since considered one of the most iconic climbs in North America.
 * Three Degrees of Separation – Céüse (FRA) – July, 2007. First ascent. Right of Realization and uses 3 large dynos; the first repeat was by Adam Ondra (2015), who felt it was a 9a+.
 * Era Vella – Margalef (ESP) – March, 2010. First ascent. Sharma did it warming up and called a "soft 9a"; it became a popular "first 9a", but the grade is now considered 8c+/9a.
 * Samfaina – Margalef (ESP) – June, 2010. First ascent. Sharma felt it was 9a, but Jorge Diaz-Rullo and Alex Megos suggest 9a+.

 * Necessary Evil – Virgin River Gorge (USA) – 1997. First ascent. Sharma, aged 15, freed Boone Speed's project to create North America's hardest route at the time.

Onsighted routes

 * French Gangster – Yangshuo (CHN) – April, 2009. Hardest route in China at the time (renamed from American Gangster).
 * Humildes Pa' Casa – Oliana (ESP) – December, 2008.
 * Divine Fury – Maple Canyon (USA) – September, 2008.
 * T-Rex – Maple Canyon (USA) – September, 2008.
 * Snuff Movies – Sant Llorenç del Munt (ESP) – May, 2015.
 * V for Vendatta – Siurana (ESP) – 1 April 2022. Sharma was about to turn 41, and it was his sixth time onsighting 8c.

Deep-water solo routes

 * Es Pontàs – Mallorca (ESP) – 26 September 2006. First ascent, and featured in the film King Lines.  World's first-ever DWS at 9a+, and considered one of the most spectacular in the sport. First repeat by Jernej Kruder (2016), then Jan Hojer (2018) and Jakob Schubert (2021).
 * Es Pontàs – Mallorca (ESP) – 26 September 2006. First ascent, and featured in the film King Lines.  World's first-ever DWS at 9a+, and considered one of the most spectacular in the sport. First repeat by Jernej Kruder (2016), then Jan Hojer (2018) and Jakob Schubert (2021).

 * Alasha – Mallorca (ESP) – 16 September 2016. First ascent (named for his daughter Alana). Sharma felt it would be 9a with bolts, but as a DWS route was closer to 9b.  First repeat by Jakob Schubert in 2021 who felt it was a 9a DWS route.
 * Alasha – Mallorca (ESP) – 16 September 2016. First ascent (named for his daughter Alana). Sharma felt it would be 9a with bolts, but as a DWS route was closer to 9b.  First repeat by Jakob Schubert in 2021 who felt it was a 9a DWS route.

Boulder problems

 * Practice of the Wild – Magic Wood, (CHE) – August, 2004. First ascent. First repeat by Tyler Landman, then Daniel Woods; possible.
 * Witness the Fitness – Ozarks (USA) – March, 2005. First ascent of 40 ft roof and filmed in Dosage 3. Repeated by Fred Nicole and Daniel Woods, but unclimbable after hold broke.
 * Catalan Witness the Fitness – Cova de l’Ocell (Barcelona, ESP) – January, 2016. First ascent. A tunnel-like, horizontal roof; possible.
 * Catalan Witness the Fitness – Cova de l’Ocell (Barcelona, ESP) – January, 2016. First ascent. A tunnel-like, horizontal roof; possible.

 * The Mandala – The Buttermilks (Bishop, USA) – February, 2000. First Ascent of an iconic boulder problem. Several holds have since broken, and it is speculated the original grade was.
 * The Mandala – The Buttermilks (Bishop, USA) – February, 2000. First Ascent of an iconic boulder problem. Several holds have since broken, and it is speculated the original grade was.

Filmography

 * Sharma's 1999 bouldering tour of California:
 * Sharma's 2001 ascent of Realization:
 * Sharma's 2005 ascent of the roof of Witness the Fitness:
 * Sharma's 2005 ascent of Dreamcatcher:
 * Sharma's 2007 ascent of Es Pontas, and Three Degrees:
 * Ondra and Sharma's 2012 attempts on La Dura Dura:
 * Ondra and Sharma's 2013 ascents on La Dura Dura:

Competitions

 * 1995 Annual IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships (Lead, Youth B for age 14-15), Laval event. Gold Medal.
 * 1996 Annual U.S. Open Bouldering Nationals. Gold Medal. Sharma was aged 14 when he won the adult open competition.
 * 1997 Biennial UIAA Climbing World Championships (Lead), Paris event. Silver Medal. Sharma was aged 16.
 * 1997 UIAA World Cup (Lead), Kranj event. Gold Medal. Sharma was aged 16.
 * 1999 Summer X Games, San Francisco (Bouldering). Gold Medal. Sharma was aged 17.
 * 2000 Wasatch Open Bouldering Competition.
 * 2001 18th Annual Phoenix Bouldering Contest.
 * 2001 IFSC World Cup (Bouldering), Munich event. Gold Medal, but subsequently disqualified when testing positive for marijuana.

After 2001, Sharma largely abandoned most competition climbing but did take part in various US events:
 * 2002 Ford Gorge Games
 * 2003 Earth Treks Roc Comp
 * 2004 Earth Treks Roc Comp
 * 2004 American Bouldering Series, third round of the 2003–04 Series (ABS5).
 * 2007 Mammut Bouldering Championships
 * 2008 Mammut Bouldering Championships
 * 2009 Ilerbloc Open Internacional
 * 2010 Earth Treks Roc Comp
 * 2010 Psicobloc Masters Series, Bilbao, Spain. The world's first DWS competition.

title: Chris Sharma


text:
Arthur Chichester, 4th Baron Templemore

Arthur Claud Spencer Chichester, 4th Baron Templemore, (12 September 1880 – 2 October 1953) was a British soldier and politician of Anglo-Irish descent.

Early life
Chichester was the eldest son of the 3rd Baron Templemore and his wife, Evelyn (née Stracey-Clitherow). From his father's second marriage, he had a younger half-brother, Sir Gerald Chichester, a diplomat and courtier who served as Private Secretary to Queen Mary.

He was educated at Harrow and trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers as a second lieutenant on 20 January 1900.

Career
He fought in the Second Boer War, and was promoted to lieutenant on 23 February 1901, staying in South Africa until the end of the war, when he returned home on the SS Assaye in September 1902. When he was back in the United Kingdom, he returned as a regular lieutenant in his regiment in November 1902. He later served in Mauritius, India, and the British expedition to Tibet.

By now a Captain, Chichester distinguished himself in the First World War with his service in France and Italy, becoming a Major with the Irish Guards and winning along with many other awards the DSO (1918) and an OBE (1919).

In 1924, he succeeded his father as fourth Baron Templemore, and three years later was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Earl of Onslow as Under-Secretary of State for War and Paymaster General.

Lord Templemore was a Lord in Waiting to George V from February to June, 1929 and again between 1931 and 1934. He was also Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard for 11 years (1934–1945), and served as Conservative Chief Whip in the House of Lords (1940–1945). He was appointed KCVO in 1938. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire.

Personal life
Templemore married the Hon.Clare Meriel Wingfield, second daughter of Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, at St George's, Hanover Square, London, in 1911. They had three sons:

 * Major Hon. Arthur Patrick Spencer Chichester (23 March 1914 –  23 December 1942), killed in action in North Africa in World War II
 * Major Hon. Dermot Chichester (18 April 1916 – 19 April 2007)
 * Lord Desmond Clive Chichester, MC (1920–2000)

The fourth baron died in 1953 in County Wicklow. His second son succeeded him in the barony and in 1975 inherited the title of Marquess of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland from a distant cousin.

title: Arthur Chichester, 4th Baron Templemore


text:
Arthur Goldreich

Arthur Goldreich (25 December 1929 – 24 May 2011) was a South African-Israeli abstract painter and a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement in the country of his birth and a critic of the form of Zionism practiced in Israel.

Early life
Goldreich was born in Pietersburg, South Africa, and settled in Palestine, where he participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as a member of the Palmach, the elite military wing of the Haganah. In time he became a leading figure at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In 1966, he became the head of Industrial and Environmental Design Department, which he helped transform into an internationally recognized center for design.

By the age of 33, Goldreich had moved back to South Africa where he became one of the country's most successful artists. In 1955, he won South Africa's Best Young Painter Award for his figures in black and white, but to the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's government, he was a key suspect in the clandestine operations of the anti-apartheid underground.

Escape from jail
Goldreich and Harold Wolpe, a lawyer, used South African Communist Party funds to buy Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia for use as a secret meeting place by leaders of the banned African National Congress (ANC) and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Goldreich and Wolpe also helped locate sabotage sites for Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military arm of the ANC, and draft a disciplinary code for guerrillas.

In 1963, Liliesleaf Farm was raided by the police, leading to the arrest of most of the ANC leadership, including Goldreich. Wolpe was arrested shortly after the raid and was held with Goldreich at Marshall Square prison in the city.

The two met up with Moosa Moolla and Abdulhay Jassat, members of the Natal Indian Congress, allied to the African National Congress. Moola and Jassat had been held in solitary confinement, where they had been tortured (they were believed to be the first political activists tortured in South African jails). Eventually the four men, working together with the aid of a prison warden, escaped successfully from custody, splitting up outside the prison (with Goldreich disguised as a priest).

Wolpe and Goldreich spent several days hiding in and around Johannesburg's suburbs to avoid capture. Eventually, they were driven to Swaziland, and from there were flown to Botswana, still disguised as priests to avoid being identified by potentially pro-South African British colonial authorities (at this time Swaziland was not independent).

Criticism of Israel
According to The Guardian, by February 2006, Goldreich was living in the city of Herzliya. "There was a time when he believed the young Jewish state might provide the example of a better way for the country of his birth. As it is, Goldreich sees Israel as closer to the white regime he fought against and modern South Africa as providing the model. Israeli governments, he says, ultimately proved more interested in territory than peace, and along the way Zionism mutated.

"Goldreich speaks of the 'bantustanism we see through a policy of occupation and separation', the 'abhorrent' racism in Israeli society all the way up to cabinet ministers who advocate the forced removal of Arabs, and 'the brutality and inhumanity of what is imposed on the people of the occupied territories of Palestine'. 'Don't you find it horrendous that this people and this state, which only came into existence because of the defeat of fascism and Nazism in Europe, and in the conflict six million Jews paid with their lives for no other reason than that they were Jews, is it not abhorrent that in this place there are people who can say these things and do these things?' he asks."

title: Arthur Goldreich


text:
Talk:The Text This Week

Untitled
From VfD:

Not encyclopedic. 213.94.236.118 22:40, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * First note that unsigned votes do not count on VFD; log in please. Secondly, the topic is encyclopedic, or rather, it would be if it is notable.  Alexa gives a rank of 126,059 which I think does make it noteworthy. Dunc_Harris|☺ 22:54, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * I'll match your Alexa ranking and raise you a 5820-hit Google search. It looks like a semi-significant online biblical resource, but my eyes aren't trained to recognize such things.  I think we should keep it.  --Ardonik 02:27, Jul 31, 2004 (UTC)
 * At the risk of ending the world, I vote keep. It's notable, in-use, and appealing to a large community.  There are multiple sites like this that work with the other liturgical calendars, but I would vote to keep the tops of each of those, as well.  Geogre 02:33, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Neutral, just wanted to point out that it appears that there are lots of pages that link to it/list it, but the only page that I found actually discussing it praised it highly, but called it a "closely guarded secret". I have doubts.  Postdlf 05:53, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

end moved discussion

I was away when this page was raised on VfD. As the page's originator, let me say why I feel that it is encyclopaedic, in case the question arises again. seglea 01:01, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * First, as a Methodist local preacher I use this site constantly. I know that's just a personal datum, but it seems to me to be a necessary, though not a sufficient, condition for thinking that something is notable is that you have noted it yourself.
 * I know a number of other preachers who also use it extensively, and I often come across references to it that imply that it is a widely used resource.
 * Most important, I wanted to use TTTW as a reference in editing another Wikipedia article (Cana), and I think others could usefully do the same; it's a convenient way of avoiding having multiple external links on a small topic. Given that, I think that there should a page on the site in the encyclopaedia to enable a reader to assess how reliable it would be as an authority, and what POV it would be likely to be taking.  That isn't necessary for a standard learned journal, or even book, because there are standard means of assessing them, but it is important for web sites, which are of very variable authority.

title: Talk:The Text This Week


text:
Anulap

Anulap is a sky god in the mythology of the island of Truk in Micronesia. He is the husband of the creator goddess Ligobubfanu. Their son was Lugeilan, and their grandson was Olifat.

title: Anulap


text:
Curry Foley

Charles Joseph "Curry" Foley (January 16, 1856 – October 20, 1898) was an Irish born professional baseball player who played in the National League (NL) for five seasons from 1879 to 1883. He played as a pitcher, outfielder and first baseman for two teams in the NL; the Boston Red Caps (1879–80) and Buffalo Bisons (1881–83).

Early life
Foley was born Milltown, County Kerry, to Charles Foley (a farmer) and Betsy Gearin. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on June 27, 1863.

Baseball career
Foley played in 337 games; 204 in the outfield, 69 as a pitcher, and 54 at first base. He compiled six home runs, 128 RBIs, and a .286 batting average as a batter, and posted a 27–27 win–loss record, 127 strikeouts and a 3.54 ERA as a pitcher in 442 innings pitched.

First major league cycle
On May 25, 1882, Foley became the first major league player to officially hit for the cycle. In a game against the Cleveland Blues, Foley hit a home run in the first inning, a triple in the second inning, a single in third inning and a double in the fifth inning.

Post-baseball life
On October 23, 1883, Foley became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Foley was working as a laborer, and listed as single when died at the age of 42 in Boston, Massachusetts. His cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver, and he is interred at Mount Cavalry Cemetery in Roslindale, Massachusetts.

title: Curry Foley


text:
Anzu

Anzu may refer to:

 * Anzû, a divine storm-bird in several Mesopotamian religions
 * Anzu (dinosaur), a genus of theropod dinosaur containing the species Anzu wyliei

As a given name
Anzu (杏子, 杏, あんず) is a Japanese given name for females. Kyoko is an alternate reading of the same kanji (杏子).

People

 * Anzu Haruno (春野 杏), Japanese voice actress
 * Anzu Lawson, American actress
 * Anzu Nagai (永井 杏), Japanese actress
 * Anzu Yamamoto (山本 杏), Japanese judoka

Fictional characters

 * Anzu Hayashi (林 アンズ), a character in Hinamatsuri_(manga)
 * Anzu Kadotani (角谷 杏), a character in Girls und Panzer
 * Anzu Mazaki (真崎 杏子) (Téa Gardner in all English dubs), a protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh!
 * Anzu Yukimura (雪村 杏), a character in Da Capo II
 * Anzu Yamasaki (山咲 杏), a character in Gantz
 * Iyojima Anzu, a main character of Nogi Wakaba is a Hero.
 * Anzu Kinashi, a character from the Japanese horror adventure game, Kimi ga Shine -Tasūketsu Death Game-
 * Anzu Futaba (双葉杏), a character in The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls

title: Anzu


text:
Phi Alpha Theta

Phi Alpha Theta (ΦΑΘ) is an American honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history. It has more than 400,000 members, with new members numbering about 9,000 a year through its 970 chapters.

Founding
Phi Alpha Theta was established on March 17, 1921, at the University of Arkansas by Professor Nels Cleven. Cleven had become convinced in his time at the university that a fraternity of scholars (which would accept men or women) was important for the study of history. He invited students to a meeting to form the society (then called the "University Historical Society") on March 14, and the society was officially recognized on the 17th. In April, the decision was made for the society to be known by the Greek letters Phi Alpha Theta. These letters may refer to the words "philia," "anthropos," and "theos."

Symbolism
The Society's colors are "madonna red" and "madonna blue".

The description of the Society's emblem is precise: The emblem of the Society is a gold disc, "with the edge milled to represent a serpent's body, the forepart of the serpent's body being on the right side of the badge, and the eye shall be represented by a red jewel." On the face is a raised six-pointed star faced with black, "and bearing in gold the Greek letters Phi Alpha Theta horizontally across the middle, and the points bearing the Greek letters psi, pi, alpha, lambda, upsilon, and psi [Ψ, Π, Α, Λ, Υ, and Ψ again] in clockwise rotation beginning at the uppermost point." The emblem can be jeweled.

This emblem may be mounted upon a gold key, "which shall be in the form of a rectangle nineteen by twenty-one millimeters, and the corners of which shall be cut along the arcs of circles having a radius of four millimeters, the centers of said circles being at the corners of the key, and the edges of the key shall be [beveled] to a distance not to exceed one millimeter from the edge." A cylindrical stem projects from the top of the emblem, finished with a ring. The cylinder projects from the lower edge of the key, similarly.

The Society's official flower is the red rose.

Publications and leadership
Phi Alpha Theta publishes a quarterly historical journal entitled The Historian, which has over 12,500 individual subscribers and 1,000 library subscribers. The Historian splits the space in its quarterly issues between articles and book reviews. The book review section of the journal has been based at Ohio Wesleyan University since 1994.

The society's national headquarters and the journal's editorial offices are located at the University of South Florida.

Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review was founded in the Spring of 2009 by the Alpha Mu Gamma chapter of Phi Alpha Theta at Chapman University.

Debra A. Mulligan of Roger Williams University is the current president, and Hosok O of Utah Tech University is the vice president of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. Clayton J. Drees is chair of the Advisory Board. Adrian O’Connor of the University of South Florida is the managing editor of The Historian, and Jonathan Scott Perry also of USF is the journal's book review editor.

Membership requirements
Undergraduate students must have a 3.0 overall grade point average, at least a 3.1 average in their history courses. Undergraduate candidates must also be in the top 35% of their class. Students need not be majoring in history, but must have taken at least four history courses at the university level. Specific universities may develop higher qualifications. For example, the College of Staten Island's PAT chapter requires undergraduate students to have a GPA of or better than 3.25, History GPA of or better than 3.5 and at least 16 hours completed in History classes. Graduate students must have a GPA of better than 3.5 and have completed approximately 30% of the residence requirements for the master's degree.

title: Phi Alpha Theta


text:
Richard Bryan

Richard Hudson Bryan (born July 16, 1937) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as the 25th Governor of Nevada from 1983 to 1989 and as a United States Senator representing Nevada from 1989 until 2001. A Democrat, Bryan previously served as the state's attorney general and a member of the State Senate.

Early life
Bryan was born in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the University of Nevada at Reno in 1959 where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and the president of ASUN. He earned his J.D. degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 1963 he was admitted to the Nevada Bar. He was Clark County's first public defender.

Political career
Bryan served as a member of the Nevada Senate from 1972 to 1978. In 1979, Bryan became the Nevada Attorney General, and served in the position until 1983. In 1982, Bryan challenged incumbent Republican Nevada Governor Robert List, who was running for reelection. He defeated List and became governor in January 1983. Bryan was easily reelected in 1986, defeating Nevada State Treasurer Patricia Cafferata.

U.S. Senate
By 1987, Bryan was encouraged by several prominent politicians, including Harry Reid and Alan Cranston, to run for the U.S. Senate. He declared his candidacy shortly after, and in the 1988 U.S. Senate election, he defeated incumbent Republican Senator Chic Hecht. He was sworn in at the convening of the 101st Congress on January 3, 1989. During his tenure in the Senate, Bryan served on the Finance, Banking, Intelligence and Commerce Committees.

Bryan was an opponent of Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), stating: "As of today millions have been spent and we have yet to bag a single little green fellow. Not a single Martian has said take me to your leader, and not a single flying saucer has applied for FAA approval." He introduced an amendment to the 1994 budget that secured the cancellation of the High Resolution Microwave Survey and terminated NASA's SETI efforts less than one year after their launch. Bryan ran for reelection in the Senate in 1994, easily defeating Republican challenger Hal Furman.

Bryan also focused on preventing Yucca Mountain from being used as a nuclear waste long-term storage site. Though the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository would be built during Bryan's time in the Senate, his opposition, along with delayed any actual storage from occurring. This opposition would continue after Bryan had retired before plans for storage were discontinued by President Barack Obama.

Byran opted not to run for a third term in the Senate in 2000.

title: Richard Bryan


text:
NuMachine

The NuMachine, or Nu Machine, was an early microprocessor-based computer workstation designed to interface with local area networks. It was developed in the late 1970s at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) by Professor Steve Ward and his research group in concert with Western Digital. The NuMachine was 68010-based running at 10 MHz. The project included the development of TRIX, a Unix operating system variant.

The NuMachine was first developed commercially by Western Digital, but they decided not to enter the workstation business. It was bought by Texas Instruments in 1983. Texas Instruments dropped the NuMachine development in 1985 in favor of the TI Explorer.

Its main legacy was a bus architecture called NuBus that was later adopted by Apple Computer for its Macintosh II and by NeXT, and influenced the design of the PCI bus. The TRIX operating system was used by the GNU Project for its first attempt at an operating system kernel.

title: NuMachine


text: Category:Shotguns

title: Category:Shotguns


text:
Needful Things

Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

According to the cover, this novel is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later serves as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You" (published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes which, according to King, serves as an epilogue to Needful Things), as well as King's 2017 novella Gwendy's Button Box (cowritten with Richard Chizmar) and his 2018 novella Elevation.

Plot
A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman purportedly from Akron, Ohio who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise – such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a picture of Elvis Presley, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of petrified wood stated to be from Noah's Ark – but he expects each customer to also play a "prank" on someone else in town. Each customer enters a trance and becomes highly agreeable when making a deal with Gaunt, afterwards forgetting anything abnormal about the encounter. Gaunt has complete knowledge of the long-standing private histories and conflicts between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate.

Gaunt quickly marks local Sheriff Alan Pangborn and Polly Chalmers, Alan's sweetheart and proprietor of a local sewing shop, as "tough customers" who are likely to question and interfere with him. Gaunt avoids Alan and offers Polly an ancient charm that relieves the terrible arthritic pain in her hands, as well as giving Gaunt control over her. Local boy Brian Rusk vandalizes the home of Wilma Jerzyck, who loathes Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and alcoholic Hugh Priest kills Nettie's dog. Nettie and Wilma then kill each other with knives in a public confrontation, increasing tensions in town.

Other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives and secrets of the people involved. Gaunt hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, providing him with high-quality cocaine and hinting at buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of pistols, ammunition, and blasting caps from a garage in Boston; Gaunt soon begins to sell the pistols to his customers so they can protect their purchases.

The truth is eventually revealed: for centuries, Gaunt has tricked people into buying worthless junk that magically appears to be whatever they treasure or desire most. They then become so paranoid about keeping their items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he offers, until the whole town is caught up in madness and violence. Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background of his new employer, but Gaunt keeps him in line through intimidation and promises of revenge against Alan and Castle Rock.

Several cases of violence happen simultaneously: gym coach Lester Pratt attacks Deputy John LaPointe (his fiancée's ex-boyfriend) and is killed in self-defense; Hugh Priest and bar owner Henry Beaufort kill each other in a shootout; Brian commits suicide out of guilt for his role in Wilma and Nettie's deaths; and town selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (who has been secretly embezzling from public funds to fuel his gambling addiction) attacks Deputy Norris Ridgewick before escaping to his home and killing his wife, Myrtle, with a hammer. Buster is then recruited by Ace to join him in his work for Gaunt. With the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and Buster plant dynamite all over town, using the caps Ace brought back. Alan sets out to kill Ace, led by Gaunt to believe him responsible for the car accident that killed his wife and son. Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it. Norris attempts suicide, realizing that his prank on Priest led to the fatal shootout, but decides to go to the police station to help. As the bombs explode, Buster is wounded by Norris and is put out of his misery by Ace. Taking Polly hostage, Ace demands that Alan hand over a hoard of buried cash he allegedly stole. Norris kills Ace, leaving Alan to face off against Gaunt.

Using sleight of hand and magic novelties that suddenly come to life, Alan forces Gaunt back and grabs his valise, which contains the souls of his customers. Gaunt flees the scene, his car turning into a horse-drawn wagon (with the words CAVEAT EMPTOR - "Let the buyer beware" - written on the side), and the survivors are left to ponder an uncertain future. The novel ends as it begins, in first-person direct address indicating that a new and mysterious shop called "Answered Prayers" is about to open in a small Iowa town –ominously implying that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle again.

Characters

 * Alan Pangborn: the Sheriff of Castle Rock and the main protagonist. He appeared in The Dark Half, another novel by King.
 * Leland Gaunt: Presumably a demon in human form (implied in the film to be Satan), who has spent centuries traveling about the world and tricking people into selling their souls to him, usually in exchange for useless objects disguised as the things they want most. Gaunt's plans are ultimately thwarted and he is forced to leave Castle Rock without the souls he collected.
 * Brian Rusk: An 11-year-old boy who becomes the first customer of "Needful Things," buying a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card. Brian's prank leads to the death of Nettie and Wilma. Brian is overcome with guilt, sinking into depression. Brian ultimately shoots himself with his father's gun in front of his little brother Sean, warning Sean to stay out of "Needful Things".
 * Patricia "Polly" Chalmers: known as the town's most eccentric woman, Polly was originally a Castle Rock native but the residents consider her an "out-of-towner" after she lives in San Francisco for years before returning. She suffers from arthritis which causes severe pain in her hands. After she accepts a magical amulet from Gaunt that relieves her pain, she becomes susceptible to his influence and is turned against Alan by fabricated evidence that he investigated the death of the infant child she had in San Francisco. Polly is able to realize Alan is innocent, destroys the amulet and the spider creature inside it, and convinces Alan not to kill Ace.
 * Norris Ridgewick: one of the town's deputies and Sheriff Pangborn's closest ally. He buys a Bazun fishing rod from Gaunt in exchange for a prank on Hugh Priest, leading to the deaths of both Priest and Henry Beaumont. Ridgewick is assaulted by Keeton, then attempts suicide, but after realizing how worthless his fishing rod is plays a key role in Gaunt's defeat.
 * John "Ace" Merrill: the town's resident "bad boy" and petty criminal, who is back after time in prison. Gaunt hires Ace into his service, and manipulates him into deciding to kill Alan. Ace is ultimately shot dead by Ridgewick when he goes after Polly, his death not being noticed by Alan or Gaunt. Merrill also appears in King's novella The Body.
 * Danforth "Buster" Keeton: the town's head selectman, who often uses the authority of his office to intimidate others. He is also a secret gambling addict who has embezzled funds from the town. Keeton suffers from paranoid delusions, believing that a group known as "They" are out to get him. Keeton is mortally wounded by a gunshot from Norris, and Ace finishes him off with a headshot.
 * Wilma Jerzyck: The town bully and first victim of one of Mr. Gaunt's pranks, performed by Brian Rusk, which starts the cycle. Wilma is a cruel woman, often starting fights and begins tormenting Nettie after the prank. Wilma and Nettie both attack and kill each other.
 * Netitia "Nettie" Cobb: Polly's best friend and housekeeper, and enemy of Wilma Jerzyck. Nettie is mentally unstable, having killed her abusive husband. Nettie is implied to develop a crush on Gaunt, and is ultimately killed when she attacks Wilma for killing her dog (a deed actually committed by Hugh Priest).
 * Myrtle Keeton: Lonely wife of Buster Keeton. Myrtle buys a porcelain doll from Mr. Gaunt. Myrtle is ultimately beaten to death by a deranged Keeton with a hammer.
 * Hugh Priest: Local drunk who purchases a foxtail from Gaunt. Priest kills Nettie's dog Raider for a prank, and spirals into madness. Priest is killed in a firefight with Henry Beaumont.
 * Henry Beaumont: Owner of the local bar; incurs Hugh's wrath after refusing to serve him any more alcohol one night and then taking his car keys because he was too drunk to drive home. He and Hugh kill each other in a shootout at the bar.
 * Sally Ratcliffe: A speech teacher and a deeply religious woman, who buys a wooden splinter from Gaunt that is supposedly a remnant of Noah's Ark. She later hangs herself out of guilt after taking part in the town-wide pranks and discovering that her fiancé has supposedly cheated on her with another woman.

Film adaptation
In 1993, a film adaptation of King's book directed by Fraser C. Heston and starring Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia and J. T. Walsh was released in theaters. It received generally negative reviews from critics, with an overall rating of 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In popular culture
The Rick and Morty episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes" features the Devil as the proprietor of a store named "Needful Things", which sells cursed items.

title: Needful Things


text:
B57

B57 or B-57 may refer to:
 * BMW B57, a turbo-diesel straight-six engine, produced by BMW since 2015
 * Bundesstraße 57, a German road
 * B57 (New York City bus) in Brooklyn
 * B57 nuclear bomb
 * B-57 Canberra, a US-built version of the English Electric Canberra bomber
 * Volvo B57, a bus
 * Sicilian Defence in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
 * HLA-B57, an HLA-B serotype

title: B57


text:
User talk:Minimoog

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Civility
 * Conflict resolution
 * Brilliant prose
 * Neutral point of view
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * Village pump
 * Boilerplate text
 * IRC channel
 * Mailing lists
 * Current polls

Feel free to ask me anything the links and talk pages don't answer. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 22:53, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Minimoog