text:
Talk:Selma Blair

Her 50th birthday was yesterday, yet the entry hasn’t updated?
Just an observation. The title says it all. Jason.cinema (talk) 06:30, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

In light of a book regarding being a baby...
Full title: In light of a book regarding being a baby, and rehab in life, babies are "good," only to honorably relate by her, Selma Bliar's own reflections, like in "Mean Baby" or "Introducing Selma Bliar."

It's easy in the sense of need of impartiality, in common English phrases, to relate, ie, -( for goodness sake, by God! for the love of God ), thankfully, to my reactions,- to Selma Blair quotes such as follows. “Every person on this earth needs just one person who sees them and roots for them. Deeply, truly. One person. It's what we all need to get through. The more the merrier but let's start with one.” - Selma Blair, link, [Https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/93653566 https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/93653566] - Just striving to discuss, Talk:Selma Blair, thereby;- The need of her, Selma Blair's own words in comments publically, personal in my, Joschtony's perspective, in that I'm me, Joseph Cimino, curator of "Joschtony" a pen name;- that the chance of someone's personal, such is Selma Blair, having public readily, online published conversational points, included, thus contextual conversational points of need of proper dignified respect for each of us, being human, a person, thus each being higher reasoning sentient, - in the image and likeness of God. Good today of days, in need of just peace beyond the human condition. Joschtony (talk) 18:41, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

 * In truth, posted by my dignity being a human being person in the image and likeness of God, because in reflection of her, Selma Blair's own words, that is, her understanding having knowledge of *critical thinking, by the gift of grace beyond the human condtion,
 * commonly referred to by the gift of God's grace, or termed oils of gladness favor in blessings of gratitude, -
 * it had been refreshing to hear her words at, noted as follows,
 * "Seek out the other stories. Hire other disabled people in front of and behind the camera — because you and whatever project you are working on will be better for having done so,” said Blair, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, while accepting an award at The Hollywood Reporter's event on Wednesday." - "“My Story Is but One of Many”: Selma Blair Advocates for Actors With Disabilities at Women in Entertainment Event" BY ALEX CRAMER
 * DECEMBER 8, 2021 1:44PM"
 * Good today of days, just peace, in gratitude of this wiki in hopes of contributions by the wiki rules of conduct observed, of course, thankfully each desired the dignity of being respected in the rights not legally alienated from, by given by the Creator.
 * ==sources==
 * Selma Blair Advocates for Actors With Disabilities at WIE 2021 – The Hollywood Reporter Joschtony (talk) 18:54, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
 * note, source link from previous "reply" please note it had been unintended to omit the link.
 * https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/selma-blahttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/selma-blair-women-in-entertainment-event-1235059497/ir-women-in-entertainment-event-1235059497/ Joschtony (talk) 18:56, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
 * note, source link from previous "reply" please note it had been unintended to omit the link.
 * https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/selma-blahttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/selma-blair-women-in-entertainment-event-1235059497/ir-women-in-entertainment-event-1235059497/ Joschtony (talk) 18:56, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Islamophobic Statements
The paragraph on her Islamophobic statements should be in a new section entitled "Controversy." This is what I've seen done with other celebrities. Instead, it has been tucked away at the end of her section on "Advocacy." Not only is this an inappropriate place to put it, it obscures the paragraph when it should be highlighted. I suspect this was done deliberately to protect her reputation. I'm entirely against that kind of favoritism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.245.197.9 (talk) 00:59, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

 * The current positioning is fine. It can be seen as a badly failed attempt at advocacy. This is not a great big controversy. It was one very stupid Instagram post which she (rightly) deleted and (rightly) apologised for. It does not merit it's own section. (Not even close.) If it did merit it's own section, WP:CRITS makes it clear that that section should avoid being called "Criticism" or "Controversy". This edit warring has to stop! --DanielRigal (talk) 01:05, 26 February 2024 (UTC)
 * "It can be seen as a badly failed attempt at advocacy" LMAO! She made explicitly hateful and bigoted remarks. It IS a great a big controversy. I highly doubt you would hold this position if such bigoted comments were directed at Jews, especially in the midst of a massacre against them. It absolutely should be highlighted in it's own section.
 * As for the WP:CRITS it ALSO says there shouldn't be any section on "accolades or praises" and yet we see an "Awards and Nominations" section on practically every celebrity page.
 * If it's against the rules to have a controversy section on a Wikipedia page, then I assume you will also advocate for the removal of such a section from Mel Gibson's page?
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Gibson#Controversies
 * Otherwise, spare me your limited and selective interpretation and application of the rules. 99.245.197.9 (talk) 12:31, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I've moved the statement, entirely preserved, from its own section. You mention Gibson, but the cases are entirely different: Gibson has a -long history of well-documented problematic statements and actions, so it's not WP:UNDUE for his article to highlight that in some kind of specific section (whether it should be called "Controversies" is potentially debatable, but its placement in a separate section is not).
 * As far as we know, this is Blair's first recorded instance of being accused of bigotry, so while given the coverage it warrants mention (although partially the amount of coverage is a result of the extremely charged nature of the Israel–Palestine conflict), it certainly does not warrant its own section as if she is considered a particularly controversial figure overall (as in, over the course of her entire career). —Joeyconnick (talk) 05:01, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Your contention is that Mel Gibson made enough bigoted statements to warrant his own section, but Selma Blair did not. However, I see only three incidents listed under Mel Gibson's separate section on controversy. So one isn't enough, but three is the magic number? I'm curious if you also use this standard when mentioning awards and nominations, if someone has only ever won a single Emmy, does that not go in it's own section on awards and achievements?
 * The statements are egregious enough to warrant a controversy section in the same vein an Emmy win is prestigious enough to warrant an awards section. If not, then Mel Gibson's statements should also be tucked away somewhere in his 'personal life' section.
 * In public interest and fairness, I have restored it under it's own section again. 99.245.197.9 (talk) 02:21, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Selma Blair


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Andrew Robb

Andrew John Robb (born 20 August 1951) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 2004 to 2016, representing the Liberal Party. He served as Minister for Trade and Investment (2013–2016) in the Abbott and Turnbull governments, and also briefly as Minister for Vocational and Further Education in the Howard government in 2007. Before entering parliament, he was the federal director of the Liberal Party and oversaw the party's return to government at the 1996 federal election.

While he was Minister for Trade and Investment, Robb approved Chinese company Shandong Landbridge Group to lease Port Darwin for 99 years. As soon as he left politics, Robb was hired by Shandong Landbridge on a $880,000 per year salary. In 2019, Robb left the position, shortly before a new foreign-interference law took effect.

Background
Robb, one of nine children, was born to Frank and Marie Robb, on a dairy farm in Epping which lies 18 km north of Melbourne. He was educated at Dookie Agricultural College, Parade College and La Trobe University, and has qualifications in economics and agricultural science. He was an agricultural economist with the Victorian Department of Agriculture and a tutor in economics at La Trobe University before being an economist for the National Farmers' Federation, and later executive director of both the National Farmers' Federation and the Cattle Council of Australia.

Liberal Party federal director
Robb became deputy director of the Liberal Party before being appointed chief of staff to Andrew Peacock, then Leader of the Opposition, in 1989. In 1990, after Andrew Peacock's resignation after his election defeat, Robb was appointed federal director of the Liberal Party.

In this capacity Robb worked with the next Leader of the Liberal Party, John Hewson, in the unsuccessful 1993 federal election campaign. Robb claimed in 1991 that Peter Reith and Hewson were spooked into releasing their policies too early. Robb was still federal director when internal Liberal party negative polling was leaked to Kerry O'Brien on Lateline in May 1994 who embarrassed John Hewson with it and lead to Hewson's calling a leadership spill where he lost the leadership to Alexander Downer. Robb and Hewson fell out over these events. Robb was still Federal Director and campaign manager in 1996 when John Howard after he replaced Downer as leader in 1995, won the 1996 federal election campaign, which defeated the Keating government and brought the Liberals to power after 13 years in Opposition. Howard had to be talked out of dumping Andrew in 1995 from his position as Federal director.

Professional career
Robb resigned in 1997 (he was replaced by Lynton Crosby) and became a business consultant based in Sydney. He was Honorary Finance Director for the NSW Division of the Liberal Party and a member of the NSW State Executive. In that time Robb also sat on the boards of numerous Australian companies including Australia's largest consulting engineering company, Sinclair Knight Merz. Robb was also a board member of community organisations including the Garvan Medical Research Foundation and the 'Big Brothers Big Sisters' organisation. In 2003, Robb was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to politics, agriculture and the community.

Howard government
In 2004, he was comfortably elected to the safe Liberal seat of Goldstein in Melbourne and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs on 27 January 2006. His time in this portfolio was marked by introducing a Citizenship discussion paper which encouraged public debate about whether Australia required a formal citizenship test. Robb argued that a formal citizenship test would be a clear incentive for aspiring citizens to have basic English language skills and understanding of their community. Robb also focused on dealing with settlement issues for refugees and the challenges of multi-faith relations in Australia.

In 2007, Robb was elevated to the Ministry and took on the role as Minister for Vocational and Further Education. Following the Liberal Party's defeat at the 2007 federal election, Robb put himself forward as a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. In a ballot of Liberal caucus members, Julie Bishop prevailed with 44 votes, ahead of Robb who won 25 votes and Christopher Pyne with 18 votes. The then leader of the Liberal Party, former Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, announced that Robb would be Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs in the new Coalition Shadow Cabinet.

Following a front-bench re-shuffle in March 2010, Robb was appointed Shadow Minister for Finance, Deregulation and Debt Reduction, a post previously held by Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, and chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee. He was re-elected at the 2010 election and was appointed Shadow Minister for Finance, Deregulation and Debt Reduction and retained his position as chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee.

Robb is a republican; he is against abortion except where the health and state of the mother are in serious threat.

Robb is also the co-publisher of The Party Room alongside Senator Mitch Fifield, a journal designed to promote new policy discussion within the Federal Coalition.

Abbott and Turnbull governments
Following the election of the Abbott government in 2013, Robb was appointed Minister for Trade and Investment. He had carriage of final negotiations for the Australia–Korea Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, China–Australia Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership which have concluded by the federal government.

Robb announced his retirement from politics on 10 February 2016. He was succeeded by Steven Ciobo as Minister of Trade and Investment on 18 February 2016.

Career after politics
Robb is a board member of the Kidman cattle enterprise and the Network Ten television station. He is the Chairman of Asialink and CNSDose, and a strategic advisor to Beef Innovations Australia, as well as a range of national and international businesses.

In October 2016, it was announced that Robb had joined the Landbridge Group, a Chinese company which had been granted a 99-year lease on Port Darwin in October 2015, as a "high-level economic consultant". It was reported that Robb had accepted the $73,000 per month position before leaving Parliament. Landbridge Group is chaired by Ye Cheng, a billionaire with links to the Chinese Communist Party. Robb's employment with Landbridge Group ended in 2018. Robb attributed his departure to an atmosphere increasingly critical of the Chinese government; it was also noted that had he remained in the position he would have had to register as a foreign agent, due to changes in legislation enacted in 2019.

Robb is part owner of The Boathouse Group, which operates a number of Sydney restaurants and other venues. Another Robb entity is facing (in mid 2019) a wind-up motion from the Commissioner of Taxation over unpaid taxes.

As of 2020, Robb serves as a director on the board of Mind Medicine Australia, a not-for-profit organisation which promotes the introduction of psychedelic treatments for mental illnesses.

Personal life
During 2009 Laurie Oakes's column in The Australian, Robb disclosed that he was stepping down from the opposition front bench for three months to address a form of depression brought on by diurnal variation, which is typically experienced as positive mood variation (mood being worse upon waking and better in the evening). Robb disclosed that, since adolescence, he had suffered depression for several hours each day in the morning.

The following week, Robb said in an interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell that he had found "doing things increasingly more difficult, I could be taking on more responsibilities especially in a public sense and decided to confront it a few weeks ago. Rang Jeff Kennett and within three days he had me in front one of the best professionals in the state and this guy said you know you've had a problem for fifty years, you've had it for fifty years but he said it was fixable, which was fantastic."

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

title: Andrew Robb


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User talk:Jonked

Voter suppression
I am not familiar with the history of voter suppression. However, an article with no examples of voter suppression is far superior to an article with a large section of blatant POV. Rdsmith4— Dan | Talk 02:00, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jonked


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Boston Harbor

Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States.

History

Since its discovery to Europeans by John Smith in 1614, Boston Harbor has been an important port in American history. Early on, it was recognized by Europeans as one of the finest natural harbors in the world due to its depth and natural defense from the Atlantic as a result of the many islands that dot the harbor. It was also favored due to its access to the Charles River, Neponset River and Mystic River which made travel from the harbor deeper into Massachusetts far easier. It was the site of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, as well as almost continuous building of wharves, piers, and new filled land into the harbor until the 19th century. By 1660, almost all imports came to the greater Boston area and the New England coast through the waters of Boston Harbor. A rapid influx of people transformed Boston into an exploding city.

Pollution and cleanup efforts
The health of the harbor quickly deteriorated as the population of Boston increased. As early as the late 19th century Boston citizens were advised not to swim in any portion of the Harbor. In the 19th century, two of the first steam sewage stations were built (one in East Boston and one later on Deer Island). With these mandates, the harbor was seeing small improvements, but raw sewage was still continuously pumped into the harbor. In 1919, the Metropolitan District Commission was created to oversee and regulate the quality of harbor water. However, not much improvement was seen and general public awareness of the poor quality of water was very low. In 1972, the Clean Water Act was passed in order to help promote increased national water quality.

Since the mid-1970s organizations within the Boston community have battled for a cleaner Boston Harbor. More recently, the harbor was the site of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Project. Failures at the Nut Island sewage treatment plant in Quincy and the companion Deer Island plant adjacent to Winthrop had far-reaching environmental and political effects. Fecal coliform bacteria levels forced frequent swimming prohibitions along the harbor beaches and the Charles River for many years. The city of Quincy sued the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the separate Boston Water and Sewer Commission in 1982, charging that unchecked systemic pollution of the city's waterfront contributed to the problem. That suit was followed by one by Conservation Law Foundation and finally by the United States government, resulting in the landmark court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor.

The lawsuits forced then-Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to propose separating the water and sewer treatment divisions from the MDC, resulting in the creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1985. The slow progress of the cleanup became a key theme of the 1988 U.S. presidential election as George H. W. Bush defeated Dukakis partly through campaign speeches casting doubt on the governor's environmental record, which Dukakis himself had claimed was better than that of Bush. The court-ordered cleanup continued throughout the next two decades and is still ongoing.

Before the clean-up projects, the water was so polluted that The Standells released a song in 1965 called "Dirty Water" which referred to the sorry state of the Charles River. Neal Stephenson, who attended Boston University from 1977 to 1981, based his second novel, Zodiac, around pollution of the harbor.

Since the writing of the song, the water quality in both the Harbor and the Charles River has significantly improved, and the projects have dramatically transformed Boston Harbor from one of the filthiest in the nation to one of the cleanest. Today, Boston Harbor is safe for fishing and for swimming nearly every day, though there are still beach closings after even small rainstorms, caused by bacteria-laden storm water and the occasional combined sewer overflow.

In 2022, pieces of plastic transmission line used in rock explosives, (known as explosive shock tubing) began washing up on coastal shores of Cape Cod and Rhode Island. This led to an investigation that was conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it was suspected to have been related to a concluded Boston Harbor dredging project. The outcome was to seek to find methods to prevent future environmental impacts from reoccurring.

Geography

Boston Harbor is a large harbor which constitutes the western extremity of Massachusetts Bay. The harbor is sheltered from Massachusetts Bay and the open Atlantic Ocean by a combination of the Winthrop Peninsula and Deer Island to the north, the hooked Nantasket Peninsula and Point Allerton to the south, and the harbor islands in the middle. The harbor is often described as being split into an inner harbor and an outer harbor. The harbor itself comprises 50 sqmi with 180 mi of shoreline and 34 harbor islands.

Inner harbor
The inner harbor was historically the main port of Boston and is still the site of most of its port facilities as well as the Boston waterfront, which has been redeveloped for residential and recreational uses. The inner harbor extends from the mouths of the Charles River and the Mystic River, both of which empty into the harbor, to Logan International Airport and Castle Island, the latter now connected by land in 1928 to Boston, where the inner harbor meets the outer harbor.

Outer harbor
The outer harbor stretches to the south and east of the inner harbor. To its landward side, and moving in a counterclockwise direction, the harbor is made up of the three small bays of Dorchester Bay, Quincy Bay and Hingham Bay. To seaward, the two deep water anchorages of President Roads and Nantasket Roads are separated by Long Island. The outer harbor is fed by several rivers, including the Neponset River, the Weymouth Fore River, the Weymouth Back River and the Weir River.

Dredged deepwater channels stretch from President Roads to the inner harbor, and from Nantasket Roads to the Weymouth Fore River and Hingham Bay via Hull Gut and West Gut. Some commercial port facilities are located in the Fore River area, an area which has a history of shipbuilding including the notable Fore River Shipyard.

Land fill
In the 1830s, members of the maritime community observed physical decay in the harbor. Islands in the outer harbor were visibly deteriorating and erosion was causing weathered materials and sediment to move from where it was protecting the harbor to where it would do the most harm. Recent shoaling experiences and comparisons with old charts caused observers to insist that the inner harbor was also filling and created widespread anxiety about the destruction of the Boston Harbor. Although the scientific understanding of hydraulics was still in its infancy and there were high degrees of uncertainty regarding the meeting of land and water, scientists and engineers began to describe the Boston Harbor as a series of channels created and maintained by the scouring force of water moving in and out of the harbor, river systems, and tidal reservoirs. This interpretation came to be known as the theory of Tidal scour. This understanding of the harbor as a dynamic landscape assuaged concerns some had over the negative impacts of land fill operations of land and real estate developers.

As the 19th century progressed, the acceleration of urban growth dramatically increased the need for more land. The Ordinance of 1641 extended the property rights of riparian owners from the line of low tide to a maximum distance of 100 rod from the line of high tide. Generally, other states drew the line of private property at high tide. However, extending shore lines into bordering bodies of water was not unique to Boston. Chicago built into Lake Michigan, New York extended itself into the Hudson and East rivers, and San Francisco reclaimed sections of its bay. The Boston Harbor's unique geography inspired the law that made land reclamation such a widespread activity in Boston. By the end of the nineteenth century, the city had created more land in two generations than it had in the previous two centuries.

Harbor Islands

Boston Harbor contains a considerable number of islands, 34 of which have been part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area since its establishment in 1996. The following islands exist within the harbor, or just outside it in Massachusetts Bay:
 * Bumpkin Island
 * Button Island
 * Calf Island
 * Castle Island
 * Deer Island
 * Gallops Island
 * Georges Island
 * Grape Island
 * Great Brewster Island
 * Green Island
 * Hangman Island
 * Langlee Island
 * Little Brewster Island
 * Little Calf Island
 * Long Island
 * Lovells Island
 * Middle Brewster Island
 * Moon Island
 * Nixes Mate
 * Outer Brewster Island
 * Peddocks Island
 * Raccoon Island
 * Ragged Island
 * Rainsford Island
 * Sarah Island
 * Shag Rocks
 * Sheep Island
 * Slate Island
 * Snake Island
 * Spectacle Island
 * Spinnaker Island
 * The Graves
 * Thompson Island

Two former islands, Castle Island and Deer Island, still exist in a recognizable form. Castle Island was joined to the mainland by land reclamation, while Deer Island ceased to be an island when the channel which formerly separated it from the mainland was filled in by the New England Hurricane of 1938.

Nut Island is a small former island in Boston Harbor that was joined by landfill to the Houghs Neck peninsula in northeastern Quincy by the 1940s so it could be used as the site of a sewage treatment facility.

Two other former islands, Apple Island and Governors Island, have been subsumed into land reclamation for Logan International Airport.

The Harbor Islands have made up Boston's least populated electoral area, Ward 1, Precinct 15, since 1990, though the polling place is on the mainland at Columbia Point. Since 1920, Boston must pass legislation to redistrict. As of 2018, there were two active voters, staff at the Thompson Island Outward Bound Educational Center. There were previously registered voters at a recovery center and a homeless shelter on Long Island, but few voted and they have closed.

Aquaculture
In 1996, the Boston Globe reported that Mayor Thomas Menino and MIT engineer Clifford Goudey were planning a program to use the great tanks on Moon Island as a fish farm or a temporary home for tuna or lobster in an attempt to implement a recirculating aquaculture system in Boston Harbor. The prices of both these fish types vary by season. The plan was to collect and store fish in the tanks and sell the fish at higher prices when they were out of season. Nothing has come of this plan to date.

Lights and other aids to navigation

 * Boston Light
 * Deer Island Light
 * Egg Rock Light
 * Long Island Head Light
 * Lovells Island Range Lights
 * Nixes Mate
 * Spectacle Island Range Lights
 * The Graves Light

title: Boston Harbor


text:
Soufrière

Soufrière may refer to:

Places

 * Soufrière Estate, Saint Lucia

Settlements, jurisdictions, political geography

 * Soufrière, Dominica, a village on the southwest coast of Dominica in the Caribbean
 * Petit Soufrière, Dominica, a village on the east coast of Dominica
 * Soufrière, Saint Lucia, a town in Saint Lucia in the Caribbean
 * Soufrière District, Saint Lucia

Landforms, geology, natural geography

 * Soufrière River, Saint Lucia

Volcanic

 * La Grande Soufrière or simply La Soufrière, a volcano in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean
 * Soufrière Hills, a volcano on Montserrat in the Caribbean
 * La Soufrière (volcano), a volcano on the island of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean
 * Soufrière Volcanic Center, a caldera on Saint Lucia

Other uses

 * La Soufrière (film), a film by director Werner Herzog

title: Soufrière


text:
Hans and Franz

Hans and Franz are characters in a recurring sketch called "Pumping Up with Hans & Franz" on the television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, played by Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon, respectively.

Description
In the sketch, Carvey and Nealon play a pair of muscle-bound Austrian bodybuilders in the mold of Arnold Schwarzenegger, using padding for fake muscles, drab gray sweatsuits, weight belts, and speaking with Austrian accents. The background of the set includes several life-sized cutouts of Schwarzenegger during his competition years. The sketch's introductory and ending music featured mock Austrian yodeling.

"Pumping Up" primarily consists of Hans and Franz denigrating others for not being strong and as physically fit as they appear to be, striking bodybuilder poses to show off their "muscled" bodies, complete with strained facial expressions. Schwarzenegger made one guest appearance in the sketch (to much applause) in which he ridicules "his cousins" for being "girlie" and weak. Another sketch was done in response to recent sports news, where a "Saturday Night Live editorial" showed Hans and Franz barking back at a recent remark by Jimmy the Greek that African men were more apt to be muscular than European men.

One sketch that did not have the pair in their signature sweatsuits and leather belts was a Halloween episode. Hans and Franz both dressed up as their idol, Arnold Schwarzengger, with Hans as the titular character from the first Terminator film and Franz as the T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The two compared how their Terminators were tougher, then derided other "girlie" costumes, even a boy who was Superman. Rather than hand out high sugar candy, Hans and Franz gave "treats" of Vitamin C pills, coconut oil, and bee pollen to encourage kids to stay in shape.

Development
The idea for the characters of Hans and Franz came in 1987 in a Des Moines, Iowa, hotel room while Nealon was watching an Arnold Schwarzenegger television interview during Nealon's and Carvey's first comedy tour. The first sketch in which the characters appear occurred during the season premiere of the 13th season.

Other appearances
After Carvey left the show, the sketch was retired. However, a 1994 episode where Carvey hosted had Hans and Franz appearing as guest commentators as Weekend Update, with the pair mentioning they took some time off and were dismayed at the show's crew for dismantling their set. Franz also considered the Weekend Update sketches were not good since they replaced the past anchor (also played by Kevin Nealon).

A short sketch was filmed for the show's 1999 primetime 25th Anniversary Special which spoofed VH1's Behind the Music specials, but time constraints prevented it from airing. It appeared in a later episode that season. In the sketch, Hans and Franz tell the story of how they were reunited in Hollywood when Franz unsuspectingly had his buttocks "read" by Hans.

In 2014, the duo appeared in several State Farm commercials with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Proposed film
Starting in the early 1990s, a Hans and Franz film was in development, with the working title Hans and Franz Go to Hollywood. In a 2010 interview on Conan, Nealon and host Conan O'Brien discussed being holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month with Carvey and Robert Smigel working on the script for what was then intended to be a musical. Carvey discussed the script under the title Hans and Franz: The Girlyman Dilemma during a 2016 interview with Howard Stern. Schwarzenegger expressed an interest and was at one point set to co-produce, but ultimately declined to participate following the poor reception of his self-parodying vehicle Last Action Hero. The disastrous box office performances of the SNL spinoff movies Stuart Saves His Family and It's Pat likely hurt the film's prospects, but Schwarzenegger dropping out proved an insurmountable obstacle.

Scenes from the script were acted out on O'Brien's podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend in May 2023.

Cultural references
NASA's two crawler-transporters—large diesel-powered transport devices used since 1965 to carry heavy launch loads to the launch site, including fully assembled spacecraft from the Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle eras—are also nicknamed "Hans" (CT-1) and "Franz" (CT-2).

In the popular MMO World of Warcraft, Hans'gar and Franzok are twin brothers in the Blackrock Foundry raid. With a throwback to the Saturday Night Live characters, Franzok can be heard yelling "Hear me now and believe me later!"

In Sesame Street Season 38 Episode 5, Hansel and Gretel introduce themselves and reference the Hans and Franz tagline "We just want to pump...you up!" changed to "We just want to throw...bread crumbs!"

German supermodel Heidi Klum nicknamed her breasts Hans and Franz. However, given the differing nationalities (Klum is German and Franz and Hans are Austrian), it has never been confirmed if this was in homage to the SNL sketch, nor has she made mention as such.

title: Hans and Franz


text:
Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (Николай Карлович Метнер; 5 January 1880 – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immediately after his death, he is now becoming recognized as one of the most significant Russian composers for the piano.

A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include 14 piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise. His 38 Skazki (generally known as "Fairy Tales" in English but more correctly translated as "Tales") for piano solo contain some of his most original music.

Biography
Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow on 24 December 1879, according to the Julian calendar, or 5 January 1880 by the Gregorian calendar. He was the son of Karl Petrovich Medtner (1846–1921) and Alexandra Karlovna Goedicke (1843–1918), and the fifth of their six children.

Medtner took piano lessons from his mother until the age of ten. He also had lessons from his mother's brother, Fyodor Goedicke (the father of his more famous cousin Alexander Goedicke). He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1891, and graduated nine years later in 1900, at the age of 20, receiving the Anton Rubinstein prize, having studied under Pavel Pabst, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Vasily Safonov and Sergei Taneyev among others. Despite his conservative musical tastes, Medtner's compositions and his pianism were highly regarded by his contemporaries.

With the support of Taneyev, Medtner rejected a career as a performer and turned to composition, partly inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's late piano sonatas and string quartets. His composing career began professionally in 1903, when he started publishing his music, and it began to be performed. With the publication of his First Piano Sonata in F minor, he was noticed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, who would remain a friend of Medtner's throughout his life, as well as a supporter of his composing. Among his students in that period was Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov.

During the years leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution, Medtner lived at home with his parents. During that time, he fell in love with Anna Mikhaylovna Bratenskaya (1877–1965), a respected violinist and the young wife of his older brother Emil. Later, when World War I broke out, Emil was interned in Germany where he had been studying. He generously gave Anna the freedom to marry his brother, and Medtner and Anna were married in 1918.

Unlike Rachmaninoff, Medtner did not leave Russia until well after the Revolution. Rachmaninoff secured him a tour of the United States and Canada in 1924, and his recitals were often all-Medtner evenings, consisting of sonatas interspersed with songs and shorter pieces. He never adapted himself to the commercial aspects of touring and his concerts became infrequent. Esteemed in England, he and Anna settled in London in 1936, modestly teaching, playing and composing, to a strict daily routine.

At the outbreak of World War II, Medtner's income from German publishers disappeared and, during that hardship, ill-health became an increasing problem. His devoted pupil, Edna Iles, gave him shelter in Warwickshire, where he completed his Third Piano Concerto, first performed in 1944. In 1949, a Medtner Society was founded in London by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, the Maharajah of Mysore (the princely state in Karnataka, southern India). In 1945, the Maharajah became an honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, and was the first president of the London Philharmonia Concert Society. He founded the Medtner Society to record all of Medtner's works. Medtner, already in declining health, recorded his three piano concertos and some sonatas, chamber music, numerous songs and shorter works, before his death in London in 1951. In one of those recordings he partnered Benno Moiseiwitsch in his two-piano work entitled "Russian Round-Dance", Op 58 No. 1. In another he accompanied Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in several of his lieder, including The Muse, a Pushkin setting from 1913. In gratitude to his patron, Medtner dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to the Maharajah of Mysore.

Medtner died at his home at Golders Green, London on 13 November 1951, and is buried alongside his brother Emil in Hendon Cemetery.

Piano sonatas
Medtner composed 14 piano sonatas.

The First Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5, is a four-movement work written between 1901–3 (completed August 1903); though it suggests the style of Scriabin or Rachmaninoff, it is nonetheless original. Medtner's craft gained subtlety and complexity in later years, but this work is already evidence of his mastery of musical structure. An opening Allegro, dramatic and imbued like much Russian music with a bell-like sonority, is separated by an Intermezzo from a Largo divoto that reaches a Maestoso climax before plunging into the headlong Allegro risoluto finale.

The Second, Third and Fourth piano sonatas are unrelated one-movement works. They were written during the period 1904–07 and published as the "Sonata-Triad", Op. 11. The first of the trio, in A♭, is an ecstatic work with attractive, lyrical themes, prefaced by a poem by Goethe. The second, in D minor, is entitled "Sonate-Elegie". It opens slowly with one of Medtner's best-known themes and closes with an animated coda (Allegro molto doppio movimento, in D major) based on the second subject. The third, in C, returns to the lyricism of the first.

The Fifth and formerly the most popular of his sonatas is the G minor, Op. 22, written in 1909–1910. The piece alternates a slow introduction with a three-theme, propulsive sonata movement, one of whose themes was heard in the Introduction. The emotional center of this compact work (sixteen minutes in duration) is the Interludium: Andante lugubre: this comprises most of the development section and contains some of Medtner's loveliest harmonies. There are historic recordings by Moiseiwitch and Gilels.

The Sixth Sonata followed soon after, the first of two that comprise his Op. 25. It bears the title "Sonata-Skazka", usually translated as "Fairy Tale Sonata". This short work in C minor, written in 1910–11, is in three movements; the second and third are connected. The first movement is a compact sonata-form, the slow movement rondo-like (the similarity to one melody by Rachmaninoff is coincidental, as the latter was not written until some thirty years later). A minatory final march with variations ends with a Coda that revisits earlier material. This was the only Medtner sonata that Rachmaninoff performed.

Its companion in Op. 25 is entirely different. The Seventh Sonata in E minor, Night Wind, after Fyodor Tyutchev's 1832 poem "Of what do you howl, night wind...?" (О чем ты воешь, ветр ночной...?), an excerpt of which provides an epigraph, was completed in 1911 and dedicated to Sergei Rachmaninoff, who immediately recognised its greatness. It is a vast one-movement work, lasting almost 35 minutes, in two major parts: an Introduction and Allegro sonata-form, followed by a Fantasy capped by a shadowy but active Coda, the latter entirely and ingeniously based on material presented in the Introduction. Under the title "Sonata" Medtner added a note: "The whole piece is in an epic spirit" (Вся пьеса в эпическом духе). Geoffrey Tozer said: "it has the reputation of being a fearsomely difficult work of extraordinary length, exhausting to play and to hear, but of magnificent quality and marvelous invention."

The Eighth "Sonata-Ballade" in F♯, Op. 27, began as a one-movement work, and was expanded into its present form over the period 1912–14. It comprises a Ballade, Introduction and Finale. The tonality and some of the material make passing reference to Chopin's Barcarolle. The first movement opens with one of Medtner's lovely pastoral melodies. The finale, like the Piano Quintet, has a thematic connection with his Pushkin setting The Muse. Medtner himself recorded this work.

The one-movement Ninth Sonata in A minor, Op. 30, was published without a title but was known as the "War Sonata" among Medtner's friends; a footnote "during the war 1914–1917" appeared in the 1959 Collected Edition.

The Tenth "Sonata-reminiscenza" in A minor, Op. 38, No. 1, commences a set of eight pieces entitled "Forgotten Melodies (First Cycle)". Two further cycles followed, published as Op. 39 and 40. Both this and the following sonata were completed in 1920, the year before Medtner emigrated. This single movement is one of Medtner's most poetic creations; as the title indicates, its character is nostalgic and wistful. Other pieces in opus 38 contain variants of the Sonata's opening theme, such as the concluding "Alla Reminiscenza". This sonata is nowadays the most often performed.

The Eleventh, "Sonata Tragica" in C minor, Op. 39, No. 5, concludes "Forgotten Melodies (Second Cycle)". There is some repetition of themes in this set as well—the piece which precedes the Sonata, "Canzona Matinata", contains a theme which recurs in the Sonata, and according to Medtner's wishes both pieces are to be played attacca—without pause. This is also a single movement sonata-allegro form, but Allegro, dramatic and ferocious, with three themes of which one (the reminiscence from "Canzona Matinata") does not return. A violent coda concludes. This sonata is well served by recordings, including one by Medtner in 1947.

The Twelfth Sonata, entitled "Romantica" in B♭ minor, Op. 53, No. 1, was completed at the end of 1930, along with its twin. It was premièred in Glasgow in 1931. Returning to a four-movement form, it consists of a Romance (B♭ minor), Scherzo (E♭ minor), Meditazione (B minor), and Finale (B♭ minor). The ending quotes his Sonata-Skazka, Op. 25, No. 1.

The Thirteenth Sonata, the "Minacciosa" ("menacing") in F minor, Op. 53, No. 2, is another one-movement work. It is highly chromatic, and contains a fugue. Medtner described it as "my most contemporary composition, for it reflects the threatening atmosphere of contemporary events". Marc-André Hamelin described it as "the most concentrated 15 minutes of music one could ever hope to play or listen to". It was dedicated to the Canadian pianist and pupil of Scriabin, Alfred La Liberté, one of Medtner's most loyal supporters.

The last of the sonatas, "Sonata-Idyll" in G major, Op. 56, was completed in 1937. It consists of two movements: a short Allegretto cantabile Pastorale and a sonata allegro Allegro moderato e cantabile (sempre al rigore di tempo).

Piano concertos
Medtner composed three piano concertos:
 * Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33 (1914–18). Dedicated to the composer's mother, this one-movement work opens with an exposition section setting out the material for the work, the opening pages of which erupt with fireworks from the piano against a surging orchestral statement of the subject. A set of variations make up the central development before the opening returns two thirds of the way through the piece. Eventually the coda sets out the romantic "big tune" before the final pages lead to an unexpectedly bittersweet ending.
 * Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 50 (1920–27). Dedicated to Rachmaninoff, who dedicated his own Fourth Concerto to Medtner. In three movements: Toccata, and a Romanza from which follows a Divertimento. The first movement is propulsive with kinetic energy, and there is much dialogue between piano and orchestra (a subsidiary theme resembles the Fairy Tale from the Op. 14 (1906–07) pair, the March of the Paladin). The Romanza and Divertimento are each in their own way varied in character, the Divertimento particularly rich in inspiration.
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor "Ballade", Op. 60, 1940–43. The factors which led to the creation of this work are closely connected to the circumstances of his final years. It is dedicated to his generous patron, the Maharajah of Mysore. Three connected movements: the first, Con moto largamente, sustained and profound, slowly developing motion and energy; the second an Interludium, Allegro, molto sostenuto, misterioso quotes the first movement and prefigures the finale; a lengthy Allegro molto. Svegliando, eroico vigorously concludes the work. Medtner recorded all three Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1947.

Chamber music
Medtner's chamber music includes three violin sonatas and a piano quintet:
 * Violin Sonata No. 3 in E minor, Op. 57 (1938). Recorded by David Oistrakh, among others. A vast work in four movements, a counterpart to his Night Wind Piano Sonata, No. 7. Introduzione – Andante meditamente, Scherzo – Allegro molto vivace, leggiero, Andante con moto, Finale – Allegro molto. A motto theme in the Introduction juxtaposes chords quietly but insistently, joined by a melody on the violin. The melody becomes the first theme of the – lengthy – sonata-form movement that follows, juxtaposed with other themes including a march in imitation. The folksy and syncopated Scherzo in A minor, thematically related to the opening movement's faster sections, is in Rondo-form. After a reminiscence of the motto, the Andante is a lament in F minor, extremely Russian in sentiment. The virtuoso Finale has thematic elements related to Russian Orthodox liturgical music (Medtner was born Lutheran but late in life converted to Orthodox).
 * Piano Quintet in C major, Op. posth. It was published after the composer's death. He worked on sketches of the work from 1903 until its completion in 1949. Medtner considered it the ultimate summary of his musical life. Due to Medtner's illness, the piano part in the work's premiere was taken by Colin Horsley. Medtner's recording of the work with the Aeolian Quartet, unpublished at the time, has been released on the St Laurent label.

Songs
Medtner published over 100 songs for voice and piano, with words from texts by Pushkin, Goethe, Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Tyutchev, and Afanasy Fet, among others.

Legacy
Edward Mitchell was an early champion of Medtner, and gave the first complete performance of Medtner's Sonata-Triad in the UK at the Aeolian Hall on 3 February 1922. Geoffrey Tozer recorded almost all of Medtner's works for the piano including all the concertos and sonatas. Hamish Milne has recorded most of the solo piano works, while Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Konstantin Scherbakov and Yevgeny Sudbin have recorded the three piano concertos. Other pianists who championed Medtner's work and left behind recordings include Benno Moiseiwitsch, Sviatoslav Richter, Edna Iles, Emil Gilels, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Earl Wild. In modern times, pianists noted for their advocacy include Ekaterina Derzhavina, Marc-André Hamelin, Malcolm Binns, Irina Mejoueva (ja), Nikolai Demidenko, Anna Zassimova, Boris Berezovsky, Paul Stewart, Dmitri Alexeev, Evgeny Kissin, Andrey Ponochevny, Konstantin Lifschitz, Daniil Trifonov, Gintaras Januševičius, Dina Parakhina, Alessandro Taverna and Paulius Andersson.

Far fewer singers have tackled the songs. Medtner himself recorded a selection with the sopranos Oda Slobodskaya, Tatiana Makushina, Margaret Ritchie and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. In recent times Susan Gritton and Ludmilla Andrew have recorded complete CDs with Geoffrey Tozer, as has Caroline Vitale with Peter Baur. The bass-baritone Vassily Savenko has recorded a considerable number of Medtner songs with Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Blok and Victor Yampolsky. A handful of other singers have included Medtner songs in compilations; particularly notable are historic recordings by Zara Dolukhanova and Irina Arkhipova. However, many songs are not available on CD, and some await their first recording. A substantial two-CD set, presenting fifty-four Medtner songs, accompanied by Iain Burnside, has appeared in 2018.

Medtner recorded piano rolls of some of his works for Welte-Mignon in 1923 and Duo-Art in 1925, before his later studio recordings for Capitol Records and other labels.

In 2017 the Ukrainian pianist Darya Dadykina and the Russian pianist Vasily Gvozdetsky founded the International Nikolai Medtner Society in Berlin to popularize his work and to advance cultural exchange in and around Europe. In October/November 2018 the society organized the 1st International Nikolai Medtner Music Festival in Berlin, which brings together artists and musicologists to perform and discuss his work (see the festival programme ).

An asteroid called 9329 Nikolaimedtner is named after the composer.

Publications
Medtner's one book, The Muse and the Fashion, being a defence of the foundations of the Art of Music (1935, reprinted 1957 and 1978) was a statement of his artistic credo and reaction to some of the trends of the time. He believed strongly that there were immutable laws to music, whose essence was in song. An English translation of the book was published in 1951 by Alfred Swan.

Medtner also wrote a memoir titled "With S.V. Rachmaninoff" in 1933, in which he writes admiringly about his friend as a composer and as a pianist.

Print sources
After Medtner's death, the Mysore Foundation sponsored the publication of Medtner: A Memorial Volume, also titled Nicolas Medtner (1879–1951): A Tribute to his Art and Personality. It contains photographs and essays from his widow, friends, critics, musicians, composers, and admirers. A few of the contributors were: Alfred Swan, translator of Medtner's The Muse and the Fashion into English, Ivan Ilyin, Ernest Newman, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Marcel Dupré, Russian music critic Leonid Sabeneev, Canadian pianist and close friend of the composer Alfred La Liberté, singers Margaret Ritchie, Tatania Makushina and Oda Slobodskaya, and Medtner himself via extracts from Muse and the Fashion. The editor of the volume was Richard Holt.

In 2004, Natalia Konsistorum published, in Russian, Nikolai Karlovich Medtner: Portrait of a Composer (ISBN 3-89487-500-3). The book is available in a German translation by Christoph Flamm and is notable for the two CDs it contains with original recordings of a variety of Medtner's works.

There have been numerous dissertations on Medtner's music. One of the most influential is Der russische Komponist Nikolaj Metner : Studien und Materialien by Christoph Flamm. Originally presented as the author's Ph.D thesis (Heidelberg, 1995), it was published by Kuhn (ISBN 3-928864-24-6, 1995, out of print). It includes letters, reviews and other documents in German, Russian, English and French, a bibliography and partial discography. Wendelin Bitzan's dissertation "The Sonata as an Ageless Principle" (Vienna, 2019, available in open access) was written under guidance from Flamm and presents in-depth analyses of Medtner's sonatas and their historical and aesthetic contexts.

In 2003, David J. Skvorak wrote a doctoral thesis Thematic unity in Nicolas Medtner's works for piano : Skazki, sonatas, and piano quintet at the University of Cincinnati, published by UMI. It contains theoretical analyses of several of Medtner's works.

Adaptations and citations
Bart Berman composed Variations and Fugue based on the theme in Medtner's Theme with Variations, Op. 55 in 2009. The author Philip Pullman declared Medtner as his favourite composer during a short interview available on the BBC website in September 2011.

Recordings

 * Medtner plays his Danza Festiva, Op. 38, No. 3 Piano Roll c. 1925, New York. (The Pianola Institute)
 * Nicolas Medtner: The complete solo recordings Vol.1 (Appian Publications and Recordings)
 * Nicolas Medtner: The complete solo recordings Vol.2 (Appian Publications and Recordings)
 * Nicolas Medtner: The complete solo recordings Vol.3 (Appian Publications and Recordings)
 * The Medtner Collection (St-Laurent Studio)

title: Nikolai Medtner


text:
Seversky XP-41

The Seversky XP-41 was a fighter aircraft built in the United States in 1939. A single prototype was modified from the last production Seversky P-35 by adding a new streamlined canopy, a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-19 engine with a two-speed supercharger, and revised landing gear. The XP-41 first flew in March 1939. The aircraft was developed in parallel with the P-43 Lancer, and work was stopped when the USAAC showed a preference for the latter.

title: Seversky XP-41