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The Smoking Room

The Smoking Room is a British television sitcom written by Brian Dooley, who won a BAFTA for the series in 2005. The first series, consisting of eight episodes, was originally transmitted on BBC Three between 29 June and 17 August 2004. The Christmas Special was first transmitted on 21 December 2004. A second series of eight episodes began airing on 26 July 2005.

The first series, including the Christmas Special, was released on DVD by the BBC on 6 February 2006 and on CD in a four-disc set on 4 April 2005 (without the Christmas Special). The second series was released on 16 October 2006; a boxed set containing both series was released on the same date.

A third series was not commissioned; in an interview for the BBC News website on 30 November 2006, Robert Webb (who played Robin) said in passing, "...there is no more Smoking Room". England's smoking ban, which prohibits indoor smoking in workplaces, came into force on 1 July 2007, as a result of which internal smoking rooms, like the one in which the series is set, became illegal.

Plot and analysis
At the time the series was made, smoking was prohibited in the offices of most British companies, but there was often a room in the building that smokers could use during work hours.

The series is entirely set in the smoking room (Room B209, although, in the second series, the sign on one door says B211) in the basement of the offices of a fictitious company. Most of the people seen in the smoking room are workers in the building.

Room B209 is L-shaped and contains office-style tables and chairs, and a hot drinks machine which often malfunctions. It has two doors that lead to the same corridor and is drably decorated in a dull yellow with signs of water damage on one wall. Company related notices adorn the walls, and old furniture and office equipment is stacked in the corner. Only occasional glimpses of the outside world are seen through the room's misted glass.

Although each episode contains a distinct storyline, the series is fundamentally character and dialogue driven. Each episode's story is generally self-contained although there are some ongoing story threads, such as the gradual revelation of Robin's sexuality to the other characters and his unrequited infatuation with Ben from the post room.

Theme music
The theme music for the programme is two different versions of "Close to Me" by The Cure, used without the vocals. This theme was not used in episodes screened in New Zealand and Australia on UK.TV

Main characters
There are ten main characters though not all appear in each episode. Most of the characters are somewhat disaffected with their lives and jobs. The smoking room is an oasis where they can relax, indulge and shut out the rest of the world. Due to a rule devised by Clint, discussion of work-related matters ("shop talk") is forbidden in the smoking room, though there are some brief work-related discussions. Some characters spend long stretches in the room, with some present for most or all of a thirty-minute episode. The occasional non-smoker also drops by the room.

There is a general camaraderie between several of the smokers.

Annie (Debbie Chazen)
Annie is 29 and works in the graphics department. She considers herself rather 'New Age' and sometimes talks about past-life experiences. She will accept theories from anywhere, including a souvenir mug with a picture of Vishnu on it, and a self-help CD she listened to, but didn't buy, in the middle of HMV. She can be very overemotional and attention-seeking and is always telling dramatic stories about herself which seem unlikely, although when Sally challenges her about her claim to have been trapped in a photo booth for three hours Annie is easily able to provide photographic evidence.

She is constantly looking for a boyfriend and is prepared to go to extreme lengths to retain one (including dressing as the male police officer who directed the Fred West case). She seems to have the busiest sex life of anyone in the room but hasn't managed to find love. Her choice of men is misguided. One married man she dated sent private photographs he took of her to a pornographic magazine; it is implied that Barry saw these pictures. She had a liaison with Clint at Lucy Wu's party, which we learn about in Episode Three, and in Episode Five she buys him some chocolates for Valentine's Day, but this appears to be a passing fancy. She flirts outrageously with Janet's nephew, Dominic, in Episode Ten.

Annie is always sponging cigarettes, change for the drinks machine and food from the other characters, occasionally using emotional blackmail to increase her chances of success. She is prepared to eat almost anything, including a half-eaten salad dusted with cigarette ash and a mauled unwrapped Toffo. Despite the fact that she smokes somebody's cigarettes in every episode, usually Sally's, she doesn't regard herself as a smoker.

She considers herself to be an artist and, although she says that she became a graphic designer because she likes designing posters, she finds her job unfulfilling. In Episode Ten she arrives with a collection of homemade ashtrays which she tries to sell to her colleagues, despite the fact that the paint is highly flammable.

Barry (Jeremy Swift)
Barry is divorced and approaching 40. He is neurotic and obsessive (to the point of hoarding used matches), suffering from many phobias some verging on the ridiculous, although he is oddly unfazed by a real crisis. He seems bumbling and insecure, though his portrait from 1987 shows him as somewhat fashionable and confident. We learn that he joined the company as a graduate of Oxford Polytechnic and that Sharon was his secretary. They had a tentative romance which foundered when Barry got the venue of a date wrong; it takes them twenty years to discuss the misunderstanding. Sharon and Barry remain barbed and confrontational with each other.

Barry blames circumstance and others for his lack of career progression, but there is evidence he is not very attentive to his job. He dislikes children – including his own nieces – and family life in general, and makes little attempt to hide this. He has nothing good to say about his first wife, Pamela, and whenever we hear of his attempts to seduce other women they are always failures.

Barry is usually seen attempting to solve the day's crossword, and although he considers himself something of a crossword expert his answers are often ludicrous and Robin solves many of the (sometimes very easy) clues for him.

Clint (Fraser Ayres)
Clint is the 23-year-old maintenance man. Although he genuinely loves his job, which he considers to be the most important one in the company, he spends most of his time thinking about other things, like whether or not dogs who have jobs get jealous of pets.

He has a very relaxed approach to life, even to the point of suspending his attempt to repair a lift full of people in order to smoke a roll-up. He doesn't seem to be much good at his job when he does get around to it. He has a tendency to lose ladders, one of which trips up and nearly kills someone. We also learn that his neglect of a loose floor tile in the smoking room has put one of his colleagues into a coma. He is constantly thwarted in his attempts to fix the drinks machine and has consequently become highly emotional in his dealings with it. On one occasion it is fixed easily by Monique by removing a squashed cup from the mechanism.

He often uses street slang and does an Ali G-style 'snap' when something amuses or impresses him. He is a fan of conspiracy theories as well as admitting to smoking marijuana.

He is generally concerned for the other characters' well-being, often telling them to 'chill' or hugging them when something bad happens. He is the friendliest towards Sharon of all the smokers, even calling her 'Shazza'. He tends to see the good in everyone, to the extent that he was once sexually molested in a park and believed the man's story that he was holding his penis in order to tell his fortune.

Clint slept with Annie once, sent Lucy Wu into spasms by kissing her, and his biggest ambition is to have a threesome before he is 25. He seems to later be dating Lucy Wu for most of the second series, and she has a pregnancy scare, where it is revealed that Clint's father ran away when he was born. We don't know if Clint stays with Lucy after the scare.

Gordon (Mike Walling)
Gordon debuts in episode six and features in a further four episodes. Initially a non-smoker who never knew the smoking room existed (even though he's worked for the company for about twenty years) he is an unwelcome and disliked colleague prone to be lecherous, aggressive, insecure and overly-ambitious. Gordon's unpopularity is exemplified when his health takes a turn for the worse in the penultimate episode and his colleagues generally react with indifference, self-interest and a dithering lack of concern, as demonstrated by Sally; "God knows what we'd do in a real emergency".

Heidi (Emma Kennedy)
Heidi debuts in episode five, when she returns from maternity leave. She is 35, married to Keith (previously married and somewhat older at 58; she virtually worships him) and mother to baby Dane (about whom she obsesses).

Heidi is very 'mumsy' and constantly refers to her seemingly idyllic domestic situation, to the near-universal annoyance of the other characters. It is clear that her home life is not as perfect as she believes. She repeats highly critical comments Keith has made about her as though they were kindly although she occasionally seems doubtful about his more extreme political views. He hates foreigners, is homophobic, thinks the police should be armed with laser guns that can paralyse and believes Heidi is more than enough female influence for his son. He also encourages Heidi to act out his bizarre sexual fantasies to make their sex life more interesting for himself.

Heidi is a non-smoker and her visits to the smoking room are motivated by her desire to tell everyone about the latest developments in her life, yet she takes very little interest in anyone else's, often having a smug, patronising air about her when she does interact in conversations with the others. However, she is desperate for friends and in episode ten we learn that her imaginary friend, Buttercup, was cruel to her and soon went off to be imaginary friends with another child. Heidi didn't have the imagination to invent another one. This early disappointment might explain why she is oblivious to the rudeness of others and why she is determined to have company at any cost.

In episode seventeen, she reveals that she is pregnant with her second child, to the slight annoyance of Janet (because it overshadowed her announcement of her engagement) and Sharon (because of her maternity rights), although the other characters express their joy at her news when they realise it will mean another lengthy maternity absence.

Janet (Selina Griffiths)
Janet is 34 and the personal assistant to Sharon. She is very prudish, dresses old for her age, rarely swears and does not smoke. Once she takes a drag of Robin's cigarette, only to immediately extinguish it in a cup of coffee, thereby depriving Robin and Clint of their only means of ignition. She is constantly put-upon by Sharon and is terrified of her (although she occasionally tries to stand up for herself). She normally enters the smoking room on company-related matters such as to inform the occupants of Sharon's latest diktat.

She takes a very dim view of some of the other characters' slacking, herself being very diligent and obedient. However, she is not really interested in climbing the career ladder, her stated goal being, '...to find a nice man, and settle down'.

Little is mentioned of her love life; in episode six, she says that she has a date and is reluctant to go out into the driving rain and fetch Sharon's lunch in case it messes up her new hairdo. She later mentions having met a new man at church, followed by her sudden announcement of her engagement to boyfriend Noel.

She is very fond of her family, who include an aunt who suffered from a cerebral aneurysm, a sister, Nicola, an epileptic brother, Stuart, and her nephew Dominic, whom we meet in episode ten. We also learn that Janet was a 'late baby' whose mother always told her she was a 'mistake'.

Len (Leslie Schofield)
Len is a security guard, is 59 and is widowed. He used to be in the armed forces, although it isn't specified which branch, and only took his current job because of the points on his driving licence which meant he couldn't become a taxi driver. He has a cantankerous personality but is soft beneath the gruff exterior. He has a strange love for the works of Walt Disney, being overjoyed at the thought of holidaying in Walt Disney World in episode seven, although he isn't keen on Minnie Mouse, whom he describes as 'that bitch'. He is also afraid of ducks, claiming he accidentally provoked one into "biting" him on the face.

He raised his two sons on his own following the early death of his beloved wife, Diana, and is very fond of his grandsons. He remains devoted to Diana's memory. He mentions her whenever he can and never shows any interest in other women. In episode twelve we learn that her death hit him so hard that the only thing which could cheer him up was to get a perm. He can be soft and caring to the others on occasion too. He is the one who hurries to comfort Annie when she is crying in episode two and is the only one who is concerned that Lilian should enjoy her birthday in episode eight. He and Lilian have a good friendship, having worked together for so long, but there is never any suggestion of romance between them.

Len swears constantly, even in the middle of words. The other smokers tolerate his quirks, not even batting an eye when he becomes high on glue and hallucinates in episode ten. Janet is the only one to comment on his constant swearing, which offends her prim nature – although on the one occasion when she's driven to strong language, in Episode Nine, he is quick to criticise her for it.

Len can be extremely gullible; for example, he fails to realise that his superior Ranjit is stealing from him and is happy to accept Ranjit's outrageous explanations of how his property keeps disappearing. On the other hand, he can be very incisive and worldly-wise, such as in Episode Two when he muses about the brevity of life. Age is becoming a source of concern for him. He is upset to see a picture of his younger self in episode twelve and complains that he is now falling apart.

Lilian (Paula Wilcox)
Lilian is 53 and divorced. Her ex-husband, Greg, was an alcoholic and there are suggestions that their marriage was unhappy. She thinks her terrible taste in men means she has a lot in common with Whitney Houston (with whom Lilian shares a birthday). It is explained she spent much of the eighties as a dowdy, overweight mum who put all her energy into raising her daughters (Laura and Julia) and forgot about herself. She lives alone and since her divorce is enjoying a new lease of life. When she agrees to appear in the firm's Christmas pantomime, she chooses to sing Cher's "Believe" and this could easily be her motto.

Lilian dresses young and revealingly and is quite unreserved, fun-loving, optimistic and outspoken. She seems keen to find a man and will seize on virtually any suitable target. She is always bubbly and happy on the surface but this seems to mask a real sadness which she sometimes lets show, like when she admits she doesn't like living alone.

She is a confirmed smoker, which is illustrated by her attempt to obtain an un-stubbed-out cigarette from the street outside and her near-revulsion when she thinks that Barry is giving up. At the Cigzowt conference, designed to help the smokers quit, she tells how cigarettes have supported her through all the highs and lows in her life and have been her only constant companion. Sadly, the fact that she smokes wrecks any chance of a new romance with the Cigzowt representative, Derek.

Robin (Robert Webb)
Robin is the closest to the series' central character and is present in the smoking room for almost all of every episode. He is in his early thirties. His job is never specified but he says he works in an office on his own, which he describes as 'solitary confinement' and that his tasks include filing old photographs for the company brochure. He attempts to give Sharon the impression he is hard-working, usually stubbing out his cigarette and making for the door whenever she enters. He is obviously intelligent although not particularly ambitious. He is generally cynical and a little melancholy. The happiest we usually see him is when he encounters or talks about Ben from the Post Room.

His sexuality and attitude towards Ben (from the Post Room) is the subject of an ongoing story thread. There are many hints that Robin is gay and infatuated with Ben, but no outright admission on his part. Robin seems uncomfortable with his sexuality and is keen for everyone to know that the temp, Miranda, was once his girlfriend. The truth is finally discussed openly in the final episode, where it is apparent all his fellow smokers long realised Robin was gay (apart from Barry, who doesn't understand how Robin can be gay when he's 'so good at crosswords') and had no problem with it. He misses out on a chance with Ben who it turns out is gay too but has a new boyfriend by the time Robin comes out.

Sally (Nadine Marshall)
Sally is 27 and works in the graphics department with Annie. She claims to be Annie's best friend (and constantly beckons Annie with the phrase, "Come on, missus..."), although this statement may have been motivated by Annie having just won two tickets to 'DanceFest UK'. Normally, her relationship with Annie is bitchy and competitive. She often gossips about Annie behind her back, but she will always reluctantly provide a shoulder for Annie to cry on. She seems to have the liveliest social life of all the smokers. She has a very bad hangover when we first meet her in Episode One and in Episode Eleven, when everyone is snowed in after work, is so determined to drink the bottle of vodka she has bought that she mixes it with the only thing available, a jar of pasta sauce. Despite her smoking and drinking, she is health conscious, being a vegetarian (why she could never eat human flesh) and a devotee of 'boxercise'.

She has little time for the nonsense the others talk, particularly Annie's new age interests. She quickly realises the truth behind Robin's preoccupation with Ben.

Sally tends to speak her mind and isn't afraid of offending people. As a little girl she claims she punched the glove puppet Spit the dog in the face at a Christmas pantomime, breaking Bob Carolgees' hand, because he dared to ask her name. She also says that one man who criticised her had his tyres slashed, although she quickly, and unconvincingly, qualifies that she didn't slash them. She can be thoughtful at times, once agreeing to go to the pub with a lonely Janet, even though they have nothing in common, rather than disappoint her.

Sharon (Siobhan Redmond)
Sharon is the head of the branch, having worked her way up from being secretary, although she remains answerable to Head Office. Sharon is a cold, condescending, ladder-climbing career woman. She rates herself very highly and virtually everyone else as slacking, inadequate minions. Although a smoker, she spends much less time in the smoking room due to her attitude to work; the other characters feel nervous and intimidated whenever she enters. She constantly bullies Janet and relies on her for almost everything. She also appears to be unable to understand basic social behaviour, remarking once 'Why are there jokes? [Do they] make you feel happy and productive?'

Sharon has probably achieved her position more from her tenacity, forceful personality and compatibility with management culture than her actual ability. For example, in episode two, she makes some shocking assumptions about the poorly written words in Martin's letter thanking the company for his retirement party, insisting the word 'party' is 'pasty'. She is obviously focused and ambitious. It is only when photographs from the company brochure of 1987 are found that we learn that she joined the firm as Barry's secretary. They were firm friends then, according to Barry, but Sharon insists it was only because the other workers all were freaks. They even went on what sounds like a date to Kew Gardens but Barry bungled the follow-up, waiting at West Ham tube station while Sharon waited, correctly, at West Hampstead. It is suggested that, in those early days, there might have been a chance of romance for the pair but the misunderstanding was never broached and now there is only antagonism.

In episode nine we learn that most of her family are dead. Sharon now lives alone with a cat, which she hasn't bothered to name and to which she only speaks to tell it to get off the sofa. Her cold exterior melts only once, when she is passionately kissed by a kissogram who is taking a break in the smoking room after visiting the woman he is actually there to see. She disappears 'stage left' after him, with Janet remarking, "That's not love – that's pure naked lust!"

Monique Coyne (Sunetra Sarker)
A career driven, dynamic woman whose only vice seemed to be smoking. She was introduced in episode one as an external candidate for manager, in competition with Barry. Monique was chosen over Barry and was shown to be good at 'the game,' interacting with Sharon seemingly as equals. Her aptitude frightened Barry when she fixed the coffee machine following Clint's failed attempt.

Monique's only other appearance was in episode eight at Lilian's birthday party, where she confused and was condescending to Barry. In the final episode, Monique is mentioned to have been poached and leaving for another firm in New York, which only confirms Barry's suspicions that she was a disloyal ladder-climber.

Monique would not be considered a main character as she only appeared physically in two episodes. However, she could not be classified as 'unseen,' therefore existing as one of the rare characters in the series to appear more than once, yet not belonging to the core ten actors.

Unseen characters
The series frequently derives humour from references to unseen characters, partly due to its single location structure:

Ben 'from the Post Room'
The unwitting object of Robin's lust who, in Robin's eyes, is clearly a closeted gay man, despite having a girlfriend (later his fiancée). A running joke is made of the fact that his face is never seen on screen (e.g. his appearance in a snowman costume, and Lilian accidentally cutting his head off in a photograph), although his voice is heard once, when he is played by series writer Brian Dooley. It is revealed in the final episode that Robin's suspicions were correct; however, Ben was fooled by Robin's over-compensation, and believes him to be homophobic.

Tess Pownall
Lilian's co-worker and close friend. She is recently widowed but does not seem overly upset by this, planning a holiday with Lilian and even organising a disco and bouncy castle for her husband's wake, though later admitting that this was a mistake. Whilst on holiday with Lilian she insisted on sunbathing topless. However, in the photos Heidi questions why she is holding "two wizened yams".

Lucy Wu
A girl whose provocative dancing at the office party attracts Clint (despite the fact she was actually in anaphylaxis after accidentally eating a nut). She later has a pregnancy scare, and according to Heidi has already had at least one terminal illness.

Martin
Barry's boss who retires in episode one, only to collapse with a fatal stroke in Asda the day after his leaving party. According to Lilian and Sally he was something of an office groper, leaving Annie offended that he never tried anything with her. He is also revealed to be the source of a large amount of pornographic emails clogging the company email system. Despite despising golf he was bought as set of clubs to mark the end of his 37 years at the company. His widow is called Pat, who mistook his stroke as being the result of an exceptionally cold freezer at Asda.

Ranjit
Len's workshy boss. Despite being Head of Security, he frequently steals valuables from a clueless Len.

Gerry Lyndop
Gerry has a twitch. This developed after having to witness his wife being repeatedly mounted by a runaway horse.

Keith
Heidi's husband, whom she appears to worship, despite his obvious cruelty towards her, such as telling her he was leaving her as an April fool and only revealing the truth when she lies down in front of the car to stop him going. He is racist, sexist and homophobic, but none of this seems to put Heidi off.

Shreela
An obese woman dubbed "Shrinking Shreela" after she falls foul of one of Clint's botched repairs and ends up in a coma. Lilian comments on the irony, stating "all those years at Weight Watchers... she doesn't know she's finally thin".

title: The Smoking Room


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Prison camp

Prison camp may refer to:

 * Internment (concentration camp or internment camp)
 * Federal prison camp, low-security facility among those on list of U.S. federal prisons
 * Labor camp
 * Prisoner-of-war camp

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

title: Prison camp


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Lombardo Boyar

Lombardo Boyar (born December 1, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role as Chuy in The Bernie Mac Show and for voicing Lars Rodriguez in Rocket Power.

Career
Lombardo is a veteran of the United States Army, having served as a forward observer in the highly decorated 82nd Airborne Division during the 1990s.

Some of Boyar's notable performances include a brief part as convenience-store robber Ramon Garcia on Fox's 24 and a starring role as burglar Eddie Tesoro in P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. He provided voices in both Happy Feet and Coco. and Anglophone cable-TV audiences may also be familiar with Boyar's voice work as Lawrence "Lars" Rodriguez in Klasky-Csupo's Rocket Power cartoons and with his live-action performance as Sergio del Rio on Steven Bochco's Over There. He has also guested on a semi regular basis as Chuy on The Bernie Mac Show. Fluent in English and Spanish with a very adaptable voice, Boyar has also provided voice-over work for commercials.

Boyar had a voice acting role in the 2008 Turok video game as Gonzales.

title: Lombardo Boyar


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Jean MacArthur

Jean Marie MacArthur ( Faircloth; December 28, 1898 – January 22, 2000) was the second wife of U.S. Army General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.

Early life and education
Born Jean Marie Faircloth in Nashville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of Edward C. Faircloth, a banker. After her parents divorced when she was eight, her mother took her to live with her grandparents in Murfreesboro. Her grandfather, a former captain in the Confederate army, instilled in her a love of uniforms. She attended Ward-Belmont College in Nashville, but graduated from Soule College in Murfreesboro. Jean and her father can be found later listed on a passenger manifest of the SS Belgenland (1914), which arrived in the Port of Los Angeles on December 29, 1927, from Balboa, Panama Canal Zone. When her father died, she inherited a large fortune and travelled extensively.

Marriage
On a trip she intended to be to Shanghai, in 1935, she met General MacArthur aboard the SS President Hoover, which was to stop first in Manila, where MacArthur would disembark. Despite the age difference — she was nearly nineteen years younger than he — they began a permanent relationship in Manila, and married in New York City on April 30, 1937, during Gen. MacArthur's trip home to build support for the defense of the Philippines. This was to be Gen. MacArthur's last trip to the mainland United States for the next 14 years, when he was relieved from duty by President Truman. His only other visits to U.S. soil between 1937 and 1951 were a 1944 strategy meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii with President Roosevelt and Admiral Nimitz and a 1950 meeting with President Truman on Wake Island.

Jean was MacArthur's second wife and he described her as his "constant friend, sweetheart, and devoted support." They had one son, Arthur MacArthur IV (1938–), and were married until Douglas' death in 1964.

Wartime
Jean MacArthur was with her husband when the Japanese attacked the Philippines and went with him to the island of Corregidor in Manila's harbor. Even when the island was attacked, she refused to leave her husband. Only when President Roosevelt ordered the MacArthurs to leave they went to Australia.

Charity work
After her husband's death she helped with the Metropolitan Opera and other charities. In her later years, she often gave speeches on her late husband's military career. President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Medal of Freedom in 1988 and the Philippine government gave her its Legion of Merit in 1993.

Death
Mrs. MacArthur died of natural causes in Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan at age 101. She is entombed with her husband in the rotunda of the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, the hometown of Gen. MacArthur's mother.

title: Jean MacArthur


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Chapbook

A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 12, 16, or 24 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. Printers provided chapbooks on credit to chapmen, who sold them both from door to door and at markets and fairs, then paying for the stock they sold. The tradition of chapbooks emerged during the 16th century as printed books were becoming affordable, with the medium ultimately reaching its height of popularity during the 17th and 18th centuries. Different ephemera and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as almanacs, children's literature, folklore, ballads, nursery rhymes, pamphlets, poetry, and political and religious tracts. The term chapbook remains in use by publishers to refer to short, inexpensive booklets.

Terminology
Chapbook is first attested in English in 1824, and seemingly derives from chapman, the word for the itinerant salesmen who would sell such books. The first element of chapman comes in turn from Old English cēap 'barter', 'business', 'dealing', from which the modern adjective cheap was ultimately derived.

Chapbooks correspond to Spanish Cordel literature, and to French bibliothèque bleue 'blue library' literature, because they were often wrapped in cheap blue paper that was usually reserved as a wrapping for sugar. Chapbooks are called Volksbuch 'people's book' in German, and as pliegos sueltos 'loose sheets' in Spanish, with the latter name referring to their method of assembly. Lubok books are the Russian equivalent.

History
Broadside ballads were popular songs, sold for a penny or halfpenny in the streets of towns and villages around Britain between the 16th and the early 20th centuries. They preceded chapbooks but had similar content, marketing, and distribution systems. There are records from Cambridgeshire as early as in 1553 of a man offering a scurrilous ballad "maistres mass" at an alehouse, and a pedlar selling "lytle books" to people, including a patcher of old clothes in 1578. These sales are probably characteristic of the market for chapbooks.

The form factor originated in Britain, but was also used in North America. Chapbooks gradually disappeared from the mid-19th century in the face of competition from cheap newspapers and, especially in Scotland, from tract societies that regarded them as ungodly.

Chapbooks were generally aimed at buyers who did not maintain libraries, and due to their flimsy construction they rarely survive as individual items. In an era when paper was expensive, chapbooks were sometimes used for wrapping, baking, or as toilet paper. Many of the surviving chapbooks come from the collections of Samuel Pepys between 1661 and 1688 which are now held at Magdalene College, Cambridge. The antiquary Anthony Wood also collected 65 chapbooks, including 20 from before 1660, which are now in the Bodleian Library. There are also significant Scottish collections, such as those held by the University of Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland.

Modern collectors such as Peter Opie, have chiefly a scholarly interest in the form. Modern small literary presses, such as Louffa Press, Black Lawrence Press and Ugly Duckling Presse, continue to issue several small editions of chapbooks a year, updated in technique and materials, often to high fabrication standards, such as letterpress.

Production and distribution
Chapbooks were cheap, anonymous publications that were the usual reading material for lower-class people who could not afford books. Members of the upper classes occasionally owned chapbooks, and sometimes bound them in leather. Printers typically tailored their texts for the popular market. Chapbooks were usually between four and twenty-four pages long, and produced on rough paper with crude, frequently recycled, woodcut illustrations. They sold in the millions. After 1696, English chapbook peddlers had to be licensed, and 2,500 of them were then authorized, 500 in London alone. In France, there were 3,500 licensed colporteurs by 1848, and they sold 40 million books annually.

The centre of the chapbook and ballad production was London, and until the Great Fire of London in 1666 the printers were based around London Bridge. However, a feature of chapbooks is the proliferation of provincial printers, especially in Scotland and Newcastle upon Tyne. The first Scottish publication was the tale of Tom Thumb, in 1682.

Content
Chapbooks were an important medium for the dissemination of popular culture to the common people, especially in rural areas. They were a medium of entertainment and information. Though the content of chapbooks has been criticized as unsophisticated narratives which were heavily loaded with repetition and emphasized adventure through mostly anecdotal structures, they are valued as a record of popular culture, preserving cultural artefacts that may not survive in any other form.

Chapbooks were priced for sales to workers, although their market was not limited to the working classes. Broadside ballads were sold for a halfpenny, or a few pence. Prices of chapbooks were from 2d. to 6d., when agricultural labourers' wages were 12d. per day. The literacy rate in England in the 1640s was around 30 percent for males and rose to 60 percent in the mid-18th century. Many working people were readers, if not writers, and pre-industrial working patterns provided periods during which they could read.

Chapbooks were used for reading to family groups or groups in alehouses. They contributed to the development of literacy, and there is evidence of their use by autodidacts. In the 1660s, as many as 400,000 almanacs were printed annually, enough for one family in three in England. One 17th-century publisher of chapbooks in London stocked one book for every 15 families in the country. In the 1520s the Oxford bookseller John Dorne noted in his day-book selling up to 190 ballads a day at a halfpenny each. The probate inventory of the stock of Charles Tias, of The sign of the Three Bibles on London Bridge, in 1664 included books and printed sheets to make approximately 90,000 chapbooks (including 400 reams of paper) and 37,500 ballad sheets. Tias was not regarded as an outstanding figure in the trade. The inventory of Josiah Blare, of The Sign of the Looking Glass on London Bridge, in 1707 listed 31,000 books, plus 257 reams of printed sheets. A conservative estimate of sales in Scotland alone in the second half of the 18th century was over 200,000 per year.

Printers provided chapbooks on credit to chapmen, who sold them both from door to door and at markets and fairs, then paying for the stock they sold. This facilitated wide distribution and large sales with minimum outlay, and also provided the printers with feedback about what titles were most popular. Popular works were reprinted, pirated, edited, and produced in different editions.

Publishers also issued catalogues, and chapbooks are found in the libraries of provincial yeomen and gentry. John Whiting, a Quaker yeoman imprisoned at Ilchester, Somerset, in the 1680s had books sent by carrier from London, and left for him at an inn.

Samuel Pepys had a collection of ballads bound into volumes, under the following classifications, into which could fit the subject matter of most chapbooks:
 * 1) Devotion and Morality
 * 2) History – true and fabulous
 * 3) Tragedy: viz. Murders, executions, and judgments of God
 * 4) State and Times
 * 5) Love – pleasant
 * 6) Ditto – unpleasant
 * 7) Marriage, Cuckoldry, &c.
 * 8) Sea – love, gallantry & actions
 * 9) Drinking and good fellowship
 * 10) Humour, frollicks and mixt.

Stories in many chapbooks have much earlier origins. Bevis of Hampton was an Anglo-Norman romance of the 13th century, which probably drew on earlier themes. The structure of The Seven Sages of Rome was of Eastern origin, and was used by Geoffrey Chaucer. Many jests about ignorant and greedy clergy in chapbooks were taken from The Friar and the Boy printed about 1500 by Wynkyn de Worde, and The Sackfull of News (1557).

Historical stories set in a mythical and fantastical past were popular, while many significant historical figures and events appear rarely or not at all: in the Pepys collection, Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell do not appear as historical figures, The Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War do not appear at all, Elizabeth I appears only once, and Henry VIII and Henry II appear in disguise, with cobblers and millers and then inviting them to court and rewarding them. There was a pattern of high born heroes overcoming reduced circumstances by valour, such as Saint George, Guy of Warwick, Robin Hood, and heroes of low birth who achieve status through force of arms, such as Clim of Clough, and William of Cloudesley. Clergy often appear as figures of fun, and foolish countrymen were also popular (e.g., The Wise Men of Gotham). Other works were aimed at regional and rural audience (e.g., The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse).

From 1597 works were published that were aimed at specific trades, such as cloth merchants, weavers and shoemakers. The latter were commonly literate. Thomas Deloney, a weaver, wrote Thomas of Reading, about six clothiers from Reading, Gloucester, Worcester, Exeter, Salisbury and Southampton, traveling together and meeting at Basingstoke their fellows from Kendal, Manchester and Halifax. In his Jack of Newbury, set during Henry VIII's reign, an apprentice to a broadcloth weaver takes over his business and marries his widow on his death. On achieving success, he is liberal to the poor and refuses a knighthood for his substantial services to the king.

Other examples from the Pepys collection include The Countryman's Counsellor, or Everyman his own Lawyer, and Sports and Pastimes, written for schoolboys, including magic tricks, like how to "fetch a shilling out of a handkerchief", write invisibly, make roses out of paper, snare wild duck, and make a maid-servant fart uncontrollably.

The provinces and Scotland had their own local heroes. Robert Burns commented that one of the first two books he read in private was "the history of Sir William Wallace ... poured a Scottish prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest".

Influence
Chapbooks had a wide and continuing influence. Eighty percent of English folk songs collected by early-20th-century collectors have been linked to printed broadsides, including over 90 of which could only be derived from those printed before 1700. It has been suggested the majority of surviving ballads can be traced to 1550–1600 by internal evidence.

One of the most popular and influential chapbooks was Richard Johnson's Seven Champions of Christendom (1596), believed to be the source for the introduction of Saint George into English folk plays.

Robert Greene's 1588 novel Dorastus and Fawnia, the basis of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, was still being published in cheap editions in the 1680s. Some stories were still being published in the 19th century, (e.g., Jack of Newbury, Friar Bacon, Dr Faustus and The Seven Champions of Christendom).

Later production
Chapbook is also a term currently used to denote publications of up to about 40 pages, usually poetry bound with some form of saddle stitch, though many are perfect bound, folded, or wrapped. These publications range from low-cost productions to finely produced, hand-made editions that may sell to collectors for hundreds of dollars. More recently, the popularity of fiction and non-fiction chapbooks has also increased. In the UK they are more often referred to as pamphlets.

The genre has been revitalized in the past 40 years by the widespread availability of first mimeograph technology, then low-cost copy centres and digital printing, and by the cultural revolutions spurred by both zines and poetry slams, the latter generating hundreds upon hundreds of self-published chapbooks that are used to fund tours. The Center for the Humanities at the City University of New York Graduate Center has held the NYC/CUNY Chapbook Festival, focused on "the chapbook as a work of art, and as a medium for alternative and emerging writers and publishers".

Collections

 * The National Library of Scotland holds a large collection of Scottish chapbooks; approximately 4,000 of an estimated total of 15,000 published – including several in Lowland Scots and Gaelic. Records for most Scottish chapbooks have been catalogued online. Approximately 3,000 of these have been digitized and can be accessed from the Library's Digital Gallery. A project is underway to add every chapbook in the collection to Wikisource at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WikiProject_NLS.
 * The Glasgow University Library has over 1,000 examples throughout the collections, searchable online via the Scottish Chapbooks Catalogue of c. 4,000 works, which covers the Lauriston Castle collection, Edinburgh City libraries and Stirling University. The University of South Carolina's G. Ross Roy Collection is collaborating in research for the Scottish Chapbook Project.
 * The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford has over 30,000 ballads in several major collections. The original printed materials range from the 16th to the 20th century. The Broadside Ballads project makes the digitized copies of the sheets and ballads available.
 * Sir Frederick Madden's Collection of Broadside Ballads, at Cambridge University Library, is possibly the largest collection from London and provincial presses between 1775 and 1850, with earlier 18th-century garlands and Irish volumes.
 * The Lilly Library, Indiana University has 1,900 chapbooks from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and the United States, which were part of the Elisabeth W. Ball collection. Online search facility
 * Rutgers University, Special Collections and University Archives houses the Harry Bischoff Weiss collection of 18th- and 19th-century chapbooks, illustrated with catchpenny prints.
 * The John Rylands University Library at University of Manchester contains 600 items in The Sharpe Collection of chapbooks, formed by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. These are 19th-century items printed in Scotland and Newcastle upon Tyne.
 * Literatura de Cordel Brazilian Chapbook Collection Library of Congress, American Folklife Center has a collection of over 7200 works of cordel literature. Descended from the medieval troubadour and chapbook tradition of cordel literature has been published in Brazil for over a century.
 * The Archival and Special Collections at the University of Guelph Library has a collection of more than 550 chapbooks in its extensive Scottish holdings.
 * The National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum in London has a collection of approximately 800 chapbooks, all catalogued.
 * The McGill University Library has over 900 British and American chapbooks published in the 18th and 19th centuries. The chapbooks have been digitized and can be read online.
 * The Grupo de investigación sobre relaciones de sucesos (siglos XVI–XVIII) en la Península Ibérica, Universidade da Coruña Catalog and Digital Library of "Relaciones de sucesos" (16th–18th centuries). Bibliographical database of more than 5,000 chap-books, pamphlets, Early modern press news, etc. Facsimilar reproduction of many of the copies: Catálogo y Biblioteca Digital de Relaciones de Sucesos (siglos XVI–XVIII)
 * The Ball State University Digital Media Repository Chapbooks collection provides online access to 173 chapbooks from the 19th and 20th centuries.
 * The Elizabeth Nesbitt Room, University of Pittsburgh
 * Cambridge Digital Library hosts a growing number of digital facsimiles of Spanish chapbooks from the collections of Cambridge University Library and the British Library.
 * The Biblioteca Nacional de España has a digitized collection of chapbooks.
 * The project Untangling the cordel offers a collection of almost 1000 pliegos de cordel, the Spanish equivalent of English chapbooks, kept at the University Library of the University of Geneva.
 * Mapping Pliegos is a portal dedicated to 19th-century Spanish chapbook literature. It brings together the digitized collections of over a dozen partner libraries.

title: Chapbook


text: Category:1430 births

title: Category:1430 births


text: Category:1430s births

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Talk:Indus script

Indo-Aryan Hypothesis argument
In the Indus_script section the possibility of a (non-Sanskrit) Indo-Aryan language is introduced. The current texts objects to the thesis saying: ""However, there are many problems with this hypothesis. A major one includes: Since the people belonging to the Indo-European cultures were always on the move, horses played a very important role in their lives or as Parpola put it, "There is no escape from the fact that the horse played a central role in the Vedic and Iranian cultures..." (Parpola, 1986)."" but does not relate this fact to anything else- why is the centrality of the horse something that makes an Indo-Aryan language unlikely? Was text deleted, or is part of the argument missing? I also can't locate the reference given- there is a 1987 Parpola publication in the reference list, but no 1986. --Spasemunki (talk) 23:50, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Remove Keezhadi
The finds at Keezhadi are so trivial. Only Tamil nationalists promotes this theory. The evidence is weak for any connection with Keezhadi. ChandlerMinh (talk) 09:53, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

A comparison with Turkish Runes
Undeciphered Indus script and Turkish runes Turkish Orhun runes seem to be the simplified/stylized versions of Indus signs. Very interesting, isn't it? Look at the link below! I compared them to each other.

Where is the junction?

Comparison Indus Script vs Turkish Runes

Source for Indus Script signs:

Indus Script signs

UzunbacakAdem (talk) 10:38, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

Writing direction
This talk by Rajesh Rao claims the writing was right to left, discussing both the compression and the pottery evidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_nJ4vfG-A&t=1030s T039mwftulnm0l (talk) 19:02, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Earliest discovered script
It there nothing more recent than 2006? Doug Weller talk 16:14, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

Broken Font link
The link referenced under https://www.harappa.com/blog/free-complete-indus-font-package-available "Go to font packages at the National Fund for Mohenjodaro" http://www.mohenjodaroonline.net/index.php/indus-script/corpus-by-asko-parpola is broken, trying to make visitors install malware. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.224.214.87 (talk) 14:41, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Malware? Doesn't seem to be trying to install anything on my end at all, it's just a dead end that goes to a blank page. You can access the original page at the archive referenced in the section, and the download button there just gives you a zip folder with the font.
 * Regardless, I've added an archive link to the Harappa.com link, so that clicking through any links there should automatically take you to an archived copy of the Mohenjodaroonline.net link. – Scyrme (talk) 16:56, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

The Alphabet of the Sindhu Prakrit (The Decipherment of the Indus script)
It's an intial decipherment of the Indus valley civilization Mahaveer H Muhammad (talk) 05:58, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Yajna Devam
There are at least two dozen papers deciphering the script as Sanskrit. You can't add just one paper just because it is popular on social media. Papers uploaded on Academia.edu is not WP:RS ChandlerMinh (talk) 15:48, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Semantic scope
of Indus inscriptions comprising taxation, trade and craft licensing, commodity control and access control: archaeological and script-internal evidence

 * https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02320-7

This new paper adds some information.- Nizil (talk) 17:51, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Indus script


text: Category:1492 deaths

title: Category:1492 deaths


text: Category:1490s deaths

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LaTasha Colander

LaTasha Colander (born August 23, 1976, in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a retired track and field sprinter who competed internationally for the United States. In 1994, on athletic scholarship, Colander enrolled at, and later graduated from, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1994, in the 100 m hurdles, Colander was the USA Juniors champion, and placed second in the World Junior Champs. Yet soon, she switched to sprints. In 2000 and 2001, she was the U.S. champion in the 400 m. In April 2000, her team set the women's world record in the 4 × 200 m relay, a record standing over 15 years onward.

In the 2000 Olympics, Colander won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay. Upon her teammate Marion Jones's 2007 admission of illegal doping, the International Olympic Committee stripped the whole team's medals; in 2010, however, by a successful appeal, all team members except Jones had their medals restored.

Colander missed the 2001 World Championships because of a quadriceps injury. In 2003, she switched concentration to the 100 m, and won the 2004 US Olympic Trials in this shorter event. At the 2005 World Championships, she placed fifth in the 200 meters.

In 2000, Colander had established the LC Treasures Within Foundation, its mission to strengthen kids, families, and the world through education, sports, and spirituality.

In 2014, Colander was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

title: LaTasha Colander


text:
Category:Clinton County, Michigan

Articles related to Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan.

title: Category:Clinton County, Michigan


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Ascot, Berkshire

Ascot is a town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is 6 mi south of Windsor, 4 mi east of Bracknell and 25 mi west of London.

It is most notable as the location of Ascot Racecourse, home of the Royal Ascot meeting. Its average house price of £1,019,451 as of June 2021 makes it the 13th most expensive town in England. It is also among the ten most expensive towns in Britain to rent a property. The town comprises three areas: Ascot itself, North Ascot and South Ascot. It is in the civil parish of Sunninghill and Ascot.

Etymology
The name 'Ascot' derives from the Old English ēast (east) and cot (cottage). Ascott in Buckinghamshire, Eastcote in London and Eastcott in Wiltshire have the same etymology.

Governance
Ascot is in the district administered by the unitary authority of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Ascot, South Ascot and a small part of North Ascot are in the civil parish of Sunninghill and Ascot, although most of North Ascot is in the civil parish of Winkfield.

Church of England
The Church of England parish church of All Saints, Ascot Heath is a red brick Gothic Revival building designed by Thomas Rushforth and built in 1864. It has a richly decorated interior. The east window of its chancel is a Jesse window with stained glass made by C.E. Kempe & Co in 1907. Above it is a rose window by Hardman & Co. The Church of England parish church of All Souls, South Ascot is another red-brick Gothic Revival building. It was designed by J.L. Pearson and built in 1896–97. It has a central tower with a pyramidal roof. Its nave has aisles of four bays. The ceilings of the chancel, baptistry and the crossing under the tower are rib vaulted. All Souls' is a Grade II* listed building. Ascot Priory was founded in 1861 for the Society of the Most Holy Trinity. It has buildings designed by the architects Charles Buckeridge, William Butterfield, George Gilbert Scott and Leonard Stokes.

Roman Catholic
The Roman Catholic church of St Francis is also a red-brick Gothic Revival building. It was designed by the Roman Catholic priest and architect A.J.C. Scoles, built in 1889 and has an apsidal chancel.

Local schools
Independent senior schools in the area include Heathfield School (an all-girls boarding school), The Marist School (a private Catholic girls school 2–18 with mixed nursery), St. George's School (a private girls senior school recently attended by Princess Beatrice of York), St Mary's School, a Catholic all-girls boarding school (which Caroline, Princess of Hanover attended), located in South Ascot and the Licensed Victuallers' School, which is located down the road from Ascot Racecourse. Papplewick is also based in Ascot. The local state secondary school in the Ascot area is Charters School in nearby Sunningdale.

Amenities
Facilities tend to be geared towards the racecourse, but there is a small range of shops in the wide High Street. Most of the expected facilities one would expect to find in a small town are here, including a supermarket, petrol station and many cafes, a Subway, Tesco Express and Sainsbury's Local). Most buildings are post-war with flats above the ground floor retail space. Heatherwood Hospital (filming location for Carry On Matron) was at the western edge of the town. Ascot station is on a junction of the railway line from London Waterloo to Reading, Bagshot, Aldershot and Guildford, originally built by the London & South Western Railway and now operated by South Western Railway. As a consequence of the frequent service on this line, Ascot is now a commuter centre in both directions (westwards to Reading and eastwards to London).

Royal Ascot week

The centrepiece of Ascot's year is held in June: Royal Ascot is arguably the world's most famous race meeting, dating back to 1711. The British royal family attend the meeting, arriving each day in a procession of horse-drawn carriages from Windsor Castle through Windsor Great Park and the village of Cheapside. It is a major event in the British social calendar. The course is still owned by the Crown.

Economy
Ascot Racecourse employs over 70 full-time staff, which increases temporarily to 6,000 during Royal Ascot week. The village has a variety of businesses located at the Ascot Business Park, opened in 2008, including the UK headquarters of global toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific, in addition to numerous small and medium enterprises. The Chartered Institute of Building, a professional body for those working in the construction industry and built environment, is also based in Ascot.

Sport and leisure
Ascot has a Non-League football club, Ascot United F.C., and the Royal Ascot Cricket Club which play at the racecourse. Royal Ascot Golf Club is located next to the racecourse.

Army Cadet Force
Ascot has an Army Cadet Force unit: 4 Platoon Ascot. The unit, being badged as Irish Guards (due to the unit belonging to A Company, Berkshire ACF; a company currently badged to the Household Division), means that the unit regularly sees Irish Guards events such as the Saint Patrick's Day Parade, and even has the privilege of taking part in an Irish Guards ACF skills competition, run by the battalion. It actively recruits from the local and surrounding area. The unit used to parade at Ascot Racecourse, however, they were evicted due to an appeal made by the racecourse owners. They now temporarily parade at Sunningdale Parish Hall, Broomhill Lane.

Notable residents

 * Jake Ball (1991–), Welsh rugby player
 * Boris Berezovsky (1946–2013), an exiled Russian tycoon, lived and died in Ascot
 * Josh Cuthbert (1992–), singer from Union J
 * Chris Evans (1966–), English presenter, businessman and producer for radio and television, lives in Ascot
 * Sarah Harding (1981–2021), singer, Girls Aloud, born in Ascot
 * Nick Hendrix (1985–), actor, born in Ascot
 * John Lennon (1940–1980) and Ringo Starr (1940–) of the Beatles, successively lived at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot
 * Henry Liddell (1811–1898), classical scholar and former Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, lived in Ascot in his last years and died there.
 * Camilla Luddington (1983–), actress, born and raised in Ascot
 * Marti Pellow (1965–), singer of Wet Wet Wet, lives in Ascot
 * Adam Roberts (1965–), science fiction author, lives in North Ascot
 * Marie-José Villiers (1916–2015), British-born Belgian countess, British spy during World War II.

title: Ascot, Berkshire


text:
Category:Ionia County, Michigan

Articles related to Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan.

title: Category:Ionia County, Michigan


text:
Night Driver (video game)

Night Driver is an arcade video game developed by Atari, Inc. and released in the United States in October 1976. It's one of the earliest first-person racing video games and is commonly believed to be one of the first published video games to feature real-time first-person graphics. Night Driver has a black and white display with the hood of the player's car painted on a plastic overlay. The road is rendered as scaled rectangles representing "pylons" that line the edges.

Two arcade cabinet styles were manufactured: upright and sit-down. The upright version has a blacklight installed inside the cabinet which illuminated the bezel.

Atari published a color version for the Atari Video Computer System in 1980.

Gameplay
The player controls a car which must be driven along a road at nighttime without crashing into the sides of the road as indicated by road side reflectors. The game is controlled with a single pedal for the accelerator, a wheel for steering and a four-selection lever for gear shifting. The coin-operated game had a choice of three difficulties (novice, pro and expert), which the player could select at game start. The turns were sharper and more frequent on the more difficult tracks. As play progresses, the road gets narrower and more winding.

The game length is 50, 75, 100 or 125 seconds based on an internal setting. After 300 points, a player is awarded bonus time equal to game time, but the score wraps around back to zero at 1000 points, so it is possible to reach 300 points more than once. Due to the additional points received for more difficult play, playing on the expert setting is actually the easiest to achieve extra time once a player has mastered the game.

The car the player is driving is not actually drawn in the game, but is printed on plastic insert in front of the monitor.

Development
When he began working on video games, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell had originally planned to develop a driving video game inspired by Speedway (1969), a first-person driving electro-mechanical game manufactured by Chicago Coin, in turn a licensed version of Kasco's Indy 500 (1968). However, Bushnell had concerns that a driving video game might be too complicated for Al Alcorn's first game, so they instead decided to develop a simpler game, Pong (1972). Night Driver has similarities to arcade driving electro-mechanical games, which had a scrolling road rather than a fixed view.

The development of Night Driver was led by Dave Shepperd at Atari, who was given an assignment to develop a first-person driving video game. Shepperd said that he "was given a piece of paper with a picture of a game cabinet that had a small portion of the screen visible" which he recalls being possibly "a German game" but "never saw the game play" other than "that there were a few little white squares showing". Shepperd used that concept to develop Night Driver. That the car is driving at night provided an excuse for the minimal graphics, as most features (like the street and buildings) aren't visible in the dark. While he did not know the title of the German game at the time, it was later identified as the coin-op Nürburgring 1, a first-person driving video game released earlier in 1976.

Atari used some of the leftover arcade cabinets from Hi-way (1975), a top-down vertically scrolling racing game, for Night Driver.

Release
The arcade game began production in October 1976. Atari demonstrated the game at the AMOA show in November 1976, where it was one of several driving games demonstrated by Atari along with Sprint 2 and Namco's electro-mechanical F-1; the most talked-about driving game at the show was F-1. Night Driver also drew comparisons to Midway Manufacturing's Midnight Racer (later re-branded Datsun 280 ZZZAP) at the same show and an earlier German night driving video game (Nürburgring 1) demonstrated at the German IMA show in Spring 1976.

Ports
Atari released a port for the Atari VCS (later renamed to the Atari 2600) in 1980. It was programmed by Rob Fulop, who added color, displaying the player vehicle, additional vehicles the player must avoid, and showing houses and trees along the sides of the road. The paddle controller steers the vehicle; holding the button accelerates. It is not possible to shift gears in this version. There are eight variations, some of which are timed and the player tries to score as much as they can in 90 seconds.

Commodore published a version for the Commodore 64 in 1982.

Reception
In Japan, it was the tenth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1976.

In the United States, according to Play Meter magazine, Night Driver was the sixth highest-earning arcade video game of 1977. According to RePlay magazine, it was the seventh highest-earning arcade video game of 1977. Play Meter later listed it as the ninth highest-grossing arcade game of 1978, and the eleventh highest arcade video game of 1979.

The Atari VCS version sold 161,352 copies in 1980, becoming one of the top five best-selling Atari VCS games that year, and went on to sell over 1.9 million copies by 1983. Video Games Player magazine reviewed the Atari VCS version, rating the graphics and sound a B, while giving the game an overall A− rating. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the arcade version 59th on their "Top 100 Video Games" list.

Legacy
Two other first-person racing games were released shortly afterwards: Midway's Midnight Racer in November 1976 (later branded as Datsun 280 ZZZAP in March 1977) and Micronetics' Night Racer in March 1977.

Bill Budge wrote a Night Driver clone for the Apple II using the same name as the original.

title: Night Driver (video game)


text:
Savatheda Fynes

Savatheda Fynes (born October 17, 1974) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for Bahamas. She is an Olympic gold medalist in the 4 x 100 meter relay race. Some sources spell her first name "Sevatheda."

Career
She graduated Physiology and Exercise Science at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. She missed the 2001 World Championships due to injury. She had a minor car accident prior to the 2000 Olympic trials, which limited her training. At the World Championships in 1999 she was eliminated in semifinals due to an injured hip flexor. In 1996 a hamstring injury kept her out of the 100m at the Atlanta Games.

She was a member of the Bahamas 4x100m relay team that won gold at the 1999 World Championships. After that performance the team of Fynes, Pauline Davis-Thompson, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup and Eldece Clark-Lewis were dubbed the Golden Girls. When they won the relay again at the Sydney Olympics they showed the world why they had earned that name. The girls returned home from Sydney to a six-day fanfare of festivities in their honor, from receptions and parades to monetary awards and land grants. Central Bank has even been commissioned to mint a commemorative gold coin to honour their victory.

She earned an athletic scholarship to Southern University at New Orleans, but later transferred to Eastern Michigan University and then to Michigan State University.

She was forced to sit out the 1996 season because she was a transfer. She attended an indoor meet that year and stayed in a hotel room paid for by Michigan State. That being a violation, she lost her final season of eligibility in 1998, and her coach lost her job.

Personal bests

 * 100 metres: 10.91 seconds in Lausanne 1999
 * 60 metres: 7.01 seconds in Maebashi 1999
 * 50 metres: 6.05 seconds in Liévin 2000

title: Savatheda Fynes


text:
Embu das Artes

Embu das Artes, previously and commonly known simply as Embu, is a Brazilian municipality in the State of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 276,535 (2020 est.) in an area of 70.40 km2.

Its history brought it an unexpected specialization as a city for artists. This has paid tourism dividends to the city.

History
The history of Embu began in 1554, with the arrival of a group of Jesuits of the aldeamento or settlement of Bohi, later M'Boy, halfway between the sea and the São Paulo hinterlands. As the Jesuit missions in the interior of Brazil, the primary objective was to convert the native population to Roman Catholicism, in an attempt to use them as farm workers in the region.

In 1607 the lands of the village passed to the hands of Fernão Dias (uncle of the bandeirante Fernão Dias, the emerald hunter), In 1690, the priest Belchior de Pontes initiated the construction of the Igreja do Rosário (the Church of the Rosary), when it transferred at the same time to the nucleus of the original village. In 1760, by order of the Portuguese Crown, the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil because they interfered in colonist affairs, such as protecting converted natives from the Bandeiras, which sought to enslave them.

The artistic vocation of the city started to project itself in 1937, when Cássio M'Boy, "santeiro" – sculptor of religious images – in Embu, gained first prize at the Exposition Internationel d'Arts Techniques du Paris. Before that, Cássio had been the professor of some renowned artists and received illustrious representatives of the Modernismo movement of 1922, including Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Oswald de Andrade, Menotti Del Picchia, Volpi and Yoshio Takaoka.

One of Cássio M'Boy's most successful disciples was Sakai de Embu, internationally known and one of the greatest Brazilian ceramist-sculptors. In 1962, Sakai formed the Solano Trindade group of plastic artists, highly influenced by African-Brazilian art and the religious tradition of the Yoruba orishahs. This group included Solano Trindade and later his daughter Raquel Trindade.

The artistic tradition of Embu is an institution with projects and events done both in Brazil and abroad since 1964. The Feira de Artes and Artesanato do Embu (Arts and Handicraft of Embu) was launched in the late 1960s and it has been attracting tourists and revenues to the city ever since.

One of the top Nazi torturers, Josef Mengele was buried in the Nossa Senhora do Rosario cemetery in Embu under his false identity, Wolfgang Gerhard, as the southern region of the city of São Paulo and its borders are known for a sizable German-Brazilian population.

Media
In telecommunications, the city was served by Companhia Telefônica Brasileira until 1973, when it began to be served by Telecomunicações de São Paulo. In July 1998, this company was acquired by Telefónica, which adopted the Vivo brand in 2012.

The company is currently an operator of cell phones, fixed lines, internet (fiber optics/4G) and television (satellite and cable).

title: Embu das Artes


text:
User:Canadianartist

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Again, welcome! - Solipsist 18:31, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

title: User:Canadianartist


text:
Talk:The Smoking Room

Non-Core Characters
Earlier versions of this page had information about other (seen) characters, including Dominic, Lois, Yvonne, etc. Now the character list is split 'main characters' and 'unseen characters', this info has gone. Arguably some of the unseen characters are more important than one-episode characters like Lois, but it seems weird to have text about Shreela (mentioned once? twice?) and nothing about Gordon (who is perhaps the only recurring character not currently listed). 207.181.208.29 (talk) 00:45, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Analysis section
I don't think it's appropriate for this article to feature analysis, as this is against Wikipedia's Original Research policy. 89.242.172.88 (talk) 01:07, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

No episodes
TV.com has for some reason removed its Episode guide. Anyone have a list of episodes saved? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.50.124.34 (talk) 08:58, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I missed one or two episodes so I'm not sure that my information is 100% correct in all cases (though I have endeavoured to make it so). I would be grateful if anyone could point out (or make) any corrections or additions. --Smallbone10 18:31, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Nice quote
The writer appeared on BBC Breakfast (alongside Polly Toynbee on October 26 2005.

 * Natasha Kaplinsky - do you feel your show has influenced the debate (on smoking bans) in any way?

 * Brian Dooley (writer) - no probably not, it gets such small viewing figures!

 * Kaplinsky - don't say that!

--bodnotbod 06:49, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Trivia
Is it really worthwhile saying the show has no laughter track? It's not the only sitcom which doesn't. 82.19.30.111 23:36, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

No, not really. And it's also not worth repeating that the smoking ban would kill the program if it hadn't already ended, especially not in a sentence almost entirely lacking capital letters. I'll wipe both parts and if anyone's pissy enough they can probably revert it in three minutes.88.66.11.231 20:49, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Ben Okinawe
Who is Ben Okinawe, and why should Ben (from the Post Room) be confused with him? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.66.226.95 (talk) 12:08, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Ben Okinawe is mentioned in episode 3. Robin is talking about Ben, trying to get his point across that he thinks Ben (from the Post Room) is gay. He hesitates over the word "gay" and Lillian wonders if he means he's gay. Robin says, "No, of course he's not gay! Anyone can see he's not gay!" to which Lillian replies, "Ben Okinawe?" IndieSinger (talk) 16:56, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

 * No - when Robin says 'anyone can see he's...' Lilian replies 'What, black?', which is how it's revealed she means Ben Okinawe. Smurfmeister (talk) 16:11, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Smoking Room


text: User talk:67.107.25.72

title: User talk:67.107.25.72


text:
Dasharatha Maurya

Dasharatha Maurya was the 4th Mauryan emperor from 232 to 224 BCE. He was a grandson of Ashoka The Great and is commonly held to have succeeded him as the Emperor of India. Dasharatha presided over a declining imperium and several territories of the empire broke away from central rule during his reign. He had continued the religious and social policies of Ashoka. Dasharatha was the last Mauryan emperor to have issued imperial inscriptions—thus the last Mauryan Emperor to be known from epigraphical sources.

Dasharatha died in 224 BCE and was succeeded by his cousin Samprati.

Background
Dasharatha was a grandson of the Mauryan ruler Ashoka. He is commonly held to have succeeded his grandfather as Emperor of India although some sources including the Vayu Purana have given different names and numbers of Mauryan Emperors after Ashoka. Of the grandsons of Ashoka, the two most frequently mentioned are Samprati and Dasharatha. The latter is described in the Vishnu Purana as the son and imperial successor of Suyashas (a son of Ashoka). It has been suggested that Suyash was an alternative name of Ashoka's son and presumptive heir Kunala.

Administration
Historians Vincent Smith and Romila Thapar advanced the popular theory of a division of the Mauryan Empire amongst Kunala and Dasharatha after the death of Ashoka. In some of the sources the division is recorded as having been between Samprati and Dasharatha, the latter holding the eastern parts with the capital at Pataliputra and the former the western imperium with the capital at Ujjain. However, Smith also wrote that "there is no clear evidence to support [the] hypothesis."

The Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas mention three Mauryan rulers—Bandhupalita, Indrapalita and Dasona—whose identification is rather difficult. It has been suggested that they may have been members of a branch line of the Maurya dynasty whom Dasharatha had appointed as regional governors for the convenience of administration.

The political unity of the Mauryan Empire did not long survive Ashoka's death. One of Dasharatha's uncles, Jalauka, set up an independent kingdom in Kashmir. According to Taranatha, another Mauryan prince, Virasena declared himself king in Gandhara. Vidarbha also seceded. Evidence from Greek sources confirm the loss of the north-western provinces which was then ruled by the Mauryan ruler Sophagasenus (Subhagasena, probably a successor of Virasena). There is also much modern speculation about a possible east–west division of the empire involving Dasharatha and another Mauryan ruler. Epigraphic evidence indicates that Dasharatha retained imperial power in Magadha.

Various dynasties of the south including the Satavahana had been feudatories of the Mauryan Empire. These kingdoms are mentioned in Ashoka's edicts (256 BCE) and were considered part of the outer circle of the imperium—subject to the rule of the Mauryan Emperor, although doubtless enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy under their local rulers. The death of Ashoka began the decline of imperial power in the south. Dasharatha was able to maintain some command of the home provinces, but the distant governments, including areas in the south, broke away from imperial rule and reasserted their independence. The Mahameghavahana dynasty of Kalinga in central-eastern India also broke away from imperial rule after the death of Ashoka.

According to a Jain text, the provinces of Surashtra, Maharashtra, Andhra, and the Mysore region broke away from the empire shortly after Ashoka's death, but were reconquered by Dasharatha's successor, Samprati (who supposedly deployed soldiers disguised as Jain monks).

Religion
Ashoka had displayed divine support in his inscriptions; although a Buddhist ruler, he was called Devanampiya, which means "Beloved of the Gods" in Pali. The title of Devanampiya and religious adherence of the Mauryan ruler to Buddhism was continued by Dasharatha.

Dasharatha is known to have dedicated three caves in the Nagarjuni Hills to the Ajivikas. Three inscriptions at the caves refer to him as "Devanampiya" and state that the caves were dedicated by him shortly after his accession.

Nagarjuni caves inscriptions by Dasaratha Maurya
Dasaratha Maurya, Ashoka's grandson and regnal successor, wrote dedicatory inscriptions in the three forming the Nagarjuni group (Gopika, Vadathi and Vapiya caves) of the Barabar Caves. It is generally considered that their construction dates from his reign.

The three caves were offered to the Ajivikas upon the accession to the throne of Dasaratha, confirming that these were still active around 230 BCE, and that Buddhism was not the exclusive religion of the Mauryas at that time.

The three caves are also characterized by an extremely advanced finish of the granite walls inside, which again confirms that the technique of "Mauryan polish" did not die out with the reign of Ashoka.

Succession
Samprati, who succeeded Dasharatha, was according to the Hindu Puranas, the latter's son and according to the Buddhist and Jain sources, Kunala's son (making him possibly a brother of Dasharatha). The familial relationship between the two is thus not clear although evidently they were closely related members of the imperial family.

title: Dasharatha Maurya


text:
Ira Rennert

Ira Leon Rennert (born May 31, 1934) is an American billionaire businessman, and the chairman and CEO of Renco Group.

Background and education
Rennert's parents were immigrants from Poland and Romania. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1954, and earned his master's degree from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1956, where he later was on the Board of Overseers.

Early career
Rennert started his career as a credit analyst on Wall Street in 1956. He also served as a partner at Rubin, Rennert & Co. before launching his own business, I. L. Rennert & Co., in 1962. At this time he was censured by the National Association of Securities Dealers for operating with insufficient capital. It occurred again in 1963, and as a result, his license was revoked on November 29, 1964, effectively banning him from the securities industry. According to a company spokesman, Jon Goldberg: "Due to market conditions, the firm found itself in violation of the net capital rule and Rennert raised capital and put it into the firm to bring it into compliance. However, the firm once more fell beneath the net-capital requirements and he shut the company down."

Junk bond financing
Michael Milken—as a bond trader for Drexel Burnham Lambert—was successful in selling high-risk, high-yield bonds issued by struggling or undercapitalized companies. Integrated Resources raised $2 billion in junk bonds financed by Milken but ultimately collapsed amid scandal and defaulted on $1 billion of bond debt in May 1989 (see the 1991 book Den of Thieves about the junk bond scandal). As an outside board member, Rennert was not dragged down by the collapse and began to raise junk bonds on his own behalf to finance acquisitions for the Renco Group.

Rennert's strategy for building Renco was to acquire all the shares of struggling companies and to finance the acquisition by issuing junk bonds. Along the way, he paid substantial dividends out of the business to himself. In a series of junk bond issues since 1995, Renco's subsidiaries have borrowed an estimated $1.1 billion and transferred $322 million (29 percent) to Renco Group, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Backed by blue-chip mutual funds and hedge funds such as John Hancock Funds LLC and Putnam Investment Management LLC, Rennert now didn't have to invest much of his own money. His purchase of AM General in 1992 was bought with a down payment of just $10 million. In 1994, Fluor Corp. of Los Angeles sold the Doe Run Company to Renco, with the latter paying $52 million in cash, and approximately $60 million in debt payable over an eight-year period. In 1997, Doe Run went on to pay $247 million for a similarly environmentally troubled lead smelting complex from the Peruvian government, as well as borrowing more money to service its Fluor Corporation debt. And in 1998, Doe Run sold $305 million in junk bonds for financing its Peruvian acquisition as well as more lead mines in Missouri (according to Doe Run filings with the SEC). Since 1998 most Renco financings have been bank debt.

WCI Steel
In 1988, Renco bought a Warren (Ohio) steel company from its bankrupt parent, LTV Steel Co., for a price tag of $140 million. This company then became WCI Steel Inc., and Rennert was able to ultimately sell bonds totaling $300 million, paying $108 million of the proceeds as a dividend to Renco. In 1998, Renco Steel Holdings Inc. was created to serve as a holding company for WCI. The holding company then sold $120 million in junk bonds, this time paying an additional $100 million dividend to Renco.

At the time of the bankruptcy, if the pension plan had been terminated, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation calculated a $117 million shortfall. Despite losing the company, Renco agreed to assume responsibility for the existing pension plan, with ongoing support from WCI. Newspaper reports speculated that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation had threatened to put a lien on Rennert's personal estate in order to ensure the steelworkers' benefits. Harbinger sold the business to Severstal, a steelmaker based in Russia.

MagCorp/US Magnesium
In 1989, Renco acquired the U.S.'s largest magnesium producer in Utah. Removing minerals from the water of the Great Salt Lake, Magnesium Corp. uses chemicals to refine the magnesium used in products ranging from bombs to bicycles. In 1996, Renco established Renco Metals, Inc. as a holding company for Magnesium Corp. and issued $150 million in bonds. Just like WCI, the company paid Renco $90 million in dividends by the year end.

In 2001, the Department of Justice filed suit against Magnesium Corp. for multiple violations of hazardous waste law, and also it cited Rennert's removal of money from Magnesium Corp. through the bond issue, "leaving the companies insolvent and unable to pay their bills". The suit went on until 2007, when a judge ruled in favor of Renco and against the DOJ.

On August 17, 2010, a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturned a District Court judge's October 17, 2007, decision that the U.S. Magnesium facility in Rowley, Utah was not illegally disposing five wastes. The initial lawsuit DOJ filed on behalf of EPA in 2001 claimed U.S. Magnesium was not following regulations promulgated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, which dictates how waste byproducts must be disposed. Renco continues to operate the business under the name US Magnesium. At this point, US Magnesium is the only magnesium producer in the United States.

The EPA published its proposal to place the US Magnesium facility on the National Priorities List (NPL, a "Superfund site" under CERCLA) in the Federal Register on September 3, 2008. The National Priorities List (NPL) is a list of places, commonly known as "superfund sites," considered national priorities for environmental remediation because of known or threatened releases of hazardous substances.USM filed its petition for review of the listing in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on November 5, 2009. On January 14, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals sided with the EPA and upheld placing the site on the National Priority List.

AM General
In 1993, Renco acquired AM General from the LTV Corporation to help LTV emerge from bankruptcy. Terms included a $67.5 million cash payment with the remainder to be paid in various forms over a 10-year period. AM General produced vehicles for industrial, military and government use, including the Humvee. On August 20, 2004, it was announced that Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings company would buy 70% of AM General from Renco. The deal reportedly cost close to US$1 billion.

United States
The Renco Group's environmental record in the U.S. related to Doe Run provides a good example of this development. In 1998, the EPA placed Renco Group business holdings 10th on the nation's largest polluter list primarily because of emissions from US Magnesium in Utah (formerly MagCorp). (US Magnesium was purchased by Renco in 1989 in the year in which its emissions peaked at 119,000 tons per year.) By 1998, the year the Renco was placed on the EPA list, it had reduced emissions at US Magnesium by 50%. By 2005, the most recent year of data released by the EPA, emissions had been reduced 97%.

In 2001, the Justice Department and EPA filed suit against Renco. They demanded nearly $1 billion in fines, alleging MagCorp (a Renco Metals Inc. subsidiary) dumped toxic waste in ditches and ponds on the Great Salt Lake. The suit claimed PCB-laced sludge and dust choked the plant's plumbing, wastewater ponds, landfill and ditches, where contaminants were 12 times the allowed limit for accidental release. MagCorp maintained it was exempt from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which requires companies to monitor certain kinds of hazardous waste. Magcorp declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after the lawsuit began and a federal judge allowed Rennert to restructure MagCorp—now U.S. Magnesium—which exempted it from previous legal liability. The EPA suit, however, remained outstanding until October 2007 when a federal judge ruled against the EPA and the Justice Department and in favor of Renco and MagCorp / US Magnesium.

Today, US Magnesium is the third-largest magnesium producer in the world. Its environmental improvements and recent track record have been substantial and include a reduction of emissions by 90% since 2000 (97% since 1989). The EPA data recognizes this as the single largest reduction in air emissions in the category of hazardous air pollutants since the TRI began in 1987 at any single facility. The energy improvements in US Magnesium's manufacturing process have also caused a net reduction of 100,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. US Magnesium was the recipient of a 2004 Climate Protection Award from the EPA and won an MEP award in 2006 for Environmental Consciousness.

Another US unit of Renco also faced environmental issues in Herculaneum, Missouri and has made substantial improvements. Locals in Herculaneum claimed their children were suffering from lead poisoning traceable to toxic emissions coming from Renco's Doe Run lead smelting plant, which had been in operations locally since 1892. In 2000, the EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources tested area lead levels and ordered Doe Run to clean up locations where lead levels exceeded EPA standards. A 2002 study showed more than half of the children living within a quarter mile of the smelter had high blood-lead levels. Doe Run agreed to buy 160 homes in the contaminated area around the smelter at a cost of more than $10 million. An EPA fact sheet noted the following: "Since 2001, EPA, MDNR and The Doe Run Company have addressed lead contamination in Herculaneum through a series of actions which have included residential soil replacements, home interior cleanups, and a voluntary residential buyout program. EPA and MDNR continue to work with Doe Run to address stabilization, erosion control, flood protection, stormwater collection and treatment, and wetland mitigation related to the slag pile area at the site. EPA and MDNR are also working with  Doe Run to address soil recontamination of residences near the smelter and contamination along city haul routes." In the first quarter of 2007, Doe Run met all of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). By 2008, the conditional approval proposed, which covered air dispersion model selection as well as meteorological and emissions inventory data, among others, for the operation of the smelter was incorporated to the 2007 Consent Judgment between the company and the state of Missouri. In 2013, Doe Run shut down its lead smelter, entirely discontinuing emissions in Missouri.

Peru
Doe Run, Peru, (a Renco Group holding) operated a smelting plant in La Oroya, Peru until 2010, that had similar types of environmental challenges to those faced in Herculaneum, but on a larger scale. The La Oroya smelter began operations in 1922 and was operated for many years by Centromin, a Peruvian government agency, without any environmental controls.

The smelter was sold to Doe Run in 1997 primarily because the Peruvian government passed a law that required environmental improvement at the business. This improvement was beyond the economic and technical capability of Centromin. As part of the sale to Renco, Centromin agreed to pay to remediate pre-existing (pre-1997) environmental problems and Doe Run Peru agreed to make substantial environmental investments. These investments were estimated to be approximately $100 million at the time of the deal.

In the end, Doe Run ended up investing more than $300 million in environmental remediation during its ownership and was not able to clean up the site to achieve the standards required by Peruvian law. La Oroya was and remains a very polluted site. The Blacksmith Institute placed La Oroya on its list of ten most polluted places in the world, along with Chernobyl, Ukraine. In August 2007, it was reported that air levels of arsenic levels were 85 times more than the "safe" level, cadmium 41 times, and lead 13 times more. A study by St. Louis University scientists found that 97 percent of children in La Oroya suffer from mental and physical deficiencies related to their exposure to polluted air.

Ultimately, Doe Run Peru was a bad investment for Renco on many counts. Renco received substantial negative publicity regarding its ownership and the environmental problems in La Oroya. The environmental problems were not solved despite huge investment by Renco, and Renco never made any financial profit from its investment.

Doe Run Peru is currently in a dispute with the Peruvian government which in part relates to Doe Run's claims that Centromin did not live up to its obligations with regard to cleaning up the pre-existing pollution.

Philanthropy
Ira Rennert ranks #818 on Forbes magazine's list of the world's billionaires. He also ranks #29 on The Jerusalem Post list of the World's 50 Richest Jews.

Rennert and his wife Ingeborg have made many charitable donations to various organizations. They donated $5 million to establish the Wiesel Center at Boston University and $250,000 to the Lincoln Center. They also gave over $1 million to the World Trade Center Memorial and established the Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute of Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. They have endowed chairs at several different universities, including a chair in Jewish studies at Barnard College, a chair in Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a chair in Stem Cell Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Ira Rennert Professorship of Business at Columbia University. They also established the Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at New York University and founded the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

The Rennerts also helped to fund the construction of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation in Jerusalem (the visitor's center is called The Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Hall of Light). Rennert's wife and children are named as the donors of The Jonas Mendel (Yonah Menachem Ben Mendel) Rennert Memorial Chapel at the Center for Jewish History. The Rennerts are known to have donated to Rabbi Aharon Bina's new yeshiva in Israel, Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, and are additionally honored with a plaque as well as their family upon entrance into the building. They also donated hundreds of Torah scrolls to communities in Israel. The family also funded the construction for a new mikvah at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, which was completed in May 2010.

Political activity
Rennert is a major Republican donor. He has contributed money to John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and other candidates.

Together with his spouse, Rennert contributed $900,000 to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

Family
Rennert is married to Ingeborg Hanna Rennert, a former airline ticket agent who is a convert to Judaism. She serves as the Director of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. They have three children:
 * Tamara Rennert Winn, married to Randall Winn, co-founder of Capital IQ (now S&P Capital IQ)
 * Yonina Rennert Davidson
 * Ari Rennert

Rennert is a member of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, an Orthodox synagogue where he is also honorary chairman.

Houses
Rennert caused controversy among his neighbors by building a beach front home in Sagaponack, New York, considered one of the largest occupied residential compounds in the United States. The house outraged locals, who claimed Rennert originally planned to use it as a spa, a hotel, or a religious retreat. He denied such allegations, and the local paper later issued an apology. He named his home after the adjoining body of water, Fairfield Pond.

The house faces the Atlantic Ocean and its grounds measure 63 acre. The buildings, which total over 110000 sqft, including the 66000 sqft main house, have an Italianate facade, 29 bedrooms, and 39 bathrooms. The house has a dozen chimneys and a Mediterranean-style tile roof as well as a 91 ft long formal dining room, a basketball court, a bowling alley, two tennis courts, two squash courts, a carousel, a large swimming pool, a large round kiddie pool, and a $150,000 hot tub, surrounded by another pool. Its property taxes in 2007 were $397,559.00. Based on these taxes, the home is currently valued at $198 million, making it the most valuable home in the United States. Besides his house in Sagaponack, Rennert owns a duplex apartment on Manhattan's Park Avenue, and a home in Israel. He previously lived in Atlantic Beach, NY.

title: Ira Rennert


text: User talk:130.184.61.167

title: User talk:130.184.61.167


text: User talk:65.92.174.150

title: User talk:65.92.174.150


text:
Véronique Mang

Véronique Ngo Mang (born December 15, 1984) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for France.

Biography
She arrived in France with her mother, brother and sister in 1995. She represented Cameroon until 2003 when she gained French citizenship. She started running at age 12 in France. She suffered a strained leg muscle in 2000 and a knee injury in 2001.

She won the bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

She competed at the 2005 Mediterranean Games in the 100 metres which was held at Almería. She went on to win gold, 0.02 ahead of compatriot Sylviane Félix. She later teamed up with Félix, Lina Jacques-Sebastien and Fabé Dia to win the 4 × 100 metres relay

She also competed at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie, in Niamey. She went on to claim gold in the 100 metre event, compatriot Fabienne Beret-Martinel claimed bronze. She also won gold in the 4 × 100 metres relay with Beret-Martinel, Aurelie Kamga and Carima Louami.

Mang competed at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in the 100 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay. Despite being considered a medal contender, she only managed to reach the semi-final stage in the 100 metres. In the relay, she teamed up with Fabienne Beret-Martinel, Adrianna Lamalle and Muriel Hurtis-Houairi. The French women ran an impressive heat and were the fastest qualifiers in a time of 43.38. In the final, they did not finish the race due to a failed baton exchange.

In June 2013, she ruptured a tendon, preventing her from competing for 12 months.

She retired in 2016. Her hobbies are music, dancing and collecting postcards.

title: Véronique Mang


text:
User talk:WardHayesWilson

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title: User talk:WardHayesWilson


text:
User talk:Tintoretto~enwiki

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia!

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
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Good luck!

[[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]]

P.S. One last helpful hint. To sign your posts like I did above (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).

Your account will be renamed
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