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Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms

Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) is a specification that prescribes a set of low-level routines for performing common linear algebra operations such as vector addition, scalar multiplication, dot products, linear combinations, and matrix multiplication. They are the de facto standard low-level routines for linear algebra libraries; the routines have bindings for both C ("CBLAS interface") and Fortran ("BLAS interface"). Although the BLAS specification is general, BLAS implementations are often optimized for speed on a particular machine, so using them can bring substantial performance benefits. BLAS implementations will take advantage of special floating point hardware such as vector registers or SIMD instructions.

It originated as a Fortran library in 1979 and its interface was standardized by the BLAS Technical (BLAST) Forum, whose latest BLAS report can be found on the netlib website. This Fortran library is known as the reference implementation (sometimes confusingly referred to as the BLAS library) and is not optimized for speed but is in the public domain.

Most libraries that offer linear algebra routines conform to the BLAS interface, allowing library users to develop programs that are indifferent to the BLAS library being used.

Many BLAS libraries have been developed, targeting various different hardware platforms. Examples includes cuBLAS (NVIDIA GPU, GPGPU), rocBLAS (AMD GPU), and OpenBLAS. Examples of CPU-based BLAS library branches include: OpenBLAS, BLIS (BLAS-like Library Instantiation Software), Arm Performance Libraries, ATLAS, and Intel Math Kernel Library (iMKL). AMD maintains a fork of BLIS that is optimized for the AMD platform. ATLAS is a portable library that automatically optimizes itself for an arbitrary architecture. iMKL is a freeware and proprietary vendor library optimized for x86 and x86-64 with a performance emphasis on Intel processors. OpenBLAS is an open-source library that is hand-optimized for many of the popular architectures. The LINPACK benchmarks rely heavily on the BLAS routine  for its performance measurements.

Many numerical software applications use BLAS-compatible libraries to do linear algebra computations, including LAPACK, LINPACK, Armadillo, GNU Octave, Mathematica, MATLAB, NumPy, R, Julia and Lisp-Stat.

Background
With the advent of numerical programming, sophisticated subroutine libraries became useful. These libraries would contain subroutines for common high-level mathematical operations such as root finding, matrix inversion, and solving systems of equations. The language of choice was FORTRAN. The most prominent numerical programming library was IBM's Scientific Subroutine Package (SSP). These subroutine libraries allowed programmers to concentrate on their specific problems and avoid re-implementing well-known algorithms. The library routines would also be better than average implementations; matrix algorithms, for example, might use full pivoting to get better numerical accuracy. The library routines would also have more efficient routines. For example, a library may include a program to solve a matrix that is upper triangular. The libraries would include single-precision and double-precision versions of some algorithms.

Initially, these subroutines used hard-coded loops for their low-level operations. For example, if a subroutine needed to perform a matrix multiplication, then the subroutine would have three nested loops. Linear algebra programs have many common low-level operations (the so-called "kernel" operations, not related to operating systems). Between 1973 and 1977, several of these kernel operations were identified. These kernel operations became defined subroutines that math libraries could call. The kernel calls had advantages over hard-coded loops: the library routine would be more readable, there were fewer chances for bugs, and the kernel implementation could be optimized for speed. A specification for these kernel operations using scalars and vectors, the level-1 Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS), was published in 1979. BLAS was used to implement the linear algebra subroutine library LINPACK.

The BLAS abstraction allows customization for high performance. For example, LINPACK is a general purpose library that can be used on many different machines without modification. LINPACK could use a generic version of BLAS. To gain performance, different machines might use tailored versions of BLAS. As computer architectures became more sophisticated, vector machines appeared. BLAS for a vector machine could use the machine's fast vector operations. (While vector processors eventually fell out of favor, vector instructions in modern CPUs are essential for optimal performance in BLAS routines.)

Other machine features became available and could also be exploited. Consequently, BLAS was augmented from 1984 to 1986 with level-2 kernel operations that concerned vector-matrix operations. Memory hierarchy was also recognized as something to exploit. Many computers have cache memory that is much faster than main memory; keeping matrix manipulations localized allows better usage of the cache. In 1987 and 1988, the level 3 BLAS were identified to do matrix-matrix operations. The level 3 BLAS encouraged block-partitioned algorithms. The LAPACK library uses level 3 BLAS.

The original BLAS concerned only densely stored vectors and matrices. Further extensions to BLAS, such as for sparse matrices, have been addressed.

Functionality
BLAS functionality is categorized into three sets of routines called "levels", which correspond to both the chronological order of definition and publication, as well as the degree of the polynomial in the complexities of algorithms; Level 1 BLAS operations typically take linear time, $O(n)$, Level 2 operations quadratic time and Level 3 operations cubic time. Modern BLAS implementations typically provide all three levels.

Level 1
This level consists of all the routines described in the original presentation of BLAS (1979), which defined only vector operations on strided arrays: dot products, vector norms, a generalized vector addition of the form

 * $$\boldsymbol{y} \leftarrow \alpha \boldsymbol{x} + \boldsymbol{y}$$

(called " ", "a x plus y") and several other operations.

Level 2
This level contains matrix-vector operations including, among other things, a generalized matrix-vector multiplication :

 * $$\boldsymbol{y} \leftarrow \alpha \boldsymbol{A} \boldsymbol{x} + \beta \boldsymbol{y}$$

as well as a solver for $x$ in the linear equation

 * $$\boldsymbol{T} \boldsymbol{x} = \boldsymbol{y}$$

with $T$ being triangular. Design of the Level 2 BLAS started in 1984, with results published in 1988. The Level 2 subroutines are especially intended to improve performance of programs using BLAS on vector processors, where Level 1 BLAS are suboptimal "because they hide the matrix-vector nature of the operations from the compiler."

Level 3
This level, formally published in 1990, contains matrix-matrix operations, including a "general matrix multiplication", of the form

 * $$\boldsymbol{C} \leftarrow \alpha \boldsymbol{A} \boldsymbol{B} + \beta \boldsymbol{C},$$

where $A$ and $B$ can optionally be transposed or hermitian-conjugated inside the routine, and all three matrices may be strided. The ordinary matrix multiplication $A B$ can be performed by setting $α$ to one and $C$ to an all-zeros matrix of the appropriate size.

Also included in Level 3 are routines for computing

 * $$\boldsymbol{B} \leftarrow \alpha \boldsymbol{T}^{-1} \boldsymbol{B},$$

where $T$ is a triangular matrix, among other functionality.

Due to the ubiquity of matrix multiplications in many scientific applications, including for the implementation of the rest of Level 3 BLAS, and because faster algorithms exist beyond the obvious repetition of matrix-vector multiplication,  is a prime target of optimization for BLAS implementers. E.g., by decomposing one or both of $A$, $B$ into block matrices,  can be implemented recursively. This is one of the motivations for including the $β$ parameter, so the results of previous blocks can be accumulated. Note that this decomposition requires the special case $β = 1$ which many implementations optimize for, thereby eliminating one multiplication for each value of $C$. This decomposition allows for better locality of reference both in space and time of the data used in the product. This, in turn, takes advantage of the cache on the system. For systems with more than one level of cache, the blocking can be applied a second time to the order in which the blocks are used in the computation. Both of these levels of optimization are used in implementations such as ATLAS. More recently, implementations by Kazushige Goto have shown that blocking only for the L2 cache, combined with careful amortizing of copying to contiguous memory to reduce TLB misses, is superior to ATLAS. A highly tuned implementation based on these ideas is part of the GotoBLAS, OpenBLAS and BLIS.

A common variation of gemm is the gemm3m, which calculates a complex product using "three real matrix multiplications and five real matrix additions instead of the conventional four real matrix multiplications and two real matrix additions", an algorithm similar to Strassen algorithm first described by Peter Ungar.

Implementations

 * Accelerate: Apple's framework for macOS and iOS, which includes tuned versions of BLAS and LAPACK.
 * Arm Performance Libraries: Arm Performance Libraries, supporting Arm 64-bit AArch64-based processors, available from Arm.
 * ATLAS: Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software, an open source implementation of BLAS APIs for C and Fortran 77.
 * BLIS: BLAS-like Library Instantiation Software framework for rapid instantiation. Optimized for most modern CPUs. BLIS is a complete refactoring of the GotoBLAS that reduces the amount of code that must be written for a given platform.
 * C++ AMP BLAS: The C++ AMP BLAS Library is an open source implementation of BLAS for Microsoft's AMP language extension for Visual C++.
 * cuBLAS: Optimized BLAS for NVIDIA based GPU cards, requiring few additional library calls.
 * NVBLAS: Optimized BLAS for NVIDIA based GPU cards, providing only Level 3 functions, but as direct drop-in replacement for other BLAS libraries.
 * clBLAS: An OpenCL implementation of BLAS by AMD. Part of the AMD Compute Libraries.
 * clBLAST: A tuned OpenCL implementation of most of the BLAS api.
 * Eigen BLAS: A Fortran 77 and C BLAS library implemented on top of the MPL-licensed Eigen library, supporting x86, x86-64, ARM (NEON), and PowerPC architectures.
 * ESSL: IBM's Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library, supporting the PowerPC architecture under AIX and Linux.
 * GotoBLAS: Kazushige Goto's BSD-licensed implementation of BLAS, tuned in particular for Intel Nehalem/Atom, VIA Nanoprocessor, AMD Opteron.
 * GNU Scientific Library: Multi-platform implementation of many numerical routines. Contains a CBLAS interface.
 * HP MLIB: HP's Math library supporting IA-64, PA-RISC, x86 and Opteron architecture under HP-UX and Linux.
 * Intel MKL: The Intel Math Kernel Library, supporting x86 32-bits and 64-bits, available free from Intel. Includes optimizations for Intel Pentium, Core and Intel Xeon CPUs and Intel Xeon Phi; support for Linux, Windows and macOS.
 * MathKeisan: NEC's math library, supporting NEC SX architecture under SUPER-UX, and Itanium under Linux
 * Netlib BLAS: The official reference implementation on Netlib, written in Fortran 77.
 * Netlib CBLAS: Reference C interface to the BLAS. It is also possible (and popular) to call the Fortran BLAS from C.
 * OpenBLAS: Optimized BLAS based on GotoBLAS, supporting x86, x86-64, MIPS and ARM processors.
 * PDLIB/SX: NEC's Public Domain Mathematical Library for the NEC SX-4 system.
 * rocBLAS: Implementation that runs on AMD GPUs via ROCm.
 * SCSL
 * SGI's Scientific Computing Software Library contains BLAS and LAPACK implementations for SGI's Irix workstations.

 * Sun Performance Library: Optimized BLAS and LAPACK for SPARC, Core and AMD64 architectures under Solaris 8, 9, and 10 as well as Linux.
 * uBLAS: A generic C++ template class library providing BLAS functionality. Part of the Boost library. It provides bindings to many hardware-accelerated libraries in a unifying notation. Moreover, uBLAS focuses on correctness of the algorithms using advanced C++ features.

Libraries using BLAS

 * Armadillo: Armadillo is a C++ linear algebra library aiming towards a good balance between speed and ease of use. It employs template classes, and has optional links to BLAS/ATLAS and LAPACK. It is sponsored by NICTA (in Australia) and is licensed under a free license.
 * LAPACK: LAPACK is a higher level Linear Algebra library built upon BLAS. Like BLAS, a reference implementation exists, but many alternatives like libFlame and MKL exist.
 * Mir: An LLVM-accelerated generic numerical library for science and machine learning written in D. It provides generic linear algebra subprograms (GLAS). It can be built on a CBLAS implementation.

Similar libraries (not compatible with BLAS)

 * Elemental: Elemental is an open source software for distributed-memory dense and sparse-direct linear algebra and optimization.
 * HASEM: is a C++ template library, being able to solve linear equations and to compute eigenvalues. It is licensed under BSD License.
 * LAMA: The Library for Accelerated Math Applications (LAMA) is a C++ template library for writing numerical solvers targeting various kinds of hardware (e.g. GPUs through CUDA or OpenCL) on distributed memory systems, hiding the hardware specific programming from the program developer
 * MTL4: The Matrix Template Library version 4 is a generic C++ template library providing sparse and dense BLAS functionality. MTL4 establishes an intuitive interface (similar to MATLAB) and broad applicability thanks to generic programming.

Sparse BLAS
Several extensions to BLAS for handling sparse matrices have been suggested over the course of the library's history; a small set of sparse matrix kernel routines was finally standardized in 2002.

Batched BLAS
The traditional BLAS functions have been also ported to architectures that support large amounts of parallelism such as GPUs. Here, the traditional BLAS functions provide typically good performance for large matrices. However, when computing e.g., matrix-matrix-products of many small matrices by using the GEMM routine, those architectures show significant performance losses. To address this issue, in 2017 a batched version of the BLAS function has been specified.

Taking the GEMM routine from above as an example, the batched version performs the following computation simultaneously for many matrices:

$$\boldsymbol{C}[k] \leftarrow \alpha \boldsymbol{A}[k] \boldsymbol{B}[k] + \beta \boldsymbol{C}[k] \quad \forall k $$

The index $$k$$ in square brackets indicates that the operation is performed for all matrices $$k$$ in a stack. Often, this operation is implemented for a strided batched memory layout where all matrices follow concatenated in the arrays $$A$$, $$B$$ and $$C$$.

Batched BLAS functions can be a versatile tool and allow e.g. a fast implementation of exponential integrators and Magnus integrators that handle long integration periods with many time steps. Here, the matrix exponentiation, the computationally expensive part of the integration, can be implemented in parallel for all time-steps by using Batched BLAS functions.

title: Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms


text: User talk:67.70.27.39

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

title: User talk:67.70.27.39


text:
5250

5250 Can refer to:
 * The year in the 6th millennium
 * IBM 5250

title: 5250


text: Talk:Music of Wallis and Futuna

title: Talk:Music of Wallis and Futuna


text:
Gorredijk

Gorredijk is the largest town in the municipality of Opsterland, in the Dutch province of Friesland. Gorredijk had a population of 7,360 in 2019.

The hamlets of Easterein and Kortezwaag are also part of the town. The latter was an independent village until 1962. Gorredijk and Kortezwaag then formed a double village as Gorredijk-Kortezwaag, but after a few years it was decided to shorten this to Gorredijk, so the older Kortezwaag became a neighborhood of Gorredijk in 1969.

History
The Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart runs through the center of Gorredijk. The town is a so-called vlecke that was created by peat extraction. In the past, Gorredijk was mainly the place where goods were imported, stored and traded.

A great amount of peat passed through Gorredijk, especially from the area behind Tijnje. There was dire poverty in the region. Jacob van Lennep says the following about it in 1823: "A little further west than the Heereveen is the Gordijcke, where there still live some half savages or cavemen, whose houses are half underground and who live from robbery and begging. Of the three criminals who are sentenced in Friesland, one is from that place."

Gorredijk used to look very different. Extensive peat bogs covered southeast Friesland. This peat was later excavated and this "industry" attracted many people to these then sparsely populated areas. The original inhabitants were farmers. They grew buckwheat, oats, rye, peas, beans, flax and herbs. They also kept sheep and bees. Cattle was kept sparingly.

The farmers in the town may have partly obtained their hay from the low countries between Tijnje and Terwispel. They will also have extracted pieces of heather in and near the Gorrevenen, which were located in the direction of present-day Jubbega. These Gorrevenen were excavated by the Heren Compagnon in the seventeenth century. Jonker Dekema in particular had many possessions here. Jonkersland (Jonkerslân) could also have been called Dekema's land.

A channel was needed to transport peat. This did not exist in 1622, but is mentioned in writing in 1630. The digging of the Hegedyk around 1631 is considered the "starting point" of the peat colony Gordijk. As there was now a channel to the Gorrevenen, the first house was built at the Hooge wech, soon followed by others. Over the hole in the dike a Hoogholtje bridge was built, underneath which the peat ships could sail with masts lowered.

Plaatselijk Belang Gorredijk
On 22 November 1880, an organization called Plaatselijk Belang (Local Interest) was established to aid the inhabitants of Gorredijk. For example, the local population could borrow money from the organization and Plaatselijk Belang involved itself in issues in and around town, such as the connection to the railway network of the Nederlandsche Tramweg Maatschappij. Surviving to the present, the organization remains closely involved and along with local interest groups in neighboring communities, forms a crucial dialog partner of the municipality of Opsterland. The organization periodically consults with the municipal government and informs those interested in current events via its website.

Education
Gorredijk is home to three primary schools: de Treffer, Loevestein, and Protestant Christian school de Librije. Secondary education is provided by the Burgemeester Harmsma School and most local students look to Heerenveen and Drachten for their tertiary education needs. Museum Opsterlân is also housed in a former school building, which was constructed in 1887 to a design by architect Jacobus Anthonie Meessen and served as a primary school until 1955.

Town center
Gorredijk is a center for retail and employment for surrounding communities. The town originated as a linear settlement along the Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart with the most important streets being the Brouwerswal, Kerkewal, Molenwal and Langewal. The latter is crossed by the Hoofdstraat or main street. Neighborhoods such as Het Leantsje, De Helling and De Vlecke were built in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, streets such as Spinnerij, Brouwerij, Wolkammerij, Weverij, Mouterij and Kuperij were developed. The most recent construction project is the Loevestein plan, which has closed significant distance between Gorredijk and the nearby village of Lippenhuizen.

Market
From 1694 on, Gorredijk has been given the right to hold a weekly market. The former spring and autumn livestock market also dates back to those days, when cattle left or returned to the barns, respectively. The farmers then brought their butter to the weigh house at the Boterwaag and their grains to the commodity market at the Korenbeurs. Both currently serve as office buildings. As the town grew, industry kept pace. There have been three shipyards, a rope-making shop and two lime kilns in Gorredijk, though none remain at present. The former village of Kortezwaag had remained a farming community through the centuries.

Nightlife
Gorredijk had a dance hall in the 1970s, but the venue was shuttered alongside a music club on the industrial estate. Most youngsters from the town go out in Heerenveen, Drachten, Groningen or Zevenhuizen and Marum. Local pubs attract a small but regular audience. At the beginning of 1900 there were more than 100 "living room bars" in Gorredijk and the town brewed its own spirits: Gerard Brons Beerenburg and jenever. The Gerard Brons brand still exists, but is now brewed by Boomsma distillery in Leeuwarden.

Religion
Although Gorredijk has the pretense of being a "red" socialist town—Domela Nieuwenhuis came from the area—it has a number of church communities. There is a Catholic Church, a Protestant congregation, a Mennonite community, and a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Gorredijk has had its own Dutch Reformed Church since 1683. In 1896, a church bell from the town was put up for sale, which can now be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Dated to the 12th century, it is unknown where this bell saw use.

Gorredijk has a rich Jewish past. There was a synagogue and a Jewish school. In the eighties of the nineteenth century the Jewish family De Haan, with the then very young future authors Jacob Israël and Carry, lived there for a few years. Only a handful of Jews survived World War II. In a meadow towards Jubbega one can still find a historic Jewish cemetery.

During the war it was relatively quiet in Gorredijk, although there were quite a few people in the resistance in one way or another. On the eve of the liberation, there was a shooting near the draw bridge in the main street, which is now named after the fallen resistance fighter Gerke Numan. In the vicinity of the town, as elsewhere in Friesland, there were many hiding places. During the occupation, a number of Allied aircraft were shot down in the area, of which a crew of six from a British Vickers Wellington bomber are buried in the local graveyard.

Sports and recreation
Sports clubs in Gorredijk include football association VV Gorredijk and korfball association LDODK. In addition, the town has a volleyball association Reva, rugby association De Wrotters, gymnastics association Stânfries, a tennis association, and an outdoor swimming pool.

Notable people

 * Jodocus Heringa (1765–1840), theologian
 * Roelof Kuipers (1855–1922), architect
 * Tjeerd Kuipers (1857–1942), architect
 * Hans de Jong (1921–2010), meteorologist
 * Tine de Vries (1931–2014), ice skater
 * Heinze Bakker (1942–2021), sports journalist
 * Tine Mersmann (1946–2012), painter and sculptor
 * Tjitze Vogel (born 1958), musician
 * Arjen Bergsma (born 1989), football player
 * Reina Anema (born 1993), speed skater

title: Gorredijk


text:
Sam Wood

Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Pride of the Yankees, and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and for his uncredited work directing parts of Gone with the Wind. He was also involved in a few acting and writing projects.

As a youth, Wood developed an enthusiasm for physical fitness that persisted into his senior years and influenced his interest in making sports-themed films.

Wood advanced from making largely competent yet routine pictures in the 1920s and 1930s to directing several highly regarded works during the 1940s at the peak of his abilities, among them Kings Row (1942) and Ivy (1947).

Wood's quick, efficient and professional execution of his film assignments endeared him to studio executives, and though not a "brilliant" director, Wood's legacy represents "a long and respectable film career."

Early life and family
Samuel Grosvenor Wood was born on July 10, 1883, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to William Henry Wood and Katherine (née Corn) Wood. He attended M. Hall Stanton School. One of Wood's daughters, born Gloria Wood, was film and television actress K.T. Stevens. Spent time in Summers around 1900 on the Atlantic City beach with friends.

Early career in Hollywood
When Wood turned 18 years old in the summer of 1901, he and a companion began a year-long trek across the United States, ultimately arriving in Los Angeles, where Wood embarked on a successful career as a real estate broker. By 1906, the then-primitive film industry in Southern California enticed Wood to gain entrée into the nascent industry by acting, adopting the screen name "Chad Applegate." He carefully concealed his (then regarded) ill-reputed avocation from real estate associates and clients.

In 1908, Wood married Clara Louise Roush, who encouraged her spouse to commit to a career in film. Spurred by a collapse in the real estate market, Wood obtained work as a movie production assistant and, by 1914, was serving as an assistant director to Cecil B. DeMille. During the next five years, Wood contributed to the manufacture of hundreds of movies shorts as an assistant director, mostly for Paramount Pictures.

Directorial debut: The Wallace Reid films, 1920
At the end of 1919, Wood won his first assignment as director in the Paramount feature Double Speed, the first of five films he was paired with screen star Wallace Reid, all of which were filmed and released in 1920. Wood demonstrated efficient and effective direction that made him attractive to Paramount executives. The success of these hour-long action comedies were highly praised by production head Jesse Lasky for their "assembly line" output and profitability.

Actor Reid, injured during a shoot in 1919, suffered from chronic pain that he treated with morphine. (A functioning addict during his collaboration with Wood, he would die in 1923 at the age of 32 due to complications related to his addiction.)

Despite the outstanding success of his Reid features, Wood expressed a desire to work on other projects. Paramount, "perhaps as a sign of displeasure" obliged Wood by demoting him to their subsidiary movie unit, Realart, a venue for the production of low-budget "routine programme pictures" that offered little in the way of substance. Wood endured the assignment, making four films at Realart, starring Ethel Clayton and Wanda Hawley, all filmed in 1920. Wood's perseverance at Realart earned him a reputation as a reliable studio asset.

The Swanson-Wood pictures, 1921-1923
Paramount's appreciation for Wood's "fast, efficient" delivery of film products and his excellent rapport with his cast and crew landed him the honor of directing their recently acquired actor Gloria Swanson in her first starring vehicle, The Great Moment (1921). DeMille, whom Wood had served as an assistant director from 1914 to 1916, and Swanson, a close personal friend to Wood, each influenced Paramount's choice.

With the popular success of The Great Moment, co-starring Milton Sills (in one scandalous scene, he sucks rattlesnake venom from Swanson's chest) Paramount proceeded to finance nine more Swanson-Wood collaborations over the next two years, beginning with Under the Lash (1921) and finishing with Bluebeard's 8th Wife (1923). Cameraman Alfred Gilks photographed all ten of the productions. During the Wood-Swanson series of films "the costume department broke all records for Hollywood lavishness..."

Wood's pictures included an array of scenarios and settings, providing abundant opportunities for Swanson and her leading men to "besport themselves in a variety of period costumes" (e.g. Beyond the Rocks (1922) with Rudolf Valentino), and to appear in the "daring modern clothing" of the Jazz Age (e.g. Prodigal Daughters (1923) with Ralph Graves). Swanson's silent film career was significantly enhanced by these Wood productions. However, In 1923 by mutual consent, Swanson and Wood agreed to conclude their collaboration.

Sam Wood and Swanson "had clearly found the formula for success in these romantic comedies of marriage and intrigue laced with a series of handsome leading men and a never-ending parade of fabulous gowns."

Principal Pictures and Irving M. Lesser, 1924-1925
In late 1923, Wood's relationship with Paramount began deteriorating due to his discontent over the quality of his project assignments. Wood completed the "heavy-handed morality tale" His Children's Children at the end of 1923, and only made Bluff (1924) with Agnes Ayers under protest due to his low appraisal of Ayers' star potential.

Wood accepted two offers from producer Irving "Sol" Lesser of the newly formed Principal Pictures to make "a most unusual film", The Female (1924), set in the South African Veld starring Betty Compson, as well as a Western and Wood's first effort in this genre, The Mine with the Iron Door (1924) with Dorothy Mackaill. Wood consented to make another film with Dorothy Mackaill for Paramount in The Next Corner (1924) that despite its "expensive production values" was burdened with a "meager plot". Wood and Paramount reached an impasse when he refused to direct another Agnes Ayers vehicle. Wood was officially suspended from Paramount and the other major studios for a year.

Sol Lesser at Principal Pictures reached out to Wood to direct a film version of novelist Harold Bell Wright's The Re-Creation of Brian Kent, a soap opera. When Wood's adaptation proved a box office success, Paramount executives sought to lure Wood back to the studio, bestowing on him a lavishly financed production, Fascinating Youth (1926). Wood completed the "light comedy" but remained convinced that he had no future with Paramount and successfully arranged for a release from his contract.

Wood's separation from Paramount proved to be fortuitous for the director. Indeed, it was "a major turning point in his career." In 1927, he briefly directed films for Cole-Robertson Pictures, a small Boston outfit, and simultaneously negotiated a long-term commitment to Hollywood's dominant studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M).

Harold "Red" Grange and the Cole-Robertson Pictures, 1926-1927
Robertson-Cole Pictures (soon to be the Film Booking Company, F.B.O and later associated with RKO Radio Studios) instantly picked up the now available Wood. Production manager Joseph P. Kennedy had famous sports hero "Red" Grange under contract and Wood, a gridiron enthusiast, welcomed the opportunity to deliver a compelling football story, One Minute to Play (1926). Wood directed Grange a second time in a small epic honoring horse racing. Emphasizing the virtues of the sport rather than the less than impressive acting performance by Grange, A Racing Romeo (1927), completed Wood's duties for Cole-Robertson.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M), 1927-1939
Wood's first two assignments for M-G-M, Rookies, with Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, and The Fair Co-Ed with Marion Davies were comedies, both made in 1927, earning him a long-term contract with the studio for whom he would almost exclusively make films for over ten years.

Wood proceeded to bring his signature speed and efficiency to M-G-M, directing their top stars and supplied with screenplays "of the slimmest material": Norma Shearer in The Latest from Paris (1928), William Haines in Telling the World (1928), the Duncan Sisters (1929) in It's a Great Life and in his first sound film in 1929, introduced actor Robert Montgomery.

Wood was renowned for consistently delivering his features "on time and on budget", but these virtues, which pleased the Front Office, "militated against his getting worthier assignments." Two more comedies followed in 1930, The Girl Said No and They Learned About Women, the latter with a baseball theme and a sentimental vehicle starring German actor Louis Mann in a fine performance, and with co-star Robert Montgomery.

Wood directed silent matinee idol John Gilbert in a maritime romance-adventure Way for a Sailor, a vehicle that the actor hoped would redeem his reputation in the emerging "talkies". Gilbert was poorly cast as a tough seaman opposite Wallace Beery. Legend has it that M-G-M's studio chief Louis B. Mayer was complicit in miscasting Gilbert in a virile role that did not suit his image, and Wood failed to salvage his performance. Concentrating on action scenes depicting high seas shipwrecks and rescues, Wood invested Way for the Sailor with no more than a measure of realism.

Silent movie flapper and rising talkie star Joan Crawford was paired with Wood for Paid (1930), a crime drama that benefited from Wood's "taut" execution and Charles Rosher's cinematography,

Wood followed with two less fortunate assignments and the last two of the four features he would make with William Haines: A Tailor Made Man and New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford, both 1931. Haines would subsequently retire from acting to become a successful interior decorator. Wood finished off the year by directing his final and successful film with Robert Montgomery, The Man in Possession, a "knockabout comedy."

Ramon Novarro: Huddle and The Barbarian, 1932-1933
The 1932 Huddle was another opportunity for Wood to demonstrate his talent for presenting American collegiate football. Madge Evans appears opposite leading man Ramon Novarro, a silent era star who struggled to make the transition to sound films.

In a bid to revitalize Novarro's career, M-G-M tasked Wood with filming a remake of the "romantic-exotic" silent era success The Arab, originally filmed by director Cecil B DeMille in 1915 starring Edgar Selwyn, and in 1924, starring the then 25-year old Navarro, both carrying the same title. Wood remade The Barbarian with emerging film star Myrna Loy as the object of Novarro's affection, who steals her from fiancé Reginald Denny in this cinematic ally "attractive minor package".

Prosperity (1932) and Christopher Bean (1933): Marie Dressler
A former star in stage and Vaudeville, the 62-year-old Marie Dressler and co-star Wallace Beery scored a huge financial success for M-G-M, with the 1930 Min and Bill, directed by George Hill, earning her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Wood directed Dressler in this fast-paced light comedy Prosperity (1933), about a small-town bank president (Dressler) who spars with her provincial neighbors and patrons. Wood was reunited with Dressler in 1933 to make Christopher Bean, a light burlesque on the humorous aspects of greed.

Hold Your Man (1933): Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
Wood served as both producer and director on Hold Your Man, a dual role that he did not relish within the "assembly-line" organization that prevailed in the major studios of the 1930s. The assignment, however, was a promotion for Wood, providing him with the opportunity to make a crime-romance that is "sentimental, cheeky, wise-cracking" and as always "swiftly paced" and featuring two of M-G-M's top stars of the period, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable.

After finishing his two Dressler features, Wood made the second of his three films with Myrna Loy, Stamboul Quest (1934), a spy-romance set in Turkish Dardanelles during World War I. Loy plays a Mata Hari-like character pursued by counter-spies and her devoted swain George Brent. Wood enjoyed the services of James Wong Howe's expert cinematography. During Wood's decade-long tenure with M-G-M, he made only one film for another studio, Edward Small's Reliance studios. Let 'Em Have It (1935) stars Richard Arlen in an Underworld vs. G-man themed story that Wood attempted to add substance by including sequences describing U.S. Department of Justice's modern crime-fighting methodology.

Irving Thalberg and The Marx Brothers, 1935-1937
In 1935, Irving Thalberg, the highly regarded head of production at M-G-M, hired the comedy team The Marx Brothers, who had made five career-defining movies at Paramount Pictures, but whose dispute with Paramount over unpaid monies as well as the tepid box office of their now-classic "Duck Soup" (1933) resulted in their five-picture contract not being renewed. Thalberg, in offering them a film contract with M-G-M, demanded a significant degree of control over every aspect of the project. To this the Marx Brothers acquiesced. Zeppo Marx had left the team in 1934 to focus on other business ventures, leaving a trio consisting of Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx.

Thalberg's decision to approach Wood to direct the Marx Brothers would mark a "turning point" in the director's professional career. Now in his late forties and "largely undistinguished" during the silent era (though exhibiting "unexpected moments of genius") Wood was regarded as one of M-G-M's "top men."

A Comedy Magnum Opus: A Night At The Opera (1935)
Initially skeptical about undertaking A Night at the Opera, Thalberg assured Wood that a coherent film structure would be imposed to incorporate love interests and musical numbers, alternating with the Marx Brothers' comedy creations. Wood's masterful control over the screenplay and cast served to integrate these elements into the film. Historian John Baxter observes that:

"Wood's handling the nihilistic Marx Brothers in A Night At The Opera...is impeccable, perhaps because unlike other [directors] he does not neglect the supporting cast for the intervening musical and romantic sequences which Irving Thalberg considered necessary to the film's commercial success. Under Wood's direction, the Marx set-pieces do not come as high points in a dull landscape but arise naturally from the smooth fabric of the film."

Wood's "perfectionist" approach to shooting A Night at the Opera involved daily reviews of the footage and editing the scenes, a process that guaranteed reshoots that "endangered the spontaneity of the humor." Wood's often tedious approach to re-filming key Marx Brothers scenes placed a strain on cast and crew that Wood addressed with good-natured blandishments.

The enormous success of A Night At The Opera ensured that a sequel would be made, but Thalberg had declared a temporary moratorium in order to increase interest in the public for the anticipated feature. Wood was designated in advance as its director.

While M-G-M planned the next Marx Brothers comedy epic, Wood was occupied with a two-picture assignment. The first was Whipsaw (1936), a romance-crime drama with Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. The shooting included a brief clash between Wood and Tracy, the actor rebelling against the director for being "too meticulous". Wood's second effort was a "slick and glossy melodrama" with "M-G-M's stylish trimmings" with Loretta Young and Franchot Tone and a fine supporting cast: The Unguarded Hour (1936).

A Day at the Races (1937)

The Marx Brothers arrived for the filming of A Day at the Races having tested new routines at burlesque venues, and Thalberg and Wood were prepared to use this material to emulate the profitability of A Night At the Opera. Shortly into the filming, Thalberg unexpectedly died, at thirty-seven, from pneumonia, a loss that left Wood personally shaken. Wood proceeded with the picture, adhering to the formula that balanced the "romance and musical numbers" with the fulsome humor offered in the Marx Brothers sequences.

Final years at M-G-M, 1937-1938
After the success of his two Marx Brothers features, Wood requested and was awarded more substantial stories and scripts from M-G-M. Wood furnished the studio with "good pieces of entertainment" in his next four works "but nothing memorable".

Navy Blue and Gold (1937): Here Wood returned to collegiate athletics, endowing this "light comedy" - starring James Stewart, Robert Young and Tom Brown—with a "rousing" Army-Navy football game. Florence Rice provides the love interest.

Madame X (1937): A popular stage play by Alexandre Bisson that enjoyed numerous film adaptations until 1966, Wood directed Gladys George as the long-suffering mother who sacrifices for her children. Biographer Tony Thomas reports that the actress was one of the rare cases in which Wood developed a personal dislike for a player.

Lord Jeff (1938): A sentimental tale of orphan boys preparing for an apprenticeship in the British navy. Popular child actor Freddy Bartholomew undergoes correction by an older fellow orphan Mickey Rooney, with assistance from Peter Lawford.

Stablemates (1938): In Rooney's second appearance in a Wood film, a "race-track waif" he reforms the alcoholic yet good-hearted horse veterinarian Wallace Beery. Wood, in his handling of these inherently sentimental vehicles, avoids descending into "bathos", a temptation that "he avoided in all his films."

During the next 10 years until his death in 1949, Wood would direct and produce his most substantial work as one of Hollywood's major filmmakers.

Raffles (1939) and Samuel Goldwyn Productions
A perennial favorite among filmmakers since 1904, Raffles is based on the popular short story "The Amateur Cracksman" (1899) by E.W. Hornung and filmed by director King Baggot in 1925, and Harry D'Arrast and George Fitzmaurice in 1930. Wood made the film while loaned out to Sam Goldwyn for this production.

Raffles' stars Olivia de Havilland and debuts David Niven as the gentleman jewel thief who good-naturedly thwarts Scotland Yard. Wood, like a number of his fellow directors, among them King Vidor, suffered from Goldwyn's intrusiveness on the set.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
The film rights to British novelist James Hilton's popular novelette Goodbye, Mr. Chips were obtained by M-G-M's Irving Thalberg after literary critic Alexander Wolcott's praise for the work helped popularize it in the United States. Wood traveled to England to make Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the only professional sojourn of his career, part of an attempt by M-G-M to accommodate demands by British trade unions for a share of the lucrative American film exports market.

The novel spans the life of an English school master (Robert Donat) whose lonely and inhibited existence is transformed through the love of his understanding spouse (Greer Garson) into a good-natured pedagogue beloved by generations of his students. Wood's direction of Donat was painstaking in its precision, a role that required the actor to portray his character in youth and old age (in four stages, at twenty-four, forty, sixty-four and eighty-three years of age). Wood demonstrated his restraint in telling the inherently touching tale convincingly without lapsing into sentimentality.

Actress Greer Garson made her Hollywood debut with Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Just days before "the still uncast" actress was to return to Great Britain after M-G-M had withdrawn her film option, Wood by chance saw her screen test and quickly informed M-G-M that he wanted her to play the role of Katherine.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips won Donat a Best Actor Oscar, and Wood received the first of his three Academy Award nominations for Best Director. Upon his return from England, Wood determined he would end his long association with M-G-M, confident that he could thrive by offering his services independently to any of the major studios.

Gone with the Wind (1939)
Wood's parting assignment under M-G-M was to take over the filming of Gone with the Wind when the director Victor Fleming collapsed during shooting and did not return to the studio for a month. The film epic was based on Margaret Mitchell's popular novel set during the American Civil War. Fleming received screen credit for directing the film, though the precise contribution by Wood, as well as that of several other contributors, including George Cukor, Leslie Howard, David O. Selznick, and William Wellman has not been fully documented. A number of uncredited cinematographers also shared in making the picture, among them Joseph Ruttenberg, Wilfred Cline and Lee Garmes, who often worked "at first units located on widely separated locations".

Other than overseeing the vast operations at the movie's multiple venues, Wood with certainty filmed the entire sequence where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) shoots a Yankee bummer (Paul Hurst) who broke into the plantation household. Wood also personally handled some of the scenes that depict wounded Confederate troops at the Atlanta train depot. Whatever way the attributions are allocated, the collective efforts of the cast and crew produced "a remarkable film."

Our Town (1940)
Now operating as an independent agent, Wood was instantly offered the option by his former associate and producer Irving "Sol" Lesser to adapt Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play had first been staged on Broadway in 1938, and was "not the kind of vehicle that 1940 Hollywood would have been expected to produce", but Lesser was determined to bring the "unusual" qualities of the work faithfully to the screen.

Wilder worked closely with both Wood and Lesser to help preserve the qualities of the stage production by retaining narrator Frank Craven, who on-screen observes the lives of two rural families in New Hampshire near the turn of the 20th century. Lesser and Wood convinced Wilder to permit one major alteration in his allegorical play: Emily Webb, played by Martha Scott, does not die in childbirth, but only in a dream sequence, a re-write that Wilder admitted was preferable in a cinematic treatment of his work. The atmosphere of the picture was enhanced by the simplicity of the scenery conceived by set designer William Cameron Menzies and by the haunting musical score by American composer Aaron Copland. The excellent supporting cast, including Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell and Guy Kibbee contributed to Our Town nomination for the Best Picture Oscar.

Kitty Foyle (1940): Ginger Rogers
Based on a Christopher Morley story entitled "Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman", Ginger Rogers plays the working class protagonist who struggles to choose between two men in a love triangle.

Wood approached the filming of Kitty Foyle with immense care, delineating camera orientation, a precise script and "notes on interpretation" to achieve the "utmost clarity." However implausible the narrative of the love story, Wood maintained his signature control that balances the film's "tenderness and intelligence" with a firmness of direction that avoids sentimentality. The director was emphatic in his disdain for over-acting: "I find [over-acting] unforgivable because it destroys realism. I don't allow scenery chewing while emoting." Wood received the second of his three Academy Award Best Director nominations for Kitty Foyle and a nomination for Best Picture. Ginger Rogers won for Best Actress.

Wood returned to Paramount Pictures to make an action-packed Western that borders on a burlesque of the genre, Rangers of Fortune (1940). Starring Fred MacMurray and Gilbert Roland with supporting cast Albert Dekker and Betty Brewer. The madcap escapades of these desperadoes stop short of "buffoonery" when Wood applies his story-telling skills to assert his "sense of balance...one of the most valuable assets" that Wood possessed as a filmmaker.

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941): Jean Arthur, RKO Pictures
Wood opted for RKO Pictures to film Norman Krasner's original screenplay The Devil and Miss Jones, a comedy starring Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn. Frank Ross, Jr., Arthur's husband, produced the picture. The stars delivered superb performances in a "social satire" that pits a department store saleswoman-cum-strike organizer (Arthur) against the Scrooge-like owner (Coburn). As with most of Wood's work, consistency, pace and balance characterized his expert handling of the story and script.

A collaborative masterpiece: Kings Row (1942), Warner Brothers
After a protracted struggle to formulate a screenplay satisfactory to censors at the Hays Office, Wood and Warner Brothers commenced to film Henry Bellamann's grim and anti-nostalgic novel of American small-town life, Kings Row.

Wood's "discipline as a story-teller" was essential in conveying to the screen Kings Row's "troubling message without sacrificing its integrity."

The high quality of Wood's directorial performance was augmented by three of Hollywood's finest professionals in their fields: set designer William Cameron Menzies, cinematographer James Wong Howe and composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, collectively creating a film of "classical proportions."

Biographer Tony Thomas offers this appraisal:

"[I]t is Sam Wood who guided all these elements and molded them into a fascinating portrait of love, hate, madness, tragedy and happiness in the life of an American town around the turn-of-the-century. Kings Row will doubtless continue to be one of the prime choices of [cineastes]."

The Pride of the Yankees (1942): Sam Goldwyn and RKO
When beloved baseball player Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees died, aged thirty-seven in 1941 of ALS, a fatal neuromuscular disorder, Wood determined that a film biography was in order. The career of the "modest and likable" Gehrig spanned 17 years (1923–1939), during which he played more than two thousand consecutive games. Though Gehrig was idolized by his fans, Wood met with resistance from studio executives to a project that was likely to appeal to only half of the American demographic: male sports fans. Wood, an ardent sports enthusiast, was able to sway producer Sam Goldwyn to sponsor the film, and they both agreed that the picture would be an "ideal vehicle" for Gary Cooper, "a kind of idealization of the American male", and significantly, under contract to Goldwyn.

An avid outdoorsman, Cooper was virtually ignorant of baseball as a professional sport, but complied with his contract. Wood's encouragement and support for Cooper served to create a satisfactory portrayal of Gehrig, matching "the perfect actor with the perfect director" and assuring the film's success.

While filming on set, Wood was initially dismayed at what at first appeared to be Cooper's inept acting. Upon reviewing the actual footage, Wood was relieved and pleased to discover that Cooper's "underplaying" translated effectively to the screen.

Cooper was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film earned nine more nominations, including Best Picture. The Pride of the Yankees remains "one of the best and most popular screen biographies as well as the quintessential baseball movie."

Even as Wood was filming Kings Row for Warner Brothers in 1941, he began working on his major project for Paramount: an adaption of novelist Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Wood proceeded to shoot numerous landscape scenes in the Sierra Nevada mountain range before the cast for the movie had been selected. Production on the film was set aside while Wood made The Pride of the Yankees; only when that project was completed did he return to For Whom the Bell Tolls.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Paramount Pictures
Wood's 1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls was "the major project of [his] career." Adapting Ernest Hemingway's Spanish Civil War epic had a personal and political significance to Wood, identifying as he did with Hemingway's idealistic protagonist Robert Jordan and the Republican cause for which he fought.

Paramount Pictures' casting of the doomed hero was a foregone conclusion, as the book's author, Hemingway, had his friend and actor Gary Cooper in mind as Robert Jordan when he conceived the story. Cooper was conveniently already under contract with the studio. Wood was obliged to complete The Pride of the Yankees (1942) before he could commit himself fully to For Whom the Bell Tolls, already under production since late 1941.

Wood favored ballet dancer and actress Vera Zorina for the role of the young guerrilla fighter, Maria, an opinion that was at odds with Hemingway as well as members of "Wood's own family." During shooting on location, Wood realized his error when Zorina did not take to the part, and Ingrid Bergman, who had coveted the role, was auditioned after completing her role as Ilsa Lund in director Michael Curtiz's Casablanca (1942), and winning "the coveted role."

Audiences and critics felt "the love interest was over-played" in For Whom the Bell Tolls at the expense of clarifying the political issues that defined the Spanish Civil War: a brutal and violent struggle between fascist and anti-fascist forces.

Wood was undoubtedly disappointed when "the major project of his career" did not garner him an Academy Award nomination, an honor that was bestowed on his cinematographer Ray Rennahan, his set designer William Cameron Menzies, musical director Victor Young and his four leading cast members, with Katina Paxinou winning Best Supporting Actress in her role as the revolutionary matron Pilar.

Filmed shortly after the United States entered World War II, the government placed wartime limits on Hollywood's access to new building materials. To obviate these restrictions, Wood chose to do most of the filming outdoors at the picturesque Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada. Wood recalled the ordeal of filming For Whom the Bell Tolls:

"I never experienced anything as difficult as filming under the conditions we had, at an elevation of ten thousand feet, scrambling over rocks. We even uprooted wildflowers and greenery to prevent the harsh landscape from becoming 'pretty' for the Technicolor camera and we substituted ancient, gnarled tree trunks instead. Due to the quartz and metallic content of the rocks, painters had to spray down the backgrounds of almost all the exteriors. Not only did we go to the mountains, but we painted it too."

Though For Whom the Bell Tolls did not achieve the critical success that Paramount had anticipated, Bergman and Cooper, who recognized the potential of their film pairing, followed Wood to Warner Brothers to star in a Western romance, Saratoga Trunk (1945).

Saratoga Trunk (1943, released 1945), Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers sought to exploit the "exciting potential" of a Bergman-Cooper pairing in Saratoga Trunk (1945), an "expensive and lavish" production that did not live up to expectations. (The "Trunk" refers to the Saratoga Trunk Line, owned by a railway baron played by John Warburton) Though filmed in early 1943, the picture was not given general release until early 1945, initially presented only to U.S. servicemen stationed overseas during the war.

Wood's direction of Saratoga Trunk lacked his characteristic celerity and its "languid" tempo earned the film only an "admirable but dull" rating by critics, despite its "rich production values." The director of Hollywood's Production Code Administration, Joseph Breen, registered some distaste for the characterization of Clio Dulaine (Ingrid Bergman) as a mixed-race (half-Creole) courtesan who seeks matrimony with wealthy white gamblers and capitalists. The only acting Academy Award nomination went to British actress Flora Robson, who wore blackface makeup to portray the mulatto servant Angelique Buiton.

A commercial failure, Saratoga Trunk did not diminish the mutual esteem which Cooper and Wood held for each other. Their next feature was decidedly not of the epic-heroic proportions of their three previous collaborations, but a light comedy: Casanova Brown.

Three comedies: Casanova Brown, Guest Wife and Heartbeat: 1944-1946
Wood continued his collaboration with Cooper in a comedic vein after the delayed release of Saratoga Trunk with International Pictures' Casanova Brown (1944), a vehicle intended to appeal to female movie patrons. Cooper absconds with his own infant daughter from a maternity ward in order to prevent his former wife offering the child up for adoption. Wood's situation comedy was no more than a moderate success. Wood followed with Guest Wife (1946) starring Claudette Colbert and RKO's Heartbeat (1946) starring Ginger Rogers.

A cinematic "trifle" largely carried by the virtues of star Colbert, Guest Wife also benefits from Wood's expert handling of his cast, "a talent in itself." Biographer Tony Thomas summarizes Wood's approach to controlling his actors:

"As a director Wood was especially good with actors…he never [regarded them] as puppets...each Wood filming began with a casual discussion with his players as to how they saw their parts. Frequently, with actors who differed with his own concept, he would shoot a scene both ways and later in the projection room, explain why his own handling was necessary to the construction of the film. Wood was the most diplomatic of dictators."

Wood rejoined Ginger Rogers after their success in the romance Kitty Foyle (1940) to film a remake of French director Henri Decoin's 1939 Battement de coeur, in Heartbeat. The Dickensian theme features Rogers as an Oliver Twist-like character who enlists to serve the Fagin-like figure (Basil Rathbone) as a pickpocket. The picture would have been better served if Wood possessed "the sly touch of a Guitry or a Lubitsch" rather than Wood's obvious humor.

A "Gaslight Noir": Ivy (1947), Universal-International Pictures
Based on a short story by Marie Belloc Lowndes set during Great Britain's Edwardian era, this 1947 melodrama is considered by some critics, but not universally, to be "a minor cinematic masterpiece." Wood's crime-noir stars Joan Fontaine as the "ruthless" and scheming social climber whose homicidal deed leads to her sordid demise.

Ivy was essentially a collaborative effort between director Wood and producer and renowned set designer William Cameron Menzies, who also served as producer on the picture. Wood and Menzies had worked splendidly on a number of projects including Gone with the Wind (1939), Our Town (1940) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). The fine rendering of the British upper-class milieu is attributed largely to the uncredited Menzies, although screen credit went to Richard H. Riedel.

Photographed "lovingly" by cameraman Russell Metty, Fontaine's Orry-Kelly wardrobe reduced the actress to a "gorgeous artifact" and she complained later that director Wood neglected to develop the potential dramatic complexities of her character.

Biographer Tony Thomas sums of Wood's directorial effort on Ivy:

"The film was strong on moods and mysteries and movement but there are those who felt that Wood was too obvious in his story telling, that more subtly on his part would have produced an even better film."

Command Decision (1949), M-G-M
An adaption of the William Wister Haines World War II drama published in 1947, Wood's portrayal of the "anguish of wartime aviation command" is "unembellished" by any combat footage and shows fidelity to the novel of the same name.

The film's depictions of the military establishment during wartime balances "the devious expediency and opportunism" inherent to high command with "the heroism and heartfelt concern among various militarists and politicians." The film's scenario offered Wood the ideal platform on which to demonstrate his "thoroughly masculine and no-nonsense style of filmmaking" delivered by an all-male cast who represented officers and men from the U.S. Army Eighth Army Air Corps, played by Clark Gable, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Brian Donlevy and Charles Bickford. Biographer Tony Thomas describes the picture as "fairly honest in revealing the almost dehumanizing function of operating a modern war machine."

A key sequence from the film, developed specifically for Clark Gable (who served as an air force combat officer during the war) and well-executed by Wood, portrays his character, Brigadier General K.C. Dennis, in his dramatic "talking down" of a crippled Flying Fortress attempting to land.

Sports biography redux: The Stratton Story (1949), M-G-M
Wood returned to his sports métier when he was tasked with directing the story of Chicago White Sox major league pitcher Monty Stratton. One of baseball's youngest and foremost pitchers, Stratton lost a leg to amputation after a hunting accident aged 26. Director Wood expertly recounted the athlete's struggle to adapt to the use of a prosthetic and return to professional baseball in the minor leagues. An inherently "maudlin" tale, Wood presented the events without succumbing to sentimentality: "it told a true story, and kept to the facts…"

Actors Van Johnson and Gregory Peck were considered for the role of Monty Stratton, but M-G-M settled on James Stewart, the actor Stratton himself felt would portray his life most effectively.

Contrary to conventional wisdom among Hollywood studio executives that sports features were "box-office poison", The Stratton Story was "the sixth-biggest theatrical draw of 1949 and Stewart's first bona fide hit since his return from World War II."

Ambush (1950), M-G-M
Sam Wood's directorial swan song was the adventure Western Ambush, filmed in 1949 and released in 1950 after Wood's unexpected death from a heart attack. A "Grade A" M-G-M production, it starred Robert Taylor as a hardened US Army Indian fighter and companion John Hodiak and adversary Chief Thundercloud:

"...horses leapt and galloped, cavalrymen and Indians bit the dust in rapid order, and dozens of characters were shot, scalped or chased. Soldiers wiped out Indians and vice versa, and customers were well-satisfied.. Wood considered it just one last assignment. Unfortunately, it would be his last."

When Wood was arranging a production of No Sad Songs for Me, a Margaret Sullavan vehicle for Columbia Pictures, he was suddenly stricken by a heart attack on September 22, 1949, and died a few hours later in hospital.

Political beliefs
Wood became a committed and ardent anti-Communist in the years that saw the rise of McCarthyism in the late 1940s. Wood first exhibited this political perspective in 1943, when he reduced much of the anti-fascist content of For Whom the Bell Tolls, saying "It would be the same love story if they were on the other side." In 1944, he founded and served as the first president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, an organization that was "dedicated to seeking out and expelling those people it considered traitorous to American interests."

The organization, "formed of management and labor in the film industry," quietly lobbied the House Un-American Activities Committee to examine purported Communist elements in the movie industry, which they did in 1947. Wood had been keeping a black notebook in which he wrote the names of those he considered subversive. His daughter Jeane Wood said that his crusade "transformed Dad into a snarling, unreasoning brute." There was nothing in Wood's personal and professional demeanor during the course of his long career that anticipated the intensity of his anti-Communist rage which "disappointed some of his friends and greatly concerned his family."

Wood was a charter member of the Hollywood Republican Committee.

Shortly following a 1949 meeting of his Motion Picture Alliance in which he had protested against a liberal screenwriter who was suing the group for slandering him, Wood suffered a fatal heart attack. He had added a condition to his will: no one, including his children, could collect their inheritance until they filed legal affidavits affirming that they had never been Communists. Wood's daughter, actress K.T. Stevens, made these observations about her father's demise:

"I think two things contributed to my father's death at sixty-five. One was the energy he burned up making Ambush on location; they were at an elevation of 9,000 feet for several weeks and Dad had never stopped... he was first up in the morning and the younger actors were amazed at the way he ran around all day. The second thing was politics. His [anti-Communist] anger was so deep he seethed with it and I believe it affected his health."

Death
Wood died from a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 66. His grave is located in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Wood received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.

Biographer Tony Thomas provides this eulogy:

"Wood's death meant little to the public but it marked the end of a long and respectable film career. Wood had been in the business forty years and he had seen it grow from infancy to a major industry. Rarely did he show signs of brilliance yet he was never at any time less than thoroughly professional. The work is the man: Sam Wood was uncomplicated, self-assured, clear-minded and he enjoyed working. In so far as he understood it, he was a master of his craft."

Depictions
Wood is played by John Getz in Jay Roach's Trumbo.

Silent era

 * Double Speed (1920)
 * Excuse My Dust (1920)
 * The Dancin' Fool (1920)
 * Sick Abed (1920)
 * What's Your Hurry? (1920)
 * A City Sparrow (1920)
 * Her Beloved Villain (1920)
 * Her First Elopement (1920)
 * The Snob (1921)
 * Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
 * The Outside Woman (1921)
 * The Great Moment (1921)
 * Under the Lash (1921)
 * Don't Tell Everything (1921)
 * Her Husband's Trademark (1922)
 * Her Gilded Cage (1922)
 * Beyond the Rocks (1922)
 * The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (1922)
 * My American Wife (1922)
 * Prodigal Daughters (1923)
 * Bluebeard's 8th Wife (1923)
 * His Children's Children (1923)
 * The Next Corner (1924)
 * Bluff (1924)
 * The Female (1924)
 * The Mine with the Iron Door (1924)
 * The Re-Creation of Brian Kent (1925)
 * Fascinating Youth (1926)
 * One Minute to Play (1926)
 * Rookies (1927 film) (1927)
 * A Racing Romeo (1927)
 * The Fair Co-Ed (1927)
 * The Latest from Paris (1928)
 * Telling the World (1928)
 * So This Is College (1929)
 * It's a Great Life (1929)

title: Sam Wood


text:
Dedemsvaart

Dedemsvaart ("Dedem's Canal") (Dutch Low Saxon: De Voart) is a town in Overijssel, the Netherlands.

Overview
The town is located along an old canal, also called Dedemsvaart (canal), which is the source of the village's name. The canal lost its commercial importance after World War II. The area around Dedemsvaart, until 2001 part of the municipality of Avereest, was an important centre for industry. Willem Jan van Dedem, after whom the canal and town were named, made a plan to dig a canal; construction began on 9 July 1810. Around two years later, in 1811, the canal had already reached Balkbrug, and the town was established.

In 1845 the project got into financial trouble and the baron had to forfeit the canal of Dedemsvaart, until then a private possession, to the province of Overijssel, who took further care of the canal. Over the years the canal changed and eventually became unfit for commercial use.

The village of Dedemsvaart lies near the N377 between Balkbrug and Lutten. The municipality of Avereest was disbanded in 2001 and became part of the municipality of Hardenberg. It's also the only settlement within the municipality where cannabis is semi-legally sold.

Notable attractions

 * Tuinen Mien Ruys, a complex of 25 gardens by noted Dutch landscape and garden architect Mien Ruys.
 * Kalkovens, three big lime kilns, these were built in 1820.

Notable people

 * Henk Dorgelo (1894–1961), physicist and academic
 * Sanne Hans (born 1984), singer-songwriter
 * Daniel Koerhuis (born 1981), politician
 * Birgit Kos (born 1995), fashion model
 * Martin Koster (born 1950), author
 * Reinier Paping (1931–2021), speedskater, the winner of the 1963 Elfstedentocht better known as "the hell of '63"
 * Anna Charlotte Ruys (1898–1977), professor of bacteriology and epidemiology
 * Jannie Visscher (born 1961), politician
 * Jarno Westerman (born 2002), football player
 * Fernon Wibier (born 1971), tennis player

title: Dedemsvaart


text:
Advanced Aviation Explorer

The Advanced Aviation Explorer is a two-seat ultralight marketed in kit form, for amateur construction. It is a high-wing taildragger aircraft of pusher configuration with tandem seating.

Design and development
The aircraft is a development of the Talon XP which in turn traces its lineage to the Maxair Drifter. The Explorer has been produced by a number of companies and under a variety of names.

The main advance over the Drifter is the Explorer's use of main wing struts and jury struts in place of cable bracing. Like all aircraft in this family they feature excellent visibility, especially from the front seat when the optional fibreglass cockpit pod is removed. As a result, the design is often employed as a camera platform. It can be flown on floats and has been used for banner towing.

Construction is of bolted aluminium tube, with the flying surfaces covered in pre-sewn Dacron envelopes. The kit takes about 150–250 hours to assemble.

The standard engine is the Rotax 582 of 64 hp, with the four-stroke 80 hp Rotax 912 optional.

Variants

 * Explorer
 * Initial version, derived from the Talon XP, but with struts in place of the cable-braced wing. Produced by Advanced Aviation, no longer in production.

 * Zephyr
 * Similar to the Explorer, but produced by Arnet Pereyra Inc, no longer in production. Also known as the Zephyr II, 40 reported flying in 1998/2001.

 * Toucan
 * New name for the aircraft when manufacturer Arnet Pereyra changed the company name to Aero Adventure Aviation, powered by a Rotax 582 of 64 hp. In production, with 10 flying at the end of 2011.

 * Barracuda
 * Aero Adventure Aviation produced version powered by the 80 hp Rotax 912, 1250 lb gross weight, optimized for amphibious floats. Out of production, with 1 flying at the end of 2007.

title: Advanced Aviation Explorer


text:
Vroomshoop

Vroomshoop is a town located at the center of the municipality Twenterand in the Dutch province of Overijssel and was founded around 1859. The earliest inhabitants lived from the peat that was found in the nearby area.

Farmers from the Groningen area played an important role by the excavated peat into farmland here. They settled mainly on the Tonnendijk Road. The Groninger-farms are still on the Tonnendijk.

History
In 1859, the canal Almelo-De Haandrik was dug, and a peat colony developed along the canal. Around 1875, the economy became based on potatoes and colonists from Groningen and Drenthe settled in the area. The Saint Willibrord Church was finished in 1868. In 1906, the village still contained 109 sod houses. In 2009, the village of Geerdijk separated from Vroomshoop.

Transportation
In 1906 a train station was built in Vroomshoop, because of the NOLS track from Mariënberg to Almelo. The Original name for this station was "Den Ham - Vroomshoop", it was changed to "Vroomshoop" in 1952 because of the distance in between Den Ham and Vroomshoop.

Since 2014 Arriva operates this service.

At one time, there was a vlotbrug at Vroomshoop.

Triathlon
Triatlon Vroomshoop started as a one-off event in 2009 has now become an annual event which hosts approximately 700 athletes every year. Starting 2016 it has also been the host of the Schuiteman 2deDivisie Noord, a part of the national second division championship.

Dragon boat Festival
For the 6th time in 2014 organised by "de Smoezen", Vroomshoops carnival association. A Chinese tradition at the canal, a spectacular boat race by different regional teams.

Notable people

 * Christian Kist, 2012 BDO World Darts Champion
 * Jarno Hams, 7 times Strongest man of the Netherlands

title: Vroomshoop


text:
Vriezenveen

Vriezenveen (Lower Saxon:  't Vjenne, Venne, Vjenne, Vreeznven or Vreeinvenne) is a town in the municipality of Twenterand in the Dutch province of Overijssel. The population was 13,800 on January 1, 2020.

Until July 1, 2002, Vriezenveen formed an independent municipality together with the villages of De Pollen, Westerhaar-Vriezenveensewijk, Aadorp and the hamlets Bruinehaar, Weitemanslanden and Westerhoeven. In 2001, the municipality of Vriezenveen was merged with the municipality of Den Ham, which included the villages of Den Ham, Vroomshoop, and Geerdijk. The new municipality was called Vriezenveen and renamed Twenterand in 2003.

The town hall of Twenterand is located in Vriezenveen. The dependence of the town hall in Den Ham was closed on May 30, 2008.

History
The oldest mention of Vriezenveen dates from 1364, when Evert van Hekeren, lord of Almelo, wrote a charter for the free Frisians, their heirs and all the people who lived on the moor, from the Wierdense Weuste to the Bawesbeek. The people who lived on the moor were obliged to pay one bucket of butter a year, measured according to the standard of Zwolle, on St. Martin's Day at Huis Almelo. This concerned a lease of butter and was paid in kind; the lease could not be bought off. The lord of Almelo had allowed the free Frisians to colonize the moor above his land. Almelervene, as Vriezenveen was called before the 15th century, was created from forty farms, roughly stretching from the current Schipsloot to the later excavated canal of Overijssel. Each farm had a width of sixteen fields (16 × 7 is 112 metres). To the east of the settlement, up to the Bawesbeek, an area remained, the so-called Oosterhoeven. This area was not divided and it is rumored that it was possibly the joint property of the residents. To the west of the settlement, there too was a similar area of undivided ground from the Boerstege to the Stouwe. These were the Westerhoeven and Woesten. It is rumored that these lands were also joint property. The Almelervene settlement grew; By the mid-15th century, the village had already changed so much that the various farms were no longer sixteen fields wide, but were reduced to ten, or even eight fields wide.

The German bishop from Münster, Bernhard von Galen, aptly nicknamed Bommen Berend (English: Bombing Bernard), plundered and robbed Twente around the year 1665. Vriezenveen was spared until 1665, because it was surrounded by swamp and bog. There was only one road to Vriezenveen and it was guarded by troops of the Dutch States Army. However, there was a harsh winter in the year 1666, which froze the moors and the surrounding swamp. The road to Vriezenveen lay open and in January 1666, 1500 riders of the bishop's army rode into Vriezenveen. The village was looted and the houses and the church were set on fire. A large number of people were killed and the rest were taken as prisoners.

The new Vriezenveen was not rebuilt on the Buterweg, along which it had previously lain. It was instead rebuilt on a sandy road to the north, the present village street. This rebuilding took place at a rapid pace and at the beginning of the 18th century the old Vriezenveen on the Buterweg was a thing of the past. Only the old cemetery of this old Vriezenveen has been preserved. The village is now characterised by a 6.2-kilometer long built-up village street (from west to east: Hammerweg, Westeinde and Oosteinde) with characteristic facades on the houses. The special Engbertsdijksvenen, a partly still living biodiverse raised bog complex with its rare flora and fauna, is a reminder of what the area looked like, before the intensive colonisation of the area by the lord of Almelo and his subjects was set in motion.

Quite a lot is known about the last magistrate (Dutch: Schout) and first Mayor of Vriezenveen, Jan Kruys, because his detailed diaries from the period 1817-1830 have been preserved.

Religion
During the Reformation, which also permeated Twente, most of the Vriezenveners "switched" to Protestantism. In the 19th century the conservative orthodox Calvinist Protestants became the majority. A Vriezenvener, Jan Machiel Krijger, (1874–1951) took part as a party leader in the 1946 Dutch parliamentary elections on behalf of the Protestant Union. The former CHU member obtained 32,020 votes. To this day most Vriezenveners are either Dutch Reformed or Reformed; to be seen in the support of the SGP and the predecessors of the ChristenUnie; the RPF and the GPV. However, a strong Catholic minority remained on the eastern side of the village. This Roman Catholic community was able to inaugurate its own parish church in the early 20th century. The church and parish are dedicated to the Roman Catholic saint Anthony the Great.

Until the Second World War, there was a Jewish community in Vriezenveen. In 1878, the Vriezenveen synagogue, Mikdash Me'at (small shrine), was built, after the King's commissioner P.C. Nahuijs, by Royal Decree of December 2, 1876, granted a government subsidy of 850 guilders to the local Israelite Congregation for its construction. The synagogue was completed in 1879. The community then numbered 27 people. In 1906, the Jewish community became part of Almelo, and in 1923, the building was sold. The building is still intact and has been listed as a municipal monument since 1996. The former synagogue has been a warehouse of a private company since 1973, but the building is scheduled to be demolished.

Trade
The inhabitants of Vriezenveen (Rusluie) had a lively trade with the Russian city of Saint Petersburg in the period from 1720 to 1917. Over the course of time, various companies from Vriezenveen founded trading houses and shops on notable streets and in notable buildings, such as on the Nevsky Prospekt and in the adjacent "Gostiny Dvor". Hendrik Kruys was the owner of trading house 'Java' at Grosse Morskaya 38 in Saint Petersburg. Although they managed to acquire a permanent place in the grand city at the mouth of the Neva, many Vriezenveners eventually returned to their hometown.

On May 16, 1905, there was a great fire in Vriezenveen that almost destroyed the entire town. After the fire, Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry – her prince-consort – formally known as Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, personally came to support the residents of Vriezenveen. They made a personal donation of no less than a thousand guilders, intended for the reconstruction of Vriezenveen. The fire was commemorated in 2005, with a parade of historic fire-fighting vehicles.

The Jansen & Tilanus company was spared during the great fire. The textile factory was the largest employer in the town at the time and the fire ended just before the factory on the Westeinde street. Due to the dryness of the commonly used thatched roofs and the strong winds from the east, there was no stopping the fire. 228 houses, mostly built in the aforementioned style, went up in flames. The richer farms and Rusluie houses made of brick and with greater garden distance from other houses, turned out to be more resistant to the fire and still stand to this day. The most famous of these still-standing farms, is the Peddemors farm. The Historical Museum deals with the history of the municipality of Vriezenveen, and of the town itself. There is, among other things, a historical department about the textile history of Vriezenveen and extensive documentation about the great fire of 1905. In addition, an old living room, a farmhouse kitchen and a school class from long ago are on display, which allows people to get a glimpse of life in the past.

During the Second World War, Vriezenveen became the temporary home of many children from Rotterdam. Contact was made through the Roman Catholic pastor of Vriezenveen, dhr. Van Rhijn – originally from Rotterdam – and the children were taken care of in Vriezenveen's foster families. On May 1, 2004, the association Oud Vriezenveen organized a reunion where about a hundred so-called oorlogskinderen (English: war children) – mostly from Rotterdam – gathered. The war children, at the time referred to as bleekneusjes (English: pale noses), were asked to put their stories on paper, which resulted in the book Bleekneusjes oorlogskinderen. In April 2006, the first copy of this book was presented to deputy Gert Ranter by initiator José Bosch-Höfte, with great interest from many war children.

Up until the 1960s, the village did not have elder care, because of a "strong general regional sense of commitment and duty towards helping each other", also known as noaberschap (English: neighbour-ship).On December 23, 1960, the Protestant-Christian Foundation De Vriezenhof was founded. The construction of the retirement home then took five years, on the site where a rectory stood before.

Museums

 * Historisch Museum Vriezenveen (English: Historical Museum of Vriezenveen)
 * Kachelmuseum Fini's Hoeve (English: Stove Museum "Fini's Homestead")

Monuments and buildings

 * Leemansmolen (English: Leemans' Mill)
 * Gemeentehuis Twenterand (English: Town Hall of Twenterand)
 * Watertoren Vriezenveen (English: Water Tower of Vriezenveen)
 * Grote Kerk (English: Large Church)

Sports and leisure
Vriezenveen has two football clubs, DOS '37 (Door Oevening Sterk) and DETO (Door Eendracht Tot Overwinning). There is also the korfball/netball club Amicitia, basketball club Peatminers, volleyball club Vrivo, swimming and water polo club VZPC, athletics association AV Twenterand, shooting association SV Vriezenveen, tennis club TCV, ice skating club Centrale Schaatstraining Vriezenveen and skating club De Eendracht Vriezenveen, chess association Vrimot, gym association KEV (Kracht En Vriendschap), judo association Judokwai Vriezenveen, tug-of-war club TTV Vriezenveen, and the scouting association Admiraal Kruys.

Vriezenveen has two natural ice rinks. One of them is located on the Geesterenseweg and owned by IJsclub de Eendracht. The other ice rink is located at the sports park in Vriezenveen and is owned by IJsclub Vooruit.

The foundation Sportpromotie Twenterand organizes the Twenterandrun once a year and the Nacht van Twenterand once a year. The Twenterandrun is a semi-professional running race, described as the "Van Dam tot Dam run" – the biggest yearly running race of Amsterdam and the surrounding regions – of the east. In 2002 the running competition was organized for the first time and in 2007 the first lustrum was celebrated with a performance by singer Jannes.

Up to and including 2006, a cycling tour was held every year under the name Ronde van Vriezenveen. Due to limited interest and the very unfavorable location of the course, this Ronde van Vriezenveen has been changed into an ATB couple race through the centre of Vriezenveen and continued under the name "Nacht van Twenterand". This race is also organized by the foundation Sportpromotie Twenterand

There is also a harmony orchestra that has won the national championship several times, the Vriezenveense Harmonie. For further relaxation there is the Herman Jansen-Park.

Once a year there is a fair. There is also a market every Wednesday morning. The last Wednesday of the summer holiday, a farmers market is organized which always attracts thousands of visitors. In recent years, local entrepreneurs (mainly catering establishments) have been trying to attract more and more people to Vriezenveen by organizing various activities. The best example of this is the yearly festival, Randrock, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a huge boon to local entrepreneurs.

Traffic and transport
Vriezenveen is located on the National Road 36 (N36) from Hardenberg to Almelo and Wierden. The train station on the route Almelo – Mariënberg is located in the west of the village. It is served twice an hour by Arriva with trains of the LINT type in the Blauwnet/Vechtdallijnen style.

The main bus line is Line 83 from Almelo to the bus station "Nieuwe Daarlerveenseweg", in Vriezenveen. This route is driven by Syntus, in Twents-style. In addition, Line 81 runs through Vriezenveen via the bus station in Westerhaar to Ommen and towards Almelo. Since April 1, 2007, residents can also use the regional taxi.

Language
A unique dialectical variant of the Lower Saxon language group is spoken in Vriezenveen, albeit to a decreasing degree; aptly named Vriezenveens (Lower Saxon: Vjeans). In terms of pronunciation, this is less like the surrounding Twents, although grammatically and lexically it draws from the same source.

History
Some sources claim that Frisian influences can be heard in Vjeans. This seems plausible, because Vriezenveen was founded by Frisians. Other sources claim that the unique Vjeanse pronunciation is due to the Rusluie. These tradesmen from Vriezenveen settled in Saint Petersburg, Russia, but usually returned to Vriezenveen years later. In Saint Petersburg they formed a tight-knit community of several hundred people, who most likely spoke to each other in Vjeans. A strong Russian influence on the Vjeans of those who stayed behind therefore seems less plausible.

Because Twente was more or less cut off from the rest of the Netherlands by the moorland for centuries, links were created with Westphalia and the adjacent Münsterland. The large city of Münster was looked at for the latest fashion and customs. The language in Münster (Westphalian) was also seen as the standard and the whole of Twente (including Vriezenveen) went along with this. A characteristic feature of Westphalian is the Vowel breaking, which makes an open ee, oo and eu sound like a "twisted" ieje, oewe and uje. "Weten" became "wiëten", "Koken" became "koëken" and "Lui/Leu" became "luje". This rotation can also be heard clearly in the spoken Low Saxon variants of Rijssens and Enters. However, Vjeans seems to have gone even a step further in this, so that "Wiëten" now sounds like "wjetn/wjet'n" and "Koëken" like "kwakn/kwak'n". (English: Weten – Knowing / Koken – Cooking / Lui|Leu – Folk)

Preservation
In 2014, four stories from the children's book series Jip en Janneke were translated into Vjeans and included in "Jipke en Jannöaken", the translation of this children's book series into Twents. Other than that though, other attempts to preserve the "real" Vjeans seem to be limited to the attempts of local linguists or local historical societies.

In 1969, the "Woordenboek van het Vriezenveens, deel 1" (English: Dictionary of Vriezenveens, part 1), was written by Dr. Hendrik Entjes. Additional parts have since not appeared further.

Notable residents

 * Wicher Berkhoff (Russian: Vasili Ivanovich Berkov, English: Vasily Berkov (1794–1870)), shipbuilder and translator
 * Manon Fokke (1976), politician
 * Marcel Fränzel (1960), politician
 * Maayke Heuver (1990), football player
 * Michel Jansen (1966), football player
 * Wicher Jansen (1848–1894), textile manufacturer
 * Johan Kenkhuis (1980), swimmer
 * Bernard Kobes (1945), politician
 * Gerhardus Kruys (1838–1902), Dutch vice-admiral and minister of the Navy
 * Hendrik Kruys (1851-1907), trader and entrepreneur in Saint Petersburg
 * Jan Kruys (1767-1830), first mayor of Vriezenveen
 * Gerben Löwik (1977), cyclist
 * Reinie Melissant-Briene (1965), politician
 * Jessica Torny (1980), football player

Literature and sources

 * Plegt, B.H.A.M., e.a. (red.) (1961). Jaarboek Twente 1962. Stichting Jaarboek voor Twente, Enschede. Jrg.1(1961). ISSN 1566-3744.
 * Entjes, H. (1969). Woordenboek van het Vriezenveens : deel 1. Sasland, Groningen. 124 p. Niet verder verschenen.
 * Entjes, H. (1970). Omme sonderlinge lieve toe den vene : uit de geschiedenis en het volksleven van Vriezenveen / bijdr.: Everhard Jans; foto's: Joop Lamberts. Kruseman, Den Haag. 142 p., 26 p. pl. (Stad en dorp ; dl. 9). Omslagtitel: Over geschiedenis en volksleven van Vriezenveen.
 * Abbink, H.J., B.G. Coes, T. Jansen-Bramer e.a. (1980). Oorlog, verzet, bevrijding, 1940–1945. Vriezenveen. 24 p. Tentoonstelling in de Middenschool in Vriezenveen.
 * Hosmar, Johan (1982). De "Middenschool" van Vriezenveen. Uit: Jaarboek Twente, jrg.21(1982)p.61-66. ISSN 1566-3744.
 * Jansen Dzn., H. & F. Boswinkel Sr. (red.) (1982). Enige werken van Bernard Jaspers Faijer te Vriezenveen, schilder der historie van zijn geboortedorp / foto's: C. Alberts e.a.; voorw.: C. van der Wolf. Boswinkel, Vriezenveen. 128 p. Omslagtitel: De verkregen gave van de Vriezenveense kunstschilder Bernard Jaspers-Faijer.
 * Berkhof, H. & J. Schipper (1983). De hervormde zuil in Vriezenveen, 1945–1983 : referaat in het kader van het kandidatencollege 'verzuiling en ontzuiling'. Groningen. 56 p.
 * Berkhof, Erik (= H.). (1986). Vriezenveen 1832–1876 : een kadastraal onderzoek naar de sociale structuur in Vriezenveen. III, 146 p. Doctoraalscriptie R.U. Groningen.
 * Schotman, J. (1986). Vijftig jaar christelijk onderwijs in Vriezenveen (1884–1934). 58 p. Scriptie.
 * Boonstra, H. (1988). Gedenkboek ter gelegenheid van het 150-jarig bestaan van de gereformeerde kerk in Vriezenveen. 235 p.
 * Venema, Peter (editor) e.a. (1988). Jaarboek Twente 1989. Stichting Jaarboek voor Twente, Enschede. Jrg.28(1988). 144 p. ISSN 1566-3744. Over Vriezenveen.
 * (1990). Inventarisatie jongere bouwkunst 1850 – 1940 : beschrijving gemeente Vriezenveen. Het Oversticht, Zwolle. 45 p.
 * Hosmar, Johan (1992). Vriezenveen in het verleden. Van de Berg, Enschede. 186 p. ISBN 90-70986-80-9.
 * Witte, Gerrit de (1996). Verhalen over Vriezenveen, 1872. Vriezenveen. 66 p.
 * Jansen, Herman (1999). Ken uw dorp en heb het lief ... / samenstellers: F.D. Boswinkel e.a. Stichting 'Ken Uw dorp', Vriezenveen. 320 p. ISBN 90-9012824-7. Artikelen uit de De Vriezenveense Courant, 1945–1954.
 * Hosmar, Johan (2001). Vrouwenkiesrecht stuitte in Vriezenveen op heftig verzet. Uit: Jaarboek Twente, jrg.40(2001)p. 92-96. ISSN 1566-3744.
 * (2001). Oet de tied : begrafenisgebruiken in het oude Vriezenveen. Uit: Traditie : tijdschrift over tradities en trends, jrg.7(2001)nr.4, p. 14-16. ISSN 1382-4104.
 * Hosmar, Johan (2002). Vriezenveen zo het reilde en zeilde. Van de Berg, Enschede. 112 p. ISBN 90-5512-156-8.
 * Harzevoort, Jan (red.) (2003). Naamsaanneming in Vriezenveen, 1812 en 1826. Harzevoort, Almelo. 90 p.
 * Boonstra, H. (2005). Grote brand Vriezenveen en de geschiedenis van de Vriezenveense brandweer / samenstellers: H.J. Bramer-Jansen e.a. Stichting 'Grote Brand Vriezenveen 1905–2005', Vriezenveen. 192 p.
 * Bosch-Höfte, José e.a. (red.) (2006). Bleekneusjes oorlogskinderen : verhalen van oorlogskinderen van toen en nu. Vereniging Oud Vriezenveen/War Child Nederland, Vriezenveen/Amsterdam. 95 p. Geen ISBN.
 * Boonstra, H. (red.) (2006). Het spoorboek van Vriezenveen : 100 jaar geschiedenis van het lokaalspoor en de overige Vriezenveense sporen : 1906–2006. Vereniging Oud Vriezenveen, Vriezenveen. 228 p.
 * Wullink, Henk (2008). Eeuwenoude Hanzeroute op de fiets : van St.Petersburg naar Vriezenveen / met medew. van Jan Peter Ooms en Reinier Masselink. Eigen uitg. Henk Wullink. 280, 8 p. Verslag van de nagefietse tocht van een koetstocht uit 1826.
 * Kobes Wzn, B. (2009). Vriezenveen in oude ansichten : deel 1. Europese Bibliotheek, Zaltbommel. 44 p. ISBN 978-90-288-1686-2. (Toen boekje), speciaal uitg. voor het AD. Reprod. van een gedeelte van de uitg. uit 1972 (80 p.).
 * Kobes, Hans J. (red.) (2010–2013). Winkels van weleer. Stichting Peddemorsboerderij, Vriezenveen. 4 dln à 96 p., foto's. Op omslag: Vriezenveen & Westerhaar-Vriezenveensewijk.

title: Vriezenveen


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Warffum

Warffum (Gronings: Waarvum )is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. It had a population of around 2,175 in January 2017.

History
The history of Warffum can be traced back to at least 600 AD, and it has been estimated that the village was founded as far back as the eighth century.

In 1893 a train station was opened in Warffum, connecting Warffum to Groningen and Roodeschool. It was a separate municipality until 1990, when it became a part of Hefshuizen, which has been known as Eemsmond since 1 January 1992.

In 2004 the Dutch royal family visited Warffum as part of the Koninginnedag (Queensday) celebrations.

Culture
The museum Het Hoogeland shows life in Warffum about a hundred-year ago through a collection that includes about fifteen houses. The famous Dutch singer-songwriter Ede Staal was born in Warffum.

Perhaps the biggest annual happening in Warffum is the op Roakeldais festival. This is a folkdance festival that attracts professional dance groups from all over the world.

title: Warffum


text:
Talk:County of Brant, Ontario

I was a bit back and forth on the name change, but as it's no longer an official county, nor as large as it once was with Brantford separated, calling it 'Brant County' no longer seemed appropriate. Radagast 13:12, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * I think I had this discussion once about Prince Edward. I had links to the page at Prince Edward, Ontario but they were changed to Prince Edward County, Ontario because no one ever called it just Prince Edward. I assume the same applies to Brant County, Norfolk County and Haldimand County. Earl Andrew 18:38, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Indeed; but Prince Edward, Haldimand and Norfolk are still the same size. As Brant has lost a good quarter of its area to Brantford, it's no longer the same County of Brant. Radagast 01:59, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)

 * However, for reasons of naming conventions, it is still considered Brant County, Ontario, just with new land boundaries. I am moving the page as there are no other articles titled as 'County of x, Ontario' -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  01:45, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

 * Other articles aren't titled as 'County of x, Ontario' because the County of Brant is the only municipality in the province using that naming convention. While the County is primarily made up of land from the former Brant County, it's distinct from the former Brant County (which included Brantford), the Brant County electoral district, and the extant Brant census division. If you take a look at the county's official website, you can see that "County of Brant" is actually the official name of the municipality despite the discontinuity with usual naming conventions. For that reason, I think it's appropriate to move this page to the municipality's official name. Misty De Meo (talk) 16:49, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

 * All counties do that. For example, The County of Peterborough. This is just a standard convention used with counties in naming conventions for wikipedia articles. I'm almost certain its mitigated up from the US (As everything there is indeed X County, State), but you may move it to County of Brant, Ontario if you feel necessary, just make sure to change all the pages listed under What Link Here that are labeled "redirect page" so that they link to the new article name. Just make sure you -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  17:54, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Single Tier
I think it needs to be made more clear that Brant is completely municipally seperate from (but statistically apart of) the City of Brantford. I mean, it's there in the opening if you read hard enough, but I think it needs to be made more clear, and perhaps a sentence like "the single-tier municipality is statistically apart of, but municipally seperate from, the City of Brantford." would probably sum it all up. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:04, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Our Brant wiki link
The link to Our Brant was removed by Versageek's bot. I understand now that I shouldn't add it myself, since I operate it. However, I do believe that it is appropriate for inclusion in this article because it is not a duplication of content from Wikipedia, and provides unique information about the County of Brant's history. I wanted to present it here to get opinions if someone else would like to include it.

Since I'm not completely familiar with policies here, I'm also wondering if this qualifies as a "non-controversial edit" under the recent changes to WP:CONFLICT. I am an archivist (and hence a subject professional), and Our Brant is part of my digital history/archives initiative here. Misty De Meo (talk) 16:39, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

CENSUS STATS
i SAY. tHE CENSUS STATS (ALTHOUGH PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE ARTICLE AS INCLUDING THE CITY OF bRANTFORD) ARE POTENTIALLY CONFUSING. i BELIEVE THIS AS THE POPULATION IS GIVEN AS THE REGION WITHOUT THE CITY INCLUDED (A SMALLER NUMBER) BUT THE DENSITY AND NUMBER OF DWELLINGS MUST BE INCLUSIVE OF THE CITY OF bRANTFORD AS THE NUMBERS DON'T FIT PROPERLY OTHERWISE. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.155.25.14 (talk) 14:06, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

 * sorry capitalising lock was on 134.155.25.14 (talk) 14:09, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:County of Brant, Ontario


text:
Lorenzo Wright

Lorenzo Christopher Wright (December 9, 1926 – March 27, 1972) was an American athlete. A Detroit native, he started at Miller High School and Wayne State University; Wright is renowned for his noteworthy track and field accomplishments.

World-Class Athlete
Lorenzo C. Wright's crowning athletic achievement would come as a member of the gold medal winning 4×100 meter relay team at the 1948 Olympic Games. During those same London Games, Wright finished fourth in a fiercely contested long jump competition. Willie Steele of the U.S. won the gold medal at 25 feet 8 inches (7.825 m); Australia's Theo Bruce came in second, taking the silver medal at 24 feet $9 1/2$ inches (7.555 m). Herb Douglas of the United States captured the bronze medal with a jump of 24 feet 9 inches (7.545 m), and Lorenzo Wright ended up in fourth place at 24 feet $5 1/4$ inches (7.45 m) – a hand's width from a second trip to the medals podium.

At Miller High, Wright was a two-time Detroit Public Secondary Schools Athletic League champion in the long jump. Upon graduating from high school, LC Wright served eighteen months in the U.S. Army. Then, as a student-athlete for Wayne State University, Wright was an NCAA All-American in 1947 and 1948; placing second and third respectively in the long jump. Lorenzo Wright was a Central Collegiate Conference indoor champion in the 60-yard dash; he was also the inaugural Mid-American Conference titlist in the 100 and 220-yard dash, 220-yard low hurdles, and the long jump. During his career, Wright won two individual and two relay squad titles at the prestigious Penn Relays. Wright also won the long jump event at the 1948 and 1952 National AAU Championships.

Wright's indoor and outdoor long jump marks, along with his performances in the 100-meter and 220-yard dash, are still Wayne State University varsity records – having stood the test of time for nearly seventy years.

Dedicated Coach and Administrator
Following his athletic career, L.C. Wright served many seasons as the track and swimming coach at Miller, Eastern and Southwestern High School; during the 1960s, Wright's athletes were some of the best in the United States. Wright was later appointed Director of the Detroit Public Secondary Schools Athletic League (DPSSAL). Wright was honored posthumously as a 1973 inductee to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and -in 1976- as a charter member of the Wayne State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

One of Detroit's major interscholastic athletic facilities, adjacent to Martin Luther King High School, is named Lorenzo C. Wright Field.

Death
In 1972, at age 45, Wright was stabbed to death in his Detroit home by his wife Elizabeth during a dispute about their possible separation.

Resources

 * 1948 Summer Olympics
 * Wayne State University

title: Lorenzo Wright


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User:Kobone

I am a graduate student of the chemistry department of the University of Tokyo. I am studying organic and organometallic chemistry. My research topic is synthesis of organometallic complexes of fullerene.

title: User:Kobone


text: User talk:165.155.160.135

title: User talk:165.155.160.135