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Patowmack Canal

The Patowmack Canal, sometimes called the Potomac Canal, is a series of five inoperative canals located in Maryland and Virginia, United States, that was designed to bypass rapids in the Potomac River upstream of the present Washington, D.C., area. The most well known of them is the Great Falls skirting canal, whose remains are managed by the National Park Service since it is within Great Falls Park, an integral part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The first section of the canal opened in 1795, and the canal ended operations in 1828.

Planning the canal
Few ventures were dearer to George Washington than his plan to make the Potomac River navigable as far as the Ohio River Valley. In the uncertain period after the Revolutionary War, Washington believed that better transportation and trade would draw lands west of the Allegheny Mountains into the United States and "bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken."

"The way," Washington wrote, "is easy and dictated by our clearest interest. It is to open a wide door, and make a smooth way for the produce of that Country to pass to our Markets."

As a waterway west, the Potomac River could be that "door." It was the shortest potential route between tidewater, with access to East Coast and trans-Atlantic trade, and the headwaters of the Ohio River, with access to the western frontier. But both political and physical obstacles had to be overcome.

Opening the Potomac required cooperation of Virginia and Maryland, both of which bordered the river. In 1784, Washington convinced the states' assemblies to establish a company to improve the Potomac between its headwaters near Cumberland, Maryland, and tidewater at Georgetown. The Patowmack Company, organized May 17, 1785, drew directors and subscribers from both states. Then, Washington wrote in his diary, the office of president of the Patowmack Company "fell upon me." He presided over the project until he became the nation's chief executive (President of the United States).

Delegates from Virginia and Maryland, meeting at Washington's home in 1785, drew up the Mount Vernon Compact, providing for free trade on the river. Virginia and Maryland legislators ratified the compact and then invited all 13 states to send delegates to a convention in Annapolis in 1786 "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest." The Annapolis Convention led to a general meeting in Philadelphia the following May. Thus, George Washington's lobbying for interstate cooperation on the Potomac helped prepare the way for the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Building the canals
Five skirting canals were made: Little Falls, Great Falls, Seneca Falls (across from Seneca Creek), Payne's Falls of the Shenendoah, and House Falls, (near Harpers Ferry, Virginia, now West Virginia). Three of the canals did not require locks: the Seneca Falls, House Falls, and Payne's Falls. Little Falls used wooden locks, which were not meant to be permanent.

At Great Falls, the Potomac presented physical obstacles to travel as well. Narrow and winding in places, it drops over 600 feet in 200 miles from Cumberland to sea level. Spring rains swell the river to dangerous heights; summer droughts can render it impassable. To make the river navigable by even shallow draft boats, the Patowmack Company had to dredge portions of the riverbed and skirt five areas of falls.

Little Falls Canal
The Little Falls canal ran 3814 yards on the Maryland side of the river. The original locks, near today's Fletcher's Boat House, were made of wood, and the canal was finished in 1795. These wooden locks were replaced with stone locks in 1817, and had a lift of 37 feet. The first two locks were named "Martha" and "George" (after Martha Washington and George Washington).

This canal was later repurposed for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O), partially as Feeder #1, and as the canal itself from Lock 5 to just before Fletcher's Boat House. The remains of the stone locks were destroyed when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) built its Georgetown Branch line c. 1910. (The rail line was later abandoned and converted to the Capital Crescent Trail in the 1990s.)

Great Falls Canal
By far the most demanding task was building a canal with locks to bypass the Great Falls of the Potomac River. Roaring over the rocks, the river drops nearly 80 feet in less than a mile.

Swift currents, solid rock, and constant financial and labor problems hindered progress on the Patowmack Canal at Great Falls.

Construction begun in 1785 and took seventeen years to complete - six years longer than the time required to locate, build, and begin occupying a new federal city, Washington, D.C., ten miles downriver. Construction required engineering skills and a labor force not easily found in 18th century America. Crews consisted of unskilled laborers, skilled indentured servants, and slaves rented from nearby plantations. The work was difficult and dangerous. With one of the earliest uses in this country of black-powder blasting, workers forced a channel through the rock cliffs for the final three locks.

The canal is 1,820 yards long and was completed in 1801, and opened to traffic in 1802. Its five locks raised or lowered boats to skirt around Great Falls, and were constructed of red sandstone from the Seneca Quarry across the river in Maryland. Locking through the whole canal could be accomplished in about an hour.

An entire town grew up around the construction site to serve as headquarters for the Patowmack Company and home for the workers. The town was named Matildaville by its founder, the Revolutionary War hero Light Horse Harry Lee. Harry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee, named the town for his first wife, Matilda Lee.

Seneca Falls Canal
This canal was 1,320 yards long and despite going down 7 feet, had no locks, and is on the Virginia side. This was worked on in 1785. This refers to the falls which start just below Seneca Creek, Maryland (this is not to be confused with Seneca Falls, New York where the Cayuga–Seneca Canal was built). It is opposite Dam No. 2 / Violettes Lock on the C&O Canal.

Shenandoah or Paynes Falls Canal
This canal, just below Harpers Ferry, was 1,760 yards long, dropped 15 feet, and had no locks either. This was also called the Bullring Canal by some boatmen (the falls also being called "Bullring Falls" according to Thomas Moore's 1820 writings), and was made up of two short skirting canals with a "short sheet of water about a quarter mile" between them.

Note: There is a good deal of confusion, even in the Potomac Company Records, to the canals around Harpers Ferry, more than one being called the "Shenandoah Canal" (sometimes inaccurately).

House Falls Canal
This Maryland canal, also called the Long Canal, had no locks, and overcame a drop of three feet. This canal was reused for the C&O Canal, between Dam No. 3 and Lock 34 (Goodheart's Lock), according to a 1922 survey, for a distance of almost a mile.

Other improvements
Some other tributaries to the Potomac had work done on them, such as Conococheague Creek, the Monocacy River, Patterson Creek, South Branch, Cacpon Creek, Opequon Creek, and the Shenandoah River.

Operating the canal
Matildaville, at its height, boasted the company superintendent's house, a market, grist mill, sawmill, foundry, inn, ice house, workers' barracks, boarding houses, and a sprinkling of small homes. Boaters stopped here to wait their turn through the locks, to change cargo, or to enjoy an evening in town before continuing their journey.

Thousands of boats locked through at Great Falls, carrying flour, whiskey, tobacco, and iron downstream; carrying cloth, hardware, firearms, and other manufactured products upstream. Vessels varied from crudely constructed rafts to the long narrow "sharper," a keelboat that could carry up to 20 tons of cargo. The trip took 3 to 5 days down to Georgetown and 10 to 12 days poling against the current back to Cumberland. Many boat owners simply sold their boats for scrap and walked back instead.

Here is a sample of what was carried down in 1811: Also carried in 1811 were firearms, pig iron, timber, rye, flax seed, hemp, butter oats, cloverseed, and staves.

Gondolas were one-use log rafts, about 60 by 10 feet, and held many tons of cargo. Sharpers were flatbottomed boats 60 feet by 7 feet. These also were poled down the river, but were not used as much, since they could only get through the shallows of the Potomac 45 days per year during spring flooding. Wrecks and loss of cargo were probably frequent, since it is written that the people of Cooney (a hamlet near Little Falls) was well supplied with coal, flour, meat (etc.) from wrecks.

Although the charter required year-round operation, the canal operated seasonally, from February until May. Summer droughts shut down operation until rains in the autumn.

Built to support the canal industry, Matildaville's fate was tied to that of the Patowmack Company. Today, only a few fragile remains of Matildaville are visible.

The greatest obstacle to the Patowmack project proved to be financial. High construction costs, particularly at the Great Falls section, and insufficient revenues bankrupted the company. Extremes of high and low water restricted use of the canal to only a month or two each year. The tolls collected could not even pay interest on the company debt.

They planned to make more improvements on other major branches of the Potomac but doing so did nothing to increase the company's revenues. They issued more stock, borrowed from banks, and even tried a lottery all to no avail.

End of canal operations
The Erie Canal opened in 1825, and immediately became a rival, controlling a connection between the Great Lakes and the Eastern Seaboard. The Patowmack Company folded in 1828, turning over its assets and liabilities to the newly formed C&O Canal Company. The new company abandoned the Patowmack Canal (except for the section at Little Falls) in 1830 for an even more ambitious undertaking: a man-made waterway stretching from Georgetown to Pittsburgh. Although the Patowmack Company was a financial failure, its builders pioneered lock engineering and stimulated a wave of canal construction important to the country's development.

Groundbreaking for the C&O Canal took place close to Lock 6, near the upstream side of the Little Falls Skirting Canal. In the end, the Little Falls skirting canal was modified and repurposed for the C&O Canal prism as well as becoming its feeder canal (Inlet #1), after some modifications. From Lock 5 to almost Fletcher's Boat House is the bed of the Little Falls Skirting Canal.

The Shenandoah canal (i.e. canal on the Shenandoah River) was still used occasionally, and was the reason why the C&O canal had to build the Shenandoah river lock (just below Lock 33) at Harper's Ferry, to get cooperation from the Virginia state legislature. Boats were to leave the C&O Canal, with the mules crossing over the B&O railroad bridge, bringing them to the Shenandoah, letting them go through the canal there.

George Washington did not live to see the completion of the navigation project that had been his obsession since youth. But he did take pride in visiting the canal during the construction to inspect its progress. He died in 1799, two years before the canal opened at Great Falls. But in the long run Washington's vision of a strong nation linked by a direct, long-distance trade network came true. His frequent toast, "Success to the navigation of the Potomac!" became a footnote of American history.

Current recreational use
In 1930 the U.S. Congress authorized the canals as a park. The National Park Service took on responsibility for its management in 1966.

The preservation of the Patowmack Canal is part of the Park Service's continuing efforts to protect and preserve special resources of the park. The Patowmack Canal and Matildaville ruins are protected by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. This law prohibits excavation, removal, or displacement of archaeological resources. The significance of the Patowmack Canal in the development of the young nation is evident in its designation as a National Historic Landmark. The Patowmack Canal is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and a Virginia Historic Landmark.

The remains of the Seneca canal still exist on the Virginia side, opposite Violette's lock (on the C&O Canal).

Visitor information
Great Falls Park is open to the public daily, with an admission fee.

Safety is a primary concern in the Park. Prohibited activities include alcohol, open fires, swimming, wading or crossing of any open water. Sporting activities such as rock climbing and kayaking at Great Falls Park should be conducted only by experienced persons familiar with the dangers and safety protocols involved therein. These are dangerous grounds and accidental deaths are not uncommon. The park had 27 deaths between 2001 and 2013.

The Patowmack Canal Trail is accessible by wheelchair as far as Lock 1. The trail surface consists of compacted soil with no curbs. The National Park Service opened a wheelchair accessible overlook to the Great Falls in January 2005 and was renovating a second overlook to the Great Falls due for completion in late May 2005.

The Great Falls section of the canal, along with the archaeological remains of Matildaville and other nearby canal-related sites, were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, as one of the nation's earliest efforts at large-scale civil engineering, reflective of the visions of two of its Founding Fathers, George Washington and James Madison.

title: Patowmack Canal


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Diplolepis (wasp)

Diplolepis is a genus of approximately fifty species of gall-inducing wasps in the family Diplolepididae. The larvae induce galls on wild roses (Rosa), and rarely on domestic roses.

Description
Adults are small (3-6 mm) with a strongly arched mesosoma giving them a hunched appearance. Coloration ranges from entirely orange to reddish-brown or black. Larvae are legless and cream-colored with a weakly defined head.

Galls formed by a given species can usually be distinguished from those of other species by the shape, size, placement, and ornamentation (smooth or spiny) of the gall, together with the identity of the host plant. However, gall morphology can be modified by the presence of inquilines and parasitoids. Some species induce galls on leaves, while others induce galls on stems or adventitious shoots. Depending on the species of wasp, galls may be single-chambered or multi-chambered, and detachable or integral.

Range
Diplolepis species occur throughout the holarctic region. While most described species are in the nearctic, it is likely many species remain to be discovered and described, particularly in the eastern palearctic.

Life cycle
All Diplolepis species lay eggs and induce galls only on rose (Rosa) species, and are thus dependent on roses to complete their life cycle. There is only one generation per year. Adult emergence from galls coincides with the availability of suitable host plant tissue required for oviposition and gall formation; this can be in spring or later in summer depending on the species. The adult life span is 5–12 days, during which they mate and the females lay their eggs. Eggs are attached to 1-2 plant cells and gall formation begins before the eggs hatch. Larvae are entirely surrounded by their galls shortly after they begin feeding. Larvae remain in their galls during the summer while feeding on gall tissue, and mature by late summer. They overwinter in their galls as pre-pupae; they complete pupation in spring and the adults chew their way out of the galls.

Inquilines and parasitoids
The galls of nearly all Diplolepis species are known to host inquilines - species that invade and occupy a gall but do not feed on the larva of the inducing species, though the inducing larva often dies as a result of the activity of the inquiline. Species of the gall wasp genus Periclistus are the most common inquiline species found in Diplolepis galls and may occupy over half the Diplolepis galls produced in a given year.

The larvae of both the gall-inducing Diplolepis species and the inquilines (if present) are used as hosts by a number of parasitoid wasps, including wasps from the families Eulophidae, Eupelmidae, Eurytomidae, Ormyridae, Pteromalidae, Torymidae, and Ichneumonidae.

Taxonomy
The name 'Diplolepis ' was first used for this group by Etienne-Louis Geoffroy in 1762. The genus is monophyletic and, with Liebelia, constitutes the subfamily Diplolepidinae. This subfamily was previously considered a tribe - Diplolepidini - of the gall wasp family Cynipidae. There are currently about 50 described species in the genus, including:

 * Diplolepis abei Pujade-Villar & Wang, 2020
 * Diplolepis arefacta
 * Diplolepis ashmeadi
 * Diplolepis bassetti
 * Diplolepis bicolor
 * Diplolepis californica
 * Diplolepis dichlocera
 * Diplolepis eglanteriae
 * Diplolepis flaviabdomenis
 * Diplolepis fructuum
 * Diplolepis fulgens
 * Diplolepis fusiformans
 * Diplolepis gracilis
 * Diplolepis hunanensis
 * Diplolepis ignota
 * Diplolepis inconspicuis
 * Diplolepis japonica
 * Diplolepis lens
 * Diplolepis mayri
 * Diplolepis minoriabdomenis
 * Diplolepis nebulosa
 * Diplolepis neglecta
 * Diplolepis nervosa
 * Diplolepis nigriceps
 * Diplolepis nitida
 * Diplolepis nodulosa
 * Diplolepis ogawai Abe and Ide, 2023
 * Diplolepis oregonensis
 * Diplolepis ostensackeni
 * Diplolepis polita
 * Diplolepis pustulatoides
 * Diplolepis radicum
 * Diplolepis radoszkowskii
 * Diplolepis rosae
 * Diplolepis rosaefolii
 * Diplolepis similis
 * Diplolepis spinosa
 * Diplolepis spinosissimae
 * Diplolepis terrigena
 * Diplolepis triforma
 * Diplolepis tuberculatrix
 * Diplolepis tumida
 * Diplolepis valtonyci Zhu, Wang Pujade-Villar, 2021
 * Diplolepis variabilis
 * Diplolepis variegata
 * Diplolepis verna
 * Diplolepis weldi

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

title: Diplolepis (wasp)


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Super Bowl XLII

Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season. The game was played on February 3, 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Despite New England being heavily favored heading into the game, the Giants defeated the Patriots by the score of 17–14. The game is regarded as one of the biggest upsets in the history of professional North American sports,  as well as one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever.

The Patriots entered the game as 12-point favorites after becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the only one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. The Giants, who finished the regular season with a 10–6 record, were seeking to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, and were also looking for their third Super Bowl victory and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier. This Super Bowl was also a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which New England won, 38–35.

In the fourth quarter, down 14–10, the Giants started their game-winning drive on their own 17-yard line with 2:39 left. In the drive's most memorable play, David Tyree made the "Helmet Catch" on 3rd down, a leaping one-handed catch pinning the football with his right hand to the crown of his helmet for a 32-yard first down conversion. After a second first-down conversion by Steve Smith on 3rd and 11, wide receiver Plaxico Burress scored the winning touchdown on a 13-yard reception with 35 seconds remaining. The Giants' game winning-drive is often regarded as the greatest in NFL history.

The game was tight throughout, with both teams' defense dominating the competition until near the end of the game. The game featured five lead changes (New York took it three times and New England twice). Only 10 total points were scored in the first three quarters. The Giants consumed a Super Bowl-record 9 minutes and 59 seconds on their opening drive, but could only manage a field goal. The Patriots then responded with running back Laurence Maroney's 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter. After a scoreless third quarter, the fourth quarter saw a Super Bowl-record three lead changes. After Tyree's 3-yard touchdown reception at the beginning of the quarter, New England wide receiver Randy Moss made a 6-yard touchdown reception with 2:42 left to play before New York's game-winning drive. Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who completed 19 of 34 passes for 255 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, was named Super Bowl MVP. Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, who retired following the victory, had two tackles and one sack. This game was the first since Super Bowl IX in 1975 (in which the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 16–6) that neither team scored at least 20 points. This game was also the first Super Bowl game with three fourth-quarter lead changes, and the only one to date.

Super Bowl XLII was ranked fifth on NFL.com's 100 Greatest Games, the highest ranked Super Bowl game, while Tyree's catch was ranked third on NFL.com's 100 Greatest Plays. Many other media outlets rank Super Bowl XLII as the greatest Super Bowl ever. Many sports websites consider it one of the most iconic sports moments of the 2000s.

The telecast of the game on Fox broke the then-record for the most watched Super Bowl in history with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States.

Host selection process
As always, the league considered several potential host cities before choosing the Phoenix area. In this case, the process drew special interest because the league considered holding Super Bowl XLII in New York City or Washington, D.C. as a symbol of the recovery from the September 11 attacks. New York City's bid did not go far. Aside from the obvious climatic concerns, it was also difficult to find a suitable stadium. Proposed renovations to the 1970s-vintage Giants Stadium were still being disputed amongst the various parties. Giants Stadium also lacked a roof, as did both of New York City's baseball stadiums, and the NFL had never played an outdoor Super Bowl in a cold weather climate. The city of New York and the New York Jets failed to secure a deal to build a new West Side Stadium (which, according to the initial plans, would have been built with a roof). During the years since the Super Bowl XLII bid fell through, Giants Stadium has been demolished. Its replacement, MetLife Stadium, was awarded Super Bowl XLVIII.

Washington, D.C.'s bid proved to be more viable as the D.C. area had a relatively new (albeit roofless) stadium in FedExField. DC's winter weather, although still potentially problematic, is milder than New York's climate.

In the end, the process boiled down to three finalists: Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Tampa. NFL owners finally chose University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona as the site for Super Bowl XLII during their October 30, 2003, meeting in Chicago. In subsequent years, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa was chosen as the site for Super Bowl XLIII and the proposed (but never built) West Side Stadium was briefly designated as the venue for Super Bowl XLIV. However, this game was later moved to Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, when it became clear that the new stadium in New York City would not be built in time for the February 2010 game.

Venue
The kickoff for the game took place at 4:32 p.m. MST (23:32 UTC). This was the first Super Bowl played on a retractable natural-grass field surface; the University of Phoenix Stadium's removable surface is unique among American sports venues.

Super Bowl XLII was also the second Super Bowl played in a retractable-roof stadium (the first was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston for Super Bowl XXXVIII). During the regular season, the home team decides 90 minutes before kickoff whether the roof will be open or closed, and an open roof must remain open unless weather conditions get worse. However, as a neutral site, the NFL controls the option to open or close without any restrictions. The first time this was employed was in Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium; the roof was open for pregame and halftime shows and closed during the game. Because there was rain in the forecast for Super Bowl XLII, the roof was closed for the entire day's activities.

During a February 6, 2007, ceremony with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee unveiled the slogan "Who Wants It More?" along with its mascot "Spike the Super Ball" (an anthropomorphized football with sunglasses and sneakers) and a large "Super Bowl XLII Countdown Clock" at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The Super Bowl XLII logo was also unveiled. It features the shape of the state of Arizona in red and two horizontal white stripes in the middle to represent the vertical lines on University of Phoenix Stadium. The turquoise Roman numerals represent the Native American culture of Arizona. The red star represents the AFC and the blue star represents the NFC. This was also the last Super Bowl with the league's previous logo painted at midfield; the following season, the league redesigned its primary logo.

New York Giants
The New York Giants began the season with low expectations after star running back Tiki Barber retired. The Giants had lost in the NFC Wild Card round in each of the previous two seasons and had not won a playoff game in seven years. Quarterback Eli Manning, the younger brother of Super Bowl XLI MVP quarterback Peyton Manning, had struggled to find consistency. In his three seasons as a starter, he had completed less than 54% of his passes with a career passer rating of 73.4. While generally regarded as a solid quarterback, Manning had been unable to achieve the same level of success as fellow 2004 draftees Philip Rivers (for whom he was traded) and Ben Roethlisberger, the latter of whom had already won a Super Bowl (Super Bowl XL). By the 2007 season, many sports writers were starting to question if Eli would ever live up to the expectations that accompanied being selected with the first overall pick in a draft.

The criticism of Manning intensified as the Giants lost the first two games of the regular season. The Giants recovered, though, notching six consecutive wins and finishing the year with a 10–6 record. The Giants were able to secure a wild card bid in the playoffs, despite the loss of running back Derrick Ward, defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, and four-time Pro Bowl tight end Jeremy Shockey to injury. In the final game of the regular season, the Giants played at home against the undefeated New England Patriots. Although the Giants had already earned a playoff spot and had nothing to gain by winning the game, coach Tom Coughlin decided to play his starters throughout the game. New York, clearly playing to win against the league's best team, narrowly lost 38–35. But the effort seemed to rejuvenate the Giants and prepare them for a difficult playoff run. Manning led his team to three road playoff wins in Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay respectively, without throwing a single interception. The Giants' three playoff wins gave them an NFL record 10 consecutive wins on the road. They finished the season with a franchise-low 77 penalties, after setting a franchise record two years before with 146.

Manning finished the 2007 season with 3,336 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 20 interceptions. His primary target, Plaxico Burress, caught 70 passes for 1,050 yards and 12 touchdowns. Amani Toomer, the Giants all-time leading receiver and one of only two players remaining from their last Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXXV, was also a reliable target with 59 receptions for 760 yards, while Shockey contributed 57 receptions for 619 yards and 3 touchdowns before suffering a season-ending injury in week 15. The Giants' ground game was led by running back Brandon Jacobs, who at 6'4" (193 cm) and 264 pounds (118 kg), was one of the largest starting halfbacks in the NFL. He finished the season with 1,009 yards and an average of five yards per carry, while also catching 23 passes despite starting only nine games. Running back Reuben Droughns rushed for 276 yards and team-leading 6 touchdowns, while also catching 7 passes for 49 yards and returning 21 kickoffs for 437 yards.  Rookie running back Ahmad Bradshaw added 38 kickoff returns for 921 yards, while also rushing for 190.

The Giants had a defensive line that was led by defensive ends Osi Umenyiora (the lone Pro Bowl representative on the team, the fewest a Super Bowl team has ever had), Michael Strahan, and Justin Tuck. Umenyiora led the defense with 13 sacks and five forced fumbles. Strahan, another veteran from the Giants' last Super Bowl appearance in 2000, had nine sacks, giving him a career total of 141.5 and breaking the franchise record held by Lawrence Taylor. Tuck recorded ten sacks and 48 solo tackles. In the secondary, cornerback Sam Madison and safety Gibril Wilson led the team with four interceptions each. Cornerback R. W. McQuarters had no interceptions during the season, but played effectively in the playoffs, with interceptions in each of the Giants first three postseason games. Punter Jeff Feagles played in his first Super Bowl after 20 years in the NFL. This was also the last game for Giants athletic trainer John Johnson who had been with the team for 60 years.

The Giants became only the fourth team to win the Super Bowl without playing a single home game in the preceding playoffs. They joined the 1966 Green Bay Packers (who won Super Bowl I against the Kansas City Chiefs), the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs (who won Super Bowl IV against the Minnesota Vikings) and the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers (who won Super Bowl XL against the Seattle Seahawks) in accomplishing this feat. However, Green Bay had to win two games (including the Super Bowl), Kansas City three, and Pittsburgh and the Giants four, in order to accomplish this. Since then, two other teams also won three road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl: the 2010 Green Bay Packers, who won Super Bowl XLV over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winners of Super Bowl LV (played in their home stadium with limited attendance because of COVID-19) over the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Giants were the only NFC team to make multiple Super Bowl appearances in the 2000s decade, at the ends of the 2000 and 2007 seasons. Starting with the Rams' appearance in 2001, ten different NFC teams represented the conference from 2001 to 2010: Rams, Buccaneers, Panthers, Eagles, Seahawks, Bears, Giants, Cardinals, Saints, and Packers.

New England Patriots
When the New England Patriots arrived at Super Bowl XLII, they were already billed as the greatest team in NFL history. The Patriots were not only competing for a fourth Super Bowl title since the 2001 season; they were aiming to become the first team in NFL history to achieve a 19–0 record. Their perfect 16–0 record in the regular season was the first since the league moved to a 16-game regular season in 1978. It was also only the fourth undefeated and untied regular season in NFL history. New England set NFL records with 589 points scored (an average of 36.8 points per game) (since broken by the 2013 Broncos), 75 total touchdowns, and a net differential of +315 points (they gave up 274 points, fourth best in the league). Some experts have suggested that the Patriots' 16–0 record is the culmination of a larger trend towards better records for top NFL teams since the league realignment in 2002. The team was led by then eighth-year quarterback Tom Brady who proceeded to have the best season of his entire career and won his first NFL MVP and NFL Offensive MVP awards, throwing for a then-career-high 4,806 yards and a then NFL record 50 touchdowns (22 more than his previous best season; since broken by Peyton Manning in 2013), and just eight interceptions. His passer rating of 117.2 was the second-highest season rating in NFL history. One often-cited reason for Brady's improved numbers was the acquisition of receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker. The Patriots acquired Moss, a nine-year veteran, from the Oakland Raiders for a fourth-round pick in the 2007 NFL draft after Moss had, statistically, the worst year of his career (with 42 receptions for 553 yards and three touchdowns). With the Patriots, though, Moss caught 98 receptions for 1,493 yards and an NFL record 23 touchdowns, and was selected a first-team All Pro. The Patriots also gave the Miami Dolphins second- and seventh-round picks for Welker. Welker tied for the league lead with 112 receptions for 1,175 yards and 8 touchdowns, while also returning 25 punts for 249 yards and 7 kickoffs for 176, earning himself second-team All Pro selection. Welker and Moss both earned votes for Offensive Player of the Year. Other major contributors to the Patriots' passing game included Donté Stallworth, who added 697 yards and three touchdowns, and tight end Benjamin Watson, whose 36 receptions totaled 389 yards and six touchdowns.

Running back Laurence Maroney was the Patriots' top rusher with 835 yards and six touchdowns, while Sammy Morris added 385 yards and three touchdowns (Morris ended up on injured reserve midway through the season, and thus could not play in the Super Bowl). Longtime Patriot Kevin Faulk had 265 yards and was also a reliable receiver out of the backfield, catching 47 passes for 383 yards and a touchdown. The Patriots offensive line featured three players selected to the Pro Bowl, guard Logan Mankins, tackle Matt Light, and center Dan Koppen. The Patriots defensive line was led by nose tackle Vince Wilfork, who was selected to his first Pro Bowl; he was also fined four times during the season for unnecessary roughness. The Patriots had a set of veteran linebackers who had a combined 16 Pro Bowl selections. Outside linebacker Mike Vrabel had, statistically, the best season of his career. He led the team in sacks with a career-high 12.5, while also forcing five fumbles and earning his first Pro Bowl selection. Adalius Thomas, an off-season signing from the Ravens, recorded six sacks. Junior Seau, who had been selected to the Pro Bowl 12 times during his career but had never won a Super Bowl, returned for his 18th season and got 74 tackles with 3.5 sacks. Tedy Bruschi recorded 92 tackles and two sacks. The Patriots secondary featured another player selected to the Pro Bowl, cornerback Asante Samuel, who led the team with six interceptions. Defensive back Ellis Hobbs returned 35 kickoffs for 911 yards and a touchdown, ranking him 7th in the NFL with a 26.0 yards per return average.

Playoffs
The Giants became the first NFC team (third overall) to advance to the Super Bowl by winning three playoff games on the road. After beating the fourth-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24–14, the Giants upset the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys 21–17, when R. W. McQuarters intercepted a pass from Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo in the end zone as time expired. The Giants advanced to the Super Bowl with a 23–20 overtime win over the second-seeded Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, which was the third coldest game in NFL history (−1 °F at kickoff, −24 °F wind chill) with an interception by Corey Webster that set up Lawrence Tynes's game-winning 47-yard field goal. The field goal was the longest by a visiting kicker in Lambeau Field postseason history. This turned out to be the final game Brett Favre played for the Packers.

Meanwhile, the Patriots continued to set NFL records on their road to the Super Bowl. First, Brady set the NFL record for completion percentage in a single game (92.9%) with 26 of 28 completions for 268 yards and three touchdowns in their 31–20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round, while safety Rodney Harrison tied an NFL record by recording an interception in his fourth consecutive postseason game. One week later, the Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers 21–12 in the AFC Championship Game. Although Brady threw three interceptions in the game, the Patriots defense forced two turnovers and limited the Chargers to four field goals, while Maroney rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown for the second game in a row.

Pre-game notes
New England was heavily favored to win the game and become the first NFL team to go through a 16-game regular season and postseason undefeated. Had the Patriots won, they would also have joined the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only teams ever to win the NFL league championship with an undefeated and untied record. However, others predicted that the Giants could accomplish a win. New York's record of 10 consecutive road wins included five teams favored to beat them. The Giants achieved playoff victories against the Cowboys (who had defeated New York twice in the regular season) and Packers (who had beaten the Giants in week 2).

The Patriots and Giants had played against each other in the last week of the regular season. Technically, the game had little significance, since both teams had already clinched their respective spots in the playoffs. But due to the Patriots' quest for an undefeated season, this game was one of the most heavily watched games in league history. NFL Network was originally scheduled to air the game as part of their Saturday Night Football coverage, with WCVB and WWOR carrying the game locally in Boston and New York. Shortly before the game was scheduled to air, CBS and NBC bought broadcast rights to the game and NFL Network's broadcast was carried by both networks, marking the first time in NFL history that an NFL game was carried on three broadcast networks at the same time. The game was also the first NFL game to be simulcast on a national level since Super Bowl I. As they were favored to do, the Patriots won the game to finish the regular season undefeated. Still, the game was close and competitive, with both teams playing their starters for all 60 minutes. New England won, 38–35, by overcoming a 12-point deficit in the third quarter, the largest deficit the Patriots had faced all season. "There is nothing but positives", Giants coach Tom Coughlin said after the game. "I told the players in playing this game everything would be positives, there would be no negatives and that is how I feel. I don't know any better way to be prepared for the playoffs than to go against a team that was 15–0."

This would be the third time in the Giants' four Super Bowl appearances in which the team played its eventual AFC opponent during that year's regular season. Both of the prior occasions saw the Giants beat those opponents in the Super Bowl (defeating Denver in Super Bowl XXI and Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV).

For the third consecutive year, the arrival dates for the teams were staggered, with the Patriots arriving on Sunday, January 27 (corresponding to the traditional day that teams arrive for the game with the two-week break) and the Giants waiting to arrive until Monday, January 28. A report filed by ESPN's Rachel Nichols suggested that the Giants stayed to practice more of their game plan in their home facility before arriving at the Super Bowl. By electing to stay back at home the Giants chose to follow a tactic that the previous two Super Bowl champions, the Indianapolis Colts (before Super Bowl XLI) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (before Super Bowl XL), had employed.

The Patriots practiced at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University, while the Giants practiced at the Arizona Cardinals' practice facility, both of which are located in Tempe.

As the designated home team in the annual rotation between AFC and NFC teams, the Patriots elected to wear their home navy uniforms with silver pants, while the Giants wore their road white uniforms with grey pants.

United States
Fox broadcast Super Bowl XLII as part of an annual cycle between the three main broadcast television partners of the NFL. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman called the game, while Pam Oliver and Chris Myers were the sideline reporters. Fox aired nine hours of pre-game programming, which began with a special episode of Fox News Sunday, as well as a two-hour special (Fox Super Sunday) hosted by Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith, which previewed the Super Tuesday primaries for the 2008 presidential election. The Fox NFL Sunday panel hosted the main pre-game show, led by Curt Menefee, joined by Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, and Jimmy Johnson. Jillian Reynolds served as Weather and entertainment reporter, Frank Caliendo appeared in various comedic skits (including one where he portrayed John Madden and correctly predicted that the Giants would win) and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest provided coverage of celebrity arrivals to the game site. A Spanish language broadcast was aired on the second audio program with John Laguna as play-by-play announcer and Pepe Mantilla as color analyst.

Ratings
The telecast was the most watched Super Bowl in history with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States. These numbers were later surpassed by several subsequent games, including 2015's Super Bowl XLIX (which was also hosted by Glendale), which now holds the record with an average of 114 million viewers. The Super Bowl XLII broadcast achieved the highest Nielsen ratings (43.3) for the game since Super Bowl XXXIV. At the time, it was also the second most watched TV program of all time in the United States.

Commercials
Fox took in at least $250 million in revenue from commercial time sold for the game. One of 63 thirty-second spots among thirty-seven different advertisers cost an estimated $2.7 million (excluding production costs), up from $2.6 million in 2007. However, advertisers are usually offered discounted rates below the official one.

As Super Bowl XLII fell only two days before Super Tuesday, critics and politicians foresaw the possibility that presidential candidates could attempt to buy time during the Super Bowl. However, Fox stated that it would not accept such ads, citing both equal time regulations (the FCC has additionally ruled that, despite requirements for all broadcasters to provide "reasonable" access to commercial inventory for candidates before an election or primary, candidates cannot reasonably expect to receive ad time during high-profile programs of this nature), and the fact that all of the spots had already been sold out by January 2008. However, the campaign of Democratic candidate Barack Obama did purchase local ad time in some markets.

The rock band Eels announced an intent to broadcast a one-second spot during the game (consisting solely of lead singer Mark Oliver Everett saying the letter "U") to promote its compilation album "Useless Trinkets", but later announced that it had backtracked after having learned it could only purchase commercial time in 30-second blocks (and a proposal to recruit 29 other advertisers to air their own one-second ads alongside them could be harmful to viewers with photosensitive epilepsy).

International
Outside North America, Super Bowl XLII was distributed by the NFL and NFL International. Overall, the game was available to an estimated potential audience of one billion viewers within 223 countries and territories. However, viewing figures outside North America rose only marginally on previous years with an estimated 10 million people tuning in from outside the USA, Canada and Mexico for an overall global audience in the region of 114 million. Dick Stockton and Sterling Sharpe were the announcers for the International broadcast.

United Kingdom
The BBC acquired the rights in the United Kingdom. The game aired live on BBC Two, carrying the NFL International feed, ending ITV Sport's coverage, which began in 2005. The game was also subsequently available on the BBC's on demand service, iPlayer. Sky Sports broadcast the game in both standard and high definition using Fox's feed and announcers.

Streaming
Independent Phoenix television station KTVK broadcast a live video stream from a Webcam located outside of the University of Phoenix Stadium. The camera provided millions of Internet users from around the world a chance to peer in on pre- and post-game activities, watching thousands of spectators file into and out of the stadium on Sunday, February 3. The Stadium Cam broadcast from Friday, February 1 to Monday, February 4, 2008, on the station's website.

NFL.com carried its own coverage of Super Bowl events leading up to and after the game, mostly simulcasting NFL Network.

Radio
On radio, Westwood One had the national broadcast rights to the game in the United States and Canada; Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason served as the announcing team for that network. The game was carried on BBC Radio 5 Live in the United Kingdom with Arlo White commentating.

Sirius Satellite Radio carried twelve feeds in eight languages in the United States. The following language feeds were offered:

 * Westwood One (American English)
 * Univision Radio/United Stations (Mexican Spanish, U.S.)
 * New England Patriots Radio Network
 * New York Giants Radio Network
 * BBC Radio 5 Live (British English)
 * NHK Japan (Japanese)
 * NTV Plus (Russian)
 * SMG (Mandarin Chinese)

FieldPass, the subscription Internet radio service provided by the league at NFL.com, carried most of these feeds, with select international feeds for free.

Locally, Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti called the game for the Patriots on WBCN radio, and Bob Papa, Dick Lynch, and Carl Banks called the Giants' radio broadcast on WFAN-AM. By NFL rules, only WBCN, WFAN, Sirius and FieldPass carried the teams' local broadcasts, and affiliate stations instead carried the Westwood One feed. WBCN, WFAN, and Westwood One are all owned by CBS Radio.

DVD
The official DVD of the Super Bowl was released on February 26, 2008. The DVD covered the entire 2007 New York Giants season, as well as special features including the NFL Network post game commentary, the halftime show in its entirety, the Media Day highlights, the NFC Divisional Game and NFC Championship Game highlights, profiles on Mathias Kiwanuka and Tom Coughlin, and features on Eli Manning and Michael Strahan. The New York Giants: Road to Super Bowl XLII was released on June 3, 2008. It was a 5 disc set that featured the full broadcasts of the last game of the regular season and all four playoff games. On August 26, 2009 New York Giants 10 Greatest Games was released, in which Super Bowl XLII was included as well.

Pre-game ceremonies
Willie Nelson performed at an NFL-sponsored pre-game tailgate party, singing a duet with Sara Evans of his song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" as part of Fox's pre-game show.

This year's Super Bowl entertainment had many connections to Fox's series American Idol. On August 16, both the NFL and Fox confirmed that Idol host Seacrest would serve as emcee for the pre-game show, with Alicia Keys as the primary performer; as she sang a medley of her songs, including "Go Ahead", "Fallin'", "If I Ain't Got You", "Teenage Love Affair", and "No One" as the final performance. Idol Season Six winner Jordin Sparks, herself a native of Glendale and daughter of former New York Giants cornerback Phillippi Sparks, performed the National Anthem, while Phoenix College professor and theatrical interpreter A Dreamer interpreted it into American Sign Language. The anthem was followed by a flyover from the U.S. Navy precision flying team, the Blue Angels. In addition, judge Paula Abdul premiered her first music video in over a decade, "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow", which she made with fellow judge Randy Jackson as part of Fox's pregame coverage to kick off her official comeback.

The coin toss ceremony posthumously honored Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh, who died on July 30, 2007. His former players Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice and Steve Young joined Walsh's children, Craig and Elizabeth, at the ceremony.

Halftime
As is always the case, several big names were mentioned as possible performers for the halftime show before a final choice (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) was announced. The halftime entertainer selection process in late 2007 was not unusual: however, since the site selection process four years earlier was of special interest, it is necessary to also mention some of the acts who might have performed, but did not do so.

According to the entertainment publication Variety, a wish list of potential halftime performers was developed by the NFL. Among those on the wish list were Bruce Springsteen (who performed during halftime at Super Bowl XLIII the following year), Norah Jones and the Eagles. In addition, interest in the slot was expressed by Bon Jovi, who had planned to open the U.S. leg of their Lost Highway Tour with a performance during the halftime show.

According to Rolling Stone, the engagement was actually offered to the Eagles by the NFL, but the offer was turned down.

Then, on December 2, 2007, it was officially announced that the halftime entertainment would be provided by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The songs "American Girl", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'", and "Runnin' Down a Dream" were performed by the band to kick off their 2008 world tour. Bridgestone served as the halftime show sponsor. The halftime show itself, produced by Don Mischer and White Cherry Entertainment in association with NFL Network, was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.

Post-game ceremonies
Former Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, MVP in Super Bowl XXII, commemorating the twentieth anniversary of becoming the first African American quarterback to lead a team to victory in the Super Bowl, took part in the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremony after the game.

Eli Manning was awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy for being named MVP, and also received the keys to a 2009 Cadillac Escalade hybrid SUV. Though not the only brothers to play in a Super Bowl, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning (Super Bowl XLI) are the first brothers to be named Super Bowl MVPs (doing so in successive years).

After the game, New York City erupted in celebration, with the sounds of cheers and honking horns echoing through city streets. Crowds of elated New Yorkers, surprised by their team's unexpected victory, packed Second Avenue in Manhattan, stalling traffic around the borough. Times Square was swarmed with celebrating Giants fans well past midnight; similar celebrations arose throughout Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester County, Fairfield County, and North Jersey, where the Giants play their home games.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, witnessing the first New York sports team championship victory as mayor, praised the hometown team's upset victory, saying; "New York has come back many times in the past, and Big Blue proved tonight that you should never, ever, count us out." Many New Yorkers polled the Giants' win to be among the most satisfying championship victories in New York sports history. There were also a series of firsts with the championship, not just for the Giants, but also for the city of New York and the New York metropolitan area. Those firsts were:

 * Giants:
 * Super Bowl championship since Super Bowl XXV in 1991.
 * City of New York:
 * Super Bowl championship since the Giants won Super Bowl XXV in 1991.
 * Major professional sports championship since:
 * The Yankees won the 2000 World Series.
 * This was also the first championship for a team other than the Yankees since the Rangers won the 1994 Stanley Cup.
 * New York Metropolitan area:
 * Super Bowl championship since the Giants win in 1991.

On the following Tuesday, February 5, New York City hosted for the Giants a ticker tape parade up Broadway in Lower Manhattan. It was the first along the famed "Canyon of Heroes" since the New York Yankees won the 2000 World Series, and the Giants' first parade in New York. (Because of acrimonious relations at that time between New York City and the state of New Jersey, the team chose not to participate in a Manhattan parade for its Super Bowl XXI championship in 1987, but instead held a "Victory Rally" at Giants Stadium in The Meadowlands. After their Super Bowl XXV championship in 1991, then-owner Wellington Mara chose not to hold any celebrations due to the Gulf War. )  After six years in office, Bloomberg became the 14th consecutive mayor of New York City to preside over a ticker-tape parade. (In contrast, his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani presided over his first ticker-tape parade just five months after becoming mayor, after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup) Also attending were New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Senator Chuck Schumer. Spitzer also announced the availability of a New York Giants Super Bowl XLII Champions custom license plate and issued a proclamation declaring the day "New York Giants Super Bowl Champions Day" throughout the state of New York.

Following the parade, the Giants held two victory rallies: one at New York's City Hall and another one two hours later at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Game summary

After scoring a combined 73 points in their regular season meeting, the teams scored a mere 10 points by the end of the third quarter, with the Patriots leading 7–3. The Patriots' record-setting offense gave up five sacks and one lost fumble, while the Giants' offense managed only five first downs in the second and third quarters. Yet in the fourth quarter, Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes, including the winning drive that culminated with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining.

First quarter
The Giants won the coin toss and started the game with the longest drive in Super Bowl history, a 16-play, 63-yard march that consumed 9 minutes, 59 seconds, breaking their own record of 9 minutes, 29 seconds set in Super Bowl XXV, and featured four third-down conversions, the most ever on a Super Bowl opening drive. But the Patriots halted the drive at their own 14-yard line, forcing the Giants to settle for a 32-yard field goal from kicker Lawrence Tynes that gave New York a 3–0 lead.

New England responded with their own scoring drive, as running back Laurence Maroney returned the kickoff 43 yards to his own 44-yard line, after which he rushed twice for 14 yards. Quarterback Tom Brady then completed three passes for 23 yards, but after two incomplete passes, New England was faced with 3rd-and-10 on the New York 17-yard line. However, on that play, Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce committed pass interference by striking the helmet of tight end Benjamin Watson in the end zone, setting up 1st-and-goal for the Patriots at the 1-yard line.

Second quarter
Two plays later, on the first play of the second quarter, Maroney scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, giving the Patriots their first lead of the game, 7–3. The two teams each only had one drive in the entire opening quarter, a Super Bowl record. It was the first Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXIII in which both teams scored on their initial possession of the game. On the Giants' first drive of the second quarter, on 3rd-and-7, wide receiver Amani Toomer caught a deep pass from quarterback Eli Manning along the left sideline while dragging his feet in bounds for a 38-yard gain, moving the ball to the Patriots' 19-yard line. But three plays later, Manning threw a pass that bounced out of the arms of wide receiver Steve Smith and into the hands of cornerback Ellis Hobbs for an interception.

The Patriots' ensuing drive resulted in a three-and-out as on 3rd-and-1 safety James Butler and defensive end Michael Strahan (who was playing in his final game) tackled Maroney for a 2-yard loss and New England was forced to punt.

Then on the Giants' next drive, running back Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled a hand-off from Manning and Patriots' linebacker Pierre Woods appeared to recover the ball at the Giants' 30. But after the officials picked through the pile, it was determined that Bradshaw had made the recovery. The Giants maintained possession and still had to punt. New England's next drive ended with back-to-back 7-yard sacks, the first by linebacker Kawika Mitchell, and the second by defensive end Justin Tuck.

On New York's next drive, they moved the ball to the New England 25, but linebacker Adalius Thomas sacked Manning and forced a fumble. Smith recovered the ball, but Bradshaw was flagged for illegally batting the ball forward before the recovery. The penalty pushed the Giants out of field goal range, and following an incompletion, they were forced to punt again.

After the punt, two 18-yard receptions by wide receivers Randy Moss and Donté Stallworth moved the ball to the New York 44-yard line. But with 22 seconds left before halftime, Tuck strip-sacked Brady and defensive end Osi Umenyiora recovered the ball. The game then went to halftime with the Patriots leading 7–3.

Third quarter
On the first drive of the second half, New England had a 4th-and-2 and chose to punt. However, after the play had been run, Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick challenged that New York's defense had 12 players on the field and replay confirmed that was the case as Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn was unable to get to the sidelines as the ball was being snapped. Therefore, referee Mike Carey reversed the play, and the Giants were penalized for having too many players on the field, giving the Patriots a new set of downs. The Patriots then drove to the Giants' 25, but Strahan sacked Brady for a 6-yard loss on third down (which was the former's final career sack), bringing up 4th-and-13 on the New York 31. Belichick decided against a 49-yard field goal attempt by kicker Stephen Gostkowski (near Gostkowski's season long of 50 yards) and tried to pick up a first down instead. Brady's pass to wide receiver Jabar Gaffney was incomplete as it went out of the back of the end zone and the Giants took over on downs.

Fourth quarter
After the teams traded punts going into the fourth quarter, Manning completed a 45-yard pass to tight end Kevin Boss. Following three runs by Bradshaw for 13 yards and a 17-yard reception by Smith on third down, Manning finished the 6-play, 80-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to usually unheralded wide receiver David Tyree, giving New York a 10–7 lead with 11:05 left in the game.

After the teams exchanged punts again, New England got the ball at their own 20 with 7:54 remaining. Brady then completed a 5-yard pass to wide receiver Wes Welker and a 10-yard pass to Moss, followed by a 9-yard run by Maroney to give the Patriots a first down at their own 44. Brady followed with a 13-yard pass to Welker, a 4-yard completion to running back Kevin Faulk, and then a 10-yard pass to Welker for a first down at the Giants' 29. After that, Brady found Moss for an 11-yard completion and Faulk for a 12-yard completion and New England now had 1st-and-goal from the New York 6. Following two incomplete passes, cornerback Corey Webster slipped while backing into coverage, leaving Moss wide open in the end zone where Brady found him for a 6-yard touchdown to give New England a 14–10 lead with 2:42 left in the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, safety Raymond Ventrone leveled wide receiver Domenik Hixon after a 14-yard return, giving New York the ball on their own 17 with 2:39 left and all three timeouts remaining. Following two receptions by Toomer for 20 yards, running back Brandon Jacobs kept the drive alive with a crucial 2-yard run off guard on 4th-and-1. Manning picked up 5 yards with a scramble on the next play. Then on 2nd-and-5, Manning’s pass was high and behind Tyree, but fell harmlessly out of bounds as New England cornerback Asante Samuel could not corral the pass for the potential game-ending interception. Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck was quick to note Manning’s visible frustration at the apparent miscommunication with Tyree on the play, which stopped the clock with 1:15 remaining. On the next play, 3rd-and-5 from the New York 44-yard line, Manning found himself in trouble as the Patriots' pass rush got to him quickly after the snap. He eluded Adalius Thomas, who missed Manning despite having the clearest shot at him, and then broke free from the grasp of defensive ends Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour, both of whom had the quarterback by the jersey but failed to hold him in the grasp. In what is considered to be among the greatest Super Bowl plays of all time, Manning then re-oriented himself and launched the ball deep down the middle of the field, where both Tyree and Patriots safety and multiple-time Pro Bowler Rodney Harrison were in position to make a play on the ball. Tyree outjumped Harrison to secure the ball, and maintained possession by pinning the ball against his helmet as he fell to the ground, clearly maintaining control for a gain of 32 yards and keeping the drive alive. Three plays later, on 3rd-and-11, Manning found a wide-open Smith for a 12-yard gain to the New England 13, and Smith stepped out of bounds to stop the clock. On the next play, Hobbs was beaten badly to the outside by the 6'6" wide receiver Plaxico Burress on a "slant-and-go" route, allowing Manning more than enough room to find his big-bodied target for the touchdown. The score capped a 12-play, 83-yard drive to give New York a 17–14 lead and prompted a roar from the fans in Glendale, then a mere 35 seconds from potentially witnessing the first 19–0 perfect season.

The Patriots attempted one last desperate drive to either tie or win the game from their own 26 with 29 seconds remaining and all three of their timeouts, but the Giants' defense did not allow a single yard. Following an errant pass attempt by Brady, defensive tackle Jay Alford sacked Brady for a 10-yard loss. The following play, a deep pass to Moss, was knocked away by cornerback Corey Webster, and Brady's 4th-and-20 Hail Mary pass in Moss' direction was batted down by safety Gibril Wilson, sealing the upset victory for New York. After the incompletion, it appeared that the officials would run out the clock, as it briefly read zero, before one second was re-added. Coaches, players, reporters, and fans crowded the field as if the game had ended. Belichick hugged Giants' head coach Tom Coughlin at midfield, then left for the locker room. This early departure was later criticized by some sportswriters, but other reporters defended Belichick by noting that he did not snub Coughlin (which would have been surprising anyway because the two coaches were friends from their days working together for Bill Parcells in the 1980s) and that the outcome of the game had been decided. The delay lasted 2 minutes 27 seconds before Manning kneeled out the final second and the Giants were officially crowned champions.

Statistical overview
Manning completed 19 of his 34 passes for 255 yards, including a mark of 9-of-14 for 152 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, with one interception, to be named the game's Most Valuable Player. Manning also became the first quarterback to throw two go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl. Toomer was the Giants' leading receiver, with 6 catches for 84 yards, and Bradshaw and Jacobs rushed for 45 and 42 yards, respectively. Burress had only 2 receptions for 27 yards, but one of those was the game-winning touchdown with 35 seconds left. The Patriots' offense recorded 274 total yards to the Giants' 338. While he never scored, Welker tied a Super Bowl record with 11 receptions for 109 yards. Moss had five catches for 62 yards and a touchdown, and Maroney rushed for 36 yards and a TD. Brady completed 29 of his 48 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown. Brady's 29 completions gave him a career total of 100 in his four Super Bowls, surpassing the previous record for Super Bowl completions that was held by Joe Montana at 83. Justin Tuck and Adalius Thomas were the top defensive performers for the Giants and Patriots, respectively, as each recorded five solo tackles, two sacks, and one forced fumble.

One key fact of the game was the number of possessions that reached the red-zone: the Giants made it four times and their defense limited the Patriots to two. New England had six consecutive possessions that came short of reaching the New York 20-yard line. The game was the first Super Bowl in which neither team rushed for as many as 100 yards, with the Patriots held to 45.

Records
The Giants became the first team to win a Super Bowl in 3 different decades (1986, 1990, 2007). The Giants set an NFL record with 11 consecutive road wins in a single season. The Giants' matchup in Week 8 vs. the Miami Dolphins in London was an official Giants road game because it was originally scheduled to be played at Dolphin Stadium. The Giants were also officially classified as the "road" team for Super Bowl XLII based on the annual Super Bowl rotation where the NFC champions serve as the away team in even-numbered years, and as such, this was the Giants first championship game won on the road. Also note that the Week 5 game vs. the New York Jets was considered a "home" game for the Giants.

Patriots receiver Wes Welker tied the record for most catches in a Super Bowl, with 11. Welker was the fourth player to record 11 receptions in a Super Bowl, following Dan Ross of the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI, Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII, and Deion Branch of the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. Demaryius Thomas in Super Bowl XLVIII would set a new record for catches.

With his fourth quarter touchdown pass to Moss, Brady became just the fourth quarterback with a touchdown pass in four different Super Bowls, joining Roger Staubach, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. He also became the sixth quarterback to start at least four Super Bowls, joining Montana, Bradshaw, Staubach, Jim Kelly and John Elway.

The Giants opening drive consumed 9 minutes and 59 seconds, making it the longest drive in Super Bowl history. The drive was 27 seconds longer than the previous record, which the Giants had set in winning Super Bowl XXV against the Buffalo Bills.

Due to the length of the Giants' opening drive (which itself contained a record 4 third-down conversions), the first quarter featured only two possessions, a record for an opening quarter.

The three lead changes in the fourth quarter were also a Super Bowl record.

Although not a record, the 17 points scored by the Giants was the fewest points for a Super Bowl victor since Super Bowl IX.

This was the seventh consecutive Super Bowl where one team made the first score and the opponent made the second; that is a record.

Final statistics
Sources: NFL.com Super Bowl XLII, Super Bowl XLII Play Finder NYG, Super Bowl XLII Play Finder NE

Individual leaders
1Completions/attempts 2Carries 3Long gain 4Receptions 5Times targeted

Starting lineups

 * Source:

Officials
Mike Carey was chosen to be the head referee for this game, marking the first time that an African American has been chosen to be the head official in a Super Bowl. Carey had also officiated the most recent prior game between the Giants and Patriots. The full officiating crew was:

 * Referee: Mike Carey #94
 * Umpire: Tony Michalek #115
 * Head Linesman: Gary Slaughter #30
 * Line Judge: Carl Johnson #101
 * Field Judge: Boris Cheek #41
 * Side Judge: Larry Rose #128
 * Back Judge: Scott Helverson #93

 * Replay Official: Ken Baker
 * Video Operator: Jim Grant
 * Alternate Referee – Walt Coleman
 * Alternate Umpire – Dan Ferrell
 * Alternate Flank – Ed Camp
 * Alternate Deep – Carl Cheffers
 * Alternate Back Judge – Greg Steed

title: Super Bowl XLII


text:
Mrs. Claus

Mrs. Claus (also known as Mrs. Santa Claus or Mrs. Santa) is the legendary wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in Western Christmas tradition.

Origin
The wife of Santa Claus is first mentioned in the short story "A Christmas Legend" (1849), by James Rees, a Philadelphia-based Christian missionary. In the story, an old man and woman, both carrying bundles on their backs, are given shelter in a home on Christmas Eve as weary travelers. The next morning, the children of the house find an abundance of gifts for them, and the couple is revealed to be not "old Santa Claus and his wife", but the hosts' long-lost elder daughter and her husband in disguise.

Mrs. Santa Claus is mentioned by name in the pages of the Yale Literary Magazine in 1851, where the student author (whose name is given only as "A. B.") writes of the appearance of Santa Claus at a Christmas party:
 * [I]n bounded that jolly, fat and funny old elf, Santa Claus. His array was indescribably fantastic. He seemed to have done his best, and we should think, had Mrs. Santa Claus to help him.

An account of a Christmas musicale at the State Lunatic Asylum in Utica, New York in 1854 included an appearance by Mrs. Santa Claus, with baby in arms, who danced to a holiday song.

A passing reference to Mrs. Santa Claus was made in an essay in Harper's Magazine in 1862; and in the comic novel The Metropolites (1864) by Robert St. Clar, she appears in a woman's dream, wearing "Hessian high boots, a dozen of short, red petticoats, an old, large, straw bonnet" and bringing the woman a wide selection of finery to wear.

A woman who may or may not be Mrs. Santa Claus appeared in the children's book Lill in Santa Claus Land and Other Stories by Ellis Towne, Sophie May and Ella Farman, published in Boston in 1878. In the story, little Lill describes her imaginary visit to Santa's office (not in the Arctic, incidentally):
 * "There was a lady sitting by a golden desk, writing in a large book, and Santa Claus was looking through a great telescope, and every once in a while he stopped and put his ear to a large speaking-tube.

 * "Presently he said to the lady, 'Put down a good mark for Sarah Buttermilk. I see she is trying to conquer her quick temper.'

 * Two bad ones for Isaac Clappertongue; he'll drive his mother to the insane asylum yet.

Later, Lill's sister Effie ponders the tale:

 * Effie sank back in the chair to think. She wished Lill had found out how many black marks she had, and whether that lady was Mrs. Santa Claus – and had, in fact, obtained more accurate information about many things.

Much as in The Metropolites, Mrs. Santa Claus appears in a dream of the author Eugene C. Gardner in his article "A Hickory Back-Log" in Good Housekeeping magazine (1887), with an even more detailed description of her dress:
 * She was dressed for traveling and for cold weather. Her hood was large and round and red but not smooth, – it was corrugated; that is to say, it consisted of a series of rolls nearly as large as my arm, passing over her head sidewise, growing smaller toward the back until they terminated in a big button that was embellished with a knot of green ribbon. Its general appearance was not unlike that of the familiar, pictorial beehive except that the rolls were not arranged spirally. The broad, white ruffle of her lace cap projected several inches beyond the front of the hood and waved back and forth like the single leaves of a great white poppy, as she nodded emphatically in her discourse.

 * Her outer garment was a bright colored plaid worsted cloak reaching to within about six inches of the floor. Its size was most voluminous, but its fashion was extremely simple. It had a wide yoke across the shoulders, into which the broad plain breadths were gathered; and it was fastened at the throat by a huge ornamented brass hook and eye, from which hung a short chain of round twisted links. Her right arm protruded through a vertical slit at the side of the cloak and she held in her hand a sheet of paper covered with figures. The left arm on which she carried a large basket or bag – I couldn't tell which – was hidden by the ample folds of the garment. Her countenance was keen and nervous, but benignant.

Mrs. Claus proceeds to instruct the architect Gardner on the ideal modern kitchen, a plan of which he includes in the article.

Santa Claus' wife made her most active appearance yet by Katharine Lee Bates in her poem "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride" (1889). "Goody" is short for "Goodwife", i.e., "Mrs."

21st century
In 2018, there was an increasing demand for holiday appearances of Mrs. Claus as a standalone character separate from Santa Claus.

In 2023, Sheryl Lee Ralph became the first celebrity and the first black woman to play Mrs. Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's history.

In popular media
Since 1889, Mrs. Claus has been traditionally depicted in media as a fairly heavy-set, kindly, white-haired elderly female baking cookies or mending clothes somewhere in the background of the Santa Claus mythos. She sometimes assists in toy production and oversees Santa's elves. She is sometimes depicted in her youth to have had red hair. She is usually depicted wearing a fur dress of red or green.

Her reappearance in popular media in the 1960s began with the children's book How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas, by Phyllis McGinley. Today, Mrs. Claus is commonly seen in cartoons, on greeting cards, in knick-knacks such as Christmas tree ornaments, dolls, and salt and pepper shakers, in storybooks, in seasonal school plays and pageants, in parades, in a department store "Santa Lands" as a character adjacent to the throned Santa Claus, in television programs, and live-action and animated films that deal with Christmas and the world of Santa Claus. Her personality tends to be fairly consistent; she is usually seen as a calm, kind, and patient woman, often in contrast to Santa himself, who can be prone to acting too exuberant.

In more recent films such as The Santa Clause series, Fred Claus, and The Christmas Chronicles series, Mrs. Claus is not always depicted according to the elderly white-haired stereotype, but sometimes appears to be younger than Santa. In the case of The Christmas Chronicles, this is true despite the fact that Goldie Hawn, known for maintaining her youthful blonde appearance, is actually six years older than Kurt Russell who plays Santa.

Mrs. Claus departs even further from the stereotype in more recent films, such as the 2020 Mel Gibson film Fatman, where she is a black woman played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Literature
Mrs. Claus has appeared as a secondary character in children's books about Santa Claus and as the main character in titles about herself.

 * Mrs. Santa Claus, Militant (one-act play) by Bell Elliott Palmer, 1914
 * The Great Adventure of Mrs. Santa Claus by Sarah Addington and Gertrude A. Kay, 1923
 * The Story of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus and The Night Before Christmas by Alice and Lillian Desow Holland, 1946
 * How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas by Phyllis McGinley, 1963
 * Mrs. Santa Claus by Penny Ives, 1993
 * A Bit of Applause for Mrs. Claus by Jeannie Schick-Jacobowitz, 2003
 * The Story of Mrs. Santa Claus by Bethanie Tucker and Crystal McLaughlin, 2007
 * Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation by Linas Alsenas, 2008
 * What Does Mrs. Claus Do? by Kate Wharton and Christian Slade, 2008
 * Annalina: The Untold Story of Mrs. Claus by Adam Greenwood, 2011, tells the tale of the young woman who will one day become Mrs Claus. It has been adapted into a storybook for young children with coloring pictures and serves as the pilot for a series of novellas about various different characters from the story.
 * Mrs. Claus Says by Nancy Claus, 2005–present, an ongoing series of children's books about life in the North pole, narrated by Mrs. Claus.

Films

 * Mrs. Claus was played by Doris Rich in the 1964 movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
 * The 1970 stop-action animation Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town featured the red-haired Miss Jessica, a lovely schoolteacher who falls in love with and marries Kris Kringle, eventually becoming the classic Mrs. Claus.
 * The 1974 stop-action sequel The Year Without a Santa Claus starred Shirley Booth voicing the classic Mrs. Claus. This was remade in 2006 as a live-action film with Delta Burke playing Mrs. Claus.
 * In the 1984 TriStar Pictures film, The Night They Saved Christmas, Mrs. Claus, as played by June Lockhart to Art Carney's Santa, looked after the children when they visited the North Pole.
 * Mrs. Claus (played by Judy Cornwell) is also a character in 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie, where she played a vital role in the film's story. Her first name is Anya. It was her idea to give presents only to good children.
 * In the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mrs. Claus has a cameo appearance. She is seen in the kitchen of her and Santa Claus's home, preparing a lunch box and a vacuum flask for her husband to take to work.
 * The 2002 film The Santa Clause 2 centers on Tim Allen's character being forced to marry in order to continue his role as Santa. The "Mrs. Clause" confirms why every Santa has had a Mrs. Claus, because it is part of the Santa Clause. He ultimately finds genuine love in Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), the principal of his son Charlie's school, and in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, she deals with being Mrs. Claus, having a baby, and being separated from her family.
 * Played by Miranda Richardson in the 2007's Fred Claus (2007) starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. Her name is Annette.
 * In Arthur Christmas, Mrs. Claus' first name is Margaret and is the wife of Malcolm (the current Santa) and mother of both the title character Arthur and his older brother Steve. She is depicted as much more efficient than her husband. She is voiced by Imelda Staunton.
 * Mrs. Claus (played by Goldie Hawn) makes an appearance in the 2018 Netflix movie The Christmas Chronicles (at the ending) and its sequel, The Christmas Chronicles 2 as one of the supporting characters. She is portrayed in the sequel as a white witch, practicing folk magic.
 * Mrs. Claus is played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste in the 2020 Mel Gibson film Fatman and her first name is given as Ruth.
 * Mrs. Claus, played by Monika Krzywkowska, is one of the main characters in the 2021 Netflix film David and the Elves. She supports Santa and joins him on a journey to the real world to save one of the elves named Albert, who ran away from the North Pole. Mrs. Claus is a fashionable woman and also wants her husband to lead a healthy lifestyle. It is said that she and Santa have lived for over two thousand years.

Television
Mrs. Claus appears in several of the Rankin/Bass stop-motion holiday specials. In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), she is seen as pestering her husband to eat, lest he becomes a "skinny Santa". In Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), she is introduced as a teacher named Jessica, who first meets Kris Kringle as a young man trying to deliver toys to a town ruled by a despot. She assists him and thus becomes a wanted fugitive herself with Kringle and his confederates. In light of this sacrifice, Jessica and Santa soon fall in love with each other and marry in the nearby forest. In The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974, voiced by Shirley Booth) and live-action remake (2006, played by Delta Burke), she has a prominent role showing a despondent Santa that there's still some Christmas spirit left in the world. Mrs. Claus also made appearances in several other Rankin/Bass specials, including Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979).

Bea Arthur portrayed Mrs. Claus in a series of commercials for the Canadian drugstore chain Shoppers Drug Mart, part of Arthur's seven-year run as spokeswoman for the company between 1984 and 1991.

Angela Lansbury starred as the protagonist of the 1996 television musical Mrs. Santa Claus, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Stranded in 1910 New York City, under the guise of Mrs. North, she marches for women's suffrage, and strikes to reform child labor in toy manufacturing. Anna Claus then joins Santa on an improved route around the world.

A 2005 episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, "Billy and Mandy Save Christmas" depicts Mrs. Claus as Nancy, a powerful vampire who turns Santa undead. Another appearance the same year is a Dragon Ball Z parody sketch in the Robot Chicken Christmas Special, where Mrs. Claus gains powers from the North Pole's radiation and becomes a giant monster.

In A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown's sister Sally writes to Santa and asks, "How is your wife?" Later, in It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, she writes Santa's wife herself, and when Charlie Brown comments that some people call her "Mary Christmas", Sally congratulates her on choosing to keep her own surname. In Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, Sally writes Santa Claus as "Samantha Claus", thinking that is her name.

Mrs. Claus appears in A Chipmunk Christmas, where she buys Alvin a harmonica after he gives his old one to a sick boy. Her identity isn't revealed until the end when Santa returns home and she greets him.

Boost Mobile created some controversy with an ad featuring Mrs. Claus in bed with a snowman. One version was briefly aired on late-night TV while two alternate versions were posted online. Ad Age had some commentary about the spot, including "This latest ad from Boost Mobile and agency 180, Los Angeles, features Mrs. Claus doing something very, very bad." Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, CNN and a number of local TV news channels commented about the ads.

She appears as a character in Duncanville where the eponymous character Duncan Harris has a crush on her and refers to her by her first name "Mary". This makes Santa (who she calls "Kris") jealous and come after Duncan with a shotgun.

Marks & Spencer 2016 Christmas campaign
For 2016, British clothing and food company Marks & Spencer launched an integrated marketing campaign centered on a modern interpretation of Mrs. Claus. The campaign included a three-minute ad released on 11 November 2016 which sees Mrs. Claus receiving a letter from a seven-year-old child asking for help with a gift for his older sister, with whom the boy has a difficult relationship.

The ad depicts Mrs. Claus as more modern than previous examples, with her riding a snowmobile and flying a helicopter while Santa is out delivering gifts in the traditional sleigh. At the conclusion of the ad, she says to Santa "Well it wouldn't be fun if you knew all my secrets" suggesting she has a secret life assisting with Christmas present delivery. The brand also created a social media campaign in which Mrs. Claus answered requests and questions from members of the public.

The ad was received positively by customers and the press with many people commending the brand for taking a feminist approach to a traditional character.

The ad was directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper with Mrs Claus played by British actress Janet McTeer. Music was composed by Rachel Portman. The ad was created for Marks & Spencer by advertising agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, a London-based division of Young & Rubican.

Music
Nat King Cole released "Mrs. Santa Claus", with accompaniment by Nelson Riddle's orchestra, as the flipside of his 1953 single "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot".

In contrast to her stereotypical portrayal, Mrs. Claus is portrayed as a woman bored with her relationship with Santa Claus in the song "Surabaya-Santa" from Jason Robert Brown's musical Songs for a New World and in the Oszkars' off-color song "Mrs. Claus has a Headache Again".

Comedy duo Cheech and Chong released "Santa Claus and His Old Lady" in 1971, with Cheech trying to explain (in his own way) the origin of Santa and Mrs. Claus to his always-stoned friend, Chong.

George Jones and Tammy Wynette released the 1987 single "Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus", a love song with Jones and Wynette portraying the two characters.

Bob Rivers recorded "Me and Mrs. Claus", a parody of the soul song "Me and Mrs. Jones", for his 2002 album White Trash Christmas.

Bob Ricci recorded "Mrs. Claus", a parody of the pop hit "Stacy's Mom", for his 2005 recording Not a Christmas Album. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the song "A Hand for Mrs. Claus" as a duet for Idina Menzel and Ariana Grande for the 2019 album Christmas: A Season of Love.

Video games

 * In Saints Row IV's How the Saints Saved Christmas DLC, Mrs. Claus appears along with her husband. Her first name is revealed to be Janine. While she is mostly Santa's sweet, caring, and devoted wife, she is also a tough, capable fighter ("decking the halls" as Santa puts it), and unlike her husband quick to reveal the truth behind the nature of the "North Pole", the changes into standards of what is considered Naughty, what happened the one time Santa let someone else drive the sleigh with his reindeer, among other things. Her personality and attitude earn Mrs. Claus some respect from the Saints Boss.
 * In The Simpsons Tapped Out, during the 2017 Christmas event, "The Invasion Before Christmas", Kodos disguises herself as Mrs. Claus. In an effort to take over Christmas after being left out of Halloween, the Rigellian duo, Kang and Kodos, steal the identity of Santa and his wife. As the final prize of act one of the event, the skin, "Mrs. Kodos Claus", is unlocked by collecting 17,700 Rigellian Batteries. The costume portrays Mrs. Claus in a red, short-sleeved outfit with glasses, slightly uneven lipstick, and a white mop hat. Upon unlocking the skin, the questline, "Claus-Et Homemaker", activates, in which Mrs. Kodos Claus attempts to impersonate Mrs. Claus by doing housewife-esque things, such as baking cookies and cleaning the house. Not being skilled in any of these areas, she inevitably fails and gives up, turning to day drinking. By the end of the questline, she hires a maid, Shauna, to clean the house. Having fully satirized a lazier modern housewife, Mrs. Kodos Claus eventually murders Shauna and uses her skull as a Holiday decoration.
 * In Temple Run 2, as a portrayed gameplay character, which has been made in the celebration of Christmas.

title: Mrs. Claus


text:
Talk:Offset printing

top
the offset cylinder is called the blanket cylinder the 3 cylinders cannot be inline, as the impression cylinder has to be offset

My
Magehs Mageshkalai (talk) 14:19, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

Robert Barclay
The second paragraph says:

Development of the offset press came in two versions: in 1875 by Robert Barclay of England for printing on tin

and links to a "Robert Barclay (23 December 1648 – 3 October 1690)". As far as I can tell, there isn't yet an article on the inventor Robert Barclay.

--77.111.174.176 (talk) 04:26, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Time line
Is as far as I can tell correct, but it is interesting that the dates of invention precede widespread application by several decades in most instances. E.g. as late as the 1970s, "offset printing" was talked about as the hottest new thing, and laser printers slowly conquered the workplace over the 1990s.2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:3999:AD7D:2296:6887 (talk) 07:40, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Ira Washington Rubel
Amazing that a page with this name does not exist. There are many others. I was going to create one, but to create a new page is even more PITA these days :) Surjit Singh (talk) 20:02, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Offset printing


text:
User:Murdocc

List of murdocc's: 1. www.murdocc.com 2. Please add if your name is murdocc.

title: User:Murdocc


text:
Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Araneus marmoreus

Marbled Spider (Araneus marmoreus)
Marbled spider (Araneus marmoreus) in Northeastern Ohio. It was hanging next to the back door of a friend's house. Nice Rorschach-like designs. I like how you can see the shadows of the individual hairs on its legs. - [[User:Brian0918|brian0918 talk]] 18:13, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Nominate and support. - [[User:Brian0918|brian0918 talk]] 18:13, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support. Thanks brian0918 for identifying this critter. Certainly one of the more interesting subjects I've photographed -Casito 19:55, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Neutral. It's interesting and you can see details, but don't you think the background is boring? Also, it's appears a little out of focus. Enochlau 02:01, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The standards in the animal category are quite high, this one is out of focus. Also, try to work it into an article, Featured pictures are supposed to be excellent illustrations, illustrate something :) -- [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 08:06, Dec 10, 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Poor photography. ed g2s  •  talk  22:19, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Head in the shadow, poor background composition -- Chris 73 Talk 04:16, Dec 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose. --ScottyBoy900Q ∞ 22:18, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose--Thomas G Graf 19:26, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Not promoted. +2/-5. ed g2s  •  talk  18:08, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)


text: Category:Tom Cochrane albums

title: Category:Tom Cochrane albums


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Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway

The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR), informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. Control of the railway was acquired on May 10, 2004, by the Canadian National Railway (CN) when it purchased the assets of Great Lakes Transportation.

History
The DM&IR was formed by the merger in 1937 of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N) and the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway. The following year, the Duluth and Iron Range Rail Road (D&IR) and Interstate Transfer Railway were added. All of these had been leased by the DM&N since 1930.

The D&IR was formed in 1874 by Charlemagne Tower to haul iron ore from the Minnesota Iron Co. in Tower, Minnesota, to the new Lake Superior port of Two Harbors, Minnesota. On July 31, 1884, the D&IR carried its first ore shipment from the Soudan Mine. In 1887, the D&IR was acquired by Illinois Steel Company, which itself became part of the new United States Steel Corporation (USS) in 1901.

After high-grade Mesabi iron ore was discovered near Mountain Iron, Minnesota by the Seven Iron Men, the D&IR was asked to build a branch line to serve this area, but declined. So in 1891, the Merritts incorporated the DM&N, which shipped its first load of iron ore to Superior, Wisconsin, in October 1892. The following year, the Merritts expanded the DM&N by laying track to Duluth, Minnesota, where they built an ore dock. But this expansion left the Merritts on shaky financial ground, and in 1894, John D. Rockefeller gained control of the railway. In 1901, Rockefeller sold the DM&N to USS.

From 1901 to 1938, the two railways were owned by USS and operated separately. Total ore hauled by the two railroads peaked in 1929 at 27600000 LT and dropped to 1500000 LT in 1932.

Merger
By July 1938, the two railways merged to form the DM&IR. The two operating divisions, the Missabe and the Iron Range, were based upon the predecessor roads. As the United States entered the Second World War, the iron ore tonnage moving over the Missabe Road accelerated from a little over 8000000 LT in 1938, past 18000000 LT in 1939, then to almost 28000000 LT in 1940 and past 37000000 LT in 1941.

The first eight of DM&IR's class M 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives were delivered by Baldwin Locomotive Works in spring 1941. As well as the Yellowstones, the DM&IR had heavy 2-8-8-2 articulated's (also Class M), 2-8-2 Mikados, 2-10-2 Santa Fe's and eventually 2-10-4 Texas types from B&LE. Ore movement was nearly 45000000 LT in 1942 and the War Production Board allowed the Missabe to order ten more Yellowstones, delivered in 1943. The 2-8-8-4's were slowly retired in the latter half of the '50s and the last remaining served until around 1960.

Dieselization and post-war growth
After World War II, the DM&IR hauled increasing tonnage to the ore docks along Lake Superior, reaching a record of over 49 million tons in 1953. That year the first diesel locomotives, EMD SW9s, arrived on the railway. In 1954, a set of Baldwin DR-4-4-15 "Sharknose" diesels arrived from the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern (a fellow U.S. Steel railroad), though they were returned to Baldwin Locomotive Works when the EJ&E contract expired in 1955. Dieselization continued with the purchase of several EMD SD9 road switchers the following year, while the last revenue steam run occurred in 1961.

Passenger service on the Missabe division ended in 1957 and completely ceased system-wide in 1961.

As the supply of high-quality iron ore dwindled, mines and pits were closing across Minnesota's iron ranges. The DM&IR's ore docks in Two Harbors closed in 1963 and did not reopen until 1966. The Missabe Road was saved by the passage on November 3, 1963, of the Taconite Amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution (the amendment restricted the state's ability to tax a taconite industry for 25 years). The passage of the amendment accelerated the creation of the taconite mining industry in Northern Minnesota. The Eveleth Taconite Company was formed in 1964 and on April 8, 1966, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald took on the first load of Eveleth taconite pellets, about 23000 LT. The taconite era on the Missabe had begun.

Ownership and CN merger
In 1988, U.S. Steel, now USX, spun off the DM&IR and their other ore railroads and shipping companies into the subsidiary Transtar, then sold majority control to the Blackstone Group and USX. In 2001, the DM&IR and other holdings were spun off from Transtar into the company Great Lakes Transportation (GLT), which was fully owned by the Blackstone Group. For the first time in more than 100 years DM&IR was no longer associated with U.S. Steel. In late 2003, the Blackstone Group agreed to sell GLT to Canadian National Railway and the purchase was completed on May 10, 2004.

Merger with Wisconsin Central
In December 2011, the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway was merged into Wisconsin Central Ltd., which is also controlled by Canadian National Railway. This merger was intended to increase efficiency.

title: Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway


text:
Billiard hall

A billiard hall, also known as a, pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or  pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often have arcade games, slot machines, card games, darts, foosball and other games. Some billiard halls may be combined or integrated with a bowling alley.

History
Pool and billiards developed as an indoor option to substitute for games such as croquet that were played on lawns. Dedicated venues began to appear in the 19th century, and by the early 20th century, billiard and pool halls were common in many countries; in 1915 there were 830 in Chicago.

In North America in the 1950s and 1960s especially, pool halls in particular were perceived as a social ill by many, and laws were passed in many jurisdictions to set age limits at pool halls and restrict gambling and the sale of alcohol. The song "Trouble" in the 1957 hit musical The Music Man lampooned this prejudice (even contrasting carom billiards, requiring "judgement, brains, and maturity", versus pool, said to be a gateway to laziness, gambling, smoking and philandering). Public perception had become less critical by the 1990s.

By the 2010s, with competition from a growing number of competing entertainment venues, as well as the availability of online gambling, revenue from the operation of billiard halls in the United States had declined significantly. In Korea, on the other hand, the pool halls are becoming more popular after years of decline.

In popular culture
Pool halls feature prominently in the novel and film The Hustler, and their sequel book and movie, The Color of Money, as well as other pool films such as Poolhall Junkies and Shooting Gallery. The historic depth of the American pool hall subculture was touched on in The Color of Money in various ways, including dialogue extolling the virtues of particular landmark venues, the disappointment at discovering one such hall's closure, a comment that regulars at a well-known hall "never leave the street" it is on, and the return of a pool hall janitor in The Hustler as a hall owner decades later in the sequel.

title: Billiard hall