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Ron Hextall

Ronald Jeffrey Hextall (born May 3, 1964) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender and executive. He was most recently the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hextall played 13 seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers, Quebec Nordiques, and New York Islanders. He served as assistant general manager for the Flyers for one season, and was promoted to general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, replacing Paul Holmgren on May 7, 2014. He held this position for four and a half seasons. Before this he served as assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Kings, who won the Stanley Cup in 2012.

Hextall played 11 of his 13 seasons over two stints with the Flyers. He holds several team records and is a member of the Flyers Hall of Fame. During his rookie season in, he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender and led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals. Despite the Flyers' loss to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, making him one of only six players to win the trophy in a losing effort. Injuries in the middle of his career contributed to a drop in his playing ability; as a result, he was traded on three occasions in the off-seasons between 1992 and 1994 to the Nordiques, the Islanders and then back to the Flyers. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Hextall regained confidence and form, recording goals against averages (GAA) below 3.00 in each of his five subsequent seasons – the lowest of his career. He retired from the NHL at the end of the season.

Hextall became the first NHL goaltender to score a goal by shooting the puck into the opponent's empty net, against the Boston Bruins in the season. The following season, he became the first goaltender to score in the playoffs, by shooting the puck into the Washington Capitals' empty net. His mobile style of play, in which he provided support to his defencemen by coming out of the goal area to play the puck was revolutionary, and inspired future generations of goaltenders, such as Martin Brodeur. He was also known for being one of the NHL's most aggressive goaltenders: he was suspended for six or more games on three occasions, had more than 100 penalty minutes in each of his first three seasons, and set new records for the number of penalty minutes recorded by a goaltender in the NHL.

Early life
Ron Hextall was born on May 3, 1964 in Brandon, Manitoba, the third and youngest child of Bryan and Fay Hextall. Hextall is a third-generation NHL player – his grandfather, Hall of Famer Bryan Hextall, played 11 seasons with the New York Rangers, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. His father, Bryan Hextall, Jr., played in the NHL for 10 seasons, most notably for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and his uncle, Dennis Hextall, played 14 seasons of NHL hockey, not staying with any one club for longer than five years. During his youth, Hextall saw his father and uncle often roughed up by the Philadelphia Flyers, whose aggressive style of play for much of the 1970s gave the team the name "Broad Street Bullies". Hextall later reflected that during this period he "hated the Flyers."

Because of his father's career, Hextall's education was far from stable; each year began at Brandon, and once the hockey season commenced in October, he moved to a school nearer to where his father was playing. At school, he achieved B and C grades, putting in the minimum amount of effort, but his mind remained on hockey, and specifically goaltending. "Everybody else would be working and I'd be drawing pictures of Tony Esposito and Jimmy Rutherford," he recalled. Hextall came to mostly enjoy the constant moving, later saying "I got to hang around NHL rinks. What more would I have wanted?"

Although both his father and grandfather played as forwards, his father was happy for him to play in goal, but insisted that he try other positions to improve his skating: Bryan believed his son would have made a good defenceman. Hextall's mother thought her son's love for hockey exceeded that of her husband's teammates and believed it would drive him to achieve his aim of goaltending in the NHL. Each summer, Hextall received training at the hockey school at which his father taught, but the hockey programs in Pittsburgh and Atlanta were sub-standard, and meant that during his teenage years, he was behind many of his fellow players. He describes himself as "[not] what you would call real polished" in his first year of junior hockey, aged 17.

Junior hockey
Hextall began his junior hockey career in 1980 with the Melville Millionaires in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). In the 1980–81 season, his solitary season with the club, he played 37 games with a goals against average (GAA) of 6.57. In one game that season, against the Prince Albert Raiders, Hextall faced 105 shots, and made 84 saves, a performance described as brilliant by the Regina Leader-Post. Although the Millionaires lost 21–2, the reporter noted that if it was not for Hextall, the Raiders could have scored "34 or 35". Millionaires teammate Mark Odnokon praised his performance, particularly the way "he lived up to his responsibilities and stayed in there until the end." In 2009, Hextall was inducted as one of the inaugural members of the SJHL Hall of Fame.

Hextall returned to Brandon for the 1981–82 season, playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League (WHL). He played 30 regular season games for the Wheat Kings, during which he recorded a GAA of 5.71. The Wheat Kings reached the playoffs but were swept four games to none (4–0) in the first-round by the Regina Pats. Hextall played in three of the games, but completed only two and had a GAA of 9.32. His team was regarded as a poor one at the time by critics and Hextall had to battle in each game. Flyers' scout Gerry Melnyk said he could understand why many teams did not rate Hextall: "There were teams who thought he was loony." Melnyk claimed it was these attributes which he was attracted by, and he felt that Hextall could fit in well with the Flyers. Subsequently, the Flyers chose Hextall in the sixth round of the 1982 NHL Draft, 119th overall.

After his selection, Hextall remained with Brandon for two further seasons. He played 44 games in 1982–83, recording a GAA of 5.77 during a season in which the Wheat Kings did not qualify for the playoffs. The following year was his most successful in the WHL: a GAA of 4.29 across his 46 regular season games, which included 29 wins – more than in the previous two seasons combined. He played in ten of the twelve playoff games, recording five wins and five losses, with a GAA of 3.75. During the 1983–84 season, Hextall set a record for the most penalty minutes accumulated by a goaltender, being assessed for 117 minutes during the regular season.

Professional hockey
Hextall arrived at the Philadelphia Flyers training camp in 1984 with the expectation of playing in the NHL. However, the Flyers subsequently sent him to their farm team in the International Hockey League (IHL), the Kalamazoo Wings. Although disappointed, Hextall was now playing at a higher level than at WHL and made his debut in professional hockey. He played 19 games for Kalamazoo, recording six wins and a GAA of 4.35. During the season, he moved to the Flyers' other farm team; Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he played 11 times, with four wins, and a GAA of 3.68.

In the following season, Hextall remained with Hershey, appearing in 53 games during the 1985–86 season. He recorded 30 wins and the lowest GAA average of his career to that point, 3.41. The Bears finished the regular season as league leaders, and won the John D. Chick Trophy as the South Division Champions. Hextall lived up to his aggressive reputation in the Conference final, played against the St. Catharines Saints, fighting three different members of the opposition side during a single bench-clearing brawl. The Bears advanced to the Calder Cup final, having beaten the New Haven Nighthawks 4–1 and the St. Catharines Saints 4–3. In the final, they faced the Adirondack Red Wings, who won the championship by four games to two. Hextall played 13 games in the playoffs, of which his team won five, and his GAA was 3.23. He was named as the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award winner, as the AHL's outstanding rookie player. Looking back on his time in the AHL, Hextall reflected that despite his initial disappointment at not being selected to play for the Flyers straight away, "the two years that I spent in the American League got me to the point where I was sure I could be a No. 1 goaltender at the NHL level."

First three seasons
After his performances in the AHL, Hextall was invited to the Flyers' training camp as a long-shot. His play in four exhibition games convinced Flyers' coach Mike Keenan to call up Hextall to the NHL and to play him in the opening game of the 1986–87 season, against the Edmonton Oilers. Hextall conceded a goal from the first shot he faced in the game but allowed no further shots past him, leading his side to a 2–1 victory. Hextall continued to display the aggressive nature with which he had always played, swinging his stick at Brad Smith and Troy Murray early in his first NHL season. Despite these swipes, Hextall claimed at the time that, "I used to be worse, I've learned to control my temper." Two months after making these comments, Hextall was involved in a fight with opposing New Jersey Devils goaltender Alain Chevrier. Having lost to the Devils, the Flyers wanted revenge for Steve Richmond's punch on Kjell Samuelsson at the end of the game; Hextall targeted Chevrier in a fight labelled by Chico Resch as "like a heavyweight against a lightweight." Hextall and seven other players were fined $300 each for their part in the brawl.

In 66 regular season games during his rookie year, Hextall posted a GAA of 3.00 and recorded 37 wins. He was awarded the Vezina Trophy for the most outstanding goaltender by the NHL general managers, but he was second in the voting to Luc Robitaille for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the "player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition". Hextall led the Flyers to top their Conference, and win the Prince of Wales Trophy. The Flyers progressed to face the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals, having beaten the New York Rangers 4–2, the New York Islanders 4–3, and the Montreal Canadiens 4–2. Following their series victory over Montreal, Flyers captain Dave Poulin identified Hextall as the team's leading performer. In the fourth game of the Finals, Hextall received two penalties, first a ten-minute misconduct penalty for "expressing his displeasure at the fourth Oiler goal," and later a five-minute penalty for slashing Kent Nilsson. In the latter incident, Hextall had received a slash from Glenn Anderson for which there was no call from the referees, and Hextall sought revenge by striking the back of Nilsson's knees. After the game Hextall expressed remorse for striking the wrong player but not for his action:

"If somebody slaps you in the face, you're going to slap him back, it's not like he gave me a touch to jar the puck. What's he going to do next, break my arm? I'm sorry it was Nilsson and not Anderson I hit, but I just reacted. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do."

The performance of Hextall in the next game tied the series and forced a seventh game; at the end, the Flyers team surrounded Hextall in congratulation and the Oilers player Kevin Lowe said that Hextall "held them in it". Between the sixth and seventh games, the Oilers' forward Wayne Gretzky described Hextall as "probably the best goaltender I've ever played against in the NHL." Edmonton won the final game of the series to take the Stanley Cup. Robin Finn, writing in The New York Times, said that the team won the title "without their trademark, those endless waves of madcap scoring", primarily due to the "heroics of Hextall". Flyers teammate Rick Tocchet said that when he realised his side were going to lose, his "first thought was to feel sorry for Ronny Hextall, because he did everything he could to get us here and keep us in it." Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player in the playoffs, becoming only the fourth player from a losing side to be awarded the trophy. During the off-season, Hextall received an eight-game suspension for the start of the 1987–88 season after his slash on Nilsson. Speaking on behalf of the NHL, Brian O'Neill said that: "There is no justification for any player to swing his stick in retaliation and this is especially the case for a goaltender whose stick, because of its weight, can cause serious injury."

The Flyers had a difficult start to the 1987–88 season, partly attributed by Keenan to the absence of Hextall. Hextall returned to the Flyers line-up against the New York Rangers, and made over 40 saves in a 2–2 tie. Just over a month later, on December 8, 1987, Hextall became the first goaltender to shoot at goal and score in the NHL when he scored an empty net goal towards the end of a game against the Boston Bruins. The Flyers led 4–2 which prompted the Bruins to pull their goaltender in favour of an extra attacker. The puck was dumped into the Philadelphia zone by the Bruins, and Hextall picked it up without any players near him; his shot fired into the air, bounced and rolled into the net. Hextall had targeted becoming the "first NHL goaltender to score a true goal" over a year earlier, and, speaking after the game, commented that: "I knew I could do it. It was a matter of when." Despite his early season suspension, and a shoulder injury late in the season which made him miss five games, Hextall played 62 of the 67 games for which he was available during the regular season. He recorded 30 wins, and a GAA of 3.50, slightly higher than during his rookie year. Hextall struggled in the playoffs: he was replaced in successive games of the series against the Washington Capitals having conceded four goals in each. In the final two games of the series, which the Capitals won 4–3, Hextall gave up a further 12 goals, and completed the playoffs with a GAA of 4.75.

In each of his first two seasons, Hextall accumulated 104 penalty minutes during the regular season, the first time that a goaltender had collected over 100. In the 1988–89 season, he broke his own record, being assessed 113 penalty minutes, the most by any goaltender in an NHL season (as of 2015). Hextall completed the 1988–89 regular season with 30 wins, the third consecutive season in which he had recorded so many, and the first time a goaltender had recorded 30 wins in each of their first three seasons in the NHL. The Flyers finished fourth in the Patrick Division and qualified for the playoffs. They faced the Washington Capitals in the first round, and the teams shared the first four games. The Flyers won the fifth, despite being 5–4 down in the third period. Flyers' defenceman Mark Howe credited their victory to Hextall. Late in the game, the Capitals pulled their goaltender, and Hextall scored the second goal of his career. The puck was shot into the Flyers' left defensive zone by Scott Stevens, and Hextall went around the back of his net, controlled the puck and shot at the goal. He became the first goaltender to score a goal in the NHL playoffs. The Flyers won 8–5, and went on to win the series 4–2, which Joe Sexton of The New York Times attributed primarily to Hextall's return to form.

Against the Penguins in the Patrick Division Final, Hextall's performances were mixed: he under-performed early in the series, and in game five was swapped out of the net and then reinstated twice during a 10–7 defeat for the Flyers. Hextall faced 17 shots in the game, conceding nine of the Penguins goals. After the game, he denied being out of control, despite having assaulted one of the officials and chasing Rob Brown around the ice. He said, "I like to think I'm strong mentally. Hey, if I was as out of control as people say I am, I wouldn't be in the National Hockey League." The Penguins coach, Gene Ubriaco, agreed with Hextall's assessment, and believed the goaltender lost control intentionally: "He uses a loss of control to his advantage, in a way. He's the extreme example of controlled violence. And they [the Flyers] live and die with it." The Flyers won the next game to force a decider, but Hextall was ruled out of the contest with a first degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee. Hextall's injury kept him out of the first three games of the series against the Canadiens, during which the Canadiens took a 2–1 lead. He returned for the fourth game, but could not prevent his side losing 3–0. The Flyers won the following game to extend the series to six games, but lost the next game 4–2, and were eliminated. Hextall displayed his violent side during the final minutes of game six, skating out of his crease to attack Chris Chelios. Hextall claimed that the attack was in retaliation for Chelios' hit on his Flyer teammate Brian Propp in game one, when Chelios caught Flyer Propp with a "flying elbow" to the side of the head, rendering him unconscious. Hextall was given a 12-game suspension for his actions, at the beginning of the 1989–90 season. Following the announcement of the suspension, Hextall stated his disappointment, and added that his intention was to fight rather than hurt Chelios.

Contract rebel and injury troubles
Prior to the 1989–90 season, Hextall became unhappy that his eight-year, $4 million contract was only earning him $325,000 a year, and hired a confrontational agent, Ritch Winter, to renegotiate his contract. The Flyers refused to deal with the agent, and at a tearful press conference, Hextall declared his contract invalid and announced that he would not take part in the team's training camp. After negotiations about which neither side revealed details, Hextall returned to practice with the team on October 20, 42 days later. Hextall suffered a slight groin pull during his first game back, and in his second, he hurt his left hamstring. Just under a month later, while playing for the Hershey Bears in an attempt to establish his fitness, he was carried off the ice after once more hurting his groin. In total that season, Hextall appeared nine times; once for the Bears in the AHL, and eight times for the Flyers. In the NHL, he recorded a GAA of 4.15, the highest he averaged during any single season of the NHL.

Hextall continued to be plagued by groin injuries during the next two seasons, twice straining his left groin muscle in the 1990–91 season. The Flyers' orthopaedist, Dr. Arthur Bartolozzi, suggested a possible reason for his series of injuries:

"He is in motion anticipating the shot before the guy even hits the puck. So he's already on the ice or doing a split or anticipating the shot well before it's made. That's probably what makes him a great goaltender. But it's also what may predispose him to injury."

In 1990–91, Hextall appeared in 36 NHL games, less than half of those played by the Flyers that season. He recorded 13 wins, with a GAA of 3.13. For the second successive year, the Flyers failed to qualify for the playoffs. Early the following season, Hextall received the third significant suspension of his career, missing six games for slashing Detroit forward Jim Cummins during a preseason game. Suspension, further injuries, and a lack of form meant Hextall appeared 45 times for the Flyers. He recorded 16 wins during the season, resulting in his lowest win percentage in the NHL, 35.56%.

Quebec Nordiques
In the 1992 off-season, Hextall was part of the trade which brought Eric Lindros to the Philadelphia Flyers. Lindros, who had been picked first overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1991 entry draft, had refused to play for Quebec during the 1991–92 season, forcing the club's owner Marcel Aubut to trade him. While negotiating to get the best possible deal, Aubut traded Lindros to both the Flyers and the Rangers, meaning an arbitrator had to rule which club should receive him. During the ten days between the trades being made and the arbitrator's ruling, there was a lot of speculation about which Flyers' and Rangers' players were involved in the potential trades. Hextall was among the players mentioned, something which he was unhappy about. Speaking through his agent, Hextall admitted to being "scared to death" about the possibility of moving with his family to the French-speaking area. On July 30, the arbitrator ruled in favour of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Hextall was traded to Quebec, along with five other players, two first round selections (in 1993 and 1994), and $15,000,000 cash for Lindros.

In The New York Times preview of the Adams Division for the 1992–93 season, Hextall is described as "inconsistent and injury-prone", while the players gained in the Lindros trade were collectively dubbed as "good players but no superstars." Hextall regained some of the confidence he displayed during his first years in Philadelphia, and although a strained thigh muscle kept him out towards the end of the regular season, he helped the Nordiques to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1987. Quebec were eliminated 4–2 by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, during which Hextall was praised as being "at the top of his game".

New York Islanders
After only one season with the Nordiques, Hextall was traded to the New York Islanders in return for Mark Fitzpatrick on June 20, 1993, a move made because the Nordiques could only protect one goalie for the expansion draft and instead of losing him chose to trade him to Long Island. The two teams also traded first-round draft picks. The move was a surprise for Hextall, who had settled in well in Quebec with his family. Don Maloney, the Islanders' General Manager, described the trade as "too good to pass up". The trade was praised on the Islanders' side by The New York Times as possibly "the best in the league over the off season". Hextall had a poor beginning to his career as an Islander, conceding 23 goals in 14 periods at the start of the 1993–94 season, resulting in his replacement prior to the third period against the New Jersey Devils in mid-October. During that game, in which the Islanders were playing at home, Hextall was jeered by the crowd, something to which he had become accustomed during his time with Philadelphia. In contrast to the fans' derision, Hextall's teammates backed him, taking some of the blame themselves, and expressing their belief in their new colleague. Steve Thomas suggested that Hextall was "one of the best goalies in the league, easily in the top five or 10," while coach Al Arbour dismissed dropping Hextall, saying that "We're not playing well in front of the goaltender and he can only be as good as the guys in front of him." Any thoughts that Arbour might have had of replacing Hextall as the team's number-one goaltender were limited by the play of his back-up, Tom Draper, who recorded a GAA of 4.23 in the seven NHL games he played that season. This, coupled with the lack of experienced goaltenders at the club's IHL affiliate, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, resulted in Hextall starting 20 games in a row until Jamie McLennan was called up from the Golden Eagles.

The break, and challenge, that Hextall was afforded by McLennan's call-up helped him to recover his form, and in February, he made consecutive shutouts against the Ottawa Senators and Washington Capitals. He recorded another shutout in his next home game, against the Flyers, and was shortly thereafter named as the NHL's player of the week. During the regular season with the Islanders, Hextall recorded a career-best five shutouts, and a GAA of 3.08, the best since his rookie year. Maloney described Hextall's time with the team as having "a slow start and a disastrous finish". The Islanders reached the playoffs, but were swept 4–0 by their rivals, the New York Rangers. Hextall played three of the four games, conceding 16 goals for a GAA of 6.08, the worst average of his NHL career by some distance. After the season had concluded, Maloney said that he believed that only two Islanders players had distinguished themselves during the 1993–94 season, with one of those being Jamie McLennan. He also praised Hextall's play during his long sequence of starts, but five months later, Maloney traded Hextall back to Philadelphia. He described the move as being two-pronged: it would appease the fans and prevent the derisory calls when the team were struggling, and it would give McLennan a chance to establish himself as the number-one goaltender. Hextall, along with a sixth round draft pick was traded to the Flyers in return for goaltender Tommy Söderström on September 22, 1994.

Return to Philadelphia
In the 1994–95 season, his first season back in Philadelphia, Hextall played 31 games and recorded his lowest GAA in a season to that point, 2.89. The Flyers reached the playoffs for the first time in six years. After defeating the Buffalo Sabres in the first round, the Flyers faced the New York Rangers in the second. Following the Rangers sweep of the Islanders the previous season, the Rangers' fans chanted "We Want Hex-tall!" during their game-six victory in the first round. The Flyers' coach, Terry Murray dismissed the chants, stating that "emotionally he's really under control." The New York Times supported this belief, claiming that "this isn't the same Ron Hextall they remember so fondly". The Flyers won the first two games of the series, and at Madison Square Garden, Hextall had a quiet game in which he even acted as a calming influence to teammates Kevin Haller and Dmitri Yushkevich, a turnaround from the aggressiveness he had displayed earlier in his career. The Flyers swept the Rangers 4–0 and advanced to the Conference Final against the New Jersey Devils, to whom they lost 4–2. Hextall's statistics in the playoffs were his best since his rookie year: he recorded ten wins with a GAA of 2.81.

For the first time in three seasons, Hextall was not traded during the off-season, and remained with the Flyers for the 1995–96 season. During the regular season, Hextall improved on his figures from the previous year, passing 30 wins for the first time since 1988–89. His GAA of 2.17 was both the best in the NHL that year, and the best of Hextall's career. In the playoffs, Hextall played in all twelve of the Flyers' games, a 4–2 first round victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning followed by a 4–2 defeat to the Florida Panthers. His GAA of 2.13 was his lowest recorded in any postseason. He continued to perform well over the next two seasons, passing 30 wins again in 1996–97, and adding another nine shutouts to the four he had made in 1995–96. Over his first five seasons in the NHL, Hextall only made one shutout, while in his final six seasons, he achieved the feat on nineteen occasions. The Flyers progressed to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals, though Hextall only appeared in eight playoff games, finishing seven of them. Throughout the season and the playoffs, the uncertainty in goal resulted in Hextall and Garth Snow swapping places regularly. Snow started nine of the ten games during the first two rounds, but Hextall replaced him in game two of the Conference Final, and remained the starting goaltender for the remainder of the series. A loss against the Detroit Red Wings in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals resulted in coach Murray switching back to Snow for the second game. Hextall returned for games three and four, but the Flyers were swept 4–0 by the Red Wings.

In his final two playing seasons, both spent at the Flyers, Hextall made fewer appearances; he played 46 games in, and 23 in. He maintained a sub-3.00 GAA in each year, repeating the achievement in each of his final five seasons in the NHL having failed to do so in the previous eight seasons. At the end of, Hextall was waived by the Flyers, and after going unclaimed in the expansion draft, he announced his retirement on September 6, 1999.

International career
Hextall's first international recognition came when he was named as part of Team Canada's squad for the 1987 Canada Cup. During a practice session, he chopped Sylvain Turgeon's arm with his stick during a scrimmage, claiming that the left wing was too close to the goal. Turgeon missed the tournament with a fractured arm; Hextall was back-up to Grant Fuhr and did not play a single game. He later represented Canada in the 1992 World Championships, playing five games to record one win and a GAA of 2.86 as Canada were eliminated in the quarter-finals.

Playing style and criticism
Hextall brought a new style of goaltending to the NHL, providing support to his two defencemen due to his willingness to come out of the net and play the puck. He was known for his excellent puck-handling ability. In Hextall's time, goaltenders would limit themselves to stopping the puck behind the net, make short push passes, or at most clear the puck out of the zone with "clumsy" backhands. He distinguished himself by using his stick as a defenceman would; for example, he was capable of starting a counterattack, easily lifting the puck or bouncing it off the glass. Hextall's puck-handling ability meant that it was inadvisable to try a dump and chase strategy of sending the puck in a corner, regaining it, and establishing an attack in the offensive zone, because Hextall would invariably get to the puck first and clear it out of his zone towards a waiting player in the neutral zone. He was described by former NHL player Peter McNab as the "original outlet pass goalie". While playing junior hockey, Hextall's coaches advised him that he would not reach the NHL if he continued to move the puck. Not everyone agreed; NHL goaltender Darren Pang described feeling as if "he had just witnessed Superman flying out of a phone booth" when he saw Hextall's puckhandling ability in a minor league game. Former NHL goaltender Johnny Bower, when scouting for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Brandon, remarked that Hextall would at times let in soft goals, and doubted if he would reach the NHL; Hextall retained a tendency to let in occasional weak goals throughout his career. Hextall claims his adventurous style stemmed from his youth, when he played on outdoor ice rinks with a skater's stick, rather than the heftier goaltender's stick. Martin Brodeur modelled his own play on that of Hextall, saying "I love the fact that he was playing the puck. He was one of the first goalies that came out and played the puck. He was a little rough for my liking, but it was entertaining. The playing of the puck was the big thing." Hextall's mobility provided extra passing opportunities for his defencemen: when killing a penalty they would frequently pass the puck back to him, relieving some of the pressure on his team. He is described on the Hockey Hall of Fame's Legends of Hockey website as being "perhaps the game's most mobile goalie of all time."

Hextall was also notorious for his highly aggressive and intimidating style of play. Frank Orr, a columnist in the Toronto Star, suggested that Hextall's aggressive nature, which resulted in three suspensions of six or more games during his NHL career, was an intentional part of his game designed to protect him. He theorized that because Hextall's style of play frequently took him out of his goal crease, the threat of physical violence lessened the chances of him being challenged by an attacker when out of position. In the 1993 playoff series between the Montreal Canadiens and Hextall's Nordiques, the Canadiens' coach Jacques Demers designed a plan to disrupt Hextall's play after Montreal had lost its two first games to Quebec. He noted that Hextall would be off his game if he were disturbed or bumped. Montreal then won four straight games to win the series in six games. Demers felt that Hextall's emotional play lessened his effectiveness; while acknowledging him as a "great competitor", he felt that "he didn't reach the level of a Grant Fuhr or a Martin Brodeur [because] he lost his cool if you got in his face."

Rogie Vachon, who served as the general manager of the Los Angeles Kings during the early part of the Hextall's playing career, praised his goaltending ability, but felt that his aggressive conduct "shouldn't be in hockey and I think it tarnishes his image, too. He can play. He doesn't need that shit." His view was shared by many, leading Hextall to be tagged as one of the most "revered and reviled" players in the league. Former NHL goaltender John Davidson commented that Hextall "thrived" on being a villain; he further described him as a "great character", and noted that "when he came to town, fans would want to race to the arena to boo him."

Management career
Upon his retirement from playing in 1999, Hextall immediately joined the Philadelphia Flyers' staff as a professional scout. He was promoted to director of professional player personnel three years later and was considered by the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame to be a key factor in the success experienced by the Flyers during the early 2000s when they won the Atlantic Division three times while reaching the Eastern Conference Finals on two occasions. In June 2006, Hextall moved to the Los Angeles Kings to take on the role of vice president and assistant general manager. In addition, Hextall served as the general manager of the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, the Kings' primary minor league affiliate. On June 11, 2012, Hextall finally won a Stanley Cup, as the assistant general manager of the Kings. On July 15, 2013, Hextall returned to the Flyers and was named assistant general manager and director of hockey operations. On May 7, 2014, Hextall was named general manager of the Flyers, following the promotion of Paul Holmgren to team president. On November 26, 2018, the Flyers fired Hextall as general manager. He was an advisor in the Hockey Operations department for the Kings.

On February 9, 2021, Hextall was announced as the new general manager for the Pittsburgh Penguins. His tenure in Pittsburgh rapidly became controversial among fans and sports journalists, with The Athletic summarizing his tenure by calling him "one of the worst general managers in franchise history. He may well have destroyed the Penguins with his ghastly record of player transactions." Widely faulted moves through the 2022 off-season included trading Mike Matheson for the older and more expensive Jeff Petry, declining to retain John Marino, and re-signing Kasperi Kapanen and an aging Jeff Carter. The Penguins struggled throughout the 2022–23 season, and by the trade deadline were in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in sixteen years. Hextall opted to clear salary cap space by trading or waiving a number of players, including Kapanen, but then made the widely criticized decision to trade a 2023 second-round pick to the Nashville Predators for Mikael Granlund. Granlund was considered a declining player with an undesirable contract, and would subsequently score only one goal in twenty games with the Penguins, dubbed "a complete non-factor." The Penguins ultimately missed the playoffs, ending their league-best appearance streak, leading to immediate calls for Hextall to be sacked. On April 14, 2023, the Penguins announced that they had fired Hextall and executive Brian Burke.

Personal life
Hextall married Diane Ogibowski, a former figure skater, and the pair have four children: Kristin, Brett, Rebecca, and Jeffrey.

Brett Hextall was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes as a sixth-round pick (159th overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. He was signed to an entry-level contract with the team in April 2011 and played for four seasons in the minor leagues before retiring. Had he made it to the NHL, Brett Hextall would have become the second fourth-generation player in NHL history, after Blake Geoffrion.

His cousin Leah Hextall is an announcer for ESPN.

NHL

 * Most penalty minutes by a goaltender in a single season – 113 (1988–89)

Philadelphia Flyers

 * Most career games played by a goaltender – 489
 * Most career wins – 240
 * Most career playoff wins – 45
 * Most career points by a goaltender – 28
 * Most career penalty minutes by a goaltender – 476

title: Ron Hextall


text:
Min Sheng Bao

Min Sheng Bao was a tabloid newspaper based in Taiwan, and was a sister publication of United Daily News, then Taiwan's second most circulated newspaper.

It started publication in 1978, and became defunct and published its last print and online edition on December 1, 2006.

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

title: Min Sheng Bao


text:
Maailman ympäri

Maailman ympäri ("Around the world") is a Finnish quiz show shown on YLE TV1 from 2000 to 2004.

The show was hosted by Finnish TV presenter Simo Frangén and had a geography theme. The main prize was a trip around the world (hence the name). The second prize was a luxury weekend trip in a randomly selected European country. Prizes below this level were much cheaper.

Maailman ympäri had four contestants. Usually, two were men and two were women, and likewise two were celebrities and two were ordinary people. (The sex division and the celebrity division only very rarely correlated.)

Rules
Maailman ympäri consisted of four rounds, during each of which one contestant was dropped out.

Round one
Round one had numerical questions. There were four questions, each one about a different country. The countries were randomly selected with the first being from Europe, the second from America (comprising both North and South America), the third from Africa and the fourth from Asia (also encompassing Australia and Oceania).

Frangén asked a question with a numerical answer (for example "How much...?") about each country in turn, and each contestant made a guess. The contestant whose guess was the closest got half a point. Upon reaching a full point, the contestant moved to round two.

When only one contestant was left in round one, he/she dropped out, and round one was over.

Round two
Round two was a game of noughts and crosses. All three contestants had a 3-by-3 grid of squares, initially empty. The squares were labelled with different aspects of a country.

Frangén again randomly selected one country from each of the four continents. Each contestant picked one country. (One country was left over.)

In turn, each contestant picked an empty square and Frangén asked him/her a true-or-false question about that particular aspect of his/her chosen country. If the answer was right, the contestant got an X in the square and got to try another question. If the answer was wrong, the contestant got an O in the square and the turn passed on to the next contestant.

Having three Xs in a row got the contestant to round three. Having three Os in a row, or being the last one left, dropped the contestant out of the game.

Round three
In round three, Frangén also randomly selected one country from each continent, but this time did not reveal their names. The object of round three was to guess the names of the countries.

Frangén went through all four countries in turn, giving both contestants still left five clues about it, starting difficult with five points and then becoming easier and worth less points. Contestants wrote their guesses at each clue down in a list.

After the fifth clue, the country's name was revealed, and both contestants scored for every right guess as many points as the clue's level indicated. After the fourth country, the contestant with more points got to round four.

Round four
In round four, Frangén also randomly selected one country from each continent. The countries were placed in a stack with Europe lowest and Asia highest.

Round four was timed with a one-minute time limit. Frangén began at the bottom of the stack, asking a multiple-choice question with three choices about the country. A right answer moved up the stack, a wrong answer moved down the stack.

Getting the Africa question right allowed the contestant two possible routes: Continue as normal or try a "one-shot" question. If the contestant chose the one-shot option, the time limit was abandoned, and Frangén asked a multiple-choice question with two choices about the Asian country. Getting the answer wrong dropped the contestant out straight away, instead of moving down the stack.

Getting the Asia question right earned the contestant the main prize of a trip around the world. Getting the "one-shot" question wrong or exceeding the time limit earned him/her a second prize of a week-end trip to a randomly selected European country.

Jokes and catchphrases
Frangén employed a series of running gags in the show. Their form was always the same but the details varied.

Some of the running gags included:
 * When introducing the second round, Frangén generally said: "In the second round, we play noughts & crosses. Because everyone knows the rules, I have time left to...", following with a varying activity, which lasted for a minute or so.
 * When introducing the third round, Frangén generally said: "In the third round, the question is", followed by a question that had nothing whatsoever to do with the third round, or the entire game show, for that matter. Frangén then looked smug for a second or two, then became all apologetic, saying: "No, sorry! I meant that the question is, what countries are we talking about?"
 * Finnish state law requires an official supervisor to be present at the actual draw event of a lottery game. Many shows had these prominently present, but Maailman ympäri was the only show where the interaction between the host and the supervisor went beyond a nominal "Hello" or "Good evening". Frangén proposed some crazy alternative way to handle the draw, which the supervisor refused. Frangén then offered a "compromise", which meant handling the draw as normal. This the supervisor accepted. In the last episode of the show, the supervisor in fact accepted Frangén's unorthodox idea. Frangén then chickened out and refused to put his own idea to action, instead doing the draw the same way he had always done.
 * At the end of each episode, Frangén would always finish with these exact words: "Minä olen teidän matkaoppaanne Simo Frangén ja minä en lähde matkalle maailman ympäri. Minä lähden Tampereelle! Moi!" ("I am your travel guide Simo Frangén, and I am not going on a trip around the world. I am going to Tampere! Bye!"). The gag is that Tampere is Frangén's hometown and he is so strongly associated with it that explicitly pointing it out is redundant.

Lottery game
The show was accompanied by a lottery game with the same name in co-operation with Veikkaus. The object of the game, which was entirely a game of chance, was to guess the numbers of the countries chosen on the show.

title: Maailman ympäri


text:
Lovely Banks, Victoria

Lovely Banks is a northern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Once an agricultural and rural area, the suburb is quickly developing into a residential area adjoining the Geelong suburbs of Bell Park, Corio and Norlane. At the 2016 census Lovely Banks had a population of 2,301.

The origin of the name is thought to be descriptive of the area. The land to the west rises quite quickly from 30 to 100 metres above sea level. It provides an expansive view of Geelong and Corio Bay.

The Post Office, opened around 1902 named as Lovely Banks Reservoir, was renamed Lovely Banks around 1907 and closed in 1960.

Cowies Creek Rail Bridge No. 1, a bridge on the Geelong-Ballarat railway line between Lovely Banks and Bell Post Hill, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Census populations

 * 1911 - 94
 * 1961 - 114

Geelong (Western) Ring Road
During construction of the Geelong Ring Road By Pass Lovely Banks was semi-separated from its closest neighbourhoods Bell Park, Corio and Norlane with the closures of Purnell and Goldsworthy Roads, to accommodate the new freeway. Lovely Banks can be accessed via the new Anakie Road overpass which was constructed as part of the Geelong By Pass project.

title: Lovely Banks, Victoria


text: Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Featured log/February 2005


text:
User:Telso/Copyrights

I agree to multi-license all my text contributions, except for contributions to my own userspace, as described below:

title: User:Telso/Copyrights


text:
Talk:Jeff Smith (chef)

Why have details about the scandal?
Why should this article have details about the scandal? The man is dead and the "scandal" has the status of rumor. As the article says he was never charged with a crime. I vote for deletion of this section of the bio stick to the facts and avoid rumor. It would be much more relevant to know that he started out as a Methodist minister and how he came from that backgorund to use wine with cooking. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.22.28.83 (talk • contribs) 07:40, 2 February 2005

RickK - don't revert without discussion
User RickK reverted updates for the stated reason "the deleted dates were factual." But he failed to address the serious issue that the allegations associated with those dates were never proven and therefore this information amounts to slander. Moreover the external links added in the update gives any interested reader the information about the scandal without making the scandal part of the official Wikipedia record. Furthermore - by using "revert" rather than "edit" RickK has deleted relevant and important new information.

RickK has blocked his account from receiving emails so I challenge him to submit his ideas to the public scrutiny before making univocal deletions of another user's contributions.

 * I discussed it on the Talk page of the anon who made the changes. I didn't delete anything having to do with dates, I reverted the deletions about the accusations made against him.  Whether or not the accusations are true, they were made, and it is not proper for Wikipedia to ignore that fact.  RickK 07:50, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)

 * If it were proper for Wikipedia to mention every accusation made against every public figure then every biographical page would contain the word "scandal." The fact that there were accusations without any charges trial or conviction means that mentioning htem here amounts to slander. It is therefore entirely appropriate for Wikipedia to relegate them to an external link as I have done. Deleting them is not vandalism - it's good editing. Please refer to guidlines.
 * Nice. Somebody whose first edit is to this page trying to explain guidelines.  The mention of the scandal is completely appropriate.  RickK 08:05, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)
 * FWIW there were publicized charges, but no trial. Settlements were made out of court. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5405544/ --sparkit 08:13, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Narcissus claims that articles should not mention scandals unless they result in trials or convictions. There is no such rule on Wikipedia. If it's verifiable it's usually worth noting in the article. As shown in Jeff Smith's obituary, the sex scandal did receive media coverage. Rhobite 08:54, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)

Outside view
The scandal, whether true or not, seems to account for this person's show being cancelled. That therefore makes it noteworthy, and I think noting them as accusations against him (as the article does) is the appropriate way of doing it. violet/riga (t) 09:09, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

- Hi this is User:Narcissus14 responding - I have a couple issues that I'd like you to respond to that are making me uncomfortable:

(1) Those who have added the rumors to the article have not given any evidence. There is an external link to an article that is no longer available and the added words use phrasology such as "alleged" and "are believed" which are supposedly to be avoided.

(2) In this discussion forum the external link above (to the msnbc article) hardly substantiates the rumors - the headline says that the scandal ended his career and the first paragraph says so but there is not one sentence in the article that even attempts to substiate a causal link between the accusations and the ending of the show. We don't even know for sure that the accusations were made offically - there is no evidence cited. Maybe they were made privately or by someone trying to rake money from a multi-millionnaire? We're not given any evidence one way or another.

(3) The external link that I added - to a discussion forum of Frugal Gourmet viewers - allows all points of view to have a say while maintaining neutral POV - because the views retain the status of OPINIONS which is of course all they are.

(4) The claim that $5 million was paid has not been supported - not even by the MSNBC article mentioned in this discussion above. What's the justification for allowing it to stand?

(5) I was personally attacked and blocked from posting (including to this forum) for the stated reason of "vandalism and refusing to compromise" when my actions were demonstrably neither vandalism nor uncompromising: "vandalism" is defined as editing in bad faith but my edits were always in good faith; moreover between myself and those who disagree with me I am the only party who attempted any sort of compromise; moreover the one who banned me never bothered to engage in a meaningful discussion with me; he disagreed with me and that was enough reason to ban me when I was persistent. The only reason I reverted multiple times was to get his attention to see if we could talk this out; but he never replied to any of my comments and merely painted me as a "vandal" "uncompromising" and I belive he accused me of trying to "whitewash".

(6) I left my original critique of the rumor-mongering on this discussion for many weeks (or was it months) with nary a reply before I took action and deleted the unsubstantiated and possibly false rumors and added relevant material. I was accused of vandalism for removing "factual" material. Even the "outside view" above is unable to say that the scandal "seems" to account for the show's cancellation. Based on what do you say so? On this MSNBC article? If that's all you have to go on - would it not be more fair (accurate) and decent to say something like "rumors of a pending sex scandal led to the show's cancellation" without going into lurid details which have not been substantiated as factual? Why would that not be enough?

 * Wikipedia isn't a courtroom. We don't prove things here, and we don't require proof of guilt before we report about an alleged crime. Media coverage is enough. However, we should be careful to cite our sources. I'm not sure where the $5 million figure came from. Unless that can be cited, it should be removed. I don't think RickK was right to block you, but your behavior was still unacceptable. You removed all description of the sex scandal, as well as a link which served as a reference. In my book, deleting text along with citations is a bad thing. The $5 million part should be cited or removed, but the rest should stay. If you'd like to be more productive with your time here, why not focus on adding positive information about Mr. Smith instead of removing information which bothers you? Rhobite 17:22, Mar 22, 2005 (UTC)

Can I just state here for the record that I liked The Frugal Gourmet and used to watch it all the time. I just don't think deleting the information that Narcissus is deleting is appropriate. RickK 05:53, Mar 23, 2005 (UTC)

 * I've done a search and cannot find any media source (other than private weblogs) that cites $5 million or any dollar amount of a settlement.

 * Looks like someone is adding (again) unsubtantiated rumor - and it looks malicious. Deleting (temporarily) until they can re-write with sources. We've been here before.

 * The settlement amounts are listed by the Kitsap Sun, 1/1/1999: https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1999/01-01/0027_frugal_gourmet__chef_settles_with.html and Lewiston Tribune, same date: https://www.lmtribune.com/nation/world/frugal-gourmet-reaches-settlement-with-seven-men-over-allegations-of-sexual-abuse/article_86c07d11-cf14-5cb4-8cba-79090140faa1.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.205.6 (talk) 01:03, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

rough outline of facts
He got a cute boy assistant on the show and started talking a lot about him and then he went travelling with him and had travel photos and it seemed a bit of an odd man on boy tangent for a food show and then it went off the air. This can be based entirely on scripts or videos or reviews of the basic show content. Enough was in the public eye to leave a lasting dark mark. There should be some way of saying this based on just the facts that were in the open since the whole problem was too much visibility and focus on that. -- M0llusk 03:36, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Personal observations are not the basis for an encyclopedia article. We need to stick to reliable sources. --GentlemanGhost (talk) 23:54, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

General Note to Wikipedia Writers
Before the multi-billion dollar empires of Martha, Emeril, et al, Jeff Smith was a seminal voice of the foodie revolution, always finding new ways to tempt Americans to explore new foods, drinks, and cooking techniques. I know it's tempting to get hung up on a scandal, but the guy meant a lot more to our culture-at-large then one would suspect from the length and content of this article. Why mention it? Because this article is a good example of why I think Wikipedia will forever be a quixotic quest...nonetheless, I admire your passion, and I wish you luck. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.179.29.55 (talk) 21:21, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't follow your reasoning. It's a quixotic quest because it mentions the scandal? That's not how I see it. To my mind, the thankless but attainable task is balancing all aspects of his cultural significance, including the scandal. I don't see how censoring the article improves it. --GentlemanGhost (talk) 23:49, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

 * The scandal should definitely not be censored, and as of writing this comment it's not, but weird scandal aside that was a damn good show, and the food looked damn good too... He was definitely quite knowledgeable about not just cooking, but the history and culture of food, and this is what made his show popular and memorable. The article really should make some more mention of what he cooked on the show, and maybe what kind of thought he put into the recipe books...Spettro9 (talk) 16:13, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Generally speaking, articles about authors have at least a partial bibliography. It does seem a little biased towards the scandal rather than the body of his life.--Prosfilaes (talk) 02:26, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Redundant Citation
I just "fixed" a long dead citation link but in doing so I used the same page used for citation [4], which does support the statement but in doing so it created a duplicate source. I'm not that great at editing citations obviously so perhaps someone better at that can fix it so there's only one source for both citations? In the meantime at least now citation [1] supports the facts stated and is better than a dead link IMO. SentientParadox (talk) 01:48, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Jeff Smith (chef)


text:
Hic Mulier

Hic Mulier: or, The Man-Woman is a pamphlet published in 1620 in England that condemned cross-dressing. The pamphlet expresses concern about women wearing men's apparel. It makes a socially conservative argument that transvestitism was an affront to nature, The Bible, the great chain of being, and society. The Latin title uses the word hic, the masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun jokingly applied to a feminine noun, to mean "this [manlike] woman".

Context
During the last few years of King James's reign, women were accused of dressing and behaving like men. This occurrence was relatively small-scale and brief. The term Hic Mulier, used as a sexual insult, was introduced by a preacher named Thomas Adams in a pamphlet he published in 1615. King James commented on the fashion of women dressing in men's clothing. In 1620, he commanded his clergy to teach, "against the insolencie of our women, and their wearing of broad brimmed hats, pointed dublets, their hair cut short or shorn, and some of them stilettoes or poinards, and such other trinckets of like moment." Hic Mulier and the responding pamphlet Haec Vir were outcomes of his command.

Hic Mulier was followed quickly by the printing of the counterpoint Haec Vir, indicating the pair of pamphlets was likely intended by the bookseller to capitalize on controversy over the social role of women.

The work
The pamphlet argues that any person or creature which is half one thing and half another is unnatural and wrong; thus a woman who dresses as a man is as revolting as a mermaid. The author worries that dressing like a man leads a woman speaking out like men and essentially becoming male in outward form.

The narration of Hic Mulier is from a single viewpoint and its style is based on oral delivery. This style differs from its companion pamphlet Haec Vir, which is written as a dialogue between the two characters Hic Mulier and Haec Vir. There is evidence suggesting that masculine women were both a social and literary phenomenon. The topic of masculine women was briefly popular, but lost appeal after King James died in 1625.

Hic Mulier quotes twelve lines from Thomas Overbury's notorious poem A Wife. The currency of this reference is reflected in Overbury's being identified solely by his initials.

title: Hic Mulier


text:
John MacDougall (Ontario politician)

John Alexander Frances MacDougall (born April 20, 1947 in Port Hood, Nova Scotia) is a former Canadian politician. He represented the riding of Timiskaming in the House of Commons of Canada from 1982 to 1993, as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

He first entered Parliament in 1982, in a byelection following the death of the riding's prior MP, Bruce Lonsdale.

On April 23, 1993, MacDougall became the centre of controversy when he made comments in the House of Commons attacking Sunera Thobani, the new head of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women: Earlier today I learned that [Thobani] first is not a Canadian, and second does not have a work permit for this country. Does the Deputy Prime Minister believe that the taxpayers of Canada should be funding such an organization with an illegal immigrant as its head?

Thobani, in fact, had just received her landed immigrant status, and MacDougall's comments were widely criticized as racist.

MacDougall did not run for reelection in the 1993 election.

title: John MacDougall (Ontario politician)


text:
The Finest Hour

The Finest Hour (released in the Philippines as Desert Storm: The Final Battle) is a 1992 American war drama film starring Rob Lowe and Gale Hansen as Navy SEALs-in-training who become best friends. When a woman comes between them, however, it takes a war to bring them back together again.

Plot
Lawrence Hammer (Lowe) and Dean Mazzoli (Hansen) are two Naval Officers undergoing the rigorous and demanding Navy BUD/s training program. Both men quest to become Navy SEALs. During the training Hammer is shown as cocky and not a true team player. Mazzoli is a natural leader who is respected by the other trainees. The two men clash over time due to Hammer's attitude making a bad name for everyone. The two men's feud eventually is seen by the training instructors. After being punished in a “military manner”, the two become friends. On liberty Mazzoli takes an interest in Barbara, a known love interest and friend of Hammer's. Barbara and Mazzoli share a romantic moment under a capsized canoe but Mazzoli breaks away before anything further happens. He knows that his friend Hammer has been “with” her for a while. Later that night Hammer and Barbara elope and Mazzoli is shocked but accepts the marriage.

The two finish their BUD/s training and Mazzoli informs Hammer that he is completing his SDV training on the East Coast, not the West Coast as Hammer will be doing. A brief confrontation between the two occurs on the beach and subsides when Mazzoli says it is because of Barbara. Soon Iraq invades Kuwait and Hammer is seen on a reconnaissance mission with Bosco, who was Mazzoli's and Hammer's former lead training instructor. After coming under enemy fire Bosco is taken prisoner. Hammer and Mazzoli reunite when Mazzoli comes to aid in the rescue mission of Bosco. While preparing for the mission the two catch up, with Hammer talking about how Barbara and her son Josh both miss seeing him. He further goes on and tells of his infidelities and about Barbara knowing about his unfaithfulness. Hammer and Mazzoli successfully rescue Bosco but Hammer is severely injured during the mission.

While Hammer is hospitalized, Mazzoli picks up Barbara at the airport to bring her to see her husband. The two exchange a level of awkwardness and it is clear they both have feelings for each other. After ensuring that Hammer is all right, Barbara and Hammer began to argue and viewers learn that Hammer slept with Barbara's best friend. While remaining around for Hammer's sake, Barbara is guided around the area by Mazzoli. The two share some alone time together and their romantic feelings come back with each aware of the other's feelings. Barbara informs Mazzoli that she will be leaving Hammer.

The SEAL commanders inform Hammer while in the hospital that they will be sending the SEALs back in to destroy the island facilities where Bosco was being held. The island is a chemical weapons manufacturing base. Hammer intends on participating in the mission but is denied for medical reasons. He falsifies paperwork and is released from the hospital. He attends the briefing for the mission and produces his falsified medical clearance which gains him a spot on the mission roster.

The mission is launched and Mazzoli learns early on that Hammer was not medically fit for diving. He raises his concern that Hammer put the whole team and mission in jeopardy. The mission is successful but the SEALs are discovered and are on the run. They commandeer a boat and plan on blowing up the boat. Hammer ensures he is the last one off the boat, but becomes snagged by netting on his jump off the boat. The boat explodes and Mazzoli is seen searching the water for his friend. He finds Hammer and Hammer tells him “I’m dying” to which Mazzoli responds “You’re always dying.” Following the SEALs' rescue by submarine, Hammer goes into cardiac arrest. Upon the ship's return to the docks, Barbara is seen waiting and smiles when she sees Mazzoli. The smile turns to grief when she sees a saddened Mazzoli and other SEALs carrying a military body bag containing Hammer's corpse off the ship. The movie ends with Mazzoli coming back into narration, saying that when Barbara and he both lost Hammer, they lost themselves as well, meaning they did not pursue a relationship.

Cast

 * Rob Lowe as Lawrence Hammer
 * Gale Hansen as Dean Mazzoli
 * Tracy Griffith as Barbara
 * Eb Lottimer as Bosco
 * Baruch Dror as Greenspan
 * Daniel Dieker as Albie
 * Michael Fountain as Carter
 * Uri Gavriel as Enemy Commander

Release
The Finest Hour was released direct-to-video in the United States in February 1992. In the Philippines, the film was theatrically released as Desert Storm: The Final Battle in March 1992.

title: The Finest Hour


text:
John MacDougall

John MacDougall may refer to:

 * John MacDougall, Lord of Argyll (died 1316), Scottish nobleman and commander
 * John Gallda MacDougall (died 1371×1377), Scottish nobleman and chief of Clan MacDougall
 * Sir John MacDougall (Royal Navy officer) (1790–1865), British admiral
 * Lorne MacDougall (John Lorne MacDougall, 1898–1956), Canadian Member of Parliament
 * John MacDougall (Ontario politician) (born 1947), Canadian Progressive Conservative MP, 1982–1993
 * John MacDougall (British politician) (1947–2008), Scottish Labour Party MP from 2001 till 2008
 * John R. MacDougall, better known as the "Captain Midnight" hijacker of the HBO signal in 1986

title: John MacDougall


text:
Wikipedia talk:Most vandalized pages

Edit request to complete MfD nomination
Most vandalized pages has been listed at Miscellany for deletion (nomination), but it was protected, so it could not be tagged. Please add:

to the top of the page to complete the nomination. Thank you. Aaron Liu (talk) 01:56, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Done, should be all set. The Blade of the Northern Lights ( 話して下さい ) 02:04, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 6 June 2023
I understand it's currently under discussion through MfD. Once the MfD ends and if the page survives MfD, would it make sense to add:

(minus the pre and nowiki of course) ? – The Grid  ( talk )  13:43, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I've closed the MFD as no consensus, so this can be done (and the MfD tag removed). C LYDE TALK TO ME/STUFF DONE (please mention me on reply) 05:33, 12 June 2023 (UTC)
 * MfD template has been removed. I'm not sure the courtesy blanked template is appropriate here? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:35, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Courtesy blanking is undertaken on pages where content there is, for one reason or another, not appropriate to be displayed as the current page revision. I'm pretty sure this is why @The Grid blanked the page, so I believe it applies. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:02, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 13 June 2023
MFD tag needs to be removed now that the MFD has closed NW1223<Howl at me•My hunts> 15:56, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 17:38, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Edit request to complete MfD nomination
Most vandalized pages has been listed at Miscellany for deletion (nomination), but it was protected, so it could not be tagged. Please add:

to the top of the page to complete the nomination. Thank you. Isla 🏳⚧ 12:19, 27 December 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ * Pppery * it has begun... 16:53, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 22 February 2024
I would like to capitalize the first letter of the short description. If that is not allowed because this is an archived page, please notify me. Thank you. 2003 LN  6  04:40, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I've removed it entirely instead. The shortdesc conveys no useful information and was added by an editor now blocked for disruption. * Pppery * it has begun... 04:52, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:Most vandalized pages


text:
Supreme People's Court

The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of national importance. The court lacks judicial independence and has no power beyond what is granted to it by the National People's Congress (NPC).

According to the Chinese constitution, the Supreme People's Court is accountable to the NPC, which prevents the court from functioning separately and independently of the governmental structure. The court has about 400 judges and more than 600 administrative personnel.

The court serves as the highest court for the People's Republic of China and also for cases investigated by the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau have separate judicial systems based on British common law traditions and Portuguese civil law traditions respectively, and are out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme People's Court.

History
The Supreme People's Court was established on 22 October 1949 and began operating in November 1950. At least four members of the first court leadership did not come from a legal background, and most of its first staff were assigned from the People's Liberation Army to the Court.

The functions of the court was first outlined in the Chinese constitution in its 1954 version, which said the court has the power of independent adjudication and is accountable to the National People's Congress.

During the Cultural Revolution, the 1975 constitution removed the provision that said courts were to decide cases independently and required them to report to revolutionary committees. Most staff members of the court were sent to the countryside, and the People's Liberation Army occupied the court from 1968 to 1973.

Following the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the Supreme People's Court began to focus on legal issues, especially those related to civil and commercial law, because of China's economic liberalization under new leader Deng Xiaoping. The independent power of adjudicate cases returned to the constitution with the 1982 amendment, which explicitly states the courts' right of adjudication cannot be influenced by administrative organs, social organizations and individuals.

In 2005, the Supreme People's Court announced its intent to "[take] back authority for death penalty approval" over concerns about "sentencing quality", and the National People's Congress officially changed the Organic Law on the People's Courts to require all death sentences to be approved by the Supreme People's Court on 31 October 2006. A 2008 report stated that since the new review process, the court has rejected 15 percent of the death sentences decided by lower courts.

As part of an effort to build judicial credibility through more effective enforcement of court orders, the SPC in 2013 promulgated a blacklist composed of Chinese citizens and companies that refuse to comply with court orders (typically court orders to pay a fine or to repay a loan) despite having the ability to do so. As of 2023, the SPC's blacklist is one of its most important enforcement tools and its use has resulted in the recovery of tens of trillions of RMB for fines and delinquent repayments.

On 1 January 2019, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court was established to handle all second instance hearings from cases heard in the first instance by the Intellectual Property Courts.

Since March 2023, the President of the Supreme People's Court and Grand Chief Justice has been Zhang Jun.

Adjudication
The Supreme People's Court exercises its original jurisdiction over cases placed with the court by laws and regulations and those the court deems within its jurisdiction. It is generally selective in the matters it hears, focusing on those with the potential to impact future similar cases. It also reviews appeals or protests against trial decisions or verdicts of high people's courts and special people's courts, as well as appeals against court judgments lodged by the Supreme People's Procuratorate according to trial supervision procedures. When the court has discovered errors in the rulings and verdicts of lower courts that are already enforced, it investigates or appoints a lower court to rehear the case.

The court also approves death sentences and suspended death sentences handed down by lower courts. It also approves verdicts on crimes not specifically stipulated in the criminal law.

Legal interpretation
The court explains the application of laws in specific cases during a trial. Further details about this were described by Zhou Qiang as:
 * "The reply is a request for a specific case. Its legal binding force is limited to the case itself and does not have universal legal effect. In other cases, the judge cannot directly use the above reply as the basis for the judgment. For documents that have universal effectiveness and guide courts at all levels, the Supreme People's Court generally publishes it in the form of judicial interpretation and can make inquiries in newspapers and on the Internet."

While the Chinese constitution does not state that courts have the power to review laws for their constitutionality (see constitutional review), the Supreme People's Court can request the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to evaluate whether an administrative rule, local regulation, autonomous regulation or separate regulation contravenes the constitution or a national law. However, the Supreme People's Court has never made such request.

Supervision of lower courts
The Supreme People's Court is also responsible for supervising the adjudication of lower courts and specialized courts.

Organization

 * Divisions within the Supreme People's Court
 * Case-Filing Division
 * Criminal Divisions (5)
 * Civil Divisions (4)
 * Environment and Resources Division
 * Administrative Division
 * Judicial Supervision Division

 * Departments within the Supreme People's Court
 * State Compensation Division
 * Enforcement Department (Enforcement Command Center)

 * General Office
 * Political Department
 * Research office
 * Adjudication Management Office
 * Discipline and Supervision Department
 * International Cooperation Department
 * Judicial Administration and Equipment Management Department
 * Party-Related Affairs Department
 * Retirees'Affairs Department
 * Information Department

 * Circuit and other courts of the Supreme People's Court
 * 1) First Circuit (established in Shenzhen, Dec 2014)
 * 2) Second Circuit (established in Shenyang, Dec 2014)
 * 3) Third Circuit
 * 4) Fourth Circuit
 * 5) Fifth Circuit
 * 6) Sixth Circuit
 * 7) First International Commercial
 * 8) Second International Commercial
 * 9) Intellectual Property Court

President/Chief Justices and Vice Presidents of the Court

 * 1) 1949–1954: Supreme People's Court of the Central People's Government
 * 2) * President: Shen Junru
 * 3) 1954–1959: Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China under the 1st National People's Congress
 * 4) * President: Dong Biwu
 * 5) * Vice Presidents: Gao Kelin, Ma Xiwu, Zhang Zhirang
 * 6) 1959–1965: 2nd National People's Congress
 * 7) * President: Xie Juezai
 * 8) * Vice Presidents: Wu Defeng, Wang Weigang, Zhang Zhirang
 * 9) 1965–1975: 3rd National People's Congress
 * 10) * President: Yang Xiufeng
 * 11) * Vice Presidents: Tan Guansan, Wang Weigang, Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Xing Yimin, Wang Demao, Zhang Zhirang
 * 12) 1975–1978: 4th National People's Congress
 * 13) * President: Jiang Hua
 * 14) * Vice Presidents: Wang Weigang, Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Zheng Shaowen
 * 15) 1978–1983: 5th National People's Congress
 * 16) * President: Jiang Hua
 * 17) * Vice Presidents: Zeng Hanzhou, He Lanjie, Zheng Shaowen, Song Guang, Wang Huaian, Wang Zhanping
 * 18) 1983–1988: 6th National People's Congress
 * 19) * President: Zheng Tianxiang
 * 20) * Vice Presidents: Ren Jianxin, Song Guang, Wang Huaian, Wang Zhanping, Lin Huai, Zhu Mingshan, Ma Yuan
 * 21) 1988–1993: 7th National People's Congress
 * 22) * President: Ren Jianxin
 * 23) * Vice Presidents: Hua Liankui, Lin Huai, Zhu Mingshan, Ma Yuan, Duan Muzheng
 * 24) 1993–1998: 8th National People's Congress
 * 25) * President: Ren Jianxin
 * 26) * Vice Presidents: Zhu Mingshan, Xie Anshan, Gao Changli, Tang Dehua, Liu Jiachen, Luo Haocai, Li Guoguang, Lin Huai, Hua Liankui, Duan Muzheng, Wang Jingrong, Ma Yuan
 * 27) 1998–2003: 9th National People's Congress
 * 28) * President: Xiao Yang
 * 29) * Vice Presidents: Zhu Mingshan, Li Guoguang, Jiang Xingchang, Shen Deyong, Wan Exiang, Cao Jianming, Zhang Jun, Huang Songyou, Jiang Bixin
 * 30) 2003–2007: 10th National People's Congress
 * 31) * President: Xiao Yang
 * 32) * Vice Presidents: Cao Jianming, Jiang Xingchang, Shen Deyong, Wan Exiang, Huang Songyou, Su Zelin, Xi Xiaoming, Zhang Jun, Xiong Xuanguo
 * 33) 2008–2013: 11th National People's Congress
 * 34) * President: Wang Shengjun
 * 35) * Vice Presidents: Shen Deyong (Executive), Zhang Jun, Wan Exiang, Jiang Bixin, Su Zelin, Xi Xiaoming, Nan Ying, Jing Hanchao, Huang Ermei
 * 36) 2013–2018: 12th National People's Congress
 * 37) * President: Zhou Qiang
 * 38) 2018—2023: 13th National People's Congress
 * 39) * President: Zhou Qiang
 * 40) * Vice Presidents: He Rong (Executive), Jiang Wei, Tao Kaiyuan, Gao Jinghong, Yang Wanming, Yang Linping, He Xiaorong, Shen Liang
 * 41) 2023—present: 14th National People's Congress
 * 42) * President: Zhang Jun

title: Supreme People's Court


text:
Little River, Victoria

Little River is a town in Victoria, Australia, approximately 44 km south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Greater Geelong and Wyndham local government areas. Little River recorded a population of 1,353 at the 2021 census.

Aboriginal history
In the vicinity of Mount Rothwell, near Little River, a semi-circular Aboriginal stone arrangement now known as Wurdi Youang and believed to have been built by the local Wadawurrung people, was discovered and in 2011 described by an astrophysicist from the CSIRO as accurately indicating the setting sun during the solstices and equinox. Although the age is unknown, it could range from 200 to 30,000 years.

Early settlement
The Little River has headwaters in the nearby Brisbane Ranges. It was also known as the Cocoroc Rivulet, Cocoroc being a locality near the area. Where the road from Melbourne to Geelong crossed Little River, the Travellers Rest Inn was opened there in about 1839.

It had been one of the Port Phillip Association's pastoral runs (the first occupier being James Simpson), and later a large part of the district was included in the Chirnside Estate centred on Werribee. Early on small farmers had the benefit of an 80 km2 common for grazing.

Many of the early settlers of the region were Scottish Gaelic-speaking immigrants from Lochaber and Moidart, who had been evicted during the Highland Clearances and Highland Potato Famine. The bulk of them, whose passage to Australia was aided by the Highland and Island Emigration Society, arrived at Port Phillip in 1852. They were eventually joined at Little River in 1857 by their former parish priest from Fort William, Fr Ranald Rankin (c.1786-1863), who is best known as the author of the Scottish Gaelic Christmas carol Tàladh Chrìosda ("The Christ Child's Lullaby"). According to John Watts, Little River and Belmont were the main population centers of Roman Catholic Gaels from Moidart. Writing during the 1880s, Fr Charles Macdonald commented ruefully that at least some of these Scottish Australians, who were immigrants from a Scottish region with a long history of smuggling, illegal whiskey distilling, and cattle raiding and who had often, "left the old county against their will", continued these same practices in the Australian frontier.

The Post Office opened on 1 February 1858.

The railway line through the town was opened in 1857, as part of the line to Geelong. The local railway station is served by V/Line passenger services on the Geelong line.

Heritage sites
Little River contains a number of heritage listed sites, including:

 * 19-27 River Street, Little River railway station
 * 985-995 Little River-Ripley Road, Mount Rothwell Homestead
 * Old Melbourne Road, Rothwell Bridge
 * 795-805 Old Melbourne Road, Travellers' Rest (Rothwell Ruins)

Today
The township has a petrol station and post office, a primary school, a kindergarten, a pub, a bed and breakfast, a park, two playgrounds, a train station, a cricket ground and several churches. Visitors from Melbourne pass through the town on the way to the You Yangs Regional Park and the Mount Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre.

Australian rock band Little River Band is named after Little River after seeing the name on a road sign on their way to a gig in Geelong.

Film-making location
Some scenes for the Australian television series We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year and Angry Boys were filmed at Little River, although it was referred to as the fictional town of 'Dunt'. Little River also featured in filming the movie Mad Max, starring Mel Gibson, with Little River Road being used as the movie's infamous "Highway 9".

Some parts of Little River and surrounding areas were filmed in the Australian television drama series, Blue Heelers. Also, some scenes from the 2003 Australian Western film, Ned Kelly were shot in the nearby You Yangs.

Little River, and surrounding areas, also featured in the filming of the 2015 comedy-drama The Dressmaker, starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, and Judy Davis.

title: Little River, Victoria


text:
User:Eternalsleeper

Want to visit

Welcome to my page. If you are here you probably read something I contributed to on Wikipedia!

Please leave any message for me on my discussion page.

Topics I would like to work on

 * Saskatchewan
 * Lebanon

title: User:Eternalsleeper


text:
Haec-Vir

Haec-Vir: or, the Womanish-Man was a pamphlet published in 1620 in England in response to the pamphlet Hic Mulier. Where Hic Mulier argued against cross-dressing, and more broadly women's rights, Haec-Vir defended those women who did not fit their expected gender role. The title ( in English Latin pronunciation) literally means "This [effeminate] Man" – haec being the feminine form of the demonstrative pronoun jokingly applied to the masculine noun. The pamphlet is designed as a dialogue between Hic Mulier (The Man-Woman, a female transvestite) and Haec-Vir (The Womanish Man, an effeminate man). The pamphlet is notable as an early expression of feminism in the Renaissance. Hic Mulier seems to abandon some of her previous ideals by stating that the only reason women are "overstepping their bounds" is because men have ceased to be "real men".

The work
The pamphlet, printed by Eliot's Court Press for John Trundle in 1620, was sold at Christ Church gate in London, by bookseller Edward Wright. It appears to have been printed only once during the period. As a polemical riposte to Hic Mulier, it follows the outlines of the earlier pamphlet fairly closely.

The text opens with Haec-Vir, a dandy, mistaking the masculine Hic-Mulier for a knight. They clear up this mistake with a profusion of courtly language. Haec-Vir accuses the mannish woman of baseness, unnaturalness, shamefulness, and foolishness: he grounds his argument in traditional assumptions about social order and gender decorum. She replies, at first, with an argument for her own freedom as a human and for the relativism necessary in judging mutable customs. Her assertions, bolstered by quotations from Martial and Virgil, among others, are not in themselves less traditional than Haec-Vir's; their application to the question of women's freedom, however, may be considered somewhat uncommon for the period. Haec-Vir replies by referring to Deuteronomy's injunction against transvestism. This reference proves decisive as regards Hic-Mulier's early argument; however, she instantly attacks Haec-Vir for his own effeminacy—a charge which, given his earlier attack, he cannot refute. The brief colloquy ends with their mutual resolution to return to normative gender standards for behavior.

Context
In the last decade of James I's reign, England appears to have witnessed a minor crisis of conscience over the issue of cross-dressing and other activities supposed to violate gender norms. It is possible that this crisis related to actual changes in behavior; Mary Frith, for instance, had recently achieved notoriety. However, such a trend in society has proven difficult to determine precisely.

What is clear is that a number of social and political developments made cross-dressing more threatening. The perception of political corruption and homosexuality at court on the one hand, and the rising intolerance and vehemence of the Puritans on the other, contributed to a heavily polarized social scene in which tolerance or compromise became progressively more difficult. As regards women, scandals such as the murder of Thomas Overbury revealed some women in a light that was conducive to misogynistic fears. As regards men, the long era of peace enforced by James's foreign policy was assumed to lead to "soft" men; there was, for some English people, a noted contrast between the delicate Jacobean courtier and the idealized martial courtier remembered from Elizabeth I's day. Finally, the promulgation of the Statutes of Apparel in 1574 may have served to remind some English people of the traditional limits on freedom of dress.

Because Haec Vir followed so quickly after the printing of Hic Mulier, scholar L. B. Wright believes the pair of pamphlets was designed by the bookseller to capitalize on controversy over the social position of women.

title: Haec-Vir


text:
Talk:G'Kar

Untitled
Does this still qualify as a stub? It looks fairly informative to me.

When G'Kar was incarcerated in B5's brig he didn't have his copy of the book of G'Quan, he left it with Garibaldi.

Confirmed, season 3 episode 6 "Dust to Dust". Made the change.

Fair use rationale for Image:G'kar dust.JPG
Image:G'kar dust.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:34, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Citizen G'kar.JPG
Image:Citizen G'kar.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:51, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Plot Deletions
The article goes into too much detail about the plot involving the character instead of talking just about the character or his journey.

Do you agree that deleting some plot points and shortening it would be beneficial? Medhagoswami55 (talk) 08:07, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:G'Kar


text:
SF-studio

SF-studio is a Finnish quiz show hosted by Simo Frangén. It replaced Frangén's earlier show Maailman ympäri in 2004 and ran until 2006.

Like Maailman ympäri, SF-studio was a themed show. This time the theme was news. The questions concerned people and events in recent news, and a short parody of a news report (with completely nonsensical contents) appears between each round.

Also like Maailman ympäri, SF-studio had four contestants, two of which were men and two women, and two were celebrities and two ordinary people.

SF-studio had one main prize: a holiday trip. Where the trip was located depended on the choices in the fourth and final round. There were five different options, starting from a cheap trip inside Finland, and getting progressively more expensive and further away, with the best option being a trip to some famous sunny beach holiday resort near the Equator.

Smaller prizes were recently published Finnish books, all autographed by some Finnish celebrity who had nothing whatsoever to do with either the book or its author.

Rules
SF-studio consisted of four rounds. After each round, one contestant was dropped out.

Round one
The object of round one was to guess the name of a person who had lately been mentioned in the news.

There was a preset number of persons to guess, and Frangén began each of the questions by giving clues about the person's identity, starting difficult and getting easier along the way. This continued until one of the contestants gave a signal, at which point he/she had to answer.

Getting the answer right moved the contestant to round two. Getting the answer wrong forced the contestant to pass during the next question.

This continued until only one contestant was left.

Round two
Round two was a game with a "dare" element. There were six categories, whose names varied according to recent news.

The contestants had markers with two states: "I know" and "I don't know". One of the contestants was selected to pick a category, and Frangén asked a question about it. He/she had to turn his/her marker to "I know". The other two could pick "I know" or "I don't know" according to how they felt.

One of the contestants with their markers set to "I know" was randomly selected to answer. If the answer was right, he/she got a point, but if it was wrong, he/she lost a point. Contestants with their markers set to "I know" but who did not get to answer got a point regardless of the actual answer.

After all categories were used, the contestant with the fewest points was dropped out.

Round three
Round three was also played with six categories selected from recent news.

One of the two remaining contestants was selected to answer. After Frangén had asked the question, the contestant could either choose to answer or transfer the question.

A right answer earned the contestant one point and the next question was also asked from the same contestant. A wrong answer dropped the contestant back to 0 points, and the other contestant became the one to answer.

If the contestant instead decided to transfer the question, the other contestant had to answer it instead. The same rules as above applied, except that a transferred question could not be retransferred.

After all categories were used, the contestant with fewer points was dropped out.

Round four
Round four had five questions taken from recent news, all of which were multiple-choice questions with three choices. This round also had a "dare" element.

The contestant viewed the questions but did not answer them yet. He/she predicted how many he/she would get right. This would determine what prize he/she would get: If the contestant met his/her prediction, he/she would get a prize whose value depended how many questions he/she said he/she would get right, not on how many he/she actually got right. If the contestant did not meet the prediction, he/she would get nothing at all.

The contestant then answered all the questions. He/she was given a chance to change one of the answers, if he/she wanted to.

Then all answers were revealed. If enough answers were right, the contestant got a prize defined as above.

Lottery game
SF-studio included a lottery game called Simon sää, in co-operation with Veikkaus. The name means "Simo's weather" and the draw took the form of a fictitious weather forecast, with the weather of ten Finnish cities or towns (including one town in Lapland that is actually named Simo) randomly selected from four different options.

This lottery game was not as popular as Maailman ympäri and has been stopped.

title: SF-studio


text:
Talk:The Numinous Way

See Votes for deletion/Folk Culture and also Votes for deletion/Cosmic Ethics for discussion.

title: Talk:The Numinous Way


text:
Historic Compromise

The Historic Compromise (Compromesso storico), also known as the Third Phase (Terza Fase) or the Democratic Alternative (Alternativa Democratica), was a historical political accommodation between Christian Democracy (DC) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in the 1970s.

History
In 1973, Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), launched in communist magazine Rinascita a proposal for a "democratic alliance" with Christian Democracy (DC), embraced by Aldo Moro. The call for this alliance was inspired by the overthrow of the Allende Government in Chile. For Berlinguer, the events in Chile proved that the Marxist left could not aspire to govern in democratic countries without establishing alliances with more moderate forces. After the 1973 Chilean coup, there was cooperation between the PCI and DC that became a political alliance in 1976, with Prime Minister Moro including Berlinguer in an emergency meeting with Italy's political party leaders on March 17, 1976, to discuss averting the collapse of the economy. This replaced a governing alliance between Christian Democracy and the other center-left parties known as the Organic Center-left. Berlinguer's PCI attempted to distance itself from the USSR, with the launching of "Eurocommunism" along with the Spanish Communist Party and the French Communist Party.

The compromise was unpopular among the other centre-leftist groups like the Italian Republican Party (PRI) and Italian Socialist Party (PSI), led respectively by Ugo La Malfa and Bettino Craxi. The rightist Christian Democrat Giulio Andreotti also had doubts about the accommodation.

Finally, the PCI started to provide external support to a Christian Democratic one-party government led by Andreotti. Despite this, several radical communists in the PCI boycotted the government. There was an increase in far-left terrorism, mainly committed by the Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse, BR). The BR kidnapped Aldo Moro, the then Party President of DC, on 16 March 1978. After several consultations in the Italian Parliament, the government refused the terrorists' conditions, and Moro was killed on 9 May 1978. Nevertheless, the Compromise continued but it was in decline.

At the DC's XIV Congress in 1980, the DC's moderate wing ("Democratic Initiative", "Dorothean" and "New Force") won with an anti-communist programme, obtaining 57.7% of the vote, while the DC's conservative wing and Giulio Andreotti's faction "Spring", obtained 42.3% with a pro-Compromise program. The new DC Secretary became Flaminio Piccoli, a Dorothean, and the Compromise was discontinued. It was replaced with Christian Democracy's political alliance with the other center-left parties known as the Pentapartito.

In November 1980 Berlinguer announced the end of the Historic Compromise.

title: Historic Compromise