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University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab, Lab Schools, or U-High, abbreviated UCLS) is a private, co-educational, day Pre-school and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated with the University of Chicago. Almost half of the students have a parent who is on the faculty or staff of the university.

History
The Laboratory Schools were founded by American educator John Dewey in 1896 in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Calvin Brainerd Cady was director of the music department under Dewey. The school began as a progressive educational institution that goes from nursery school through 12th grade.

The school was an attempt to create a unified school system from the kindergarten to university. Managed by the university's Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Education, it served as a laboratory to test hypotheses and build on the knowledge about education because John Dewey, who became head of the department in 1894, wanted to test certain ideas of his.

Dewey acknowledges in his book How We Think (1910) the contribution made by his wife Alice Dewey to the development of the school in its early years.

Campus
The Laboratory Schools consists of two interrelated campuses. The Historic Campus, located at 1362 East 59th Street, fills two full city blocks and is known for its Modern Gothic style architecture. It houses grades 3–12 (about 1,200 students) in five connected buildings: Blaine Hall (built in 1903), Belfield Towers (1904), Judd Hall (1931), the high school (built in 1960), the middle school (1993), and Gordon Parks Arts Hall (2015) which has 100 classrooms. Two connected gymnasiums also sit on this campus, Sunny Gym (built in 1929) and Kovler Gymnasium (built in 2000) and students have access to both Scammon Garden and Jackman Field.

In September 2013, Lab opened Earl Shapiro Hall on its new Early Childhood Campus located at 5800 S. Stony Island Avenue. This new building, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train and FGM Architects, is home to approximately 625 children in nursery through second grade. The building is named for Earl Shapiro, who graduated from Lab in 1956.

Student body and academics
The school has over 2,160 students in total from Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 12.

Today the school is divided into a Nursery School (Pre-K and Kindergarten), Primary School (grades 1 and 2), Lower School (grades 3 through 5), Middle School (grades 6 through 8), and High School (grades 9 through 12). Many children begin in nursery school and continue through their high school graduation, and 75% of applications are for nursery school or 9th grade. The student/teacher ratio is 8:1.

According to the 2021 Lab Student Wellness Survey, 48% of girls and 25% of boys, for a total of 37% of students, identify as part of the LGBTQ community.

In 2007 The Wall Street Journal ranked the high school fourth in the nation for its record of sending graduates to 8 elite colleges including its parent university, University of Chicago.

U-High offers more than 150 different classes. All are college preparatory in nature and there are more than 30 Advanced Placement or Advanced Topic courses. High school students may also qualify to take classes at the University of Chicago at no extra charge, and about 20 do so each year. The average composite ACT score is 31.5. The school maintains four separate libraries which collectively hold over 110,000 volumes.

Extracurricular activities
High school students may choose from over 40 different clubs and activities. The high school math, science, and Model UN teams are regular contenders for – and winners of – state titles. The school's newspaper/website, The U-High Midway, and the yearbook, U-Highlights, regularly win state and national awards, as does its arts magazine, Renaissance. Other popular activities include theater, identity and affinity clubs, Student Council, policy debate, and Model UN. The Model UN team is consistently ranked among the top in the nation, and is world-renowned for its competitive excellence. In 2011, it was ranked the #2 High School Model UN team in the United States. The Debate Team has won numerous national circuit tournaments.

Organized by the Office of Alumni Relations Development, members of the student body at U-High are nominated by faculty to serve in the Maroon Key Society. The Maroon Key Society serve as ambassadors for the school, and they help provide tours to visiting alumni, potential students, and other guests to the school.

The high school's extracurricular activities occasionally make national and international news. For example, in 1990 then-Governor Thompson declared a "Matthew Headrick Day" and the US House made a proclamation when then-student Headrick appeared on talk shows including Today after winning the Westinghouse. In response to the award, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "this ... is a ... school where being on the math team ... can actually enhance one's social status."

The Finance Club was founded in 2015 with more than $100,000 of donated funds to invest.

Athletics
The 2019 boys soccer team won the IHSA 1A state championship.

The 2019 girls tennis team won the IHSA 1A state championship, becoming the first U-High girls team to win a state championship. The 2021 girls tennis team was also 1A state champion.

Notable teachers

 * Eight Lab teachers have received Chicago's prestigious Golden Apple Award—more than from any other school in the city. (2009 Christina Hayward; 2007 David Derbes; 2004 Rosa McCullagh; 1994 Michael (Spike) Wilson; 1992 Jan Yourist; 1989 Catharine Bell; 1987 Hanna Goldschmidt; 1986 Randy Fowler.) Others have received the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award.
 * Mima Maxey (1885–1965) and Marjorie Fay (1893–1977) taught Latin at Lab in the 1930s. Evan Dutmer argues that their teaching approach, based on reading without formal grammatical instruction, was "virtually without precedent in American Latin education" and anticipated the theory of comprehensible input as used later in language education.
 * A MacArthur “genius” award and the Erikson Institute Award for Service to Children are among the achievements of author/teacher Vivian Paley, who spent most of her career at Lab.
 * Created and funded in honor of Zena Sutherland (a former U. of C. faculty member and still considered among the world's most influential scholars of young people's literature), the annual Sutherland Award for Excellence in Children's Literature is one of the only student-selected book awards in the United States.
 * Lab teachers contributed to the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, the largest university-based mathematics curriculum project in the country. Their results included the nationally acclaimed Everyday Mathematics texts for elementary school students and Transition Mathematics, a middle school pre-algebra text.
 * Blue Balliett, author of Chasing Vermeer, The Wright Three, and The Calder Game, based her children's mysteries on her experiences teaching students at Lab.


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Talk:Safe-cracking

Comment
This article appears to have been taken almost verbatim (minus bullet-point formatting, and the images/diagrams) FROM the "HowStuffWorks" page references at the bottom of this entry.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/safecracking4.htm

Does anyone know if this is a legitimate use, or a flagrant act of plaigarism?

copyright infringement
Having read the howstuffworks.com article a year ago (or so), this article here was immediately recognizable as a copy. I'm rather new in here so I'll look how to proceed.. I'll search the history and see if there's anything original that's not plagiarized. Santtus 16:33, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Copyright
I'm a newbie myself, but I've added the copyright violation boilerplate in the hope that this'll get noticed - apologies if this isn't the right thing to do.

--Alex Whittaker 17:35, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Removing the copyrighted material was a lot easier than I thought (it's all in one place) and I've modified the temp page. If no-one objects, I'll copy that onto the actual page and remove the copyvio.

--Alex Whittaker 19:42, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Mythbusters
This article was featured on a AOL Search briefly on Mythbusters in Season 3, Episode 22. --AllyUnion (talk) 09:47, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * You're observant! Keep up the good work --WikiSlasher 09:36, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

The Feynman citation is from his book "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!"
The Feynman citation is from his book "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" (quotes part of title) but attribution ought to be moved to a footnote. The fact is surely known before his independant discovery of it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.199.99.122 (talk) 07:57, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Short story?
Safe-cracking is the main focus of a short story, the title of which is something like 'A retrieved reformation' about a reformed safe cracker who has to crack a safe when his nieces or something get stuck in one.

-user:bizznot

Aha! Found it on my own, and will add it to media depictions if you don't mind.

-Bizznot 04:12, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

schrupp and schilling safe
I bt a bought a house with a safe in the house that is not to have been opened for thirty years since the time of the previous owners accidental death. I would like to find a means of opening the safe. any suggestions.

Dale Hansen pinesnbirch@yahoo.com74.32.237.51 (talk) 17:15, 27 June 2009 (UTC) I suggest you call the USAF, have them attack it with an AC130 or B2 Bomber, just ensure that you're safely locked in the bathroom to avoid injury. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.130.121.228 (talk) 10:18, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Yegg
Searching for 'yegg' redirects to this but there is absolutely no indication as to why. 86.164.38.164 (talk) 23:34, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

A "yegg" is a slang term for a safe-cracker. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.241.99.101 (talk) 03:22, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Safe-cracking


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User talk:Eljohnny

Dashboard
Not wanting to rain on your parade with the paragraph you added to the Dashboard article, but see my comments about why I took it out.—Barefootguru 22:07, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Touché. Seems I didn't know the subject as much as I thought I did.

title: User talk:Eljohnny


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kjell Moens

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. – ABCD✉ 23:21, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Kjell Moens
He is born somewhere and has a mother and a father. --Uppland 18:26, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per WP:BIO. Kappa 18:31, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete — no notability established — RJH 18:34, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Userfy if at all possible; otherwise delete. -- BD2412 talk 18:36, July 15, 2005 (UTC)
 * Userify or delete per User:BD2412 -Harmil 19:06, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nn vanity. --Etacar11 00:06, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete non notable vanity. JamesBurns 02:57, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


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Humayun Kabir (Bengal politician)

Humayun Kabir (1906-1969) was an Indian educationist and politician. He was also a poet, essayist and novelist in the Bengali-language. He was also a renowned political thinker. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and graduated in 1931. Kabir had been heavily involved with the Oxford Union during his student days, having been elected secretary in 1930 and librarian in 1931. He made his farewell speech on the motion: 'This House condemns the Indian policy of His Majesty's Government'. Kabir had also been involved with the student newspapers, the Isis and the Cherwell, and the Oxford Majlis journal, Bharat. Upon his return to India, Kabir taught at a number of universities. He also became involved in trade union politics and was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1937. He took up a number of government posts after 1947, including Minister for Education.

Kabir published a book of poems in Oxford in 1932, and continued to write poetry, short stories and novels after his return to India. He also wrote essays and was a well-respected orator. He died in Kolkata in 1969.

Early life
Kabir was born on 22 February 1906 in Komarpur, in the Bengal Presidency of British India. His father, Khan Bahadur Kabiruddin Ahmed, was a Deputy Magistrate in Bengal. He came first, with star marks, in his matriculation examination in 1922 from Naogaon KD Govt High School. He was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, completing his Intermediate in Arts (I.A.) in English with first class third, and Calcutta University, where he completed his B.A. (Honours) and M.A. in English with first class first. He won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford where he completed his degree in 'Modern Greats', i.e. Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics with a first class in 1931.

Career
In 1932, he was invited by Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan to join as a lecturer at the newly established Andhra University. Later, he was a Joint Education Adviser, Education Secretary and then Chairman of the University Grants Commission in Delhi. He was the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Education Minister of India twice, under the Prime Ministerships of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was also Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs Minister. In 1965, Indira Gandhi offered him the Madras Governor's post, which he declined. From 1956 to 1962, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha and from 1962 to 1969 he was a member of the Lok Sabha, representing Basirhat constituency in West Bengal.

Kabir was the editor of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad's biography India Wins Freedom. Azad dictated his biography to him in Urdu, which Kabir translated into English. He was one of the co-drafter of the UNESCO 1950 statement titled The Race Question.

On 9 April 1967, Kabir organised a meeting of Chief Ministers of non-Congress states and other important leaders in Delhi. Bharatiya Kranti Dal was formed in this meeting with Mahamaya Prasad Sinha as its first chairman.

Personal life
His daughter Leila Kabir is the widow of Indian politician George Fernandes. His younger brother Jehangir Kabir was a politician in West Bengal, India. His nephew Altamas Kabir was the 39th Chief Justice of India (CJI) and his niece Shukla Kabir Sinha is a judge of the Calcutta High Court.

Death
Humayun Kabir also stayed some part of his life in Gopalpur-On-Sea near Berhampur City in Odisha. George Fernandes was staying at his father-in-law Humayun Kabir's house on the same Gopalpur-On-Sea beach house near Berhampur City just before the announcement of emergency. A warrant was issued in Fernandes' name and subsequently he went underground and hid himself in this house to escape arrest and prosecution. However, Humayun Kabir died on 18 August 1969 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

title: Humayun Kabir (Bengal politician)


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What It Feels Like for a Girl

"What It Feels Like for a Girl" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her eighth studio album Music (2000). It was released as the third and final single from the album on April 16, 2001, by Maverick Records. Madonna and Guy Sigsworth wrote and produced the song with David Torn as co-writer, and Mark "Spike" Stent as a co-producer. "What It Feels Like For a Girl" is a mid-tempo electronic and synth-pop song. Lyrically, it conveys society's double standard toward women, addressing hurtful myths about female inferiority. To emphasize the message, the song opens with a spoken word sample by actress Charlotte Gainsbourg from the 1993 British film The Cement Garden. A Spanish version of the track, "Lo Que Siente la Mujer", was translated by Alberto Ferreras and included in the Latin American edition of Music.

The song received acclaim from most music critics, who declared it as a highlight from the album, while also remarking it as one of the most mature musical ventures of Madonna's career. Commercially, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" reached the top-ten of the record charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Romania, Spain, Scotland and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on the Dance Club Songs chart.

An accompanying music video for the song was directed by Madonna's then-husband Guy Ritchie and premiered on March 22, 2001. It features the singer as a reckless woman on a crime spree. The video was criticized for its depiction of violence and abuse, which caused MTV to ban it before 9:00 pm. The single was also released on DVD and became the highest weekly sales for a DVD release in the United States. Madonna performed the track on the promotional concerts for Music in November 2000 and on her 2001 Drowned World Tour, where a remixed version was used as a video interlude and also performed in Spanish. The song was covered by the actors of television series Glee, during the episode "The Power of Madonna", and was included in the accompanying EP.

Background and development
After the critical and commercial success of her seventh studio album, Ray of Light (1998), Madonna had intended to embark on a concert tour in September 1999, but the tour was cancelled due to the delay of her film The Next Best Thing (2000). She released one-off singles like "Beautiful Stranger" (1999) and a cover of Don McLean's "American Pie" (2000). The singer also became pregnant with her son Rocco, from her relationship with director Guy Ritchie. Wanting to distract herself from the media frenzy, Madonna concentrated on the development of her eighth studio album, Music.

In April 2000, it was announced that French musician Mirwais Ahmadzaï was creating a melding of dance and pop songs with a disco feel for the album. Later, it was also announced that Madonna enlisted Guy Sigsworth to work with her on the album. The singer had followed Sigsworth's work, admired his love of understated technology in music, and contacted him for adding an ambient feel to her record. Madonna played him the rough demo tracks developed for Music, including the songs created with Ahmadzaï. The idea for "What It Feels Like for a Girl" came to Madonna when she was halfway through her pregnancy and was trying to keep the media from finding out. Sigsworth sent her a demo backing track containing a sample from the 1993 British film The Cement Garden, directed by Andrew Birkin, in which the voice of actress Charlotte Gainsbourg speaks softly, "Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots. 'Cause it's OK to be a boy. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading. 'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly you'd love to know what it's like... Wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl".

Madonna listened to the phrase uttered by Gainsbourg and started writing the song and the melody, resulting in "What It Feels Like for a Girl", a track described by her as a complaint about the politics of sexes. She was going through some emotional turmoil due to living on a different continent than her husband Guy Ritchie. Due to her pregnancy she decided to move to England to be close to him. "Being the girl, I made the first compromise. It's that extra thing that [women] have. I don't think that we're better than men, but I believe there's an extra accommodating chromosome", she told Interview's Ingrid Sischy. Madonna reflected on how her generation of women had been encouraged to be independent, be educated and take over any opportunity life bestowed upon them. But she had realized that being a smart and accomplished woman can come across as threat to men, thereby making them a casualty. Madonna questioned, "Why didn't somebody tell me? Why didn't somebody warn me?' And that's also what that song is about—swallowing that bitter pill... It was a combination of that, and also just feeling incredibly vulnerable that inspired the song."

Recording and composition
Sigsworth's demo track was the second of two sketches presented to Madonna, and she chose the one with the sample from The Cement Garden. It was almost finished but was still kept unpolished so that the singer could continue writing on top of it. He recorded the track at Sarm West Studios rather than his own studio since he did not want to "fuck up" working with Madonna. The song was finished quickly and within four days they were able to create the final version. From the first day onward Madonna and Sigsworth decided to keep all the musical noises from the demo. So the producer had to find a way to reposition Madonna's vocals around the segments, utilizing Pro Tools on a SSL 9000 J console. Madonna insisted Sigsworth to give her a rough approximate sound, rather than work on the music for two-three hours. That way they would know if it can be kept or rejected and save time on production. During recording, Sigsworth noticed that the verses were out of sync with the music and wanted to add extra bar which would help them be coherent. However Madonna dismissed it, and he had to cut up the individual music to put it in his computer for accompanying her vocals. Sigsworth thought it made the song sound more "fluid and magical" and commended Madonna for not taking the cop-out solution.

"What It Feels Like for a Girl" is an electronic, synth-pop and glitch pop semi-ballad. Madonna and Sigsworth were listed as songwriters and producers on the track with additional production by Mark "Spike" Stent. American guitarist David Torn was credited as an additional songwriter after Madonna found out Sigsworth had sampled from Torn's 1987 album, Cloud About Mercury. Stent recorded "What It Feels Like for a Girl" using a Sony 3348 HR and a BASF 931 tape. He mixed it at London's Olympic Studios using SSL G Series Quantegy magnetic tapes. Tim Young mastered the track at Metropolis Studio at Westminster, London.

According to the sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, the song is set in common time, with a tempo of 104 beats per minutes. It's set in the key of E♭ major, with Madonna's vocals spanning from the lower octave of G3 to the higher note of B♭4. The song has a sequence of D♭maj9–E♭–E♭/F–A♭ during the verses and F9sus4–A♭–D♭maj9–E♭ during the chorus as its chord progression. The track begins with Gainsbourg's monologue which is followed by drum sounds, a rhythm section supported by string pads, and the chord sequence which highlights the melody. Madonna sings over a synth line the first verse, "Silky smooth lips as sweet as candy, baby/Tight blue jeans, skin that shows in patches" in a mellow and feminine tone, which is driven by a "cool beat" and filtered bass licks. The ambient production has a number of sounds floating in-and-out of the track, long echos and vocals being pulled back.

As the pre-chorus ends, the drums are pulled out and added immediately the chorus starts, washed over by tidal keys and pads, and Madonna asking the question, "Do you know what it feels like for a girl?". Phil Dellio from The Village Voice noticed the presence of "gossamer-like" synthesizer in the background, while author Rikky Rooksby highlighted the equalized bass guitar in the center of the production. Another characteristic Sigsworth feature is the sound of a CD player "skipping" during the song. A Spanish version of the track, titled "Lo Que Siente la Mujer" (English: What a Woman Feels), was translated by Alberto Ferreras and included as the B-side of the US CD maxi single release, as well as on the bonus disc of the 2001 Special Tour edition of Music and as a bonus track on the Mexican and Latin American editions. Stan Hawkins, author of Critical Musicological Reflections, felt that by switching "girl" to "woman" in the Spanish version, Madonna had "upgraded" its nature. Lyrically, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" condemns male chauvinism by addressing hurtful myths about female inferiority and female role-playing in society, with the singer inviting men to imagine themselves as girls.

Release and remixes
"What It Feels Like for a Girl" was initially planned to be the album's second single, but "Don't Tell Me" was chosen instead. The song was eventually released as the album's third single on April 16, 2001. Upon release, several remixes were commissioned, created by Above & Beyond, Victor Calderone, Richard "Humpty" Vission, Paul Oakenfold and Tracy Young. The "Velvet Masta Mix", created by Richard Vission, gave the song a bass-heavy intro and a funkier groove. Vission recalled that Madonna had turned down his first mix and asked him to redo it again. Calderone's "Dark Side Mix" was more mellow, relying more on percussions while Tracy Young's mix included stringed harp instrumentation. AllMusic's Jose F. Promis praised in particular the Oakenfold version for "transforming the song into a massive, deep arena club stomper". The Above & Beyond remix, which was used for the music video, features "hard and rhythmic" pumping beats and removed Madonna's verses, leaving only the chorus and repeating the Charlotte Gainsbourg sample several times in the middle. It peaked at number 14 on the VG-lista in Norway.

Production duo Thunderpuss was hired to do an official remix of "What It Feels Like for a Girl". However, when they were almost finished, an unofficial remix, credited as "The Thunderpuss Mix", leaked on the internet. During an interview with About.com, Barry Harris from the group recalled that they had been working on the remix and were waiting for it to be approved when they received a call from Warner Bros. Records, informing them that the remix was circulating in the internet. Both Chris Cox and Harris tried to find out the issue and concluded that someone had retitled the original with their group's name and released it. Thunderpuss tried to convince the record label executives but failed and the remix was canceled.

Critical reception
Upon release, the song received general acclaim from music critics. Rikky Rooksby wrote in his book, The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna (2004), that "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was the best track on Music. Author Lucy O'Brien described the song as having a "beautifully executed sense of anger" in her 2007 biography, Madonna: Like an Icon. Likening it to Madonna's 1989 single "Express Yourself", O'Brien called it a "femme-pop" song. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine picked it as one of the album's highlights, calling it a "terrific midtempo cut". Slant's Sal Cinquemani felt that "Madonna has revealed more of herself than ever [in Music]. No longer shrouded with pedantic spirituality, she has become even more human [...] revealing her soul on 'What It Feels Like For A Girl'". However, on his review of GHV2 (2001), Cinquemani felt the track was "largely lost amid the conventional sonics of Music's final single" and called it that compilation's least dynamic offering, giving a C− rating. Eric Henderson, from the same magazine, wrote that "occasionally, and only occasionally, Madonna's reach exceeds her grasp. 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' is one of those cases. Its intentions feel more fully fleshed out in the controversial music video than they do in the song itself".

Nathan Smith from Houston Press opined it was "one of the realest and most mature vocal performances of her career as she gently explores the double standard faced by ambitious women". From Gay Star News, Joe Morgan called it a "clear reminder that Madonna can write some incredible lyrics". Writing for Entertainment Weekly, journalist David Browne relegated the track as "an older, wiser 'Into the Groove'", highlighting its "softly padding beat and genuinely empathetic lyrics". Q magazine's Danny Eccleston picked it as a standout track, claiming it had "the vaguest melodic echo of Basement Jaxx's terrific 'On & On'". Cynthia Funchs of PopMatters picked the song as her favorite on the album, calling it "outstanding" with "sweet, enchanted beats". Eamon Sweeney of Hot Press, found it similar, in tone and texture, to Natalie Imbruglia's 1998 single "Smoke". Jon Pareles of The New York Times called it "Madonna's quasi-feminist statement". Rolling Stone's Barry Walters called it "as musically gentle as it is lyrically barbed".

Garry Mulholland of The Guardian, praised its "melancholy atmosphere and ambiguous air". Also from The Guardian, Maddy Costa thought that the track was "exquisite", adding "on 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' you feel is the Madonna of old, talking about being a pop bitch and making you tingle even with its hackneyed lyrics". Writing for Billboard, Larry Flick hailed it "a hook-laden midtempo jam [...] that should give the Britney/Christina generation of teenage female listeners a little food for thought", highlighting its "motherly, nurturing perspective". Also from Billboard, Chuck Taylor named it "one of the more substantive – and mature – musical ventures of [Madonna's] career", while panning its remix version for "reduc[ing] the song to a mindless trickle of beats without any hints of the verses". Alex Pappademas from Spin, pointed out that the song "flaunts the sexiest synth shimmer this side of [Aguilera's] 'Genie in a Bottle'". The Village Voice's Phil Dellio found the song to be "the perfect answer record to [the novel] The Virgin Suicides (where boys indeed stand on the side of the street looking uncomprehendingly towards girls)". In a retrospective review of its parent album, Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza characterized "What It Feels Like for a Girl" as "something like Madonna's take on a Dido ballad, with plush synths wrapped around the album's purest, most traditional hook" and a "beautiful yet slightly baffling song", concluding: "Then again, it's not a song of empowerment so much as a plea. [...] The lyrics are universal, but still hard to separate from the memory of the brazen, armored pop star who debuted in 1982, so consciously invulnerable to the standards of the world around her."

On a more critical note, Medium's Richard LaBeau opined that "with better production it could have been a true classic". Online magazine Queerty felt the Spanish version, "Lo Que Siente la Mujer", was "an effort, we assume, to prove she can speak Spanish, damn it! Or at least memorize enough words to sound like she speaks Spanish".

Accolades
While listing "The 100 Greatest Madonna Songs", Louis Virtel from The Backlot ranked "What It Feels Like for a Girl" at number 45, saying that "its tenderness and power resonated like no Madonna ballad since 'Take a Bow'". In 2013, Scott Kearnan of Boston.com included it at number 26 on his list of "30 Ultimate Madonna Singles"; he wrote that "Madonna's covered plenty of ground about how women are treated in the world, but she's rarely this unfiltered". The same year, Edward Cheung from PopMatters ranked it as the sixth best production by Guy Sigsworth, writing that "an excellently placed spoken word sample (delivered by Charlotte Gainsbourg) and a keening synth line immediately set the tone for Madge's track as fashionably lonely". Matthew Jacob's from The Huffington Post ranked the track at number 51 on his list "The Definitive Ranking of Madonna Singles", pointing out its "meaningful lyrical accomplishment".

While ranking Madonna's singles in honor of her 60th birthday, in August 2018, Jude Rogers from The Guardian placed the track at number 37 and wrote that "it sounds like a Saint Etienne song accidentally covered by a superstar". Entertainment Weekly's Chuck Arnold called it "one of Madonna's artistic peaks" and her "most underappreciated" release; he listed it as her 14th best single. In 2019, Samuel R. Murrian from Parade ranked it at number 16 on his list of the singer's 100 greatest songs: "Lyrically barbed but sonically soft, one of Madonna's most radical tracks explores the brutality of being a woman in a man's world. [...] Though it was recorded nearly two decades before the #MeToo movement, this track feels like an anthem for it. Madonna was, and is, ahead of her time".

Chart performance
"What It Feels Like for a Girl" debuted at number 73 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart of May 5, 2001, and moved to number 46 the following week, becoming in the biggest leap of that week. The release of the DVD single, CD maxi and 12-inch vinyl prompted the song to debut at number 15 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart with 6,600 copies, majority being from the DVD single becoming the highest one-week sales for a DVD single sales. The song peaked at number 23 on the issue dated May 19, 2001, becoming that week's greatest gainer in sales. The same week, it also reached the top of the Dance Club Songs chart. At the year-end ranking for 2001, the song placed at number 24 on Dance Club Songs. According to Madonna's official website since only a maxi single was released commercially, it hindered the chart placement on Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, the song debuted at number 14 on the Canadian Singles Chart, and reached a peak of number two after two weeks later.

In Australia, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" debuted and peaked at number six on the ARIA Charts, on May 6, 2001, and was present in the top-fifty for nine weeks, and was ranked number 84 on the year-end placements. The track also reached the top of the Australian dance charts. It was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 35,000 copies of the single. The song debuted at number 50 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, and reached a peak of number 15 after six weeks.

In the United Kingdom, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" managed to become the third song from Music to peak inside the top-ten, reaching number seven on April 28, 2001. According to the Official Charts Company, it has sold 86,771 copies in the country as of August 2008. The song was successful across Europe, reaching the top-ten of the charts in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. However, in some countries, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" failed to reach the top-twenty. In Austria and Sweden, the song reached numbers 26 and 22, respectively, becoming her lowest-charting single since "Nothing Really Matters" (1999) in both countries. In France, the song debuted and peaked at number 40 on the French Singles Chart, and descended rapidly. The track managed to reach the top-ten of the European Hot 100 Singles chart, reaching number eight on May 5, 2001. It was also the most played song on European radios, holding the top position for five weeks.

Background and synopsis
In February 2001, English filmmaker Guy Ritchie, Madonna's then husband, said that they were planning to work together on her new music video; "creatively, we like the same sort of things, so it just makes sense". One month later, Madonna revealed to Ingrid Sischy that the video would be for "What It Feels Like for a Girl", which she found "ironic because [Ritchie]'s such a macho man, and his movies are so testosterone-driven, but I asked him a long time ago what song on the album he responded to the most, and that's the one". Filming took place in Los Angeles, including on the Olympic Boulevard. According to Madonna she portrayed a "nihilistic pissed-off chick" in the clip, doing things that girls are generally recommended against. The video did not feature the original version of the song but the Above & Beyond remix since the singer "wanted a matching visual to it and an edgy dance mix".

The clip starts with the singer in a motel room getting ready to go out, her hair is straight, chin length and parted down the middle. She then hot-wires a yellow 1978 Chevrolet Camaro from the parking lot, with the license plates reading "Pussy" and "Cat" on the front and back, before driving to the "Ol Kuntz Guest Home" to pick up a semi-catatonic elderly woman. At a traffic light, they stop next to a car with three young men, one of whom blows her a kiss, which prompts Madonna to spin her car around and collide them. She parks at an ATM, tasers a man and steals his money, and later gives it to a waitress at a burger place, watched by two policemen. The singer drives alongside and scratches their police car and then squirts water in their faces from a fake pistol before driving backwards into their car, triggering their air bags. She then mows down a pack of street hockey players before stealing a red 1979 Pontiac Trans Am from a gas station while a man fills its tank, spilling gasoline all over the pavement. Madonna then throws a lighter out of the window causing an explosion, all while still accompanied by the old woman. The final shot depicts her slamming the stolen car head-on into a telephone pole in an apparent act of murder–suicide.

Release and banning
Upon release, the video was criticized for its violent content. Music channels MTV and VH1 said that it would not be added to their regular US rotation and would air it just once, during a news segment, before being completely banned.

Due to the excessive violence where Madonna's character went on multiple killing sprees, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" became Madonna's fourth music video to be banned by TV channels (and her third banned by MTV), following "Like a Prayer" (1989) due to blasphemy, "Justify My Love" (1990) and "Erotica" (1992) for nudity and bisexuality. "What It Feels Like for a Girl" aired on March 20, 2001, at 11:30 pm, following an introduction by MTV News anchor Kurt Loder. Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist, released a statement urging the channels "to make a very strong commitment to playing this video [...] there are many other possibilities that we can explore but our first choice has always been for VH1 and MTV to play [the video], and more than once". In 2002, the video was aired in its entirety on MTV2 as part of a special countdown of the year's most controversial videos.

Three days later, the clip was shown several times on Oxygen as part of its "Daily Remix" music series. A spokeswoman for Oxygen said that the decision to air the video multiple times was because "our demographic is of 18–49 year old women [...] older than MTV's". Canadian music channel MuchMusic followed and aired the video several times throughout the day and night. Norm Schoenfield, US VP of programming for MuchMusic, released a statement saying "[the video] is no more or less violent than what kids see on TV everyday. We weren't offended by it, and treating it just like any other Madonna video. Just because MTV isn't playing it, doesn't mean we can't". Schoenfield also criticized the decision of releasing an advisory warning alongside the video because "it's the artist's responsibility to do that". Nonetheless, other Canadian networks aired it only after 9 pm accompanied by a warning. There were also talks of airing the video on HBO but it never happened.

Following the controversy with MTV, Warner Bros. Records signed a deal with AOL to air the video online on its music forums. "Our job as a record company is to get exposure for the video, So when the label couldn't get Viacom to commit to showing the video, it started talking to other outlets", explained Rosenberg. On April 24, 2001, the video was released as a DVD single with the disc having linear PCM sound quality. It debuted on Billboard's Top Music Video sales chart at number two with 6,200 copies sold, the highest sum for a DVD single since Madonna's clip for "Music", which had sold 4,200 copies in September 2000. The clip was later included on Madonna's 2009 compilation, Celebration: The Video Collection. Regarding the violent content, Madonna said that her intention was to "make people ask questions and open dialogues". Instead of banning the music video, Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg called for an open conversation for why Madonna's character went out of control. Rosenberg explained to New York Daily News that the clip told the story of a woman who had probably been abused, and called it a "kind of an anti-violence film. I can't imagine anyone would want to duplicate it". The apparent suicide at the end had references from Greek mythology, according to Ritchie.

Reception and analysis
David Bianculli from the New York Daily News felt that "Madonna has always kept her videos and images at least as fresh as her music. 'What It Feels Like for a Girl', though, is a bad attempt to chase attention by promising controversy". Similarly, Billboard's Carla Hay concluded that the video did not live up to its hype. George Lang from The Oklahoman, called it as the singer's worst clip and criticized Ritchie's directing abilities; "he has great visual sense, but his work often is lacking depth. Both his asset and his debit were in ample evidence in [the video]". Entertainment Weekly's Nicholas Fonseca gave the video a rating of C and opined that "Thelma and Louise it ain't. In fact, little girls can probably find more empowerment copying Britney Spears' provocative chair dance from her 'Stronger' video". But he criticized MTV's decision to ban the clip when they aired much more violent videos on the channel. Eden Miller from PopMatters echoed this sentiment, adding that MTV aired videos such as Eminem's "Stan", in which the main character drives his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend tied up in the trunk, or Robbie Williams' "Rock DJ", in which the singer strips his skin off in graphic detail. Critics argued the gender double standards where violent music videos by male singers are largely tolerated by TV networks. Miller relegated the banning of Madonna's music video was because "the idea of a woman taking her aggression out on men is something even an edgy TV network like MTV was unable to accept. That's what is so disturbing. And that really is what it feels like for a girl".

Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Neva Chonin accused the video for being a marketing ploy and believed that the singer knew it would result in controversy and drive sales amidst the publicity. Nonetheless, she praised it for being a follow-up to Madonna's aesthetics and changing of her looks from her early career. Chonin realized that by making the violent video, Madonna proved the song's concept further by making a girl behave violently in place of a boy. Louis Virtel from The Backlot ranked it as the singer's 12th greatest video, calling it "the ultimate (read: solely tolerable) Madonna/Guy Ritchie collaboration [...] She's both chilling and totally confident. It's her most frightening performance in a music video, and when she plows that car into a group of strangers, her stoic response makes for her greatest video moment of the 2000s".

Andrew Morton opined that the video was "entirely consistent with the themes [Madonna] has been exploring for the last twenty years, namely the relationship between the sexes, the ambiguity of gender, and the unresolved conflict, for women in a patriarchal society of being fully female and sexual while exercising control over their lives". According to Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of Madonna's Drowned Worlds, the video represented the female fantasy of behaving like a "bad boy" and doing things associated with men. They pointed out the scene in which Madonna winks at three men at a traffic light just before crashing their car, as they felt that on this particular shot she was "turning the tables of violence back on the men for whom such behavior is considered normal and putting them on the receiving end of violence, a position usually reserved for women". They noticed that unlike previous Madonna videos which were banned for religious themes or sexuality, MTV found violence as an offence. Even using the remix in the clip changed the song's feminine and bittersweet nature to something faster and harder, adjectives usually reserved for boys. The authors concluded that as always, Madonna inverted the traditional roles and characterization of male and female in the clip.

Live performances and cover version
"What It Feels Like for a Girl" was performed on the promotional concerts for Music in November 2000 at New York City's Roseland Ballroom and at London's Brixton Academy. On New York, Madonna dedicated the song to singer Britney Spears, while wearing a tank top with Spears' name printed on it. For the London performance, she wore a different top imprinted with the names of son Rocco and daughter Lourdes. Around 3,000 fans attended the concert in London, which was streamed over the internet. More than nine million people watched the concert according to Nicky Price, a representative for Microsoft's MSN, the webcast's producer. It became the most-viewed webcast of all time, beating Paul McCartney's performance of "50s rock and roll classics" at Liverpool's The Cavern Club in December 1999, which was viewed by an audience of about three million.

For the Drowned World Tour of 2001, a remix of the track was used as a video interlude. Dancers wearing anime and manga inspired costumes swung from wires in a Japanese-inspired sequence as the backdrops featured scenes of a naked girl being pursued, trapped and sexually abused. The clips were taken from Satoshi Kon's 1997 film Perfect Blue interspersed with footage of the hentai anime Urotsukidōji. Writing for MTV News, Rob Mancini opined that the interlude video "upped the [show's] grim factor further". On that same tour, Madonna performed the Spanish version of the song, "Lo Que Siente La Mujer", atop a rotating black leather podium, dressed in black trousers and a backless black blouse. The female dancers were decked in masculine attires while the male dancers wore long wigs and corsets. Academic Georges Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna As Postmodern Myth, praised the performance for its "gender-bending and further sense of ambiguity" while Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine found it to be "anticlimactic". The performance on August 26, 2001, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, outside of Madonna's hometown of Detroit was recorded and released in the live video album, Drowned World Tour 2001.

In 2010, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was featured in an episode of American television series Glee, called "The Power of Madonna". In the episode it was performed by actors Cory Monteith, Kevin McHale, Chris Colfer, Mark Salling, Harry Shum Jr. and Matthew Morrison. The song was released as digital download to the iTunes Store, and was also included on the soundtrack EP, Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna. It charted at number 125 on the UK Singles Chart. In his review of the soundtrack, Fraser McAlpine from BBC News felt that "the decision to get all the boys to sing 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' is inspired, and represents a genuinely powerful musical moment that doesn't need the television show's plot to make it fly".

Track listings and formats

 * Japanese and US CD maxi-single
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix) – 7:18
 * 2) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Richard Vission Velvet Masta Mix) – 8:08
 * 3) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Calderone & Quayle Dark Side Mix) – 6:42
 * 4) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Tracy Young Club Mix) – 8:45
 * 5) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond 12" Club Mix) – 7:27
 * 6) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Tracy Young Cool Out Radio Mix) – 4:45
 * 7) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Richard Vission Velvet Masta Edit) – 3:39
 * 8) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond Club Radio Edit) – 3:45
 * 9) "Lo Que Siente La Mujer" – 4:43

 * European CD single
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Album Version) – 4:43
 * 2) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond Club Radio Edit) – 3:45

 * '''European and UK 12-inch vinyl
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond 12" Club Mix) – 7:27
 * 2) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix) – 7:18

 * European VHS single and US DVD single
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Video) – 5:00

 * European DVD single
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Video) – 5:00
 * 2) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Calderone & Quayle Dark Side Mix) – 6:42
 * 3) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Richard Vission Velvet Masta Mix) – 8:08

 * Digital single (2021)
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Radio Edit) – 4:03
 * 2) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix) – 7:19
 * 3) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Richard Vission Velvet Masta Mix) – 8:06
 * 4) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Calderone & Quayle Dark Side Mix) – 6:43
 * 5) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Tracy Young Club Mix) – 8:56
 * 6) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond 12" Club) – 7:25
 * 7) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Tracy Young Cool Out Radio Mix) – 4:46
 * 8) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Richard Vission Velvet Masta Edit) – 3:39
 * 9) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Above & Beyond Club Radio Edit) – 3:44
 * 10) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (George Best Saturday Night Mix) – 5:23
 * 11) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (That Kid Chris Caligula 2001 Mix) – 9:51
 * 12) "Lo Que Siente la Mujer" – 4:43

 * U.S. CD-R PROMO
 * 1) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Tracy Young Instrumental) – 8:52

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes of 12-inch single.

Management

 * Recorded at Sarm West Studios, Notting Hill, London
 * Mixed at Olympic Studios, London
 * Mastered at Metropolis Studios, London
 * Webo Girl Publishing, Inc., Warner Bros. Music Corp (ASCAP), 1000 Lights Music Ltd, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI)

Personnel

 * Madonna – vocals, songwriter, production
 * Guy Sigsworth – songwriter, production, guitar, keyboards, programming
 * Mark "Spike" Stent – production, mixing, mastering
 * David Torn – songwriter
 * Kevin Reagan – art direction, design
 * Matthew Lindauer – design
 * Ray Janos – lacquer cut
 * Jean-Baptiste Mondino – photography
 * Caresse Henry – management

title: What It Feels Like for a Girl


text:
Tombs of the Kings (Paphos)

The Tombs of the Kings (Τάφοι των Βασιλέων, Kral Mezarları) is a large necropolis lying about two kilometres north of Paphos harbour in Cyprus. In 1980, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with Paphos and Kouklia.

The underground tombs, many of which date back to the 4th century BC, are carved out of solid rock, and are thought to have been the burial sites of Paphitic aristocrats and high officials up to the third century AD (the name comes from the magnificence of the tombs; no kings were in fact buried here). Some of the tombs feature Doric columns and frescoed walls. Archaeological excavations are still being carried out at the site. The tombs are cut into the native rock, and at times imitated the houses of the living.

The tombs have been known and casually explored for centuries. The oldest modern account was written by Richard Pockocke, in 1783. Almost a century later, in 1870 the first archaeological excavations were conducted by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the Italian-born American consul to Cyprus. In 1915 the first excavations under scientific supervision took place, led by Menelaos Markides, who was the curator of the Cyprus Museum. Systematic excavations took place in the late 1970s and the 1980s under the direction of Dr Sophocles Hadjisavvas, former Director of Antiquities of the Republic of Cyprus.

Dr Hadjisavvas is preparing the finds for publication with assistance from the Australian archaeological mission to Paphos.

Part of the importance of the tombs lies in the Paphian habit of including Rhodian amphorae among the offerings in a burial. Through the manufacturing stamps placed on the handles of these amphorae, it is possible to give them a date and, through them, the other material from the same burial.

Thus, it is hoped to develop a more secure chronology for archaeological material in the Eastern Mediterranean of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods.

It is reported that much of the information related to the tombs was lost over time. Several factors contributed to that: It is believed that many of the tombs were rich in expensive grave goods, despite the fact that very few of such goods were to found by the official archaeological missions, and thus it is believed that grave robbers of the past were responsible. Also, the tombs’ proximity to the sea side hindered the preservation of the buried bodies. Despite those obstacles, the historical significance of the Tombs is well established among experts and locals.

title: Tombs of the Kings (Paphos)


text:
Divorcing Jack (film)

Divorcing Jack is a 1998 satirical black comedy. The plot is set around the Northern Irish reporter Dan Starkey who gets entangled in a web of political intrigue and Irish sectarian violence, at the same time as Northern Ireland is set to elect a new Prime Minister. Writer Colin Bateman adapted his own 1995 book as the screenplay.

Plot
Northern Irish columnist Dan Starkey and American journalist Charles Parker are sent out to cover the upcoming elections, in which the charismatic, former victim of the war, Michael Brinn seems the obvious winner, campaigning on a platform of disarmament and peace between the warring factions in Northern Ireland. Starkey, however, is not impressed with Brinn's promises, believing he has heard it from politicians before.

Before this, however, Starkey is caught cheating on his wife Patricia with Margaret, a young art student. Patricia goes to her parents' house to get some time away, while Starkey keeps seeing Margaret. While at Margaret's, Starkey receives a tape of classic composers from her. He also makes the startling discovery that Margaret's former boyfriend is the feared terrorist Patrick "Cow Pat" Keegan. Later, when Starkey returns to Margaret's apartment after having bought pizza, he finds Margaret dying, bloody and molested. Her final words are divorce and Jack. Starkey then hears the front door open. He runs out to attack the intruder, thinking it is the murderer returning. The result is that he kicks Margaret's mother, who had come by to visit, down the stairs, killing her.

The next day, Starkey and Parker visit Brinn for an exclusive interview. While at Brinn's residence, it is revealed that Margaret is the daughter of an old friend of Brinn, a man who is also a prominent politician in Brinn's party. Starkey and Parker leave, but are attacked by Protestant paramilitaries on the way. Starkey explains it as a random act of violence, but Parker begins to suspect something is not right.

Later, when Starkey attempts to call Patricia, he hears her being kidnapped on the other end of the line. When the police suspect Starkey for the murder of Margaret and her mother, as well as the kidnapping of Patricia, Starkey is forced to tell the entire story to Parker. Parker reluctantly agrees to help Starkey.

After some research, Parker finds out that Margaret had an old friend named Jack and that this man might be the Jack Margaret talked about as she died. Starkey goes to visit him, only to find that he is a dead end. Starkey also gets himself shot at by paramilitaries that night, but he is saved by Lee Cooper, a nurse-by-day, stripper-by-night. While Starkey is at Cooper's apartment, she plays a piece of classic music, by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Starkey realises that Margaret's last words were not divorce Jack, but rather an attempt to say the name of the composer on the tape Starkey had been given earlier, a tape that he had now sold to a street-vendor.

Following this, Starkey goes to a restaurant to meet Parker. However, it turns out that Parker has been held hostage by Keegan and his goons, and that the meeting was set up to trap Starkey. Starkey and Parker are taken to a council block Keegan controls, where Keegan threatens to kill Parker unless Starkey hands over the tape. Since Starkey does not have the tape, Keegan kills Parker. Keegan then threatens to kill Starkey's wife Patricia, who had been kidnapped by him earlier, unless Starkey can give him the tape. Starkey then reveals that he had the tape, but that he sold it to a street-vendor. This does not seem to be satisfactory for Keegan, but luckily for Starkey, he and his wife are saved in the last minute by Cooper, who storms in dressed as a nun wearing guns.

Starkey goes to the street-vendor to find the tape, only to find that it has been sold to a priest. Starkey goes to visit the priest, listens to the tape with him, and finds that it is a recording of Brinn admitting to having planted the bombs in the terrorist attack he claims to have been a victim of. Starkey mails the tape to Margaret's apartment, before he is again taken by Keegan's goons. Keegan orders Starkey to take the tape to a valley where Brinn will pay a ransom to have the tape delivered to him. The next morning, Keegan, Brinn, and Starkey meet. Keegan gives Brinn the tape in a tape recorder, while Brinn hands over the money in a briefcase. As the two drive away, Starkey is left to see them both get blown up. The tape recorder and the briefcase were both rigged with explosives.

A British civil servant urges Starkey not to print his story, fearing for the consequences if the truth about Brinn gets out. Starkey, however, decides to print it anyway and returns to his wife.

Reception
The film grossed £462,567 ($0.8 million) in the United Kingdom.

In a review for Eye for Film, Angus Wolfe Murray wrote, "The film starts well and slowly loses credibility. The American and the nurse are superfluous to requirements. David Caffrey cannot judge the gap between black humour and white farce. Murder isn't a joke unless the style is established from the start. Jack wants it both ways, thriller tough and funny ha-ha. Although consistently entertaining, it ends up an innocent death short of a good laugh."

Awards and nominations

 * Fantasporto
 * Won Critics' Award
 * Won Directors' Week Award - Best Screenplay
 * British Independent Film Awards
 * Nominated for Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film - David Thewlis

title: Divorcing Jack (film)


text:
Greg Rikaart

Gregory Andrew Rikaart (born February 26, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Kevin Fisher on the television soap opera The Young and the Restless since 2003, and also playing Leo Stark on Days Of Our Lives.

Rikaart has received six nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and won once in 2005.

Early life
Rikaart was born and raised in New York City; born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island. He graduated with honors from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He has a sister, Keri. While in college, he spent a semester in Washington, D.C., as an intern for a congressman on Capitol Hill.

Career
Rikaart is best known for his role as Kevin Fisher on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, which he originated in 2003. In May 2017, Rikaart confirmed earlier reports that he would be exiting the soap with his last taping date to be the following month. However, on August 3, the official Twitter account for The Young and the Restless confirmed Rikaart was back taping. In September, Entertainment Weekly reported that Rikaart was back for a 2-week stint.

Personal life
In June 2013, Rikaart revealed that he was in a committed relationship with writer Robert Sudduth. Rikaart posted a photograph with his boyfriend captioned, "Not getting married anytime soon, but celebrating #equality tonight nonetheless", in response to the 2013 United States Supreme Court decisions in favor of same-sex marriage equality.

Rikaart and Sudduth married in Maui, Hawaii, on May 9, 2015. Their first child, a son named Montgomery, was born June 12, 2016, via surrogacy.

title: Greg Rikaart


text:
Holleder Memorial Stadium

Holleder Memorial Stadium was a 20,000 seat football stadium in Rochester, New York.

Located on Ridgeway Avenue, at the south east corner of Mount Read Blvd., it was built in 1949 to serve as the home of Aquinas Institute football.

Originally named Aquinas Memorial Stadium, it was renamed in 1974, in memory of former Aquinas and Army quarterback Don Holleder, who was killed in October, 1967, in the Battle of Ong Thanh.

The first ever win for the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League was held at the stadium; on August 13, 1960, the Bills won an exhibition game against the Denver Broncos. The Bills continued to host occasional exhibition games at the stadium through the 1960s.

Holleder Stadium was the home pitch for professional soccer's Rochester Lancers, who played at Holleder from 1967–69 as members of the American Soccer League, and 1970–80 while in the NASL. On August 21, 1977, 20,005 people, the largest crowd to attend a Lancers game at Holleder Stadium, watched Pelé lead his Cosmos to a 2–1 victory over the hometown Lancers in the first round of the 1977 NASL playoffs. It was also the host of the first match of the NASL Final 1970.

Holleder Stadium also hosted the Rochester Flash soccer team, who called Holleder Stadium home in 1981–82 (ASL) and 1984 (USL).

The stadium was torn down in 1985, and an industrial park, named Holleder Technology Park, was built on the site. Aquinas would eventually replace the stadium in 2005 with the Wegmans Sports Complex, with a smaller capacity.

Concerts
The stadium hosted several musical concerts, including: The Rochester Grey Knights held the Tournament of Drums(Drum and Bugle competition) annually from 1948–1968.
 * The Grateful Dead - September 1, 1979
 * Journey and Bryan Adams - June 5, 1983
 * The Police, The Fixx and A Flock of Seagulls - August 7, 1983

Drum Corps Associates held the Senior Drum and Bugle Championships there in 1968-1971 and 1973–1976.

title: Holleder Memorial Stadium


text:
William Bowen Rowlands

William Bowen Rowlands (1837 – 4 September 1906), was a British politician and Member of Parliament.

He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating on 22 March 1854 at the age of 18. He was a scholar from 1855 to 1858, obtaining his BA degree in 1859 and his MA in 1865.

In 1864, he was appointed headmaster of a grammar school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire and also curate of Narberth in the same county. He studied law from 1868 at Gray's Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1871. He was appointed QC in 1871 and made a Bencher in 1882.

In 1885 he sought the Liberal candidature for the East Glamorganshire constituency and had some influential supporters such as Idris Williams, Porth. However, he lost the nomination to Alfred Thomas.

In 1886, following the decision of David Davies to join the Liberal Unionists, Rowlands was selected as the new Liberal Party candidate for the Cardiganshire constituency. Initially, he was regarded as an outsider due to the network of supporters that the sitting member had in the county, including his influence within the Calvinistic Methodist denomination. However, superior Liberal organization and the support of the majority of nonconformist ministers, who were widely regarded as having influenced the result through their congregations, allowed Rowlands to capture the seat from Davies by a mere nine votes. It may well be that Rowlands, a non-Welsh speaker, did not expect to succeed, and he showed relatively little enthusiasm for his parliamentary responsibilities and seldom visited the county. He was comfortably re-elected, however, in 1892, when he defeated the Liberal Unionist candidate, Morgan Jones, a Birmingham draper who had the active support of Joseph Chamberlain.

In 1893, Rowlands was appointed Recorder of Swansea which forced a by-election, however, as the only candidate put forward he automatically won. He retired from Parliament at the 1895 General Election.

title: William Bowen Rowlands


text:
User talk:English Lakes

Welcome!
Hello, English Lakes, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for your contributions; I hope you like it here and decide to stay. We're glad to have you in our community! Here are a few good links for newcomers:

 * If you haven't already, drop by the new user log and tell others a bit about yourself.
 * Always sign your posts on talk pages with  so others will know who left which comments.
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * Our policies, guidelines, and simplified ruleset
 * How to edit a page and write a great article
 * The Wikipedia tutorial and picture tutorial
 * The handy Manual of Style
 * And finally, remember to be bold in updating pages!

I hope you enjoy editing and being a Wikipedian. Although we all make mistakes, please keep in mind what Wikipedia is not. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. The Community Portal can also be very useful.

Happy editing!

-- Sango  123  18:27, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you need help with anything. :)

Image Tagging for Image:Bridge_House.jpg
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File:Dunston Power Station.jpg
The article Dunston Power Station is currently up for nomination as a Good Article, however in it's review it has been pointed out that its lead image File:Dunston Power Station.jpg, which you up loaded, isn't up to scratch because it doesn't identify the author and the source of the work. I was wondering if it'd be possible for you to add the information to the image, stating who took the photo. Fintan264 (talk) 18:24, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:Bridge house.jpg
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Bridge house.jpg, has been listed at Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at if you object to the listing for any reason. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 23:57, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

File source problem with File:High sweden bridge.jpg
Thank you for uploading File:High sweden bridge.jpg. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, please add a link to the page from which it was taken, together with a brief restatement of the website's terms of use of its content. If the original copyright holder is a party unaffiliated with the website, that author should also be credited. Please add this information by editing the image description page.

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File:Bridge house.jpg missing description details
Dear uploader: The media file you uploaded as: is missing a description and/or other details on its image description page. If possible, please add this information. This will help other editors make better use of the image, and it will be more informative to readers.
 * File:Bridge house.jpg

If you have any questions, please see Help:Image page. Thank you. Message delivered by Theo's Little Bot (opt-out) 04:25, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:High sweden bridge.jpg
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:High sweden bridge.jpg, has been listed at Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at if you object to the listing for any reason. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 01:45, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

File source problem with File:St Martin's College.jpg
Thank you for uploading File:St Martin's College.jpg. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, please add a link to the page from which it was taken, together with a brief restatement of the website's terms of use of its content. If the original copyright holder is a party unaffiliated with the website, that author should also be credited. Please add this information by editing the image description page.

If the necessary information is not added within the next days, the image will be deleted. If the file is already gone, you can still make a request for undeletion and ask for a chance to fix the problem.

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title: User talk:English Lakes


text:
User talk:Yuval k

Welcome!
Hello, Yuval k, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for your contributions; I hope you like it here and decide to stay. We're glad to have you in our community! Here are a few good links for newcomers:

 * If you haven't already, drop by the new user log and tell others a bit about yourself.
 * Always sign your posts on talk pages with  so others will know who left which comments.
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * Our policies, guidelines, and simplified ruleset
 * How to edit a page and write a great article
 * The Wikipedia tutorial and picture tutorial
 * The handy Manual of Style
 * And finally, remember to be bold in updating pages!

I hope you enjoy editing and being a Wikipedian. Although we all make mistakes, please keep in mind what Wikipedia is not. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. The Community Portal can also be very useful.

Happy editing!

-- Sango  123  18:27, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you need help with anything. :)

title: User talk:Yuval k


text:
Peter Jehle

Peter Karl Jehle (born 22 January 1982) is a Liechtensteiner retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He spent most of his career with Vaduz, representing the club in both the Swiss Super League and the Challenge League. He also competed professionally in France and Portugal.

Over two decades, Jehle won 132 caps for the Liechtenstein national team.

Club career
Jehle was born in Schaan as the youngest of three brothers, all of whom grew up playing football. At the age of 16 he had trials with English Premier League clubs Liverpool and Crystal Palace, and both offered him professional contracts but he turned them down to stay home and finish school. Subsequently, he got further offers from Bayer Leverkusen of the Bundesliga and Juventus of Serie A, but turned those down as well.

Eventually, Jehle signed with Grasshoppers because of its proximity to his hometown. He made his Swiss Super League debut against FC Basel in August 2000, coming on in the 95th minute to replace first choice Stefan Huber who was sent off for giving away a penalty, and saved the ensuing spot kick taken by Massimo Ceccaroni. He deputised in goal the next game, and kept a clean sheet in a 4–0 win. Towards the end of the season, he again became the starter as Huber was out injured; he appeared in the 4–0 away victory over St. Gallen, the opposition's first home loss in 34 matches and confirmation of his team's championship win.

Jehle moved to Boavista during the summer of 2006, gaining first-choice status during his second season. In June 2008, after the Porto team's relegation from the Portuguese Primeira Liga due to the Apito Dourado affair, he left and signed a one-year contract with Tours from Ligue 2.

After just one season in France, Jehle returned to his country and joined FC Vaduz in the Swiss Challenge League. On 20 April 2018, the 36-year-old announced his retirement at the end of the campaign, following which he would work with the Liechtenstein Football Association in directorial capacities.

International career
Jehle made his debut for Liechtenstein on 14 October 1998, in a 2–1 win over Azerbaijan for the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifiers which was the country's first ever competitive victory. He was just 16 at the time, but quickly became first choice for the national team and remained in goal the following decade.

On 22 March 2013, with the score at 1–1 against Latvia, the opposition was awarded a penalty. Aleksandrs Cauņa stepped up to convert it but Jehle saved the shot, thus earning the hosts one of just two points during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Honours
Grasshoppers
 * Swiss Super League: 2000–01, 2002–03

Vaduz
 * Swiss Challenge League: 2013–14
 * Liechtenstein Football Cup: 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17

Individual
 * Liechtensteiner Footballer of the Year: 2014, 2016

title: Peter Jehle


text: Talk:Anne Fisher

title: Talk:Anne Fisher


text:
User:Hagis

my name is hagis and people will work on articles right now

title: User:Hagis


text:
Accommodation (law)

Accommodation is a legal obligation entered into as a gratuitous favor without consideration, such as a signature guaranteeing payment of a debt. This is sometimes called an accommodation endorsement.

title: Accommodation (law)


text:
User talk:Droptchyald

Welcome!
Hello, Droptchyald, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for your contributions; I hope you like it here and decide to stay. We're glad to have you in our community! Here are a few good links for newcomers:

 * If you haven't already, drop by the new user log and tell others a bit about yourself.
 * Always sign your posts on talk pages with  so others will know who left which comments.
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * Our policies, guidelines, and simplified ruleset
 * How to edit a page and write a great article
 * The Wikipedia tutorial and picture tutorial
 * The handy Manual of Style
 * And finally, remember to be bold in updating pages!

I hope you enjoy editing and being a Wikipedian. Although we all make mistakes, please keep in mind what Wikipedia is not. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. The Community Portal can also be very useful.

Happy editing!

-- Sango  123  18:31, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you need help with anything. :)

title: User talk:Droptchyald


text: User talk:68.84.116.209

title: User talk:68.84.116.209


text:
Wikipedia:Featured article review/Bob Dylan/archive1

Bob Dylan

 * Article is still a featured article.

I am not sure whether this article was ever properly added to the list of featured articles; it was added at a point when the designation process was in transition, and I can't tell whether the appropriate consensus was ever reached. The record is very messy (at least to this user).

In any event, after it was designated an FA, the article was slowly but steadily rewritten, and very little of the original substance remained this spring. At that point, I was tangled up in a nasty edit war over revisions I'd made; the opposing editor argued mainly that the FA tag should itself bar the sort of revisions I'd made. That's a simplification, of course; if you enjoy wading through invective, you can read the talk page for details. The dispute was never really resolved by consensus; instead, after his position gained virtually no immediate support, the opposing editor withdrew.

Since that time, there's been very little substantive editing on the page. I've continued to clean out inappropriate material -- laundry lists of greatest songs, comments about ignored masterpieces, etc. But the article needs more work and more contributors, and I think the FA tag is inhibiting revisions (not to mention the effect of the nasty edit war). Besides, I've now written the bulk of the substantive text as it stands, and if I don't think it's good enough, you shouldn't either. [Insert emoticon to indicate that last line is spoken in sort of a Foghorn Leghorn voice.]

Formally: the article does not meet criterion one, as it is far from the best work available. Compare it to featured articles on other great American musicians, like the FA on Miles Davis. It does not meet criterion two, since it is not comprehensive. While I think my revisions to the early sections of the article strike a reasonable balance between the comprehensive and the concise, the later sections, from the beginning of Dylan's "gospel period" on, are sketchy, haphazard, and leave large gaps in their depiction of Dylan's career.

Monicasdude 18:31, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Speedy Remove it has never even been through the proper FAC process!!!Borisblue 04:17, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Remove. Ok I've had my breather. But don't worry, I won't be around much at all and I won't be touching this article. In reality, Bob Dylan went through a completely normal, well-attended FAC process and passed, deservedly (props GWO, wherever you are), by a wide margin. Monicasdude insists that version was substandard and compared unfavorably to articles like Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. In this he's basically a monovoice, but his dogged devotion to his own (mis)judgments leaves all others by the wayside. I vote for Remove now because he has eviscerated the article beyond recognition. It is now a turgid emotionless read and only the appearance of an equally dogged antimonicasdude could bring it back toward FA quality. If such a being exists please step it up and go. If nothing else it will be a funny scene. JDG 20:56, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Remove. While the edit war is unfortunate, the bigger problem is the article is entirely full of editorial opinion, with no use of sources and no citation that I could see. Throughout the article there are comments to the effect of his play is improving, his greatest song, etc. 50% of the article is opinion about the guy or his works and the rest is facts with no sources to back them up. - Taxman Talk 13:12, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
 * While I agree with your ultimate verdict I couldn't disagree more with your reasons for it. Trying to make 'Arts and Entertainment' topics as dry and factual as Sci/Tech articles is just wrongheaded, and you confuse statements about the listening public's POV with the writer's own POV (as does Monicasdude to an egregious extent). But yes, sources should be cited far more, both inline and in References. It won't happen while MDude is the lead editor since he impresses himself as an unimpeachable source. JDG 17:49, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Speedy Remove, no proof it ever gone through FAC. Hedley 22:45, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Retain I have no personal axe to grind since my contributions to this article are very minor. But I think it's a good account of a compex career - which can still be improved upon. I just read the FA on Miles Davis as a comparison and while the Davis article is good, I don't think it's on a much higher critical plane. Mick gold 18:11, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

 * FWIW, it seems to have been a former "Brilliant Prose" article that became featured in March 2004. The system was somewhat less well developed in those days, and there may not even have been a vote (see the "vote" on transferring them pretty much en bloc at Refreshing_brilliant_prose_-_People_and_culture - but this one is not there!).  The best I can find is a sideways mention in Wikipedia talk:Feature candidates but it may be buried in the edit history of WP:FAC in early 2004. -- ALoan (Talk) 20:14, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Remove unless details of FA process are found (and clearly linked from Talk:Bob Dylan), and unless a clear "References" section is added. -- Creidieki 02:24, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Retain it's a good article and there are plans to return the article to the form it was in when it was added in the first place, also how could the articl have been added with out the proper steps taken? (penguinsforever, August 10, 2005)

 * Retain - It is a long article, very detailed, seems to be very factually accurate. removing an article from featured because it was nominated under a different system than the current policy is ...stupid. SECProto 14:53, August 11, 2005 (UTC)

 * Retain I've also made only recent and very small contributions to this article. But overall, it seems pretty comprehensive and well written.  There seems to be some unnecessary rancor between Monicasdude and JDG over the edit history; but none of the changes have seemed particularly unreasonable. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 19:20, 2005 August 12 (UTC)

 * Retain the article is still very good and comprehensive(spelling?). Besides, Dylan kicks ass.


text:
Borrow

Borrow or borrowing can mean: to receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
 * In finance, monetary debt
 * In linguistics, change in a language due to contact with other languages
 * In arithmetic, when a digit becomes less than zero and the deficiency is taken from the next digit to the left
 * In music, the use of borrowed chords
 * In construction, borrow pit
 * In golf, the tendency of a putted ball to deviate from the straight line; see Glossary of golf

People

 * David Borrow (born 1952), British politician
 * George Borrow (1803–1881), English author
 * Nik Borrow, bird artist and ornithologist

title: Borrow


text:
Murder in Mesopotamia

Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 July 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The cover was designed by Robin McCartney.

The book features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The novel is set at an archaeological excavation in Iraq, and descriptive details derive from the author's visit to the Royal Cemetery at Ur where she met her husband, Sir Max Mallowan, and other British archaeologists. It was adapted for television in 2002.

Plot summary
Nurse Amy Leatheran arrives at an archaeological dig near Hassanieh, Iraq, to assist the Swedish-American archaeologist, Dr Eric Leidner, in caring for his seemingly-neurotic wife, Louise. During her initial days, Amy learns that Louise was married before to a German named Frederick Bosner. Fifteen years ago, during the Great War, Bosner was arrested for being a spy within the US State Department, and sentenced to death; he escaped custody, but died later in a train crash. Louise reveals that she received death threats claiming to be from Frederick, whenever she was attracted to another man; these stopped when she married Leidner three years ago, until recently. A week later, after receiving another threatening letter, Louise is found dead in her bedroom in the archaeologists' compound near the dig site. Dr Giles Reilly determines she was struck by a very heavy, blunt object.

An initial investigation, led by Captain Maitland, cannot find the murder weapon, but confirms someone on the dig must have committed the murder. Reilly learns that his friend Hercule Poirot is travelling in Iraq, and so contacts him for help. When Poirot arrives, he notes that the bedroom has only one point of entry, that the only window in the room was shut and barred, and that a rug near a washstand has blood on it. Anne Johnson, a colleague of Leidner, claims she heard a cry, yet is unsure about it. Reilly's daughter Sheila remarks that the victim had the attention of every man, especially one of Leidner's old friends Richard Carey. Poirot takes an interest in the story Louise told Nurse Leatheran about her first husband; he wonders if Bosner, or possibly his much-younger brother William (presumably still living but whereabouts unknown) is somehow among the team. Two men – epigraphist Father Lavigny and drug-addicted historian Joseph Mercado – are the right age to be Frederick. Furthermore, three younger men – dig assistants Bill Coleman and David Emmott, and photographer Carl Reiter – are the right age to be William. Reiter in particular is of German-American ancestry, and was tormented by Louise for his shyness and clumsiness. However, he seems to have an alibi. Poirot is also intrigued to find that the letters Louise received were apparently in her own handwriting.

Following Louise's funeral, Nurse Leatheran meets with Miss Johnson on the compound's roof. Johnson claims she knows how someone could have entered unseen, but does not elaborate further. That night, Miss Johnson unwittingly drinks a glass of hydrochloric acid which had been substituted for her usual glass of water on her nightstand. Amy attends to Miss Johnson, and hears her mention "the window" before she dies. The nurse does not believe Miss Johnson has committed suicide, and wonders if she hinted at how the acid was switched for the water. After spending a day sending telegrams, Poirot brings everyone together and reveals that both women were murdered by Dr Eric Leidner, who is, in reality, Frederick Bosner. The real Leidner died in the train crash 15 years ago – when Bosner came across his body and found his face disfigured, he switched their identities to escape the authorities.

Bosner was deeply possessive of Louise. To discourage her from forming relationships with other men, he sent her letters, which he carefully wrote out in her handwriting so the police would disbelieve her. The letters stopped after he married her twelve years later, when she no longer recognised him. When Louise became attracted to Richard Carey, Bosner decided to murder her to ensure no one else could have her. On the day of the murder, Bosner, on the rooftop, lured her to the window with a mask he had used to scare her on previous nights. Once she stuck her head out to investigate, he dropped a quern on her, which he then pulled back to the roof via a rope he had tied to it. On the pretense of checking on her, he shut the bedroom window while moving the body and the rug beneath it to where they were later found. He then used Amy as part of his alibi to divert suspicion from himself. Miss Johnson was murdered because she had begun to realise how Louise was killed.

In the aftermath of Poirot's investigations, it is revealed that Father Lavigny is actually Raoul Menier, a dealer in stolen artifacts. As Lavigny was known to Leidner only by reputation, Menier was able to impersonate him while stealing artifacts found at the dig and replacing them with excellent copies. Thanks to warnings sent out by Poirot, Menier and his associate Ali Yusuf are arrested in Beyrouth. Sheila marries David Emmott, and Nurse Leatheran returns home to England.

Characters

 * Hercule Poirot – Renowned Belgian detective. Involved in the case, while on a trip to the Middle East.
 * Amy Leatheran – A professional nurse, attending the dig of Erich Leidner to care for his wife Louise. She is the narrator of the story.
 * Captain Maitland – British policeman in charge of the murder investigation.
 * Louise Leidner – First victim of the case. A beautiful, intelligent American woman, and wife of Dr Eric Leidner for two years. Widowed from a brief marriage in the Great War, 15 years earlier.
 * Anne Johnson – A longtime colleague of Dr Leidner from Yorkshire. Second victim of the case.
 * Dr Eric Leidner – Louise's husband, and an archaeologist of some repute. Head of the dig at Tell Yarimjah near Hassanieh for five years, sponsored by the University of Pittstown (a fictional university in the United States).
 * Richard Carey – A handsome man, and longtime colleague of Dr Leidner. Alleged to be having an affair with Louise.
 * Dr Giles Reilly – Civil doctor in Hassanieh, and a longtime friend of Poirot. Responsible for Amy's position at the dig and Poirot's involvement in investigating Louise's murder.
 * Sheila Reilly – Outspoken daughter of Dr Reilly.
 * Joseph Mercado – Archaeological colleague of Leidner, having assisted on his dig for the past two years. Noted for being often fatigued and subject to violent shaking of the hands.
 * Marie Mercado – Young devoted wife of Joseph. Noted for being at times strangely hostile to Mrs Leidner, Nurse Leatheran and Hercule Poirot.
 * David Emmott – Quiet young American man, and worker on the dig. He is currently on his second year with the dig team, and is calm and self-possessed.
 * Bill Coleman – Young man working on the dig. Despite this being his first dig, has no particular interest in archaeology and a self-professed skill for forgery.
 * Carl Reiter – A young American from Chicago. Spending his first year on the dig as a photographer, and noted for being frequently subjected to ridicule by Mrs Leidner.
 * Father Lavigny (Raoul Menier) – French cleric, new to the team. A specialist in epigraphy, old languages.
 * Abdullah – A servant that seems to be gossiping out at the courtyard during the time of the murder.

Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary Supplement of 18 July 1936, summarised in its review by Harry Pirie-Gordon the setup of the plot and concluded, "The plot is ingenious and the first murder very cleverly contrived but some will doubt whether Mrs Leidner, as described, could have been so forgetful and unobservant as to render the principal preliminary conditions of the story possible."

In The New York Times Book Review (20 September 1936), Kay Irvin wrote: "Agatha Christie is a past master, as every one knows, in presenting us with a full assortment of clues which we cannot read. And there are mysteries within mysteries among this quiet yet oddly troubled group of scientific workers, one of whom must have been the murderer; it is part of the author's skill to make us feel that every human character is a little mysterious, and that when crimes are committed among a group of apparently well-bred and cultivated people every one of them may be suspect. Agatha Christie's expertness in building up her detective stories, as such, to astonishing (though sometimes very far-fetched) conclusions has more or less over-shadowed her amazing versatility, not only in background and incident, but in character-drawing and actual style. The story here is told by a trained nurse – as has been done by other eminent mystery novelists. Nurse Leatheran holds her own with them all. This latest Christie opus is a smooth, highly original and completely absorbing tale".

In The Observer 12 July 1936 issue, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) wrote that "Agatha Christie tells a humorous, well-observed story amongst the ruins of Tell Yarimjah, and her latest method of murder, which got me guessing and guessing fruitlessly, has, as usual, more the simplicity of a miracle than the complication of a conjuring trick. Poirot as a man is quite as delightful as ever, and Poirot as a detective not only perplexes the pleasant and not too intelligent hospital nurse, whose duty it is to tell the story, but, again as usual, the intelligent reader as well. The trouble is that he also perplexes the unprejudiced in a way most unusual to him: I for one cannot understand why he has allowed Agatha Christie to make him party to a crime whose integrity stands or falls by a central situation which, though most ingenious, is next door to impossible. The point at issue, which it would be grossly unfair to specify, between Mrs Christie and the reader is one which would provide a really interesting silly season correspondence." He concluded that "usually Poirot is to be toasted in anything handy, and no heel-taps; this time I drink to him a rather sorrowful glass of Lachryma Christie."

The Daily Mirror (9 July 1936) wrote: "Don't start reading this if you've got something to do or want a book just for a quarter of an hour or so. Because you simply won't put it down til you've reached the last sentence." The review finished by saying, "Agatha Christie's grand. In this tale of peculiarly placed murder she's given us another rattling good tale."

Robert Barnard remarked that an "Archaeological dig provides unusual setting, expertly and entertainingly presented. Wife-victim surely based on Katherine Woolley, and very well done. Narrated by nurse, a temporary Hastings-substitute—soon she found she could do without such a figure altogether." Barnard was pleased with the main character and that Christie did not use Hastings in the novel, but in summary felt that the novel was "Marred by an ending which goes beyond the improbable to the inconceivable."

References or Allusions
Christie reportedly based the character of Louise Leidner on Katharine Woolley, the wife of archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. Christie's husband Max Mallowan had worked on Woolley's excavation at Ur.

References to other works

 * Although this novel was published in 1936, the events described are stated to have taken place three years earlier. It is when he returns from Mesopotamia that Poirot travels on the Orient Express and solves the murder that takes place aboard it.
 * In Chapter XII, Dr Leidner recalls hearing a "Mr Van Aldin" speak highly of Poirot. Rufus Van Aldin was a prominent character in Christie's earlier work The Mystery of the Blue Train.
 * In one chapter Nurse Leatheran is said to have spent the afternoon reading the detective novel The Nursing Home Murder, which is the name of a well-known novel by Ngaio Marsh, but the ending of Nurse Leatheran's book differs from the ending of Marsh's.
 * In Chapter 6 and 9, similarities are drawn between Louise Leidner and La Belle Dame sans Merci, a femme fatale figure from an 1819 ballad by John Keats.

References in other works

 * In Death on the Nile, Poirot credits his experience on the expedition with developing his methods in detection. He muses: "Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition—and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. This is what I have been seeking to do—clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth..."

Television
Murder in Mesopotamia was adapted as an episode for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot on 2 June 2002. It starred David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, and was filmed on location at the Hotel Casino in Hammam Lif and on the Uthina Archaeological site, both in Tunisia. While it remained faithful to the main plot elements of the novel, including the murder, the motive, and the denouement, the adaptation made a number of changes:

 * The characters of Dr Giles Reilly, Mr Reiter and David Emmott, are omitted.
 * Sheila Reilly becomes Captain Maitland's daughter – her surname is changed as a result, while her character is more pleasant.
 * The character of Captain Hastings is added – apart from being Poirot's assistant in the case, relegating Amy Leatheran to being another suspect in the case, he is also the uncle of William Coleman, whom he is visiting.
 * Poirot is in Iraq mainly to meet with Countess Vera Rossakoff, after receiving a telegram from her asking for his help; she has already left by the time he arrives, and he is only made aware of this via a telephone message he receives when the case is solved.
 * Poirot visits the archaeological dig when he arrives, and so meets with Louise when she is alive – as a result, he learns about her first marriage and the letters she received from her directly, and not through Amy.
 * Joseph Mercado's drug addiction is much stronger in tone – he murders his supplier before Poirot arrives to see the dig site, and later commits suicide out of guilt.
 * Raoul Menier and Ali Yusuf are not identified when the theft of artefacts is exposed. Both men are also not arrested; Poirot mainly informs Captain Maitland to have the border posts keep a look out for them.

Radio
Michael Bakewell adapted Murder in Mesopotamia for BBC Radio 4, featuring John Moffatt as Poirot.

Graphic novel
Murder in Mesopotamia was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on 1 July 2008, adapted by François Rivière and illustrated by "Chandre" (ISBN 0-00-727530-7). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2005 under the title of Meurtre en Mésopotamie.

Publication history

 * 1936, Collins Crime Club (London), 6 July 1936, Hardcover, 288 pp
 * 1936, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardcover, 298 pp
 * 1944, Dell Books (New York), Paperback, (Dell number 145 [mapback]), 223 pp
 * 1952, Pan Books, Paperback, (Pan number 200)
 * 1955, Penguin Books, Paperback, (Penguin number 1099), 219 pp
 * 1962, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 190 pp
 * 1969, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 367 pp; ISBN 0-85456-667-8
 * 2007, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1936 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, 5 February 2007, Hardcover; ISBN 0-00-723444-9

The book was first serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post in six instalments from 9 November (Volume 208, Number 19) to 14 December 1935 (Volume 208, Number 24) with illustrations by F. R. Gruger.

In the UK, the novel was serialised as an abridged version in the weekly Women's Pictorial magazine in eight instalments from 8 February (Volume 31, Number 787) to 28 March 1936 (Volume 31, Number 794) under the title No Other Love. There were no chapter divisions and all of the instalments carried illustrations by Clive Uptton. Several character names were different from the eventual published novel: Amy Leatheran became Amy Seymour while Mr and Mrs Leidner were surnamed Trevor.

title: Murder in Mesopotamia