title: Gotra

text: Marriages within the gotra ('sagotra' marriages) are not permitted under the rule of exogamy in the traditional matrimonial system. The compound word 'sagotra' is a union of the words 'sa' and 'gotra', where 'sa' means same or similar. It is common practice in preparation for Hindu marriage to inquire about the kula-gotra (clan lineage) of the bride and groom before approving the marriage. People within the gotra are regarded as siblings and marrying such a person can lead to higher chances for the child to get genetically transferred diseases. In almost all Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is not practiced (since they are believed to be descended from the same family). Marriages between different gotras are encouraged; marriage within the same jati started to happen later.


title: Gotra

text: For example, Gurjars, Jats and Rajputs have 3000 Gotras and Mudirajas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have 2600 Gotras. Gotra is always passed on from father to children among most Hindus. However, among the Tulu people it is passed on from mother to child.


title: Gotra

text: The tatsama words 'sahara' and 'sahodari' (sister) derive their roots from the Sanskrit word 'sahodara' (सहोदर) meaning co-uterine or born of the same womb. In communities where gotra membership passed from father to children, marriages were allowed between a woman and her maternal uncle, while such marriages were forbidden in matrilineal communities, like Tuluvas, where gotra membership was passed down from the mother.


title: Gotra

text: A much more common characteristic of South Indian Hindu society is permission for marriage between cross-cousins (children of brother and sister) as they are of different gotras. Thus, a man is allowed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter or his paternal aunt's daughter but is not allowed to marry his paternal uncle's daughter. She would be considered a parallel cousin, of the same gotra, and therefore to be treated as a sister.


title: Gotra

text: North Indian Hindu society not only follows the rules of gotra for marriages but also has many regulations which go beyond the basic definition of gotra and have a broader definition of incest. Some communities in North India do not allow marriage with certain other clans, based on the belief that both clans are of the same patrilineal descent. In other communities, marriage within the gotra of the mother's father, and possibly some others, is prohibited.


title: Gotra

text: A possible workaround for Sagotra marriages is to perform a 'Data' (adoption) of the bride to a family of different gotra (usually data is given to the bride's maternal uncle who belongs to different gotra by the same rule) and let them perform the 'Kanyadanam' ('kanya' (girl) + 'danam' (to give)). Such workarounds are used in rare cases, and the acceptability is questionable.


title: Gotra

text: Vedic Hinduism recognizes eight types of marriages, thus predominantly following the principles as stated in the Manu Smriti, referring to eight types of marriages, the roles, and responsibilities of husband and wife, and the purpose of marriage. Eight types of marriages are, (1) Brahma Vivaha, (2) Arsa Vivaha, (3) Daiva Vivaha, (4) Prajapatya Vivaha, (5) Gandharva Vivaha, (6) Asura Vivaha, (7) Rakshasa Vivaha, and (8) Paishacha Vivaha. The first four types of marriages reflect the paradigm behind arranged marriages. The last three are prohibited as per Manu Smriti, out of which the last two are condemned. The Gandharva marriage is analogous to the modern-day love marriage, where the individuals have the liberty to choose their partners. Though Gandharva marriage had its due prominence in our Shastras, with the advancement of time, Vedic Hinduism giving way to classic Hinduism, the concept of arranged marriage rose to prominence, which still today is predominant ritual for a marriage between two individuals.


title: Gotra

text: There is no harm in Sagotra marriage if the individuals are not related for six generations on both maternal and paternal sides. This is expressed in chapter 5 of Manu smriti in mantra 60, which states, सपिण्डता तु पुरुषे सप्तमे विनिवर्तते । समानोदकभावस्तु जन्मनाम्नोरवेदने, which means that sapinda ends after seven generations. Section 5(v) of Hindu Marriage Act 1955 also prohibits Sapinda relationship but there is no restriction of Sagotra marriage.


title: Gotra

text: With nuclear families and large-scale migration, in search of job or business opportunities or otherwise, it is possible that one may not know his/her gotra. Even if it is known, there is hardly any way to prove its authenticity.


title: Gotra

text: While the gotras are almost universally used for excluding marriages that would be traditionally incestuous, they are not legally recognized as such, although those within "degrees of prohibited relationship" or who are "sapinda" are not permitted to marry. Khap panchayats in Haryana have campaigned to legally ban marriages within the same gotra. A convener of the Kadyan Khap, Naresh Kadyan, petitioned the courts to seek an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to legally prohibit such marriages. However, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn after being vacated, with the Delhi High Court warning that the Khap would face heavy penalty costs for wasting the time of the court.


title: Gotra

text: In the 1945 case of "Madhavrao vs Raghavendrarao", which involved a Deshastha Brahmin couple, the definition of gotra as descending from eight sages and then branching out to several families was thrown out by the Bombay High Court. The court called the idea of Brahmin families descending from an unbroken line of common ancestors as indicated by the names of their respective gotras "impossible to accept." The court consulted relevant Hindu texts and stressed the need for Hindu society and law to keep up with the times, emphasizing that notions of good social behavior and the general ideology of the Hindu society had changed. The court also said that the material in the Hindu texts is so vast and full of contradictions that it is a near-impossible task to reduce it to order and coherence.


title: Art Bell

text: Arthur William Bell III (June 17, 1945 – April 13, 2018) was an American broadcaster and author. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program "Coast to Coast AM", which is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations in the United States and Canada. He also created and hosted its companion show "Dreamland". "Coast to Coast" still airs nightly.


title: Art Bell

text: In 2003, Bell semi-retired from "Coast to Coast AM". During the following four years, he hosted the show for many weekends on Premiere Networks. He announced his retirement from weekend hosting in 2007, but occasionally served as a guest host through to 2010. Classic episodes of "Coast to Coast AM" can be heard in some radio markets on Saturday nights under the name "Somewhere in Time" hosted by Bell. He started a new nightly show, "Art Bell's Dark Matter", on Sirius XM Radio, that aired for six weeks in 2013.


title: Art Bell

text: In 2015, he returned to radio with a new show "Midnight in the Desert", which was available online via TuneIn as well as some terrestrial radio stations. He retired on December 11, 2015, citing security concerns at his home.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell was the founder and original owner of Pahrump-based radio station KNYE 95.1 FM. His broadcast studio and transmitter were located near his home in Pahrump, where he also hosted "Coast to Coast AM".


title: Art Bell

text: Arthur William Bell III was born in North Carolina on June 17, 1945. Sources differ on whether he was born in Jacksonville or Camp Lejeune. He had a Lutheran background.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell was always interested in radio; at the age of 13, he became a licensed amateur radio operator. Bell held an Amateur Extra Class license, which is in the top U.S. Federal Communications Commission license class. His call sign was W6OBB.


title: Art Bell

text: In the 1960s Bell served in the U.S. Air Force for four years and was a medic during the Vietnam War. Although not involved in combat, Bell was stationed for a short time at a hospital in Da Nang, Vietnam. At this hospital and others, such as Clark Air Base in the Phillipines, Bell witnessed the effects of the war first-hand, something that he did not like to recall or talk about even decades later.


title: Art Bell

text: While in the military, Bell, along with a few friends on base, operated a pirate radio station at Amarillo Air Force Base. After receiving support from the base commander, they expanded the operation, playing music for the entire base and the signal was powerful enough to be picked up in the city of Amarillo. Eventually when the local commercial radio stations caught wind of the pirate station's popularity (when it showed up in the Arbitron ratings), it was forced to shut down, but only after being on the air for a full year. This was the start of Bell's career in radio.


title: Art Bell

text: After leaving military service in 1966, Bell started working at a few different radio stations in the States for a short time before moving to the Japanese island of Okinawa, where he worked as a disc jockey for 6 years at KSBK. This was the only non-military English-language station in Japan. While there, he set a Guinness World Record by staying on the air without sleeping for 5 days and nights (115 hours and 15 minutes). Bell would later write that this extreme sleep deprivation was a strange experience and something that he would never do again. He said that as he would go about his normal routine, such as walking to the refrigerator during a break, it was as if he was floating around in a different world, and things seemed unreal.


title: Art Bell

text: While working at a rock music station in Anchorage, Bell learned about Amerasian children stranded in Saigon in the final days before the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975. Bell spoke about it on air and listeners in Alaska started to send in donations. The money raised allowed the chartering of a Douglas DC-8 to fly to Vietnam and rescue around 120 orphans. They were brought to the United States and eventually adopted by American families.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell studied engineering at the University of Maryland. He dropped out and returned to radio as a board operator and chief engineer, and had the opportunity to be on the air a few times. For several years, he worked behind and in front of the microphone. After a period of working in cable television, in 1986 the 50,000-watt KDWN in Las Vegas, Nevada, offered Bell a five-hour time slot in the middle of the night. Syndication of his program to other radio stations began in 1993.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell was a rock music disc jockey before he moved into talk radio. His original 1978 late-night Las Vegas program on KDWN was a political call-in show under the name "West Coast AM." In 1988, Bell and Alan Corbeth renamed the show "Coast to Coast AM" and moved its broadcast from the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas to Bell's home in Pahrump.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell abandoned conventional political talk in favor of topics such as gun control and conspiracy theories, leading to a significant bump in his overnight ratings. The show's focus again shifted significantly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Many in the media did not want to be blamed for inciting anti-government or militia actions like the bombing. Subsequently, Bell discussed off-beat topics such as the paranormal, the occult, UFOs, protoscience and pseudoscience. During his tenure at KDWN Bell met and married his third wife, Ramona, who later handled production and management duties for the program.


title: Art Bell

text: An article in the February 23, 1997, edition of "The Washington Post" said that Bell was currently America's highest-rated late-night radio talk show host, broadcast on 328 stations. According to "The Oregonian" in its June 22, 1997, edition, "Coast to Coast AM" with Art Bell was on 460 stations. At its initial peak in popularity, "Coast to Coast AM" was syndicated on more than 500 radio stations and claimed 15 million listeners nightly. Bell's studios were located in his home in the town of Pahrump, located in Nye County, Nevada; hence, the voice-over catchphrase, "from the Kingdom of Nye".


title: Art Bell

text: Fans regarded Bell as a master showman, noting that he called his show "absolute entertainment" and expressly said he did not necessarily accept every guest or caller's claims, but only offered a forum where they would not be openly ridiculed. Bell was one of only a few talk show hosts who did not screen incoming calls, but this changed in 2006.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell has earned praise from those who declare that the paranormal deserves a mature outlet of discussion in the media as well as the approval of those simply amused by the nightly parade of bizarre, typically fringe topics. Ed Dames, Richard C. Hoagland, Terence McKenna, Dannion Brinkley, David John Oates, and Robert Bigelow were all regular guests. Some of Bell's regular guests continue to appear on "Coast to Coast AM" now hosted by George Noory.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell's own interests, however, extended beyond the paranormal. He interviewed singers Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Eric Burdon and Gordon Lightfoot, comedian George Carlin, writer Dean Koontz, hard science fiction writer Greg Bear, "X-Files" writer/creator Chris Carter, TV talk host Regis Philbin, "Star Trek" actor Leonard Nimoy, actor Dan Aykroyd, former Luftwaffe pilot Bruno Stolle, actress Jane Seymour, actress Ellen Muth, actor and TV host Robert Stack, human rights lawyer John Loftus, legendary disc jockey Casey Kasem, UFC commentator Joe Rogan and frequent guests physicist Michio Kaku and SETI astronomers Seth Shostak and H. Paul Shuch.


title: Art Bell

text: Beginning in late 1996, Bell was criticized for reporting rumors that Comet Hale–Bopp was being trailed by a UFO. Some speculated that members of the Heaven's Gate group committed mass suicide based on rumors Bell aired, but others dismissed the idea, noting that the Heaven's Gate website stated: "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective." Susan Wright reported that later, Bell was also "one of the first to publicize expert opinions refuting the 'alien' companion" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp, such as that published in 1998 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggesting that "the satellite's main diameter is ~30 km," (20 miles) and accordingly natural rather than artificial.


title: Art Bell

text: On October 13, 1998, Bell announced his first retirement, which was highly unexpected by his listeners. He spoke of "an event, a threatening terrible event occurred to my family, which I could not tell you about. Because of that event, and a succession of other events, what you're listening to right now is my final broadcast on the air." Hilly Rose filled in after Bell's departure. Bell returned on October 28, 1998, asserting that the brief departure was brought on by threats made against his family. On May 29, 1999, Bell explained that this retirement was due to an allegation made by hosts of WWCR shortwave radio that Bell had paid to cover up a criminal indictment. The facts of the matter became public knowledge in 2000, when the media revealed that an actual criminal indictment was filed against a person who had assaulted a member of Bell's family. Because of the nature of the crime, Bell had wanted to keep the matter private. Ted Gunderson, the former head of the Los Angeles FBI and the hosts at WWCR shortwave radio had accused Bell of the crime. Bell responded by taking legal action against Gunderson, as well as the hosts and stations. The action was resolved in a settlement in 2000.


title: Art Bell

text: On April 1, 2000, Bell again announced his retirement. He said that the event would occur on April 26, 2000, but offered no details other than expressing intentions to "resolve a family crisis." On April 11, 2000, Mike Siegel was introduced as the new host of "Coast to Coast AM", taking over on April 27, to an estimated audience of 22 million listeners. The media later explained that Bell had left to deal with the aftermath of the kidnap and sexual assault of his son. Brian Lepley, a substitute teacher, was convicted of sexual assault and attempted transmission of HIV and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years. Bell returned to "Coast to Coast AM" in February 2001. Bell noted that since his departure the show had lost a number of affiliates, commercial content had risen to an unbearable level, and Siegel had taken the program in a "different direction" of which Bell disapproved. Bell retained some authority over the program as its creator and felt his return was necessary.


title: Art Bell

text: On October 23, 2002, Bell announced that he would retire due to recurring back pain, which was the result of a fall from a telephone pole during his youth. Bell was replaced by George Noory as weekday host of "Coast to Coast AM" on January 1, 2003. Those close to the matter also said that Barbara Simpson would host weekends and that Bell planned to be an occasional guest host for Noory. Bell returned in September 2003 as a weekend host, replacing Barbara Simpson and Ian Punnett as host of the Saturday and Sunday evening broadcasts. In June 2005, he scaled this schedule back, calling it a "semiretirement," and hosted only the last two Sundays of every month. Bell went back to hosting every weekend show as his schedule permitted after his wife Ramona's death a few months later.


title: Art Bell

text: On July 1, 2007, Bell announced his retirement, stating that he wished to spend more time with his new wife and daughter. He made it explicitly clear that, unlike the circumstances surrounding previous retirements, this decision was an entirely positive and joyful one and that he would not disappear completely, announcing an intention to occasionally substitute for other hosts and host "special" shows.


title: Art Bell

text: On December 11, 2015, Bell posted what would be his final retirement message via his Facebook page. He cited safety concerns for his family by saying "if one of them were harmed because of what I love doing my life would be over." Throughout the fall, Bell reported several incidents where an unknown number of armed trespassers came onto his property, sometimes firing gunshots. These events have been said to occur during or around the time of his broadcasting. This announcement came a mere five months after the start of his most recent show, "Midnight in the Desert".


title: Art Bell

text: On January 5, 2006, Ramona Bell, his wife of 15 years, died unexpectedly at the age of 47 of what appeared to be an acute asthma attack in Laughlin, Nevada, where the couple had been taking a short vacation.


title: Art Bell

text: During the January 22 broadcast of "Coast to Coast AM", Bell described in great detail the events surrounding his wife's death. For weeks thereafter, callers to the station would speak to George Noory and express their sadness and sympathy for Bell; Noory had taken Bell's place on weekdays beginning in 2002.


title: Art Bell

text: On January 21, 2006, 16 days after the unexpected death of his wife Ramona, Bell announced he would host "Coast to Coast AM" every Saturday and Sunday evening, and that former weekend host Ian Punnett would work a new live prefeed program for the four hours preceding Bell's slot on Saturday nights (9:00 pm – 1:00 am ET).


title: Art Bell

text: By the end of January, Bell began hinting that he was making a significant life decision, but that he would keep it a secret for at least one year, asking listeners to remind him in 2007 to let them in on it. By March, he was saying that he would soon take a "huge risk" and "do something rash". On April 15, 2006, he ended the mystery and, to the mild surprise of listeners, revealed that, after several weeks of mourning, he had recently gone to the Philippines and married Airyn Ruiz.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell opened his December 28, 2006, program by disclosing that he had just relocated back to Pahrump, Nevada, with Ruiz, who had obtained the necessary paperwork for immigrating to the United States.


title: Art Bell

text: On September 8, 2008, Noory stated that he would be hosting the annual "Ghost to Ghost AM" Halloween call-in show rather than Bell, who normally returns to the "Coast to Coast" to host it (along with the New Year's prediction shows).


title: Art Bell

text: On November 30, 2008, Bell hosted "Coast to Coast AM". Michio Kaku was the guest. This was the first time Bell had hosted the show since May 23, 2008.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell was scheduled to return to "Coast to Coast AM" on April 24, 2009, to host an evening of open lines, but because of engineering problems in Manila, Bell was rescheduled to a later date.


title: Art Bell

text: On May 17, 2009, Bell returned to host "Coast to Coast AM" live from Manila. His guest was professor Peter Ward. Topics of discussion were mass extinctions, Earth's "self-destructive" phenomena, and life beyond planet Earth. While on the air, Bell answered an email question from a listener who asked why he was in the Philippines again and how long he would be there. Bell replied that he would address it on "Friday" and hinted that his move might be permanent.


title: Art Bell

text: As of May 20, 2009, the "Coast to Coast" website listed that Bell would be filling in for George Noory on Friday, May 22, 2009, to interview Bob Koontz. However, Bell did not do that show. The "Coast to Coast" website, again, cited technical difficulties in Manila and that his interview would be postponed. Bell interviewed Koontz on Saturday, June 6, 2009.


title: Art Bell

text: Friday June 26, 2009, Bell hosted "Coast to Coast AM" from Manila with guest Dean Radin. He also commented on the death of Michael Jackson and how he had lived in Pahrump, Nevada, not too far away from where Bell lived.


title: Art Bell

text: Friday November 20, 2009, Bell hosted "Coast to Coast AM" from Manila with guest Starfire Tor, psi researcher and experiencer who discussed time shifts and time slips, and other strange occurrences of time. During the first 90 minutes, they were joined by Whitley Strieber, who shared his take on Tor's research.


title: Art Bell

text: On Wednesday, December 30, and Thursday, December 31, 2009, Bell once again hosted his annual New Year's predictions special of "Coast to Coast", noting that a number of the predictions this year were of an unusual and interesting nature and not mere repeats of many that had come before, though he also took several callers to task for seemingly veiling their obvious political agendas or wishes in the form of predictions, rather than offering up something from their "psychic center," which is what he repeatedly asks for during the prediction show. He also suggested that perhaps Coast to Coast AM should institute some sort of prize or acknowledgment for listeners whose predictions are particularly accurate or astute.


title: Art Bell

text: In late 2008, Bell and his wife filed an I-751 petition with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of her marriage-based green card process. In early 2009 the USCIS responded that they would need additional evidence to prove that Bell's marriage to a Philippine national and subsequent green card application was in good faith. Bell responded with evidence including their marriage license, their daughter's birth certificate, Bell's last will and testament, bank records, family photos, and Social Security forms. Bell sent the package to the USCIS by return receipt mail, and he subsequently received the return receipt stamped "USCIS RECEIVED JAN-15-09."


title: Art Bell

text: On March 10, 2009, Bell and his wife and daughter left Nevada for Manila to deal with some family business including the disposition of a condo they owned. Shortly thereafter, the USCIS denied the application on the grounds that the documentary evidence was never received, and further stipulated that Airyn Bell is not permitted to re-enter the United States, which is why Bell remained in the Philippines. Moreover, since the Bells were out of the country when the application was denied, they were required to start the process all over again.


title: Art Bell

text: On his June 6 broadcast, Bell explained the situation and asked his listeners to send emails on his behalf to the White House.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell hosted ten episodes in 2010, five short of his publicly announced, contractually specified quota of 15 shows per year. His last hosting gig was his annual "Ghost to Ghost" show on Halloween night (this was the first show ever wherein Bell used call screeners).


title: Art Bell

text: As of December 2010, Bell was no longer listed as a host on the "Coast to Coast" website, his shows were no longer searchable under his name, and the only references to Bell on the site were of an historical/archival nature. However, the weekly "Somewhere in Time with Art Bell" broadcasts of classic Bell-hosted episodes (which have aired before the live show on Saturday nights since 2006) were not discontinued.


title: Art Bell

text: In email interactions with fans who have written in to inquire about Bell's absence, Coast personnel confirmed that Bell had retired. According to Coast webmaster Lex Lonehood: "Art Bell decided he no longer wished to do live C2C shows, and asked that his name be removed from the host listings accordingly. Classics and Somewhere in Time shows will continue as is."


title: Art Bell

text: Despite the above remarks from Punnett, Noory, Lyon, Lonehood, and Bell, as of January 6, 2011, an official public statement formally confirming Bell's departure from "Coast to Coast AM" has yet to be made via press release, website announcement or on-air, by any party with the authority to do so—the show's producers, Premier Radio Networks, Clear Channel Communications, or Bell himself. This lack of information has led to rampant speculation among Bell's fanbase as to the motivations and circumstances behind Bell's sudden absence, whether he had given his last live broadcast, and what—if anything—he might decide to do next.


title: Art Bell

text: On July 20, 2011, Bell announced via his Facebook page that he had relocated with his family to Pahrump, Nevada. On November 1, 2012, Bell updated his Facebook status with the following: "I wish my name was no longer associated with what "Coast" has become!"


title: Art Bell

text: Bell returned to the airwaves on September 16, 2013. His new show "Art Bell's Dark Matter" was broadcast on SiriusXM satellite radio's Indie Talk channel (channel #104), Monday through Thursday from 7 PM to 11 PM PT with repeats during the remainder of the night and "best of" shows airing on Fridays. On November 4, 2013, Bell left Dark Matter after only six weeks.


title: Art Bell

text: On July 20, 2015, Bell returned with his new show "Midnight in the Desert". The show aired on the internet Dark Matter Digital network and on 45 stations (20 of which signed on before the show started) from 9 PM to midnight PT. He also started transmitting on shortwave radio on WTWW at 5.085 MHz as well.


title: Art Bell

text: On December 11, 2015, Bell permanently stepped down as host of "Midnight in the Desert" due to concerns about his family's safety. Bell had reported multiple instances of someone shooting firearms at and near his property in the fall of 2015. The show "Midnight in the Desert" continued with new host Heather Wade, and shortly after Art's death Dave Schrader became the host. Bell made the occasional guest host appearance.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell posted on his website in July 2016 that he was hospitalized for pneumonia and revealed that he suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


title: Art Bell

text: Art Bell died April 13, 2018, at age 72 at his home in Pahrump, Nevada. On August 1, 2018, the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" reported the Clark County coroner's office findings. The coroner's office stated that Bell died of an accidental overdose from a cocktail of prescription drugs. The coroner's office determined he had four prescription medications in his system: the opioids oxycodone or Roxicet and hydrocodone or Vicodin, diazepam or Valium, and carisoprodol or Soma, a muscle-relaxant. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension also contributed to his death.


title: Art Bell

text: George Noory, current host of "Coast To Coast AM", announced Bell's death and while struggling to keep his composure stated, "Art and I were not that close. We had our differences, but he was one of those instrumental in me being where I am right now."


title: Art Bell

text: Bell became a licensed amateur radio operator at the age of 13. His first call sign was KN3JOX, first listed in the Winter 1959 edition of the Radio Amateur Callbook. He soon upgraded to K3JOX, and he later held W2CKS, first listed in the Spring 1967 Callbook. Bell held an Amateur Extra Class license, which is the highest U.S. Federal Communications Commission amateur license class. His call sign was W6OBB.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell passed the Philippines amateur radio exams and became a Philippine Class A amateur radio operator with the call sign of 4F1AB. While in the Philippines, Bell was active on 40-10 Meters, as well as 144.600 MHz simplex in Manila.


title: Art Bell

text: In August 2006 Art was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. He did not attend the presentation.


title: Art Bell

text: On March 10, 2007, Bell would be honored with the "News/Talk Radio Lifetime Achievement Award" from the trade publication "Radio & Records" in Los Angeles.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell wrote, or co-wrote, several books, including "The Quickening: Today's Trends, Tomorrow's World"; "The Art of Talk" (an autobiography); "The Source: Journey Through the Unexplained"; "The Edge: Man's Mysterious Past & Incredible Future"; and "The Coming Global Superstorm" (co-authored with Whitley Strieber), which became the basis for the popular movie, "The Day After Tomorrow".


title: Art Bell

text: In 1996, Bell appeared in an episode of the NBC science fiction series "Dark Skies" as William S. Paley, head of CBS.


title: Art Bell

text: On September 30, 1998, NBC's "Today Show" aired a taped segment of reporter Fred Francis interviewing Bell. Francis questioned Bell about Hale-Bopp, Area 51, eccentric callers claiming to be "six-fingered alien hybrids", as well as the UFO sighting experienced by Bell and his wife Ramona.


title: Art Bell

text: In 1999, Bell appeared as himself on the series "Millennium". The episode called "Collateral Damage" aired in the third season and dealt with a former U.S. soldier who claimed the government he fought for was indeed responsible for horrendous tests on soldiers and Iraqi civilians. (This episode was broadcast on January 22, 1999. The Washington Post, January 22, 1999.) In 1999 Bell was interviewed on "Larry King Live". (This was broadcast on March 5, 1999. The Washington Post, March 5, 1999.)


title: Art Bell

text: Progressive rock band Tool's 2001 album, "Lateralus", featured a track entitled "Faaip de Oiad" (Enochian for "The Voice of God"), which includes a clip of the "distraught and terrified" Area 51 employee call from September 11, 1997.


title: Art Bell

text: In 2005, Bell and then-wife Ramona were featured on the ABC News special: "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs – Seeing Is Believing," which reported on the entire scope of the UFO experience, from the first sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 to the present day. (This was broadcast on February 24, 2005. The Washington Post, 2-20-05.)


title: Art Bell

text: In 2005, snippets of Bell and callers to his show were featured on the song "Conspiracy Radio" on Sean Hogan's album "Catalina Sunrise": Bell is credited for "voice-overs" on this track.


title: Art Bell

text: In 2006, Bell was featured in the video game "Prey" and played himself. He hosts, as in real life, "Coast to Coast AM", and the player is able to listen to the broadcast at several terminals throughout the game. The broadcasts describe what is happening on Earth as the game unfolds. The game plot centers around a massive spaceship and alien abductions. Bell receives a number of calls about people who have seen smaller craft as they abduct people.


title: Art Bell

text: Bell appeared alongside Mark Arnold in the 2016 film titled "Abduct", directed by Ilyas Kaduji and produced by Mafalda Sa. Bell plays himself as he and a group of friends try to help protect a young woman from an alien threat.


title: Kenya Barris

text: Kenya Barris (born August 9, 1973) is an American film and television writer, producer, director, and actor. He is best known as the creator of the ABC sitcom "black-ish" (2014–2022).


title: Kenya Barris

text: Barris was born in Inglewood, California, the second of five children. He was named after Kenya due to his father visiting the country. Barris' parents divorced when he was five years old. He is an alumnus of Clark Atlanta University.


title: Kenya Barris

text: Barris has created numerous television shows, including the critically acclaimed "Black-ish". The award-winning series also has two spin-offs, "Grown-ish" and "Mixed-ish", and a third potential spin-off "Old-ish". He was a writer for "The Game", "Girlfriends", and "Soul Food". Barris co-created and produced "America's Next Top Model" with Tyra Banks. He penned the film "Girls Trip". He co-produced the 2019 film "Little" and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2019 theatrical release "Shaft".


title: Kenya Barris

text: In 2020, Barris made his acting debut in "#BlackAF", a series he developed for Netflix, co-starring Rashida Jones and Iman Benson. In October 2020, Barris announced that he will write, produce and direct a biopic on comedian Richard Pryor for MGM. His Khalabo Ink Society company is currently eyeing a deal with ViacomCBS. In August 2022 it was announced that Barris would write and direct a modern remake of "The Wizard of Oz".


title: Kenya Barris

text: Barris married anesthesiologist Dr. Rania "Rainbow" Edwards Barris in 1999. They have six children. He filed for divorce from her in 2022having filed for divorce twice before and then withdrawn those filings.


title: Kenya Barris

text: In 2019, "Black-ish" won several NAACP Image Awards. It was named best comedy series and Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson took acting honors. "Black-ish" was the winner of the Entertainment and Children's Peabody Award in 2016. Barris and "Black-ish" also won the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. Barris was nominated for the same award in 2018. He was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2021, and a PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy for "Black-ish" in 2014. In 2016, Barris won the Rod Serling Award for "Advancing Social Justice Through Popular Media".


title: Kenya Barris

text: In 2018, he donated $1 million to Clark Atlanta University, and was granted an honorary doctorate in humane letters.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1955) is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, and performer. He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and subsequently, the on-screen General Manager of WWE's Raw brand. Bischoff has also worked with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) where he served as Executive Producer of "Impact Wrestling". He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: With an amateur background in martial arts, Bischoff also sporadically performed as an in-ring competitor, becoming a one-time WCW Hardcore Champion and headlining the 1998 Road Wild pay-per-view event, teaming with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan against Diamond Dallas Page and Jay Leno. He wrote an autobiography, titled "Controversy Creates Cash", which was released in 2006 under WWE Books, and a second book, titled "Grateful", which was released in 2022.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff started in wrestling working for the Minneapolis, Minnesota based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1986 under the ownership of Verne Gagne. In 1989, Bischoff would become an on-air interviewer and host of the AWA until the company folded in 1991. Bischoff at first worked in the sales department on the AWA's syndicated programming, and became an on-air personality virtually by accident and at the last minute. Larry Nelson, whom at the time was employed by the AWA as an announcer, was arrested under suspicion of a DUI. Because of Nelson's sudden unavailability, Verne Gagne and his son, Greg opted to recruit Bischoff (who initially had no desire to be in front of the camera) to fill-in on the interviews. Bischoff believed they thought he would be a good replacement due to his immediate availability in the television studio, and the fact that he was already wearing a suit and tie.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: During the gradual demise of the AWA, the company was unable to meet payroll, and Bischoff auditioned for an announcer's position with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990, but was not hired.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In his autobiography Controversy Creates Cash, Bischoff mentions working in his office during his time in the AWA when he'd heard a legitimate fight outside of his door. He said he'd looked up just in time to see wrestler The Sheik's head come breaking through the wall. He said despite this, the Sheik continued the fight while a stunned Bischoff looked on.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a C-show announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. In 1993, after WCW Vice President of Wrestling Operations Bill Watts resigned from the company, Bischoff went to TBS executive and WCW President Bill Shaw and WCW Executive Vice President Bob Dhue to apply for the job of Executive Producer. Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, however, Bischoff was hired in Watts' place. Schiavone remained a producer and commentator until the company's demise, but Ross was granted his release from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Initially, Bischoff and Dhue worked together as partners, but frequently clashed over the direction of the company.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In 1994, Bischoff was promoted from Executive Producer to Senior Vice President, putting him in charge of everything WCW. Dhue resigned, as did event manager Don Sandefeur and junior vice president Jim Barnett. Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF. He moved WCW production to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Hulk Hogan, who was filming a show called "Thunder in Paradise" at Disney-MGM Studios, was approached by Bischoff and Ric Flair and signed to a contract with WCW. He also invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (first seven a year, then 10, and then once a month). He also started a weekly live program, "WCW Monday Nitro", that went directly against WWF's flagship "Monday Night Raw". Bischoff remained an announcer on "Nitro", regularly spoiling "Raw" results (as the latter show was not always aired live) to boost ratings. This created what became known amongst fans as the Monday Night Wars, as both WCW and WWF fought for viewers and in the process kick-started a new level of mainstream popularity for pro wrestling. The changes paid off, and in 1995, WCW turned a profit for the first time in the company's history. By 1997, Bischoff's official job title was President of World Championship Wrestling.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In 1996, Bischoff signed WWF superstar Scott Hall, better known at the time as "Razor Ramon". Two weeks later on "Nitro", Hall was joined by Kevin Nash, most previously known as "Diesel" in the WWF, to become "The Outsiders". Bischoff intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW. To avoid legal action by the WWF, Bischoff in a worked interview at The Great American Bash, asked point blank if they worked for the WWF, which both Hall and Nash denied. The Outsiders expanded and became the New World Order (nWo) when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders in July 1996.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: The nWo was depicted as a rival company engaging in a "hostile takeover" of WCW. Week to week, the angle grew more complex, with a mixture of main-eventers, mid-carders, executives, referees, managers, and announcers involved in various subplots related to the onscreen "WCW vs nWo" power-struggle. Led by the nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in America with "Nitro" defeating "Raw" in the ratings by a wide margin for 83 consecutive weeks. During this era, Bischoff moved from his role as commentator and joined the nWo as a manager. His television character, dubbed "Eazy E" by Hall ("Sleazy E" by the WCW commentators), became a dictator and egomaniac as the nWo boss. In the summer of 1998, Bischoff hosted a "Tonight Show" like segment on WCW programming with Miss Elizabeth. Ted DiBiase has said in shoot interviews that Bischoff originally hired DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial backer for the nWo, but when the nWo was getting to be a more prominent storyline, Bischoff replaced DiBiase as nWo spokesperson.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: When the WWF rebranded their product as "WWF Attitude" and began to focus on new superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Rock, and made owner/longtime announcer Vince McMahon into a character, this eventually resulted in a ratings turnaround for WWF. On April 13, 1998, WWF ended WCW's year and a half run on top of the ratings war. Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW continued to post strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates throughout 1998. In 1998 WCW built one of its first homegrown superstars in Bill Goldberg, and gave him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on July 6, 1998 at the Georgia Dome in front of 39,919 people on "Nitro".


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In early 1999, Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker. Despite Goldberg drawing at the box office and doing three shows in December and January that did nearly a $1 million gate, the decision was made to end Goldberg's undefeated streak and put the belt on Nash. On the January 4 "Nitro", at the Georgia Dome, Nash dropped the title to Hogan in a match that became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom, and the nWo was rebranded. By March ratings began dropping, and WCW began experiencing an endless streak of ratings losses.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Throughout 1999, Bischoff reverted to focusing on aging WCW stars such as Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Sting, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Nash, Ric Flair, and Sid Vicious. In an effort to improve ratings, WCW also began to focus heavily on several celebrities such as Master P., Chad Brock, Megadeth, Dennis Rodman, and Kiss. One of the last deals Bischoff structured was a deal with the members of the rock band Kiss to have their own wrestling character known as The Kiss Demon.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: By late 1999, WCW began losing around $5 million a month. Attendance, PPV buys and ratings were down significantly. On September 10, 1999, the decision was made to relieve Bischoff of power.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On September 10, 1999, Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by Turner Sports chief Harvey Schiller. The job title "President of WCW" was eliminated. He was replaced with WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President (handling the creative of the company with Brad Siegel handling the day to day operations). One of Busch's first acts in charge was the additions of former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara (both of whom had worked on "Raw" when the show began to overtake "Nitro" in the ratings) to head up WCW's creative direction.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In April 2000, Bischoff returned as an on-air character alongside Vince Russo to lead the heel faction The New Blood; Bischoff also worked on writing the shows with Russo during this time. Bischoff's last on-camera role in WCW was in July 2000 at the Bash at the Beach 2000 pay-per-view when Russo did a worked-shoot promo on Hulk Hogan.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On January 11, 2001 with WCW facing major financial woes, Siegel accepted Bischoff's offer to purchase the company. Bischoff and Fusient briefly withdrew their offer when the WWF made an inquiry on WCW (due to the terms of a settlement, WWF had a right to bid on WCW's properties, should they ever be up for liquidation). When then-WWF broadcaster Viacom objected (fearing a WWF-owned show on a competing network), the Bischoff-Fusient consortium signed a new letter of intent.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: However, the new head of Turner Broadcasting, Jamie Kellner then canceled all WCW programming due to losing money for several years from its television networks. WCW lost 60 million in 1999 alone. Kellner believed that wrestling did not fit the demographics of either TBS or TNT and would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime (even though "Thunder" was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). In the book "NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans, it is said that a key condition in WCW's purchase deal with Fusient was that Fusient wanted control over time slots on TNT and TBS networks, regardless of whether these slots would show WCW programming or not. This influenced Kellner's decision to ultimately cancel WCW programming. With no network on which to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer depended on being able to continue to air WCW programming on the Turner networks. Bischoff stated that "it made absolutely no sense for us to do the deal under those circumstances." With WCW programming canceled (and Viacom subsequently no longer objecting), the company's key assets (tape library, trademarks, and selected contracts) were purchased by the WWF in March 2001 for a substantially lower price (approximately US$3.5 million) than what had been offered.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In 2002, Bischoff was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly WWF) to be the general manager of "Raw". Although primarily an on-screen role, Bischoff had a wide range of contacts within WWE to whom he could pitch creative ideas. He debuted as the first "Raw" general manager on the July 15 episode of "Raw". He resurrected his characteristic brand of smarminess with the general manager position, again playing the arrogant heel character he had employed as the nWo boss in WCW. During his debut on "Raw" he told the audience about how he was president of WCW, creator of the nWo and how he forced Vince McMahon to change the ways he does business. Bischoff is in second place of the longest reigns as general manager in WWE history, with three years in total. Former rival and former general manager of SmackDown Theodore Long surpassed Bischoff's record with a combined number of six years. Bischoff's wrestling innovations in WWE included the "Raw Roulette" and the Elimination Chamber, as well as feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shane McMahon, John Cena, SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon, and former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) owner Paul Heyman. At Taboo Tuesday Bischoff had his head shaved after failing to beat his (kayfabe) nephew Eugene. Bischoff then began a face turn after his head got shaved. He favored face wrestlers such as Randy Orton, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Bischoff subsequently took a vacation after allowing Randy Orton's team to become General Managers for up to four weeks with every member being the general manager once a week.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff began favoring heels again after then-WWE Champion John Cena, who was drafted to "Raw" in June 2005, refused to participate in Bischoff's vendetta against an impending ECW revival. As a result, Bischoff "declared war" on Cena (citing disdain for Cena's rapping and "thug nature") and made wrestlers such as Chris Jericho and Christian try to take away the WWE Championship from Cena. In November, Bischoff aligned himself with Kurt Angle. Following several months of "Raw" and "SmackDown!" invasions, Bischoff lost to SmackDown! general manager Theodore Long at Survivor Series after The Boogeyman helped Long beat Bischoff.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On the December 5 episode of "Raw", Bischoff was (kayfabe) "fired" as general manager, when Cena body slammed him and Vince McMahon tossed him into a garbage truck - following a "trial" where his history of unscrupulous actions were listed - and had him driven out of the arena. Bischoff then sat out the remainder of the year and spent the start of 2006 writing a book that would become "Controversy Creates Cash". Bischoff was against writing a wrestling book initially, as he believes "most are bitter, self-serving revisionist history at best—and monuments to bullshit at their worst."


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On September 25, 2006, Bischoff appeared on WWE television for the first time in close to a year, and after being brought into the ring by Jonathan Coachman, he proceeded to promote his recently finished book "Controversy Creates Ca$h" (), giving a worked shoot on McMahon and WWE. During his segment, Bischoff stated, "Without "Monday Nitro" there would be no "Monday Night Raw"...without the nWo there would be no DX...and without Eric Bischoff there would be no Mr. McMahon". After this statement, Bischoff's microphone was immediately cut off, Jonathon Coachman’s music played and he was escorted from the arena by security.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: A few days later John "Bradshaw" Layfield conducted a four-part interview with Bischoff, further discussing his book on WWE.com. During the interview, Bischoff discussed various topics, such as his true feelings towards Lex Luger, his thoughts on ECW promoter Paul Heyman, his decision of giving Kevin Nash booking power, and his overall reaction to the Monday Night Wars. The book was released on October 17, 2006 and became a "New York Times" best seller.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff was chosen as the special guest referee for the D-Generation X versus Rated-RKO match at Cyber Sunday on November 5, with 60% of the vote. He then cheated DX out of the win, leaving Randy Orton and Edge the victors. The next night on "Raw", Bischoff was reinstated as General Manager for one night only. During his time as the General Manager on "Raw", he restarted matches if he did not like the outcome. He also got revenge on Maria for her statement made in his trial the year before by making her face Umaga, forced John Cena to "take the night off," and banned DX from the building. He restarted the match between Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro for the WWE Intercontinental Championship after Hardy won by disqualification. Bischoff restarted that match as a No Disqualification match, and Nitro took advantage of that using Melina to distract Hardy and striking him with the title belt. At the end of the show, DX interfered in the main event when Bischoff tried to help Edge and Randy Orton win the World Tag Team Championship, and forced him to be humiliated by "Big Dick Johnson" as revenge for costing them their match the night before.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On March 5, 2007, Bischoff made a brief appearance on "Raw" in Phoenix, Arizona to give Vince McMahon his thoughts on the WrestleMania 23 match against Donald Trump. In August 2007, Bischoff's WWE contract expired. On December 10, 2007, Bischoff appeared on "Raw" for its 15th Anniversary Special, and was confronted by Chris Jericho, the man whom he fired on "Raw" on August 22, 2005.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In October 2009, Bischoff helped negotiate a deal among Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Hulk Hogan, and himself.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: He premiered alongside Hogan on the January 4, 2010, episode of "TNA Impact!" as part of an alliance to take over and rebuild the franchise. Behind the scenes, he was also appointed TNA executive producer.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Despite being a heel when dealing with the likes of Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and Abyss, Bischoff refereed his first TNA match at Against All Odds, favoring the face challenger Samoa Joe over the heel champion A.J. Styles in a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. During the match, as part of the storyline, Bischoff punched out Styles' manager Ric Flair, after he interfered in the match, but the distraction led to Styles retaining his belt. On the March 15 episode of "Impact!" Bischoff attempted to shave Mick Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match the previous week, but was shaved bald himself, when Foley turned the tables on him. At Lockdown Bischoff turned face by helping Team Hogan defeat Team Flair in the Lethal Lockdown match. The next months Bischoff worked with Hogan, Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe against Sting and Kevin Nash, who claimed that they knew that Bischoff and Hogan were up to something. During this time Abyss turned on Hogan and went on a rampage, which included attacking the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam to the point that he was forced to vacate the title, all the while claiming that he was controlled by some entity, that was coming to TNA. After he manhandled TNA president Dixie Carter on the October 7 episode of "Impact!", Bischoff presented Carter with the paperwork that would have Abyss fired after his match with Rob Van Dam at Bound for Glory, which she then proceeded to sign.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: At Bound for Glory Bischoff turned heel with Hogan, as the two of them helped Jeff Hardy win the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff, Hogan and Hardy then aligned themselves with Abyss and Jeff Jarrett. On the following episode of "Impact!" it was revealed that Bischoff had tricked Carter and the paperwork she had signed a week earlier, were not to release Abyss, but to turn the company over to him and Hogan. Meanwhile, Bischoff's and Hogan's new stable, now known as Immortal, formed an alliance with Ric Flair's Fortune. On the November 4 episode of "Impact!", Bischoff took part in his first match in TNA, challenging the concussed Mr. Anderson to earn his shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, only for Matt Morgan to take his spot and beat Bischoff to become the number one contender. Dixie Carter returned on the November 25 episode of "Reaction", informing Hogan and Bischoff that a judge had filed an injunction against the two on her behalf over not having signatory authority, indefinitely suspending Hogan from TNA. On January 31, 2011, at the tapings of the February 3 episode of "Impact!", Fortune turned on Immortal, explaining that they were not going to let TNA suffer the same fate as WCW. Hogan, having won the court battle against Dixie Carter, returned to TNA on the March 3 episode of "Impact!", declaring himself as the new owner of the promotion.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: However, on the May 12 episode of the newly renamed "Impact Wrestling", Immortal lost control of the program to Mick Foley, who revealed himself as the Network consultant, who had been causing problems for Immortal ever since Bischoff and Hogan took over the company, however, this angle was aborted just three weeks later, when Foley left the promotion. Also in May, Bischoff declared war on the X Division, after the legitimate firing of Jay Lethal, and on the May 19 episode of "Impact Wrestling", wrestled his second TNA match, when he teamed with Matt Hardy in a tag team match, where they defeated Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck). The storyline concluded on August 11, when the Network gave the division back to the original X Division wrestlers, after the success of Destination X, which saw Immortal's Abyss lose the X Division Championship to Brian Kendrick. On October 6, it was reported that Bischoff had signed a contract extension with TNA. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, after losing control of TNA back to Dixie Carter, Hogan turned on the rest of Immortal by saving Sting from a beatdown at the hands of its members. Sting had won the match when referee Jackson James, who had earlier in the event been revealed as Bischoff's real-life son Garett Bischoff, reluctantly called the ring bell for a submission, which led to Eric hitting his son with a steel chair following the match, starting a rivalry between the two. On April 15, 2012 at Lockdown, Eric and Garett captained opposing teams in the annual Lethal Lockdown match. Garett won the match for his team by pinning Eric, forcing his father out of TNA in the process.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: After Lockdown, Bischoff did not appear on "Impact Wrestling" and focused on his backstage roles. In October 2013, Bischoff was sent home by TNA to sit out the remainder of his contract, which expired in early 2014. In May 2015, Bischoff, his son Garett, and his business partner Jason Hervey sued TNA for unpaid salary. During an interview in August 2016, when Bischoff was asked what went wrong with the company he said: "I try to put them both out of my mind so I couldn’t tell you. No comment. I’m in the middle of a lawsuit with them so I can’t really comment." When asked about positive memories during his time with TNA he stated that he did not have any. In 2019, Bischoff said of his TNA run, "For the most part, it is very regrettable" and "looking back, I wished I wouldn't have done it, with one or two exceptions."


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff inducted Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame. On the 25th Anniversary of "Raw" on January 22, 2018, Bischoff made a guest appearance on the show, during a segment with other former "Raw" general managers and on July 22, 2019 on the "Raw Reunion".


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In June 2019, WWE announced that Bischoff would be the executive director of "SmackDown", and part of Bischoff's role is to act as an intermediary between WWE and Fox executives due to his background in the television industry, but he was replaced on October 15 by Bruce Prichard, and with immediate effect he had left the company. Bryan Alvarez reported that he heard "zero good things" about Bischoff and that Bischoff did not know the product nor the wrestlers. According to Fox, Bischoff was released since "[s]ignificant promises were made that we don't feel were upheld".


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In March 2020, Bischoff reflected on his WWE departure, stating "I knew about six weeks in, eight weeks in, it just wasn’t going to work out. [...] I knew I wasn’t fitting and it wasn’t a secret. [...] It just wasn’t right. [...] I had to fit in the system and I wasn’t able to do it in the timeline it needed to be done". In June 2020, Bischoff further reflected on his departure by saying "it was on me" and backs his profession by blaming his failure to adapt to the new job for why his tenure was so short and described the problem as being more of a "chemistry issue" than anything else. Bischoff also pointed out that he had little creative control over SmackDown but was more of an overseer for Vince, who has the most say in the company's creative direction.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On April 6, 2021, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He also appeared on the December 27 episode of "Raw", as the officiator for the renewal of The Miz and Maryse's vows, and on the January 21, 2022 episode of "SmackDown", during a backstage segment with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff appeared on TNT for the first time since 2000 on August 5, 2020 when he appeared on AEW "Dynamite" to moderate a debate between Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy. He referred to his appearance as a cameo and he has not signed with the promotion. However, Bischoff would later return to "Dynamite" on October 28, 2020 to ask Jericho and MJF questions during a "town hall meeting," provoking the two wrestlers and setting up a match at Full Gear. He again appeared on "Dynamite" on March 3, 2021 as part of an Inner Circle press conference. On May 28, 2021, Bischoff returned to "Dynamite" to host a party for the Inner Circle. During the event, members of the Inner Circle were ambushed by MJF and others in The Pinnacle.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff, with actor Jason Hervey, ran his own production company, Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, which primarily produced reality TV shows, through 2017. They produced a live "Girls Gone Wild" pay-per-view event from Florida in 2003 with WWE and another pay-per-view about the Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally in 2004. They also executive produced the VH1 reality shows "Scott Baio Is 45...and Single", "Scott Baio Is 46...and Pregnant", "I Want To Be a Hilton", and "Confessions of a Teen Idol", along with the CMT show "Billy Ray Cyrus...Home At Last". Bischoff-Hervey Productions also produced a wrestling reality show called "Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling" in which ten celebrities were trained to wrestle and one celebrity is voted off weekly. Bischoff also appeared as one of the "judges" on the show. In November 2009, Bischoff helped produce Hulk Hogan's tour to Australia. Bischoff, also had a show in development with Food Network called "Food Fight" where pro wrestlers take on celebrity chefs in cooking and then tag-team with them in a wrestling match. In January 2013, Bischoff and Hervey produced the television series .


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In 2013, along with partners Jason Hervey and Ike McFadden, Bischoff formed the online gaming company MX Digital. The company develops and distributes online and mobile celebrity-themed games in Europe and North America. Among the company's first released games were "Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania", which debuted on SkyVegas in November 2012. Their next game, "The Hoff", featuring actor-singer David Hasselhoff, was released widely in Europe in February 2013.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: In early 2014, his online-gaming company announced a deal with actor Dan Aykroyd to launch a Blues Brothers online casino game in Europe. Later that year, MX Digital launched their games on Facebook, under the moniker "MX Casino". Slot-machine-style games playable upon launch as a Facebook app included "socialized" versions of "Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania", as well as a similarly Facebook-friendly version of "The Hoff". Also debuting in October of that year were a batch of new celebrity-themed games, this time starring the likes of Dennis Rodman, James Dean and Chuck Norris.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Before getting into professional wrestling, Bischoff had a number of occupations. He acted in a training video for bank employees regarding fair lending practices, owned a successful landscape construction company, worked as a veterinary assistant, competed as a professional kickboxer, and ran a butcher shop, where he sold meat via van delivery. Hulk Hogan would famously refer to this time in his life during his heel promo at the end of the 1996 WCW pay-per-view event Bash at the Beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, saying, "If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis."


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff has homes in Cody, Wyoming; Scottsdale, Arizona; Stamford, Connecticut; and Los Angeles, California with his wife, Loree (married since 1984). He has two children: son Garett (born April 20, 1984); and daughter Montanna (born November 7, 1985). Garett, under the ring name Jackson James, made his debut for TNA Wrestling on November 7, 2010, as a referee at Turning Point, before later becoming a wrestler under his real name.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On May 5, 2011, Eric Bischoff announced that he was starting a brewing company in Cody, Wyoming. Their first beverage, called Buffalo Bill Cody Beer, featured the tag line "The Spirit of the Wild West".


title: Eric Bischoff

text: On July 27, 2016, Bischoff premiered his first podcast show, "Bischoff on Wrestling", on MLW Radio. After October 17, 2017, he quit the show due to being shortchanged on money. In April 2018, Bischoff returned to podcasting with "83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff" alongside co-host, Conrad Thompson.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff is a longtime fan of Vermont-based jamband Phish and collects live recordings of their concerts.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Bischoff is one of the most polarizing and controversial figures in professional wrestling history. Bischoff was instrumental in the creation of the New World Order, which played a major role in WCW's success and peak during the Monday Night Wars. Mike Johnson of "Pro Wrestling Insider" wrote: "His place in history is this and it will always be this - he's the only person to come along and kick Vince McMahon hard enough that he forced WWF's product to evolve and get better. No matter whether he won the ratings for 83 weeks or one week, his legacy is that he made pro wrestling change for the better in the mid-1990s." However, R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, the authors of the book titled "The Death of WCW", were critical of many of the decisions Bischoff made as head of WCW and believe that he contributed to the decline of the company. Despite their criticisms, Reynolds attributes the death of the company to have been the result of decisions made by Jamie Kellner.


title: Eric Bischoff

text: Although critical of the time that they spent working together in WCW and TNA, former WCW and TNA creative writer Vince Russo said Bischoff has "contributed [to professional wrestling] in a tremendous way ... dating all the way back to his early days at the AWA". AEW promoter Tony Khan credits Bischoff with paving the way for his promotion, stating: "I wouldn’t be here and there would not be an AEW without [Bischoff] and there would not be wrestling on TNT right now without [him]." WWE describes Bischoff as a "pioneer behind the scenes in sports-entertainment, as well as an incredibly entertaining performer in front of the camera", further stating that he achieved "success everywhere he went in the business".


title: Book of Esther

text: The Book of Esther (), also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Jewish "Tanakh" (the Hebrew Bible). It is one of the five Scrolls () in the Hebrew Bible and later became part of the Christian Old Testament.


title: Book of Esther

text: The book relates the story of a Hebrew woman in Persia, born as Hadassah but known as Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her people. The story forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim, during which it is read aloud twice: once in the evening and again the following morning. The books of Esther and Song of Songs are the only books in the Hebrew Bible that do not mention God.


title: Book of Esther

text: The biblical Book of Esther is set in the Persian capital of Susa ("Shushan") in the third year of the reign of the Persian king Ahasuerus. The name "Ahasuerus" is equivalent to "Xerxes" (both deriving from the Persian "Khshayārsha"), and Ahasuerus is usually identified in modern sources as Xerxes I, who ruled between 486 and 465 BCE, as it is to this monarch that the events described in Esther are thought to fit the most closely.


title: Book of Esther

text: Assuming that Ahasuerus is indeed Xerxes I, the events described in Esther began around the years 483–82 BCE, and concluded in March 473 BCE.


title: Book of Esther

text: Classical sources such as Josephus, the Jewish commentary "Esther Rabbah" and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus, as well as the Greek Septuagint translation of Esther, instead identify Ahasuerus as either Artaxerxes I (reigned 465 to 424 BCE) or Artaxerxes II (reigned 404 to 358 BCE).


title: Book of Esther

text: On his accession, however, Artaxerxes II lost Egypt to pharaoh Amyrtaeus, after which it was no longer part of the Persian empire. In his "Historia Scholastica" Petrus Comestor identified Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1) as Artaxerxes III (358–338 BCE) who reconquered Egypt.


title: Book of Esther

text: The Book of Esther consists of an introduction (or exposition) in chapters 1 and 2; the main action (complication and resolution) in chapters 3 to 9:19; and a conclusion in 9:20–10:3.


title: Book of Esther

text: The plot is structured around banquets (Heb. מִשְׁתֶּה, "mishteh"), a word that occurs twenty times in Esther and only 24 times in the rest of the Hebrew bible. This is appropriate given that Esther describes the origin of a Jewish feast, the feast of Purim, but Purim itself is not the subject and no individual feast in the book is commemorated by Purim. The book's theme, rather, is the reversal of destiny through a sudden and unexpected turn of events: the Jews seem destined to be destroyed, but instead are saved. In literary criticism such a reversal is termed "peripety", and while on one level its use in Esther is simply a literary or aesthetic device, on another it is structural to the author's theme, suggesting that the power of God is at work behind human events.


title: Book of Esther

text: King Ahasuerus, ruler of the Persian Empire, holds a lavish 180-day banquet, initially for his court and dignitaries and afterwards a seven-day banquet for all inhabitants of the capital city, Shushan (Esther 1:1–9). On the seventh day of the latter banquet, Ahasuerus orders the queen, Vashti, to display her beauty before the guests by coming before them wearing her crown (1:10–11). She refuses, infuriating Ahasuerus, who on the advice of his counselors removes her from her position as an example to other women who might be emboldened to disobey their husbands (1:12–19). A decree follows that "every man should bear rule in his own house" (1:20–22).


title: Book of Esther

text: Ahasuerus then makes arrangements to choose a new queen from a selection of beautiful young women from throughout the empire (2:1–4). Among these women is a Jewish orphan named Esther, who was raised by her cousin or uncle, Mordecai (2:5–7). She finds favour in the King's eyes, and is crowned his new queen, but does not reveal her Jewish heritage (2:8–20). Shortly afterwards, Mordecai discovers a plot by two courtiers, Bigthan and Teresh, to assassinate Ahasuerus. The conspirators are apprehended and hanged, and Mordecai's service to the King is recorded (2:21–23).


title: Book of Esther

text: Ahasuerus appoints Haman as his viceroy (3:1). Mordecai, who sits at the palace gates, falls into Haman's disfavour, as he refuses to bow down to him (3:2–5). Haman discovers that Mordecai refuses to bow on account of his Jewishness, and in revenge plots to kill not just Mordecai, but all the Jews in the empire (3:6). He obtains Ahasuerus' permission to execute this plan, against payment of ten thousand talents of silver, and casts lots ("purim") to choose the date on which to do this the thirteenth of the month of Adar (3:7–12). A royal decree is issued throughout the kingdom to slay all Jews on that date. (3:13–15).


title: Book of Esther

text: When Mordecai discovers the plan, he goes into mourning and implores Esther to intercede with the King (4:1–5). But she is afraid to present herself to the King unsummoned, an offense punishable by death (4:6–12). Instead, she directs Mordecai to have all Jews fast for three days for her, and vows to fast as well (4:15–16.). On the third day she goes to Ahasuerus, who stretches out his sceptre to her to indicate that she is not to be punished (5:1–2). She invites him to a feast in the company of Haman (5:3–5). During the feast, she asks them to attend a further feast the next evening (5:6–8). Meanwhile, Haman is again offended by Mordecai and, at his wife's suggestion, has a gallows built to hang him (5:9–14).


title: Book of Esther

text: That night, Ahasuerus cannot sleep, and orders the court records be read to him (6:1). He is reminded that Mordecai interceded in the previous plot against his life, and discovers that Mordecai never received any recognition (6:2–3). Just then, Haman appears to request the King's permission to hang Mordecai, but before he can make this request, Ahasuerus asks Haman what should be done for the man that the King wishes to honour (6:4–6). Assuming that the King is referring to Haman himself, Haman suggests that the man be dressed in the King's royal robes and crown and led around on the King's royal horse, while a herald calls: "See how the King honours a man he wishes to reward!" (6:7–9). To his surprise and horror, the King instructs Haman to do so to Mordecai (6:10–11).


title: Book of Esther

text: Immediately after, Ahasuerus and Haman attend Esther's second banquet. The King promises to grant her any request, and she reveals that she is Jewish and that Haman is planning to exterminate her people, including herself (7:1–6). Overcome by rage, Ahasuerus leaves the room; meanwhile Haman stays behind and begs Esther for his life, falling upon her in desperation (7:7). The King returns in at this very moment and thinks Haman is assaulting the queen; this makes him angrier and he orders Haman hanged on the very gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai (7:8–10).


title: Book of Esther

text: Unable to annul a formal royal decree, the King instead adds to it, permitting the Jews to join together and destroy any and all of those seeking to kill them (8:1–14). On 13 Adar, Haman's ten sons and 500 other men are killed in Shushan (9:1–12). Upon hearing of this Esther requests it be repeated the next day, whereupon 300 more men are killed (9:13–15). Over 75,000 people are killed by the Jews, who are careful to take no plunder (9:16–17). Mordecai and Esther send letters throughout the provinces instituting an annual commemoration of the Jewish people's redemption, in a holiday called Purim (lots) (9:20–28). Ahasuerus remains very powerful and continues his reign, with Mordecai assuming a prominent position in his court (10:1–3).


title: Book of Esther

text: The "Megillat Esther" (Book of Esther) became the last of the 24 books of the Tanakh to be canonized by the Sages of the Great Assembly. According to the Talmud, it was a redaction by the Great Assembly of an original text by Mordecai. It is usually dated to the 4th century BCE.


title: Book of Esther

text: The Greek book of Esther, included in the Septuagint, is a retelling of the events of the Hebrew Book of Esther rather than a translation and records additional traditions which do not appear in the traditional Hebrew version, in particular the identification of Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes and details of various letters. It is dated around the late 2nd to early 1st century BCE. The Coptic and Ethiopic versions of Esther are translations of the Greek rather than the Hebrew Esther.


title: Book of Esther

text: A Latin version of Esther was produced by Jerome for the Vulgate. It translates the Hebrew Esther but interpolates translations of the Greek Esther where the latter provides additional material. Predating the Vulgate, however, the "Vetus Latina" ("Old Latin") was apparently translated from a different Greek version not included in the Septuagint.


title: Book of Esther

text: Several Aramaic targums of Esther were produced in the Middle Ages, of which three survive – the "Targum Rishon" ("First Targum" or 1TgEsth) and "Targum Sheni" ("Second Targum" or 2TgEsth) dated c. 500–1000 CE, which include additional legends relating to Purim, and the "Targum Shelishi" ("Third Targum" or 3TgEsth), which Berliner and Goshen-Gottstein argued was the ur-Targum from which the others had been expanded, but which others consider only a late recension of the same. 3TgEsth is the most manuscript-stable of the three, and by far the most literal.


title: Book of Esther

text: The apparent historical difficulties, the internal inconsistencies, the pronounced symmetry of themes and events, the plenitude of quoted dialogue, and the gross exaggeration in the reporting of numbers (involving time, money, and people) all point to Esther as a work of fiction, its vivid characters (except for Xerxes) being the product of the author's creative imagination. There is no reference to known historical events in the story; a general consensus, though this consensus has been challenged, has maintained that the narrative of "Esther" was invented in order to provide an aetiology for Purim, and the name Ahasuerus is usually understood to refer to a fictionalized Xerxes I, who ruled the Achaemenid Empire between 486 and 465 BCE.


title: Book of Esther

text: As noted by biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan, the book contains specific details regarding certain subject matter (for example, Persian rule) which are historically inaccurate. For example, Coogan discusses an inaccuracy regarding the age of Esther's cousin (or, according to others, uncle) Mordecai. In Esther 2:5–6, either Mordecai or his great-grandfather Kish is identified as having been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 597 BCE: "Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jeconiah king of Judah". If this refers to Mordecai, he would have had to live over a century to have witnessed the events described in the Book of Esther. However, the verse may be read as referring not to Mordecai's exile to Babylon, but to his great-grandfather Kish's exile.


title: Book of Esther

text: In her article "The Book of Esther and Ancient Storytelling", biblical scholar Adele Berlin discusses the reasoning behind scholarly concern about the historicity of Esther. Much of this debate relates to the importance of distinguishing history and fiction within biblical texts, as Berlin argues, in order to gain a more accurate understanding of the history of the Israelite people. Berlin quotes a series of scholars who suggest that the author of Esther did not mean for the book to be considered as a historical writing, but intentionally wrote it to be a historical novella. The genre of novellas under which Esther falls was common during both the Persian and Hellenistic periods to which scholars have dated the book of Esther.


title: Book of Esther

text: However, there are certain elements of the book of Esther that are historically accurate. The story told in the book of Esther takes place during the rule of Ahasuerus, who amongst others has been identified as the 5th-century Persian king Xerxes I (reigned 486–465 BCE). The author also displays an accurate knowledge of Persian customs and palaces. However, according to Coogan, considerable historical inaccuracies remain throughout the text, supporting the view that the book of Esther is to be read as a historical novella which tells a story describing historical events but is not necessarily historical fact.


title: Book of Esther

text: Those arguing in favour of a historical reading of Esther most commonly identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes I (ruled 486–465 BCE), although in the past it was often assumed that he was Artaxerxes II (ruled 405–359 BCE). The Hebrew "Ahasuerus" ("ʔaḥašwērōš") is most likely derived from Persian "Xšayārša", the origin of the Greek "Xerxes". The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Xerxes sought his harem after being defeated in the Greco-Persian Wars. He makes no reference to individual members of the harem except for a domineering Queen consort named Amestris, whose father, Otanes, was one of Xerxes's generals. (In contrast, the Greek historian Ctesias refers to a similar father-in-law/general figure named Onaphas.) Amestris has often been identified with Vashti, but this identification is problematic, as Amestris remained a powerful figure well into the reign of her son, Artaxerxes I, whereas Vashti is portrayed as dismissed in the early part of Xerxes's reign. Alternative attempts have been made to identify her with Esther, although Esther is an orphan whose father was a Jew named Abihail.


title: Book of Esther

text: As for the identity of Mordecai, the similar names "Marduka" and "Marduku" have been found as the name of officials in the Persian court in over thirty texts from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius I, and may refer to up to four individuals, one of whom might be the model for the biblical Mordecai.


title: Book of Esther

text: The "Old Greek" Septuagint version of Esther translates the name Ahasuerus as "Artaxerxes", a Greek name derived from the Persian "Artaxšaθra". Josephus too relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks, and the Midrashic text "Esther Rabba" also makes the identification. Bar-Hebraeus identified Ahasuerus explicitly as Artaxerxes II; however, the names are not necessarily equivalent: Hebrew has a form of the name "Artaxerxes" distinct from "Ahasuerus", and a direct Greek rendering of "Ahasuerus" is used by both Josephus and the Septuagint for occurrences of the name outside the Book of Esther. Instead, the Hebrew name Ahasuerus accords with an inscription of the time that notes that Artaxerxes II was named also "Aršu", understood as a shortening of "Aḫšiyaršu" the Babylonian rendering of the Persian "Xšayārša" (Xerxes), through which the Hebrew "ʔaḥašwērōš" (Ahasuerus) is derived. Ctesias related that Artaxerxes II was also called "Arsicas" which is understood as a similar shortening with the Persian suffix "-ke" that is applied to shortened names. Deinon related that Artaxerxes II was also called "Oarses" which is also understood to be derived from "Xšayārša".


title: Book of Esther

text: Another view attempts to identify him instead with Artaxerxes I (ruled 465–424 BCE), whose Babylonian concubine, Kosmartydene, was the mother of his son Darius II (ruled 424–405 BCE). Jewish tradition relates that Esther was the mother of a King Darius and so some try to identify Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes I and Esther with Kosmartydene.


title: Book of Esther

text: Based on the view that the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit is identical with that of the Book of Esther, some have also identified him as Nebuchadnezzar's ally Cyaxares (ruled 625–585 BCE). In certain manuscripts of Tobit, the former is called "Achiachar", which, like the Greek "Cyaxares", is thought to be derived from Persian "Huwaxšaθra". Depending on the interpretation of Esther 2:5–6, Mordecai or his great-grandfather Kish was carried away from Jerusalem with Jeconiah by Nebuchadnezzar, in 597 BCE. The view that it was Mordecai would be consistent with the identification of Ahasuerus with Cyaxares. Identifications with other Persian monarchs have also been suggested.


title: Book of Esther

text: Jacob Hoschander has argued that the name of Haman and that of his father Hamedatha are mentioned by Strabo as "Omanus" and "Anadatus," worshipped with Anahita in the city of Zela. Hoschander suggests that Haman may, if the connection is correct, be a priestly title and not a proper name. Strabo's names are unattested in Persian texts as gods; however the Talmud and Josephus interpret the description of courtiers bowing to Haman in Esther 3:2 as worship. (Other scholars assume "Omanus" refers to Vohu Mana.)


title: Book of Esther

text: In his "Historia Scholastica" Petrus Comestor identified Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1) as Artaxerxes III who reconquered Egypt.


title: Book of Esther

text: In the Book of Esther, the Tetragrammaton does not appear, but some argue it is present, in hidden form, in four complex acrostics in Hebrew: the initial or last letters of four consecutive words, either forwards or backwards comprise YHWH. These letters were distinguished in at least three ancient Hebrew manuscripts in red.


title: Book of Esther

text: Christine Hayes contrasts the Book of Esther with apocalyptic writings, the Book of Daniel in particular: both Esther and Daniel depict an existential threat to the Jewish people, but while Daniel commands the Jews to wait faithfully for God to resolve the crisis, in Esther the crisis is resolved entirely through human action and national solidarity. God, in fact, is not mentioned, Esther is portrayed as assimilated to Persian culture, and Jewish identity in the book is an ethnic category rather than a religious one.


title: Book of Esther

text: This contrasts with traditional Jewish commentaries, such as the commentary of the Vilna Gaon, which states "But in every verse it discusses the great miracle. However, this miracle was in a hidden form, occurring through apparently natural processes, not like the Exodus from Egypt, which openly revealed the might of God." This follows the approach of the Talmud, which states that "(The Book of) Esther is referenced in the Torah in the verse 'And I shall surely hide (in Hebrew, 'haster astir,' related to 'Esther') My Face from them on that day.


title: Book of Esther

text: Although marriages between Jews and Gentiles are not permitted in orthodox Judaism, even in case of Pikuach nefesh, Esther is not regarded as a sinner, because she remained passive, and risked her life to save that of the entire Jewish people.


title: Book of Esther

text: "The Vanishing Jew: A Wake-Up Call From the Book of Esther" by Michael Eisenberg looks at the Megilla from the perspective of economic philosophy and the struggle for money, power and control.


title: Book of Esther

text: An additional six chapters appear interspersed in Esther in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible. This was noted by Jerome in compiling the Latin Vulgate. Additionally, the Greek text contains many small changes in the meaning of the main text. Jerome recognized the former as additions not present in the Hebrew Text and placed them at the end of his Latin translation. This placement and numbering system is used in Catholic Bible translations based primarily on the Vulgate, such as the Douay–Rheims Bible and the Knox Bible. In contrast, the 1979 revision of the Vulgate, the Nova Vulgata, incorporates the additions to Esther directly into the narrative itself, as do most modern Catholic English translations based on the original Hebrew and Greek (e.g., Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition). The numbering system for the additions differs with each translation. The Nova Vulgata accounts for the additional verses by numbering them as extensions of the verses immediately following or preceding them (e.g., Esther 11:2–12 in the old Vulgate becomes Esther 1:1a–1k in the Nova Vulgata), while the NAB and its successor, the NABRE, assign letters of the alphabet as chapter headings for the additions (e.g., Esther 11:2–12:6 in the Vulgate becomes Esther A:1–17). The RSVCE and the NRSVCE place the additional material into the narrative, but retain the chapter and verse numbering of the old Vulgate.


title: Book of Esther

text: By the time the Greek version of Esther was written, the foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to Judah was the kingdom of Macedonia under Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persian empire about 150 years after the time of the story of Esther; the Septuagint version noticeably calls Haman a "Bougaion" (), possibly in the Homeric sense of "bully" or "braggart," whereas the Hebrew text describes him as an Agagite.


title: Book of Esther

text: The canonicity of these Greek additions has been a subject of scholarly disagreement practically since their first appearance in the Septuagint Martin Luther, being perhaps the most vocal Reformation-era critic of the work, considered even the original Hebrew version to be of very doubtful value.


title: Book of Esther

text: The Council of Trent, the summation of the Counter-Reformation, reconfirmed the entire book, both Hebrew text and Greek additions, as canonical. The Book of Esther is used twice in commonly used sections of the Catholic Lectionary. In both cases, the text used is not only taken from a Greek addition, the readings also are the prayer of Mordecai, and nothing of Esther's own words is ever used. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint version of Esther, as it does for all of the Old Testament.


title: Book of Esther

text: In contrast, the additions are included in the Biblical apocrypha, usually printed in a separate section (if at all) in Protestant bibles. The additions, called "The rest of the Book of Esther", are specifically listed in the Thirty-Nine Articles, Article VI, of the Church of England as non-canonical.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a type of muscular dystrophy, a group of genetic disorders that cause progressive muscle loss and weakness. In DM, muscles are often unable to relax after contraction. Other manifestations may include cataracts, intellectual disability and heart conduction problems. In men, there may be early balding and an inability to have children. While myotonic dystrophy can occur at any age, onset is typically in the 20s and 30s.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Myotonic dystrophy is caused by a genetic mutation in one of two genes. Mutation of the "DMPK" gene causes myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). Mutation of "CNBP" gene causes type 2 (DM2). DM is typically inherited from a person's parents, following an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern, and it generally worsens with each generation. A type of DM1 may be apparent at birth. DM2 is generally milder. Diagnosis is confirmed by genetic testing.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: There is no cure. Treatments may include braces or wheelchairs, pacemakers and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation. The medications mexiletine or carbamazepine can help relax muscles. Pain, if it occurs, may be treated with tricyclic antidepressants and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Myotonic dystrophy affects more than 1 in 8,000 people worldwide. It is the most common form of muscular dystrophy that begins in adulthood. It was first described in 1909, with the underlying cause of type 1 determined in 1992.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DM causes muscle weakness, early onset of cataracts, and myotonia, which is delayed relaxation of muscles after contraction. Cataracts can be either a cortical cataract with a blue dot appearance, or a posterior subcapsular cataract. Other organs affected include the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and brain. Insulin resistance can also occur. Signs and symptoms vary considerably by severity, unusual phenotype, and form (DM1/DM2). DM1 and DM2 differ in regards to the muscles they affect, age of onset, severity of disease, and extramuscular manifestations.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DM1 usually begins in the muscles of the hands, feet, neck, or face. One manifestation of facial weakness is drooping of the eyelid (ptosis). It slowly progresses to involve other muscle groups, including the heart. Myotonia tends to be more prominent in DM1 compared to DM2. Other DM1 manifestations include problems with executive function (e.g., organization, concentration, word-finding) and hypersomnia. Abnormalities in the electrical activity of the heart are common in DM1, manifesting as arrhythmias or conduction blocks. Sometimes, dilated cardiomyopathy occurs. Symptoms onset any time from birth to adulthood. The earlier the disease onset, the greater the variety of possible signs and symptoms. Thus, various diagnostic classifications based on the age of onset/severity of the disease have been proposed, although DM1 manifestations likely lie on a continuum.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: When DM1 onsets at birth, it is called congenital DM1. Manifestations that can be present at birth include hypotonia, respiratory failure, feeding difficulty, and club foot (talipes equinovarus), any of which tend to resolve over several years. During childhood, intellectual impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can result. Gastrointestinal issues can result, which can be severe, manifestations including diarrhea, constipation, and fecal incontinence. The symptoms of adult DM often manifest during adolescence. Infantile DM1 can be distinguished as another disease category, or it can be grouped with congenital DM1 or childhood-onset DM1.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Childhood-onset DM1 is defined as onset of symptoms between ages 1 and 10 years. Manifestations include the same intellectual and gastrointestinal symptoms seen in congenital DM1.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DM2 is generally milder than DM1, with generally fewer DM2 people requiring assistive devices than DM1 people.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DM2 preferentially affects muscles closer to or on the torso, including the neck flexors, hip flexors, and hip extensors. Muscle pain is prominent in DM2. Heart issues, while still potentially fatal, are less common and severe in DM2 than DM1. Symptoms onset in early to late adulthood. Severe congenital onset, which can occur in DM1, has not been observed in DM2.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a genetic condition that is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, meaning each child of an affected individual has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. The mutation involves satellite DNA, which is tandemly repeated sequences of DNA that do not code for a protein. The repeats implicated in myotonic dystrophy are either 3 or 4 nucleotides in length, classified as microsatellites. Disease results from an abnormally increased number of these microsatellites, termed microsatellite expansion.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The microsatellite expansion responsible for DM1 is of cytosine-thymine-guanine (CTG) triplet repeats, termed trinucleotide repeat expansion and classifying DM1 as a one of several trinucleotide repeat disorders. This expansion occurs at the end of the "DMPK" gene, in the 3' untranslated region. "DMPK" is located on the long arm of chromosome 19. "DMPK" codes for myotonic dystrophy protein kinase, a protein expressed predominantly in skeletal muscle.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Between 5 and 37 repeats is considered normal; between 38 and 49 repeats is considered pre-mutation, and although not producing symptoms, children can have further repeat expansion and symptomatic disease; greater than 50 repeats almost invariably is symptomatic, with some noted exceptions. Longer repeats are usually associated with earlier onset and more severe disease.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DMPK alleles with greater than 37 repeats are unstable and additional trinucleotide repeats may be inserted during cell division in mitosis and meiosis. Consequently, the children of individuals with premutations or mutations inherit DMPK alleles which are longer than their parents and therefore are more likely to be affected or display an earlier onset and greater severity of the condition, a phenomenon known as anticipation. Repeat expansion is generally considered to be a consequence of the incorporation of additional bases as a result of strand slippage during either DNA replication or DNA repair synthesis. Misalignments occurring during homologous recombinational repair, double-strand break repair or during other DNA repair processes likely contribute to trinucleotide repeat expansions in DM1. Paternal transmission of the congenital form is uncommon (13%), possibly due to selection pressures against sperm with expanded repeats, but juvenile or adult-onset is equally transmitted from either parent. Anticipation tends to be less severe than in cases of maternal inheritance.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The RNA from the expanded trinucleotide repeat region forms intranucleoplasmic hairpin loops due to the extensive hydrogen bonding between C-G base pairs, and it has been demonstrated that these sequester the splicing regulator MBNL1 to form distinctive foci.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: A severe form of DM1, congenital myotonic dystrophy, may appear in newborns of mothers who have DM. Congenital myotonic dystrophy can also be inherited via the paternal gene, although it is said to be relatively rare. Congenital means that the condition is present from birth.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The microsatellite expansion responsible for DM2 is of cytosine-cytosine-thymine-guanine (CCTG) repeats, classifying it as a tetranucleotide repeat disorder. This expansion occurs in the first intron "CNBP" gene on chromosome 3.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The repeat expansion for DM2 is much larger than for DM1, ranging from 75 to over 11,000 repeats. Like DM1, the size of the microsatellite repeat array lengthens from generation to generation. Unlike DM1, anticipation does not result, as the degree of repeat expansion beyond 75 repeats does not affect the age of onset or disease severity.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The repeat expansion produces an RNA transcript that binds to RNA-binding proteins such as MBNL1, as in DM1. Also, repeat expansion likely reduces expression of "CNBP", loss of which causes muscle toxicity.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Mutations of DM1 and DM2 cause production of RNA that sequesters RNA-binding proteins, causing dysregulated RNA splicing. This dysregulated RNA splicing is particularly toxic to skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle. One example in DM1 involves the chloride channel ClC-1. Mutated DMPK RNA binds to MBNL1, causing ClC-1 pre-mRNA to be spliced into the fetal form instead of the adult form. Functional loss of the chloride channel causes myotonia.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: In DM1, there can be increased central nuclei, angular fibers, fiber atrophy, and pyknotic clumps. There can be selective atrophy of type 1 muscle fibers. Muscle fibers show signs of degeneration and regeneration. There is modest fibrosis of the endomysium.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: In DM2, there can be variation in the sizes of muscle fibers, although often there are no abnormalities. There is selective atrophy of type 2 muscle fibers. Again, there are central nuclei and nuclear clumps.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The diagnosis of DM1 and DM2 can be difficult due to the large number of neuromuscular disorders, most of which are very rare. One study found that diagnosis is made an average of seven years after symptom onset for DM1, and fourteen years for DM2.