title: Casey Wilson

text: Her father, Paul O. Wilson, is a political strategist and consultant who runs campaigns for Republican party candidates. Her mother, Kathy Higdon, was a women's rights advocate and served as the chairwoman of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) throughout the 1980s. Under Higdon's leadership, the NWPC endorsed Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Kathy Higdon Wilson retired from politics in the late 1980s; switching to a career in early childhood education, she began serving as the director of childcare and development centers in Alexandria, Virginia in 1991. She died of heart failure at age 54 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on September 1, 2005. Casey Wilson and her family have since continued to run the Kathy Wilson Foundation, a charitable organization honoring her mother's work in helping children with disabilities.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson's passion for performing began at an early age, and she has said that her first memorable exposure to theater came when her father took her to New York City to see a production of "Cats", inspiring her to create her own plays.


title: Casey Wilson

text: When Wilson was nine years old, her father built her a homemade stage in the family's backyard, where she put on plays with other children from the neighborhood. From there, she started taking singing and acting lessons as a teenager. She became involved in her high school's theater program, starring in (and occasionally directing) many of the school's plays and musicals, including a production of "The Sound of Music", in which she played the lead role of Maria.


title: Casey Wilson

text: While studying acting at the Stella Adler School of Dramatic Arts, Wilson originally set out to be a dramatic actress, but later started to focus on comedy at the suggestion of an acting teacher.


title: Casey Wilson

text: After graduating from NYU in 2002, Wilson and her best friend from college, June Diane Raphael, began studying improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, where they eventually ran their two-woman sketch show for a number of years. Performing the long-running stage show opened doors for them as writers. After performing the show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2005, they were hired by New Regency Pictures to write the film "Bride Wars" and landed a development deal with UPN to create a sitcom pilot.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson has cited her biggest influences as Catherine O'Hara, Diane Keaton, Madeline Kahn, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, Debra Winger, and Shirley MacLaine.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson started her comedy career writing and performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York and later in Los Angeles. At UCB, she was a member of the Harold improv teams "Mr. and Mrs. All-Star", "Sentimental Lady", and "Hey, Uncle Gary!".


title: Casey Wilson

text: Among her best-known work at UCB was the long-running two-woman sketch show "Rode Hard and Put Away Wet", written and performed alongside her comedy partner and best friend June Diane Raphael; the show ran from 2003 to 2006 in New York and Los Angeles and was an official selection at 2005's US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The two women, who first met in a clowning class during their freshman year at NYU, went on to win the ECNY Award for "Best Comedy Duo" in 2005.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson and Raphael's comedic partnership has since branched out into an active writing career in film and television. They co-wrote their first screenplay for the comedy "Bride Wars", in which they also played supporting roles. They landed a development deal with UPN in 2005 to create a half-hour comedy pilot. In 2007 they worked as writers and story editors on the Americanized version of "Creature Comforts" on CBS.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson made her film acting debut as an acting student in the final scene of the 2006 Christopher Guest film "For Your Consideration". She has since appeared in "Julie & Julia", "C.O.G.", "The Breakup Girl", "The Guilt Trip", "Killers", "The Brothers Solomon", "Freak Dance", "The Great Buck Howard", and the Bob Odenkirk-directed short film "Derek & Simon: A Bee and a Cigarette". She also co-starred in the David Fincher thriller "Gone Girl" (2014), the 2016 dramedy "The Meddler", with Susan Sarandon, and the 2019 comedy "Always Be My Maybe".


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson is a frequent contributor to the popular humor website Funny or Die, writing and starring in many viral videos for the site, including a series of political parodies where she plays Callista Gingrich.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson continues to collaborate with writing partner June Diane Raphael on scripts for film and television. They have worked on numerous script rewrites for films in development, such as projects with Anna Faris and America Ferrera attached to star. As writer-performers, Wilson and Raphael also continue to generate material for themselves. They wrote and starred together in the comedy "Ass Backwards", which co-stars Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Paul Scheer, and Bob Odenkirk. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2013. Wilson and Raphael are working on a second film to star in together, produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's company Gary Sanchez Productions.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson's theater and stage work includes joining the 2010 rotating cast of the Off-Broadway play "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" (written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron) at Manhattan's Westside Theatre. She also contributed short stories to the 2010 book "Worst Laid Plans", based on the long-running stage show, in which she co-starred. Wilson and June Diane Raphael created their newest comedic stage show "The Realest Real Housewives", which they star in alongside Jessica St. Clair, Melissa Rauch, Danielle Schneider and Morgan Walsh. The show began running at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 2011.


title: Casey Wilson

text: From April 2011 to May 2013, Wilson starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC ensemble comedy series "Happy Endings" alongside Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally and Damon Wayans, Jr. A breakout role for Wilson, she was nominated twice for "Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" at the Critics' Choice Television Awards for her work on seasons two and three of "Happy Endings". In July 2020, the cast reunited over Zoom for the pandemic-themed episode "And the Pandemmy goes to..." to raise money for the charities Color of Change and World Central Kitchen.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson again collaborated with her husband David Caspe (they met working together on "Happy Endings", which Caspe created) on the NBC sitcom "Marry Me", which aired for one season from 2014 to 2015. The series starred Wilson and Ken Marino as an engaged couple, and the premise was loosely based on Wilson and Caspe's relationship. She also starred for two seasons on the Hulu original series "The Hotwives". The series is a parody of the reality television franchise "The Real Housewives" on Bravo. With season one ("The Hotwives of Orlando") focused on Orlando, and season two taking place in Las Vegas ("The Hotwives of Las Vegas"), both seasons featured the same cast playing different roles in each season.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson's other television credits include guest appearances on "Black-ish", "How I Met Your Mother", "The Mindy Project", "Drunk History", "Grey's Anatomy", "Fresh Off the Boat", "Kroll Show", "Bored to Death", "Comedy Bang! Bang!", "The Middle", and "The League"; she has also had voiceover roles in the animated comedy programs "American Dad!", "Animals.", "Archibald's Next Big Thing", "Family Guy", "Glenn Martin, DDS", and "The Life & Times of Tim", as well as in "Littlest Pet Shop", where she starred in the series finale episode as Felina Meow. She plays a recurring role in the Amazon series "One Mississippi" starring Tig Notaro, as Tig's ex-girlfriend Brooke. In 2017, Wilson co-starred opposite Busy Philipps in Tina Fey's unaired comedy pilot "The Sackett Sisters" for NBC. In 2019, she began a recurring role as Tiffany Georgina on the Showtime comedy "Black Monday" and played Jane Rosen in the HBO mini-series "Mrs. Fletcher".


title: Casey Wilson

text: In 2019, Wilson wrote and directed the short film "Daddio" starring Michael McKean, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2019.


title: Casey Wilson

text: In 2021, Wilson starred alongside Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and Kathryn Hahn in the Apple TV+ mini-series "The Shrink Next Door", based on the popular Wondery podcast of the same name. In addition, her book of humorous essays, "The Wreckage of My Presence" was published on May 4, 2021 by HarperCollins and made the "New York Times" bestseller list for non-fiction works.


title: Casey Wilson

text: After auditioning in late 2007, Wilson was hired in January 2008 to join the cast of "Saturday Night Live", succeeding departing cast member Maya Rudolph. However, due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, she did not make her first appearance as a cast member until the show returned in February 2008; she was the first new addition to the cast in over two years, and was also the first "SNL" cast member to have been born in the 1980s. Wilson's most memorable work on "SNL" included celebrity impressions of, among others, Rachael Ray, Elizabeth Dole, Elizabeth Taylor, Ginnifer Goodwin, Katy Perry, and Jennifer Aniston, as well as original characters such as Dusty Velvet, "the paralyzed stripper"; and Toni Ward, co-host of "The Cougar Den". After spending two seasons on "SNL", Wilson was let go from the show before the start of the 2009–2010 season. When asked how she felt about her "SNL" departure in an October 2009 interview, Wilson said: "My mindset is good. I did it for a year and a half. I don't think it will ultimately define my career. And it wasn't the best fit for me."


title: Casey Wilson

text: On December 2, 2015, Wilson and comedian Danielle Schneider began hosting the Earwolf podcast "Bitch Sesh", where they and a guest have comedic discussions about the previous night's episode of "The Real Housewives", as well as other topics related to the Bravo channel and reality television. Guests have included June Diane Raphael, Andy Cohen, Adam Pally, Jerry O'Connell, Matt Besser, Vanessa Bayer, Michael Rapaport, Elisha Cuthbert, Kristen Wiig, Michelle Collins, and Retta. Paul Scheer first announced the show on his podcast "How Did This Get Made?" and released a special preview episode, describing it as a "sister podcast" to his show, with a focus on discussing reality television instead of movies. Entertainment websites including Vulture, Entertainment Weekly and The A.V. Club ranked "Bitch Sesh" on numerous podcast "Best Of" lists. In 2022, she hosted the Wondery podcast "Fed Up" about the F-Factor diet.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson lives in Los Angeles and is married to comedy writer David Caspe. They originally met in early 2010 when she auditioned for his ABC series "Happy Endings". After working together on the show for over a year, they started dating in July 2011. They got engaged over Labor Day weekend in September 2013 and were married on May 25, 2014 in Ojai, California. They have two sons, Max Red Caspe (born May 2015) and Henry Bear Caspe (born August 24, 2017). When her son Max was four years old, he was diagnosed with celiac disease, an immune disorder affecting the small intestine.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson shares her family's interest in politics. She was a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential election and volunteered on her campaign. She went on the road with the Clintons in the Midwest, speaking at and introducing Hillary and Bill Clinton at campaign rallies in Iowa and Indiana.


title: Casey Wilson

text: Wilson and her family maintain the charitable Kathy Wilson Foundation, established in 2005, which focuses on children with disabilities. The foundation screens three- and four-year-olds in the Alexandria community for disabilities. Her father Paul Wilson serves as president, with Wilson and her brother Fletcher serving as vice presidents. The foundation distributes donations and grants to local area preschools and childcare centers in Virginia every year.


title: Death-grip syndrome

text: Death-grip and death-grip syndrome are slang terms for suffering adverse effects from one's aggressive and recurrent male masturbation technique, which result in an unsatisfactory experience when engaging in regular sexual intercourse with a partner. A similar condition, dead-vagina syndrome, has been asserted to exist in women.


title: Death-grip syndrome

text: Death-grip syndrome, sometimes abbreviated as DGS, was arguably coined in 2003 by sex columnist Dan Savage and is an issue that affects both men and women. For women the slang term used is "dead vagina syndrome."


title: Death-grip syndrome

text: Although men with the indisposition may still experience an erection, it may impact a relationship negatively due to a sense of being sexually incompatible with a partner due to the habit of lasting too long during sexual activity, and subsequent side-effects such as blue balls or inhibited ejaculation. Some people who have claimed to "experience the death-grip" state that although they can still experience pleasure, the typical vagina feels too loose, and fellatio provides insufficient friction to produce an orgasm. Richard Santucci, chief of urology at Detroit Receiving Hospital's Center for Urologic Reconstruction, believes that "too strong masturbation" is not a common cause of delayed ejaculation, and states that "diabetes, medications, low testosterone, anxiety" are the common causes.


title: Death-grip syndrome

text: The concept of death-grip syndrome is not recognized by any mainstream medical bodies. Some analysts have argued that sexual techniques that have a vacuum effect, such as oral pompoir or vaginal pompoir could alleviate DGS. Some analysts have argued that there are other forms of social conditioning ingrained during adolescence that occur concurrently with DGS, such as a reluctance among men to make audible sounds of pleasure such as moaning. Such silence during sex is learned from growing up in one's household and attempting to remain discreet when around family.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval aviation services around the world.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Avenger entered U.S. service in 1942, and first saw action during the Battle of Midway. Despite the loss of five of the six Avengers on its combat debut, it survived in service to become the most effective and widely-used torpedo bomber of World War II, sharing credit for sinking the super-battleships and (the only ships of that type sunk exclusively by American aircraft while under way) and being credited for sinking 30 submarines. Greatly modified after the war, it remained in use until the 1960s.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Douglas TBD Devastator, the U.S. Navy's main torpedo bomber introduced in 1935, was obsolescent by 1939. Bids were accepted from several companies, but Grumman's TBF design was selected as the replacement for the TBD and in April 1940 two prototypes were ordered by the Navy. Designed by Leroy Grumman, the first prototype was called the XTBF-1. It was first flown on 7 August 1941. Although one of the first two prototypes crashed near Brentwood, New York, rapid production continued.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Avenger was the heaviest single-engined aircraft of World War II, and only the USAAF's P-47 Thunderbolt came close to equalling it in maximum loaded weight among all single-engined fighters, being only some lighter than the TBF, by the end of World War II. To ease carrier storage concerns, simultaneously with the F4F-4 model of its Wildcat carrier fighter, Grumman designed the Avenger to also use the new "Sto-Wing" patented "compound angle" wing-folding mechanism, intended to maximize storage space on an aircraft carrier; the Wildcat's replacement, the F6F Hellcat, also employed this mechanism. The engine used was the twin-row Wright R-2600-20 Twin Cyclone fourteen-cylinder radial engine, which produced .


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: There were three crew members: pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. A single synchronized .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine gun was mounted in the nose, a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) gun was mounted right next to the turret gunner's head in a rear-facing electrically powered turret, and a single 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) hand-fired machine gun flexibly-mounted ventrally (under the tail), which was used to defend against enemy fighters attacking from below and to the rear. This gun was fired by the radioman/bombardier while standing up and bending over in the belly of the tail section, though he usually sat on a folding bench facing forward to operate the radio and to sight in bombing runs. Later models of the TBF/TBM omitted the cowl-mount synchronized 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) gun, and replaced it with twin Browning AN/M2 0.50 caliber (12.7 mm) light-barrel guns, one in each wing outboard of the propeller arc, per pilots' requests for better forward firepower and increased strafing ability. There was only one set of controls on the aircraft, and no direct access to the pilot's position existed from the rest of the aircraft's interior. The radio equipment was massive, especially by today's standards, and filled the length of the well-framed "greenhouse" canopy to the rear of the pilot. The radios were accessible for repair through a "tunnel" along the right hand side. Any Avengers that are still flying today usually have an additional rear-mounted seat in place of the radios, allowing for a fourth passenger.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Avenger had a large bomb bay, allowing for one Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo, a single bomb, or up to four bombs. The aircraft had overall ruggedness and stability, and pilots say it flew like a truck, for better or worse. With its good radio facilities, docile handling, and long range, the Grumman Avenger also made an ideal command aircraft for Commanders, Air Group (CAGs). With a ceiling and a fully loaded range of , it was better than any previous American torpedo bomber, and better than its Japanese counterpart, the obsolete Nakajima B5N "Kate". Later Avenger models carried radar equipment for the ASW and AEW roles.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Escort carrier sailors referred to the TBF as the "turkey" because of its size and maneuverability in comparison to the F4F Wildcat fighters in same airgroups.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: On the afternoon of 7 December 1941, Grumman held a ceremony to open a new manufacturing plant and display the new TBF to the public. Coincidentally, on that day, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, as Grumman soon found out. After the ceremony was over, the plant was quickly sealed off to guard against possible sabotage. By early June 1942, a shipment of more than 100 aircraft was sent to the Navy, arriving only a few hours after the three carriers quickly departed from Pearl Harbor, so most of them were too late to participate in the pivotal Battle of Midway.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Six TBF-1s were present on Midway Islandas part of VT-8 (Torpedo Squadron 8)while the rest of the squadron flew Devastators from the aircraft carrier . Both types of torpedo bombers suffered heavy casualties. Out of the six Avengers, five were shot down and the other returned heavily damaged with one of its gunners killed, and the other gunner and the pilot wounded.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Author Gordon Prange posited in "Miracle at Midway" that the outdated Devastators (and lack of new aircraft) contributed somewhat to the lack of a complete victory at Midway (the four Japanese fleet carriers were sunk directly by dive bombers instead). Others pointed out that the inexperienced American pilots and lack of fighter cover were responsible for poor showing of US torpedo bombers, regardless of type. Later in the war, with growing American air superiority, better attack coordination and more veteran pilots, Avengers were able to play vital roles in the subsequent battles against Japanese surface forces.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: On 24 August 1942, the next major naval aircraft carrier battle occurred at the Eastern Solomons. Based on the carriers and , the 24 TBFs present were able to sink the Japanese light carrier and claim one dive bomber, at the cost of seven aircraft.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The first major "prize" for the TBFs (which had been assigned the name "Avenger" in October 1941, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) was at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, when Marine Corps and Navy Avengers helped sink the Japanese battleship , which had already been crippled the night before.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: After hundreds of the original TBF-1 models were built, the TBF-1C began production. The allotment of space for specialized internal and wing-mounted fuel tanks doubled the Avenger's range. By 1943, Grumman began to slowly phase out production of the Avenger to produce F6F Hellcat fighters, and the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors took over production, with these aircraft being designated TBM. The Eastern Aircraft plant was located in Ewing, New Jersey. Grumman delivered a TBF-1, held together with sheet metal screws, so that the automotive engineers could disassemble it, a part at a time, and redesign the aircraft for automotive style production. This aircraft was known as the "P-K Avenger" ("P-K" being an abbreviation for Parker-Kalon, manufacturer of sheet metal screws). Starting in mid-1944, the TBM-3 began production (with a more powerful powerplant and wing hardpoints for drop tanks and rockets). The dash-3 was the most numerous of the Avengers (with about 4,600 produced). However, most of the Avengers in service were dash-1s until near the end of the war in 1945.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Besides the traditional surface role (torpedoing surface ships), Avengers claimed about 30 submarine kills, including the cargo submarine . They were one of the most effective sub-killers in the Pacific theater, as well as in the Atlantic, when escort carriers were finally available to escort Allied convoys. There, the Avengers contributed to the warding off of German U-boats while providing air cover for the convoys.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: After the "Marianas Turkey Shoot", in which more than 250 Japanese aircraft were downed, Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered a 220-aircraft mission to find the Japanese task force. Fighting away from the fleet at the extreme end of their range, the group of Hellcats, TBF/TBMs, and dive bombers took many casualties. However, Avengers from the sank the light carrier as their only major prize. Mitscher's gamble did not pay off as well as he had hoped.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: In June 1943, shortly before his 19th birthday, future-President George H. W. Bush was commissioned as the youngest naval aviator at the time. Later, while flying a TBM with VT-51 (from ), his Avenger was shot down on 2 September 1944 over the Pacific island of Chichi Jima. However, he released his payload and hit the radio tower target before being forced to bail out over water. Both of his crewmates died. He was rescued at sea by the American submarine . He later received the Distinguished Flying Cross.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Another famous Avenger aviator was Paul Newman, who flew as a rear gunner. He had hoped to be accepted for pilot training, but did not qualify because he was color blind. Newman was on board the escort carrier roughly from Japan when the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Avenger was the type of torpedo bomber used during the sinking of the two Japanese "super battleships", with the US Navy having complete air superiority in both engagements: and .


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The postwar disappearance on 5 December 1945 of a flight of five American Avengers, known as Flight 19, was later added to the Bermuda Triangle legend, first written about by Edward Van Winkle Jones in an Associated Press article published in September 1950.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: During World War II, the US aeronautical research arm NACA used a complete Avenger in a comprehensive drag-reduction study in their large Langley wind tunnel. The resulting NACA Technical Report shows the impressive results available if practical aircraft did not have to be "practical".


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The Avenger was also used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, where it was initially known as the "Tarpon". Initial test flights were carried out by British Admiralty test pilot Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner at RAF Boscombe Down. However, this name was later discontinued and the Avenger name used instead, as part of the process of the Fleet Air Arm universally adopting the U.S. Navy's names for American naval aircraft. The first 402 aircraft were known as Avenger Mk I, 334 TBM-1s from Grumman were called the Avenger Mk II, and 334 TBM-3 were designated the Mk III. An interesting kill by a Royal Navy Avenger was the destruction of a V-1 flying bomb on 9 July 1944. The much faster V-1 was overtaking the Avenger when the Telegraphist Air Gunner in the dorsal turret, Leading Airman Fred Shirmer, fired at it from . For this achievement, Shirmer was Mentioned in Dispatches, later being awarded the DSM for the 1945 Operation Meridian action at Palembang. In the January 1945 British carrier raid on the Soengei Gerong oil refinery during Operation Meridian, a Fleet Air Arm Avenger shot down a Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" in low level combat over the jungle. Three Avengers were modified to carry the Highball "bouncing bomb" (given the new codename Tammany Hall), but when trials were unsuccessful, they were returned to standard configuration and passed to the Royal Navy.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: One hundred USN TBM-3Es were supplied to the Fleet Air Arm in 1953 under the US Mutual Defense Assistance Program. The aircraft were shipped from Norfolk, Virginia, many aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier . The Avengers were fitted with British equipment by Scottish Aviation and delivered as the Avenger AS.4 to several FAA squadrons including No. 767, 814, 815, 820 and 824. The aircraft were replaced from 1954 by Fairey Gannets and were passed to squadrons of the Royal Naval Reserve including No. 1841 and 1844 until the RNR Air Branch was disbanded in 1957. The survivors were transferred to the French Navy in 1957–1958.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: The only other operator in World War II was the Royal New Zealand Air Force which used the type primarily as a bomber, equipping Nos. 30 and 31 Squadrons, with both operating from South Pacific island bases during 1944 in support of the Bougainville campaign. Some of the Avengers were later transferred to the British Pacific Fleet.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: In 1945, Avengers were involved in pioneering trials of aerial topdressing in New Zealand that led to the establishment of an industry which markedly increased food production and efficiency in farming worldwide. Pilots of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's No. 42 Squadron spread fertilizer from Avengers beside runways at Ohakea Air Base and provided a demonstration for farmers at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton, New Zealand.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: One of the primary postwar users of the Avenger was the Royal Canadian Navy, which obtained 125 former US Navy TBM-3E Avengers from 1950 to 1952 to replace their venerable Fairey Fireflies. By the time the Avengers were delivered, the RCN was shifting its primary focus to anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and the aircraft was rapidly becoming obsolete as an attack platform. Consequently, 98 of the RCN Avengers were fitted with an extensive number of novel ASW modifications, including radar, electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment, and sonobuoys, and the upper ball turret was replaced with a sloping glass canopy that was better suited for observation duties. The modified Avengers were designated AS 3. A number of these aircraft were later fitted with a large magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom on the rear left side of the fuselage and were redesignated AS 3M. However, RCN leaders soon realized the Avenger's shortcomings as an ASW aircraft, and in 1954 they elected to replace the AS 3 with the Grumman S-2 Tracker, which offered longer range, greater load-carrying capacity for electronics and armament, and a second engine, a great safety benefit when flying long-range ASW patrols over frigid North Atlantic waters. As delivery of the new license-built CS2F Trackers began in 1957, the Avengers were shifted to training duties, and were officially retired in July 1960.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: TBM Avengers were used in wartime research into counter-illumination camouflage. The torpedo bombers were fitted with Yehudi lights, a set of forward-pointing lights automatically adjusted to match the brightness of the sky. The planes therefore appeared as bright as the sky, rather than as dark shapes. The technology, a development of the Canadian navy's diffused lighting camouflage research, allowed an Avenger to advance to within before being seen.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Many Avengers have survived into the 21st century working as spray-applicators and water-bombers throughout North America, particularly in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: Forest Protection Limited (FPL) of Fredericton, New Brunswick, once owned and operated the largest civilian fleet of Avengers in the world. FPL began operating Avengers in 1958 after purchasing 12 surplus TBM-3E aircraft from the Royal Canadian Navy. Use of the Avenger fleet at FPL peaked in 1971 when 43 aircraft were in use as both water bombers and spray aircraft. The company sold three Avengers in 2004 (C-GFPS, C-GFPM, and C-GLEJ) to museums or private collectors. The Central New Brunswick Woodsmen's Museum has a former FPL Avenger on static display. An FPL Avenger that crashed in 1975 in southwestern New Brunswick was recovered and restored by a group of interested aviation enthusiasts and is currently on display at the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: FPL was still operating three Avengers in 2010 configured as water-bombers, and stationed at Miramichi Airport. One of these crashed just after takeoff on 23 April 2010, killing the pilot. The last FPL Avenger was retired on 26 July 2012 and sold to the Shearwater Aviation Museum in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.


title: Grumman TBF Avenger

text: There are several other Avengers, usually flying as warbirds in private collections around the world today. They are a popular airshow fixture in both flying and static displays.


title: Wide area network

text: A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits.


title: Wide area network

text: Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, use wide area networks to relay data to staff, students, clients, buyers and suppliers from various locations around the world. In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet may be considered a WAN.


title: Wide area network

text: The textbook definition of a WAN is a computer network spanning regions, countries, or even the world. However, in terms of the application of communication protocols and concepts, it may be best to view WANs as computer networking technologies used to transmit data over long distances, and between different networks. This distinction stems from the fact that common local area network (LAN) technologies operating at lower layers of the OSI model (such as the forms of Ethernet or Wi-Fi) are often designed for physically proximal networks, and thus cannot transmit data over tens, hundreds, or even thousands of miles or kilometres.


title: Wide area network

text: WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet.


title: Wide area network

text: WANs are often built using leased lines. At each end of the leased line, a router connects the LAN on one side with a second router within the LAN on the other. Because leased lines can be very expensive, instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet switching methods. Network protocols including TCP/IP deliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including Packet over SONET/SDH, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay are often used by service providers to deliver the links that are used in WANs.


title: Wide area network

text: Academic research into wide area networks can be broken down into three areas: mathematical models, network emulation, and network simulation.


title: Wide area network

text: Of the approximately four billion addresses defined in IPv4, about 18 million addresses in three ranges are reserved for use in private networks. Packets addressed in these ranges are not routable on the public Internet; they are ignored by all public routers. Therefore, private hosts cannot directly communicate with public networks, but require network address translation at a routing gateway for this purpose.


title: Wide area network

text: Since two private networks, e.g., two branch offices, cannot directly communicate via the public Internet, the two networks must be bridged across the Internet via a virtual private network (VPN) or other form of IP tunnel that encapsulates packets, including their headers containing the private addresses, for transmission across the public network. Additionally, encapsulated packets may be encrypted to secure their data.


title: Wide area network

text: Many technologies are available for wide area network links. Examples include circuit-switched telephone lines, radio wave transmission, and optical fiber. New developments have successively increased transmission rates. In ca. 1960, a line was normal on the edge of the WAN, while core links of 56 or 64 kbit/s were considered fast. Today, households are connected to the Internet with dial-up, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), cable, WiMAX, cellular network or fiber. The speeds that people can currently use range from 28.8 kbit/s through a 28K modem over a telephone connection to speeds as high as 100 Gbit/s using 100 Gigabit Ethernet.


title: Wide area network

text: AT&T conducted trials in 2017 for business use of 400-gigabit Ethernet. Researchers Robert Maher, Alex Alvarado, Domaniç Lavery, and Polina Bayvel of University College London were able to increase networking speeds to 1.125 terabits per second. Christos Santis, graduate student Scott Steger, Amnon Yariv, Martin and Eileen Summerfield developed a new laser that potentially quadruples transfer speeds with fiber optics.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk (Norwegian, ; ; ; literally "lye fish") is dried whitefish (normally cod, but ling and burbot are also used). It is made from aged stockfish (air-dried whitefish), or dried and salted cod, cured in lye. It is gelatinous in texture after being rehydrated for days prior to eating.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk is prepared as a seafood dish of several Nordic countries. It is traditionally part of the Christmas feast; Norwegian julebord and Swedish julbord, as well as the similar Finnish joulupöytä.


title: Lutefisk

text: Preserved fish provided protein for generations in a part of the world with a strong fishing tradition. It is not known when people first started treating dried fish with lye. The reason was probably that the lack of major salt deposits in the area favored the drying process for the preservation of whitefish - a process known for millennia.


title: Lutefisk

text: Stockfish is very nutrient-rich and was consumed domestically, although it was during the boom in the stockfish trade in the late Middle Ages that the product became accessible throughout Scandinavia, as well as the rest of Europe. The higher quality stockfish would be soaked in water, then boiled and eaten with melted butter. Lower grade qualities would be harder and more fuel consuming to boil and it has been suggested that adding ash from beech or birch in the boiling water, would break down the protein chains and speed up the process. The introduction of lye in the preparation process might therefore have been incidental.


title: Lutefisk

text: For it to become edible, lutefisk must again be soaked in cold water. The first step is soaking for five to six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated lutefisk is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish swells during this soaking, and its protein content decreases by more than 50 percent, producing a jelly-like consistency.


title: Lutefisk

text: When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) is inedible with a pH of 11–12. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. The lutefisk is then ready to be cooked.


title: Lutefisk

text: After the preparation, the lutefisk is saturated with water and must therefore be cooked extremely carefully so that it does not fall to pieces.


title: Lutefisk

text: To create a firm consistency in lutefisk, it is common to spread a layer of salt over the fish about half an hour before it is cooked. This will "release" some of the water in the fish meat. The salt must be rinsed off carefully before cooking.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk does not need additional water for the cooking; it is sufficient to place it in a pan, salt it, seal the lid tightly, and let it steam cook under a very low heat for 20–25 minutes. An alternative is to wrap in aluminium foil and bake at 225 °C (435 °F) for 40–50 minutes.


title: Lutefisk

text: Another option is to parboil lutefisk, wrapped in cheesecloth and gently boiled until tender. Lutefisk can also be boiled directly in a pan of water. Lutefisk may also be cooked in a microwave oven. The average cooking time is 8–10 minutes per whole fish (a package of two fish sides) at high power in a covered glass cooking dish, preferably made of heat-resistant glass. The cooking time will vary, depending upon the power of the microwave oven.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk is traditionally served with boiled potatoes, mashed green peas, melted butter and small pieces of fried bacon.


title: Lutefisk

text: In Norway, Sweden and Finland, lutefisk is a part of the Christmas tradition and is mostly eaten with boiled potatoes, green peas and white sauce. Regional variations include a sprinkle of freshly ground allspice or black pepper and the addition of coarsely ground mustard in the white sauce (in Scania). In parts of Jämtland it is served on flat bread along with whey cheese.


title: Lutefisk

text: In the United States, lutefisk is often served with a variety of side dishes—including bacon, peas, pea stew, potatoes, lefse, gravy, mashed rutabaga, white sauce, melted or clarified butter, syrup, and geitost, or "old" cheese (gammelost). It is sometimes eaten with meatballs, which is not traditional in Scandinavia. Side dishes vary greatly from family to family and region to region, and can be a source of jovial contention when eaters of different "traditions" of lutefisk dine together.


title: Lutefisk

text: The taste of well-prepared lutefisk is very mild, and the white sauce is often spiced with pepper or other strong-tasting spices. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, this method (seasoned with allspice) is common among Swedish-Americans, while Norwegian-Americans often prefer to eat it unseasoned with melted butter or cream sauce.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk as a Christmas season meal has gained attention in Norway over the past 20 years. The Norwegian Seafood Export Council indicated sales of lutefisk to restaurants and catering companies in Norway increased by 72% between 2005 and 2008. A 2005 survey found 20% of Norwegians ate lutefisk during the Christmas holiday season, although only 3% would consider it for their Christmas dinner.


title: Lutefisk

text: Far more lutefisk is consumed in the United States than in Scandinavia, much of it in the Midwestern United States by Scandinavian Americans in Lutheran churches and fraternal lodges.


title: Lutefisk

text: Madison, Minnesota has dubbed itself the "lutefisk capital of the world" as well as claiming the largest per capita consumption of lutefisk in Minnesota. St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota serves lutefisk during their Christmas Festival concerts. They also host an annual music festival called "Lutefest". Lutefisk, though, is not served at this festival.


title: Lutefisk

text: Many Lutheran churches across Wisconsin also serve Lutefisk dinners as a yearly tradition. Four popular churches are St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Dodge County, Christ Lutheran Church in DeForest, Orfordville Lutheran Church in Rock County and Northland Lutheran Church in Iola.


title: Lutefisk

text: Lutefisk is also consumed in Canada because of its relatively large Scandinavian population, particularly in the traditionally agricultural, inland provinces of Western Canada. As of 2016, there are about 463,000 Norwegian Canadians, 350,000 Swedish Canadians, 207,000 Danish Canadians and 143,000 Finnish Canadians. Organizations such as the Sons of Norway hold annual lutefisk dinners. Lutefisk is sometimes available in specialty stores and supermarkets where there are large Scandinavian populations. Kingman, Alberta proclaims itself on its greeting sign to be the "Lutefisk capital of Alberta".


title: Lutefisk

text: An article in "Smithsonian" magazine quotes some oft-rendered tall tales regarding the origins of the dish:


title: Lutefisk

text: There are many jokes about lutefisk. Some of these jokes are printed on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and coffee mugs, e.g. "Legalize lutefisk".


title: Fright Night

text: Fright Night is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland (in his directorial debut) and produced by Herb Jaffe. It stars Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, Jonathan Stark, Dorothy Fielding, Stephen Geoffreys, and Art Evans. The film follows young Charley Brewster, who discovers that his next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a TV show host who acted in films as a vampire hunter, to stop Jerry's killing spree.


title: Fright Night

text: The film was released on August 2, 1985, and grossed $24.9 million at the box office. Since its release, it has received positive reviews from critics and has become a cult classic. "Fright Night" was followed by a sequel, "Fright Night Part 2", in 1988, and a remake in 2011, which was in turn followed by "" in 2013. In October 2020, Tom Holland confirmed that he was writing a direct sequel to the original film titled "Fright Night: Resurrection" that would bring back characters from the original film and would ignore the 1988 sequel.


title: Fright Night

text: Seventeen-year-old Charley Brewster is a fan of a horror television program called "Fright Night", hosted by former movie vampire hunter Peter Vincent. One evening, Charley discovers that his new next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire responsible for the disappearances of several victims. After telling his mother, Charley asks his girlfriend, Amy Peterson, and his friend, "Evil Ed" Thompson, for help before contacting the authorities. Detective Lennox goes with Charley to Jerry's house to question him, but his "roommate" Billy Cole tells them that Jerry is "away on business". Charley reveals his suspicions about Jerry's vampirism, and Lennox leaves, furious. That night, Charley is shocked to see Jerry inside his house, having been invited in by Charley's mother. Later, Jerry visits Charley and offers him a choice: ignore his vampiric activities, or else. Charley refuses, brandishing a crucifix at Jerry. When Jerry tries to push him out the window to his death, Charley stabs Jerry's hand with a pencil. Jerry destroys Charley's car in retaliation and threatens Charley over the telephone.


title: Fright Night

text: Charley turns to Peter Vincent for help, but Peter dismisses Charley as an obsessed fan. Amy, fearing for Charley's sanity and safety, hires the destitute Peter to "prove" that Jerry is not a vampire by having him drink what they claim is "holy water", but it is only tap water; Jerry has claimed to Peter that drinking actual holy water would be against his religious convictions. Peter discovers Charley is right about Jerry's true nature after glancing at his pocket mirror and noticing Jerry's lack of a reflection, causing him to accidentally drop the mirror; Peter then flees, but Jerry learns of his discovery after finding a shard of mirrored glass on the floor.


title: Fright Night

text: Jerry hunts down Ed and turns him into a vampire, then Ed proceeds to visit Peter and tries to attack him, only to be warded off when burned by a crucifix to the forehead. Meanwhile, Jerry chases Charley and Amy into a nightclub. While Charley tries to call the police, Jerry hypnotizes and abducts Amy, who resembles Jerry's lost love, and bites her. With nowhere left to turn, Charley attempts to gain Peter's help once more. A frightened Peter initially refuses, but then reluctantly resumes his "vampire killer" role. Entering Jerry's house, the two are able to repel Jerry using a crucifix, though only Charley's works since he has faith in its spiritual power. Billy appears and knocks Charley over the banister, while Peter flees to Charley's house. There, he is surprised by Ed, who attacks him in the form of a wolf, only to be pierced through the heart with a broken table leg held by Peter. Removing the stake from Ed's body, Peter goes to rescue Charley and battle Jerry.


title: Fright Night

text: Charley is locked in with Amy, who is slowly transforming into a vampire. Peter frees him before she awakens, and says the process can be reversed if they destroy Jerry before dawn. Billy confronts Charley and Peter, and is revealed to be undead. They destroy Billy, who melts into goo and sand. Peter is able to lure the overconfident Jerry in front of a window using a crucifix, which now works due to his renewed faith in its abilities. As the sun rises, Jerry transforms into a bat and attacks Peter and Charley before fleeing to his coffin in the basement. Charley and Peter pursue Jerry; the latter breaks open Jerry's coffin and tries to stake him through the heart while Charley fights off Amy, who has almost completed her transformation. By breaking the blacked-out windows in the basement, Peter and Charley expose Jerry to the sunlight, destroying him and returning Amy to her human form.


title: Fright Night

text: A few nights later, Peter returns to his "Fright Night" TV series and announces a hiatus from vampires, presenting a film about alien invaders instead. Charley and Amy watch the program as they embrace in bed. Charley gets up to turn off the TV and glimpses red eyes in Jerry's now-vacant house, but dismisses them. Unbeknownst to both Charley and Amy, a new neighbor has just moved in.


title: Fright Night

text: Nick Savage and Ernie Holmes portray the bouncers killed by Jerry. "Playboy" Playmate Heidi Sorenson also appears as one of Jerry's victims.


title: Fright Night

text: While writing the script for "Cloak & Dagger", Tom Holland amused himself when he conceived the idea of a horror-movie fan becoming convinced that his next-door neighbor was a vampire, but he did not initially think this premise was enough to sustain a story. "What's he gonna do", Holland asked, "because everybody's gonna think he's mad!" The story percolated in his mind for a year and finally one day while discussing it with John Byers, then the head of story department at Columbia Pictures, he finally figured out what the boy would do. "Of course, he's gonna go to Vincent Price!" In that era, many local TV stations in the United States had horror hosts (such as Zacherle, Svengoolie, and the nationally syndicated Elvira), so Holland decided it would be natural for the boy to seek aid from his local host. "The minute I had Peter Vincent, I had the story. Charley Brewster was the engine, but Peter Vincent was the heart." Once he'd conceived that character, Holland knocked out the first draft of the script in three weeks. "And I was laughing the entire time, literally on the floor, kicking my feet in the air in hysterics."


title: Fright Night

text: Holland wrote the film for himself to direct, in part because he was so disheartened by the film that was ultimately made from his previous screenplay, "Scream for Help", and he had developed enough clout from the successes of his screenplays for "Class of 1984", "Psycho II", and "Cloak & Dagger" that the head of Columbia Pictures said, "Let's take a chance on the hot screenwriter kid", not figuring that "Fright Night" would be as successful as it ultimately became.


title: Fright Night

text: The Peter Vincent character was named after horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, and Holland specifically wrote the part for Price, but at this point in his career, Price had been so badly typecast that he had stopped accepting roles in horror movies. Guy McElwaine, then the head of Columbia Pictures, suggested Roddy McDowall for the part. McDowall had already starred in the Holland-penned film "Class of 1984", so Holland was immediately receptive to the suggestion. "He understood the part", commented Holland, "and he also understood what he could do with it, and he "really" wanted it!" McDowall was particularly interested in the genesis of the character. "In the film, I perform as being in my late 20s or early 30s in the film clips of my old movies-all the way up to my 60s, when I'm the washed-up has-been", McDowall adding that the role interested him because, "I'd never played anything that old." Holland and McDowall built a lasting friendship, and McDowall eventually invited Holland to a dinner party where he introduced him to Vincent Price, who was flattered that the part was an homage to him and commented that the film "was wonderful and he thought Roddy did a wonderful job."


title: Fright Night

text: Chris Sarandon's agent gave him a copy of the script and he replied, "there's no way I can do a horror movie," but he decided to give the script a once-over and was immediately captivated by it. "I thought this is one of the best scripts I've read in a long time", Sarandon said, "beautifully constructed, it was obvious that this was a labor of love, it was clear that the writer/director's approach to it was one of wanting to have fun with the genre without "making fun" of it, the characters were beautifully drawn." Sarandon was worried about being typecast as a villain, but the script resonated with him because the story was deeper than just an average monster movie. "Forgetting about vampirism, what this film is about on one level is an older man trying to take a younger man's girl away from him", commented Holland. Although he liked the screenplay, Sarandon was still leery of working with a first-time director, so he flew to Los Angeles to meet Tom Holland and producer Herb Jaffe. Holland and he had an immediate rapport (and went on to make several more films together), and Sarandon was awed that Holland had the film so completely mapped out that he "literally described the movie shot-by-shot all the way through – page-by-page, scene-by-scene. It was basically the way he shot it."


title: Fright Night

text: Jonathan Stark was not a fan of vampire films, but he also liked the script. The Billy Cole character was written as a hulking giant, so Stark padded himself with extra clothing when he went in to audition. At auditions, he read the scene in which he is being questioned by the detective, which was written to be played straight. "I'm thinking if I'm sitting there being evil", Stark commented, "the lieutenant's gonna get suspicious. Why not throw him off the trail by being funny?" Holland liked his take on the character, and Stark was told that he had the part – but because he came in to read at the start of the audition process, months passed before filming commenced and Stark worried that he had lost the role. The gap worked to his advantage, however, because it gave him time to hit the gym and bulk up so he would not have to wear padding in the film.


title: Fright Night

text: William Ragsdale had auditioned to portray Rocky Dennis in "Mask", but he lost the role to Eric Stoltz. Casting director Jackie Burch remembered his audition though, and thought he would be right to portray Charley Brewster. Ragsdale auditioned several times and ultimately received the news that he had landed the part on Halloween night 1984, beating out several other future-stars like Charlie Sheen.


title: Fright Night

text: Due to a mix-up, Stephen Geoffreys had an awkward audition for Anthony Michael Hall's role in "Weird Science", and he made an indelible impression on Jackie Burch, who suggested him for "Fright Night". Although he was not a horror-movie fan, Geoffreys loved the script, so he called his agent and emphatically declared that he would love to audition for Charley Brewster. "No, Steve", his agent replied, "you're wanted for the part of Evil Ed." Geoffreys was simultaneously baffled and heartbroken. "What do they see in me that they think I should be this... well anyway, it worked out."


title: Fright Night

text: The most difficult role to cast was Amy Peterson. "There wasn't the perfect girl next door until Amanda Bearse walked in", Holland commented.


title: Fright Night

text: Once his cast was in place, Holland got input from each of the actors and made numerous revisions to the script. Some were slight and others were major – such as the ending, which originally featured Peter Vincent transforming into a vampire as he returned to host "Fright Night". The September 6, 1984, draft of the screenplay, which is circulating online, is very close to the final cut of the film, but a few more changes were still to come.


title: Fright Night

text: The cast and crew were given the luxury of having two weeks of rehearsal time in late November 1984 prior to filming. Holland blocked out the scenes on a soundstage and the cast performed the entire film like it was a stage play. Having begun his career as a classically trained actor, Holland encouraged the cast to write biographies of their characters so they would completely understand their motivations and be able to draw on that information while filming their scenes. All of the kinks in the story/performances were ironed out during the rehearsal period, so when time to film came, Holland only shot two or three takes of each scene and then moved on.


title: Fright Night

text: As originally written, Jerry Dandrige was more villainous, so Sarandon tried to find various ways to humanize the vampire, including suggesting the implication that the Amy character was the reincarnation of his long-lost love. "I wanted to give the audience something to hold onto in terms of understanding that this was someone who was at one time--and still is, in certain respects--a thinking, feeling human being", Sarandon said. "This is a man who has been hunted for all his post-human existence, but who has fallen in love a number of times, and who in a sense, longs for a normal existence." Sarandon also did research into bats and discovered that most of the world's bat populations are frugivores, so he concluded, "Jerry had a lot of fruit bat in his DNA." This explains why his character is frequently munching on apples, which Sarandon decided his character was using to "cleanse his palate" after draining blood from his victims.


title: Fright Night

text: Stark and Sarandon had not picked up on Holland's intended gay subtext when they were developing their characters. "I didn't have any sense of it as being anything other than Renfield and Dracula", Chris Sarandon recalled. "I think there was sort of an asexual quality to the relationship that was sort of borderline homoerotic but "not" in the sense that it was creepy." For the scene in which Jerry pulls down the window shade and it looks as though Billy is about to perform oral sex on him, Stark remembered, "I'm cleaning his hand and [Tom Holland] said, 'No, get down on your knees.' 'Okay, Tom.' Then when I saw [the film], I thought, 'Oooooh, okay.'"


title: Fright Night

text: McDowall also did a lot of work on his character, and made a conscious decision to pattern his performance after the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz". "My part is that of an old ham actor, I mean a "dreadful" actor. He realizes it but doesn't admit it. He had a moderate success in an isolated film here and there, but all very bad product. This poor sonofabitch just played the same character all the time, which was awful. And then he disappeared from sight, 15 years beforehand. He's been peddling these movies to late night TV, various syndicated markets – he'd go six months in Iowa, six months in Podunk." McDowall commented to Fangoria, "He's got such a sad life, he's sort of cowardly and then he finds his strength as a human being." Despite the pathetic character he was portraying, McDowall was a pillar for the cast and crew. "He was a kind of Yoda on the set", commented Sarandon. Recalled Ragsdale, "He had his videocamera on his shoulder and he was shooting, like, family movies the whole time."


title: Fright Night

text: Sarandon recalled that Holland collaborated with choreographer Dorain Grusman in shooting a disco dance scene to have Bearse's character physically changing so that "she goes from this rather dewey, innocent-looking girl to this "femme fatale"; she kind of grows up right before your eyes." The scene also established Amy discovering Jerry actually was a vampire.


title: Fright Night

text: Principal photography commenced on December 3, 1984, and wrapped on February 23, 1985. At the time of production, "Fright Night" was Columbia's lowest-budgeted film and they did not have high expectations for it, so they were focusing all of their attention on the John Travolta/Jamie Lee Curtis film "Perfect", which they were certain was going to be a blockbuster. "They never even came to the set", Holland said. "I was left alone. It was totally my film without studio interference."


title: Fright Night

text: Generally, filming went off without a hitch, but a few mishaps did occur, including an incident in which Ragsdale broke his ankle while running down a staircase. The schedule had to be reorganized, but filming continued. "Nobody panicked. In fact, I think that the thing I'll remember most about this movie is everyone's spirit and humor." The cast and crew seemed to meld with a singular vision of making the best movie possible. Early in production, Holland invited "Fangoria" writer Abbie Bernstein to visit the set as often as she liked, and she took him up on his offer. Of the wrap party in March, Bernstein wrote, "It's fun and pleasant, but it lacks the intense camaraderie of the set."


title: Fright Night

text: Richard Edlund was the head of visual effects, and his team had just completed work on "Ghostbusters", which worked to the advantage of "Fright Night". "They had made all of their mistakes with how to do the matte shots and everything on "Ghostbusters", with their huge budget", Holland commented, "so they really knew how to do [the special effects] as inexpensively and efficiently as it could be done at the time."


title: Fright Night

text: The most excruciating part of the makeup process for the cast was the contact lenses. In those days, the lenses were hard plastic, which Steve Johnson hand-painted (throwing some glitter into the mix), lacquered, and sanded. The cast could only wear them for a maximum of 20 minutes because they were virtually blind in them, and they were thick and painful, and dried out their eyes. A set was made for Stark to wear when he was in his final pursuit of Peter and Charley, but he kept tripping on the stairs. Holland told him to take one out, and he was then able to perform the scene. Three sets were made for Amanda Bearse, but one of them caused her agonizing pain, which she initially tried to endure. When it finally became too much to bear, she took the contacts out and the crew realized they had forgotten to buff them. For the scene in Mrs. Brewster's bedroom, Geoffreys kept his contacts in for nearly 40 minutes, resulting in scratches on his eyeballs for months afterward.


title: Fright Night

text: For the transformation sequences, up to 8 hours were needed to prepare Sarandon's makeup. Sarandon was uncomfortable spending that long sitting in a chair doing nothing, and since he had experience doing his own makeup for his work on the stage, he volunteered to help. He did some of the stippling, and while the makeup men were applying prosthetics to his face and head, he worked on the finger extensions. Sarandon has often joked that the rubber fingers caused difficulties whenever he had to urinate, so costume supervisor Mort Schwartz constantly offered to help him. "I said to Morry, 'Thank you, no, I'll just use a coat hanger!'" Co-star Ragsdale recalled one instance when Sarandon spent an entire day in the makeup chair, and when he was finally fully transformed into the monster, a producer informed him that they were not going to be able to shoot the scene that day. "And Chris said, 'Okay,' and turned around and went and took it off, it was amazing!" Ragsdale exclaimed. "I would have gone through the roof, but he didn't. His will had been broken by that point!"


title: Fright Night

text: The makeup for Evil Ed's wolf transformation took 18 hours. While he had the wolf head on, the crew began pouring what they thought was methylcellulose into his mouth to create the illusion of saliva, but when Geoffreys began to complain about the taste, Mark Bryan Wilson realized they had been using prosthetic adhesive, which was gluing his mouth shut.


title: Fright Night

text: On Christmas Eve, during the shooting of a scene where he is running down a staircase, Ragsdale accidentally tripped and broke his ankle, resulting in the film being temporarily put on a hold until he could recover. "Rod Martin, a trainer for the Los Angeles Raiders, came in every day to wrap the foot for me, and the shooting schedule was rearranged to put off the action sequences until it mended." said Ragsdale. Many scenes were shot with his foot in a cast, including the scene in which Jerry comes to Charley's room to attack him. For shots in which Charley's feet were visible, the costumers slit Ragsdale's shoes in several places, slipped them on and then covered the portions of white cast that peeked through the slits with black cloth. For the scene in which Jerry is carrying Charley by the throat with one hand, Sarandon was simultaneously pushing Ragsdale along on a furniture dolly.


title: Fright Night

text: The shot of Jerry pulling the pencil out of his hand was achieved by having a spring-loaded, collapsible pencil glued to his palm and an eraser-tip loosely attached to the back of his hand. When he turns his hand and pulls the spring-loaded piece from his palm, out of shot a monofilament wire jerked away the tip, so when he turns it back, it appears as though he has pulled it straight through his hand. "So we go to the editing room", FX man Steve Johnson recalled of an early cut, "and Tom had put a reaction in the middle of it, "ruined" the entire shot!"


title: Fright Night

text: The crew attempted to achieve the illusion of the cross-scar vanishing from Evil Ed's forehead live on-set, but the effect was a resounding failure. In that predigital age, Edlund's crew was able to alter the film using optical photography to achieve the effect.


title: Fright Night

text: Filming of the sequence with the bat was difficult for effects veteran Randall Cook, who kept winding up on film while puppeteering the creature. Further complications ensued when the bat tries to bite Roddy McDowall's character and he forces a bone into its mouth; getting the puppet to bite was difficult, and then McDowall jerked the bone too hard and broke the bat's skull. The bat was quickly patched, but the required repairs forced them to wait two days to shoot more close-ups.


title: Fright Night

text: The original 10-track soundtrack album was released on LP and cassette in 1985 by Private-I Records. A promotional music video for the title song by J. Geils Band was made which used many clips from the film and received minor airplay on MTV. An instrumental version of Brad Fiedel's "Come to Me" was prominently featured throughout the movie, but the version on the album includes lyrics sung by Fiedel; instrumental versions were later issued on the CD with Fiedel's score (a different version which includes an additional verse was recorded by Deborah Holland for the end credits of "Fright Night Part 2"). The album was officially reissued in December 2016 on CD format by Perseverance Records.


title: Fright Night

text: A bootleg of Brad Fiedel's score for the film first surfaced in Japan in 2000. In 2011, Intrada Records officially issued the score on CD. Since some of the master tapes had gone missing, some of the music was transferred from lower-quality tapes. The limited-edition 2011 Twilight Time Blu-ray also included the complete isolated score.


title: Fright Night

text: "Fright Night"s widest release was 1,545 theaters. The film made $6,118,543 on opening weekend (1,542 theaters, $3,967 average). The domestic gross came to $24,922,237. It performed the best of any horror film released during the summer of 1985 and was the second-highest grossing horror film of 1985, surpassed only by "".


title: Fright Night

text: "Fright Night" garnered critical acclaim, holding an 82% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the average rating is 7.1/10 based on 60 reviews. The site's consensus reads: ""Fright Night" deftly combines thrills and humor in this ghostly tale about a man living next to a vampire."


title: Fright Night

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, ""Fright Night" is not a distinguished movie, but it has a lot of fun being undistinguished". "Variety" praised Sarandon's performance, writing that he "is terrific as the vampire, quite affable and debonair until his fingernails start to grow and his eyes get that glow". Colin Greenland gave a negative review for "White Dwarf" #75, stating "We may be justified in suspecting that a film which has such contempt for its characters has contempt for its audience, too."


title: Fright Night

text: The original American VHS release by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video for video rental in 1986 featured a pan-and-scan version of the film and was packaged in a paper cover, which featured the poster artwork and sealed with a flap. This release was subsequently followed by a bargain copy that sported a photo of Evil Ed on the front cover.


title: Fright Night

text: The film was issued by Columbia/TriStar Home Video on DVD in 1999. This release included a double-sided DVD, which featured the widescreen version of the film on one side, a pan and scan version on the other, and the theatrical trailer on both. Included was a pamphlet with the poster art, five photos, scene selections, and a brief text interview with visual-effects art director John Bruno. The DVD was later issued by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; this release is missing the pamphlet and bears a different company logo, but is otherwise identical to the previous DVD. In 2008, the film was paired on DVD with "Urban Legend", and in 2013, it was issued again as part of the "4 Movie Thrills & Chills Collection, Volume 3" release alongside: "The Craft", "Monster High", and "Brainscan".


title: Fright Night

text: On December 13, 2011, the film was released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time in an edition limited to 3,000 copies. This release includes two theatrical trailers, an isolated music score, and a four-page booklet containing an essay on the film as special features.


title: Fright Night

text: On January 20, 2015, Twilight Time re-released the film on Blu-ray as a 30th-Anniversary Edition, limited to 5,000 copies. The Blu-ray has gone out of print and has been a sought-after collector's item.


title: Fright Night

text: On February 12, 2019, Sony Pictures themselves re-released the film again on Blu-ray containing a new 4K remaster, which also included the remixed 5.1 audio and the original stereo mix. While it does exclude the isolated score, the booklet, and a few other special features, it also adds a few new special features not available on either of the Twilight Time releases.


title: Fright Night

text: On October 4, 2022, Sony Pictures released the film on Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray on Steelbook format for the first time. The disc includes the film in a Dolby Atmos audio track, the previous 5.1 track, the original stereo mix, Dolby Vision HDR, and over 13 hours of existing and new special features.


title: Fright Night

text: Chris Griffiths directed, along with producer Gary Smart, the 2016 documentary film "You're So Cool Brewster! The Story of Fright Night".


title: Fright Night

text: After the critical and financial success of "Fright Night", producer Herb Jaffe retained the screen rights to the characters and pushed for a sequel to be made. Although he was unhappy that the budget was drastically slashed, Holland was interested, but Sarandon and he were both tied up making "Child's Play", and could not commit to the film, though director Tommy Lee Wallace sought out Holland for advice and Sarandon visited the set while they were shooting. Stephen Geoffreys was approached to reprise the role of Evil Ed, but he did not like the script and he was offered the lead in "976-EVIL", which was scheduled to shoot at the same time, so he opted to take that part, instead. Bearse read an early draft of the script that included the Amy character, but she was busy with her TV series "Married... with Children", so a new girlfriend (portrayed by Traci Lind) was written for Charley Brewster. In the end, only Ragsdale and McDowall reprised their roles, and a new set of villains was devised.


title: Fright Night

text: From all accounts, McDowall relished playing Peter Vincent and was eager to bring Holland back to the franchise, so he had set up a meeting for Holland and himself with Carolco Pictures chairman Jose Menendez to discuss making "Fright Night Part 3". Unfortunately, before that meeting could occur, Menendez and his wife were infamously murdered by their sons, Lyle and Erik. Not only did this stop another sequel, but it also interfered with the release of "Fright Night Part 2", which attained extremely limited theatrical distribution before being dumped on home video by Carolco's subsidiary, Live Entertainment.


title: Fright Night

text: In January 2017, Tom Holland announced that he was writing a "Fright Night 3" novel, noting that by 2019 he would obtain the rights to the franchise; after which he plans to develop a third movie.


title: Fright Night

text: In October 2020, Tom Holland confirmed that he is writing a direct-sequel to the original "Fright Night", with the working title of "Fright Night: Resurrection". The plot will more directly follow the first film, and not incorporate elements from the previous sequel. Holland confirmed the return of original characters stating: "I'm bringing back everybody I can. I'm calling it "Resurrection" because we've got to resurrect Billy Cole and Jerry Dandridge." Holland went on to say "Part of the issue with the attempts at sequels and remakes is that the movie itself was kind of a singular idea, and a follow-up needed to be more than just set in the same world -- it needed to draw from the same set of inspirations and follow a similar thematic thread."


title: Fright Night

text: In May 2009, DreamWorks first announced that it would be overseeing a remake of "Fright Night", which came to fruition and was released in 2011 with the same title: "Fright Night". The script, penned by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alumna Marti Noxon, loosely followed the plot of the original film. Charley (Anton Yelchin) and his mother (Toni Collette) are transplanted from Corvalis, Iowa, to a Las Vegas suburb; Amy (Imogen Poots) is feistier and sexually aggressive; Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has endured a falling out with Charley prior to the start of the film; Peter Vincent (David Tennant) is a horror magician modeled after Criss Angel; the Billy Cole character was omitted; and Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell) is no longer the lovelorn vampire. He was described by Evil Ed as "the fucking shark from "Jaws"" and has different intentions for his victims.


title: Fright Night

text: Sarandon was offered a role in the 2011 remake and chose to pass on the torch by doing a cameo as a man who is eaten by Jerry Dandrige. Sarandon pointed out, "It's not the original and they didn't set out to make the original", but the cast and crew of the remake "were all huge fans." Farrell had watched the film countless times during his youth, and publicly stated, "I heard they were remaking "Fright Night" and went, "Ah, god, remake! Hollywood, so dull! And I read the script and really hoped I "didn't" like it, and I did." Recalled Sarandon of his first encounter with Farrell, "He walked in and he literally was almost shaking, he was so excited at the prospect of meeting his childhood idol. He gave me a beautiful bottle of wine and a DVD set of the Carl Dreyer "Vampyr". It was a really graceful and wonderful introduction."


title: Fright Night

text: During a reunion panel discussion at Monsterpalooza in 2012, the cast of the original film discussed the remake at length. Bearse commented, "as a stand-alone horror movie, it was very well done. It didn't lessen the appeal of the original. It was just more of a one-note film." Geoffreys only watched the first 20 minutes and then turned it off. Stark and Ragsdale went to a screening and discovered they "were the only two people" in attendance. Ragsdale liked an early draft of the screenplay, but he was not particularly enamored with the final result and was perplexed that "there was kind of a nastiness to" the Evil Ed character. The discussion dragged on for so long that the audience roared with laughter when Sarandon sarcastically interrupted Ragsdale to declare, "I'm sure there are some other questions about "the original" "Fright Night"."


title: Fright Night

text: When asked his thoughts in 2015, creator Tom Holland replied, "Kudos to them on every level for their professionalism, but they forgot the humor and the heart. They should have called it something other than "Fright Night", because it had no more than a passing resemblance to the original. What they did to Jerry Dandrige and Peter Vincent was criminal." Smiling, he added, "Outside of that, it was wonderful."


title: Fright Night

text: Between 1988 and 1993, NOW Comics published 27 "Fright Night" comic books. The original film was adapted as the first two issues of the series, "Fright Night Part 2" was adapted as a stand-alone graphic novel (which was not canonical with the series), and the rest of the issues consisted of original stories following the further exploits of Peter Vincent and Charley Brewster, who teamed up to battle a vast array of vampires and monsters. Amy Peterson and Billy Cole only appeared in the first two issues, but Evil Ed returned to become a constant foil, and Jerry Dandrige was ultimately resurrected and had just begun to amass an army of Parisian vampire prostitutes when Now Comics filed for bankruptcy. Production halted in 1990 with issue #22, leaving the story incomplete. After corporate restructuring, four 3-D special issues were released between 1992 and 1993. Three of these releases were reprints of stories from the regular series while the fourth featured a previously unpublished story.


title: Fright Night

text: In 2018, Tom Holland announced a new comic series called "Tom Holland's Fright Night: The Peter Vincent Chronicles".


title: Fright Night

text: Tor Books published a novelization, "Fright Night", by Craig Spector and John Skipp in 1985. Working from Holland's screenplay, Skipp and Spector only had a month to write the book, so it could be published to coincide with the release of the film. The book follows the story of the film, but includes additional details about the characters and their relationships. The novel has been out of print for decades, and resale prices wildly vary.


title: Fright Night

text: "Fright Night: Origins," a new novelization of the film written by Tom Holland and Jack Ulrich, was released on September 8, 2022. The novel is the first book in a planned trilogy of books that will expand the Fright Night universe.


title: Fright Night

text: "Fright Night", an arcade-style computer game was released by Microdeal in 1988 for Amiga computers. In the game, players assume the role of Jerry Dandrige as he attempts to turn his victims into vampires before sunrise.


title: Fright Night

text: The official stage adaptation of "Fright Night" celebrated its world premiere at Carnegie Stage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 2018. It was written and directed by James Michael Shoberg and produced by the Rage of the Stage Players. The original cast included Dan Finkel as Charley Brewster, Elena Cristina Lázaro as Amy Petersen, Greg Crawford as Peter Vincent, Ryan Ott as Billy Cole, Brian Ceponis as Jerry Dandrige, Amanda Anne Leight as Judy Brewster, Corey Shaffer as "Evil" Ed Thompson, Dave Joseph as Lieutenant Detective Lennox, Ryan Frank as Donny, and Edward Bates as Leon.


title: Fright Night

text: In 1989, the film was unofficially remade in India as "Kalpana House". Set at Christmastime, this version mirrors the original film, but the Peter Vincent character's occupation was changed to a priest, a few additional characters and scenes were added, and it includes several Bollywood-like musical numbers. The dialogue and credits are primarily in Malayalam, but all of the actors casually drift in and out of English.


title: Freudian slip

text: In psychoanalysis, a Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought. Classical examples involve slips of the tongue, but psychoanalytic theory also embraces misreadings, mishearings, mistypings, temporary forgettings, and the mislaying and losing of objects.


title: Freudian slip

text: The Freudian slip is named after Sigmund Freud, who, in his 1901 book "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life", described and analyzed a large number of seemingly trivial, even bizarre, or nonsensical errors and slips, most notably the Signorelli parapraxis.


title: Freudian slip

text: Freud, himself, referred to these slips as (meaning "faulty functions", "faulty actions" or "misperformances" in German); the Greek term "parapraxes" (plural of "parapraxis"; ) was the creation of his English translator, as is the form "symptomatic action".


title: Freudian slip

text: Freud's process of psychoanalysis is often described as being lengthy and complex, as was the case with many of the dreams in his 1899 book "The Interpretation of Dreams". An obstacle that faces the non-German-speaking reader is such that in original German, "The Interpretation of Dreams", Freud's emphasis on "slips of the tongue" leads to the inclusion of a great deal of colloquial and informal material that are extremely resistant to translations.


title: Freudian slip

text: As in the study of dreams, Freud submits his discussion with the intention of demonstrating the existence of unconscious mental processes in the healthy:


title: Freudian slip

text: A 1979 study investigated Freudian slips by having male test participants who had been primed with a stimulus either related to sex or an electric shock to read a list of words that had meaningful spoonerisms related to both stimuli. Primed participants had a far higher rate of spoonerism related to the specific stimulus.


title: Freudian slip

text: In contrast to psychoanalytic theorists, cognitive psychologists say that linguistic slips can represent a sequencing conflict in grammar production. From this perspective, slips may be due to cognitive underspecification that can take a variety of forms – inattention, incomplete sense data or insufficient knowledge. Secondly, they may be due to the existence of some locally appropriate response pattern that is strongly primed by its prior usage, recent activation or emotional change or by the situation calling conditions.


title: Freudian slip

text: Some sentences are just susceptible to the process of banalisation: the replacement of archaic or unusual expressions with forms that are in more common use. In other words, the errors were due to strong habit substitution.


title: Freudian slip

text: In general use, the term 'Freudian slip' has been debased to refer to any accidental slips of the tongue. Thus many examples are found in explanations and dictionaries which do not strictly fit the psychoanalytic definition.


title: Freudian slip

text: In the above, the man may be presumed to have a sexual feeling or intention that he wished to leave unexpressed, "not" a sexual feeling or intention that was dynamically repressed. His sexual intention was therefore "secret", rather than "subconscious", and any 'parapraxis' would inhere in the idea that he "unconsciously wished to express that intention", rather than in the sexual connotation of the substitution. Freudians might point out, however, that this is simply a description of what Freud and Breuer termed the preconscious which Freud defined as thoughts that are not presently conscious but can become conscious without meeting any resistance. In Freud's theory, he allows parapraxes to be generated in the preconscious, so he would allow for thoughts that one tries to put outside of consciousness to have effects on conscious actions.


title: Freudian slip

text: Beyond slips of the tongue, these accidental human errors also commonly occur in the realm of human-computer interaction. In the context of interaction design, slips refer to an incorrect action that is taken with the correct intention. As opposed to mistakes, which refer to an incorrect action due to an incorrect intention, slips result from automatic behaviors that are triggered by external factors, distracting the user from carrying out their intended goal. There are many different types of slips in interaction design, including capture errors, description similarity slips, data-driven errors, associative activation, loss of activation, and mode errors.


title: Freudian slip

text: Capture errors occur when a familiar behavior takes over a less frequently occurring behavior. An example of a capture error would be driving to the office on a Saturday when the intention was to go to the grocery store.


title: Freudian slip

text: Description similarity slips occur when an action is taken upon an item that is similar to the one you intended. For example, flipping the switch for the bathroom vent fan instead of the light switch to turn on the bathroom light would be a description similarity slip.


title: Freudian slip

text: Data-driven errors occur in the arrival of new sensory information that triggers an automatic response, such as dialing the hotel concierge to reserve a particular room and dialing the room number instead.


title: Freudian slip

text: Associative activation errors are caused by an internal correlation of two actions. For example, associating the phone ringing with someone knocking on the door and saying "come in" as a response would represent a type of associative activation error. Associative activation errors are also considered accidental slips of the tongue.


title: Freudian slip

text: Loss of activation is the error of executing an action but forgetting the goal behind the intended action. A common example of a loss of activation error is walking into a room and forgetting the purpose for walking into the room.


title: Freudian slip

text: Lastly, mode errors occur when the input for an action is the same for different modes of operation, but the output of that action varies according to the selected mode. These errors could easily occur with the gear shift control in cars, since the action of stepping on the gas pedal to execute the action is the same for all gears, but the direction in which the car moves depends on the selected gear. This could lead to detrimental consequences if a user was accidentally in reverse mode but intended to be in drive mode.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: The Centralia mine fire is a coal-seam fire that has been burning in the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. Its original cause and start date are still a matter of debate. It is burning in underground coal mines at depths of up to over an stretch of . At its current rate, it could continue to burn for over 250 years. It has caused most of the town to be abandoned: by 2017, the population had dwindled to 5 residents from around 1,500 at the time the fire is believed to have started, and most of the buildings have been razed.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: On May 7, 1962, the Centralia Council met to discuss the approaching Memorial Day and how the town would go about cleaning up the Centralia landfill, which was introduced earlier that year. The 300-foot-wide, 75-foot-long () pit was made up of a 50-foot-deep () strip mine that had been cleared by Edward Whitney in 1935, and came very close to the northeast corner of Odd Fellows Cemetery. There were eight illegal dumps spread about Centralia, and the council's intention in creating the landfill was to stop the illegal dumping, as new state regulations had forced the town to close an earlier dump west of St. Ignatius Cemetery. Trustees at the cemetery were opposed to the landfill's proximity to the cemetery, but recognized the illegal dumping elsewhere as a serious problem and envisioned that the new pit would resolve it.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Pennsylvania had passed a precautionary law in 1956 to regulate landfill use in strip mines, as landfills were known to cause destructive mine fires. The law required a permit and regular inspection for a municipality to use such a pit. George Segaritus, a regional landfill inspector who worked for the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries (DMMI), became concerned about the pit when he noticed holes in the walls and floor, as such mines often cut through older mines underneath. Segaritus informed Joseph Tighe, a Centralia councilman, that the pit would require filling with an incombustible material.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: The town council arranged for cleanup of the strip mine dump, but council minutes do not describe the proposed procedure. DeKok surmises that the process—setting it on fire—was not specified because state law prohibited dump fires. Nonetheless, the Centralia council set a date and hired five members of the volunteer firefighter company to clean up the landfill.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: A fire was ignited to clean the dump on May 27, 1962, and water was used to douse the visible flames that night. However, flames were seen once more on May 29. Using hoses hooked up from Locust Avenue, another attempt was made to douse the fire that night. Another flare-up in the following week (June 4) caused the Centralia Fire Company to once again douse it with hoses. A bulldozer stirred up the garbage so that firemen could douse concealed layers of the burning waste. A few days later, a hole as wide as and several feet high was found in the base of the north wall of the pit. Garbage had concealed the hole and prevented it from being filled with incombustible material. It is possible that this hole led to the mine fire, as it provided a pathway to the labyrinth of old mines under the borough. Evidence indicates that, despite these efforts to douse the fire, the landfill continued to burn; on July 2, Monsignor William J. Burke complained about foul odors from the smoldering trash and coal reaching St. Ignatius Church. Even then, the Centralia council still allowed the dumping of garbage into the pit.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Clarence "Mooch" Kashner, the president of the Independent Miners, Breakermen, and Truckers union, came at the invitation of a council member to inspect the situation in Centralia. Kashner evaluated the events and called Gordon Smith, an engineer of the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries (DMMI) office in Pottsville. Smith told the town that he could dig out the smoldering material using a steam shovel for $175. A call was placed to Art Joyce, a mine inspector from Mount Carmel, who brought gas detection equipment for use on the swirling wisps of smoke now emanating from ground fissures in the north wall of the landfill pit. Tests concluded that the gases seeping from the large hole in the pit wall and from cracks in the north wall contained carbon monoxide concentrations typical of coal-mine fires.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: The Centralia Council sent a letter to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company (LVCC) as formal notice of the fire. It is speculated that the town council decided that hiding the true origin of the fire would serve better than alerting the LVCC of the truth, which would most likely end in receiving no help from them. In the letter, the borough described the starting of a fire "of unknown origin during a period of unusually hot weather".


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Preceding an August 6 meeting at the fire site which would include officials from the LVCC and the Susquehanna Coal Company, Deputy Secretary of Mines James Shober Sr. expected that the representatives would inform him they could not afford mounting a project that would stop the mine fire. Therefore, Shober announced that he expected the state to finance the cost of digging out the fire, which was at that time around $30,000 (roughly ). Another offer was made at the meeting, proposed by Centralia strip mine operator Alonzo Sanchez, who told members of council that he would dig out the mine fire free of charge as long as he could claim any coal he recovered without paying royalties to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company. Part of Sanchez's plan was to do exploratory drilling to estimate the scope of the mine fire, which was most likely why Sanchez's offer was rejected at the meeting. The drilling would have delayed the project, not to mention the legal problems with mining rights.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: At the time, state mine inspectors were in the Centralia-area mines almost daily to check for lethal levels of carbon monoxide. Lethal levels were found on August 9, and all Centralia-area mines were closed the next day.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Pressed at an August 12 meeting of the United Mine Works of America in Centralia, Secretary of Mines Lewis Evans sent a letter to the group on August 15 that claimed he had authorized a project to deal with the mine fire, and that bids for the project would be opened on August 17. Two days later, the contract was awarded to Bridy, Inc., a company near Mount Carmel, for an estimated $20,000 (roughly ). Work on the project began August 22.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: The Department of Mines and Mineral Industries (DMMI), who originally believed Bridy would need only to excavate of earth, informed them that they were forbidden from doing any exploratory drilling in order to find the perimeter of the fire or how deep it was, and that they were to strictly follow plans drawn up by the engineers who did not believe that the fire was very big or active. The size and location of the fire was, instead, estimated based on the amount of steam issuing from the landfill rock.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Bridy, following the engineering team plan, began by digging on the northern perimeter of the dump pit rim and excavated about outward to expand the perimeter. However, the project was ultimately ineffective due to multiple factors. Intentional breaching of the subterranean mine chambers allowed large amounts of oxygen to rush in, greatly worsening the fire. Steve Kisela, a bulldozer operator in Bridy's project, said that the project was ineffective because the inrush of air helped the fire to move ahead of the excavation point by the time the section was drilled and blasted. Bridy was also using a shovel, which was considered small for the project.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Furthermore, the state only permitted Bridy's team to work weekday shifts which were eight hours long and only occurred during the day time; commonly referred to as "first shift" in the mining industry. At one point, work was at a standstill for five days during the Labor Day weekend in early September. Finally, the fire was traveling in a northward direction which caused the fire to move deeper into the coal seam. This, combined with the work restrictions and inadequate equipment, greatly increased the excavation cost. Bridy had excavated of earth by the time the project ran out of money and ended on October 29, 1962.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: On October 29, just prior to the termination of the Bridy project, a new project was proposed that involved flushing the mine fire. Crushed rock would be mixed with water and pumped into Centralia's mines ahead of the expected fire expansion. The project was estimated to cost $40,000 (roughly ). Bids were opened on November 1, and the project was awarded to K&H Excavating with a low bid of $28,400 (roughly ).


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Drilling was conducted through holes spaced apart in a semicircular pattern along the edge of the landfill. However, this project was also ineffective due to multiple factors. Centralia experienced an unusually heavy period of snowfall and unseasonably low temperatures during the project. Winter weather caused the water supply lines to freeze. Furthermore, the rock-grinding machine froze during a windy blizzard. Both problems inhibited timely mixture and administration of the crushed-rock slurry. The DMMI also worried that the of flushing material would not be enough to fill the mines, thus preventing the bore holes from filling completely. Partially filled boreholes would provide an escape route for the fire, rendering the project ineffective.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: These problems quickly depleted funds. In response, Secretary Evans approved an additional $14,000 (roughly ) to fund this project. Funding for the project ran out on March 15, 1963, with a total cost of $42,420 (roughly ).


title: Centralia mine fire

text: On April 11, steam issuing from additional openings in the ground indicated that the fire had spread eastward as far as , and that the project had failed.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: A three-option proposal was drawn up soon after that, although the project would be delayed until after the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 1963. The first option, costing $277,490, consisted of entrenching the fire and back-filling the trench with incombustible material. The second, costing $151,714, offered a smaller trench in an incomplete circle, followed by the completion of the circle with a flush barrier. The third plan was a "total and concerted flushing project" larger than the second project's flushing and costing $82,300. The state abandoned this project in 1963.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: David DeKok began reporting on the mine fire for "The News-Item" in Shamokin beginning in late 1976. Between 1976 and 1986, he wrote over 500 articles about the mine fire. In 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station owner, then-mayor John Coddington, inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it seemed hot. He lowered a thermometer into the tank on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was .


title: Centralia mine fire

text: Beginning in 1980, adverse health effects were reported by several people due to byproducts of the fire: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and low oxygen levels. Statewide attention to the fire began to increase, culminating in 1981 when a 12-year-old resident named Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole wide by deep that suddenly opened beneath his feet in a backyard. He clung to a tree root until his cousin, 14-year-old Eric Wolfgang, saved his life by pulling him out of the hole. The plume of hot steam billowing from the hole was measured as containing a lethal level of carbon monoxide.


title: Centralia mine fire

text: A number of competing hypotheses have arisen about the source of the Centralia mine fire. Some of them claim that the mine fire started before May 27, 1962. David DeKok says that the borough's deliberate burning of trash on May 27 to clean up the landfill in the former strip mine ignited a coal seam via an unsealed opening in the trash pit, which allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia.