title: Dirtbag left

text: The Iraq War and 2008 financial crisis have been cited as particular radicalizing events for the dirtbag left.


title: Dirtbag left

text: Rhetorically, the dirtbag left is noted as a vulgar, "bawdy offensive balance to cautious mainstream liberal politics", with "a dismissive attitude towards the niceties of liberal political correctness" that frequently direct insults and attacks through social media at specific public figures with political or economic power. "The Times" (London) cited the rise of this rhetorical style as evidence of "the limitations of wokeness as a political force" and an example of the changing nature of politics on the internet.


title: Dirtbag left

text: Despite the connotations of the term "dirtbag left", its use is not typically considered derogatory, with "The New York Times" calling the term "a defense mechanism that doubles as a nickname." Self-identification with the term is indicative of the dirtbag left's tendency toward irony and self-deprecation, with Frost noting that the term "speaks to a lot of people who have been dismissed or chided by liberals for embracing vulgarity, eschewing sanctimony or piety, and refusing to be civil to the right wing", adding that the term "says something positive about what we do believe, and what we’re willing to ruthlessly fight for, regardless of established etiquette." "Chapo" co-host Will Menaker joked that "if you sleep on a mattress on the floor and fuck in a sleeping bag, then you just might be the dirtbag left", before explaining that he sees the dirtbag left as a "scurrilous and funny approach to left-wing politics" that contrasts "utterly humorless and bloodless" liberalism.


title: Dirtbag left

text: Writer Amanda Marcotte argued that the ideology is linked to "that male privilege of intimidating people into assuming you're cool" and comparing it to the television series "Jackass". Writer Jeet Heer argued that the dirtbag left is a form of "doomed to fail" dominance politics, arguing that "derision is useful for one half of politics—defeating the opposing party—but has nothing to say to the crucial other half of forming alliances that can govern effectively for the people."


title: Waitress (film)

text: Waitress is a 2007 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, starring Keri Russell as a young woman trapped in a small town and an abusive marriage, who faces an unwanted pregnancy while working as a waitress. The film debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and went into limited theatrical release in the US on May 2, 2007. It is the basis for the Tony-nominated musical "Waitress". Shelly's supporting role is her final film appearance before her death.


title: Waitress (film)

text: Jenna Hunterson is a waitress living in the American South, trapped in an unhappy marriage with her controlling and abusive husband, Earl. She works in Joe's Pie Diner, where her job includes creating inventive pies with unusual titles inspired by her life, such as the "Bad Baby Pie" she invents after her unintended pregnancy is confirmed. Jenna longs to run away from her dismal marriage and is slowly accumulating money to do so. She pins her hopes for escape on a pie contest in a nearby town, which offers a $25,000 grand prize, but her husband won't let her go. Upon learning she is pregnant, he demands she promise never to love the baby more than him.


title: Waitress (film)

text: Her only friends are her co-workers, Becky and Dawn, and Joe, the curmudgeonly owner of the diner and several other local businesses, who is a regular customer of Jenna's at the diner and encourages her to begin a new life elsewhere. She also bonds unexpectedly with her gruff bossy manager, Cal the cook, when she fearfully informs him of her pregnancy, only to discover he already knows and always planned to keep her employed. Prompted by her co-workers' gift of a baby journal, Jenna begins to keep a diary, ostensibly as letters to her unborn child, revealing her inner thoughts and plans.


title: Waitress (film)

text: Jenna's life changes after she meets her new obstetrician, Jim Pomatter. He has moved to the small town to accommodate his wife, who is completing her residency at the local hospital, and is filling in for the woman who has been Jenna's doctor since childhood. The two are attracted to each other, and over the course of several prenatal appointments the attraction grows. After Dr. Pomatter invites her into the office under a quickly exposed pretext, she impulsively initiates a passionate affair.


title: Waitress (film)

text: At Dawn's wedding at the diner, Earl interrupts the celebration and demands Jenna leave at once. Earl drives Jenna home and confronts her, having found Jenna's multiple stashes of cash throughout the house. Reluctantly, Jenna tells Earl that the money was for the baby, which forces her to spend the money to conceal the true purpose of the funds. In despair, she flees to Dr. Pomatter, who provides much-needed comfort; as they fantasize about running away together, Jenna's water breaks.


title: Waitress (film)

text: At the hospital, Jenna discovers Joe is also a patient undergoing an elective procedure; he hands her an envelope with instructions not to open it until after the baby is born. Much to her dismay, she is also greeted warmly by Dr. Pomatter's wife, who is rounding with other residents. Jenna then begs Dr. Pomatter to administer as many drugs as possible so she won't feel a thing.


title: Waitress (film)

text: Jenna soon gives birth to a baby girl. When she holds and sees her newborn for the first time, Jenna's profound ambivalence melts into a full-blown bond with her daughter, whom she names Lulu. Earl, clearly disappointed that it's a girl, reminds Jenna of her coerced promise not to love the baby more than she does him. She bluntly tells him that she hasn't loved him in years, will no longer put up with his possessiveness and abuse, and will not let Lulu grow up with his mistreating her, and wants a divorce. Enraged, Earl attempts to assault Jenna, but is escorted out of the hospital by security staff.


title: Waitress (film)

text: Later, as Jenna prepares to leave the hospital, due to Earl refusing to pay her medical bills as retaliation for being kicked out, Becky and Dawn inform her Joe collapsed into a coma during his procedure. Jenna then remembers the envelope Joe brought her before the birth. In the envelope she finds a handmade card with a sketch of her, inscribed "To my only friend, start fresh", along with a check for $270,450.


title: Waitress (film)

text: While leaving the hospital, Dr. Pomatter requests a word with her in private, inquiring about their future. Grateful for his profound kindness, she nonetheless promptly breaks it off, informing him of the enormous trust she sensed from his wife. She then hands him a chocolate Moon Pie and asks her friends to wheel her out.


title: Waitress (film)

text: In an epilogue, it is loosely implied that Earl left town or was arrested and never seen or heard from again, Jenna is shown winning the pie contest, as well as turning the diner into a successful chain named "Lulu's Pies", and she and Lulu walk home happily.


title: Waitress (film)

text: The film was accepted into the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, though its premiere was "bittersweet" because writer/director Adrienne Shelly, who also played Dawn in the film, was murdered on November 1, 2006, less than three months before its debut and just before she was about to learn the film had been accepted into the festival. Its success there led Fox Searchlight Pictures to acquire the distribution rights for $4–5 million. It opened the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.


title: Waitress (film)

text: The film received mostly positive reviews, with a 89% "Fresh" rating among the 174 critic reviews tracked by Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The consensus reads: "Sweet, smart, and quirky, "Waitress" hits the right, bittersweet notes through this romantic comedy through its witty script and a superb performance by Keri Russell". The film also made the site's list of Top 100 films for 2007. It got rated 75 out of 100 at Metacritic. "Waitress" was called a "good-hearted, well-made comedy" brimming with "quality star wattage".


title: Waitress (film)

text: Mick LaSalle called it a "great American film" that transcends its "air of whimsicality and its emphasis on small-town characters and humble locations".


title: Waitress (film)

text: Keri Russell's performance in the film partly inspired casting director Andrea Romano to cast her as the voice of Wonder Woman in the 2009 animated film "Wonder Woman".


title: Waitress (film)

text: A stage musical was written based on the film. The musical opened at the American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Massachusetts, running from August 2 to September 27, 2015. The music and lyrics are written by Sara Bareilles, with the book by Jessie Nelson. Diane Paulus directs, with choreography by Chase Brock, sets by Scott Pask, costumes by Suttirat Larlarb and lighting by Ken Posner. The original Broadway cast featured Jessie Mueller as Jenna, Drew Gehling as Dr. Pomatter, Dakin Matthews as Joe, Keala Settle as Becky, Kimiko Glenn as Dawn, Eric Anderson as Cal, Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie and Nick Cordero as Earl.


title: Waitress (film)

text: The musical opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, previews started on March 25, 2016, and the show officially opened on April 24. The cast featured Mueller, Gehling, Matthews, Settle, and Anderson all returning from the A.R.T production, as well as Kimiko Glenn as Dawn, Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie, and Nick Cordero as Earl.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Djibril Cissé (; born 12 August 1981) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: He started his career at AC Arles in 1989, at the age of eight. After seven years at the club, he had a six-month spell at Nîmes Olympique, before moving to AJ Auxerre, joining the club's youth system. Cissé spent two years in the system, before graduating to the first team in 1998. After playing for Auxerre for six seasons, scoring 90 goals in 166 appearances, he moved to Premier League club Liverpool in 2004.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: During his time at Anfield, Cissé played 79 games, scoring 24 times and winning the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League and 2005–06 FA Cup. He went on to play in Greece with Panathinaikos, Italy with S.S. Lazio, Qatar with Al-Gharafa and Russia with Kuban Krasnodar. He also had further spells in English football with Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers, and France with Olympique de Marseille and SC Bastia. In 2015, Cissé made one appearance for Réunion based club JS Saint-Pierroise, before retiring from professional football. In the course of his career, Cissé suffered from two leg breaks, breaking his left leg in 2004, and his right leg in 2006.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé represented the France national football team at the 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cups and was also part of "les Bleus"' 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup winning squad.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: After starting his career with Nîmes Olympique, Cissé signed for AJ Auxerre at the age of 15. Playing for the youth team in 1999, Cissé won the Coupe Gambardella, the equivalent of the FA Youth Cup. After being promoted to the first team squad by coach Guy Roux, Cissé made his Ligue 1 debut at the age of 17 as a substitute against Paris Saint-Germain on 20 March 1999. His first goal came at the start of the 2000–01 season in a 2–1 defeat of FC Metz. He ended this season, his first as a regular in the first team, with eight goals from 25 games.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In the 2001–02 season, Cissé was the top scorer in Ligue 1 with 22 goals from 29 matches, as Auxerre finished in third place and qualified for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League. Cissé's form saw him make his debut for the France national team and earn a place in the team's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé was again amongst the league's top scorers in 2002–03 with 14 goals. He also scored six goals in six matches in Auxerre's successful Coupe de France campaign, including both goals in the semi-final defeat of Stade Rennais and the equalisier in the 2003 Coupe de France Final victory over PSG.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: 2003–04 proved to be Cissé's most successful goalscoring season, with 30 goals in all competitions, including 26 in Ligue 1 to win the golden boot for the second time.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Overall, Cissé scored 70 goals in 128 league games for Auxerre, before signing for Liverpool in a deal worth over £14 million in the summer of 2004.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: At Liverpool, Cissé scored 5 goals in 24 first-team games in all competitions for Liverpool in the 2004–05 season. He had only played 19 games for Liverpool when a freak accident occurred while playing against Blackburn Rovers on 30 October 2004. While Cissé and Blackburn's Jay McEveley were challenging for the ball, Cissé's boot got caught in the turf and his leg snapped. This resulted in a broken tibia and fibula, and physio Daryl Martin said "It could take six to nine months for a recovery and the absolute worst-case scenario is 18 months..." Cissé later revealed that had it not been for prompt attention from the trainers at the stadium, he would probably have lost the leg below the knee. He had pins inserted in the leg, and was expected to be out of action for the rest of the 2004–05 season.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: However, in an unexpected return, Cissé was able to come on as a 75th-minute substitute in the second leg of Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final tie with Juventus on 13 April 2005. He went on to score both Liverpool goals in their last Premiership match of the season, a 2–1 win over Aston Villa and also converted a penalty in Liverpool's penalty shootout win over AC Milan in the Champions League final. During the 2005–06 season, Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez deployed Cissé on the right wing on numerous occasions. While his pace made him well suited to such a role, it was doubtful whether he would be happy to continue in this role rather than in his preferred position as striker. He scored two goals as Liverpool won the 2005 UEFA Super Cup. Cissé also scored Liverpool's opening goal in the 2006 FA Cup Final with a sliding shot past West Ham United keeper Shaka Hislop. Liverpool went on to win 3–1 on penalties. He ended the 2005–06 season with 19 goals in all competitions.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: From the summer of 2005, the media had linked Cissé with a move away from Anfield. Speculation intensified as the season went on. In early June 2006, it was reported that a transfer to Olympique de Marseille had been agreed. The very same day, Cissé broke his leg during France's final warm up match against China on 7 June 2006. It was thought that even though a relatively quick recovery was expected, Cissé's transfer would be postponed until at least the January transfer window. However, the two teams agreed a loan deal in July 2006.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé made his return to training on 20 October 2006, and scored his first goal for Olympique de Marseille on 22 December 2006 when they beat AS Saint-Étienne 2–1. With only four goals in 14 appearances by April, Cissé's performances were drawing such criticism that former player Jean-Pierre Papin urged Cissé's critics to be more patient while the striker recovered from his career-threatening injury. Despite the slow start, Cissé managed to score 4 goals in his final 7 league appearances to finish with 8 goals in 21 league appearances, helping Marseille to finish 2nd in the 2006–07 season and guarantee a Champions League place for the 2007–08 season. On 12 May 2007, he scored two goals in the French Cup Final against Sochaux, although Marseille still lost the match 5–4 on penalties, after a 2–2 stalemate after extra time following a late equaliser by another Liverpool player on loan Anthony Le Tallec.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 7 July 2007, Marseille's president Pape Diouf announced that the club had struck a deal with Liverpool to sign Cissé permanently, for an estimated fee of €8 million. But subsequently, Cissé was linked with a return to the English Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers said to be interested. Manchester City had their approach for Cissé rejected by Marseille boss, who said, "He is wanted, that is for sure, I myself have been approached by Manchester City (about Cissé), but I turned it down categorically". On 26 January 2008, Cissé scored a hat-trick in Marseille's 6–1 win against Caen.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 20 August 2008, Cissé secured a loan switch to Premier League club Sunderland. At the same ground where he had scored on his Liverpool debut, Cissé scored the winning header on his debut against Tottenham to make it 2–1 to Sunderland. A few days later, Cissé announced his desire to secure a permanent deal with the club. Manager Roy Keane also expressed his desire to sign Cissé, telling "The News of the World", "I'd be happy to break the transfer record if Djibril's doing the business". In the Tyne-Wear derby, Cissé scored his third Sunderland goal on 25 October 2008, with Sunderland winning 2–1. After scoring in a 4–1 victory against Hull, Cissé stated that despite the departure of Roy Keane from Sunderland, he still wished to complete a permanent move to the club. On 18 April 2009, Cissé scored his 10th league goal of the season in a 1–0 victory over Hull City at the Stadium of Light. On 24 May, it was confirmed that Sunderland would not be taking up the option to sign Cissé permanently, and he subsequently returned to Marseille.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 25 June 2009, Cissé signed a four-year contract with Panathinaikos. It was reported that the player would earn €2.5 million per year, while French club Marseille would get an estimated €8 million as a transfer fee. The total cost of the transfer is about €20 million, taking into account the various bonuses. He scored his first goal in Greece against Crete-based Ergotelis and soon he became the new leader of the team. He was the Superleague topscorer for the 2009–10, leading his team to win the double. In his first year in Greece, Cissé scored 23 goals in 28 matches.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé's performances made Panathinaikos fans love him. He had stated that after making the double in Greece he would love to play again in the Champions League with Panathinaikos and looking for a successful season also in Greece. On 30 October 2010, he scored two goals (one penalty) in the Derby of the eternal enemies against arch-rivals Olympiacos in a 2–1 home win. At the MVP award ceremony for the 8th fixture, Cissé said "I am not only a player of Panathinaikos, but I am also a fan." In the new season, he has already scored 18 goals in 20 matches in the Greek League and one goal in the Greek Cup. He was also the team captain of Panathinaikos and the most valuable player of the club.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 19 February 2011, Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos in Karaiskaki Stadium (2–1), after a controversial game. After the game, Cissé had a wrangle with Olympiacos' president Evangelos Marinakis, who also used homophobic slurs against Cissé. He was beaten by Olympiacos' fans and stated that he was going to appeal to the UEFA. He stated also that he had lost his patience with the questionable refereeing in Greece: ""I will make my decisions but believe me, I’ve had enough. I can’t go on under these conditions."" One month later, Cissé reached 50 goals as a Panathinaikos player in domestic and European competitions. He celebrated this goal by wearing a t-shirt of Panathinaikos supporters group Gate 13.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé was transferred to Serie A club Lazio on 12 July 2011 for €5.8 million. He signed a four-year contract with the Italian side. He made his debut in a UEFA Europa League match against FK Rabotnički on 18 August, scoring two goals in a 6–0 win for the home side. Cissé scored his only league goal for Lazio on his league debut in a 2–2 draw with Milan at the San Siro on 9 September.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 31 January 2012, Cissé signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Queens Park Rangers for an undisclosed fee. He was Mark Hughes' fourth signing since taking over as manager. He scored on his debut, against Aston Villa in a 2–2 draw at Villa Park on 1 February. He was then given a straight red card in his second game for violent conduct, when he reacted to a late challenge by Wolverhampton Wanderers player Roger Johnson by grabbing Johnson by the throat. With QPR down to ten men, they went on to lose the game 2–1. On 21 March 2012, Cissé scored QPR's equalising goal in a 3–2 victory against his former club Liverpool. Three days later, he was sent off for the second time in his first five games for QPR when he received a straight red card for a two-footed lunge on Sunderland's Fraizer Campbell. He then returned from suspension on 29 April 2012, and scored a late consolation goal against Chelsea in a 6–1 loss at Stamford Bridge. Cissé went on to score his fifth goal in seven matches to win the match against Stoke City. On 13 May 2012, Cissé scored the goal to make it 1–1 against Manchester City. This was his sixth goal in eight matches for QPR. QPR went on to lose the match 3–2, as City scored two goals in stoppage time, but avoided relegation as Bolton succumbed to a 2–2 draw at Stoke. Cissé picked the number nine for his jersey and scored his first goal in the 2012–13 season in a 3–2 loss against Reading in the League Cup and his first Premier League goal of the season, also against Reading on 4 November. In January 2013, he joined Qatari club Al Gharafa on loan until the end of the season. His loan ended on 30 June. He made nine league appearances and scored one goal in the championship and four in the AFC Champions League. Cissé left QPR by mutual consent on 28 June 2013.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 3 July 2013, Cissé signed a one-year contract (plus one in option) with Kuban Krasnodar. On 1 January 2014, he signed an 18-month deal with SC Bastia.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In June 2015, Cissé signed for Saint-Pierroise of the Réunion Premier League on a month-long contract, starting in September of the same year. On 20 October 2015, Cissé announced his retirement from football at the age of 34 due to injury. On 4 July 2017, Cissé returned to football after signing with Swiss side Yverdon.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In August 2018, Cissé signed a contract with "A.C. Vicenza 1902", another phoenix club of Vicenza Calcio. However, after failing to enter Serie D, it was reported that the club started to owe wages to their players.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé announced his intention to come out of retirement in May 2020. He wanted to score four more goal in Ligue 1 to reach the mark of 100.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In April 2021, Cissé joined American fourth division amateur side Panathinaikos Chicago ahead of the 2021 season.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé played for the France under-19 team in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship, where they reached the quarter-finals, with the player scoring six goals in five games. These goals included a hat-trick against Iran on 18 June 2001 in a 5–0 win on their opening game, and two goals against Germany on 27 June 2001 in the round of 16.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: He was included in the France under-21 team. in the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. Cissé scored two goals against Portugal in the first leg of qualification playoffs, winning 2–1. In the second leg, Cissé scored a goal but for kicking Mário Sérgio he was sent off. France went on to lose the game 4–1 on penalties, after drawing 3–3 on aggregate. As a result of the sending off, he was given a five match ban and missed UEFA Euro 2004.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé made his international debut against Belgium at the age of 21, coming on as a 48th-minute substitute for David Trezeguet on 18 May 2002. The team manager Roger Lemerre included Cissé in his 23-man squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In the tournament, he played in all of the group matches against Senegal, Uruguay, and Denmark, coming on as a substitute in all three games, but France were eliminated in the World Cup group stages. His first goal in the senior tournament came on 7 September 2002 against Cyprus in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. Cissé was part of the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup championship team. He scored his only goal of the tournament from the penalty spot in France's 1–0 win against Colombia on 18 June 2003.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: After being banned from UEFA Euro 2004, Cissé was next in the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament in Germany. In France's final warm-up match against China on 7 June 2006, he suffered another broken leg. When ten minutes into the game, he was knocked off balance by the China captain Zheng Zhi and fell with his leg twisting under him. "It's so tough to hear Djibril scream like that," said fellow French striker Thierry Henry. "You lose a teammate and also a friend. But he is tough; he will come back." He needed immediate surgery to repair his open fractured tibia so was out of the tournament. During the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Cissé played three games, but did not win a place in the France squad for the finals.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: After demonstrating his goal-scoring form for Panathinaikos, in March 2010, Cissé was recalled to the French squad for a friendly against Spain in Paris. When introduced into the match as a substitute, he had a considerable impact, heading on a Florent Malouda cross only for Iker Casillas to push it onto the post.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: On 11 May 2010, he was included by manager Raymond Domenech in France's final 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 22 June, he was in France's starting eleven for the team's final game of the group stage versus South Africa.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé was born in France to Ivorian parents. He is also of Guinean descent. He was raised a Muslim and converted to Catholicism in 2007. His late father, Mangué, was a professional footballer and had captained his country, before his parents moved to France in 1974. Djibril was the seventh and last child of his family, after siblings N'ma, Damaye, Abou, Fode, Seni and Hamed. In 2005, after his move to Liverpool, Cissé purchased a manor house in the village of Frodsham, Cheshire, and in doing so became Lord of the Manor of Frodsham. Soon after buying the house, his decision to refuse the Cheshire Forest Hunt permission to hunt on his land received substantial press coverage. On 18 June 2005, Cissé married former Welsh hairdresser Jude Littler. The wedding took place at Bodelwyddan Castle, with notable guests including Shaun Wright-Phillips and Cissé's French national teammates Louis Saha and Sylvain Wiltord. He got married in a tuxedo in the red of Liverpool.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: The couple divorced in October 2014 and have three children, Cassius, Prince Kobe and Marley Jackson. Cissé has a daughter, Ilona, from a previous relationship.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: Cissé had a cameo role in a French action comedy film "Taxi 4", featuring in a high-speed driving scene.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In 2015, he participated in season 6 of "Danse avec les stars", the French version of "Dancing with the Stars". In 2021, he took part in the second season of "Mask Singer", disguised as a skeleton.


title: Djibril Cissé

text: In October 2015, Cissé was one of four people arrested in France over an alleged attempt to blackmail Mathieu Valbuena in a sex tape extortion plot. He was removed from the investigation in January 2021.


title: Victor Borge

text: Børge Rosenbaum (3 January 1909 – 23 December 2000), known professionally as Victor Borge ( ), was a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in the North America and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark", "The Unmelancholy Dane", and "The Great Dane".


title: Victor Borge

text: Victor Borge was born Børge Rosenbaum on 3 January 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke (née Lichtinger) Rosenbaum, were both musicians: his father a violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra, and his mother a pianist. Borge began piano lessons at the age of two, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. He gave his first piano recital when he was eight years old, and in 1918 was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying under Olivo Krause. Later on, he was taught by Victor Schiøler, Liszt's student Frederic Lamond, and Busoni's pupil Egon Petri.


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge played his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish Odd Fellow Palæet ("The Odd Fellow's Lodge building") concert hall. After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now famous stand-up act with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. He married the American Elsie Chilton in 1933; the same year, he debuted with his revue acts. Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes.


title: Victor Borge

text: When the German armed forces occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940, during World War II, Borge was playing a concert in neutral Sweden and decided to go to Finland. He traveled to America on the United States Army transport , the last neutral ship to make it out of Petsamo, Finland, and arrived 28 August 1940, with only $20 (about $ today), with $3 going to the customs fee. Disguised as a sailor, Borge returned to Denmark once during the occupation to visit his dying mother.


title: Victor Borge

text: Even though Borge did not speak a word of English upon arrival, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience, learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor Borge and, in 1941, he started on Rudy Vallee's radio show. He was hired soon after by Bing Crosby for his "Kraft Music Hall" programme.


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge quickly rose to fame, winning Best New Radio Performer of the Year in 1942. Soon after the award, he was offered film roles with stars such as Frank Sinatra (in "Higher and Higher"). While hosting "The Victor Borge Show" on NBC beginning in 1946, he developed many of his trademarks, including repeatedly announcing his intent to play a piece but getting "distracted" by something or other, making comments about the audience, or discussing the usefulness of Chopin's "Minute Waltz" as an egg timer. He would also start out with some well-known classical piece like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and suddenly move into a harmonically similar pop or jazz tune, such as Cole Porter's "Night and Day" or "Happy Birthday to You".


title: Victor Borge

text: One of Borge's other famous routines was "Phonetic Punctuation," in which he read a passage from a book and added exaggerated sound effects to stand for most of the main punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and exclamation marks. Another is his "Inflationary Language", in which he added one to every number or homophone of a number in the words he spoke. For example: "once upon a time" becomes "twice upon a time", "wonderful" becomes "twoderful", "forehead" becomes "fivehead", "anyone for tennis" becomes "anytwo five elevennis", "I ate a tenderloin with my fork, and so on and so forth" becomes "I nined an elevenderloin with my fivek, and so on and so fifth".


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge used physical and visual elements in his live and televised performances. He would play a strange-sounding piano tune from sheet music, looking increasingly confused; turning the sheet upside down or sideways, he would then play the actual tune, flashing a joyful smile of accomplishment to the audience (he had, at first, been literally playing the tune upside down or sideways). When his energetic playing of another song would cause him to fall off the piano bench, he would open the seat lid, take out the two ends of an automotive seat belt, and buckle himself onto the bench, "for safety". Conducting an orchestra, he might stop and order a violinist who had played a sour note to get off the stage, then resume the performance and have the other members of the section move up to fill the empty seat while they were still playing: from off stage would come the sound of a gunshot.


title: Victor Borge

text: His musical sidekick in the 1960s, Leonid Hambro, was also a well-known concert pianist. In 1968, classical pianist Şahan Arzruni joined him as his straight man, performing together on one piano a version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, considered a musical-comedic classic. Borge performed a version of the routine with Rowlf the Dog on Season 4 of The Muppet Show.


title: Victor Borge

text: He also enjoyed interacting with the audience. Seeing an interested person in the front row, he would ask them, "Do you like good music?" or "Do you care for piano music?" After an affirmative answer, Borge would take a piece of sheet music from his piano and say, "Here is some", and hand it over. After the audience's laughter died down, he would say, "That'll be $1.95" (or whatever the current price might be). He would then ask whether the audience member could read music; if the member said yes, he would ask a higher price. If he got no response from the audience after a joke, he would often add "… when this ovation has died down, of course." The delayed punchline to handing the person the sheet music would come when he would reach the end of a number and begin playing the penultimate notes over and over, with a puzzled look. He would then go back to the person in the audience, retrieve the sheet music, tear off a piece of it, stick it on the piano, and play the last couple of notes from it.


title: Victor Borge

text: Making fun of modern theater, he would sometimes begin a performance by asking if there were any children in the audience. There always were, of course. He would sternly order them out, then say, "We do have some children in here; that means I can't do the second half in the nude. I'll wear the tie (pause). The long one (pause). The very long one, yes."


title: Victor Borge

text: In his stage shows in later years, he would include a segment with opera singer Marylyn Mulvey. She would try to sing an aria, and he would react and interrupt, with such antics as falling off the bench in "surprise" when she hit a high note. He would also remind her repeatedly not to rest her hand on the piano, telling her that if she got used to it, "and one day a piano was not there – "Fffftttt!"" After the routine, the spotlight would rest on Mulvey, and she would sing a serious number with Borge accompanying in the background.


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge appeared on "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan several times during 1948. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States the same year. He started the "Comedy in Music " show at John Golden Theatre in New York City on 2 October 1953. "Comedy in Music" became the longest running one-man show in the history of theater with 849 performances when it closed on 21 January 1956, a feat which placed it in the "Guinness Book of World Records".


title: Victor Borge

text: Continuing his success with tours and shows, Borge played with and conducted orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Always modest, he felt honored when he was invited to conduct the Royal Danish Orchestra at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1992.


title: Victor Borge

text: His later television appearances included his "Phonetic Punctuation" routine on "The Electric Company" in a filmed sketch. He would also use this sketch on "The Electric Company"'s subsequent LP record, during its "Punctuation" song. In addition, he appeared several times on "Sesame Street", and he was a guest star during the fourth season of "The Muppet Show".


title: Victor Borge

text: Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year when he was 90 years old.


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge made several appearances on the TV show "What's My Line?", both as a celebrity panelist and as a contestant with the occupation "poultry farmer". (The latter was not a comedy routine: as a business venture, Borge raised and popularized Rock Cornish game hens, starting in the 1950s.)


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge helped start several trust funds, including the Thanks to Scandinavia Fund, which was started in dedication to those who helped the Jews escape the German persecution during the war.


title: Victor Borge

text: Aside from his musical work, Borge wrote three books: "My Favorite Intermissions" and "My Favorite Comedies in Music" (both with Robert Sherman), and the autobiography "Smilet er den korteste afstand" ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser.


title: Victor Borge

text: In 1979 Borge founded the American Pianists Association (then called the Beethoven Foundation) with Julius Bloom and Anthony P. Habig. The American Pianists Association now produces two major piano competitions: the Classical Fellowship Awards and the Jazz Fellowship Awards.


title: Victor Borge

text: He married his first wife, Elsie Chilton, in 1933. After divorcing Elsie, he married Sarabel Sanna Scraper in 1953, and they stayed married until her death at the age of 83 in September 2000.


title: Victor Borge

text: Borge had five children (who occasionally performed with him): Ronald Borge and Janet Crowle (adopted) with Elsie Chilton, and Sanna Feinstein, Victor Bernhard (Vebe) Jr., and Frederikke (Rikke) Borge with Sarabel.


title: Victor Borge

text: On 23 December 2000, Borge died in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 91, after 75 years of entertaining. He died peacefully in his sleep a day after returning from a concert in Denmark. "It was just his time to go," Frederikke Borge said. "He's been missing my mother terribly." (His wife had died only three months earlier.) Just a week earlier he had recorded what would be his final televised interview with Danish television, later aired on New Year's Eve. In a poetic coincidence, when asked where he would be spending his Christmas and New Year's, Borge responded "somewhere completely different".


title: Victor Borge

text: In accordance with Borge's wishes, his connection to both the United States and Denmark was marked by having part of his ashes interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, with a replica of the iconic Danish statue "The Little Mermaid" sitting on a large rock at the grave site, and the other part in Western Jewish Cemetery ("Mosaisk Vestre Begravelsesplads"), Copenhagen.


title: Victor Borge

text: When the Royal Danish Orchestra celebrated its 550th anniversary in 1998, Borge was appointed an honorary member — at that time one of only ten in the orchestra's history.


title: Victor Borge

text: Victor Borge received numerous awards and honors during the course of his career. Borge received Kennedy Center Honors in 1999. He was decorated with badges of chivalric orders by the five Nordic countries, receiving the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark), Order of Vasa (Sweden), in 1973 the Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav (Norway), Order of the White Rose of Finland, and the Order of the Falcon (Iceland).


title: Victor Borge

text: Victor Borge Hall, located in Scandinavia House in New York City, was named in Borge's honor in 2000, as was Victor Borges Plads ("Victor Borge Square") in Copenhagen in 2002. In 2009, a statue celebrating Borge's centennial was erected on the square.


title: Victor Borge

text: From 23 January to 9 May 2009, the life of Borge was celebrated by The American-Scandinavian Foundation with "Victor Borge: A Centennial Celebration."


title: Victor Borge

text: On 14 March 2009, a television special about his life, "100 Years of Music and Laughter", aired on PBS.


title: Victor Borge

text: On 7 February 2017, it was reported that, according to a press release by the Danish production company M&M Productions, both a television series and cinematic film about the life of Borge were foreseen to be filmed in 2018.


title: Futures contract

text: In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument. The predetermined price of the contract is known as the "forward price". The specified time in the future when delivery and payment occur is known as the "delivery date". Because it derives its value from the value of the underlying asset, a futures contract is a derivative.


title: Futures contract

text: Contracts are traded at futures exchanges, which act as a marketplace between buyers and sellers. The buyer of a contract is said to be the long position holder and the selling party is said to be the short position holder. As both parties risk their counter-party reneging if the price goes against them, the contract may involve both parties lodging as security a margin of the value of the contract with a mutually trusted third party. For example, in gold futures trading, the margin varies between 2% and 20% depending on the volatility of the spot market.


title: Futures contract

text: A stock future is a cash-settled futures contract on the value of a particular stock market index. Stock futures are one of the high risk trading instruments in the market. Stock market index futures are also used as indicators to determine market sentiment.


title: Futures contract

text: The first futures contracts were negotiated for agricultural commodities, and later futures contracts were negotiated for natural resources such as oil. Financial futures were introduced in 1972, and in recent decades, currency futures, interest rate futures, stock market index futures, and cryptocurrency perpetual futures have played an increasingly large role in the overall futures markets. Even organ futures have been proposed to increase the supply of transplant organs.


title: Futures contract

text: The original use of futures contracts was to mitigate the risk of price or exchange rate movements by allowing parties to fix prices or rates in advance for future transactions. This could be advantageous when (for example) a party expects to receive payment in foreign currency in the future and wishes to guard against an unfavorable movement of the currency in the interval before payment is received.


title: Futures contract

text: However, futures contracts also offer opportunities for speculation in that a trader who predicts that the price of an asset will move in a particular direction can contract to buy or sell it in the future at a price which (if the prediction is correct) will yield a profit. In particular, if the speculator is able to profit, then the underlying commodity that the speculator traded would have been saved during a time of surplus and sold during a time of need, offering the consumers of the commodity a more favorable distribution of commodity over time.


title: Futures contract

text: The Dōjima Rice Exchange, first established in 1697 in Osaka, is considered by some to be the first futures exchange market, to meet the needs of samurai who—being paid in rice—needed a stable conversion to coin after a series of bad harvests.


title: Futures contract

text: The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) listed the first-ever standardized 'exchange traded' forward contracts in 1864, which were called futures contracts. This contract was based on grain trading, and started a trend that saw contracts created on a number of different commodities as well as a number of futures exchanges set up in countries around the world. By 1875 cotton futures were being traded in Bombay in India and within a few years this had expanded to futures on edible oilseeds complex, raw jute and jute goods and bullion. In the 1930s two thirds of all futures was in wheat.


title: Futures contract

text: The 1972 creation of the International Monetary Market (IMM) by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was the world's first financial futures exchange, and launched currency futures. In 1976, the IMM added interest rate futures on US treasury bills, and in 1982 they added stock market index futures.


title: Futures contract

text: Although futures contracts are oriented towards a future time point, their main purpose is to mitigate the risk of default by either party in the intervening period. In this vein, the futures exchange requires both parties to put up initial cash, or a performance bond, known as the margin. Margins, sometimes set as a percentage of the value of the futures contract, must be maintained throughout the life of the contract to guarantee the agreement, as over this time the price of the contract can vary as a function of supply and demand, causing one side of the exchange to lose money at the expense of the other.


title: Futures contract

text: To mitigate the risk of default, the product is marked to market on a daily basis where the difference between the initial agreed-upon price and the actual daily futures price is re-evaluated daily. This is sometimes known as the variation margin, where the futures exchange will draw money out of the losing party's margin account and put it into that of the other party, ensuring the correct loss or profit is reflected daily. If the margin account goes below a certain value set by the exchange, then a margin call is made and the account owner must replenish the margin account.


title: Futures contract

text: On the delivery date, the amount exchanged is not the specified price on the contract but the spot value, since any gain or loss has already been previously settled by marking to market.


title: Futures contract

text: To minimize counterparty risk to traders, trades executed on regulated futures exchanges are guaranteed by a clearing house. The clearing house becomes the buyer to each seller, and the seller to each buyer, so that in the event of a counterparty default the clearer assumes the risk of loss. This enables traders to transact without performing due diligence on their counterparty.


title: Futures contract

text: Margin requirements are waived or reduced in some cases for hedgers who have physical ownership of the covered commodity or spread traders who have offsetting contracts balancing the position.


title: Futures contract

text: Clearing margin are financial safeguards to ensure that companies or corporations perform on their customers' open futures and options contracts. Clearing margins are distinct from customer margins that individual buyers and sellers of futures and options contracts are required to deposit with brokers.


title: Futures contract

text: Customer margin Within the futures industry, financial guarantees required of both buyers and sellers of futures contracts and sellers of options contracts to ensure fulfillment of contract obligations. Futures Commission Merchants are responsible for overseeing customer margin accounts. Margins are determined on the basis of market risk and contract value. Also referred to as performance bond margin.


title: Futures contract

text: Initial margin is the equity required to initiate a futures position. This is a type of performance bond. The maximum exposure is not limited to the amount of the initial margin, however, the initial margin requirement is calculated based on the maximum estimated change in contract value within a trading day. The initial margin is set by the exchange.


title: Futures contract

text: If a position involves an exchange-traded product, the amount or percentage of the initial margin is set by the exchange concerned.


title: Futures contract

text: In case of loss or if the value of the initial margin is being eroded, the broker will make a margin call in order to restore the amount of initial margin available. Often referred to as "variation margin", margin called, for this reason, is usually done on a daily basis, however, in times of high volatility, a broker can make a margin call intra-day.


title: Futures contract

text: Margin calls are usually expected to be paid and received on the same day. If not, the broker has the right to close sufficient positions to meet the amount called by way of margin. After the position is closed out the client is liable for any resulting deficit in the client's account.


title: Futures contract

text: Some U.S. exchanges also use the term "maintenance margin", which in effect defines how much the value of the initial margin can reduce before a margin call is made. However, most non-US brokers only use the term "initial margin" and "variation margin".


title: Futures contract

text: The Initial Margin requirement is established by the Futures exchange, in contrast to other securities' Initial Margin (which is set by the Federal Reserve in the U.S. Markets).


title: Futures contract

text: A futures account is marked to market daily. If the margin drops below the margin maintenance requirement established by the exchange listing the futures, a margin call will be issued to bring the account back up to the required level.


title: Futures contract

text: Maintenance margin A set minimum margin per outstanding futures contract that a customer must maintain in their margin account.


title: Futures contract

text: Margin-equity ratio is a term used by speculators, representing the amount of their trading capital that is being held as margin at any particular time. The low margin requirements of futures results in substantial leverage of the investment. However, the exchanges require a minimum amount that varies depending on the contract and the trader. The broker may set the requirement higher, but may not set it lower. A trader, of course, can set it above that, if he does not want to be subject to margin calls.


title: Futures contract

text: Performance bond margin The amount of money deposited by both a buyer and seller of a futures contract or an options seller to ensure the performance of the term of the contract. Margin in commodities is not a payment of equity or down payment on the commodity itself, but rather it is a security deposit.


title: Futures contract

text: Return on margin (ROM) is often used to judge performance because it represents the gain or loss compared to the exchange's perceived risk as reflected in the required margin. ROM may be calculated (realized return) / (initial margin). The Annualized ROM is equal to (ROM+1)-1. For example, if a trader earns 10% on margin in two months, that would be about 77% annualized.


title: Futures contract

text: Settlement is the act of consummating the contract, and can be done in one of two ways, as specified per type of futures contract:


title: Futures contract

text: Expiry (or Expiration in the U.S.) is the time and the day that a particular delivery month of a futures contract stops trading, as well as the final settlement price for that contract. For many equity index futures and interest rate futures as well as for most equity (index) options, this happens on the third Friday of certain trading months. On this day the "back month" futures contract becomes the "front-month" futures contract. For example, for most CME and CBOT contracts, at the expiration of the December contract, the March futures become the nearest contract. During a short period (perhaps 30 minutes) the underlying cash price and the futures prices sometimes struggle to converge. At this moment the futures and the underlying assets are extremely liquid and any disparity between an index and an underlying asset is quickly traded by arbitrageurs. At this moment also, the increase in volume is caused by traders rolling over positions to the next contract or, in the case of equity index futures, purchasing underlying components of those indexes to hedge against current index positions. On the expiry date, a European equity arbitrage trading desk in London or Frankfurt will see positions expire in as many as eight major markets almost every half an hour.


title: Futures contract

text: When the deliverable asset exists in plentiful supply or may be freely created, then the price of a futures contract is determined via arbitrage arguments. This is typical for stock index futures, treasury bond futures, and futures on physical commodities when they are in supply (e.g. agricultural crops after the harvest). However, when the deliverable commodity is not in plentiful supply or when it does not yet exist — for example on crops before the harvest or on Eurodollar Futures or Federal funds rate futures (in which the supposed underlying instrument is to be created upon the delivery date) — the futures price cannot be fixed by arbitrage. In this scenario, there is only one force setting the price, which is simple supply and demand for the asset in the future, as expressed by supply and demand for the futures contract.


title: Futures contract

text: Arbitrage arguments ("rational pricing") apply when the deliverable asset exists in plentiful supply or may be freely created. Here, the forward price represents the expected future value of the underlying discounted at the risk-free rate—as any deviation from the theoretical price will afford investors a riskless profit opportunity and should be arbitraged away. We define the forward price to be the strike K such that the contract has 0 value at the present time. Assuming interest rates are constant the forward price of the futures is equal to the forward price of the forward contract with the same strike and maturity. It is also the same if the underlying asset is uncorrelated with interest rates. Otherwise, the difference between the forward price on the futures (futures price) and the forward price on the asset, is proportional to the covariance between the underlying asset price and interest rates. For example, a futures contract on a zero-coupon bond will have a futures price lower than the forward price. This is called the futures "convexity correction".


title: Futures contract

text: Thus, assuming constant rates, for a simple, non-dividend paying asset, the value of the futures/forward price, "F(t,T)", will be found by compounding the present value "S(t)" at time "t" to maturity "T" by the rate of risk-free return "r".


title: Futures contract

text: This relationship may be modified for storage costs "u", dividend or income yields "q", and convenience yields "y". Storage costs are costs involved in storing a commodity to sell at the futures price. Investors selling the asset at the spot price to arbitrage a futures price earns the storage costs they would have paid to store the asset to sell at the futures price. Convenience yields are benefits of holding an asset for sale at the futures price beyond the cash received from the sale. Such benefits could include the ability to meet unexpected demand, or the ability to use the asset as an input in production. Investors pay or give up the convenience yield when selling at the spot price because they give up these benefits. Such a relationship can be summarized as:


title: Futures contract

text: The convenience yield is not easily observable or measured, so "y" is often calculated, when "r" and "u" are known, as the extraneous yield paid by investors selling at spot to arbitrage the futures price. Dividend or income yields "q" are more easily observed or estimated, and can be incorporated in the same way:


title: Futures contract

text: In a perfect market, the relationship between futures and spot prices depends only on the above variables; in practice, there are various market imperfections (transaction costs, differential borrowing, and lending rates, restrictions on short selling) that prevent complete arbitrage. Thus, the futures price in fact varies within arbitrage boundaries around the theoretical price.


title: Futures contract

text: When the deliverable commodity is not in plentiful supply (or when it does not yet exist) rational pricing cannot be applied, as the arbitrage mechanism is not applicable. Here the price of the futures is determined by today's supply and demand for the underlying asset in the future.


title: Futures contract

text: In an efficient market, supply and demand would be expected to balance out at a futures price that represents the present value of an unbiased expectation of the price of the asset at the delivery date. This relationship can be represented as::


title: Futures contract

text: By contrast, in a shallow and illiquid market, or in a market in which large quantities of the deliverable asset have been deliberately withheld from market participants (an illegal action known as cornering the market), the market clearing price for the futures may still represent the balance between supply and demand but the relationship between this price and the expected future price of the asset can break down.


title: Futures contract

text: The expectation-based relationship will also hold in a no-arbitrage setting when we take expectations with respect to the risk-neutral probability. In other words: a futures price is a martingale with respect to the risk-neutral probability. With this pricing rule, a speculator is expected to break even when the futures market fairly prices the deliverable commodity.


title: Futures contract

text: The situation where the price of a commodity for future delivery is higher than the expected spot price is known as contango. Markets are said to be normal when futures prices are above the current spot price and far-dated futures are priced above near-dated futures. The reverse, where the price of a commodity for future delivery is lower than the expected spot price is known as backwardation. Similarly, markets are said to be inverted when futures prices are below the current spot price and far-dated futures are priced below near-dated futures.


title: Futures contract

text: There are many different kinds of futures contracts, reflecting the many different kinds of "tradable" assets about which the contract may be based such as commodities, securities (such as single-stock futures), currencies or intangibles such as interest rates and indexes. For information on futures markets in specific underlying commodity markets, follow the links. For a list of tradable commodities futures contracts, see List of traded commodities. See also the futures exchange article.


title: Futures contract

text: Trading on commodities began in Japan in the 18th century with the trading of rice and silk, and similarly in Holland with tulip bulbs. Trading in the US began in the mid 19th century when central grain markets were established and a marketplace was created for farmers to bring their commodities and sell them either for immediate delivery (also called spot or cash market) or for forward delivery. These forward contracts were private contracts between buyers and sellers and became the forerunner to today's exchange-traded futures contracts. Although contract trading began with traditional commodities such as grains, meat, and livestock, exchange trading has expanded to include metals, energy, currency and currency indexes, equities and equity indexes, government interest rates, and private interest rates.


title: Futures contract

text: Contracts on financial instruments were introduced in the 1970s by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and these instruments became hugely successful and quickly overtook commodities futures in terms of trading volume and global accessibility to the markets. This innovation led to the introduction of many new futures exchanges worldwide, such as the London International Financial Futures Exchange in 1982 (now Euronext. liffe), Deutsche Terminbörse (now Eurex) and the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM). Today, there are more than 90 futures and futures options exchanges worldwide trading to include:


title: Futures contract

text: Most futures contract codes are five characters. The first two characters identify the contract type, the third character identifies the month and the last two characters identify the year.


title: Futures contract

text: Futures traders are traditionally placed in one of two groups: hedgers, who have an interest in the underlying asset (which could include an intangible such as an index or interest rate) and are seeking to "hedge out" the risk of price changes; and speculators, who seek to make a profit by predicting market moves and opening a derivative contract related to the asset "on paper", while they have no practical use for or intent to actually take or make delivery of the underlying asset. In other words, the investor is seeking exposure to the asset in a long futures or the opposite effect via a short futures contract.


title: Futures contract

text: Hedgers typically include producers and consumers of a commodity or the owner of an asset or assets subject to certain influences such as an interest rate.


title: Futures contract

text: For example, in traditional commodity markets, farmers often sell futures contracts for the crops and livestock they produce to guarantee a certain price, making it easier for them to plan. Similarly, livestock producers often purchase futures to cover their feed costs, so that they can plan on a fixed cost for feed. In modern (financial) markets, "producers" of interest rate swaps or equity derivative products will use financial futures or equity index futures to reduce or remove the risk on the swap.


title: Futures contract

text: Those that buy or sell commodity futures need to be careful. If a company buys contracts hedging against price increases, but in fact, the market price of the commodity is substantially lower at the time of delivery, they could find themselves disastrously non-competitive (for example see: VeraSun Energy).


title: Futures contract

text: Investment fund managers at the portfolio and the fund sponsor level can use financial asset futures to manage portfolio interest rate risk, or duration, without making cash purchases or sales using bond futures. Invest firms that receive capital calls or capital inflows in a different currency than their base currency could use currency futures to hedge the currency risk of that inflow in the future.


title: Futures contract

text: Speculators typically fall into three categories: position traders, day traders, and swing traders (swing trading), though many hybrid types and unique styles exist. With many investors pouring into the futures markets in recent years controversy has risen about whether speculators are responsible for increased volatility in commodities like oil, and experts are divided on the matter.


title: Futures contract

text: An example that has both hedge and speculative notions involves a mutual fund or separately managed account whose investment objective is to track the performance of a stock index such as the S&P 500 stock index. The portfolio manager often "equitizes" unintended cash holdings or cash inflows in an easy and cost-effective manner by investing in (opening long) S&P 500 stock index futures. This gains the portfolio exposure to the index which is consistent with the fund or account investment objective without having to buy an appropriate proportion of each of the individual 500 stocks just yet. This also preserves balanced diversification, maintains a higher degree of the percent of assets invested in the market and helps reduce tracking error in the performance of the fund/account. When it is economically feasible (an efficient amount of shares of every individual position within the fund or account can be purchased), the portfolio manager can close the contract and make purchases of each individual stock.


title: Futures contract

text: The social utility of futures markets is considered to be mainly in the transfer of risk, and increased liquidity between traders with different risk and time preferences, from a hedger to a speculator, for example.


title: Futures contract

text: In many cases, "options" are traded on futures, sometimes called simply "futures options". A put is the option to sell a futures contract, and a call is the option to buy a futures contract. For both, the option strike price is the specified futures price at which the futures is traded if the option is exercised. Futures are often used since they are delta one instruments. Calls and options on futures may be priced similarly to those on traded assets by using an extension of the Black-Scholes formula, namely the Black model. For options on futures, where the premium is not due until unwound, the positions are commonly referred to as a fution, as they act like options, however, they settle like futures.


title: Futures contract

text: Investors can either take on the role of option seller (or "writer") or the option buyer. Option sellers are generally seen as taking on more risk because they are contractually obligated to take the opposite futures position if the buyer of the option exercises their right to the futures position specified in the option. The price of an option is determined by supply and demand principles and consists of the option premium, or the price paid to the option seller for offering the option and taking on risk.


title: Futures contract

text: All futures transactions in the United States are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent agency of the United States government. The commission has the right to hand out fines and other punishments for an individual or company who breaks any rules. Although by law the commission regulates all transactions, each exchange can have its own rule, and under contract can fine companies for different things or extend the fine that the CFTC hands out.


title: Futures contract

text: The CFTC publishes weekly reports containing details of the open interest of market participants for each market segment that has more than 20 participants. These reports are released every Friday (including data from the previous Tuesday) and contain data on open interest split by reportable and non-reportable open interest as well as commercial and non-commercial open interest. This type of report is referred to as the 'Commitments of Traders Report', COT-Report, or simply COTR.


title: Futures contract

text: Following Björk we give a definition of a "futures contract". We describe a futures contract with delivery of item J at the time T:


title: Futures contract

text: A closely related contract is a forward contract. A forward is like a futures in that it specifies the exchange of goods for a specified price at a specified future date. However, a forward is not traded on an exchange and thus does not have the interim partial payments due to marking to market.


title: Futures contract

text: While futures and forward contracts are both contracts to deliver an asset on a future date at a prearranged price, they are different in two main respects:


title: Futures contract

text: Forwards have credit risk, but futures do not because a clearing house guarantees against default risk by taking both sides of the trade and marking to market their positions every night.


title: Futures contract

text: Forwards are basically unregulated, while futures contracts are regulated at the central government level.


title: Futures contract

text: The Futures Industry Association (FIA) estimates that 6.97 billion futures contracts were traded in 2007, an increase of nearly 32% over the 2006 figure.


title: Futures contract

text: Futures are always traded on an exchange, whereas forwards always trade over-the-counter, or can simply be a signed contract between two parties. Therefore:


title: Futures contract

text: A variety of trades have developed that involve an exchange of a futures contract for either a over-the-counter, physical commodity, or cash asset position that meets certain criteria such as scale and correspondence to the underlying commodity risk. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fined brokers for violations of their regulations for these types of trades.


title: Futures contract

text: Futures are margined daily to the daily spot price of a forward with the same agreed-upon delivery price and the underlying asset (based on "mark to market").


title: Futures contract

text: Forwards do not have a standard. More typical would be for the parties to agree to true up, for example, every quarter. The fact that forwards are not margined daily means that, due to movements in the price of the underlying asset, a large differential can build up between the forward's delivery price and the settlement price, and in any event, an unrealized gain (loss) can build up.


title: Futures contract

text: Again, this differs from futures which get 'trued-up' typically daily by a comparison of the market value of the futures to the collateral securing the contract to keep it in line with the brokerage margin requirements. This true-ing up occurs by the "loss" party providing additional collateral; so if the buyer of the contract incurs a drop in value, the shortfall or variation margin would typically be shored up by the investor wiring or depositing additional cash in the brokerage account.


title: Futures contract

text: In a forward though, the spread in exchange rates is not trued up regularly but, rather, it builds up as unrealized gain (loss) depending on which side of the trade being discussed. This means that entire unrealized gain (loss) becomes realized at the time of delivery (or as what typically occurs, the time the contract is closed prior to expiration)—assuming the parties must transact at the underlying currency's spot price to facilitate receipt/delivery.


title: Futures contract

text: The result is that forwards have higher credit risk than futures, and that funding is charged differently.


title: Futures contract

text: The situation for forwards, however, where no daily true-up takes place, in turn, creates credit risk for forwards, but not so much for futures. Simply put, the risk of a forward contract is that the supplier will be unable to deliver the referenced asset, or that the buyer will be unable to pay for it on the delivery date or the date at which the opening party closes the contract.


title: Futures contract

text: The margining of futures eliminates much of this credit risk by forcing the holders to update daily to the price of an equivalent forward purchased that day. This means that there will usually be very little additional money due on the final day to settle the futures contract: only the final day's gain or loss, not the gain or loss over the life of the contract.


title: Futures contract

text: In addition, the daily futures-settlement failure risk is borne by an exchange, rather than an individual party, further limiting credit risk in futures.


title: Futures contract

text: Consider a futures contract with a $100 (8h 21m) (8h 21m) price: Let's say that on day 50, a futures contract with a $100 (8h 21m) (8h 21m) delivery price (on the same underlying asset as the future) costs $88 (7h 20m) (7h 20m). On day 51, that futures contract costs $90 (7h 30m) (7h 30m). This means that the "mark-to-market" calculation would require the holder of one side of the futures to pay $2 (0h 10m) (0h 10m) on day 51 to track the changes of the forward price ("post $2 (0h 10m) (0h 10m) of margin"). This money goes, via margin accounts, to the holder of the other side of the future. That is the loss party wires cash to the other party.


title: Futures contract

text: A forward-holder, however, may pay nothing until settlement on the final day, potentially building up a large balance; this may be reflected in the mark by an allowance for credit risk. So, except for tiny effects of convexity bias (due to earning or paying interest on margin), futures and forwards with equal delivery prices result in the same total loss or gain, but holders of futures experience that loss/gain in daily increments which track the forward's daily price changes, while the forward's spot price converges to the settlement price. Thus, while under mark to market accounting, for both assets the gain or loss accrues over the holding period; for a futures this gain or loss is realized daily, while for a forward contract the gain or loss remains unrealized until expiry.


title: Futures contract

text: With an exchange-traded future, the clearing-house interposes itself on every trade. Thus there is no risk of counterparty default. The only risk is that the clearing house defaults (e.g. become bankrupt), which is considered very unlikely.


title: Akebi's Sailor Uniform

text: Throughout her young life, Komichi has always adored sailor attire-(being inspired by her idol Miki Fukumoto), even going so far as to have her mother Yuwa make a sailor-style school uniform for her when she enters middle school. When she gets accepted to her mother's old private school Roubai Girls' Academy, she is delighted that she'll get to wear her homemade uniform; once arriving at her new school, she is surprised to find out that Roubai's dress code no longer uses sailor uniforms and have been replaced with blazers instead. Despite the circumstances, the school's headmistress happily makes an exception and allows her to wear the traditional sailor uniform. As she goes through her years of early adolescence, even experiencing some struggles along the way, she meets and befriends many of her school peers and enjoys her school life.


title: Akebi's Sailor Uniform

text: "Akebi's Sailor Uniform" is Hiro's first work published by Shueisha. Around half year before the end of his previous work, "Yumekuri", he was reached out by the editorial department of "Weekly Young Jump". He knew that it was impossible for him to carry out a weekly serialization and therefore had little interest to "Young Jump". He however still had a meeting with them and surprisingly found out they could provide options other than weekly serialization.


title: Akebi's Sailor Uniform

text: "Akebi's Sailor Uniform" is written and illustrated by Hiro. The series began serialization in Shueisha's "Tonari no Young Jump" website on August 2, 2016. The first volume was released on April 19, 2017. As of June 17, 2022, ten volumes have been released.


title: Akebi's Sailor Uniform

text: An anime television series adaptation by CloverWorks was announced on March 26, 2021. Miyuki Kuroki is directing the series, while Rino Yamazaki is writing and overseeing the series' scripts. The character designs are provided by Megumi Kouno. Kana Utatane is composing the series' music. It aired from January 9 to March 27, 2022 on Tokyo MX and other networks. The 16 main cast members, under the name , performed the opening theme song , while Manatsu Murakami performed the ending theme song "Baton". A cover of the Spitz song sung by Mitsuho Kambe (the voice of Oshizu Hebimori) is featured in episode 7. Funimation (now Crunchyroll, LLC) licensed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.


title: Akebi's Sailor Uniform

text: On January 27, 2022, Funimation announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on January 29.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: The Game is an American television series created by Mara Brock Akil. A spin-off of UPN's "Girlfriends", the series premiered on its successor, The CW, on October 1, 2006.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: The series was canceled in May 2009 after three seasons. Viacom's BET Networks would strike a deal with CBS Corporation to develop new episodes of the series, relocating taping of the show from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and announcing its renewal at the April 2010 upfronts. New seasons began airing on BET starting January 11, 2011, with the fourth season premiere drawing 7.7 million viewers, making it the most watched sitcom premiere in cable television history. The show would air for six seasons on BET, being renewed for its final two in 2014, and concluding its run on August 5, 2015.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: In May 2021, a revival of the series was ordered by Paramount+ with Robinson, and Chanchez, returning. The revival series premiered on November 11, 2021, and was renewed for a second season in February 2022.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: For the first five seasons, "The Game" was centered around Joan Clayton's first cousin, Melanie Barnett (Tia Mowry), who was first introduced in the 2006 "Girlfriends" episode of the same name. Melanie is a first-year medical school student who has given up an offer of admission to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore to follow her boyfriend, Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall), to San Diego, against the advice of her parents. Derwin is a first-year rookie American football player with a fictional "San Diego Sabers" team. As Melanie settles into her new life, she meets Tasha Mack (Wendy Raquel Robinson), the mother of Sabers' starting quarterback Malik Wright (Hosea Chanchez), and Kelly Pitts (Brittany Daniel), the then-wife of Sabers' captain Jason Pitts (Coby Bell), who warn her to keep a close eye on her boyfriend because of the numerous "gold diggers" who approach the professional American football players. As Melanie learns to balance her new roles as both med student and the partner of a professional American football player, the series focuses on the evolving relationships between the players and their significant others.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: In May 2021, it was announced that Paramount+ had ordered a revival of the series, with the setting relocated to Las Vegas. Hosea Chanchez, Coby Bell, Brandy, Brittany Daniel, Pooch Hall and Wendy Raquel Robinson were in talks to reprise their roles as Malik Wright, Jason Pitts, Chardonnay Pitts, Kelly Pitts, Derwin Davis and Tasha Mack.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: Joining the returning cast was Vaughn W. Hebron as "Jamison Fields", an undrafted free agent; Adriyan Rae as "Brittany Pitts", Jason and Kelly Pitts daughter, (previous portrayed by Katlynn Simone); and Analisa Velez as "Raquel Navarro", Brittany’s best friend. Tia Mowry-Hardrict, who was cast in Netflix's "Family Reunion", made a TikTok video expressing that she will most likely not return to her 2 roles of "Sister, Sister" and "The Game". While being honored at the "Ebony 'Power 100"', she was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight saying: “You know what’s so funny? Never say never. I mean, as it stands for right now, we aren’t in any talks or communication about me coming back to the show...I know it seems kind of weird, because I’m like, the only one, but you know, Melanie, I loved playing that character, and if everything works out, and if everything works out the way that it should, then who knows? I might be on the show.”


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of the series. The fourth season premiere acquired 7.7 million viewers, which was a record for a scripted premiere on BET.


title: The Game (American TV series)

text: In September 2006, writer Staci Robinson filed a $40 million lawsuit against the CW, CBS, Warner Bros., and Grammnet Productions for copyright infringement. Robinson claimed that she had applied for a job as writer's assistant in 2005 with series creator and executive producer Mara Brock Akil, to whom Robinson had subsequently sent her novel, "Interceptions". The novel is about a woman who decides to put her goal of becoming a lawyer on hold to follow her boyfriend as he pursues a career as a professional American football player. After receiving the novel, Robinson was interviewed for the job but later declined the position. Robinson alleged that Akil and a CW screenwriter stole the idea from her novel to create the series. The suit was settled out of court under a non-disclosure agreement in September 2007.


title: Didi Conn

text: Edith "Didi" Conn (née Bernstein; born July 13, 1951) is an American actress. She is best known for her work as Frenchy in "Grease", Denise Stevens Downey in "Benson" and Stacy Jones in "Shining Time Station".


title: Didi Conn

text: Edith Bernstein was born on July 13, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. She had a Conservative "holiday Jewish" upbringing, and is the daughter of a clinical psychologist; "Didi" was her childhood nickname. She attended Midwood High School. Her brother is opera singer Richard Bernstein.


title: Didi Conn

text: Conn made her debut as an actress in the 1960s. Her notable characters since the 1970s, when she first became prominent, include Laurie Robinson in "You Light Up My Life" (1977; for which Kasey Cisyk provided the character's singing voice), Frenchy in the feature films "Grease" (1978) and "Grease 2" (1982), Helen on "The Practice" (1976–77), Denise Stevens Downey on "Benson" (1981–84), and Stacy Jones on "Shining Time Station" (1989–95).


title: Didi Conn

text: Conn provided the voice for Raggedy Ann in the animated feature "" (1977) directed by Richard Williams. Her voice is one of her trademarks. She appeared as a celebrity guest on game shows like "Match Game", "The $20,000, $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000 Pyramids", "Whew!", "Chain Reaction", and "Go".


title: Didi Conn

text: In 2013, she starred as Pearl in the play "A Heap of Livin"' by Elliot Shoenman at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, California.


title: Didi Conn

text: In January 2016, she had a cameo as Vi in the "" television special on Fox, thus being the only actress to appear in all three screen adaptations of the franchise. In addition, she has appeared in numerous other roles on television.


title: Didi Conn

text: In 2019, Conn was a contestant on the eleventh series of the British television series "Dancing on Ice". At 67, she was the oldest person ever to compete on the show. She, alongside her professional partner Łukasz Różycki, were eliminated in Week 4, after the judges saved Saara Aalto and Hamish Gaman in the skate-off.


title: Didi Conn

text: Conn's adopted son Daniel was diagnosed with autism. On November 13, 2008, she was named national celebrity spokesperson for Autism Speaks. Before that, she was a spokesperson for the National Alliance for Autism Research, now part of Autism Speaks. She has performed at benefits for Foundation for Educating Children with Autism (FECA).


title: Didi Conn

text: On September 27, 2008, Conn performed with David Shire and Lynne Wintersteller at a benefit performance for Barack Obama in Nyack, New York.


title: Didi Conn

text: She married her first husband, Frank Conn, in 1975 and they divorced in 1978. She has been married to composer David Shire since 1984. Conn is the stepmother of Matthew Shire, a Los Angeles screenwriter and the son of Talia Shire, David's first wife.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: "Jan-Jak Desalin"; ; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Under Dessalines, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of the Haitian Revolution Army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806. He has been referred to as the father of the nation of Haiti.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines served as an officer in the French army when the colony was fending off Spanish and British incursions. Later he rose to become a commander in the revolt against France. As Toussaint Louverture's principal lieutenant, he led many successful engagements, including the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: After the capture of Toussaint Louverture in 1802, who died in prison in France, Dessalines became the leader of the revolution and Général-Chef de l'Armée Indigène on May 18 1803. He defeated a French army at the Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803. Declaring St-Domingue independent on November 29 1803 and Haiti an independent nation on January 1 1804, Dessalines was chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general. He ordered the genocidal 1804 Haiti massacre of remaining whites, including former slave owners, in Haiti, many of whom were not willing to live in peace with the new Haitian regime, resulting in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people. He excluded surviving Polish Legionnaires, who had defected from the French legion to become allied with the enslaved Africans and the Germans who did not take part of the slave trade. He granted them full citizenship under the constitution and classified them as "Noir", the new ruling ethnicity. Tensions remained with the minority of mixed-race or free people of color, who had gained some education and property during the colonial period.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: In September 1804, Dessalines was proclaimed emperor by the Generals of the Haitian Revolution Army. He ruled in that capacity under the Imperial Constitution 1805 until being assassinated in 1806 by opponents who resisted his autocratic rule.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Jean-Jacques Duclos was born into slavery on Cormier, a plantation near Grande-Riviere-du-Nord, Saint-Domingue. His enslaved father had adopted the surname from his owner Henri Duclos. The names of Jean-Jacques's parents, as well as their region of origin in Africa, are not known. Most slaves trafficked to Saint-Domingue were exported from west and central West Africa. He later took the surname Dessalines, after a free man of color who had purchased him.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Working in the sugarcane fields as a laborer, Dessalines rose to the rank of "commandeur", or foreman. He worked on Duclos's plantation until he was about 30 years old. Still enslaved, Jean-Jacques was bought by a man with the last name of Dessalines, an "affranchi" or free man of color, who assigned his own surname to Jean-Jacques. From then on he was called Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines kept this name in freedom. He worked for that master for about three years.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: When the slave uprising of 1791 began, it spread across the Plaine du Nord. This was an area of very large sugar cane plantations, where the mass of enslaved Africans lived and worked. Mortality was so high that French colonial planters continued to import new slaves from Africa during the eighteenth century. Dessalines received his early military technique training from an African Amazon known as Victoria Montou or Akbaraya Tòya.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines became increasingly embittered toward both the whites and "gens de couleur libres" (the mixed-race residents of Saint-Domingue) in the years of conflict during the revolution. Haitian insurgents fought against French colonists and foreign troops in Saint-Domingue. During the years of warfare and changing rule, these included French, British, and Spanish forces. All three European nations had colonies in the Caribbean, where their control and revenues were threatened by the Haitian Revolution.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: After the expulsion of French forces during the last phase of the Haitian Revolution, Dessalines ordered all whites to be killed in the new Haiti, to try to ensure the survival of the Empire as a nation. Many mulattos or free people of color were also killed. Yet, after declaring himself Governor-for-Life in 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines took his old master Dessalines into his house and gave him a job.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines was married to Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur, a lady from the city of Léogane. The celebration took place in St-Marc church in St-Marc and Toussaint Louverture was the witness. Marie-Claire was empress under the 1805 Constitution, and she is credited for the concoction of the soup lendepandans or Pumpkin Independence Soup, now a UNESCO Patrimoine. She was older than her husband and died at 107 years old. She is referred to as the adopted wife of the Nation in a letter by Pétion after the Emperor's assassination.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The couple had and adopted a total number of 16 kids including Jacques's children from the previous relationship. Innocent, one of his sons, has a fort named in his honor. Dessalines offered one of his daughters to Pétion but Pétion refuses under the pretext that she was in a relationship with Chancy, one of Toussaint's nephews.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Euphémie Daguile one of his most known concubines is the choregrapher of Karabiyen dance known also as Jacques's favorite dance. It is still danced by Haitian families all over the country.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines had two brothers, Louis and Joseph Duclos, who also later took the surname Dessalines. Two of his brothers' sons became high-ranking members of the post-Revolutionary Haitian government.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: In 1791, along with thousands of other enslaved persons, Jean-Jacques Dessalines joined the slave rebellion of the northern plains led by Jean François Papillon and Georges Biassou. This rebellion was the first action of what would become the Haitian Revolution. Dessalines became a lieutenant in Papillon's army and followed him to Santo Domingo, occupying the eastern half of the island, where he enlisted to serve Spain's military forces against the French colony of Saint-Domingue.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: In that period, Dessalines met the rising military commander Toussaint Bréda (later known as Toussaint Louverture), a mature man also born into slavery. He was fighting with Spanish forces on Hispaniola. These men wanted above all to defeat slavery. In 1794, after the French declared an end to slavery as a result of the French Revolution, Toussaint Louverture switched allegiances to the French. He fought for the French Republic against both the Spanish and British, who were trying to get control of the lucrative colony of Saint-Domingue. Dessalines followed, becoming a chief lieutenant to Toussaint Louverture and rising to the rank of brigadier general by 1799.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines commanded many successful engagements, including the captures of Jacmel, Petit-Goâve, Miragoâne and Anse-à-Veau. In 1801, Dessalines quickly ended an insurrection in the north led by Louverture's nephew, General Moyse. Dessalines gained a reputation for his "take no prisoners" policy, and for burning homes and entire villages to the ground.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The rebellious slaves were able to restore most of Saint-Domingue to France, with Louverture in control. The French initially appointed him as governor-general of the colony. Louverture wanted Saint-Domingue to have more autonomy. He directed the creation of a new constitution to establish that, as well as rules for how the colony would operate under freedom. He also named himself governor-for-life, while still swearing his loyalty to France.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The French government had been through changes after the Revolution and was by then led by Napoleon Bonaparte. His wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, was from a slave-owning family. But many white and mulatto planters had been lobbying the government to reimpose slavery in Saint-Domingue. Napoleon was committed to restoring slavery in Saint-Domingue in an effort to restore the basis of the labor needed to cultivate and process the great sugar crops. Saint-Domingue generated the highest profits of any of the French colonies prior to the Revolution in 1791.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The French dispatched an expeditionary force in 1802 to restore French rule to the island, an army and ships led by General Charles Leclerc. Louverture and Dessalines fought against the invading French forces, with Dessalines defeating them at the battle for which he is most famous, Crête-à-Pierrot.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: During the 11 March 1802 battle, Dessalines and his 1,300 men defended a small fort against 18,000 attackers. To inspire his troops at the start of the battle, he waved a lit torch near an open powder keg and declared that he would blow the fort up should the French break through. The defenders inflicted extensive casualties on the attacking army, but after a 20-day siege, they were forced to abandon the fort due to a shortage of food and munitions. The rebels forced their way through the enemy lines and into the Cahos Mountains, with their army still largely intact.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The French soldiers under Leclerc were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud, free gens de couleur from Saint-Domingue. Pétion and Rigaud, both sons of wealthy white fathers, had opposed Louverture's leadership. They had tried to establish separate independence in the South of Saint-Domingue, an area where wealthy "gens de couleur" were concentrated in plantations. Toussaint Louverture's forces had defeated them three years earlier.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: After the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, Dessalines defected from his long-time ally Louverture and briefly sided with Leclerc, Pétion, and Rigaud. Several historians attribute Dessalines with being at least partially responsible for Louverture's arrest, as did Louverture's son Isaac. On 22 May 1802, after Dessalines "learned that Louverture had failed to instruct a local rebel leader to lay down his arms per the recent ceasefire agreement, he immediately wrote Leclerc to denounce Louverture’s conduct as 'extraordinary'." For this action, Dessalines and his spouse received gifts from Jean Baptiste Brunet.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: When it became clear that the French intended to re-establish slavery on Saint-Domingue, as they already had on Guadeloupe, Dessalines and Pétion switched sides again in October 1802, to oppose the French. By November 1802, Dessalines had become the leader of the alliance with the blessing of general Alexandre Pétion, the most prominent of the "affranchis", or free men of color. Leclerc died of yellow fever, which killed so many French troops that the French lost Saint-Domingue.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The brutal tactics of Leclerc's successor, Rochambeau, helped to unify rebel forces against the French. Dessalines, the leader of the Revolution after Toussaint's capture on 7 June 1802, commanded the rebel forces against a French army severely weakened by a yellow fever epidemic.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: His forces achieved a series of victories against the French, culminating in the last major battle of the revolution, the Battle of Vertières. On 18 November 1803, black and mulatto forces under Dessalines and Pétion attacked the fort of Vertières, held by Rochambeau, near Cap-Français in the north. Rochambeau and his troops surrendered the next day. On 4 December 1803, the French colonial army of Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered its last remaining territory to Dessalines's forces. This officially ended the only slave rebellion in world history which successfully resulted in establishing an independent nation.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France. Dessalines promulgated the Declaration of Independence in 1804, and declared himself emperor.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence and renamed it ""Ayiti"" after the indigenous Taíno name. He had served as Governor-General of Saint-Domingue since 30 November 1803. After the declaration of independence, Dessalines named himself Governor-General-for-life of Haiti and served in that role until 22 September 1804, when he was proclaimed Emperor of Haiti by the Generals of the Haitian Revolution Army. He was crowned Emperor Jacques I in a coronation ceremony on 6 October in the city of Le Cap (now Cap-Haïtien). On 20 May 1805, his government released the Imperial Constitution, naming Jean-Jacques Dessalines emperor for life with the right to name his successor.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: In declaring Haiti an independent country, Dessalines also abolished slavery in the new country. Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. Dessalines tried to keep the sugar industry and plantations running and producing without slavery.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: After having served enslaved under white masters for 30 years, as well as having seen many atrocities, Dessalines did not trust the white French people. Many white planters and merchants, in addition to free people of color, had already fled the island as refugees, going to Cuba, the United States and France. Between February and April 1804, Dessalines ordered genocide, the 1804 Haiti massacre of remaining whites. Dessalines declared Haiti to be an all-black nation and forbade whites from owning property or land there.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The remaining French forces meanwhile had fled to the Spanish side of the island and taken refuge in Santo Domingo. Dessalines and Christophe led 20,000 soldiers into the colony after the French. The Spanish colony had fewer than 175,000 residents. The French force numbered perhaps 500 and the local colonial militia had no more than 1000 men. The armed Haitian juggernaut advanced sweeping everything in its path. In the town of Moca, one of the places that fell to Christophe, his soldiers beheaded 40 children. Altogether more than 600 died or were taken away in captivity as spoils of war, according to the eyewitness Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines enforced a harsh regimen of plantation labor, described by the historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot as "caporalisme agraire" (agrarian militarism). As had Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines demanded that all blacks work either as soldiers to defend the nation or as labourers on the plantations, in order to raise commodity crops for export and to help sustain the nation. His forces were strict in enforcing this, to the extent that some blacks felt as if they were again enslaved.