title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Under the Constitution, the Governor-General has the power to appoint and dismiss "Ministers of State" who administer government departments. In practice, the Governor-General chooses ministers in accordance with the traditions of the Westminster system that the Government be drawn from the party or coalition of parties that has a majority in the House of Representatives, with the leader of the largest party becoming Prime Minister.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: These ministers then meet in a council known as Cabinet. Cabinet meetings are strictly private and are frequently held to discuss vital issues and make policy decisions. The Constitution does not recognise the Cabinet as a legal entity; it exists solely by convention. Its decisions do not in and of themselves have legal force. However, it serves as the practical expression of the Federal Executive Council, which is Australia's highest formal governmental body. In practice, the Federal Executive Council meets solely to endorse and give legal force to decisions already made by the Cabinet. All members of the Cabinet are members of the Executive Council. While the Governor-General is nominal presiding officer, he almost never attends Executive Council meetings. A senior member of the Cabinet holds the office of Vice-President of the Executive Council and acts as presiding officer of the Executive Council in the absence of the Governor-General. The Federal Executive Council is the Australian equivalent of the Executive Councils and privy councils in other Commonwealth realms such as the King's Privy Council for Canada and the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: A minister is not required to be a Senator or Member of the House of Representatives at the time of their appointment, but their office is forfeited if they do not become a member of either house within three months of their appointment. This provision was included in the Constitution (section 64) to enable the inaugural Ministry, led by Edmund Barton, to be appointed on 1 January 1901, even though the first federal elections were not scheduled to be held until 29 and 30 March.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: After the 1949 election, Bill Spooner was appointed a Minister in the Fourth Menzies Ministry on 19 December, however his term as a Senator did not begin until 22 February 1950.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The provision was also used after the disappearance and presumed death of the Liberal Prime Minister Harold Holt in December 1967. The Liberal Party elected John Gorton, then a Senator, as its new leader, and he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 10 January 1968 (following an interim ministry led by John McEwen). On 1 February, Gorton resigned from the Senate to stand for the 24 February by-election in Holt's former House of Representatives electorate of Higgins due to the convention that the Prime Minister be a member of the lower house. For 22 days (2 to 23 February inclusive) he was Prime Minister while a member of neither house of parliament.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: On a number of occasions when Ministers have retired from their seats prior to an election, or stood but lost their own seats in the election, they have retained their Ministerial offices until the next government is sworn in.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: In addition to the work of the main chamber, the House of Representatives also has a large number of committees which deal with matters referred to them by the main House. They provide the opportunity for all Members to ask questions of ministers and public officials as well as conduct inquiries, examine policy and legislation. Once a particular inquiry is completed the members of the committee can then produce a report, to be tabled in Parliament, outlining what they have discovered as well as any recommendations that they have produced for the Government to consider.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The ability of the Houses of Parliament to establish committees is referenced in Section 49 of the Constitution, which states that, "The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, and of the members and the committees of each House, shall be such as are declared by the Parliament, and until declared shall be those of the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and of its members and committees, at the establishment of the Commonwealth."


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Parliamentary committees can be given a wide range of powers. One of the most significant powers is the ability to summon people to attend hearings in order to give evidence and submit documents. Anyone who attempts to hinder the work of a Parliamentary committee may be found to be in contempt of Parliament. There are a number of ways that witnesses can be found in contempt. These include refusing to appear before a committee when summoned, refusing to answer a question during a hearing or to produce a document, or later being found to have lied to or misled a committee. Anyone who attempts to influence a witness may also be found in contempt. Other powers include, the ability to meet throughout Australia, to establish subcommittees and to take evidence in both public and private hearings.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Proceedings of committees are considered to have the same legal standing as proceedings of Parliament, they are recorded by Hansard, except for private hearings, and also operate under Parliamentary privilege. Every participant, including committee members and witnesses giving evidence, are protected from being prosecuted under any civil or criminal action for anything they may say during a hearing. Written evidence and documents received by a committee are also protected.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Standing Committees, which are established on a permanent basis and are responsible for scrutinising bills and topics referred to them by the chamber; examining the government's budget and activities and for examining departmental annual reports and activities.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Select Committees, which are temporary committees, established in order to deal with particular issues.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Domestic Committees, which are responsible for administering aspects of the House's own affairs. These include the Selection Committee that determines how the House will deal with particular pieces of legislation and private members business and the Privileges Committee that deals with matters of Parliamentary Privilege.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Legislative Scrutiny Committees, which examine legislation and regulations to determine their impact on individual rights and accountability.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Joint Committees are also established to include both members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The Federation Chamber is a second debating chamber that considers relatively uncontroversial matters referred by the House. The Federation Chamber cannot, however, initiate or make a final decision on any parliamentary business, although it can perform all tasks in between.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The Federation Chamber was created in 1994 as the Main Committee, to relieve some of the burden of the House: different matters can be processed in the House at large and in the Federation Chamber, as they sit simultaneously. It is designed to be less formal, with a quorum of only three members: the Deputy Speaker of the House, one government member, and one non-government member. Decisions must be unanimous: any divided decision sends the question back to the House at large.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The Federation Chamber was created through the House's Standing Orders: it is thus a subordinate body of the House, and can only be in session while the House itself is in session. When a division vote in the House occurs, members in the Federation Chamber must return to the House to vote.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The Federation Chamber is housed in one of the House's committee rooms; the room is customised for this purpose and is laid out to resemble the House chamber.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Due to the unique role of what was then called the Main Committee, proposals were made to rename the body to avoid confusion with other parliamentary committees, including "Second Chamber" and "Federation Chamber". The House of Representatives later adopted the latter proposal.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The concept of a parallel body to expedite Parliamentary business, based on the Australian Federation Chamber, was mentioned in a 1998 British House of Commons report, which led to the creation of that body's parallel chamber Westminster Hall.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The current Parliament is the 47th Australian Parliament. The most recent federal election was held on 21 May 2022, with the 47th Parliament first sitting in July 2022.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The 2022 election saw the incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government defeated, with the Opposition Albanese-led Labor Party gaining 77 seats in the 151 seat House of Representatives, for a two-seat majority government, while the Coalition lost 18 seats to finish with 58 seats, their worst result since 1946 (the first election after the formation of the current Liberal Party).


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: On the crossbench, the Australian Greens gained three seats, upping their total from one to four, while the Centre Alliance and Katter's Australian Party held their current standing of one seat each, and independents gained seven seats to bring their total to ten, six of these being Teal independents.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: Prior to the 1909 merger of the two non-Labor parties, a three-party system existed in the chamber, with a two-party system in place since.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: The 1910 election was the first to elect a majority government, with the Australian Labor Party also winning the first Senate majority.


title: Australian House of Representatives

text: A two-party-preferred vote (2PP) has been calculated since the 1919 change from first-past-the-post to preferential voting, and subsequent introduction of the Coalition. ALP = Australian Labor Party, L+NP = grouping of Liberal/National/LNP/CLP Coalition parties (and predecessors), Oth = other parties and independents.


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are intended for play by a single player, but there are also "excellent games of patience for two or more players".


title: Patience (game)

text: 'Patience' is the earliest recorded name for this type of card game in both British and American sources. The word is French in origin, these games being "regarded as an exercise in patience."


title: Patience (game)

text: Although the name solitaire became common in North America for this type of game during the 20th century, British games scholar David Parlett notes that there are good reasons for preferring the name 'patience'. Firstly, a patience is a card game, whereas a solitaire is any one-player game, including those played with dominoes or peg and board games. Secondly, any game of patience may be played competitively by two or more players.


title: Patience (game)

text: American games authors Wood and Goddard state that "Patience is any game played with playing cards in which the object is to arrange the cards... in some systematic order." They note that "there are excellent games of Patience for two or more players; but most... are designed for one player" and that "Solitaire...properly applies to any game that one player can play alone." In practice, in North America the name 'solitaire' is often used "totum pro parte" to refer to single-player card games, although sometimes the term 'card solitaire' is used for clarity. Meanwhile, in other countries 'solitaire' specifically refers to one-player board and table games, especially peg solitaire. Both solitaire and patience are sometimes used loosely to refer to the game of Klondike. Authors writing internationally tend to include both "patience" and "solitaire" in the title, but sometimes the phrase "card games for one" is used instead.


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience or solitaire cards are normally smaller than standard cards measuring about 67 x 42 mm. However, packs labelled 'Patience' have also been produced in standard size (c. 88 x 58 mm) and are also marketed as miniature cards measuring about 45 x 32 mm. They are frequently sold as twin packs in a single box, since many patiences and solitaires require two full decks of cards. The two packs may have different back designs which, however, does not affect the play.


title: Patience (game)

text: The earliest English and American sources tended to use the definite article before the names of games e.g. "The Beleaguered Castle", "The Clock", "The Gathering of the Clans", "The House on the Hill", etc. The word "Patience" or, in American sources, "Solitaire" was also often appended to names e.g. "The Baroness Patience", "Czarina Patience", "Gateway Solitaire", "Missing Link Solitaire", etc. These tendencies have largely been dropped in modern sources, especially where books are aimed at a worldwide market. However, in a few instances they are sometimes retained, for example, where the name is an adjective e.g. "The Blind Patience" or the definite article seems more evocative or meaningful e.g. "The Plot". American sources sometimes change the names of games where the title has a European theme e.g. "British Constitution" is just "Constitution" and "Duchess of Luynes" is "Grand Duchess".


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience or solitaire games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by aim or object.


title: Patience (game)

text: It will be obvious that the endeavour to arrange, pair, or combine the cards of a whole pack is a difficult task, varying in degree according to the rules of the particular game. The player must therefore be prepared for a good many failures, sometimes when he or she has all but reached the goal of success. Hence why the name 'patience games' has been give to recreations of this description.


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience is thought to be German or Scandinavian in origin. The game became popular in France in the early 19th century, reaching Britain and America in the latter half. The earliest known recording of a game of patience occurred in 1788 in the German game anthology "Das neue Königliche L'Hombre-Spiel". Before this, there were no literary mentions of such games in large game compendiums such as Charles Cotton's "The Compleat Gamester" (1674) and Abbé Bellecour's "Academie des Jeux" (1674).


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience was first mentioned in literature shortly after cartomantic layouts were developed circa 1765, suggesting a connection between the two. This theory is supported by the name of the game in Danish and Norwegian, "kabal(e)". An 1895 account describes a variant of the game exclusively used for cartomancy.


title: Patience (game)

text: The first collection of patience card games in the English language is attributed to Lady Adelaide Cadogan through her "Illustrated Games of Patience", published in about 1870 and reprinted several times. Other collections quickly followed such as "Patience" by Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (1869), "Amusement for Invalids" by Annie B. Henshaw (1870), and later "Dick's Games of Patience". Other books about patience written towards the end of the 19th century were by H. E. Jones (a.k.a. Cavendish), Angelo Lewis (a.k.a. Professor Hoffmann), Basil Dalton, Ernest Bergholt, and Mary Whitmore Jones. In the early 20th century the name "solitaire" became established in North America.


title: Patience (game)

text: Most patience or solitaire games involve building sequences of cards in suit in order in a family running from ace to king. Normally the ace is the base card or foundation on which a two of the same suit is placed, followed by a three and so on. This is building and all such games are, technically, builders. However, in many, the cards must be assembled in reverse order on that part of the layout called the tableau. They can then be built in the right sequence on the foundations. This intermediate step of reverse building is called packing, and games using this technique are called "packers". Games that use neither technique are "non-builders". There are also special kinds of packer known as 'blockades', 'planners' and 'spiders'.


title: Patience (game)

text: These games may be classified by the degree to which the cards are revealed. In "open games", all the cards are visible throughout the game and the player has to use powers of analysis to solve the patience. In "closed" games, cards are drawn from a face-down stock and the player has to use judgement because the sequence of cards is unknown until they appear. In between is a hybrid group which David Parlett calls "half-open".


title: Patience (game)

text: Closed games are those in which, throughout the game, not all the cards are visible. They require more judgment because the sequence of cards is unknown. As cards appear, if they cannot be played straight away they are put into a wastepile from which they may, potentially, not be accessible again. Closed games are subdivided as follows:


title: Patience (game)

text: In open games, the entire pack of cards is visible at the outset and continue to be visible throughout the game. These games require careful analysis (as in chess) to achieve success. Open games may be divided into:


title: Patience (game)

text: Half-open games are those which start 'closed' and become 'open' as the game progresses. They may be divided as follows:


title: Patience (game)

text: Patience and solitaire games have enjoyed a renaissance as a result of being readily transferable to a software format and playable on computers or other electronic media. Perhaps the most influential initially was Microsoft's "Solitaire", actually the well known game of Klondike. Its inclusion with Microsoft Windows from 1990 onwards had an especially big impact in popularizing patience and solitaire games with the general public. A plethora of electronic versions of these games has been produced, some, like "Solitaire" under proprietary names different from the actual name.


title: Once (film)

text: romantic musical drama film written and directed by John Carney. The film stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as two struggling musicians in Dublin, Ireland. Hansard and Irglová had previously performed music as the Swell Season, and composed and performed the film's original songs.


title: Once (film)

text: "Once" spent years in development with the Irish Film Board and was made for a budget of €112,000. It was a commercial success, earning substantial per-screen box office averages in the United States, and received acclaim from critics. It received awards including the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. Hansard and Irglová's song "Falling Slowly" won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the soundtrack received a Grammy Award nomination. The film has also been adapted into a successful stage musical.


title: Once (film)

text: A thirty-something busker (Guy) performs with his guitar on Grafton Street, Dublin only for his performance to be interrupted when he chases a man who steals his money. Lured by his music, a young Czech flower seller (Girl) talks to him about his songs. Delighted to learn that he repairs hoovers, Girl asks Guy to fix hers. The next day Girl returns with her broken vacuum and tells him she is also a musician.


title: Once (film)

text: At a music store where Girl usually plays piano, Guy teaches her one of his songs ("Falling Slowly"); they sing and play together. He invites her to his father's shop, and on the bus home musically answers Girl's question about what his songs are about: a long-time girlfriend who cheated on him, then left ("Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy").


title: Once (film)

text: At the shop, Guy introduces Girl to his father and takes her to his room, but when he asks her to stay the night, she gets upset and leaves. The next day, they reconcile and spend the week writing, rehearsing and recording songs. Girl writes the lyrics for one of Guy's songs ("If You Want Me"), singing to herself while walking down the street; at a party, people perform impromptu (including "Gold").


title: Once (film)

text: Guy works on "Lies", a song about his ex-girlfriend, who moved to London. Girl encourages him to win her back. Invited to her home, he discovers she has a toddler and lives with her mother. Guy decides to move to London, but he wants to record a demo of his songs to take with him and asks Girl to record it with him. They secure a bank loan and reserve time at a recording studio.


title: Once (film)

text: Guy learns Girl has a husband in the Czech Republic. When he asks if she still loves her husband, Girl answers in Czech, ""Miluji tebe"" ("I love you"), but coyly declines to translate. After recruiting a band with other buskers, they go into the studio to record. They impress Eamon, the jaded studio engineer, with their first song ("When Your Mind's Made Up"). On a break in the early morning, Girl finds a piano in an empty studio and plays Guy one of her own compositions ("The Hill").


title: Once (film)

text: After the all-night session wraps up, they walk home. Before they part ways, Girl reveals that she spoke to her husband and he is coming to live with her in Dublin. Guy persuades her to spend his last night in Dublin with him, but she stands him up and he cannot find her to say goodbye before his flight. He plays the demo for his father, who gives him money to help him get settled in London. Before leaving for the airport, Guy buys Girl a piano and makes arrangements for its delivery, then calls his ex-girlfriend, who is happy about his imminent arrival. Girl reunites with her husband in Dublin and plays the piano in their home.


title: Once (film)

text: The two leads, Hansard and Irglová, are professional musicians. Director Carney, former bassist for Hansard's band the Frames, had asked a long-time friend to share busker anecdotes and compose songs for the film, but originally intended the male lead to be played by actor Cillian Murphy, who was an almost-signed rock musician before turning to acting. Murphy was also going to be one of the film's producers, but reportedly did not like the prospect of acting opposite non-actor Irglová, who was then 17 years old. Murphy also believed he did not have the vocal capabilities to belt out Hansard's octave-leaping songs, so he pulled out, as did the film's other producers, also withdrawing their financial support. Carney then turned to songwriter Hansard, who had done only one acting job before, a supporting role as guitarist Outspan Foster in the 1991 ensemble film "The Commitments", the story of a Dublin soul music cover band. Initially, Hansard was reluctant, fearing that he wouldn't be able to pull it off, but after stipulating that he had to be fully involved in the filmmaking process and that it be low-budget and intimate, he agreed.


title: Once (film)

text: Produced on a shoestring, about 75 percent of the budget was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann (The Irish Film Board), with Carney committing some of his own money. The director gave his salary to the two stars, and promised a share of the proceeds to everyone if the film was a success. Filmed with a skeleton crew on a 17-day shoot, the filmmakers saved money by using natural light and shooting at friends' houses. The musical party scene was filmed in Hansard's own flat, with his personal friends playing the partygoers/musicians. His mother, Catherine Hansard, is briefly featured singing solo. The Dublin street scenes were recorded without permits, and with a long lens so that many passersby didn't realize that a film was being made. The long lens also helped the non-professional actors relax and forget about the camera, and some of the dialogue was improvised.


title: Once (film)

text: The unrequited ending of the film was an element of the script that stayed consistent throughout production. Said Hansard, "A lot of films let themselves down really badly by wrapping everything up in the last five minutes and giving you a story that trails off lovely. And what happens with those films is that you enjoy them but you forget them, because the story didn’t rip you. But some films pull you in, and then they leave you on edge. They end, and you’re left thinking about it. And that’s really the power of cinema, the duty of cinema—to make you feel something." Hansard said ad-libbing produced the moment where Irglova's character tells the Guy in un-subtitled Czech, "No, I love you," but when it was shot, he didn't know what she'd said, just like his character.


title: Once (film)

text: During the shoot, Carney had predicted a romance between Hansard and Irglová, calling the two his "Bogart and Bacall." Hansard and Irglová did become a couple in real life, getting together while on a promotional tour across North America, and living together in Dublin, in Hansard's flat. "Entertainment Weekly" reported:


title: Once (film)

text: In 2009, Hansard indicated they were no longer a romantic couple. He said, "Of course, we fell into each other's arms. It was a very necessary part of our friendship but I think we both concluded that that wasn't what we really wanted to do. So we're not together now. We are just really good friends."


title: Once (film)

text: Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová reprised their roles in "The Simpsons" episode "In the Name of the Grandfather."


title: Once (film)

text: A rough cut of the film was previewed on 15 July 2006 at the Galway Film Fleadh, but the film was subsequently turned down by several prestigious European film festivals. However, once finished, it secured spots at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2007 and the Dublin Film Festival in February 2007, and received the audience awards at both events.


title: Once (film)

text: The film was first released on cinema in Ireland on 23 March 2007, followed by a limited release in the United States on 16 May 2007. After its second weekend in release in the United States and Canada, the film topped the 23 May 2007 indieWIRE box office chart with nearly $31,000 average per location. As of 28 March 2009, "Once" has grossed nearly $9.5 million in North America and over $20 million worldwide.


title: Once (film)

text: After 2007's box office success and critical acclaim, the film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. Steven Spielberg was quoted as saying, "a little movie called "Once" gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year." When informed of Spielberg's comments, director John Carney told Sky News, "in the end of the day, he's just a guy with a beard." At the time of that interview, Carney himself was also wearing a beard.


title: Once (film)

text: The song "Falling Slowly" won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. The nomination's eligibility for the Oscar was initially questioned, as versions of the song had been recorded on "The Cost" and "The Swell Season" albums and it was also included in the movie "Beauty in Trouble" (all released in 2006); those issues were resolved before the voting for the award took place. The AMPAS music committee members satisfied themselves that the song had indeed been written for the film and determined that, in the course of the film's protracted production, the composers had "played the song in some venues that were deemed inconsequential enough to not change the song’s eligibility."


title: Once (film)

text: "Once" received widespread acclaim from critics. Upon its March 2007 release in Ireland, RTÉ's Caroline Hennessy gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and termed it "an unexpected treasure". About the acting, this Irish reviewer commented, ""Once" has wonderfully natural performances from the two leads. Although musicians first and actors second, they acquit themselves well in both areas. Irglová, a largely unknown quantity alongside the well-known and either loved or loathed Hansard, is luminous." Michael Dwyer of "The Irish Times" gave the film the same rating, calling it "irresistibly appealing" and noting that "Carney makes the point – without ever labouring it – that his protagonists are living in a changing city where the economic boom has passed them by. His keen eye for authentic locations is ... evident".


title: Once (film)

text: "Once" won very high marks from U.S. critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 97% approval rating based on 159 reviews, with an average score of 8.30/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A charming, captivating tale of love and music, "Once" sets the standard for the modern musical. And with Dublin as its backdrop, "Once" is fun and fresh." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In May, on "Ebert & Roeper", both Richard Roeper and guest critic Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" gave enthusiastic reviews. Phillips called it, "the most charming thing I've seen all year", "the "Brief Encounter" for the 21st century", his favorite music film since 1984's "Stop Making Sense" and said, "It may well be the best music film of our generation". Roeper referred to the film's recording studio scene as "more inspirational and uplifting than almost any number of "Dreamgirls" or "Chicago" or any of those multi-zillion dollar musical showstopping films. In its own way, it will blow you away." Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, saying that he was "not at all surprised" that Philips had named it the best film of the year.


title: Once (film)

text: In late 2007, Amy Simmons of "Time Out London" wrote, "Carney’s highly charged, urban mise-en-scène with its blinking street lamps, vacant shops and dishevelled bed-sits provides ample poetic backdrop for the film’s lengthy tracking shots, epitomised in a sequence where the Girl walks to the corner shop in pyjamas and slippers while listening to one of the Guy’s songs on her personal stereo. With outstanding performances from Hansard and newcomer Irglová, Carney has created a sublime, visual album of unassuming and self-assured eloquence." "The Telegraph"'s Sukhdev Sandhu said, "Not since "Before Sunset" has a romantic film managed to be as touching, funny or as hard to forget as "Once". Like "Before Sunset", it never outstays its welcome, climaxing on a note of rare charm and unexpectedness."


title: Once (film)

text: In 2008, the film placed third on "Entertainment Weekly"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "25 Best Romantic Movies of the Past 25 Years".


title: Once (film)

text: "Once" was released on DVD in the US on 18 December 2007, and in the UK on 25 February 2008, followed by a British Blu-ray release on 16 February 2009. "Once" was released on Blu-ray in the US as an Amazon exclusive on 1 April 2014.


title: Once (film)

text: The soundtrack album was released on 22 May 2007 in the United States and four days later in Ireland.


title: Once (film)

text: A collector's edition of the soundtrack was released on 4 December 2007 in the U.S. with additional songs and a bonus DVD featuring live performances and interviews about the film. The additional songs were two previously unreleased Van Morrison covers: Hansard's "And the Healing Has Begun," and Hansard and Irglová's "Into the Mystic."


title: Once (film)

text: Different versions of several of the soundtrack's songs previously were released on The Frames' album "The Cost" and on Hansard and Irglová's "The Swell Season," both released in 2006. An early version of the final track, "Say It to Me Now," originally appeared on The Frames' 1995 album "Fitzcarraldo." "All the Way Down" first appeared on the self-titled album from musician collective The Cake Sale, with Gemma Hayes providing vocals. The song "Gold" was written by Irish singer-songwriter Fergus O'Farrell and performed by Interference.


title: Once (film)

text: The soundtrack was nominated for two 2008 Grammy Awards, under Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and, for "Falling Slowly," Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. It won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music, and it was ranked at number two on the "Entertainment Weekly" 25 New Classic Soundtrack Albums list (1983–2008).


title: Once (film)

text: The soundtrack album reached #20 on the Irish Albums Chart in its first week, peaking at #15 a few weeks later. Following the Oscar win, the album reached the top of the chart, while "Falling Slowly" reached a new peak of #2.


title: Once (film)

text: As of 11 July 2007, the album had sold 54,753 copies in the United States. The album reached #27 on the "Billboard" 200 and also reached #2 on the Soundtracks Chart and #4 on the Independent Chart.


title: Once (film)

text: The film has been adapted for the stage as the musical ("Once"). It first opened at the New York Theatre Workshop on 6 December 2011. The screenplay was adapted by Enda Walsh and the production directed by John Tiffany.


title: Once (film)

text: In February 2012, the musical transferred to Broadway's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. It began in previews on 28 February 2012 and opened on 18 March 2012. Directed by John Tiffany, the cast features Steve Kazee as Guy and Cristin Milioti as Girl with sets and costumes by Bob Crowley. The music is from the film with two additional songs, and the cast is also the orchestra. The musical opened up to generally positive reviews. Since its opening, "Once" has been named Best Musical by The Outer Critics' Circle, Drama League, The New York Drama Critics' Circle, and the Tony Awards.


title: Once (film)

text: The Broadway production of "Once" was nominated for a total of 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Steve Kazee), Best Actress in a Musical (Cristin Milioti), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Elizabeth A. Davis) and Best Direction of a Musical. On 10 June 2012, it won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon unitary authority area had a population of 233,410 as of 2021. Located in South West England, the town lies between Bristol, 35 miles (56 kilometres) to its west, and Reading, equidistant to its east.


title: Swindon

text: Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Suindune", it was a small market town until the mid-19th century, when it was selected as the principal site for the Great Western Railway's repair and maintenance works, leading to a marked increase in its population. The new town constructed for the railway workers produced forward-looking amenities such as the UK’s first lending library and a ‘cradle-to-grave' health care centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS.


title: Swindon

text: After the Second World War, the town expanded dramatically again, as industry and people moved out from London to designated New or Expanded Towns such as Swindon. Labelled as one of the fastest growing towns in Europe during the second half of the 20th century, its economy diversified, attracting large international companies as the railway works declined and finally closed in the 1980s.


title: Swindon

text: Served by the M4 motorway and Great Western Main Line, today, Swindon is the head office of organisations such as English Heritage, Intel, Nationwide, all of the National Research Councils, the National Trust, UK Space Agency, WHSmith, and Zurich Insurance Group. It also houses the Bodleian Library's Book Storage Facility, the Historic England Archive, and the Science Museum's National Collections. Up until 2021, Japanese car manufacturer Honda had its sole UK plant in the town.


title: Swindon

text: The McArthurGlen Designer Outlet and STEAM Railway Museum are both located in the renovated former railway works, with the currently closed Oasis Leisure Centre (inspiration for the name of the Manchester band), and infamous Magic Roundabout also notable points of interest. The Cotswolds lie just to the towns north and the North Wessex Downs to its south. Avebury, the largest megalithic stone circle in the world, is also nearby.


title: Swindon

text: The town has one professional football team, Swindon Town F.C., who play at the 15,000-seater County Ground in the town centre. Notable honours include the League Cup—beating Arsenal in the 1969 final, victories over A.S. Roma and Napoli to lift the Anglo-Italian League Cup and Anglo-Italian Cup, and promotion to the top flight of English football in 1993. They are currently the only side from the South West of England to have won a major trophy or played in the Premier League. Other notable sports in the town include the Swindon Wildcats Ice Hockey side and 5-time British speedway champions the Swindon Robins.


title: Swindon

text: The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the 1086 Domesday Book as Suindune, believed to be derived from the Old English words "swine" and "dun" meaning "pig hill" or possibly Sweyn's hill, Sweyn being a Scandinavian name akin to Sven and English swain, meaning a young man.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is recorded in the Domesday Book as a manor in the hundred of Blagrove, Wiltshire. It was one of the larger manors, recorded as having 27 households and a rent value of £10 14s, which was divided among five landlords. Before the Battle of Hastings the Swindon estate was owned by an Anglo-Saxon thane called Leofgeat. After the Norman Conquest, Swindon was split into five holdings: the largest was held between Miles Crispin and Odin the Chamberlain, and the second by Wadard, a knight in the service of Odo of Bayeux, brother of the king. The manors of Westlecot, Walcot, Rodbourne, Moredon and Stratton are also listed; all are now part of Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: The Goddard family were lord of the manor from the 16th century for many generations, living at the manor house, sometimes known as The Lawn.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, now known as Old Town.


title: Swindon

text: The Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindon's growth. Construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810 and the North Wilts Canal in 1819 brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to grow.


title: Swindon

text: Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Swindon Works was built for the repair and maintenance of locomotives on the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Steam Railway Museum and English Heritage, including the English Heritage Archive, now occupy part of the old works. In the village were the GWR Medical Fund Clinic at Park House and its hospital, both on Faringdon Road, and the 1892 health centre in Milton Road, which housed clinics, a pharmacy, laundries, baths, Turkish baths and swimming pools, was almost opposite.


title: Swindon

text: From 1871, GWR workers had a small amount deducted from their weekly pay and put into a healthcare fund; GWR doctors could prescribe them or their family members medicines or send them for medical treatment. In 1878 the fund began providing artificial limbs made by craftsmen from the carriage and wagon works, and nine years later opened its first dental surgery. In his first few months in post, the dentist extracted more than 2,000 teeth. From the opening in 1892 of the health centre, a doctor could also prescribe a haircut or even a bath. The cradle-to-grave extent of this service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS.


title: Swindon

text: The Mechanics' Institute, formed in 1844, moved into a building that looked rather like a church and included a covered market, on 1 May 1855. The New Swindon Improvement Company, a co-operative, raised the funds for this programme of self-improvement and paid the GWR £40 a year for its new home on a site at the heart of the railway village. It was a groundbreaking organisation that transformed the railway's workforce into some of the country's best-educated manual workers.


title: Swindon

text: The Mechanics' Institute had the UK's first lending library, and a range of improving lectures, access to a theatre and various other activities, such as ambulance classes and xylophone lessons. A former institute secretary formed the New Swindon Co-operative Society in 1853 which, after a schism in the society's membership, spawned the New Swindon Industrial Society, which ran a retail business from a stall in the market at the institute. The institute also nurtured pioneering trades unionists and encouraged local democracy.


title: Swindon

text: When tuberculosis hit the new town, the Mechanics' Institute persuaded the industrial pioneers of North Wiltshire to agree that the railway's former employees should continue to receive medical attention from the doctors of the GWR Medical Society Fund, which the institute had played a role in establishing and funding.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon's 'other' railway, the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway, merged with the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway to form the Midland & South Western Junction Railway, which set out to join the London & South Western Railway with the Midland Railway at Cheltenham. The Swindon, Marlborough & Andover had planned to tunnel under the hill on which Swindon's Old Town stands but the money ran out and the railway ran into Swindon Town railway station, off Devizes Road in the Old Town, skirting the new town to the west, intersecting with the GWR at Rushey Platt and heading north for Cirencester, Cheltenham and the LMS, whose 'Midland Red' livery the M&SWJR adopted.


title: Swindon

text: During the second half of the 19th century, Swindon New Town grew around the main line between London and Bristol. In 1900, the original market town, Old Swindon, merged with its new neighbour at the bottom of the hill to become a single town.


title: Swindon

text: On 1 July 1923, the GWR took over the largely single-track M&SWJR and the line northwards from Swindon Town was diverted to Swindon Junction station, leaving the Town station with only the line south to Andover and Salisbury. The last passenger trains on what had been the SM&A ran on 10 September 1961, 80 years after the railway's first stretch opened.


title: Swindon

text: During the first half of the 20th century, the railway works was the town's largest employer and one of the biggest in the country, employing more than 14,500 workers. Alfred Williams (1877–1930) wrote about his life as a hammerman at the works.


title: Swindon

text: The works' decline started in 1960, when it rolled out "Evening Star", the last steam engine to be built in the UK. The works lost its locomotive building role and took on rolling stock maintenance for British Rail. In the late 1970s, much of the works closed and the rest followed in 1986.


title: Swindon

text: The community centre in the railway village was originally the barrack accommodation for railway employees of the GWR. The building became the Railway Museum in the 1960s, until the opening of the STEAM Museum in the 2000s.


title: Swindon

text: The Second World War saw an influx of new industries as part of the war effort; Vickers-Armstrong making aircraft at Stratton, and Plessey at Cheney Manor producing electrical components. By 1960, Plessey had become Swindon's biggest employer, with a predominantly female workforce.


title: Swindon

text: David Murray John, Swindon's town clerk from 1938 to 1974, is seen as a pioneering figure in Swindon's post-war regeneration: his last act before retirement was to sign the contract for Swindon's tallest building, which is now named after him. Murray John's successor was David Maxwell Kent, appointed by the Swindon/Highworth Joint Committee in 1973: he had worked closely with Murray John and continued similar policies for a further twenty years. The Greater London Council withdrew from the Town Development Agreement and the local council continued the development on its own.


title: Swindon

text: There was the problem of the Western Development and of Lydiard Park being in the new North Wiltshire district, but this was resolved by a boundary change to take in part of North Wiltshire. Another factor limiting local decision-taking was the continuing role of Wiltshire County Council in the administration of Swindon. Together with like-minded councils, a campaign was launched to bring an updated form of county borough status to Swindon. This was successful in 1997 with the formation of Swindon Borough Council, covering the areas of the former Thamesdown and the former Highworth Rural District Council.


title: Swindon

text: In February 2008, "The Times" named Swindon as one of "The 20 best places to buy a property in Britain". Only Warrington had a lower ratio of house prices to household income in 2007, with the average household income in Swindon among the highest in the country.


title: Swindon

text: In October 2008, Swindon Council made a controversial move to ban fixed point speed cameras. The move was branded as reckless by some, but by November 2008 Portsmouth, Walsall, and Birmingham councils were also considering the move.


title: Swindon

text: In 2001, construction began on Priory Vale, the third and final instalment in Swindon's 'Northern Expansion' project, which began with Abbey Meads and continued at St Andrew's Ridge. In 2002, the New Swindon Company was formed with the remit of regenerating the town centre, to improve Swindon's regional status. The main areas targeted were Union Square, The Promenade, The Hub, Swindon Central, North Star Village, The Campus, and the Public Realm.


title: Swindon

text: In August 2019, a secondary school in the town was at the centre of a 'county lines' drug supply investigation by Wiltshire Police, with 40 pupils suspected of being involved in the supply of cannabis and cocaine, and girls as young as 14 being coerced into sexual activity in exchange for drugs.


title: Swindon

text: The local council was created in 1974 as the Borough of Thamesdown, out of the areas of Swindon Borough and Highworth Rural District. It was not initially called Swindon, because the borough covers a larger area than the town; it was renamed as the Borough of Swindon in 1997. The borough became a unitary authority on 1 April 1997, following a review by the Local Government Commission for England. The town is therefore no longer under the auspices of Wiltshire Council.


title: Swindon

text: The executive comprises a leader and a cabinet, currently made up from the Conservative Group. The council as of the 2016 election has a majority of Conservative councillors.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is represented in the national parliament by two MPs. Robert Buckland (Conservative) was elected for the South Swindon seat in May 2010 with a 5.5% swing from Labour and Justin Tomlinson, also Conservative, represents North Swindon after a 10.1% swing at the same election. Both retained their seats at the 2015 and 2017 elections. Prior to 1997 there was a single seat for Swindon, although much of what is now in Swindon was then part of the Devizes seat.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is a town in northeast Wiltshire, west-northwest of Reading and the same distance east-northeast of Bristol 'as the crow flies'. The town is also southwest of Oxford, south-southeast of Birmingham, west of London and east of Cardiff. Swindon town centre is also equidistant from the county boundaries of Berkshire and Gloucestershire, both being away. The border with Oxfordshire is slightly closer, being around away.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is within a landlocked county and is a considerable distance from any coastline. The nearest section of coast on the English Channel is near Christchurch, due south. Meanwhile, the eastern limit of the Bristol Channel, just north of Weston-super-mare, lies to the west.


title: Swindon

text: The landscape is dominated by the chalk hills of the Wiltshire Downs to the south and east. The Old Town stands on a hill of Purbeck and Portland stone; this was quarried from Roman times until the 1950s. The area that was known as New Swindon is made up of mostly Kimmeridge clay with outcrops of Corrallian clay in the areas of Penhill and Pinehurst. Oxford clay makes up the rest of the borough. The River Ray rises at Wroughton and forms much of the borough's western boundary, joining the Thames which defines the northern boundary, and the source of which is located in nearby Kemble, Gloucestershire. The River Cole and its tributaries flow northeastward from the town and form the northeastern boundary.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Köppen climate classification), like the vast majority of the British Isles, with cool winters and warm summers. The nearest official weather station is RAF Lyneham, about west southwest of Swindon town centre. The weather station's elevation is in a rural setting, compared to the typical encountered around Swindon town centre, so is likely marginally cooler throughout the year.


title: Swindon

text: The absolute maximum is , recorded during August 1990. In an average year the warmest day should reach and 10.3 days should register a temperature of or above.


title: Swindon

text: The absolute minimum is , recorded in January 1982, and in an average year 45.2 nights of air frost can be expected.


title: Swindon

text: Sunshine, at 1,565 hours a year, is typical for inland parts of Southern England, although significantly higher than most areas further north.


title: Swindon

text: The 2011 census recorded a population of 209,156 people in the Swindon unitary authority area (including the town's urban area, Highworth, and other nearby parishes), with a 50/50 balance of males and females. By mid-2019, the estimated population of the unitary authority area was 222,193.


title: Swindon

text: As of 2011, 57.5% of Swindonians identify themselves as Christians, a reduction from 70% in 2001. This is followed by those of no religion (31%), Muslims (1.7%), Sikhs (0.6%), Hindus (1.2%), other (0.5%) and Judaism (0.1%).


title: Swindon

text: In 2015, Public Health England found that 70.4% of the population was either overweight or obese with a BMI greater than 25.


title: Swindon

text: In 2011, 16.7% of the population of Swindon were non-White British compared with 15.4% in the surrounding borough. There was also little difference between the percentages of Black and Asian residents. Swindon is one of the most ethnically diverse towns in South West England: 4.6% of the population registered themselves as 'Other White' and 2.5% of the population was either mixed race or of another ethnicity.


title: Swindon

text: There are three definitions of the town of Swindon for statistical purposes. The most accurate and widely accepted is the Built Up Area Subdivision, which had a population of 182,441 in 2011. Another definition is the Built Up Area, with a slightly higher population of 185,609 which includes outlying areas not often referred to as being part of the town, such as Wanborough. The final definition is the unparished area, with a population of 122,642. As its name suggests it reflects the former unparished area, now covered by the parishes of West Swindon, Central Swindon North and South, and Nythe, Eldene and Liden; thus it omits suburbs to the east and north, namely the parishes of Covingham, Stratton St Margaret and Haydon Wick.


title: Swindon

text: After the end of World War II, Polish refugees were temporarily housed in barracks at RAF Fairford, about to the north. Around 1950, some settled in Scotland and others in Swindon rather than stay in the barracks or hostels they were offered.


title: Swindon

text: The 2001 UK Census found that most of the Polish-born people had stayed or returned after serving with British forces during World War II. Swindon and Nottingham were parts of this settlement. Data from that census showed that 566 Swindonians were Polish-born. Notes to those data read: "The Polish Resettlement Act of 1947, which was designed to provide help and support to people who wished to settle here, covered about 190,000 people ... at the time Britain did not recognise many of the professional [qualifications] gained overseas ... [but] many did find work after the war; some went down the mines, some worked on the land or in steelworks. Housing was more of a problem and many Poles were forced to live in barracks previously used for POWs ... The first generation took pains to ensure that their children grew up with a strong sense of Polish identity".


title: Swindon

text: NHS planners devising services for senior citizens estimated in 1994 that 5% of Swindon's population were not 'ethnically British', and most of those were culturally Polish.


title: Swindon

text: The town's Polish ex-servicemen's club, which had run a football team for 45 years, closed in 2012. Barman Jerzy Trojan blamed the decline of both club and team on the children and grandchildren of the original refugees losing their Polish identity.


title: Swindon

text: There are numerous places of worship in Swindon, some of which are listed buildings. Until 1845, the only church in Swindon was the Holy Rood Church, a Grade II listed building. That year, St Mark's Church was built. In 1851, Christ Church was built. Later in the year, the first Roman Catholic chapel was opened in the town and was also named Holy Rood. In 1866, Cambria Baptist Chapel was built. In the 1880s, Bath Road Methodist Chapel was built. In 1885, St Barnabas Church was built. In 1907, St Augustine's Church in Even Swindon was built. Various churches and places of worship were built in the town by other denominations and faiths. Pattern Church was launched on Christmas 2018, on the site of the former Pattern Store.


title: Swindon

text: Major employers in the town include BMW/Mini (formerly Pressed Steel Fisher) in Stratton, Dolby Labs, international engineering consultancy firm Halcrow, and retailer W H Smith's distribution centre and headquarters. The electronics company Intel has its European head office on the south side of the town. Insurance and financial services companies such as Nationwide Building Society and Zurich Financial Services, the energy companies RWE Generation UK plc and Npower (a company of the Innogy group), the fuel card and fleet management company Arval, pharmaceutical companies such as Canada's Patheon and the United States-based Catalent Pharma Solutions and French medical supplies manufacturer Vygon (UK) Ltd have their UK divisions headquartered in the town. Swindon also has the head office of the National Trust and the head office of the UK Space Agency. Other employers include all of the national Research Councils, the British Computer Society, TE Connectivity and Lok'nStore.


title: Swindon

text: From 1985 to 2021, Japanese car manufacturer Honda had its sole UK plant at South Marston, just outside Swindon. In March 2021, it was announced that logistics firm Panattoni will move to the former Honda site.


title: Swindon

text: Previously Swindon was a centre of excellence for 3G and 4G mobile telecommunications research and development for Motorola, Alcatel, Lucent Technologies, Nokia Siemens Networks and Cisco.


title: Swindon

text: Located at the junction of two Roman roads, the town has developed into a transport hub over the centuries. It is on the historical GWR and on canals. It also has two junctions (15 and 16) on the M4 motorway.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon railway station opened in 1842 as Swindon Junction, and until 1895 every train stopped for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. As a result, the station hosted the first recorded railway refreshment rooms.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon bus operators are Swindon's Bus Company (formerly Thamesdown) and Stagecoach. The former Stagecoach Bus Depot on Eastcott Road has been approved for development as a housing site.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is one of the locations for an innovative scheme called Car share. It was set up as a joint venture between Wiltshire County Council and a private organisation and now has over 300,000 members registered. It is a car pool or ride-sharing rather than a car share scheme, seeking to link people willing to share transport.


title: Swindon

text: The town contains a large roundabout called Magic Roundabout. There are five mini-roundabouts within this roundabout and at its centre is a contra-rotational hub. It is the junction of five roads: (clockwise from South) Drove Road, Fleming Way, County Road, Shrivenham Road and Queens Drive. It is built on the site of Swindon wharf on the abandoned Wilts & Berks Canal, near the County Ground. The official name used to be County Islands, although it was colloquially known as the Magic Roundabout and the official name was changed to match its nickname.


title: Swindon

text: On 8 October 2019, GWR posted a modern speed record when an Intercity Express Train took just 44 minutes to travel from Swindon to London Paddington.


title: Swindon

text: Public parks include Lydiard Country Park, Shaw Forest Country Park, The Lawns, Stanton Park, Queens Park, GWR Park, Town Gardens, Pembroke Gardens and Coate Water. Fishing for the Moon is a smal urban sensory garden created in 1990 by Thamesdown Borough Council and renovated by South Swindon Parish Council in 2021. its central feature is an artwork by Michael Farrell.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon has many online media outlets with the largest being the Swindon Advertiser. SwindonWeb was the first website dedicated to Swindon in 1997 followed by SwindonLink and The Swindonian with many other sites now available, including Total Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon has a daily newspaper, the "Swindon Advertiser", with daily circulation of about 4,000 with an estimated readership of 21,000. Other newspapers covering the area include Bristol's daily "Western Daily Press" and the "Swindon Advertiser"s weekly, the "Gazette and Herald"; the "Wiltshire Ocelot" (a free listings magazine), "The Swindonian Monthly Magazine" "Swindon Star", "Hungry Monkeys" (a comic), "Stratton Outlook", "Frequency" (an arts and cultural magazine), "Great Swindon Magazine", "Swindon Business News", "Swindon Link" and "Highworth Link".


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is the setting for the Thursday Next series of novels by Jasper Fforde and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon.


title: Swindon

text: The first commercial radio station launched in Swindon was Wiltshire Radio in 1982, with BBC Wiltshire Sound launched in 1989. Wiltshire Radio later changed to GWR FM, then to Heart Wiltshire, and is now Heart West, broadcasting from studios in Bristol. An alternative commercial radio station, Brunel FM, was launched in 2006 and replaced in turn by Total Star Swindon, More Radio, Jack FM and Sam FM; the frequency is now used by the Greatest Hits Radio national network. Another independent station called Swindon FM was also on the air between 2001 and 2006.


title: Swindon

text: Since 2008, the town has had its own 24-hour community radio station, Swindon 105.5, which was given the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2014, the highest award which can be given to a voluntary group. In regards to the wider Wiltshire county, the public-sector station BBC Radio Wiltshire remains based in Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: The Swindon area is in the overlap between two transmission regions, the Thames Valley and the West of England. ITV regional news programmes come from ITV News Meridian (with offices at Abingdon) and ITV West Country (Bristol). On BBC One the area is served by both South Today (from Oxford) and Points West (Bristol).


title: Swindon

text: Between 1973 and 1982, the town had its own cable television channel called Swindon Viewpoint. This was a community television project run mainly by enthusiasts from studios in Victoria Hill, and later by Media Arts at the Town Hall Studios. It was followed by the more commercial Swindon's Local Channel, which included pay-per-view films. NTL (later Virgin Media) took over the channel's parent company, ComTel, and closed the station.


title: Swindon

text: The borough of Swindon has many primary schools, 12 secondary schools, and two purpose-built sixth-form colleges. Two secondary schools also have sixth forms. There is one independent school, Maranatha Christian School at Sevenhampton.


title: Swindon

text: New College and Swindon College cater for the town's further education and higher education requirements, mainly for 16- to 21-year-olds. Swindon College is one of the largest FE-HE colleges in southwestern England, situated at a purpose-built campus in North Star, Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon also has a foundation learning programme called Include, which is situated in the Gorse Hill area. This is for 16- to 19-year-olds who are currently not in education, employment or training.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon is the UK's largest centre of population without its own university (by comparison, there are two universities in nearby Bath, which is half Swindon's size). In March 2008, a proposal was made by former Swindon MP, Anne Snelgrove, for a university-level institution to be established in the town within a decade, culminating in a future 'University of Swindon' (with some touting the future institution to be entitled 'The Murray John University, Swindon', after the town's most distinguished post-war civic leader). In October 2008, plans were announced for a possible University of Swindon campus to be built in east Swindon to the south of the town's Great Western Hospital, close to the M4-A419 interchange. However, these plans are currently mothballed.


title: Swindon

text: Oxford Brookes University has had a campus in Swindon since 1999. The campus offers degrees in Adult Nursing and Operating Department Practice (ODP). The Joel Joffe Building opened in August 2016 and was officially opened in February 2017 by Lord Joel Joffe, a long-time Swindon resident and former human rights lawyer. From 1999 to 2016 the Ferndale Campus was based in north-central Swindon. The main OBU campus is about northeast of Swindon. The university also sponsors UTC Swindon, which opened in 2014 for students aged 14–19.


title: Swindon

text: The Royal Agricultural University has its Cultural Heritage Institute in the former railway carriage works.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon Town F.C. are based at the County Ground near the town centre. They play in League Two, the fourth-highest tier of the English football league system, after being relegated from League One in 2021. The affiliated women's club, Swindon Town W.F.C., play in Division One South West of the FA Women's National League; their first team play home games outside the town at Fairford Town's Cinder Lane ground.


title: Swindon

text: The town also has a non-league club, Swindon Supermarine F.C., playing in the Premier South division of the Southern League at their South Marston ground. New College Swindon run a football academy for both sexes, usually alongside academic courses; until the summer of 2020 they fielded New College Swindon F.C., which played in Division One of the Hellenic League and was based at Supermarine's ground.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon St George are a rugby league team playing in the West of England Rugby League. The kit consists of black and red shirts with black shorts and socks. It was founded in 2007.


title: Swindon

text: English Rugby player Jonny May lived in Chiseldon and attended The Ridgeway School & Sixth Form College located in Wroughton, both nearby villages to Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: The Swindon Wildcats play in the second-tier English Premier Ice Hockey League. Since their inception in 1986, the Wildcats have played their home games at the 2,800-capacity Link Centre in West Swindon.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon Robins is a speedway team competing in the top national division, the SGB Premiership, where they were champions in the 2017 season. The team has operated at the Abbey Stadium, Blunsdon since 1949. There was a speedway track in the Gorse Hill area of Swindon in the early days of the sport in the late 1920s and early 1930s.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon has two athletics clubs affiliated to England Athletics, Swindon Harriers (running, track and field) and Swindon Striders (running). There is also a group called Swindon Shin Splints. Two Hash House Harrier runnung groups are centred on Swindon, North Wilts Hash House Harriers (who run every sunday) and the Moonrakers Hash House Harriers (who run every other Wednesday evening). There is a Park Run is held every Saturday at Lydiard Country Park.


title: Swindon

text: Swindon Mountaineering Club is affiliated to the British Mountaineering Council and organise meets for walking, rock climbing and mountaineering in the UK and abroad. Members train on an indoor climbing wall at the Rockstar Climbing Centre in Swindon.


title: Diora Baird

text: Diora Lynn Baird (born April 6, 1983) is an American actress and former model for "Guess?" who has appeared in films such as "Wedding Crashers" (2005), "Accepted" (2006), "" (2006), "Young People Fucking" (2007), "My Best Friend's Girl" (2008), "Stan Helsing" (2009), and "Transit" (2012).


title: Diora Baird

text: Baird was born in Miami, Florida on April 6, 1983. Her mother was also a model. She got into acting when her mother enrolled her in an acting class to help her overcome introversion. Later, she became vice president of her school's Thespian Society.


title: Diora Baird

text: At the age of 17, she moved to Los Angeles in hope of pursuing an acting career. To earn money while auditioning, she worked at The Gap as well as a clown at children's parties, caterer, waitress and pre-school teacher until breaking into the modeling industry, most notably with "Guess?". Her exposure increased considerably with an appearance on the cover of the August 2005 issue of "Playboy" magazine. She was signed to Elite Model Management in Miami.


title: Diora Baird

text: In 2004, Baird also started earning acting roles, such as an appearance on the "Drew Carey Show" and in the low budget film "Brain Blockers". Her breakthrough appearance in a major film was in "Wedding Crashers" in 2005, which she followed up with roles in "Accepted" and "Hot Tamale". In 2006, she appeared in four films, most notably a major role in the horror film "". In 2009, Baird portrayed an Orion Starfleet officer in "Star Trek" directed by J. J. Abrams but was cut from the final version of the film. She can be seen in the deleted scenes of the home video release.


title: Diora Baird

text: Baird had featured photo spreads in several magazines including "Playboy", "FHM", "Stuff", "Maxim" (in which she was ranked #76 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list, #64 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list, #76 on the Maxim Magazine Hot 100 of 2011 list, the #17 spot on FHM's top 100 2010, and the #40 spot in 2011), "Toro" and "Esquire (UK)". She lent her voice to the as one of Tony Montana's possible girlfriends.


title: Diora Baird

text: Baird has also guest starred in episodes of "Big Day", "Shark", "The Loop", and "Two and a Half Men" (the 2009 episode "She'll Still Be Dead at Halftime"). She starred in the movie "", directed by Ben Ketai, which is produced by Columbia Pictures and Ghost House Pictures. Baird stars in the FEARnet webseries "Tea Party Macabre", which is part of the series "Women in Horror Month". She also starred in the 2009 comedy "Stan Helsing".


title: Diora Baird

text: She starred in a couple of videos for the Funny or Die website, including one with Garfunkel and Oates called "Go Running with Chicken" and "Sexy Dark Ages" with Robert Englund. She starred in another web video with the comedic duo called "This Party Took a Turn for the Douche". In 2010, she appeared in "Night of the Demons". In February 2011, she starred in a short musical film called "Howlin' for You" for the band The Black Keys.


title: Diora Baird

text: She plays a porn star in her 2014 film "Beautiful Girl". Baird was cast in a recurring role in the Amazon Studios pilot "Cocked" along with costars Brian Dennehy, Jason Lee, Dreama Walker, and Sam Trammell. The show was not picked up for series. Baird guest starred in an episode of the Hulu series "Casual".


title: Diora Baird

text: Baird was married to actor Jonathan Togo from 2013 to 2016; they have one child. In 2017, Baird revealed that she was dating comedian Mav Viola. Baird told "The Advocate" magazine that after years of assuming herself to be asexual, she identifies as queer. On December 29, 2017, Baird announced that she and Viola were engaged. They have since split up.


title: Guilty Gear

text: The story is set in a world where magic has replaced almost every aspect of modern day technology. But through its dire consequences leading up to the creation of the gears, the world has nearly become a post-apocalyptic environment due to Crusades’s effects on the world. But even though the world is still recovering, much work is still needed to be done and the mysteries behind the creation of the gears have yet to be resolved.


title: Guilty Gear

text: The story mostly focus Sol Badguy, a brash bounty hunter and die hard Queen enthusiast who, feeling guilty of his past creations which in turn, results in him becoming a gear, decides to make up for his own actions through fighting them whilst keeping his own identity a secret. However, his own reluctance to help others, as well as his selfish actions, often attracts the attention of Ky Kiske, his own rival and former comrade, who tries to get into fights with him whenever annoyed. Throughout the story, Sol enacts his own vengeance upon That Man, who is mainly the cause behind most of the series conflicts, through killing him.


title: Guilty Gear

text: As the series progresses, much of his past and is revealed, along with his connections with That Man, as well has his long lost fiancé, Aria. With it, Sol begins to realize that is own past is what deeply conflicts him the most, and through his past rivalries with Ky, as well as his relationships with the other characters, helps to overcome the enemy that he sorely sought to destroy in the first place.


title: Guilty Gear

text: "Guilty Gear" consists primarily of one-on-one competitive battles. Players are tasked with depleting their opponent's life gauge by utilizing attacks unique to each playable character. In the case of timed matches, the player with the most remaining life when time runs out is the victor of that round. The series' emphasis on speed and technicality and introduction of unique movement options such as an "air dash" would ultimately become the foundation for the "anime" subgenre of fighting games.


title: Guilty Gear

text: "Guilty Gear Isuka" prominently allowed up to four simultaneous players in battle, as well as the option to divide the characters into teams. It also eschewed the typical multiple-round format in favor of each player having a limited stock of "souls". Depleting a player's life gauge decreased their stock of souls and temporarily incapacitated them, and each remaining soul allowed a player to return to battle with a full life gauge. They would be defeated for the rest of the match if their life gauge and souls were both exhausted. These features have not returned for subsequent games.


title: Guilty Gear

text: Each game in the series includes a "Tension Gauge" that fills as the player performs offensive maneuvers, such as approaching the opponent or attacking them. Portions of the Tension Gauge can be expended to perform various techniques. Each character has at least one Overdrive, special attacks that can deal extensive damage to an opponent or bolster aspects of the user, like speed or attack power. "Faultless Defense" allows players to prevent "chip damage," damage received from normally guarding against attacks, at the expense of the Tension Gauge. "Guilty Gear X" and later titles introduced more advanced techniques involving the Tension Gauge, such as the "Roman Cancel", allowing players to immediately stop the remaining animation of an attack, and "Dead Angle Attacks", counterattacks performed while a player is guarding.


title: Guilty Gear

text: The Tension Gauge is also tied in with the usage of , high-risk attacks that are difficult to connect with but instantly inflict death on the opponent regardless of the amount of life remaining. In "Guilty Gear", these attacks ended the entire match if they successfully hit the opponent, but this was toned down in later games by ending the round instead. Failing to connect with the technique penalizes the user by removing the Tension Gauge and its related uses for the rest of the round.


title: Guilty Gear

text: "Guilty Gear X2" introduced a "Burst Gauge" that slowly fills during the progression of a match. When completely filled, players can perform a "Psyche Burst" in an attempt to quickly stop an opponent's offense, even knocking back the opponent if they are close enough. This mechanic has also appeared in some form in other Arc System Works games, such as "BlazBlue" and "Persona 4 Arena", as well as other fighting games such as "Skullgirls".


title: Guilty Gear

text: Many characters also feature their own unique mechanics that differentiate them from each other. For example, Zato-1 utilizes a shadow-like symbiotic creature named Eddie that is able to detach itself and be controlled separately for a period of time, allowing complex tandem attacks between the two. Venom can set out weaponized billiard balls on screen that can be projected in various directions depending on how the player strikes them with certain attacks. Johnny carries a limited set of coins that can be thrown at the opponent. Though the coins themselves deal little damage, each successive hit strengthens his "Mist Finer" technique to incredibly powerful levels.


title: Guilty Gear

text: In addition to the "Guilty Gear" video game series, other products were also released. Two novelizations of "Guilty Gear X" were written by Norimitsu Kaihō, illustrated by Daisuke Ishiwatari, and published by Enterbrain: , and , on January 20, 2001 and on August 24, 2002. A manga titled , a collaboration among Daisuke Ishiwatari, Norimitsu Kaihō, and Akihito Sumii, was serialized in Kodansha's "Magazine Z" on September 22, 2003. Studio DNA and Enterbrain also published comics anthologies. Several drama CDs were published; Scitron released a series of two drama CDs—"Guilty Gear X Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2"—between October 24, and November 24, 2001, and two series of drama CDs based on "Guilty Gear X2" were released by Team Entertainment: "Red" and "Black"—a series— were released in 2003 between July 16, and August 20. Another series of drama CDs, "Night of Knives", was published in three volumes between October 20 and December 22, 2004. Also action figures, guidebooks, and a trading card game series based on "Guilty Gear" were released. On February 11, 2017, Arc System Works announced a collaboration with Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja to release Arc System Works Costume Set consisting the costumes of some characters from "BlazBlue" and "Guilty Gear" series in March 2017 for "".


title: Guilty Gear

text: The "Guilty Gear" series is considered a cult classic among video game fans. The series has often been remarked upon for its visual elements, fighting engine, soundtrack, and the variety of designs of the characters and attacks. "X"s Dreamcast version has the highest score of the series as compiled by review aggregator GameRankings (89.33%), while "X2" for PlayStation 2 occupies that position according to the other major aggregator, Metacritic (87). On the other hand, the lowest score is given to "Guilty Gear 2: Overture" from both GameRankings (58.19%) and Metacritic (56/100).


title: Guilty Gear

text: "Guilty Gear" is considered by several sources to be the greatest 2D fighting game. GameSpot said that ""Guilty Gear" is one of the few non-Capcom or SNK 2D fighters to make any sort of impact on the genre", while Eurogamer stated: "If 2D beat-em-ups are moving toward extinction, they really are ending on a high note with stuff like this." Its sequels were also well received. GameSpy said ""Guilty Gear X" is hands-down the best 2D fighting game to date", and "Guilty Gear X2" was described by About.com as "easily the best 2D fighter to come around in a long time."


title: Guilty Gear

text: In 2012, "Complex" ranked "Guilty Gear" at number 47 on the list of the best video game franchises, commenting: "Where other fighters were moving toward realism and more down to Earth physics and combos, "Guilty Gear" was content to turn those notions on their head, paving the way for the more chaotic fighters we're seeing today." Yahoo! Voices' editor S.W. Hampson included "Guilty Gear" among the 10 best fighting game franchises of all time, praising the series's evolution along the years, the "distinctive visual flair" of its 2D sprites, and the "well-defined story lines", adding "its identity is among the most unique in the world of beat-'em-ups."


title: Guilty Gear

text: "", another fighting game developed by Arc System Works, is often referred to as a spiritual successor of the "Guilty Gear" series.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Looney Tunes Cartoons is an American animated television series developed by Peter Browngardt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies". The series made its worldwide debut at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, 2019, and premiered on HBO Max on May 27, 2020.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: In 2017, after Browngardt finished "Uncle Grandpa", he met with Audrey Diehl, the creative executive at Warner Bros., at a lunch meeting. They discussed a project in which he was not interested, and as they wrapped up lunch, Pete said, "You know, what I really want to do is to direct a "Looney Tunes" short". She was surprised that he was a fan of "Looney Tunes" and booked him a meeting with studio president, Sam Register. Browngardt expressed that he wanted to direct it in the spirit of the classic 1940s cartoons. He then began casting, hiring Eric Bauza, and as an admirer of Jim Soper's art on Instagram, hired him as a character designer.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Warner Bros. Animation announced a new series in June 2018, to "consist of 1,000 minutes spread across 1–6 minute shorts each season", be released in 2019 and featuring "the brand's marquee characters voiced by their current voice actors in simple gag-driven and visually vibrant stories". The style of the series is reminiscent of the classic "Looney Tunes" shorts made by Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and others. Register and Browngardt serve as executive producers for the series. The characters are designed by Jim Soper, with the model sheets copyright dating back to 2018. The initial designs for "Looney Tunes Cartoons" were previewed in the Warner Bros. Animation logo that was first shown before "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies". The animation was directed by Joey Capps, who also did animation work on Adult Swim's "Superjail!".


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: The series brings all of the "Looney Tunes" together under one roof, having already reintroduced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, Porky Pig, The Gremlin, Elmer Fudd, The Gashouse Gorillas, Yosemite Sam, Granny, Doctor Quack, Beaky Buzzard, Mama Buzzard, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Cecil Turtle, Sam Sheepdog, Ralph Wolf, the Fly, Cicero Pig, Taz, Gossamer, Dr. Frankenbeans, Witch Hazel, Petunia Pig, the French Horse, Rocky, Mugsy, Clancy Cop, the Russian Dog, the Rich Lady, Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dawg, The Weasel, Hector the Bulldog, Marvin the Martian, the Dead End Kid, the Judge, Pete Puma, Hubie, Bertie, Claude Cat, Fred Sheepdog, George Wolf, Gruesome Gorilla, Mrs. Gruesome Gorilla, Charlie Dog, and the Instant Martians as more original characters have been confirmed to appear along the way.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: The animation for the series was outsourced to different studios, including Yowza! Animation, Yearim Productions, Snipple Animation and Tonic DNA. A trailer for the series was released on April 21, 2020. The short "Pest Coaster" was released on May 5 on the WB Kids YouTube channel as a sneak preview ahead of the release date.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Producers included copious amounts of cartoon violence and Acme Corporation weaponry, but excluded any depictions of firearms in the first season; Elmer Fudd, for example, used different non-firearm weapons (e.i. a scythe or an axe) to hunt Bugs Bunny instead of his shotgun. With the release of "", the restriction was removed.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Browngardt confirmed production had resumed on more episodes in 2020. Five new segments were released under the umbrella title "Bugs Bunny's 24-Carrot Holiday Special" on December 3, 2020.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Jim Soper stated in May 2021 that the series had wrapped up its first 1000 minutes worth of content, with the remaining episodes to be released on HBO Max at later dates. On July 9, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that there will be a "Looney Tunes" themed panel at San Diego Comic-Con called "Looney Tunes for Everyone", which had the crew from "Looney Tunes Cartoons" and the two upcoming shows, including supervising producer Alex Kirwan and voice actor Eric Bauza. The panel commenced at 10 am on July 22.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: On July 22, 2022, it was announced that a Halloween special titled "Bugs Bunny’s Howl-O-Skreem Spooktacula" and a new season will be released. The special was released on September 29, 2022.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: On November 22, 2022, Browngardt announced that the production was finally finished, with 209 shorts produced.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Several archival recordings of Paul Julian as Road Runner and Mel Blanc are used for numerous characters, such as the tiny Daffys in "Bubble Dum". Wile E. Coyote appears, but does not talk. Other characters that are confirmed to appear are Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, The Three Bears, and Ralph Phillips.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Ten episodes of the show (all centering around Bugs) were released as bonus features for the "Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection" Blu-ray set on December 1, 2020. The first three seasons became available to iTunes on August 29, 2021.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: Following its Annecy premiere, the series' first 10 episodes was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2020, with the next 20 episodes releasing through April 29, 2021. The series also premiered on Cartoon Network on July 5, 2021, to promote "". On April Fools Day, ACME Night aired a marathon of selected shorts with segments of Bugs Bunny pulling pranks on illusionist Kevin Parry.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: In Canada, the series premiered on Teletoon on October 11, 2020. In Australia and New Zealand, the series premiered on Cartoon Network on April 23, 2021. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the series premiered on Boomerang on June 7, 2021. In Japan, the series premiered on Cartoon Network on August 15, 2021.


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: The first ten shorts debuted at Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2019 and were met with very positive reactions, being described as true to the spirit of the original "Looney Tunes" shorts. Film reviewing site Oneofus.net noted: "While only time will tell if these shorts will become classics, they decidedly will be seen as a noble attempt to bring the "Looney" back into "Looney Tunes". The cartoons are manic, beautifully animated, and feature amazing voice acting. Even the music tries to recapture the spirit of the originals. Even the characters are doing like what they did in old 30s and 40s shorts".


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: The official launch of the first ten episodes with HBO Max was also met with positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 88% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 8.00/10. The critics' consensus reads: "A vibrantly goofy return to form, "Looney Tunes Cartoons" is perfectly calibrated cartoon comedy". Metacritic gave the series a weighted score of 71 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Looney Tunes Cartoons

text: A television film based on the series named "The Day the Earth Blew Up" is currently in development and is set to be written by "Tom & Jerry"'s 2021 movie writer Kevin Costello, centering on Daffy Duck and Porky Pig trying to stop an alien invasion. The film is set to air on Cartoon Network's "ACME Night" programming block. It was set to be released on HBO Max, however, on August 22, 2022, it was announced the film will not be moving forward on HBO Max and will be shopped elsewhere.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Mary Wickes (born Mary Isabella Wickenhauser; June 13, 1910 – October 22, 1995) was an American actress. She often played supporting roles as prim, professional women, secretaries, nurses, nuns, therapists, teachers and housekeepers, who made sarcastic quips when the leading characters fell short of her high standards.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes was born to Frank Wickenhauser and his wife Mary Isabella (née Shannon) in St. Louis, Missouri of German, Scottish, and Irish extraction, and raised Protestant. Her parents were theater buffs, and took her to plays from the time that she could stay awake through a matinee. An excellent student, she skipped two grades and graduated at 16 from Beaumont High School. She was accepted into Washington University in St. Louis, where she joined the debate team and the Phi Mu sorority, and was initiated into Mortar Board in 1929. She graduated in 1930 with a double major in English literature and political science. Although she had planned a career in law, a favorite professor encouraged her to try drama, and she shifted direction.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes's first Broadway appearance was in Marc Connelly's "The Farmer Takes a Wife" in 1934 with Henry Fonda. She began acting in films in the late 1930s and was a member of the Orson Welles troupe on his radio drama "The Mercury Theatre on the Air"; she also appeared in Welles's film "Too Much Johnson" (1938). One of her earlier significant film appearances was in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1942), reprising her stage role of Nurse Preen.


title: Mary Wickes

text: A tall (5'10") woman with a distinctive voice, Wickes would ultimately prove to be an adept comedienne. She attracted attention in "Now, Voyager" (1942) as the wisecracking nurse who helped Bette Davis's character during her mother's illness. She had already appeared earlier that year with Davis in "The Man Who Came To Dinner", and joined her again six years later in "June Bride". (Wickes and Davis also reteamed in 1965 when Wickes played a supporting role to Davis in a television pilot, "The Decorator".)


title: Mary Wickes

text: In 1942, she also had a large part in the Abbott and Costello comedy "Who Done It?" She continued playing supporting roles in films during the next decade, usually playing wisecracking characters. A prime example was her deadpan characterization of the harassed housekeeper in the Doris Day vehicles "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", a character type she would repeat in the holiday classic "White Christmas" (1954), starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. She played similar roles in two later movies with Rosalind Russell in the 1960s: "The Trouble with Angels" and "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows".


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes moved to the new medium of television in 1949, starring in the title role of a "Westinghouse Studio One" version of "Mary Poppins". In the 1950s, Wickes played the warm yet jocular maid Katie in the "Mickey Mouse Club" serial "" and regular roles in the sitcoms "Make Room for Daddy" and "Dennis the Menace". She also played the part of a ballet teacher, Madame Lamond, in the "I Love Lucy" episode "The Ballet" (1952). Wickes also served as the live-action reference model for Cruella De Vil in Walt Disney's "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961), and played Mrs. Squires in the film adaptation of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" (1962). In 1953, Wickes played Martha the housekeeper to Ezio Pinza's character in the short-lived "Bonino". In 1954–55, she played Alice on "The Halls of Ivy", starring Ronald Colman.


title: Mary Wickes

text: In 1956, Wickes appeared with Thelma Ritter in "The Babysitter" episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Wickes also appeared in two episodes of "Zorro". In the 1961–62 season, she appeared as Maxfield opposite Gertrude Berg and Cedric Hardwicke in "Mrs. G. Goes to College". For her work in the sitcom, Wickes was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress". In 1964, she appeared on "The Donna Reed Show" in the episode "First Addition".


title: Mary Wickes

text: In 1964, she appeared as Ida Goff in five episodes of the series "Temple Houston", with Jeffrey Hunter as a historical figure, the frontier lawyer Temple Lea Houston, youngest son of Sam Houston. She played Adeline Ashley in a 1967 episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies", "The Social Climbers".


title: Mary Wickes

text: A longtime friend of Lucille Ball, Wickes played frequent guest roles on "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show", and "Here's Lucy". In 1970–71, she guest starred on "The Doris Day Show". (Day was another of her friends.) She was also a regular on the Sid and Marty Krofft children's television show "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" and the sitcom "Doc". She made numerous appearances as a celebrity panelist on the game show "Match Game". By the 1980s, her appearances in television series such as "Our Man Higgins", "M*A*S*H", "Columbo", "The Love Boat", "", and "Murder, She Wrote" had made her a widely recognizable character actress. She also appeared in a variety of Broadway shows, including a 1979 revival of "Oklahoma!" as Aunt Eller, for which she received rave reviews.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes' career had a resurgence in the late 1980s and 1990s. She was cast as the mother of Shirley MacLaine's character in the film "Postcards from the Edge" (1990) and portrayed Marie Murkin in the television movie and series adaptations of "The Father Dowling Mysteries" (1989–1991). She played one of her most notable roles in these years when she was cast as Sister Mary Lazarus in "Sister Act" (1992) and in the sequel "" (1993). She appeared in the 1994 film version of "Little Women" before she became ill.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes suffered from numerous ailments in the last years of her life that cumulatively resulted in her hospitalization, where she fell and broke her hip, prompting surgery. She died of complications following the surgery on October 22, 1995, at the age of 85 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Her final film role, voicing Laverne in Disney's animated feature "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", was released posthumously in 1996. Wickes reportedly had only one voice recording session left for the film when she died. Jane Withers came in to finish the character's remaining six lines of dialogue.


title: Mary Wickes

text: She was interred beside her parents at the Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, Illinois. Wickes was inducted posthumously into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2004.


title: Mary Wickes

text: Wickes left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest in memory of her parents, establishing the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Wickes was a lifelong Republican.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: Nissan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, it is primarily used for football and is the home field of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL) and the Tigers of Tennessee State University. The stadium is the site of the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, a postseason college football bowl game played each December, and from 2020 until 2021 the home field of Nashville SC of Major League Soccer (MLS). Nissan Stadium is used for concerts such as those affiliated with the CMA Music Festival each June. The stadium also has facilities to host public events, meetings, and parties.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: Nissan Stadium is located on the east bank of the Cumberland River, across the river from downtown Nashville and has a seating capacity of 69,143. Its first regular-season game was a 36–35 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on September 12, 1999. Nissan Stadium has been known by Adelphia Coliseum (1999–2002), the Coliseum (2002–2006), and LP Field (2006–2015).


title: Nissan Stadium

text: The stadium features three levels of seating. The lower bowl encompasses the field and the club and upper levels form the stadium's dual towers, rising above the lower bowl along each sideline. The stadium's luxury suites are located within the towers. Three levels of suites are located in the stadium's eastern tower, one between the lower and club levels, and two between the club and upper levels. The western tower has two levels of suites between the club and upper levels. The press box is located between the lower and club levels in the western tower. Nissan Stadium's dual video boards are behind the lower bowl in each end zone.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: The playing surface of Nissan Stadium is Tifsport Bermuda Sod, a natural grass. The climate of Nashville and the wear of hosting a game nearly every weekend often requires the field to be resodded in the area between the hashes in November.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: With Tennessee State being tenants, Nissan Stadium is the largest stadium in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS and formerly known as I-AA).


title: Nissan Stadium

text: During the 1995 NFL Preseason, the Houston Oilers faced the Washington Redskins in an exhibition game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the game, Oilers owner Bud Adams met Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen and began discussing the possibility of moving the team to Middle Tennessee due to Adams' discontent with the team's lease at the Astrodome and unwillingness of the City of Houston to build a new football-only stadium. Later that year, Adams and Bredesen announced the team's intent to move to Nashville. The city and team decided to locate a stadium on the eastern bank of the Cumberland River across from downtown Nashville, in what had been a declining industrial/warehousing area.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: In a special referendum on May 7, 1996, voters in Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County voted to approve partial funding of the proposed stadium. The vote, which allocated $144 million of public money to the project, passed with a 59 percent majority. The pro-stadium organization, known as "NFL Yes!", outspent the anti-stadium group by a ratio of 16:1 during the campaign.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: The funds would initially be raised through an increase in the Metro water tax. Much of the remaining construction costs were funded through the sale of personal seat licenses. Some money from the State of Tennessee was allocated to the project, on the condition that the Tennessee State University football team move its home games there, and with the request that the incoming NFL team be named Tennessee instead of Nashville.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: The stadium's construction was delayed when the construction site was hit by a tornado that struck downtown Nashville on April 16, 1998, and destroyed several cranes, but the stadium opened in time for the first scheduled event.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: On May 3, 2010, the stadium's playing surface was filled with of water due to the heavy rains and flooding from the Cumberland River. The flood also reached down to the locker rooms of the stadium.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: The stadium received upgrades during mid-2012. Among the improvements are a new sound system, high-speed elevators to the upper levels, and LED ribbon boards mounted on the faces of the upper mezzanines. Two new HD Lighthouse brand LED video displays measuring by were installed, replacing the entire end zone scoreboard apparatuses. At the time of installation, the two boards became the second-largest displays in the National Football League (trailing only AT&T Stadium).


title: Nissan Stadium

text: In 2014 and 2015, the stadium hosted the Nashville Kickoff Game, a college football game featuring major NCAA teams for Tennessee.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: During the 2018 season, two 20th anniversary logos were put in each of the end zones to help celebrate the Titans' 20th year in Nashville. The yard line numbers were also changed to match the number style on the new uniforms.


title: Nissan Stadium

text: In 2020, IndyCar announced the creation of the Music City Grand Prix. It will be carried out in Downtown Nashville and around Nissan Stadium, and it will use the facilities for Club seats in August 2021.