title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: "Fortune" next headed northwards towards Newfoundland, raiding Canso, Nova Scotia, and capturing a number of ships around Cape Breton and the Newfoundland banks. Roberts raided the harbour of Ferryland, capturing a dozen vessels. On 21 June, he attacked the larger harbour of Trepassey, sailing in with black flags flying. In the harbour he discovered 22 merchant ships and 150 fishing ships. All of these vessels were abandoned by their panic-stricken captains and crews, and the pirates were masters of Trepassey without any resistance being offered. Roberts had captured all 22 merchant ships, but was angered by the cowardice of the captains who had fled their ships. Every morning he had a gun fired and the captains were forced to attend Roberts on board his ship; they were told that anyone who was absent would have his ship burnt. One brig from Bristol was taken over by the pirates to replace the sloop "Fortune" and fitted out with 16 guns. When the pirates left in late June, all the other vessels in the harbour were set on fire. During July, Roberts captured nine or ten French ships and commandeered one of them, fitting her with 26 cannons and changing her name to "Good Fortune". With this more powerful ship, the pirates captured many more vessels before heading south for the West Indies, accompanied by Montigny la Palisse's sloop, which had rejoined them.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: In September 1720, "Good Fortune" was careened and repaired at the island of Carriacou before being renamed "Royal Fortune", the first of several ships to be given this name by Roberts. In late September, "Royal Fortune" and "Fortune" headed for the island of St. Christopher's and entered Basse Terra Road, flying black flags and with their drummers and trumpeters playing. They sailed in among the ships in the Road, all of which promptly struck their flags. The next landfall was at the island of St. Bartholomew, where the French governor allowed the pirates to remain for several weeks to carouse. By 25 October, they were at sea again off St. Lucia, where they captured up to 15 French and English ships in the next three days. Among the captured ships was "Greyhound", whose chief mate James Skyrme joined the pirates. He later became captain of Roberts' consort, "Ranger".


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: During this time, Roberts reportedly caught Florimond Hurault de Montigny, the Governor of Martinique, who was sailing aboard a 52-gun French warship. The Governor was caught and promptly hanged on the yardarm of his own ship, which the pirates converted into the new "Royal Fortune". According to Konstam and Rickman, this reported capture was an embellishment by Captain Charles Johnson in his "A General History of the Pyrates".


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: By the spring of 1721, Roberts' depredations had almost brought seaborne trade to a standstill in the West Indies. "Royal Fortune" and "Good Fortune" therefore set sail for West Africa. On 18 April, Thomas Anstis, the commander of "Good Fortune", left Roberts in the night and continued to raid shipping in the Caribbean, with future captains John Fenn and Brigstock Weaver aboard. "Royal Fortune" continued towards Africa.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: By late April, Roberts was at the Cape Verde islands. "Royal Fortune" was found to be leaky and abandoned there. The pirates transferred to "Sea King", which was renamed "Royal Fortune". The new "Royal Fortune" made landfall off the Guinea coast in early June, near the mouth of the Senegal River. Two French ships, one of 10 guns and one of 16 guns, gave chase, but were captured by Roberts. Both ships were commandeered. One, "Comte de Toulouse", was renamed "Ranger", while the other was named "Little Ranger" and used as a storeship. Thomas Sutton was made captain of "Ranger" and James Skyrme captain of "Little Ranger".


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Roberts next headed for Sierra Leone, arriving on 12 June. Here he was told by retired pirate John "Old Crackers" Leadstone that two Royal Navy ships, and , had left at the end of April, planning to return before Christmas. On 8 August, he captured two large ships at Point Cestos, now River Cess in Liberia. One of these was the frigate "Onslow", transporting soldiers bound for Cape Coast (Cabo Corso) Castle. A number of the soldiers wished to join the pirates, and they were eventually accepted, however they only received a quarter of a pirates pay because they were not sailors most of their lives. "Onslow" was converted to become the fourth "Royal Fortune". In November and December, the pirates careened their ships and relaxed at Cape Lopez and the island of Annobón. Sutton was replaced by Skyrme as captain of "Ranger".


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: They captured several vessels in January 1722, then sailed into Ouidah (Whydah) harbour with black flags flying. The eleven ships at anchor there immediately struck their colours, but were restored to their owners after a ransom of eight pounds of gold dust per ship was paid. When the master of one of the ships refused these terms, Roberts had his crew climb aboard the ship and set her on fire. The captured vessels were slave ships, and the one set on fire had around eighty enslaved Africans on board. They perished either as a result of the fire or by drowning or shark attack after jumping overboard.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: On 5 February 1722, Captain Chaloner Ogle of HMS "Swallow" came upon the pirate ships "Royal Fortune", "Ranger", and "Little Ranger" careening at Cape Lopez. "Swallow" veered away to avoid a shoal, making the pirates think that she was a fleeing merchant ship; some sources claim Ogle spotted Roberts' ships and turned "Swallow" as a ruse. "Ranger" departed in pursuit, commanded by James Skyrme. Once out of earshot of the other pirates, "Swallow" opened her gun ports and opened fire. Ten pirates were killed and Skyrme had his leg taken off by a cannonball, but he refused to leave the deck. Eventually, "Ranger" was forced to strike her colors, and the surviving crew were captured.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: On 10 February, "Swallow" returned to Cape Lopez and found "Royal Fortune" still there. On the previous day, Roberts had captured "Neptune", and many of his crew were drunk and unfit for duty just when he needed them most. At first, the pirates thought that the approaching ship was "Ranger" returning, but a deserter from "Swallow" recognized her and informed Roberts while he was breakfasting with Captain Hill, the master of "Neptune". As he usually did before action, he dressed himself in his finest clothes:


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: The pirates' plan was to sail past "Swallow", which meant exposing themselves to one broadside. Once past, they would have a good chance of escaping. However, the helmsman failed to keep "Royal Fortune" on the right course, and "Swallow" was able to approach to deliver a second broadside. Captain Roberts was killed by grapeshot, which struck him in the throat while he stood on the deck. Before his body could be captured by Ogle, Roberts's wish to be buried at sea with all his arms and ornaments on (a request he had repeated in life) was fulfilled by his crew, who weighed his body down and threw it overboard after wrapping it in his ship's sail. It was never found.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Roberts's death shocked the pirate world, as well as the Royal Navy. The local merchants and civilians had thought him invincible, and some considered him a hero.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: The battle continued for another two hours until "Royal Fortune"s mainmast fell and the pirates signaled for quarter. One member of the crew, John Philips, tried to reach the magazine with a lighted match to blow up the ship, but was prevented by two men. Only three pirates had been killed in the battle, including Roberts. A total of 272 pirates serving under Roberts had been captured during the battle; of these, 65 were former African slaves that Roberts had emancipated, and they were sold back into slavery. The remainder were taken to Cape Coast Castle, apart from those who died on the voyage back. 54 were condemned to death, of whom 52 were hanged and two reprieved. Another twenty were allowed to sign indentures with the Royal African Company; Burl comments that they "exchanged an immediate death for a lingering one". Seventeen men were sent to the Marshalsea prison in London for trial, where some were acquitted and released.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Of the captured pirates who told their place of birth, 42% were from Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, and another 19% from London. There were smaller numbers from northern England and from Wales, and another quarter from a variety of countries including Ireland, Scotland, the West Indies, the Netherlands, and Greece.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Captain Chaloner Ogle was rewarded with a knighthood, the only British naval officer to be honoured specifically for his actions against pirates. He also profited financially, taking gold dust from Roberts' cabin, and he eventually became an admiral.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: This battle proved a turning point in the war against the pirates, and many consider the death of Roberts to mark the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Most of the information on Roberts comes from the book "A General History of the Pyrates", published a few years after Roberts' death. The original 1724 title page credits one Captain Charles Johnson as the author. (The book is often printed under the byline of Daniel Defoe on the assumption that "Charles Johnson" is a pseudonym, but there is no proof that Defoe is the author, and the matter remains in dispute.) Johnson devotes more space to Roberts than to any of the other pirates in his book, describing him as:


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Roberts is commonly described as wearing a red waistcoat with scarlet breeches and a scarlet flamingo plume. The red costume may have been to disguise any blood in battle or as a demonstration of his disregard for anonymity. Roberts also wore a large diamond cross which was reputedly the property of the King of Portugal.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: After his exploits in Newfoundland, a state Governor from New England commented that "one cannot with-hold admiration for his bravery and courage". He hated cowardice, and when the crews of 22 ships in Trepassey harbour fled without firing a shot he was angry at their failure to defend their ships.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Roberts was the archetypal pirate captain in his love of fine clothing and jewelry, but he had some traits unusual in a pirate, notably a preference for drinking tea rather than rum. He is often described as a teetotaler and a Sabbatarian, but there is no proof of this. He certainly disliked drunkenness while at sea, yet it appears that he drank beer. Ironically, Roberts' final defeat was facilitated by the drunkenness of his crew. The Sabbatarian claim arises from the fact that musicians were not obliged to play on the Sabbath – this may merely have been intended to ensure the musicians a day's rest, as they were otherwise obliged to play whenever the crew demanded.


title: Bartholomew Roberts

text: Black Bart was not as cruel to prisoners as some pirates such as Edward Low and Francis Spriggs, but did not treat them as well as did Samuel Bellamy, Howell Davis, or Edward England. Roberts sometimes gave gifts to cooperative captains and crews of captured ships, such as pieces of jewelry or items of captured cargo. He would sometimes ill-use prisoners if he felt that the crew demanded it, but:


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Tommy Caldwell (born August 11, 1978) is an American rock climber who has set records in sport climbing, traditional climbing, and in big-wall climbing. Caldwell made the first free ascents of several major routes on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: He made the first ascents of some of the hardest sport climbing routes in the U.S., including "Kryptonite" with grade of 5.14c/d, and the world's first route, "Flex Luthor," at the Fortress of Solitude, Colorado in 2003. In January 2015, Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free climb of the "Dawn Wall" of El Capitan. At the time, their 19-day ascent was considered one of the hardest big wall free ascents in history.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: In 2015, "National Geographic" called Caldwell "arguably the best all-around rock climber on the planet", and he is an important figure in the history of the sport.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell grew up in Loveland, Colorado. His father is Mike Caldwell, a former teacher, professional body builder, mountain guide and rock climber, who introduced Tommy to rock climbing at a young age. His mother, Terry, was also a mountain guide. The family, including Tommy's sister, went on annual trips to Yosemite National Park where Tommy's love for the park and rock climbing flourished.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell and three fellow climbers Beth Rodden, John Dickey, and Jason 'Singer' Smith were held hostage for six days by rebels in Kyrgyzstan in August 2000. Caldwell pushed one of the kidnappers off a cliff, and subsequently escaped to government soldiers. They later learned that the man had survived the fall. A book about their ordeal, "Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia" was written by Greg Child. A follow-up article, "Back from the Edge", was published in "Outside" magazine the following year. Caldwell gave a filmed lecture "How Becoming a Hostage and Losing a Finger Made Him a Better Climber".


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell accidentally sawed off much of his left index finger with a table saw in 2001. Doctors were able to reattach the severed portion, but Caldwell decided he did not want the useless finger, which doctors said would never heal fully and he would never be able to use to climb with again, and the damaged part of the finger was later permanently removed.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: He made the first ascents of some of the United States' hardest sport routes (as of 2008) including "Kryptonite" (5.14c/d) and "Flex Luthor" (5.15a/b) at the Fortress of Solitude, Colorado. The latter route remained unrepeated for 18 years, before finally being repeated by Matty Hong in October 2021, who suggested the grade 5.15b (9b) (later reversed). This would have made "Flex Luthor" the first confirmed 9b in the world, 5 years before Chris Sharma's ascent of "Jumbo Love" 5.15b (9b).


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: In May 2004, he completed the first free ascent (FFA) of "Dihedral Wall". In 2005, he and Beth Rodden—swapping leads—made the third and fourth free ascents of "The Nose". Two days later, on October 16, Caldwell free-climbed "The Nose" in less than 12 hours. A few days later, Caldwell climbed "The Nose" in 11 hours, descended the "East Ledges", and then climbed "Freerider", topping out 12 hours later – the first ascent of two El Capitan free climbs in 24 hours. On El Capitan, Caldwell has also free-climbed: "Lurking Fear", "Muir Wall", "West Buttress", "Salathé", "Zodiac", "Magic Mushroom", "The Dawn Wall", and "New Dawn".


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: In January 2015, Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, after six years of planning and preparation.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Their 19-day ascent of the Dawn Wall was considered by some as the hardest successful rock climb in history.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: The following year Czech climber Adam Ondra free climbed the Dawn Wall in 8 days. Ondra praised Caldwell and Jorgeson saying, "Tommy and Kevin put so much effort into the climb and faced so many question marks and logistical problems that I cannot really compare my effort to theirs. I had it prepared, had all the knowledge. I knew it was possible".


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell was one of the climbers featured in the 2009 film "Progression." The film discussed his quest to climb the Dawn Wall, and it was after seeing the film that Jorgeson contacted Caldwell to join him in the effort.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: "The Dawn Wall", a documentary following Caldwell and Jorgeson on their free climb of the Dawn Wall, was released on September 19, 2018. The documentary was directed by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell appeared in the documentary "Free Solo," released on September 28, 2018, about Alex Honnold's free solo ascent up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. In the documentary, Caldwell is seen working with Honnold to prepare for the climb, and is interviewed about Honnold and rock climbing.


title: Tommy Caldwell

text: Caldwell and Beth Rodden married in 2003, and subsequently divorced in 2010. In 2010 he met photographer Rebecca Pietsch. They married in 2012. The couple have a son, Fitz, and a daughter, Ingrid Wilde, and live in Estes Park, Colorado.


title: Abbreviation

text: An abbreviation (from Latin "brevis", meaning "short") is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word "abbreviation" can itself be represented by the abbreviation "abbr.", "abbrv.", or "abbrev."; "NPO", for nil (or nothing) per (by) os (mouth) is an abbreviated medical instruction. It may also consist of initials only, a mixture of initials and words, or words or letters representing words in another language (for example, e.g., i.e. or RSVP). Some types of abbreviations are acronyms (some pronounceable, some initialisms) or grammatical contractions or crasis.


title: Abbreviation

text: Acronyms, initialisms, contractions and crasis share some semantic and phonetic functions, and all four are connected by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance.


title: Abbreviation

text: A initialism is an abbreviation pronounced by spelling out each letter, i.e. FBI (), USA (), IBM (), BBC ()


title: Abbreviation

text: A contraction is a reduction in the length of a word or phrase made by omitting certain of its letters or syllables. Consequently, contractions are a subset of abbreviations. Often, but not always, the contraction includes the first and last letters or elements. Examples of contractions are "li'l" (for "little"), "I'm" (for "I am"), and "he'd've" (for "he would have").


title: Abbreviation

text: Abbreviations have a long history. They were created to avoid spelling out whole words. This might be done to save time and space (given that many inscriptions were carved in stone) and also to provide secrecy. In both Greece and Rome the reduction of words to single letters was common. In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation". However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example, can be an abbreviation for many words, such as , , , , , , and .)" Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS for "consul" and COSS for its nominative etc. plural "consules".


title: Abbreviation

text: Abbreviations were frequently used in English from its earliest days. Manuscripts of copies of the Old English poem "Beowulf" used many abbreviations, for example the Tironian et () or for "and", and for "since", so that "not much space is wasted". The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations. At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like ‹er› were replaced with ‹ɔ›, as in ‹mastɔ› for "master" and ‹exacɔbate› for "exacerbate". While this may seem trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time.


title: Abbreviation

text: In the Early Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, the thorn was used for "th", as in ('the'). In modern times, was often used (in the form ) for promotional reasons, as in .


title: Abbreviation

text: During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier in Boston, a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with the globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of its influence.


title: Abbreviation

text: Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below.


title: Abbreviation

text: Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The original SMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM 03.38 character set), for instance. This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes called Textese, with which 10% or more of the words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated. More recently Twitter, a popular social networking service, began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits.


title: Abbreviation

text: In modern English, there are several conventions for abbreviations, and the choice may be confusing. The only rule universally accepted is that one should be "consistent", and to make this easier, publishers express their preferences in a style guide. Some questions which arise are shown below.


title: Abbreviation

text: If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. for "Leviticus". When a word is abbreviated to more than a single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD for "year-to-date", PCB for "printed circuit board" and FYI for "for your information". However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters.


title: Abbreviation

text: A period (full stop) is often used to signify an abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this should happen.


title: Abbreviation

text: According to Hart's Rules, the traditional rule is that abbreviations (in the narrow sense that includes only words with the ending, and not the middle, dropped) terminate with a full stop, whereas contractions (in the sense of words missing a middle part) do not, but there are exceptions. Fowler's Modern English Usage says full stops are used to mark both abbreviations and contractions, but recommends against this practice: advising them only for abbreviations and lower-case initialisms and not for upper-case initialisms and contractions.


title: Abbreviation

text: In American English, the period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g. "Dr." or "Mrs.". In some cases, periods are optional, as in either "US" or "U.S." for "United States", "EU" or "E.U." for "European Union", and "UN" or "U.N." for "United Nations". There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example:


title: Abbreviation

text: Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered the vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples are sonar, radar, lidar, laser, snafu, and scuba.


title: Abbreviation

text: Today, spaces are generally not used between single-letter abbreviations of words in the same phrase, so one almost never encounters "U. S."


title: Abbreviation

text: When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used: "The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C".


title: Abbreviation

text: There is a question about how to pluralize abbreviations, particularly acronyms. Some writers tend to pluralize abbreviations by adding (apostrophe s), as in "two PC's have broken screens", although this notation typically indicates possessive case. However, this style is not preferred by many style guides. For instance, Kate Turabian, writing about style in academic writings, allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". Turabian would therefore prefer "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s", while the Modern Language Association explicitly says, "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". Also, the American Psychological Association specifically says, "without an apostrophe".


title: Abbreviation

text: However, the 1999 style guide for "The New York Times" states that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's".


title: Abbreviation

text: Following those who would generally omit the apostrophe, to form the plural of run batted in, simply add an s to the end of RBI.


title: Abbreviation

text: To form the plural of an abbreviation, a number, or a capital letter used as a noun, simply add a lowercase "s" to the end. Apostrophes following decades and single letters are also common.


title: Abbreviation

text: To indicate the plural of the abbreviation or symbol of a unit of measure, the same form is used as in the singular.


title: Abbreviation

text: When an abbreviation contains more than one full point, "Hart's Rules" recommends putting the "s" after the final one.


title: Abbreviation

text: However, subject to any house style or consistency requirement, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as:


title: Abbreviation

text: According to "Hart's Rules", an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects.


title: Abbreviation

text: In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well.


title: Abbreviation

text: Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow the style guides of "The Chicago Manual of Style" and the Associated Press. The U.S. Government follows a style guide published by the U.S. Government Printing Office. The National Institute of Standards and Technology sets the style for abbreviations of units.


title: Abbreviation

text: Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for "inch" or can be a symbol such as "km" for "kilometre" (or kilometer).


title: Abbreviation

text: In the International System of Units (SI) manual the word "symbol" is used consistently to define the shorthand used to represent the various SI units of measure. The manual also defines the way in which units should be written, the principal rules being:


title: Abbreviation

text: A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such as "Interpol" = International" + police". It is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using lower case, sometimes starting with a capital letter, and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from portmanteaus, which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each.


title: Abbreviation

text: In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing a person's name, such as "Migjeni" – an abbreviation from his original name ("Millosh Gjergj Nikolla") a famous Albanian poet and writer – or "ASDRENI" ("Aleksander Stavre Drenova"), another famous Albanian poet.


title: Abbreviation

text: Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed from "Gegeria" + "Tosks" (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë, based on the country's two main regions Gegëria and Toskëria, and 'Arbanon" - which is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands.


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such as Ofcom (Office of Communications") and the former Oftel (Office of Telecommunications") use this style.


title: Abbreviation

text: New York City has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such as Tribeca (Triangle below Canal Street") and SoHo (South of Houston Street"). This usage has spread into other American cities, giving SoMa, San Francisco (South of Market") and LoDo, Denver (Lower Downtown"), amongst others.


title: Abbreviation

text: Chicago-based electric service provider ComEd is a syllabic abbreviation of (Commonwealth) and (Thomas) Edison.


title: Abbreviation

text: Sections of California are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California"), CenCal (Central California"), and SoCal ("Southern California"). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, California, the Syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of the Hollywood neighborhood.


title: Abbreviation

text: Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by the US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. Hence "DESRON 6" is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", while "COMNAVAIRLANT" would be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic."


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature of Newspeak, the fictional language of George Orwell's dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The political contractions of Newspeak—"Ingsoc" (English Socialism), "Minitrue" (Ministry of Truth), "Miniplenty" (Ministry of Plenty)—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German "(q.v.)" and Russian contractions ("q.v.)" in the 20th century. Like "Nazi" ("Nationalsozialismus") and "Gestapo" ("Geheime Staatspolizei"), "politburo" (Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), "Comintern" (Communist International), "kolkhoz" (collective farm), and "Komsomol" (Young Communists' League), the contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker.


title: Abbreviation

text: A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the disease COVID-19 "(COrona VIrus Disease 2019)" caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus (itself frequently abbreviated to SARS-CoV-2, partly an initialism).


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations were and are common in German; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before 1933, if not the end of the Great War. Kriminalpolizei", literally "criminal police" but idiomatically the Criminal Investigation Department of any German police force, begat "KriPo" (variously capitalised), and likewise Schutzpolizei", the "protection police" or "uniform department", begat "SchuPo". Along the same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—the "Transportpolizei"—are abbreviated as the "TraPo".


title: Abbreviation

text: With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from the "Schutzpolizeien" of the various states became the Ordnungspolizei" or "order police"; the state KriPos together formed the Sicherheitspolizei" or "security police"; and there was also the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei") or "secret state police". The new order of the German Democratic Republic in the east brought about a conscious denazification, but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such as "Stasi" for Staatssicherheit" ("state security", the secret police) and "VoPo" for "Volkspolizei". The phrase politisches Büro, which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", became "Politbüro".


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for a few examples, there is Aldi, from "Theo Albrecht", the name of its founder, followed by discount"; Haribo, from Hans Riegel", the name of its founder, followed by "Bonn", the town of its head office; and Adidas, from "Adolf "Adi" Dassler", the nickname of its founder followed by his surname.


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations are very common in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. They are often used as names of organizations. Historically, popularization of abbreviations was a way to simplify mass-education in 1920s (see Likbez).


title: Abbreviation

text: Leninist organisations such as the "Comintern" ("Communist International") and "Komsomol" ("Kommunisticheskii Soyuz Molodyozhi", or "Communist youth union") used Russian language syllabic abbreviations. In the modern Russian language, words like "Rosselkhozbank" (from Rossiysky selskokhozyaystvenny bank — Russian Agricultural Bank, RusAg) and "Minobrnauki" (from Ministerstvo obrazovaniya i nauki — Ministry of Education and Science) are still commonly used. In nearby Belarus, there are "Beltelecom" (Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).


title: Abbreviation

text: Syllabic abbreviations are common in Spanish; examples abound in organization names such as Pemex for Petróleos Mexicanos" ("Mexican Petroleums") or Fonafifo for Fondo Nacional de Financimiento Forestal" (National Forestry Financing Fund).


title: Abbreviation

text: In Southeast Asian languages, especially in Malay languages, syllabic abbreviations are also common; examples include Petronas (for Petroliam Nasional", "National Petroleum"), its Indonesian equivalent Pertamina (from its original name Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara", "State Oil and Natural Gas Mining Company"), and Kemenhub (from "Kementerian Perhubungan", "Ministry of Transportation")


title: Abbreviation

text: East Asian languages whose writing systems use Chinese characters form abbreviations similarly by using key Chinese characters from a term or phrase. For example, in Japanese the term for the United Nations, "kokusai rengō" (国際連合) is often abbreviated to "kokuren" (国連). (Such abbreviations are called (略語) in Japanese; see also Japanese abbreviated and contracted words). The syllabic abbreviation of kanji words is frequently used for universities: for instance, "Tōdai" (東大) for "Tōkyō daigaku" (東京大学, University of Tokyo) and is used similarly in Chinese: "Běidà" (北大) for "Běijīng Dàxué" (北京大学, Peking University). The English phrase "Gung ho" originated as a Chinese abbreviation.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Jurriën David Norman Timber (born 17 June 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defender for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Netherlands national team. Mainly a centre-back, he can also play as a right-back.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Timber joined Ajax's youth academy in 2014, from Feyenoord. He made his first-team debut in March 2020 and has won two Eredivisie titles and one KNVB Cup. He won the Marco van Basten Award in 2022.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Timber made 29 appearances for the Netherlands at youth international level. He was a member of the under-17 team that won the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. He made his senior international debut in June 2021.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Timber started playing for Utrecht-based club DVSU at the age of four, before joining Feyenoord's youth system when he was six. In 2014, he joined Ajax, where he signed his first professional contract in 2018.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: He scored his first career goal for Ajax against Emmen on 2 May 2021. It was the opening goal in an eventual 4–0 win. That result confirmed Ajax as Eredivisie champions for a record 35th time.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Timber played youth international football for the Netherlands at under-15, under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels. He was selected for the senior Netherlands squad for UEFA Euro 2020. He made his debut for the team on 2 June 2021 in a friendly against Scotland, as a starter.


title: Jurriën Timber

text: Born in the Netherlands, Timber and his twin brother Quinten Timber, who is also a footballer, are of Aruban and Curaçaoan descent. Their mother Marilyn is from Aruba and their father is from Curaçao, both part of the ABC Islands in the Dutch Caribbean. Due to past situations, the family took on their maternal name Timber instead of taking the last name of their father Maduro. The twins also have three older brothers Shamier, Chris, and Dylan.


title: Brian McKnight

text: Brian Kelly McKnight (born June 5, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, radio host and multi-instrumentalist. He is most recognized for his strong head voice, high belting range and melisma.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight is known for his songs from albums such as "Brian McKnight" (platinum debut), "Anytime" and "Back at One". His work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, third only to Zubin Mehta and Snoop Dogg for the record of most Grammy nominations without a win.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York to Claude McKnight, Jr. and Ruth Elaine Willis. His music experience began in childhood when he became a member of his church choir, which was directed by his grandfather. McKnight explored different genres of music, and in his early teens, he started musical ambitions by composing instrumental material while learning to play several instruments. McKnight formed a band and began performing his original songs at local venues. By the age of 18, he was offered a publishing deal.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight's older brother, Claude McKnight III (and his band Take 6), signed a record deal with Warner Brothers in 1990. This encouraged McKnight to shop his own demo tapes and by the age of 19, he signed his first recording deal with Mercury Records subsidiary, Wing Records. His self-titled debut album "Brian McKnight" was released in 1992, and peaked at number 58 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. His first release was "The Way Love Goes", which peaked at number 11 on the "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album also featured the ballad, and Top 20 single, "One Last Cry". It was followed by two more albums for Mercury, "I Remember You" (1995) and "Anytime" (1997). "Anytime", McKnight's final album with Mercury, sold over two million copies and was nominated for a Grammy. The video for "Anytime", directed by Darren Grant, was nominated for Best Male Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. In 1997, McKnight recorded "Remember the Magic" for Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight signed with Motown in 1998 and released a Christmas album, "Bethlehem", the first of five albums he released on Motown.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In 1998, McKnight was a guest star on the show "Sister Sister". He appeared in multiple episodes, as Tia and Tamera's college professor.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In 1999, McKnight released "Back at One", his most successful album to date, which eventually went on to sell over three million copies. Additionally, "Back at One" is one of four of McKnight's studio albums to reach the Top 10 on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart, reaching number 7 on October 9, 1999.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In 2004, McKnight co-wrote the song "Wait" with Australian soul artist Guy Sebastian, which appeared on Sebastian's "Beautiful Life" album.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In late 2005, McKnight signed with Warner Bros. Records and released the album "Ten" during December 2006. It was his only studio album with the label. Three singles were released from the album: "Find Myself in You" (which originally appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 Tyler Perry movie "Madea's Family Reunion"), "Used to Be My Girl" and "What's My Name".


title: Brian McKnight

text: Between 2006 and 2010, McKnight hosted "The Brian McKnight Morning Show", a radio show with Pat Prescott on KTWV The Wave in Los Angeles. The show was briefly simulcast on KHJZ-FM, Smooth Jazz 95.7 The Wave in Houston, Texas. In January 2009, McKnight hosted "The Brian McKnight Show" on 98.7 KISS FM in New York City.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In 2009, McKnight appeared in the eighth season of "Celebrity Apprentice". Each celebrity played to raise money for the charity of his or her choice. McKnight elected to play for Youthville USA.


title: Brian McKnight

text: Between September 2009 and May 2010, McKnight served as the media personality and hosted "The Brian McKnight Show", a late night talk show billed as a combination of talk and variety which aired in syndication.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight sang the National Anthem for MLB Opening Day in Cincinnati, Ohio with his sons Brian, Jr. and Niko on March 31, 2011. He had previously sung the National Anthem for the 1997 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland, Game 6 of the 2002 World Series in Anaheim, California (near his Los Angeles home), and the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Detroit. He has also made numerous other "National Anthem" appearances throughout his career. Additionally, McKnight sang "God Bless America" in the 7th inning of Game 7 of the National League Champion Series in San Francisco on October 22, 2012.


title: Brian McKnight

text: On April 23, 2012, McKnight posted to YouTube "If You're Ready To Learn", which has been characterized by "Billboard" as a "filthy jam". Billboard selected this lyric from the work to quote: "Let me show you how your p—y works / Since you didn't bring it to me first." Other media outlets such as MTV, the "Toronto Sun", and "NewMediaRockstars" have also written about McKnight's recent, more adult-oriented efforts. Shortly after the single's release, McKnight and Funny or Die revealed that the single was a collaboration between the two. McKnight later explained that he wrote the parody as a commentary on the state of R&B, which he noted was in a period of degradation overall with famous radio station 98.7 Kiss FM shuttering and hit singles being inferior quality music, among other ailments.


title: Brian McKnight

text: On August 14, 2015, McKnight released the single "Uh Oh Feeling", the first track from his album "Better". It was released on his own label, Brian McKnight Music LLC via Kobalt Label Services. "Better" was released on February 26, 2016. The album received positive reviews.


title: Brian McKnight

text: On September 23, 2016 (twenty years from the date of his studio album "Anytime"), McKnight released his first live CD, DVD and Blu-ray collection entitled "An Evening with Brian McKnight" (in partnership with independent recording label, SoNo Recording Group, via the Universal Music Group). The concert was recorded in Los Angeles, at the historic Saban Theatre. The release includes fourteen songs performed live with his full band, plus three newly written and recorded songs. The first single, "Everything", reached the Top 20 on the national Adult Contemporary charts in September 2016. The CD version of the concert debuted on the "Billboard" R&B chart at number 13, as a Hot Shot Debut. Also included, is a duet with Gino Vannelli, on the song "Brothers in the End". The Blu-ray and DVD version of the release premiered on the "Billboard" Music DVD chart at number 9.


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight released the album "Genesis" on August 25, 2017. It featured three Top 30 Urban AC and AC hits: "Everything", "Forever" and "I Want U". "Genesis" premiered on the Nielsen SoundScan Top 10 Current R&B Albums and Top 20 Current Hip Hop/R&B Albums. The album was produced by Tim Kelley, part of the legendary duo Tim & Bob.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In January 2018, McKnight was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards. He was nominated for Outstanding Male Artist and Outstanding Album for "Genesis" (alongside Bruno Mars, Charlie Wilson, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z and Mary J Blige).


title: Brian McKnight

text: In May 2018, McKnight announced he was working on his next studio album tentatively titled "Bedtime Story", which would be 60 minutes of music "for the bedroom aka baby-making music".


title: Brian McKnight

text: McKnight was married in 1990 to singer-songwriter and his college sweetheart, Julie McKnight. They have two children, Brian Jr., and Niko. They divorced in 2003. McKnight also has a daughter named Brianna McKnight.


title: Brian McKnight

text: In 2014, he began dating Dr. Leilani Malia Mendoza, and they announced their engagement in May 2017. On December 29, 2017, McKnight and Mendoza were married. Mendoza has two children from a previous relationship; McKnight and Mendoza had a child who died in infancy.


title: Brian McKnight

text: Brian McKnight was raised a Seventh-day Adventist. Religion was important in the McKnight family, with many generations being Seventh-day Adventists. His grandfather was a pastor of a church, and his mother played the piano and sang in a gospel choir in Buffalo's Emanuel Temple. Being the youngest of four boys, McKnight became a member of an a cappella gospel quartet with his brothers. He also attended Oakwood College, a Seventh-day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1987 to 1989. In his second year, McKnight got into trouble for violating Oakwood's rules about dormitory visitors for having his girlfriend in his dorm room. They were both expelled.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night clubs and television. As a child performer during the years just after the silent film era, she had a successful singing career under the stage name Baby Rose Marie.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie was widely known for her role on the CBS situation comedy "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961–1966), as television comedy writer Sally Rogers, "who went toe-to-toe in a man’s world". Later, she portrayed Myrna Gibbons on "The Doris Day Show" and was a featured celebrity on "The Hollywood Squares" for 14 years.


title: Rose Marie

text: She is the subject of a 2017 documentary film, "Wait for Your Laugh", which includes interviews with her and her co-stars including Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Peter Marshall, and Tim Conway.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie was born Rose Marie Mazzetta in Manhattan, New York, on August 15, 1923, to Polish-American Stella Gluszcak and Italian-American vaudeville actor Frank Mazzetta, who went by the name of Frank Curley. Her mother took her to see local vaudeville shows regularly and afterwards, Rose Marie would sing what she had heard for neighbors, who eventually entered her in a talent contest. At the age of three, Marie started performing under the name "Baby Rose Marie". At five, she was offered a seven-year contract and became a radio star on the NBC Radio Network and made a series of films.


title: Rose Marie

text: “I had a deep voice, not like Shirley Temple but more like Sophie Tucker. I never sounded like a child so there were some people who thought I was really a 30-year-old midget.”


title: Rose Marie

text: To counteract these rumors, NBC arranged for her to undertake a national stage tour, and she appeared in a few short films including "Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder" (1929).


title: Rose Marie

text: At the height of her fame as a child singer, from late 1929 to 1934, Rose Marie had her own radio show, made numerous records, and was featured in a number of Paramount films and shorts. She continued to appear in films through the mid-1930s, making shorts and one feature picture, "International House" (1933), with W. C. Fields for Paramount.


title: Rose Marie

text: As she entered adulthood, Rose Marie turned to nightclub and lounge performances. According to her autobiography "Hold the Roses," she was assisted in her career by many members of organized crime, including Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel. Rose Marie secured work at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was built by Siegel. Because of the Flamingo's organized crime ties, she had to seek permission to perform in other casinos and remained loyal to "the boys" at the Flamingo for the rest of her life.


title: Rose Marie

text: Concurrently with her nightclub work, the young adult Rose Marie continued to work in radio, earning the nickname "Darling of the Airwaves".


title: Rose Marie

text: In 1929, five-year-old Rose Marie made a Vitaphone sound short titled "Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder". Between 1930 and 1938, she made 17 recordings, three of which were not issued. Her first issued record, recorded on March 10, 1932, featured accompaniment by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, one of the leading African American jazz orchestras of the day. Henderson and the band were said to be in the RCA Victor studios recording the four songs they were intending to produce that day and were asked to accompany Baby Rose Marie, reading from a stock arrangement.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie's recording of "Say That You Were Teasing Me" (backed with "Take a Picture of the Moon", Victor 22960) also featured Henderson's orchestra and was a national hit in 1932. According to Joel Whitburn, Rose Marie was the last surviving entertainer to have charted a hit before World War II.


title: Rose Marie

text: In the 1960–1961 season, Marie co-starred with Shirley Bonne, Elaine Stritch, Jack Weston, Raymond Bailey, and Stubby Kaye in "My Sister Eileen".


title: Rose Marie

text: After five seasons (1961–1966) as Sally Rogers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show", Rose Marie co-starred in two seasons (1969–1971) of "The Doris Day Show" as Doris Martin's friend and co-worker Myrna Gibbons. She also appeared in two episodes of "The Monkees" in the mid-1960s. She later had a semi-regular seat in the upper center square on the original version of "The Hollywood Squares." Because contestants tended to pick corner squares first, the phrase "Rose Marie to block" was uttered so often she frequently joked that she should legally change her name to that.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie performed on three 1966 and 1967 episodes of "The Dean Martin Show" on NBC and also twice (1964 and 1968) on "The Hollywood Palace" on ABC.


title: Rose Marie

text: In the mid-1970s, Rose Marie appeared in the recurring role of Hilda on the police drama "S.W.A.T.". Hilda brought fresh doughnuts, made coffee for the team, and provided some comic relief.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam appeared together in an October 1993 episode of "Herman's Head" and guest-starred in a February 1996 episode of "Caroline in the City", shortly before Amsterdam's death in October of that same year.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie appeared opposite Phil Silvers in the hit Broadway Musical "Top Banana" in 1951, also appearing in the well-received 1954 film adaptation. She later claimed that her musical numbers were cut from the film in retaliation for her publicly refusing the producer's sexual advances. Near the end of her life, she testified that it was the only time she had ever experienced sexual harassment in the entertainment industry in her 90-year career.


title: Rose Marie

text: In 1965, Rose Marie appeared in the Dallas production of "Bye Bye Birdie" as Mae Peterson, the mother of the character played by Dick Van Dyke on Broadway and in the film.


title: Rose Marie

text: From 1977 to 1985, Rose Marie co-starred with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell, and Margaret Whiting in the musical revue "4 Girls 4", which toured the United States and appeared on television several times.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie was the celebrity guest host of a comedy play, "Grandmas Rock!", written by Gordon Durich. It was originally broadcast on radio in 2010 on KVTA and KKZZ, and rebroadcast on KVTA and KKZZ again in September 2012 in honor of National Grandparents Day.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie was married to trumpeter Bobby Guy from 1946 until his death in 1964. The couple had one daughter, television producer Georgiana Guy Rodrigues (who appeared as a contestant on Match Game ’73), who was born in 1947.


title: Rose Marie

text: Though it was presented in the press as romantic, in the 1970s Rose Marie maintained a platonic relationship with Pussycat Theaters co-owner Vince Miranda.


title: Rose Marie

text: In her later years, Rose Marie was active on social media, particularly developing a following on Twitter, where she offered support for women who, like her, had suffered from sexual harassment.


title: Rose Marie

text: Rose Marie died at her home in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles on December 28, 2017, at the age of 94. Nell Scovell memorialized her as "the patron saint of female comedy writers".


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for 28 years. She is overall an eight-time women's world champion and to this day holds the record as the longest reigning women's world champion in combination of all her reigns.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship in the main event of The Brawl to End It All in 1984. Moolah regained the Women's Championship on two further occasions before entering semi-retirement towards the end of the decade. She continued to make sporadic appearances for WWF/WWE until her death, often in comedic roles with longtime friend Mae Young. In 1999, she became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling, up to that point in time, when she won the Women's Championship for a final time at age 76.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: During her lifetime, Moolah was lauded as a leading figure in women's professional wrestling and was considered one of the industry's greatest wrestlers. She became the first woman to be inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995 and is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. However, her legacy has since been damaged in the years following her death, when allegations surfaced that she had exploited female wrestlers under her tutelage both financially and sexually.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Mary Lillian Ellison was born in 1923 in Kershaw County, South Carolina, and grew up in Tookiedoo, 12 miles from Columbia. The youngest of five children, Ellison was the only daughter of a part-Cherokee father and an Irish mother. Her parents owned a farm, a grocery store, and a service station.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: When her mother died of cancer, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother and worked on her cousin's cotton farm to make money. At age 10, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mother's death; to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Women's Champion Mildred Burke wrestle that "they began to mean much more" to her.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers. She graduated from Columbia High School, but at age 14 married 21-year-old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter. A few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll. Still only 15, she left her daughter with a friend and set out on a wrestling career of her own.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred Burke's husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant women's promoter of the time. She competed with many other female wrestlers, stepping into the ring with the likes of Mae Young, Cecilia Blevins and Mildred Burke. Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to enter into sexual relationships with either himself or competing promoters to ensure additional bookings, a practice with which Ellison refused to go along. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long. Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfefer who gave her the moniker "Slave Girl Moolah". By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences and assisting Rogers against his opponents. Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship. She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy (Tony Olivas). Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, attempted to stab Ellison with a knife for kissing him. Moolah later left Pfeffer's promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos and Paul Bowser. In 1955, she began working for Vince McMahon, Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: On September 18, 1956, Moolah defeated Judy Grable in a 13-woman battle royal to win the vacant World Women's Championship, which shares a lineage with the NWA World Women's Championship. She was not immediately recognized by everyone as the NWA Champion because Billy Wolfe, with whom she had conflict earlier in her career, still controlled the promotion. After the match, Vince McMahon, Sr. dubbed Ellison with a new ring name – The Fabulous Moolah. Subsequently, June Byers came out of retirement to challenge Moolah to a match for the title. During the match, Moolah acted as the aggressor and pinned Byers to retain the championship. Moolah's first World Championship reign lasted over ten years. Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, such as Judy Grable and Donna Christanello, while also purporting to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day. Moolah claimed in her book, "First Goddess of the Squared Circle", that she formed friendships with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: After June Byers retired in 1964, Moolah was subsequently recognized as official NWA Champion, thus making her the undisputed Women's World Champion. Nevertheless, Moolah dropped the belt on September 17, 1966, to Bette Boucher, although she regained the title just weeks later. She also traded the belt with Yukiko Tomoe during a tour of Japan in 1968. On July 1, 1972, Moolah became the first woman allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden, which had previously banned women's wrestling. In fact, Moolah helped overturn the ban on women's wrestling in the entire state of New York, which the New York State Athletic Commission lifted in June 1972. During her quest to overturn the ban, she flipped football player Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier onto his back on "The Mike Douglas Show". Moolah continued an uninterrupted eight-year reign before losing to Sue Green at Madison Square Garden in 1976. Moolah regained her title a short time later. She also bought the legal rights to the championship in the late 1970s, and after losing the championship for two days to Evelyn Stevens in 1978, began another long reign, defending her title for another six years. Also in the 1970s, Moolah held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice with Toni Rose.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: In 1983, Vincent Kennedy McMahon began expanding the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) nationally, and Moolah sold him the rights to her Women's World Championship. Moolah agreed to appear exclusively for the WWF, and thus became the first WWF Women's Champion. The following year, singer Cyndi Lauper began a verbal feud with manager "Captain" Lou Albano, who long had a reputation of being a villain, that brought professional wrestling into mainstream culture in a storyline that became known as the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection." When it was finally time for Lauper and Albano to settle their differences in the ring, a match-up was scheduled with Albano representing Moolah against the challenge of Lauper's protégé, Wendi Richter. After much buildup and hype, the Fabulous Moolah lost the championship to Richter on July 23, 1984, in the main event of "The Brawl to End It All", which was broadcast live on MTV. Prior to the match, the WWF promoted Moolah as holding the championship for the previous 28 years.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: After losing the title to Richter, Moolah aided Leilani Kai in defeating Richter for the title in February 1985. Richter won it back at the inaugural WrestleMania, but when Richter's relationship soured with the WWF, Moolah donned a mask as "The Spider Lady" and regained the belt on November 25, 1985, in a controversial decision. Richter was never told she would be losing the title and fell victim to a real-life "screwjob" finish known as "The Original Screwjob". Richter promptly quit the WWF afterward, while Moolah continued to be champion for another two years—excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia in 1986—before losing the belt to Sherri Martel on July 24, 1987. She later captained a team at the inaugural Survivor Series. Her team (Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin, and the Jumping Bomb Angels) defeated champion Martel and her team (Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Donna Christanello, and Dawn Marie).


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: On September 3, 1988, Moolah wrestled AWA World Women's Champion Madusa Miceli to a double DQ on an independent card in Medina, Ohio. Afterwards Moolah would retire from wrestling.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: During her retirement Moolah was the promoter for Ladies International Wrestling Association (LIWA) in 1990 based in North Carolina. Also the shows were held in Las Vegas. She started wrestling again in 1993 at the age of 70 when she defeated Sunny Brook. On June 21, 1996, she teamed with Mae Young at LIWA Golden Girls Extravaganza event in Las Vegas where they wrestled Liz Chase and Lori Lynn to a no contest. Moolah continued wrestling for the promotion and even continued teaming with Young. In 2000, while working for WWF; LIWA shut down. Moolah would continue working for WWF.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Throughout the early 1990s, she made appearances in video packages and at live WWF events. On June 24, 1995, she was the first female wrestler to be inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame. In the late 1990s, Pat Patterson and Ellison began jokingly discussing a comeback for her, which resulted in Patterson contacting WWF Chairman Vince McMahon about the possibility. In 1999, Moolah and Mae Young re-emerged in the WWF (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE). The WWF women's division, however, had since moved away from the traditional athletic match-ups of the past and now featured women competing in sexually-themed bikini contests and strip matches.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Upon returning, Moolah and Young began appearing regularly in comedic roles. On the September 9, 1999, episode of "SmackDown!", Jeff Jarrett invited Moolah, 76, into the ring and smashed a guitar over her head. On the September 27, 1999, episode of "Monday Night Raw", Moolah and Young defeated Ivory in a Handicapped Evening Gown match, which led to a title match at No Mercy on October 17. The match saw Moolah defeat Ivory to regain the WWF Women's Championship, thus becoming the then-oldest champion ever, though she lost the title back to Ivory eight days later.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: On the September 15, 2003, episode of "Raw", Moolah won a match against Victoria. Moolah had been promised the match for her eightieth birthday and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring. After Moolah's victory, the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton came out and performed an "RKO" on her. Moolah and Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution in 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top. She also made brief appearances at WrestleMania 23 and the 2007 Draft Lottery on June 11, 2007. Her last WWE appearance before her death was at SummerSlam in August 2007, in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon and Raw General Manager William Regal.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Ellison and her second husband Johnny Long began training women to become female wrestlers, including Ella Waldek, Daisy Mae, and Katherine Simpson. Long later contacted promoter Jack Pfefer, who agreed to book some of the wrestlers at his shows. After marrying wrestler Buddy Lee, he began helping Ellison train the female wrestlers. After she left Pfeffer's promotion in the 1950s, Ellison found it difficult to book her trainees in shows due to Pfeffer's influence over other National Wrestling Alliance promoters. Ellison claimed Pfeffer would threaten to reveal the pre-planned nature of wrestling if any other promoters did not do as he liked. As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills. They later began to book their wrestlers, including Judy Grable in Boston, under promoter Paul Bowser.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: In the late 1950s when the once-dominant promoter of women's wrestling, Billy Wolfe, was out of business, Ellison and Lee began to book their female wrestlers for more and more shows. They began calling their promoting business Girl Wrestling Enterprises (GWE). Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business. In addition to women, Ellison also trained midget professional wrestlers, including Katie Glass in the 1960s. Ellison founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers, in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, she spent most of her time training female wrestlers at her school in Columbia, South Carolina. She also began training men, including Del Wilkes, and in 1995 trained more men than women. She also spent time training in Los Angeles at Verne Langdon's Slammers Gym.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Journalist Dave Meltzer wrote an obituary for Moolah in which he stated that "different promoters had very different ideas of what being professional meant." Wrestling historian Tim Hornbaker said that Moolah "chose not to" break the "dishonest, greedy" practices established by her mentor Billy Wolfe. Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy, in their book "Sisterhood of the Squared Circle", wrote that Moolah's "tactics could be just as ruthless and cutthroat as those of 'The Godfather, Don Corleone.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Wendi Richter and Mad Maxine both claimed that Ellison did not actually train the wrestlers at her wrestling school. According to Richter, Ellison accepted payment of the training fee (which at the time of Richter's training was $500) and had other female wrestlers within her camp (including Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Winona Littleheart, and Joyce Grable) train the new recruits; these women did not get paid for their additional work as trainers. Richter also claimed that Ellison required all women that received training at her camp to sign a contract that allowed Ellison to function as their booker and receive 25% of their booking fee. Trainees were also required to rent duplex apartments on Ellison's property and they were responsible for paying her for rent and utilities. The training lasted six months and took place up to five hours per day inside a wrestling ring in a barn that lacked heating and air conditioning or fans. Mad Maxine said that due to owing Moolah both rent and training fees amounting to $1,500, the trainees "went into debt to [Moolah] and she controlled their lives... It was an environment ripe for abuse." Maxine also said that when she went to work for WWF, Moolah was taking at least half of her earnings. Debbie Johnson, another former trainee of Ellison's, stated that she was required to give Ellison 30% of her booking fee, and her paycheck was further reduced as Ellison deducted travel expenses, food, rent, and utilities before paying her. As a result, Johnson worked for Ellison for two years before she received any money. Johnson stated that Ellison would refuse to book certain women in her training camp if they angered her, and that Ellison monitored her and refused to let her leave the physical constraints of the training camp unless she was accompanied by someone else.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Over the years, various female wrestlers have come forward with stories accusing Ellison of being a pimp who often provided various wrestling promoters with unsuspecting female wrestlers that would be used as sex objects. Penny Banner directly described Moolah as a pimp who "in return for money," rented her female trainees out "in bulk" to wrestling promoters so that the promoters and the male wrestlers could have sex with them. Banner said the women who were "sent on these tours were not told of this 'arrangement' ahead of time," and that "those who refused to have sex with wrestlers and promoters were raped." One of the most notorious accusations is from the family of Sweet Georgia Brown (Susie Mae McCoy), who was trained by Moolah and her husband, Buddy Lee. The "Columbia Free Times" reported allegations made by her daughter in 2006, in which she said her mother told her that she was often raped, given drugs, and made an addict in an intentional attempt by Ellison and Lee to control her. Ida Martinez, who wrestled during the 1960s, also recalls that many of the regional promoters "demanded personal services" before they would pay the female wrestlers. Mad Maxine described Moolah as an "evil person," saying Moolah made money by sending trainees "out to this guy in Arizona and pimped them out." In a 2002 interview, Luna Vachon claimed that when she was sixteen years old and training at Ellison's camp, Ellison sent her out of state to be photographed by an older man. Although she remained clothed during the photo shoot, Vachon stated she felt taken advantage of by Ellison and the older man. Vachon also stated that her aunt, Vivian Vachon, witnessed Ellison abusing alcohol and having sex with her female trainees. Sandy Parker, a lesbian former pupil of Ellison's, also claims that Ellison forbade her from going to any gay bars and tried to press her to date men. Parker says this enraged her, because "(Moolah) was two faced because she had her own little dalliances that we all knew about."


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: However, several former co-workers have spoken out in Ellison's defense. Professional wrestler Shane Douglas said he never heard anybody speaking against Moolah during his career. Former female wrestler Beverly Shade also defended Moolah, claiming "Moolah wasn't that kind of person." Jerry Lawler also said he "never heard or saw anything like that when I was in the business around Moolah and her girls." Former trainee Princess Victoria said Moolah never pimped any women or used drugs, but she did take money from them. Michael McCoy, Sweet Georgia Brown's son, refuted allegations made by his sister, stating that she has an agenda and that the allegations are false. However, on the Dark Side of the Ring episode about The Fabulous Moolah, Michael McCoy stated that she was indeed made to have sex with paying promoters. Bruce Prichard said she was protecting herself from the promoters and the only negative thing he heard of her was " took a percentage of their pay, which was laid out in their contract clearly before they even started training, day one."


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: As well as allegedly exploiting female wrestlers sexually, Ellison was accused of using her influence to control the women's wrestling scene and ensure that other women did not gain greater recognition. In addition to being a key participant in the original screwjob on Wendi Richter, Ellison used her influence to take over the spot originally held by her protégé Mad Maxine on the animated series "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling". Maxine was about to receive a big push by Vince McMahon but left the WWF shortly afterwards, as Ellison was unwilling to provide her with additional bookings. Maxine said that Moolah never told her about the WWF's plans to include her in the cartoon. Numerous other former trainees defected from Ellison after growing tired of sharing their paychecks with Ellison. Women wrestlers including Vivian and Luna Vachon, Ann Casey, and Darling Dagmar moved into other regions where Ellison had less control and negotiated their own payouts with promoters.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Both Judy Martin and Leilani Kai told in later interviews that Moolah would collect the women wrestlers' pay from promoters and, after taking out her own pay, would only give the girls half of the money they were owed (keeping half of their pay for herself, plus her own pay) and telling them that was all the promoter gave her to give them. Martin stated that shortly before Ellison left the WWF in 1988 (shortly after falling out with Martin and Kai due to Ellison no longer receiving their booking fees), she sabotaged the duo while they were touring Japan. Martin stated that Ellison contacted Japanese promoters and informed them that the Jumping Bomb Angels were supposed to drop the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship to The Glamour Girls before Martin and Kai returned to the United States. This was contrary to the booking decision made by Pat Patterson before the Japanese tour began. Unable to reach Patterson by telephone, Kai and Martin agreed to win the titles from the Angels since Ellison had already misinformed the Japanese promoters. Martin stated that upon returning to the United States, Patterson was angry with them and confirmed that nobody within the WWF made the decision for the title change and that due to her long-standing relationship with the company, the WWF refused to listen to their explanation of Ellison's deceit. Shortly thereafter, the WWF phased out the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship. In a later shoot interview, Leilani Kai told that had things gone as the WWF originally planned, The Glamour Girls would have had a title match against the Jumping Bomb Angels at WrestleMania IV and that Ellison's actions had cost the four girls what would have been ultimately their biggest ever payday.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Women that chose to continue allowing Ellison to work as their booker were kept under tight control. Velvet McIntyre was forced to compete against Ellison (whom McIntyre stated she didn't care for) at WrestleMania 2 instead of competing during an all-women tour of Kuwait with a group of Ellison's other female wrestlers. Their WrestleMania 2 match lasted less than two minutes with the referee ignoring McIntyre's leg being on the ropes while she was being pinned. Women that did not agree to Ellison's booking fees faced limited options. Rhonda Sing stated that Ellison contacted her and offered to let her wrestle Richter in a couple of pay-per-view matches for the WWF in 1985, but demanded she receive half of Sing's pay check; a stipulation Sing was unwilling to accept. Penny Banner stated that her retirement was due in large part to Ellison refusing to allow any of her female wrestlers to accept bookings against Banner, which severely limited the number of bookings that Banner was offered by promoters.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: At the time of her death, Kevin Eck wrote in "The Baltimore Sun": "The Fabulous Moolah didn't just dominate women's wrestling for parts of four decades, she was women's wrestling. Moolah ... is unquestionably the most influential and famous female wrestler in history." "The Post and Courier" columnist Mike Mooneyham described her as "one of the greatest female performers to ever step into a professional wrestling ring and the most powerful woman outside the squared circle." She was the only female performer to be included in WWE's "Top 50 Superstars of All Time" DVD, placing 27th on the list. In 2016, after allegations against Moolah had become more prevalent, Luke Winkie of "Sports Illustrated" listed Moolah as the 69th greatest wrestler of all time because of her lengthy title reign but wrote that he "didn't feel great about it".


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Dave Meltzer described that women's wrestling "went way way down" under Moolah's "tutelage", but he also said he did not know if it was her fault. Meltzer said that although women "used to headline and they were successful", "during the period Moolah controlled women's wrestling, the popularity and product didn't evolve." However, Meltzer noted that Moolah herself "stood the test of time" to remain culturally relevant long after the Japanese female wrestlers of the 1980s (more popular at that time) had faded from relevance.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: In March 2018, WWE announced "The Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal", a battle royal for the female wrestlers of the company scheduled for WrestleMania 34 named in honor of Moolah. The decision to hold a battle royal in honor of Moolah drew controversy after the allegations of exploitation against Moolah resurfaced. Two days after the announcement, WWE renamed the match "WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal", removing Moolah's name from the event. A 2019 episode of "Dark Side of the Ring" broadcast on Viceland examined the allegations against her in the aftermath of the battle royal name controversy. The episode repeated many of the allegations against her but also featured comments from the son of Sweet Georgia Brown and wrestlers Selina Majors and Beverly Shade, who defended her. "If I choose not to like her because of what she did to me, that's fine," Princess Victoria stated. "But Moolah needs to be remembered. She was an icon in this business. You can't take away her history because she was an asshole!"


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: An animated version of Moolah was included on "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling". In addition, she appeared in one of Cyndi Lauper's music videos, "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough". An illness in the mid-1970s meant Ellison had to pull out of the Bill Cosby movie "Mother, Jugs & Speed", which had a role written specifically for her. In 2002, Moolah wrote her autobiography, "The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle". The book has been criticized for keeping kayfabe (the stance that wrestling storylines are real) and did not reveal a lot about her time controlling women's wrestling. Defending herself against these claims, Ellison retorted it was hard to fit all of her almost five decade career into one book.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Moolah and Young, along with several other female wrestlers, starred in the 2004 film "", a documentary about the female wrestlers from the 1950s era. They also appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" promoting the film.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Ellison's first husband was Walter Carroll, who became the father of her daughter Mary. Mary wrestled briefly but decided against pursuing the profession. Ellison had six grandchildren. Ellison and Carroll divorced shortly after their daughter's birth. Later, Ellison married wrestler Johnny Long. Marital conflicts developed when Long wanted Ellison to be a housewife instead of a career woman. In addition, Ellison accused Long of being a "womanizer". Ellison and Long divorced. Ellison also says that she dated country singer Hank Williams for four months in 1952. According to Ellison, Williams proposed to her, but Williams's drinking and heroin abuse forced the couple to go separate ways. She further claimed that he wanted Ellison to quit her wrestling career, which she did not want to do. Two months after the breakup, Williams died due to an overdose.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Later, Ellison met a wrestler named Buddy Lee, whom she regarded as the "love of her life." They were eventually married, and after divorcing in 1970 after nine years of marriage, they remained friends until Lee's death in 1999. The divorce was attributed to Lee's affair with Rita Cortez, one of the wrestlers the duo was training. In the early 1980s, Ellison opened Moolah's Hideaway, a bar and grill which was operated by her daughter Mary and frequented by André the Giant.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Beginning in 1991, Ellison lived with Mae Young in a house in Columbia, South Carolina. Her estate was located on a road named Moolah Drive. A midget professional wrestler named Katie Glass also lived with Moolah for over forty years. Another wrestler, Donna Christanello, also lived with Ellison on-and-off for forty years, ending in May 1999.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: During her return to the ring in 1999, Ellison began experiencing occasional dizziness, and as a result, her doctor requested that she begin to wear a heart monitor. A few days later, Ellison was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be two clogged arteries and viral pneumonia. She stayed at the intensive-care unit of the hospital for 24 days, during which she was unconscious for fifteen days. After leaving the hospital, she again slipped into unconsciousness in the bathroom at her home, crushing several vertebrae. She underwent successful back surgery in mid-December.


title: The Fabulous Moolah

text: Ellison died on November 2, 2007, at the age of 84 in Columbia, South Carolina. According to her daughter Mary, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to a recent shoulder replacement surgery. Ellison is buried in a grave plot at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Columbia, South Carolina.


title: Cheesesteak

text: A cheesesteak (also known as a Philadelphia cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak, cheesesteak sandwich, cheese steak, or steak and cheese) is a sandwich made from thinly sliced pieces of beefsteak and melted cheese in a long hoagie roll. A popular regional fast food, it has its roots in the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


title: Cheesesteak

text: The cheesesteak was developed in the early 20th century "by combining frizzled beef, onions, and cheese in a small loaf of bread", according to a 1987 exhibition catalog published by the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.


title: Cheesesteak

text: Philadelphians Pat and Harry Olivieri are often credited with inventing the sandwich by serving chopped steak on an Italian roll in the early 1930s. The exact story behind its creation is debated, but in some accounts, Pat and Harry Olivieri originally owned a hot dog stand, and on one occasion, decided to make a new sandwich using chopped beef and grilled onions. While Pat was eating the sandwich, a cab driver stopped by and was interested in it, so he requested one for himself. After eating it, the cab driver suggested that Olivieri quit making hot dogs and instead focus on the new sandwich. They began selling this variation of steak sandwiches at their hot dog stand near South Philadelphia's Italian Market. They became so popular that Pat opened up his own restaurant which still operates today as Pat's King of Steaks. The sandwich was originally prepared without cheese; Olivieri said provolone cheese was first added by Joe "Cocky Joe" Lorenza, a manager at the Ridge Avenue location.


title: Cheesesteak

text: Cheesesteaks have become popular at restaurants and food carts throughout the city with many locations being independently owned, family-run businesses. Variations of cheesesteaks are now common in several fast food chains. Versions of the sandwich can also be found at high-end restaurants. Many establishments outside of Philadelphia refer to the sandwich as a "Philly cheesesteak".


title: Cheesesteak

text: The meat traditionally used is thinly sliced rib-eye or top round, although other cuts of beef are also used. On a lightly oiled griddle at medium temperature, the steak slices are quickly browned and then scrambled into smaller pieces with a flat spatula. Slices of cheese are then placed over the meat, letting it melt, and then the roll is placed on top of the cheese. The mixture is then scooped up with a spatula and pressed into the roll, which is then cut in half.


title: Cheesesteak

text: Common additions include sautéed onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, hot sauce, salt, and black pepper.


title: Cheesesteak

text: In Philadelphia, cheesesteaks are invariably served on hoagie rolls. Among several brands, perhaps the most famous are Amoroso rolls; these rolls are long, soft, and slightly salted. One source writes that "a proper cheesesteak consists of provolone or Cheez Whiz slathered on an Amoroso roll and stuffed with thinly shaved grilled meat," while a reader's letter to an Indianapolis magazine, lamenting the unavailability of good cheesesteaks, wrote that "the mention of the Amoroso roll brought tears to my eyes." After commenting on the debates over types of cheese and "chopped steak or sliced", "Risk and Insurance" magazine declared, "The only thing nearly everybody can agree on is that it all has to be piled onto a fresh, locally baked Amoroso roll."


title: Cheesesteak

text: American cheese, Provolone, and Cheez Whiz are the most commonly used cheeses or cheese products put on to the Philly cheesesteak.


title: Cheesesteak

text: White American cheese, along with provolone cheese, are the favorites due to their mild flavor and medium consistency. Some establishments melt the American cheese to achieve the creamy consistency, while others place slices over the meat, letting them melt slightly under the heat. "Philadelphia Inquirer" restaurant critic Craig LaBan says, "Provolone is for aficionados, extra-sharp for the most discriminating among them." Geno's owner, Joey Vento, said, "We always recommend the provolone. That's the real cheese."


title: Cheesesteak

text: Cheez Whiz, first marketed in 1952, was not yet available for the original 1930 version, but has spread in popularity. A 1986 "New York Times" article called Cheez Whiz "the "sine qua non" of cheesesteak connoisseurs." In a 1985 interview, Pat Olivieri's nephew Frank Olivieri said that he uses "the processed cheese spread familiar to millions of parents who prize speed and ease in fixing the children's lunch for the same reason, because it is fast." Cheez Whiz is "overwhelmingly the favorite" at Pat's, outselling runner-up American by a ratio of eight or ten to one, while Geno's claims to go through eight to ten cases of Cheez Whiz a day.


title: Omega SA

text: Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as "La Generale Watch Co." until incorporating the name "Omega" in 1903, becoming "Louis Brandt et Frère-Omega Watch & Co." In 1984, the company officially changed its name to "Omega SA" and opened its museum in Biel/Bienne to the public. Omega is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group.


title: Omega SA

text: Britain's Royal Flying Corps used Omega watches in 1917 for its combat units, followed by the U.S. Army in 1918, and NASA in 1969 for Apollo 11. Omega has been the official timekeeper of the Olympics since 1932 and is the current timekeeper of the America's Cup yacht race. Omega was a main partner of the 2022 Winter Olympics.


title: Omega SA

text: The forerunner of Omega, "La Generale Watch Co.", was founded at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1848 by Louis Brandt, who assembled key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen. He sold his watches from Italy to Scandinavia by way of England, his chief market. In 1894, his two sons Louis-Paul and César developed a revolutionary in-house manufacturing and total production control system that allowed component parts to be interchangeable. Watches developed with these techniques were marketed under the Omega brand of La Generale Watch Co. By 1903, the success of the Omega brand led La Generale Watch Co to spin off Omega as its own company, and the Omega Watch Co was officially founded in 1903.


title: Omega SA

text: Louis-Paul and César Brandt both died in 1903, leaving one of Switzerland's largest watch companies — with 240,000 watches produced annually and employing 800 people — in the hands of four young people, the oldest of whom, Paul-Emile Brandt, was not yet 24. The economic difficulties brought on by the First World War led Paul-Emile Brandt to work in 1925 towards the union of Omega and Tissot, then to their merger in 1930 into the group SSIH, Geneva.


title: Omega SA

text: Under Brandt's leadership and Joseph Reiser's from 1955, the SSIH Group continued to grow and multiply, absorbing or creating some fifty companies, including Lanco and Lemania, manufacturer of the most famous Omega chronograph movements. By the 1970s, SSIH had become Switzerland's top producer of finished watches and third in the world. Up to this time, Omega outsold Rolex, its main Swiss rival in the luxury watch segment, in the race for "King of Swiss Watch brands", although Rolex sold at a higher price point. Omega tended to be more revolutionary and more professionally focused, while Rolex watches were more ‘evolutionary’ and famous for their mechanical pieces and branding.


title: Omega SA

text: While Omega and Rolex had dominated in the pre-quartz era, this changed in the 1970s during the quartz crisis, when Japanese watch manufacturers, such as Seiko and Citizen, rose to dominance due to their use of quartz movements. In response, Rolex continued concentrating on its expensive mechanical chronometers where its expertise lay (though it did have some experimentation in quartz), while Omega tried to compete in the quartz watch market with its own quartz movements.


title: Omega SA

text: Weakened by the severe monetary crisis and recession of 1975 to 1980, SSIH was bailed out by banks in 1981. During this period, Seiko expressed interest in acquiring Omega, but nothing came of the talks.


title: Omega SA

text: Switzerland's other watch making giant Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG), supplier of a large range of Swiss movements and watch assemblies, was in economic difficulty. It was the principal manufacturer of "Ébauche" (unfinished movements) and owner, through their sub-holding company General Watch Co (GWC), of various other Swiss watch brands including Longines, Rado, Certina, Hamilton Watch Company and Mido. After drastic financial restructuring, the R&D departments of ASUAG and SSIH merged production operations at the ETA complex in Granges. The two companies completely merged forming ASUAG-SSIH, a holding company, in 1983.


title: Omega SA

text: Two years later, the holding company was taken over by a group of private investors led by Nicolas Hayek. Renamed Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie (SMH), the new group over the next decade proceeded to become one of the top watch producers in the world. In 1998 it became The Swatch Group, which now manufactures Omega and other brands such as Blancpain, Swatch, and Breguet.


title: Omega SA

text: Omega experienced a resurgence with advertisement that focused on product placement strategies, such as in the James Bond 007 films; the character had previously worn a Rolex Submariner but switched to the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M with "GoldenEye" (1995), and later an Omega Planet Ocean and Aqua Terra. Omega adopted many elements of Rolex's business model (i.e. premium pricing, tighter controls of dealer pricing, increasing advertising, etc.), which succeeded in increasing Omega's market share and name recognition to become a direct competitor to Rolex.


title: Omega SA

text: In 2019, Omega licensed its name and branding to Marcolin for a collection of men's and women's optical frames and sunglasses. In March 2022, Omega collaborated with sibling company Swatch, both of which are owned by The Swatch Group, to release a budget version of its iconic Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. The so-called "MoonSwatch", available in 11 colors, is made of bioceramic (a mixture of ceramic and castor oil) and priced at $260 / £207, well below the $5,250 price (as of March 2022) of the least expensive Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch.


title: Omega SA

text: Observatory trials focused on the science of Chronometry and the ability to make chronometers measure time precisely. Only Patek Philippe and Omega participated every year in the trials. Omega's performances at these competitions garnered the company a reputation of precision and innovation.


title: Omega SA

text: For more than a decade (1958–1969), Omega was the largest manufacturer of COSC chronometers. Omega developed the slogan "Omega – Exact time for life" in 1931 based on its historical performance at the Observatory trials. Omega's early prowess in designing and regulating timing movements was made possible by the company's incorporation of new chronometric innovations.


title: Omega SA

text: Before 1962 it was a simple alphanumeric code of two letters followed by four digits. Between 1962 and 2007 Omega used the Mapics system, consisting of two letters followed by either six or seven numbers. The PIC system started in 1988, running concurrently with Mapics, and featured an arrangement of eight numbers in three groups (XXXX.XX.XX).


title: Omega SA

text: The selection of the "Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph" for American astronauts was the subject of a rivalry between Omega and Bulova.


title: Omega SA

text: All subsequent crewed NASA missions also used this handwound wristwatch. NASA started selecting the chronograph in the early 1960s. Automatic chronograph wristwatches were not available until 1969. Even so, all the instrument panel clocks and time-keeping mechanisms in the spacecraft on those space missions were Bulova Accutrons with tuning fork movements, because at the time NASA did not know how well a mechanical movement would work in zero gravity.


title: Omega SA

text: The Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph was the first watch on the Moon, worn by Buzz Aldrin. Although Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong was first to set foot on the moon, he left his 105.012 Speedmaster inside the Lunar Module as a backup because the LM's electronic timer had malfunctioned. Aldrin elected to wear his, making his Speedmaster the first watch worn on the moon. Armstrong's watch is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Aldrin's was stolen; he mentions in his book, "Return to Earth", that when donating several items to the Smithsonian Institution, his Omega was one of the few things stolen from his personal effects.


title: Omega SA

text: In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph, Omega unveiled the commemorative "Speedmaster Professional Chronograph Moonwatch". The watch had the distinctive features of the first hand-winding Omega Speedmaster introduced in 1957. It was sold in an edition of 1,957 pieces.


title: Omega SA

text: In the US television series "NCIS", lead actor Mark Harmon wears an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean with supporting cast member Michael Weatherly wearing a matching version. In both cases, this is the stainless steel model with orange bezel and black dial.


title: Omega SA

text: Omega is the official timekeeper for the video game "Need for Speed II", released on Microsoft Windows and PlayStation in 1997.


title: Omega SA

text: In the US television series "Kojak", lead actor Telly Savalas wore a gold-plated Omega Time Computer One, the first mass-produced LED watch.


title: Omega SA

text: Omega has been associated with James Bond movies since 1995. That year, Pierce Brosnan took over the role of James Bond and began wearing the Omega Seamaster Quartz Professional (model 2541.80.00) in "GoldenEye". In all later films, Brosnan wore an Omega Seamaster Professional Chronometer (model 2531.80.00). The producers wanted to update the image of the spy to a more distinctly sophisticated "Euro" look. Omega was eager to participate in the high-profile product placement opportunity to further its brand image and supplied the watches.


title: Omega SA

text: For the 40th anniversary of James Bond (2002) a commemorative edition of the watch was made available model 2537.80.00 (10,007 units). The watch is identical to the model 2531.80.00 except the blue watch dial had a 007 logo inscribed across it, machined into the case-back, and inscribed on the clasp.


title: Omega SA

text: Daniel Craig, the current James Bond since "Casino Royale", also wears an Omega Seamaster: the Seamaster Planet Ocean (model 2900.50.91) in the first part of "Casino Royale", and the Seamaster Professional 300M (model 2220.80.00) in the latter part (from travelling to Montenegro). He mentions Omega by name when questioned by Vesper Lynd. With the launch of the film in 2006, Omega released a 007-special of the Professional 300M, (model 2226.80.00) featuring the 007-gun logo on the second hand and the rifle pattern on the watch face, based on the gun barrel sequence of Bond movies.


title: Omega SA

text: Omega released a second James Bond limited edition watch in 2006, a Seamaster Planet Ocean model with a limited production of 5007 units. The model is similar to what Craig wears earlier on in the film; however, it has a small orange colored 007 logo on the second hand, an engraved caseback signifying the Bond connection, and an engraved 007 on the clasp.