title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: In their first season back in the Football League, Cambridge United progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup, where they drew at home with Premier League team Manchester United. The match at the Abbey Stadium ended in a goalless draw, forcing a replay at Old Trafford, which Manchester United won 3–0. In the league, Cambridge finished 19th with 51 points, 10 points above the relegation zone. The following season started poorly, and Richard Money was sacked in November 2015, to be replaced by Shaun Derry the same month. A six-match unbeaten run saw Derry win the League Two Manager of the Month award for December 2015, and the U's finished the league in 9th place with 68 points. They finished 2016–17 season in 11th place, in a season that took in extended runs of both good and poor form. Derry was dismissed in February 2018 and was replaced on a permanent basis by his assistant, Joe Dunne, on the final day of 2017–18.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge started 2018–19 poorly, and manager Dunne was dismissed after 20 games with the club in 21st place. Colin Calderwood was appointed as his replacement in December 2018. Cambridge's second half under Calderwood was more successful, however, they could only finish in 21st place, only six points clear of the relegation zone. Following a successful start to the 2019–20 season, Calderwood was offered a new contract. However, after three heavy defeats in one month, Calderwood was sacked following a 4–0 defeat to Salford City. With the U's in 18th place, Calderwood's assistant manager Mark Bonner was placed in temporary charge until the end of the season. Under Bonner, Cambridge won four from their final seven matches before the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the season. Final league positions were decided on a points per game basis with Cambridge finishing in 16th place. This good form resulted in Bonner being handed the permanent role of head coach. During the 2020–21 season, Bonner guided Cambridge to promotion from League Two as runners-up after seven seasons in that division. Promotion was clinched on the final day with an emphatic 3–0 victory over Grimsby Town. Following this success, Bonner was handed a new three-year contract.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: On the 3rd of September 2022, a statement released by the club announced that investment from the clubs owners had allowed it to purchase the ground back from Grosvenor, ending a 20 year spell of being tenants at The Abbey and the clubs home for 89 years.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge United have traditionally worn amber and black home kits in a variety of designs, including plain amber with black trim (e.g. 1979–1991), amber and black quarters (1996–1998) and halves (e.g. 1924–25), and a variety of stripes (e.g. 1926–1936. Only between 1957–1960 and 1970–1972 have shirts not been predominantly amber, when the club opted for white with a small amber and black detail on the shirt's sleeves. Away from home, kits have often been white with some amber and/or black detail, although recently shirts have been blue at the request of the away shirts sponsors, Kershaw.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: A sponsor first appeared on a Cambridge United shirt for the 1985–86 season when the shirt was changed mid-season from plain amber to amber and black stripes. Spraymate were the club's first shirt sponsor, and have since been followed by an array of local and national companies: Lynfox, Howlett, Fujitsu, Beaumont Stainless Steels, Premier Travel, C and R Windows, Quicksilver (couriers), Capital Sports, The Global Group, Haart, Global Self Drive, and in 2009–10 Greene King IPA.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: The teams kits have been manufactured by a number of companies, with Admiral providing the first strip on which a maker's logo appeared. The club have subsequently worn kits created by, among others, Nike, Patrick, Sporta and, Vandanel, with the latter providing the strip for the 2007–08 season and subsequently an amber shirt featuring a dramatic black sash design that polarised the opinions of fans. In the summer of 2010 the Club parted company with Vandanel, citing concerns regards the company's ability to continue to service their needs, signing a deal with Italian company Erreà. For the start of the 2013–14 season, The U's signed a deal with Genesis Sports to provide Puma teamwear for the club. This deal has been continued into the 2014–15 season and saw the home shirts make a return to amber and black stripes. Since the beginning of the 2019-2020 Campaign they have switched to Sportswear Company Hummel


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: The club's current crest, a large football over which the letters 'CU' are emblazoned, with three turrets on top, has been worn on its shirts since the 1986–87 season, with a brief change to a more 'elaborate' design between 1996 and 1998. Previously, shirts had simply been embroidered with the club's acronym 'CUFC' or a 'Book & Ball' badge used during the late 1970s. The club used a special badge to commemorate their centenary in the 2012–13 season.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge United currently play their home matches at the Abbey Stadium, which has been their home since 1932. The stadium is located in the Abbey area of the city on Newmarket Road, approximately 3 kilometres (1.8miles) east of the city centre. The stadium currently has a capacity of 8,127, of which 4,376 are seated. Due to sponsorship reasons, the ground has also been known as The R. Costings Abbey Stadium and the Cambs Glass Stadium.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Before opening the Abbey with a victory over Cambridge University Press in a friendly on 31 August 1932, United had played matches at a number of venues around the city. When playing under the Abbey United name, games were played on Midsummer Common until the outbreak of World War I. When the war ended, the club moved to Stourbridge Common and, after promotion to the Cambridgeshire League Division One in 1923, moved once again to land just off Newmarket Road in Cambridge. This ground, affectionately known as the 'Celery Trenches' due to the poor state of the pitch, was christened with a 1–0 league victory over Histon Institute and became United's home for a decade. While based at the Trenches, the club established its offices at the 'Dog & Pheasant' pub on Newmarket Road, which it used as an away dressing room on matchdays, as well as a store for equipment including the pitch's goalposts. However, the Cambridgeshire FA were unhappy with the state of the pitch at this new home, and the club moved to Parker's Piece at the start of the 1930–31 season. Despite the special significance of Parker's Piece in the history of football, it being the first place where the Cambridge Rules were played out, the lack of spectator capacity and disruption caused during games meant this move was not a successful one.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: In January 2006, John Howard announced plans to move out of the Abbey Stadium to a new purpose-built stadium in Milton. This was supported by Cambridgeshire Horizons. These were criticised by fans as risking the club's identity by moving out of the city and, despite Howard describing them as crucial to the club's future, little else was heard of them publicly. Subsequently, a new community stadium, that would also include conference facilities, was ruled out by a Planning Inspector's report which described it as unsuitable development in the green belt and in October 2009, Cambridge United announced its intentions to redevelop the Abbey Stadium with chairman.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: The Stadium was sold by Bideawhile to Grosvenor Estates in June 2010. Soon after, the new landlords, in combination with the club and supporters group Cambridge Fans United, announced that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to positively work together to achieve the relocation of the club to a new stadium. In January 2011, plans for a new community stadium were unveiled at an open meeting, including potential new locations both within the city and outside it.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: A final site, at Trumpington Meadows, was agreed upon and initial plans for an 8,000 capacity stadium were put forward, as part of a "Cambridge Sporting Village" incorporating housing and retail development. Objections from residents and local councils saw the proposal blocked in 2013, and plans announced in January 2015 keep the sporting village development at Trumpington, but without the new stadium. Instead Cambridge United will redevelop the Abbey Stadium. First plans were presented in May 2015, which would increase capacity of the Newmarket Road End, incorporating safe standing, complete redevelopment of the Habbin Terrace and slight expansion to the Main Stand.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge United bought back the Abbey Stadium in September 2022, and restarted planning for expansion and improvement of the ground.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge United have a number of supporters' groups and associations, some of which are independently run and some are run by the club itself. These include: an Away Travel Club, who provide travel to every away game as well as hosting fundraising events and sponsoring senior players; youth group Junior U's; Cambridge United Supporters Association, a group giving a voice to the fans in communications with the club and the media; Vice-presidents Club, who offer match day hospitality packages; and regional associations in St Ives, East Cambridgeshire, Royston, St Neots, Bedfordshire and Saffron Walden.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge Fans United is an independent supporters group who are now a significant shareholder in the club with representation on the fans' behalf on the board of directors. In addition to these supporters' groups, the club currently has one independent fanzine, United in Endeavour, which raises funds for Cambridge Fans United and is sold at home games.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: During their time in the Conference, attendances at the Abbey were amongst the highest in the league. Cambridge United's first two seasons in the Conference saw them post the fourth-highest average attendance figures in both years (2,607 in 2005–06 and 2,815 in 2006–07). They had the third-highest attendances in their final season in the Conference, averaging 3,085 for 2013–14.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Prior to election into the Football League, Cambridge City were regarded as the club's biggest rivals, although the rivalry has since waned significantly. Peterborough United are considered to be their current main rivals, something that was recognised in a survey by the Football Fans Census as a reciprocated feeling, despite the fact the two clubs have experienced many seasons in separate divisions. Other lesser rivalries include those with Northampton Town, Colchester United, Luton Town, and Stevenage.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Before relegation from the Football League in 2005, Cambridge United entered a reserve team in the Football Combination. However, this ceased following financial difficulties which meant the club could not guarantee being able to put out a team for every game. In 2006 United formed Cambridge Regional College as a de facto reserve team and entered them in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division. FA rules prohibit reserve teams playing at certain levels of the football pyramid, and so the CRC name was adopted in recognition of the college's financial support, and because the team is made up almost entirely of the college's students.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Cambridge United's Centre of Excellence is widely regarded throughout professional football circles as one of the best in England. Many players have come through the youth team to establish themselves as first team players at Cambridge (for example Dan Gleeson, Daniel Chillingworth, Robbie Willmott and Josh Coulson) and go on to play at a higher level (recent examples include John Ruddy, Michael Morrison and Josh Simpson). Wales international Jack Collison was in the youth squads for several years before joining West Ham United's youth academy after the centre closed down following relegation to the Conference Premier.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: The youth team won their division of the Football League Youth Alliance in both 2003–04 and 2004–05, showing the strength of the club's Centre of Excellence. The club's success in the FA Youth Cup in recent years has also far surpassed its expectation given the level of the parent club – in 2006–07 the team was the highest placed non-league team reaching the Fourth Round after seven games (including qualifying games).


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Notable players include Wilf Mannion, the only former Cambridge United player to be inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame, former Charlton Athletic manager Les Reed, Brian Moore, former West Ham United player who scored a club record 68 goals in 1957–58 despite blindness in one eye, and Lindsey Smith, voted Cambridge United's all-time cult hero in a poll for BBC Sport's "Football Focus" in August 2004.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: Since joining the Football League in 1970, Cambridge United has had twenty-five full-time managers as well as many caretakers and player-managers.


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: CUCT was founded after Cambridge United were relegated from the Football League in 2005. The charity's stated mission is: "To place Cambridge United at the heart of a community where individuals respect each other and themselves, are empowered to maximise their potential and have the inspiration to fulfil this potential."


title: Cambridge United F.C.

text: The charity operates in primary schools across Cambridgeshire including in a partnership with AstraZenenca. CUCT also delivers both health and inclusion work in the city of Cambridge.


title: Daphne

text: Daphne (; ; , , ), a minor figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.


title: Daphne

text: There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but the general narrative, found in Greco-Roman mythology, is that due to a curse made by the fierce wrath of the god Cupid, son of Venus, on the god Apollo (Phoebus), she became the unwilling object of the infatuation of Apollo, who chased her against her wishes. Just before being kissed by him, Daphne invoked her river god father, who transformed her into a laurel tree, thus foiling Apollo.


title: Daphne

text: Thenceforth Apollo developed a special reverence for laurel. At the Pythian Games, which were held every four years in Delphi in honour of Apollo, a wreath of laurel gathered from the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly was given as a prize. Hence it later became customary to award prizes in the form of laurel wreaths to victorious generals, athletes, poets and musicians, worn as a chaplet on the head. The Poet Laureate is a well-known modern example of such a prize-winner, dating from the early Renaissance in Italy. According to Pausanias the reason for this was "simply and solely because the prevailing tradition has it that Apollo fell in love with the daughter of Ladon (Daphne)". Most artistic depictions of the myth focus on the moment of Daphne's transformation.


title: Daphne

text: Daphne is said by ancient sources variously to have been a daughter of the (1) Thessalian river god Peneus by the nymph Creusa, or of (2) another Arcadian river-deity Ladon (Orontes) by Ge and Stymphalis, or lastly, King Amyclas of Amyclae.


title: Daphne

text: The earliest source of the myth of Daphne and Apollo is Phylarchus, quoted by Parthenius of Nicaea. Later, the Roman poet Ovid does a retelling of this Greek legend, which appears in his work "Metamorphoses".


title: Daphne

text: The pursuit of a local nymph by an Olympian god, part of the archaic adjustment of religious cult in Greece, was given an arch anecdotal turn in the "Metamorphoses" by the Roman poet Ovid (died AD 17). According to this version Apollo's infatuation was caused by a golden-tipped arrow shot at him by Cupid, son of Venus, who wanted to punish Apollo for having insulted his archery skills by commenting "What hast thou to do with the arms of men, thou wanton boy?", and to demonstrate the power of love's arrow. Eros also shot Daphne, but with a leaden-tipped arrow, the effect of which was to make her flee from Apollo.


title: Daphne

text: Elated with sudden love, Apollo chased Daphne continually. He tried to make her cease her flight by saying he did not wish to hurt her. When she kept fleeing, Apollo lamented that even though he had the knowledge of medicinal herbs, he had failed to cure himself from the wound of Cupid's arrow. When Apollo finally caught up with her, Daphne prayed for help to her father, the river god Peneus of Thessaly, who immediately commenced her transformation into a laurel tree ("Laurus nobilis"):


title: Daphne

text: a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy. Only her shining beauty was left.


title: Daphne

text: Even this did not quench Apollo's ardour, and as he embraced the tree, he felt her heart still beating. He then declared:


title: Daphne

text: "My bride," he said, "since you can never be, at least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree. My lure, my locks, my quiver you shall wreathe."


title: Daphne

text: A version of the attempt on Daphne's sworn virginity that has been less familiar since the Renaissance was narrated by the Hellenistic poet Parthenius, in his "Erotica Pathemata", "The Sorrows of Love", which he attributes to Hellenistic historian Phylarchus. In this, which is the earliest written account, Daphne is a mortal girl, daughter of Amyclas, fond of hunting and determined to remain a virgin; she is pursued by the boy Leucippus ("white stallion"), who disguises himself in a girl's outfit in order to join her band of huntresses. He is also successful in gaining her innocent affection. This makes Apollo angry and he puts it into the girl's mind to stop to bathe in the river Ladon; there, as all strip naked, the ruse is revealed, as in the myth of Callisto, and the affronted huntresses plunge their spears into Leucippus. At this moment Apollo's attention becomes engaged, and he begins his own pursuit. Daphne, fleeing to escape Apollo's advances, prays to Zeus to help. Zeus turns her into laurel tree. Parthenius' modern editor remarks on the rather awkward transition, linking two narratives.


title: Daphne

text: Parthenius' tale was known to Pausanias, who recounted it in his "Description of Greece" (2nd century AD). According to him, Leucippus was a son of the prince of Pisa, whose attempts to woo her by open courtship all failed, as Daphne avoided all males. Leucippus then thought of the following trick; he grew his hair and wore women's clothes, and this way managed to get close to Daphne, to whom he introduced himself as a daughter of the prince. As he was the highest-ranking and best huntsman of Daphne's company, he became good friends with her. Apollo, himself in love with Daphne too, was jealous of Leucippus' success in love, however Leucippus' ruse was soon discovered when the girls took a bath in a lake; they stripped a reluctant Leucippus naked, and upon discovering his true sex, killed him with javelins and daggers.


title: Daphne

text: When Apollo pursued the virgin Daphne, who in Hyginus' version is a daughter of the river god Peneus, it was the earth goddess Gaia to whom she begged for protection. Gaia then received her, changing her into a laurel tree, while Apollo created a wreath with one of its branches.


title: Daphne

text: Philostratus in his "Life of Apollonius of Tyana" says the Assyrians, who worshipped Apollo Daphnaeus ("Apollo of the Laurel") place the site of Daphne's transformation from Arcadia to Antioch (modern day Antakya in Turkey).


title: Daphne

text: Nonnus also placed Daphne's dwellings near the Orontes River, and says that it was Gaia who swallowed up the girl before she knew marriage; Apollo always blamed Gaia for this.


title: Daphne

text: In his "Dialogues of the Gods", satirical author Lucian of Samosata has Apollo call Daphne and Hyacinthus his two greatest loves, and regret losing them both; he declares himself unlucky in love, especially since Daphne found the option of becoming a tree more attractive than him. Eros also mentions to Zeus Daphne not falling for Apollo.


title: Daphne

text: A sixth century AD poet, Dioscorus of Aphrodito, composed a poem where Apollo calls Daphne and Hyacinthus his two greatest loves, and mourns their loss.


title: Daphne

text: The name Daphne, in Greek Δάφνη, means "laurel. While the story of Daphne is traditionally connected with the bay laurel ("Laurus nobilis"), almost 90 species of evergreen shrubs noted for their scented flowers and poisonous berries are grouped under the genus Daphne—including the garland flower ("Daphne cneorum"); the February Daphne or mezereon ("Daphne mezereum"); and spurge laurel or wood laurel ("Daphne laureola"). These species are in the family Thymelaeaceae and are native to Asia, Europe and North Africa.


title: Daphne

text: Artemis Daphnaia, who had her temple among the Lacedemonians, at a place called Hypsoi in antiquity, on the slopes of Mount Cnacadion near the Spartan frontier, had her own sacred laurel trees.


title: Daphne

text: At Eretria the identity of an excavated 7th- and 6th-century BCE temple to "Apollo Daphnephoros", "Apollo, laurel-bearer", or "carrying off Daphne", a "place where the citizens are to take the oath", is identified in inscriptions.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2020 census.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The city and its Arkansas counterpart form the core of the Texarkana Metropolitan Statistical Area, encompassing all of Bowie County, Texas, and Miller County, Arkansas. The two cities had a combined population of 65,580 in the 2020 decennial census, and the metropolitan area had a population of 149,482.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Railroads were quick to see the possibilities of connecting markets in this vast area. In the late 1850s, the builders of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad were pushing their line steadily south across Arkansas. By 1874, they crossed the Red River and reached the Texas state line. Between February 16 and March 19, 1874, trains ran between the Texas border and the Red River, whence passengers and freight were ferried north to Fulton, Arkansas to continue by rail. The Red River Bridge opened on March 20, 1874. Since then, trains have run directly from Texarkana to St. Louis, Missouri.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Keen rivalry existed between the 1870s railroad builders. The Texas and Pacific Railroad reached across Texas to the Arkansas state line. The border was the logical place for the different railways to connect. On December 8, 1873, the Texas and Pacific sold the first town lots for the future city. The first buyer was J. W. Davis, who purchased the land where today's Hotel McCartney now stands, opposite Union Station.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The name Texarkana is known to be a portmanteau of Texas, Arkansas, and nearby Louisiana. However, accounts of the name's origin differ, and it had been in use some time before the town was founded. The most popular tradition is that when the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway was building its line through the area, Col. Gus Knobel, a railroad surveyor, coined the name. He is said to have painted it on a plank and nailed it to a tree, saying "This is the name of a town which is to be built here." Another story tells of a Red River steamboat named "The Texarkana", . A third account relates that a storekeeper named Swindle in Red Land, Louisiana, concocted a drink called "Texarkana Bitters".


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Racial discrimination continued after the abolition of slavery in both states. Violent attacks on blacks and lynchings took place, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Blacks were largely disenfranchised throughout the South from the turn of the century until after passage of federal voting rights legislation in 1965 and enforcement. On May 22, 1922, Hullen Owens, an African-American man, was lynched by a large white mob made up of thousands of people.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: In the late winter and spring of 1946, from February 22 to May 3, residents of the two cities were terrorized by violent attacks against four young couples. Five of the eight individuals were killed, in what were called the Texarkana Moonlight Murders. Law enforcement believed the attacks to be the work of a serial killer, but no one was ever prosecuted for these crimes. The attacks took place in both Texarkana, Arkansas, and the twin city area in Texas.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana is located at the junction of Interstate 30 and US highways 59, 67, 71, and 82 in extreme northeast Texas on the Texas-Arkansas border, at (33.437170, –94.067394). It is bordered by the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, to the east, and by the smaller cities of Nash and Wake Village, Texas, to the west. It is in the Central Time Zone.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the Texas city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.39%, is covered by water. The city is roughly 180 miles northeast of Dallas.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: On May 22, 2008, a microburst producing winds up to 100 mph occurred over Stateline Avenue and surrounding communities. An analysis of radar data leading up to the damage showed that two severe thunderstorms came together on the south side of the city. One severe storm was moving northeastward from southern Bowie County, while the other was moving northwestward through Miller County. Both storms collided in an area just south of downtown Texarkana.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: According to the 2020 United States census, there were 36,193 people, 14,148 households, and 8,767 families residing in the city. The population density was . The 16,270 housing units averaged 589.4 per square mile (227.5/km). Of the 16,280 households, 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 19.3% had a female householder with no husband present. and 34.1% were not families; 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.01.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: In the city, the age distribution of the population was 26.0% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The median income for a household in the city was $29,727, and for a family was $39,119. Males had a median income of $34,155 versus $21,143 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,815. About 19.4% of families and 24.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.8% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The most affluent area of Texarkana is Pleasant Grove, where the median income is $49,562 for each household and the median for a family is $57,219 in 2013.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: According to the city's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: According to the city's most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Fund Financial Statements, the city's various funds had $36.0 million in revenues, $37.0 million in expenditures, $18.9 million in total assets, $3.5 million in total liabilities, and $7.2 million in investments.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Schools in Texarkana, Texas, are under the jurisdiction of the Texarkana Independent School District, the Liberty-Eylau Independent, Pleasant Grove Independent School District, and Red Lick Independent School District.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana is home to Texas A&M University–Texarkana, a four-year branch of the Texas A&M University System, and to Texarkana College, a community college.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana is the headquarters of the theologically conservative American Baptist Association, whose Missionary Baptist churches are most numerous in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Though the city was historically Democratic, Texarkana is currently represented by Republicans in both houses of the Texas State Legislature. The state senator is Bryan Hughes from District 1. State Representative Gary VanDeaver represents Texas House District 1.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: At the federal level, the two U.S. senators from Texas are Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz; Texarkana is part of Texas's 4th congressional district, which is currently represented by Republican Pat Fallon.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The Federal Courthouse (which also holds the downtown post office) is located directly on the Arkansas-Texas state line and is the only federal office building to straddle a state line. During his campaign for the presidency, John F. Kennedy spoke on the steps of the courthouse September 13, 1960, and so did President Jimmy Carter, on October 22, 1980.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana, is a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in unincorporated Bowie County just outside the southwest border of the city.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana Regional Airport is located in Texarkana, Arkansas, and serves general aviation and American Eagle service to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Texarkana Union Station is located in downtown Texarkana along the state line, with Amtrak's "Texas Eagle" providing daily service east to Chicago and west to San Antonio, continuing on to Los Angeles three days a week, with intermediate points.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: The Texarkana Urban Transit District provides bus transportation to major areas of town along nine different routes. Service runs from 5:30 am to 6:20 pm Monday–Saturday.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Interstate 30 passes through Texarkana on the north. Loop 151 on the west of the city forms part of the Texarkana Loop, a three-quarter loop around the west, south, and east of the twin cities with I-30 completing the loop on the north. Interstate 369 shares the western portion of Loop 151. Interstate 49 is a newly constructed interstate corridor on the Arkansas side of the city which connects Texarkana to Shreveport, Louisiana.


title: Texarkana, Texas

text: Across the Texarkana TX Arts & Historic District downtown, a colorful array of murals are for viewing. The murals have helped promote local talent and encouraged engagement from the community. Several murals have been used for social media and professional photos.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse became an art teacher, at the same time becoming involved in evangelical Christian groups such as the Student Christian Movement (which became increasingly more liberal leading up to, and after, a 1928 split with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) and Moral Re-Armament. She became a public figure via the Clean-Up TV pressure group, established in 1964, in which she was the most prominent figure. The following year she founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, using it as a platform to criticise the BBC for what she perceived as a lack of accountability and excessive use of bad language and portrayals of sex and violence in its programmes. As a result, she was often treated as a figure of fun. During the 1970s she broadened her activities and was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light, a Christian campaign that gained mass support for a period. She initiated a successful private prosecution against "Gay News" on the grounds of blasphemous libel, the first such case for more than 50 years. Another private prosecution was against the director of the play "The Romans in Britain", which had been performed at the National Theatre.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse's campaigns continue to divide opinion. Her critics have accused her of being a highly censorious, bigoted figure, and her traditional moral convictions brought her into direct conflict with advocates of the sexual revolution, feminism, children's rights and LGBT rights. Others see her more positively and believe she was attempting to halt a decline in what they perceived as Britain's moral standards. According to Ben Thompson, the editor of an anthology of Whitehouse-related letters published in 2012, "From ... feminist anti-pornography campaigns to the executive naming and shaming strategies of UK Uncut, her ideological and tactical influence has been discernible in all sorts of unexpected places in recent years."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Born in Croft Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire (in a house she incorrectly stated in her autobiography later became a sex shop), Whitehouse was the second of four children of a "less-than-successful businessman" and a "necessarily resourceful mother". She won a scholarship to Chester City Grammar School, where she was keen on hockey and tennis, and after leaving she did two years of unpaid apprentice teaching at St John's School in Chester, Cheshire. At the Cheshire County Teacher Training College in Crewe, specialising in secondary school art teaching, she was involved with the Student Christian Movement before qualifying in 1932. She became an art teacher at Lichfield Road School in Wednesfield, where she stayed for eight years, and at Brewood Grammar School, both in Staffordshire.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: She joined the Wolverhampton branch of the Oxford Group, later known as Moral Re-Armament (MRA), in 1935. At MRA meetings, she met Ernest Raymond Whitehouse; they married at Chester on 23 March 1940 and remained married until he died in Colchester, Essex, aged 87, in 2000. The couple had five sons, two of whom (twins) died in infancy.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: After raising her sons in their earliest years, Whitehouse returned to teaching in 1953. That year she broadcast on "Woman's Hour" on the day before the coronation of Elizabeth II "as a loyal housewife and subject" and wrote an extensive article on homosexuality for "The Sunday Times". According to Ben Thompson this concerned how a mother might "best avoid inadvertently pressuring her sons towards that particular orientation" and gained enough attention to be republished as a pamphlet.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: She taught art and was senior mistress at Madeley Modern School in Madeley, Shropshire from 1960, taking responsibility for sex education. Shocked at the moral beliefs of her pupils, she became concerned about what she and many others perceived as declining moral standards in the British media, especially in the BBC. She gave up her teaching work at Christmas 1964 to concentrate more fully on her campaigning.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse began her activism in 1963 with a letter to the BBC requesting to see Hugh Greene, the BBC's Director-General. Greene was out of the country at the time, so she accepted an invitation to meet Harman Grisewood, his deputy, a Roman Catholic who she felt listened to her with understanding. Over the next few months though, she continued to be dissatisfied with what she saw on television.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: With Norah Buckland, the wife of a vicar, she launched the Clean Up TV (CUTV) Campaign in January 1964 with a manifesto appealing to the "women of Britain". The campaign's first public meeting, on 5 May 1964, was held in Birmingham's Town Hall. Richard Whitehouse, one of her sons, recalled in 2008: "Coaches arrived from all over the country. Two thousand people poured in and suddenly there was my mother on a podium inspiring them to rapturous applause. Her hands were shaking. But she didn't stop".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Although he regularly clashed with Whitehouse, the academic Richard Hoggart shared some of her opinions and was present on the platform with her at this meeting. "The Times" commented the following day: "Perhaps never before in the history of the Birmingham Town Hall has such a successful meeting been sponsored by such a flimsy organisation".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Hugh Greene, knighted in January 1964, became her "bête noire". He was, according to Whitehouse, "the devil incarnate" who "more than anybody else ... [was] responsible for the moral collapse in this country". The CUTV manifesto asserted that the BBC under Greene spread "the propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt ... promiscuity, infidelity and drinking". In place of this, the authors argued, the corporation's activities should "encourage and sustain faith in God and bring Him back to the hearts of our family and national life". Interviewed by "The Catholic Herald" for its Christmas 1965 issue, Whitehouse thought the BBC loaded its programmes in favour of the 'new morality'. She commented about one unnamed television programme, believing it to be "unbalanced" and biased, in which "youngsters were asking questions [and] there was not a single member of the panel who was prepared to say outright that pre-marital relations were wrong. In fact, when a girl asked a clergyman, 'Do you think that fornication is sin?' he replied, 'It depends on what you mean by sin and what you mean by fornication. Whitehouse thought it was a "big hazard" for "present-day children" that "so many adults do not stand for anything" and affirmed that it was the responsibility of the BBC to have a "missionary role" to compensate for this social deficiency.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The Clean Up TV petition, using the manifesto, gained 500,000 signatures. Whitehouse complained in 1993 that during Greene's period at the BBC, "hardly a week went by without a sniping reference to me". Whitehouse's critics responded quickly. The playwright David Turner had heckled her at Birmingham Town Hall; his work was criticised during the meeting. Within a few months, an episode of "Swizzlewick", a twice-weekly serial he created, featured a parody of her as Mrs Smallgood.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In a speech Greene delivered in 1965, he argued, without naming Whitehouse directly, that the critics of his liberalisation of broadcasting policy would "attack whatever does not underwrite a set of prior assumptions" and saw the potential for "a dangerous form of censorship ... which works by causing artists and writers not to take risks". He defended the right of the BBC "to be ahead of public opinion". Greene ignored Whitehouse, blocked her from participation in BBC broadcasts, and purchased a painting of Whitehouse with five breasts by James Lawrence Isherwood.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (later known as Mediawatch-UK) was launched to succeed CUTV in November 1965, with Whitehouse's then home in Claverley, Shropshire hosting its first office, replacing what they themselves perceived as CUTV's negativity with an active campaign for legislative change. The former cabinet minister Bill Deedes, later editor of "The Daily Telegraph", supported the group in this period and was the leading speaker at NVALA's founding conference in Birmingham on 30 April 1966, and acted as a contact between his parliamentary colleagues and Whitehouse. Quintin Hogg, better known as Lord Hailsham, was another high-profile politician who gave his support to NVALA and Whitehouse at this time.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Through the letters she frequently sent to Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, Whitehouse caused particular difficulties for civil servants at 10 Downing Street. Reportedly, for some time Downing Street intentionally "lost" her letters to avoid having to respond to them. It has though been suggested that her contact with parliamentarians helped give her some leverage over the BBC which her own direct communication with the corporation's executives could not achieve. Although accepting the differences between them, Whitehouse wrote to Wilson on 1 January 1968: "You have always treated our approaches to you seriously and with courtesy."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Geoffrey Robertson, QC, suggests that when Greene left the BBC in 1969, contrary to the view that it was because of disagreements over the appointment of the Conservative Lord Hill as BBC chairman in 1967, whereby she could be given some credit for his departure, it was more to do with a political struggle between the BBC and Labour Prime Minister Wilson. However, Hill was prepared to meet Whitehouse at Broadcasting House.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: War coverage met with her objections. During his brief period as editor of "Panorama" (1965–66), Jeremy Isaacs received a letter from Whitehouse complaining about his decision to repeat Richard Dimbleby's coverage of the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp. She complained about this "filth" being allowed on air as "it was bound to shock and offend". In a 1994 interview, Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was "an awful intrusion" and "very off-putting".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Later in 1965, the decision by the BBC not to broadcast Peter Watkins' "The War Game" on 6 August 1965 led to Whitehouse writing to Sir Hugh Greene and Harold Wilson on 5 September, and again to the Home Secretary Frank Soskice on 6 October. In her view, a decision over whether to broadcast Watkins' film should be taken by the Home Office rather than the BBC. Nuclear war was "too serious a matter to be treated as entertainment. For a producer to be allowed, as now appears possible, to prejudice the effectiveness of our Civil Defence Services, or the ability of the British people to re-act with courage, initiative and control in a crisis, surely goes far beyond the responsibility" which should be given to someone in this role. The letter was leaked at the time and extracts were published.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The contemporary coverage of the Vietnam War, "the first 'television war, demonstrated for Whitehouse that television was "an ally of pacifism". In a 1970 speech to the Royal College of Nursing she argued that "[h]owever good the cause ... the horrific effects on men and terrain of modern warfare as seen on the television screen could well sap the will of a nation to safeguard its own freedom, let alone resist the forces of evil abroad." Trying to reconcile this "pacifism" with her objection to fictional violence, she saw such news coverage as "desensitisation" in which the media use the "techniques of violence" to raise "impact" in order "to satisfy an apparently insatiable demand for realism".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The situation comedy "Till Death Us Do Part" attacked many of the things Whitehouse cherished. She objected to its profane language: "I doubt if many people would use 121 bloodies in half-an-hour", and "Bad language coarsens the whole quality of our life. It normalises harsh, often indecent language, which despoils our communication."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse and the NVALA won a libel action against the BBC and its writer Johnny Speight in July 1967 with a full apology and substantial damages, after Speight implied in a BBC radio interview that the organisation's members and its head were fascists. Shortly after Speight's interview, she was mocked in an episode of the series entitled "Alf's Dilemma" (27 February 1967). Alf Garnett is shown reading her book "Cleaning Up TV", and agreeing with every word, but the episode ends with the book being burned to exclamations of "Unclean, unclean".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse was critical of comedians such as Benny Hill and his use of dancers; she described Dave Allen as "offensive, indecent and embarrassing" after a comic account of a conversation following sexual intercourse. In return, comedy writers during this era saw her as possessing humorous potential. The Goodies comedy team created an episode ("Gender Education", 1971) with the principal objective of irritating her.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse criticised the work of Dennis Potter from "Son of Man" (1969) onwards, arguing that the BBC was at the centre "of a conspiracy to remove the myth of god from the minds of men", and also "A Clockwork Orange" (1971). In the case of the violence in "A Clockwork Orange", she rejected any attempt to show a 'copycat' correlation in academic studies, but urged its acceptance as a fact arrived at by common sense. In December 1974, she wrote of the "deliberate propagation" of the idea that there is no proof of the effects of television on "standards and behaviour". To reject its effect, and its ability to "declaim or pervert truth, is to deny the potency of communication itself, it is crazily to question the ability of education to affect the social conscience and to train the human mind".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Chuck Berry's novelty song "My Ding-a-Ling" was one of several pop songs to receive Whitehouse's disapproval in this period. She was unsuccessful in trying to persuade the BBC to ban it, but her campaign to stop Alice Cooper's "School's Out" being featured on "Top of the Pops" was successful. Cooper sent her a bunch of flowers, since he believed the publicity helped the song to reach number one.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: "Doctor Who" met with her heaviest disapproval during Philip Hinchcliffe's tenure as producer between 1975 and 1977. She described the serial "Genesis of the Daleks" (1975) as consisting of "teatime brutality for tots", said "The Brain of Morbius" (1976) "contained some of the sickest and most horrific material seen on children's television", and on "The Seeds of Doom" (1976), in which the Doctor (Tom Baker) survives an encounter with a giant carnivorous plant monster, she commented: "Strangulation—by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter—is the latest gimmick, sufficiently close up so they get the point. And just for a little variety, show the children how to make a Molotov cocktail."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Following her complaint about "The Deadly Assassin" (broadcast later in 1976), Whitehouse received an apology from the Director-General of the BBC, Sir Charles Curran. A freeze-frame cliffhanger ending to the third episode, in which the Doctor appeared to drown, was altered for repeat showings. The series' next producer, Graham Williams, was told to lighten the tone and reduce the violence following Whitehouse's complaints. Senior television executives commented that at this time her views were not disregarded lightly.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Philip Hinchcliffe later remarked, "I always felt that Mary Whitehouse thought of "Doctor Who" as a children's programme, for little children, and it wasn't ... so she was really coming at the show from the wrong starting-point."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse criticised the ITV adventure/drama series "Robin of Sherwood" (1984–1986). Simon Farquhar, in an obituary for "The Independent" of the series' creator, Richard Carpenter, wrote that Whitehouse "objected to the [show's] relentless slaughter and blasphemous religious elements, but was deftly silenced by Carpenter in public when he introduced himself to her and the audience by saying "I'm Richard Carpenter, and I'm a professional writer. And you're a professional... what?"


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Within a week of the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982, Whitehouse was objecting to swear words in the soap opera "Brookside" and two feature films the channel screened, "Woodstock" (1970) and "Network" (1976). On 25 November, she called for the resignation of the channel's chief executive Jeremy Isaacs over a scene in "Brookside" "in which a young thug had tried to force a schoolgirl to have sex with him", according to an item in "The Times".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 1984, Whitehouse won a case in the High Court against John Whitney, director-general of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, who had failed to forward the feature film "Scum" (1979) for consideration by other IBA board members to decide if Channel 4 should transmit it. Based on a then-banned BBC television play, the channel had screened the theatrical remake in June 1983. The High Court decision was overturned on appeal when it reached the House of Lords.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse's supporters have asserted that her campaigns helped end Channel 4's "red triangle" series of films in 1986, so named for the warning preceding them which featured a red triangle with a white centre. The broadcasting of these films with the triangle had received criticism from opponents of Whitehouse.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 1988 she made an extended appearance on the British TV discussion programme "After Dark", alongside James Dearden, Shere Hite, Joan Wyndham, Naim Attallah and others. She was said to have had a role in the establishment of the Broadcasting Standards Council in 1988, which later became the Broadcasting Standards Commission and was subsumed into the Office of Communications in 2004.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In August 1989, in a broadcast of "In the Psychiatrist's Chair" on BBC Radio, Whitehouse confused the playwright with his hero in "The Singing Detective". She claimed that Dennis Potter's mother had "committed adultery with a strange man and that the shock of witnessing this had caused her son to be afflicted" with psoriatic arthropathy. Potter's mother won substantial damages from the BBC and "The Listener". Whitehouse alleged she had a blackout at the interview's halfway point and claimed her comments were not intentional.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Some years earlier, Potter had publicly defended Whitehouse on several occasions without agreeing with her arguments.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse stepped down as President of the National Viewers and Listeners Association in May 1994. Michael Grade, at the time the Chief Executive of Channel 4, reflected on her career:


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse had taken up other campaigns against the permissive society by the early 1970s. She objected to the UK edition of "The Little Red Schoolbook", "a manual of children's rights" on sex, drugs and attitudes to adults, which was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in July 1971. It was originally published in Denmark where, according to Whitehouse, it had done "incalculable damage" and was "a revolutionary primer", in which "open rebellion against the 'system', be it school, parents or authority generally, was openly advocated, while children were constantly exhorted to collect evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything which was likely to enhance revolution."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: She was "greatly relieved—for the sake of the children" at the £50 fine and £115.50 costs imposed on Richard Handyside and Geoffrey Collins, its publishers, who also had works by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro on their small list of publications. For Whitehouse it was a "fundamental right of a child to be a child" and "the duty of mature people to ensure that childhood is protected against the inroads of those who would exploit its immaturity for political, social or personal gain." A modified second edition was allowed to be published in the UK, but the original verdict in the prosecution was sustained in the Appeal Court and the European Court of Human Rights (see "Handyside v United Kingdom"). An unexpurgated edition of the book, bar one minor cut, was published in the UK during July 2014.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Along with the (Catholic) Labour peer Lord Longford, Malcolm Muggeridge and Cliff Richard, Whitehouse was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light, which protested against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence. The Festival's mass "rally against permissiveness" in Trafalgar Square was attended by 50,000 people in September 1971. On 25 August that year she had an audience with Pope Paul VI regarding 'moral pollution', in which she attempted to present the pontiff with "Oz28" and the "Little Red School Book", but these items found their way to an official of the Papal See instead. In his foreword to Whitehouse's book, "Who Does She Think She Is?" (1971), Malcolm Muggeridge wrote: "It is literally true that but for her the total demolition of all Christian decencies and values in this country would have taken place virtually without a word of public protest."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Following the release on appeal of the defendants in the "Oz" trial, "an unmitigated disaster for the children of our country", Whitehouse launched the Nationwide Petition for Public Decency in January 1972, which gained 1.35 million signatures by the time it was presented to Prime Minister Edward Heath in April 1973. She had around 300 speaking engagements during the period of her highest profile. A pornographic magazine "Whitehouse" was launched in 1975 by publisher David Sullivan, who deliberately named it after her.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The Paedophile Information Exchange had been asked to help the Albany Trust, which received public money, to produce a booklet on paedophilia, which was to have been published by the Trust. Whitehouse mentioned the connection in a speech, asserting that public funds were being used to subsidise paedophile groups, and the Trust withdrew its support for the production of the pamphlet in 1977. However, PIE itself did not receive public funding.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Her subsequent petition against paedophilia and child pornography was signed by 1½ million people. Whitehouse urged the Conservative opposition to push for a bill on the subject, in the absence of interest from the Labour government. The private member's bill proposed by Conservative MP Cyril Townsend became the Protection of Children Act 1978.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse took private prosecutions in a number of cases where official action was not forthcoming. The action against "Gay News" in 1977 concerned "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name", a poem by James Kirkup, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the theme of which was the sexual fantasies of a Roman centurion about the body of Jesus Christ. She was the plaintiff in a charge of blasphemous libel against "Gay News" ("Whitehouse v Lemon"), a trial at the Old Bailey between 4 and 7 July 1977. It was the first prosecution for the offence since 1922. "I simply had to protect Our Lord", said Whitehouse at the time, Kirkup's poem being in her opinion "the recrucifixion of Christ by 20th-century weapons". The prosecution counsel John Smyth, representing Whitehouse, told the jury: "It may be said that this is a love poem—it is not, it is a poem about buggery", while the defence case was that the poem suggested all of mankind could love Jesus Christ. The Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan and Cardinal Basil Hume both declined Whitehouse's invitation for them to give evidence at the trial.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Denis Lemon, the editor and owner of "Gay News", published the poem in the 3–16 June 1976 issue on the basis that the "message and intention of the poem was to celebrate the absolute universality of God's love". Whitehouse told Michael Tracey and David Morrison, the authors of a book about her: "I think it shook me more than anything I had seen or come into contact with all the time I had been campaigning. ... I don't think Jesus Christ has ever been more real to me as a person than he was at that particular moment."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: "Gay News" lost the case; the jury decided the case on a 10–2 majority. Lemon and his paper were fined, and Lemon received a nine-month suspended prison sentence. A "Guardian" editorial after the verdict said of the trial: "No evidence was called, or allowed to be called, about the merits of the poem in literature or theology", despite the case concerning blasphemy, or to suggest that Kirkup's intention had been to "scandalise" which, given the poet's "list of serious works", the newspaper thought should have been proven. The judge in at the prosecution, Alan King-Hamilton, QC, had only allowed novelist Margaret Drabble and journalist Bernard Levin to appear as "character" witnesses for the newspaper. "The Spectator" editorial on 15 July commented: "The prosecution was perverse, the verdict misguided. As for the punishments, given that this was in effect a test case, they are excessive" and "left the law on obscenity even more muddled and confused than it was before, and have served no useful purpose whatsoever, except to delight Mrs Whitehouse". The Court of Appeal and the House of Lords dismissed appeals, although Lemon's sentence was overturned.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The backlash that Whitehouse received led her to suggest that an ‘intellectual/homosexual/humanist lobby’ was to blame, a comment that did not escape the attention of members of this as yet non-existent group. The "Gay Humanist Group", later GALHA and now LGBT Humanists UK, came into being in 1979. Maureen Duffy, the group’s honorary president, described the group as driven by an 'ethics of compassion', best characterised ‘a fluid morality, based on a perception of fellowness, fellow feeling, fellow suffering.’ Ever since its foundation, LGBT Humanists UK has continued to organise events, assist those seeking asylum who are fleeing anti-LGBT+ prejudice and/or religious discrimination, and to provide a site of fellowship and community for non-religious LGBT+ communities in the UK.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the barrister for "Gay News" in the case, described Whitehouse as homophobic in "The Times" in 2008, saying: "Her fear of homosexuals was visceral". He describes the beliefs she reveals in her book, "Whatever Happened to Sex?", as "nonsense", such as her assertion that "homosexuality was caused by abnormal parental sex 'during pregnancy or just after'", saying that for her, "being gay was like having acne: 'Psychiatric literature proves that 60 per cent of homosexuals who go for treatment get completely cured.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse had hoped to use the blasphemy laws against material other than Kirkup's poem and was interested in pursuing a possible action against allegedly blasphemous content for some time. She had hoped that it could be used as a basis for prosecution if a planned pornographic film on the life of Jesus Christ had been made in Britain. The intended work, containing both homosexual and heterosexual content, was a project by the Danish filmmaker Jens Jørgen Thorsen. This time, Whitehouse, whose organisation had commissioned a translation of the script, gained more widespread support. NVALA organised a publicity campaign, which resulted in Thorsen's intentions gaining significant public condemnation in September 1976 from leading public figures, including the Queen. Thorsen was forced to abandon his plans.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse and a letter writing campaign from the Festival of Light, after unsuccessfully lobbying the British Board of Film Classification to refuse the film a certificate, were successful in persuading some councils in Britain to ban screenings of "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) in their areas on unproven grounds that the film is blasphemous. Nearly a decade later, a threatened campaign by Whitehouse against Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), with the law against blasphemy still in force at the time, failed to materialise.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 1982 she pursued a private prosecution against Michael Bogdanov, the director of a National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's "The Romans in Britain", a play that "drew a direct parallel between the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in 54 BC and the contemporary British presence in Northern Ireland". The first act contains "a brief scene" of (simulated) anal rape—the police had visited the production three times and found no basis for legal action. In the prosecution Whitehouse's counsel claimed Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which described the offence of "procuring an act of gross indecency", was applicable. Because this was a general Act, there was no possibility of defence on the basis of artistic merit, unlike that permitted under the Obscene Publications Act 1959.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Since Whitehouse had not seen the play, the prosecution evidence rested on the testimony of her solicitor, Graham Ross-Cornes, who claimed he saw the actor's penis. However, cross-examination revealed that he had seen a performance of the play from the back row of the stalls, 90 feet from the stage. Lord Hutchinson, counsel for Bogdanov, was able to demonstrate the nature of the illusion performed on stage. This was achieved by suggesting that it might have been the actor's thumb protruding from his fist, rather than his erect penis. The defence had argued that the Act did not apply to the theatre; the judge Mr Justice Staughton then ruled that it did. After three days, the action was withdrawn after the prosecution counsel told Whitehouse that he was unable to continue with the case; the litigation was ended by the Attorney General putting forward a plea of "nolle prosequi". Both sides claimed a victory; Whitehouse's side asserted that the important legal point had been made with the ruling on the applicability of the Sexual Offences Act, while Bogdanov said it was because she knew that he would not be convicted. Whitehouse had to meet £20,000 costs, most of which was paid by an anonymous donor.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse's account of the trial is recorded in "A Most Dangerous Woman" (); she wrote that she was of the opinion that the legal point had been established, and they had no wish to criminalise Bogdanov, the play's director.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: By the 1980s, Whitehouse had found a powerful ally in the Conservative government, particularly in Margaret Thatcher herself, whose support base partially consisted of social conservatives. It has been claimed by the Conservative journalist Bruce Anderson that the market orientation of the Thatcher government prejudiced it against Whitehouse in private.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: It has been claimed by commentators not necessarily in agreement with her that Whitehouse's efforts played a part in the passage of the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981, which concerned sex shops, and the Video Recordings Act 1984, which banned 'video nasties', a term reportedly coined by Whitehouse. She screened edited highlights from these films for MPs at the House of Commons in late 1983, which included extracts from "The Evil Dead" (1981) considered by her "the number one nasty". It was "a highly effective means of lobbying the government to introduce tight state controls on the burgeoning video industry".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Around 1986, papers released in late December 2014 indicate, Whitehouse met with Thatcher on at least two occasions to discuss the possibility of banning sex toys using a potential extension of the "deprave and corrupt" provision in the Obscene Publications Act 1959. The plan was abandoned because home secretary Leon Brittan thought the concept of public taste would be a problematic concept for legal action.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse was appointed a CBE in 1980. In 1988, she suffered a spinal injury in a fall, which severely curbed her campaigning activities. Whitehouse retired as president of the NVALA in 1994. She died, aged 91, in a nursing home in Colchester, Essex, on 23 November 2001. Whitehouse is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin at Dedham in Essex.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The journalist Mary Kenny believes "Mary Whitehouse was a significant figure. Some of her battles were justified, even prophetic. Today her attacks on 'kiddie porn' would be widely supported." The academic Richard Hoggart observed: "her main focus was on sex, followed by bad language and violence. Odd: if she had reversed the order, she might have been more effective."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Writing in the "Dictionary of National Biography", the philosopher Mary Warnock opined, "Even if her campaigning did not succeed in 'cleaning up TV', still less in making it more fit to watch in other ways, she was of serious intent, and was an influence for good at a crucial stage in the development both of the BBC and of ITV. She was not, as the BBC seemed officially to proclaim, a mere figure of fun."


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Whitehouse's early campaign and her disagreements with the BBC under Greene were the basis of a drama first broadcast in 2008 entitled "", written by Amanda Coe. Julie Walters played Whitehouse, Alun Armstrong played her husband Ernest, and Hugh Bonneville played Greene.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: Her favourite programmes were "Dixon of Dock Green" (winner of NVALA's Best Family Viewing Award in 1967), "Neighbours", and coverage of snooker. She had privately expressed gratitude to Dennis Potter and the BBC for his television play "Where Adam Stood" in 1976.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 1984, the NVALA gave an award to Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, writers of the situation comedy "Yes Minister" and Thatcher, who had declared the show her favourite programme, presented the award. Whitehouse sat laughing next to Thatcher as the Prime Minister acted out a sketch, written principally by her press secretary Bernard Ingham, alongside a reluctant Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne, the lead actors in the programme. In accepting the award, Lynn thanked Whitehouse and the NVALA and congratulated Thatcher for "taking her rightful place in the world of situation comedy".


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 1989, a sketch comedy show began on BBC Radio 1 called "The Mary Whitehouse Experience", starring alternative comedians David Baddiel, Rob Newman, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The title was an oblique reference to Whitehouse's campaigning against her perception of declining values on TV and radio, although she was rarely satirised directly. The show later transferred to television and made household names of its four protagonists.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: In 2017, episode 15 of "Endeavour", "Canticle", the character Mrs Pettibon is loosely based on Mary Whitehouse.


title: Mary Whitehouse

text: The two-part BBC Two documentary "Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story", airing in March and April 2022, looks back on Whitehouse's life. It features contributions from Gyles Brandreth, Michael Grade, Beatrix Campbell, Ken Loach, Peter Bradshaw, Ben Thompson, Peter Tatchell and David Sullivan.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Wyeth often said: "I paint my life." One of the best-known images in 20th-century American art is his tempera painting "Christina's World", currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which was painted in 1948, when Wyeth was 31 years old.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Andrew was the youngest of the five children of illustrator and artist N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth and his wife, Carolyn Bockius Wyeth. He was born July 12, 1917, on the 100th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau's birth. Due to N.C.'s fond appreciation of Henry David Thoreau, he found this both coincidental and exciting. N.C. was an attentive father, fostering each of the children's interests and talents. The family was close, spending time reading together, taking walks, fostering "a closeness with nature" and developing a feeling for Wyeth family history.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Andrew was home-tutored because of his frail health. Like his father, the young Wyeth read and appreciated the poetry of Robert Frost and the writings of Henry David Thoreau and studied their relationships with nature. Music and movies also heightened his artistic sensitivity. One major influence, discussed at length by Wyeth himself, was King Vidor's "The Big Parade" (1925). He claimed to have seen the film, which depicted family dynamics similar to his own, "a hundred-and-eighty-times" and believed it had the greatest influence on his work. Vidor later made a documentary, "The Metaphor", where he and Wyeth discuss the influence of the film on his paintings, including "Winter 1946", "Snow Flurries", "Portrait of Ralph Kline" and "Afternoon Flight of a Boy up a Tree."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth's father was the only teacher that he had. Due to being schooled at home, he led both a sheltered life and one that was "obsessively focused". Wyeth recalled of that time: "Pa kept me almost in a jail, just kept me to himself in my own world, and he wouldn't let anyone in on it. I was almost made to stay in Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest with Maid Marion and the rebels."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: N.C. Wyeth was an illustrator known for his work in magazines, posters and advertisements. He created illustrations for books such as "Treasure Island" and "The Last of the Mohicans". By the 1920s, Wyeth senior had become a celebrity, and the family often had celebrities as guests, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Pickford. The home bustled with creative activity and competition. N.C. and Carolyn's five children were all talented. Henriette Wyeth Hurd, the eldest, became a painter of portraits and still lifes. Carolyn, the second child, was also a painter. Nathaniel Wyeth, the third child, was a successful inventor. Ann was a musician at a young age and became a composer as an adult. Andrew was the youngest child.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth started drawing at a young age. He was a draftsman before he could read. By the time he was a teenager, his father brought him into his studio for the only art lessons he ever had and inspired his son's love of rural landscapes, sense of romance, and artistic traditions. Although creating illustrations was not a passion he wished to pursue, Wyeth produced illustrations under his father's name while in his teens.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: With his father's guidance, he mastered figure study and watercolor, and later learned egg tempera from his brother-in-law Peter Hurd. He studied art history on his own, admiring many masters of Renaissance and American painting, especially Winslow Homer.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: N.C. also fostered an inner self-confidence to follow one's own talents without thought of how the work is received. N.C. wrote in a letter to Wyeth in 1944:


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: The great men Thoreau, Goethe, Emerson, Tolstoy forever radiate a sharp sense of that profound requirement of an artist, to fully understand that "consequences" of what he creates are unimportant. Let the motive for action be in the action itself and not in the event. I know from my own experience that when I create with any degree of strength and beauty I have no thought of consequences. Anyone who creates for "effect"—to score a hit—does not know what he is missing!


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In the same letter, N.C. correlates being a great person with being a great painter: To be a great artist, he described, requires emotional depth, an openness to look beyond self to the subject, and passion. A great painting then is one that enriches and broadens one's perspective.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In October 1945, his father and his three-year-old nephew, Newell Convers Wyeth II (b. 1941), were killed when their car stalled on railroad tracks near their home and was struck by a train. Wyeth referred to his father's death as a formative emotional event in his artistic career, in addition to being a personal tragedy. Shortly afterwards, Wyeth's art consolidated into his mature and enduring style.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: On May 15, 1940, Wyeth married Betsy James, whom he met in 1939 in Maine. Christina Olson, who was to become the model for "Christina's World", met Wyeth through an introduction by Betsy. His wife, Betsy, had an influence on Andrew as strong as that of his father, such that N.C. Wyeth began to resent her. She played an important role managing his career. She was once quoted as saying, "I am a director and I had the greatest actor in the world."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Their first child, Nicholas, was born in 1943, followed by James ("Jamie") three years later. Wyeth painted portraits of both children ("Nicholas" of his older son and "Faraway" of his younger son).


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: His son Jamie Wyeth followed his father's and grandfather's footsteps, becoming the third generation of Wyeth artists. Andrew would be the role model and teacher to his son Jamie that his father, N.C., had been to him. The artistic history is told in James H. Duff's "An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art".


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: On January 16, 2009, Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness. He was 91 years old.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In 1937, at age twenty, Wyeth had his first one-man exhibition of watercolors at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City. The entire inventory of paintings sold out, and his life path seemed certain. His style was different from his father's: more spare, "drier," and more limited in color range. He stated his belief that "the great danger of the Pyle school is picture-making." He did some book illustrations in his early career, but not to the extent that N.C. Wyeth did.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily classified as a realist painter, like Winslow Homer or Thomas Eakins. In a "Life" magazine article in 1965, Wyeth said that although he was thought of as a realist, he thought of himself as an abstractionist: "My people, my objects breathe in a different way: there's another core—an excitement that's definitely abstract. My God, when you really begin to peer into something, a simple object, and realize the profound meaning of that thing—if you have an emotion about it, there's no end." Some feel Wyeth's work went against modernist ideals by embodying middle-class values, but this caused conversations about his work to extend beyond painting to social class.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: He worked predominantly in a regionalist style. In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Dividing his time between Pennsylvania and Maine, Wyeth maintained a realist painting style for over seventy years. He gravitated to several identifiable landscape subjects and models. His solitary walks were the primary means of inspiration for his landscapes. He developed an extraordinary intimacy with the land and sea and strove for a spiritual understanding based on history and unspoken emotion. He typically created dozens of studies on a subject in pencil or loosely brushed watercolor before executing a finished painting, either in watercolor, drybrush (a watercolor style in which the water is squeezed from the brush), or egg tempera.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: It was at the Olson farm in Cushing, Maine, that he painted "Christina's World" (1948). Perhaps his best known work, it depicts his neighbor, Christina Olson, sprawled on a dry field facing her house in the distance. Wyeth was inspired by Christina, who, crippled from (undiagnosed) Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a genetic polyneuropathy, and unable to walk, spent most of her time at home.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: The Olson house has been preserved and renovated to match its appearance in "Christina's World". It is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Art Museum. After being introduced to the Olsons by Betsy James, Wyeth built a friendship with the siblings and was soon allowed full roam of the farm and house where he did a number of works and studies of the Olson House and property. Wyeth created nearly 300 drawings, watercolors and tempera paintings at Olson's from 1937 to the late 1960s. Examples of such works are "Olson House" (1939) and "Wind from the Sea" (1947).


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In the early 1930s, Wyeth began painting Anna and Karl Kuerner, his neighbors in Chadds Ford. Like the Olsons, the Kuerners and their farm were one of Wyeth's most important subjects for nearly 50 years. As a teenager, Wyeth would walk the hills of the Kuerner Farm. Soon, he became close friends with Karl and Anna. Eventually, they invited Wyeth into their house. Inside, Wyeth documented the Kuerners, their home, and their life.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth stated about the Kuerner Farm, "I didn't think it a picturesque place. It just excited me, purely abstractly and purely emotionally."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Chadds Ford contained a small enclave of African-Americans known as "Little Africa." The community settled around Mother Archie's Church, a Quaker schoolhouse converted to a house of worship. Andrew Wyeth painted the church in several landscapes during its active period, and the abandoned building walls appear in Ring Road (1985). African-American residents of Little Africa appear as recurring models for Wyeth's paintings.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: The Kuerner Farm is available to tour through the Brandywine River Museum, as is the nearby N. C. Wyeth House and Studio; in 2011, the farm was declared a National Historic Landmark, based on its association with Wyeth.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In 1986, extensive coverage was given to the revelation of a series of 247 studies of the German-born Helga Testorf, whom Wyeth met while she was attending to Karl Kuerner at his farm. Wyeth painted her over the period 1971–85 without the knowledge of either his wife or Helga's husband, John Testorf. Helga, a caregiver with nursing experience, had never modeled before but quickly became comfortable with the long periods of posing, during which he observed and painted her in intimate detail. The Helga pictures are not an obvious psychological study of the subject, but more an extensive study of her physical landscape set within Wyeth's customary landscapes. She is nearly always portrayed as unsmiling and passive; yet, within those deliberate limitations, Wyeth manages to convey subtle qualities of character and mood, as he does in many of his best portraits. This extensive study of one subject in differing contexts and emotional states is unique in American art.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In 1986, Philadelphia publisher and millionaire Leonard E.B. Andrews (1925–2009) purchased almost the entire collection, preserving it intact. Wyeth had already given a few Helga paintings to friends, including the famous "Lovers", which had been given as a gift to Wyeth's wife.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: The works were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in 1987 and in a nationwide tour. There was extensive criticism of both the 1987 exhibition and the subsequent tour. The show was "lambasted" as an "absurd error" by John Russell and an "essentially tasteless endeavor" by Jack Flam, coming to be viewed by some people as "a traumatic event for the museum." The curator, Neil Harris, labeled the show "the most polarizing National Gallery exhibition of the late 1980s," himself admitting concern over "the voyeuristic aura of the Helga exhibition."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: The tour was criticized after the fact because, after it ended, the pictures' owner sold his entire cache to a Japanese company, a transaction characterized by Christopher Benfey as "crass."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: In a 2007 interview, when Wyeth was asked if Helga was going to be present at his 90th birthday party, he said "Yeah, certainly. Oh, absolutely," and went on to say, "She's part of the family now. I know it shocks everyone. That's what I love about it. It really shocks 'em."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth's art has long been controversial. He developed technically beautiful works, had a large following and accrued a considerable fortune as a result. Yet critics, curators and historians have offered conflicting views about the importance of his work. Art historian Robert Rosenblum was asked in 1977 to identify the "most overrated and underrated" artists of the 20th century. He provided one name for both categories: Andrew Wyeth.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Admirers of Wyeth's art believe that his paintings, in addition to their pictorial formal beauty, contain strong emotional currents, symbolic content, and underlying abstraction. Most observers of his art agree that he is skilled at handling the medium of egg tempera (which uses egg yolk as its medium) and watercolor. Wyeth avoided using oil paints. His use of light and shadow lets the subjects illuminate the canvas. His paintings and titles suggest sound, as is implied in many paintings, including "Distant Thunder" (1961) and "Spring Fed" (1967). "Christina's World" became an iconic image, a status unmet to even the best paintings, "that registers as an emotional and cultural reference point in the minds of millions."


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Wyeth created work in sharp contrast to abstraction, which gained currency in American art and critical thinking in the middle of the 20th century.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: Museum exhibitions of Wyeth's paintings have set attendance records, but many art critics have evaluated his work less favorably. Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for "The Village Voice", derided his paintings as "Formulaic stuff, not very effective even as illustrational 'realism'." Some found Wyeth's art of rural subject matter tired and oversweet.


title: Andrew Wyeth

text: N.C. advised Wyeth to work from one's own perspective and imagination; to work for "effect" means the artist is not fully exploring their artistic abilities and, as a result, the artist will not realize their potential.


title: The Irregulars

text: The Irregulars is a British mystery adventure crime drama streaming television series created by Tom Bidwell for Netflix. Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it features the Baker Street Irregulars working for Dr. Watson saving London from supernatural elements.


title: The Irregulars

text: Developed by Drama Republic, the eight-episode series premiered on 26 March 2021. In May 2021, the series was canceled after one season.


title: The Irregulars

text: A group of teenagers living on the streets of Victorian London known as the Irregulars work for John Watson to solve increasingly supernatural crimes, while they search for Sherlock Holmes.


title: The Irregulars

text: On 20 December 2018, it was announced that Netflix was planning a series with Tom Bidwell based on the Baker Street Irregulars. Tom Bidwell (who had directed Netflix's "Watership Down") described the program as "my dream project and my oldest idea" and it takes a different view of Holmes and his relationship to the Irregulars.


title: The Irregulars

text: Bidwell will serve as executive producer alongside Jude Liknaitzky and Greg Brenman. Directors for the series have been announced as "Endeavour"’s Johnny Allan as lead director with Joss Agnew and Weronika Tofilska also directing.


title: The Irregulars

text: In December 2019 the cast was announced as Henry Lloyd-Hughes in the role of Sherlock, Royce Pierreson as Doctor Watson, and Clarke Peters as Linen Man, Thaddea Graham as Bea, Darci Shaw as Jessie, Jojo Marcari as Billy, McKell David as Spike, and Harrison Osterfield as Leopold. In September, 2020 it was announced that Aidan McArdle had joined the cast in the role of Inspector Lestrade along with Olivia Grant as Patricia Coleman-Jones. In December, 2020 Sheila Atim was also credited as having an unknown role.


title: The Irregulars

text: The series was announced to be filmed in the UK, with reports In early December 2019 that filming had taken place in Nantwich at Dorfold Hall. Filming took place in Liverpool and the Wirral in late 2019 and early 2020, making use of several locations including St George's Plateau, the palm house in Sefton Park, Falkner Street in the Georgian Quarter and the Grand Entrance at Birkenhead Park.


title: The Irregulars

text: Filming was temporarily disrupted in January 2020 when a cast member was injured on set on Liverpool's Ormond Street. Filming took place in Chester towards the end of January 2020, in Abbey Square, next to Chester Cathedral and also in the city's suburb of Hoole. Production then went to North Wales in March.


title: The Irregulars

text: Filming resumed in August 2020, starting with scenes in Ellesmere Port that were intended to be filmed in March.


title: The Irregulars

text: On 31 March 2021, "Esquire" magazine reported that the second season was scheduled to film in Liverpool during the summer of 2021. However, on 4 May 2021, Netflix announced that they had cancelled the show for undisclosed reasons.


title: The Irregulars

text: On 22 February 2021 Netflix released the first teaser trailer for series. The eight-episode series premiered on Netflix on 26 March 2021.


title: The Irregulars

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 80% based on 40 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "It taps into some fairly regular plot points, but when it dares to defy expectations and focus on its charming young cast, "The Irregulars" hints at something truly special lingering beneath the surface." Metacritic reported a weighted average score for the series of 60 out of 100 based on 12 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Irregulars

text: It was ranked second on the Top “Shows on the Rise” Week Ended March 28 list by Rise Ratio. The show managed to top Nielsen's Original Streaming Shows Charts, beating out Disney+'s "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier".


title: RPSG Group

text: RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (also known as RPSG Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata. It was founded by Sanjiv Goenka, the younger son of Rama Prasad Goenka, on 13 July 2011. The Group's businesses include power and energy, carbon black manufacturing, retail, IT-enabled services, FMCG, media and entertainment, infrastructure and education.


title: RPSG Group

text: Rama Prasad Goenka established RPG Enterprises in 1979 with Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute, and Murphy India as the constituents.


title: RPSG Group

text: In 1981, the group acquired CEAT Tyres India. KEC International was acquired in 1982. In 1986, it acquired the music company Gramophone Company of India Ltd, now known as Saregama. Harrisons Malayalam, the tea and rubber plantations was acquired in 1988. In the following year, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC Limited), Raychem Technologies, and Spencer's were acquired.


title: RPSG Group

text: In 1993, Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) was formed as a JV between the group and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, to distribute power in the Greater Noida region. In 2009, the Group entered into media with the launch of Open Magazine, a weekly current affairs and features magazine.


title: RPSG Group

text: In 2010, the Group's businesses were divided between Rama Prasad Goenka's sons, Harsh Goenka and Sanjiv Goenka. RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group was founded on 13 July 2011, with Sanjiv Goenka as its chairman.


title: Fidaa

text: Fidaa () is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Sekhar Kammula, and produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations banner. The film stars Sai Pallavi (in her Telugu debut) with Varun Tej in the lead roles. The plot follows a love–hate relationship between Bhanumathi (Pallavi), a strong-minded village girl, and her brother-in-law's brother Varun (Tej), an NRI from the US.


title: Fidaa

text: Principal photography commenced in August 2016, and was shot in Banswada of Telangana, Texas and Colorado. The film's soundtrack is composed by Shakthkanth Karthik, with cinematography and editing by Vijay C. Kumar and Marthand K. Venkatesh, respectively.


title: Fidaa

text: Released on 21 July 2017, the film was a commercial success, grossing over on a budget of . The film won four Filmfare Awards from nine nominations, in addition to two SIIMA Awards. Sai Pallavi's performance was ranked by "Film Companion" amongst 100 Greatest Performances of the Decade. The film is considered one of the "25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade" by "Film Companion".


title: Fidaa

text: Varun is a non-resident Indian who lives in Austin, Texas, United States with his elder brother Raju and adopted, younger brother Bujji. He is a medical student aiming to become a neurosurgeon. Varun comes to India along with his younger brother for Raju's marriage to Renuka, whose family hails from Banswada in Telangana. There he meets Bhanumathi, Renuka's younger sister. Bhanu is a beautiful and confident girl who doesn't want to feel secondary to anyone. Gradually Varun and Bhanu develop a liking for each other but don't express it. Bhanu loves her father very dearly and doesn't believe in leaving him after her marriage. One day, she overhears Varun talking to his cousin Shailu about the opportunities in USA compared to India which he deems unfit for settling. Worse, his reference to a marriage between Shailu and her boyfriend is misconstrued by Bhanu as being between Varun and Shailu and so she feels cheated and misled by Varun. Heartbroken, Bhanu decides to forget Varun and suppress her feelings for him and starts to ignore him. After his brother's marriage, Varun returns to USA but can't stop thinking about Bhanu. He decides to confess his love to her. But Bhanumathi gives him a rude answer which enrages Varun creating a rift between them that widens further due to subsequent rude behaviors from both of them. Bhanu finally agrees to marry a man of her father's choice but realizes she isn't comfortable with him even before marriage.


title: Fidaa

text: Meanwhile, Renuka becomes pregnant So, she is advised bed rest by the doctors. Bhanu is sent to USA by her father to help Renuka cope up with the pregnancy. Varun starts being inconsiderate towards Bhanu during her stay with them. This disturbs Bhanu and an argument ensues between them after which she decides to leave for India in a week. Before leaving, Bhanu decides to visit her friend in USA and Varun is asked to drop Bhanu at her friend's place. On the way when Varun drops her at a bus stop so she can take a bus, both have their final fight. Realizing he has hurt her, Varun makes amends and confesses to Bhanu how deeply he loves her and cannot imagine his life with anyone else and that his bad behavior towards her was but a dirty mask to try and get rid of, albeit unsuccessfully, his feelings for her, but since he seeks her happiness, will respect and value her going forward. They then decide to stay as friends and he offers to show her America. It is during this cross-country USA roadtrip that Bhanu realizes how deep Varun's love for her is and she also rediscovers her own deep feelings for him. Before leaving for India, at the airport, Bhanu runs to Varun and hugs him with tearful eyes. Varun understands that Bhanu still loves him and a few days later goes to India to ask for her hand in marriage. Bhanu's father learns of their feelings for each other, and advises her to follow her heart and marry Varun instead of the man he chose to which she agrees. Though happy that she is marrying Varun, she is apprehensive about leaving her father and her village. After the wedding ceremony, Bhanu packs her luggage to leave for the USA. Renuka then tells her the truth that Varun actually gave up his life in the US and his medical seat and has decided to settle and practice as a Doctor in their village. Overjoyed, Bhanu runs to Varun and asks him how he could make such a big sacrifice to which he answers that wherever she is, it is his world because he loves her a lot. Varun decides to establish a hospital in the village and they live happily thereafter.


title: Fidaa

text: The song "Hey Pillagaada" is inspired by an older song "Parugulu Theeyaali" from the movie "Malliswari" (1951).


title: Fidaa

text: The production of "Fidaa" began in August 2016 and the film was released worldwide on July 21, 2017. It was made on a budget of 13 crores and ended up grossing 90 crores, with a distributor share of . It was the seventh highest-grossing Telugu film of that year. It is dubbed into Malayalam and Hindi under the same title, and in Tamil as "Banumathi".


title: Fidaa

text: The film premiered on television in Star Maa channel on September 24, 2017, and received a massive 21.3 TRP just behind "Bahubali" and "Magadheera".


title: Fidaa

text: "The Hindu" critic Sangeetha Devi opined that the film was rooted in reality. "Director Sekhar Kammula returns with a heart-warming romantic musical, powered by compelling characters," she added. A reviewer from "The Times of India" rated the film three stars and wrote, "The plot line is too flimsy and simplistic; the climax is also a la Anand"


title: Fidaa

text: In his review for the "Firstpost," Hemanth Kumar CR rated it 3.25 out of five, and stated, "The film is packed with relatable characters, a lead pair whose sparkling chemistry is bound to put a smile on your face, and a landscape which takes your breath away just by its sheer beauty and simplicity." Kumar however felt that the climax was rushed and the story itself needed better closure."" Karthik Keramulu writing for "The News Minute" appreciated the lead cast performances by stating, "While Sai Palavi steals the show, Varun Tej plays the shy boy to perfection." "The Indian Express" critic Priyanka Sundar rated the film 3 stars of 5, and wrote: "Sekhar Kammula directorial "Fidaa" has done something unexpected yet again with this film which is to tell a story from the female perspective." She, however, added that the film falls short due to lack of strong supporting cast.


title: Lumpia

text: Lumpia are various types of spring rolls commonly found in the Philippines and Indonesia. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crepe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or sweet fillings. It is often served as an appetizer or snack, and might be served deep fried or fresh (unfried). Lumpia are Filipino and Indonesian adaptations of the Fujianese and Teochew "popiah", which was created during the 17th century in the former Spanish colonial era.


title: Lumpia

text: In the Philippines, lumpia is one of the most common dishes served in gatherings and celebrations. In Indonesia lumpia has become a favorite snack, and is known as a street hawker food in the country.


title: Lumpia

text: In the Netherlands and Belgium, it is spelled "loempia", the old Indonesian spelling, which has also become the generic name for "spring roll" in Dutch. A variant is the Vietnamese lumpia, wrapped in a thinner pastry, though still close in size to a spring roll, in which the wrapping closes the ends off completely, which is typical for lumpia.


title: Lumpia

text: The name "lumpia" or sometimes spelled as "lunpia" was derived from Hokkien spelling /lun˩piã˥˧/ (潤餅), "lun" (潤) means "wet/moist/soft", while "pia" (餅) means "cake/pastry", thus "lun-pia" means "soft cake". It is referred to as "rùnbǐng" (潤餅) or "báobǐng" (薄餅) in Mandarin, and also as "bópíjuǎn" (薄皮卷).


title: Lumpia

text: In neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, lumpia is known in its variant name as "popiah", from the Chaoshan dialect pronounced as /poʔ˩piã˥˧/ (薄餅), which means "thin wafer."


title: Lumpia

text: Lumpia was introduced to the Philippines during the pre-colonial period by early Hokkien immigrants and traders from Fujian between 900 and 1565 AD. The name is derived from Hokkien, a language that originated in southeastern China: "lun" means wet, moist, or soft, and "pia" means cake or pastry. They have been thoroughly nativized to Philippine cuisine and are found throughout the islands. They use various fillings inspired by local ingredients and dishes, and the later cuisines of Spain, China, and the United States.