title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: Blacksburg Transit (BT) provides bus transportation primarily to and from the campus of Virginia Tech. Students and faculty ride the BT fare free with a flat payment included in the cost of tuition. Virginia Tech subsidizes BT for this service. Transportation is available to anyone for a fee, and during special events the service is often free. Blacksburg Transit also offers shuttle service to non-students on Virginia Tech Football game days for $5 to be transported from outlying parking areas to the stadium.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: The Smart Way Bus, a regional commuter bus service operated by Valley Metro (Roanoke), provides connecting service between Virginia Tech, downtown Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Virginia, Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport, and Roanoke, Virginia, where riders can transfer to an Amtrak train. Fare is $4.00 one way.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: At nearby Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport, there are scheduled commercial flights to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, New York–LaGuardia, Orlando/Sanford, Philadelphia, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, and Washington–Dulles, and there are seasonal charter flights to Atlantic City.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport, located in the Town of Blacksburg, has general aviation, air taxi, and military flights.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 39,573 people, 13,162 households, and 4,777 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,044.2 people per square mile (789.2/km). There were 13,732 housing units at an average density of 709.4 per square mile (273.9/km). The racial makeup of the town was 84.39% White, 4.39% African American, 0.11% Native American, 7.80% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.90% from other races, and 2.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.32% of the population.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: There were 13,162 households, out of which 16.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.7% were married couples living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 63.7% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.79.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: In the town, the population was spread out, with 9.7% under the age of 18, 57.4% from 18 to 24, 18.9% from 25 to 44, 9.2% from 45 to 64, and 4.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females, there were 127.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 129.7 males.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: The median income for a household in the town was $22,513, and the median income for a family was $51,810. Males had a median income of $37,129 versus $24,321 for females. The per capita income for the town was $13,946. About 15.9% of families and 43.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.7% of those under the age of 18 and 6.1% ages 65 or older.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes the town of Christiansburg, the independent city of Radford, and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties has an estimated population of 181,863 and is currently one of the faster-growing MSAs in Virginia.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: About 87% of the town's residents have in-home Internet access with 65% using a broadband connection. Eighty-five percent of the community has a college education, seventy percent of which were graduates of Virginia Tech.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center is home to several companies of varying sizes including Honeywell, and the National Weather Service which maintains its Southwestern Virginia headquarters there. The town is also home to MOOG, a major supplier for the defense department and the health care industry and Rackspace, who acquired locally based Mailtrust/Webmail.us in 2007. The town and county continue to recruit major industry to the area. Due to its close proximity to Virginia Tech and Radford University, Blacksburg is an ideal location for developing high tech industry.


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: According to Blacksburg's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town are:


title: Blacksburg, Virginia

text: Blacksburg is governed by a Town Council of six members and a mayor. Elections take place in odd-numbered years, in November. Council members are elected for four-year terms. The town’s mayor is an elected office. Leslie Hager-Smith was first elected mayor in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: In baseball, batting average (BA) is determined by dividing a player's hits by their total at-bats. It is usually rounded to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred". If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the .001 measurement. In this context, .001 is considered a "point", such that a .235 batter is 5 points higher than a .230 batter.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: Henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised on cricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball. In the late 19th century he adapted the concept behind the cricket batting average to devise a similar statistic for baseball. Rather than simply copy cricket's formulation of runs scored divided by outs, he realized that hits divided by at bats would provide a better measure of individual batting ability. This is because while in cricket, scoring runs is almost entirely dependent on one's batting skill, in baseball it is largely dependent on having other good hitters on one's team. Chadwick noted that hits are independent of teammates' skills, so he used this as the basis for the baseball batting average. His reason for using at bats rather than outs is less obvious, but it leads to the intuitive idea of the batting average being a percentage reflecting how often a batter gets on base, whereas hits divided by outs are not as simple to interpret in real terms.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: In modern times, a season batting average of .300 or higher is considered to be excellent, and an average higher than .400 a nearly unachievable goal. The last Major League Baseball (MLB) player to do so, with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting championship, was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941. Note that batting averages are rounded; entering the final day of the 1941 season, Williams was at 179-for-448, which is .39955 and would have been recorded as .400 via rounding. However, Williams played in both games of a doubleheader, went 6-for-8, and ended the season 185-for-456, which is .40570 and becomes .406 when rounded.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: Since 1941, the highest single-season average has been .394 by Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres in 1994. Wade Boggs hit .401 over a 162-game span with Boston from June 9, 1985, to June 6, 1986, but never hit above .368 for an MLB season. There have been numerous attempts to explain the disappearance of the .400 hitter, with one of the more rigorous discussions of this question appearing in Stephen Jay Gould's 1996 book "".


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: Ty Cobb holds the record for highest career batting average with .366, eight points higher than Rogers Hornsby who has the second-highest career average at .358. The record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs to Bill Bergen, a catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 average in 3,028 career at-bats. Hugh Duffy, who played from 1888 to 1906, is credited with the highest single-season batting average, having hit .440 in 1894. The modern-era (post-1900) record for highest batting average for a season is held by Nap Lajoie, who hit .426 in 1901, the first year of play for the American League. The modern-era record for lowest batting average for a player that qualified for the batting title is held by Chris Davis, who hit .168 in 2018. While finishing six plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title, Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox hit .159 for the 2011 season, nine points lower than the record. The highest batting average for a rookie was .408 in 1911 by Shoeless Joe Jackson.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: The league batting average in MLB for the 2018 season was .248, with the highest modern-era MLB average being .296 in 1930, and the lowest being .237 in 1968. For non-pitchers, a batting average below .230 is often considered poor, and one below .200 is usually unacceptable. This latter level is sometimes referred to as "The Mendoza Line", named for Mario Mendoza — a lifetime .215 hitter but a good defensive shortstop.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: Sabermetrics, the study of baseball statistics, considers batting average a weak measure of performance because it does not correlate as well as other measures to runs scored, thereby causing it to have little predictive value. Batting average does not take into account bases on balls (walks) or power, whereas other statistics such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage have been specifically designed to measure such concepts. Adding these statistics together form a player's on-base plus slugging or "OPS". This is commonly seen as a much better, though not perfect, indicator of a player's overall batting ability as it is a measure of hitting for average, hitting for power, and drawing walks.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: In , bases on balls were counted as hits by the major leagues in existence at the time. This inflated batting averages, with 11 players batting .400 or better, and the experiment was abandoned the following season. Historical statistics for the season were later revised, such that "Bases on balls shall always be treated as neither a time at bat nor a hit for the batter."


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: In rare instances, MLB players have concluded their careers with a perfect batting average of 1.000. John Paciorek had three hits in all three of his turns at bat. Esteban Yan went two-for-two, including a home run. Hal Deviney's two hits in his only plate appearances included a triple, while Steve Biras, Mike Hopkins, Chet Kehn, Jason Roach and Fred Schemanske also went two-for-two. A few dozen others have hit safely in their only career at-bat.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: The MLB batting averages championships (often referred to as "the batting title") are awarded annually to the player in each league who has the highest batting average. Ty Cobb holds the MLB and American League (AL) record for most batting titles, officially winning 11 in his career. The National League (NL) record of eight batting titles is shared by Honus Wagner and Tony Gwynn. Most of Cobb's career and all of Wagner's career took place in what is known as the Dead-Ball Era, which was characterized by higher batting averages by star players (although the overall league batting average was historically at its lowest during that era) and much less power, whereas Gwynn's career took place in the Live-Ball Era.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: To determine which players are eligible to win the batting title, the following conditions have been used over the sport's history:


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: From 1967 to the present, if the player with the highest average in a league fails to meet the minimum plate-appearance requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., five at-bats, if the player finished the season with 497 plate appearances) are hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still tops the league, he is awarded the title. This is officially Rule 10.22(a), but it is also known as the Tony Gwynn rule because the Padres' player won the batting crown in 1996 with a .353 average on just 498 plate appearances (i.e., he was four short). Gwynn was awarded the title since he would have led the league even if he'd gone 0-for-4 in those missing plate appearances. His average would have dropped to .349, five points better than second-place Ellis Burks' .344. In 2012, a one-time amendment to the rule was made to disqualify Melky Cabrera from the title. Cabrera requested that he be disqualified after serving a suspension that season for a positive testosterone test. He had batted .346 with 501 plate appearances, and the original rule would have awarded him the title over San Francisco Giants teammate Buster Posey, who won batting .336.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: Different sources of baseball records present somewhat differing lists of career batting average leaders. There is consensus that Ty Cobb leads this category. Further rankings vary by source, primarily due to differences in minimums needed to qualify (number of games played or plate appearances), or differences in early baseball records. Baseball-Reference.com includes the Negro League teams considered major leagues by Major League Baseball. The below table presents the top ten lists as they appear in four well-known sources, with the rankings and degree of precision (decimal places) as provided in the source. The main article linked above is sourced from Baseball-Reference.com, which is also presented here. None of the players listed below are still living; each is an inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame, except for Lefty O'Doul, Pete Browning, and Shoeless Joe Jackson (who is ineligible due to his alleged role in the Black Sox Scandal of 1919).


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: The highest recorded single-season batting average in Minor League Baseball is .462, accomplished by Gary Redus in 1978, when he played for the Billings Mustangs, an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in the Rookie Advanced-level Pioneer League. Redus was 117-for-253 in 68 games, as the Pioneer League only plays from June to early September. Redus went on to play in MLB from 1982 through 1994, batting .252 during his MLB career.


title: Batting average (baseball)

text: In Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the leader in career batting average is Nori Aoki, an active player who has hit .317 in his NPB career, . Aoki played in MLB from 2012 to 2017, where he compiled a .285 batting average. Ichiro Suzuki batted .353 in NPB, but does not have enough NPB career at-bats to qualify for that league's title.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The Color Purple is a musical with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker and its 1985 film adaptation, the show follows the journey of Celie, an African-American woman in the American South from the early to mid-20th century.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The original Broadway production ran from 2005 to 2008, earning eleven Tony Award nominations in 2006. An enthusiastically acclaimed Broadway revival opened in late 2015 and ran through early 2017, winning two 2016 Tony Awards—including Best Revival of a Musical.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: "The Color Purple" was originally workshopped by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 2004 following Scott Sanders' optioning the work from Alice Walker in 1999 and auditioning various creative team members. The September 9, 2004, world premiere of the musical was produced by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta by special arrangement with Creative Battery and Scott Sanders Productions.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: For the Atlanta run, LaChanze starred as Celie, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, Saycon Sengbloh as Nettie, Adriane Lenox as Shug and Kingsley Leggs as Mister. Gary Griffin staged the work, with scenic design by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, costumes by Paul Tazewell and sound by Jon Weston.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The musical opened on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre on December 1, 2005. It was directed by Gary Griffin, produced by Scott Sanders, Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey, with choreography by Donald Byrd and musical direction by Linda Twine. The musical closed on February 24, 2008, after 30 previews and 910 regular performances. The production recouped its $11 million investment within its first year on Broadway, and had grossed over $103 million by the time it closed.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The original Broadway production starred LaChanze as Celie, Brandon Victor Dixon as Harpo, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Nettie, Kingsley Leggs as Mister, Krisha Marcano as Squeak, and Elisabeth Withers-Mendes as Shug Avery.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The First National tour began on April 17, 2007, starting with an extended run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. The company includes LaToya London as Nettie, Michelle Williams as Shug Avery, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, and Jeannette Bayardelle as Celie, Stephanie St. James as Squeak. Bayardelle and Fields both are reprising their roles from Broadway. The show exceeded expectations, which necessitated a four-week extension of its Chicago engagement until September 30, 2007. The original expectation was that the show would run in Chicago until November. In all, the show produced respectable business results bringing in about $1 million per week for the first half of the engagement, but less during the summer months when the ticket prices were reduced to $39.50 to keep the theater full.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: Chicago was notable as a starting point of the national tour because Oprah Winfrey, a 1986 Academy Awards nominee in the film adaptation is a Chicago resident. In addition, Felicia Fields is a Chicago native and resident. It was also a homecoming for Gary Griffin. Both Fields and Griffin made their broadway theatre debuts with this musical. As a result of the Chicago connections the Chicago premiere had a star-studded red carpet with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Jesse Jackson, R. Kelly, and Roger Ebert. Others in attendance included United States Senator Carol Moseley Braun and Christie Hefner. Coverage of the Chicago premiere was prominent in international media.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: A second national tour with a new non-Equity cast opened on March 12, 2010 at the Lyric Opera House and visited numerous US cities, making several return engagements. The role of Celie was played by Detroit native Dayna Jarae Dantzler. The role of Shug Avery was played by New Orleans native Taprena Augustine. Tour stops include Omaha, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale, Mobile, Durham, and more. Due to an overwhelming demand, the tour returned to New Orleans where it played a 5-show limited-engagement at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts from February 11–13, 2011. In August 2010, Oprah Winfrey announced the traveling company of "The Color Purple" would be raising funds for the relief organization SBP along with the novel's author, Alice Walker.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: A third national tour with a non-Equity cast opened January 17, 2012 at the Francis Marion University PAC, in Florence, South Carolina, with previews in New Haven, CT at the Schubert Theater. The role of Celie is played by Washington, D.C. native Ashley L. Ware, and Taprena Augustine has reprised her role as Shug Avery alongside Dayna Marie Quincy taking the role of Nettie (later taking the role of Celie at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia). Tour stops include Nevada (Las Vegas & Reno), Alabama (Mobile), Pennsylvania (Williamsport, Reading & Bloomsburg), and more.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: A first international production, directed by John Doyle, opened in London at The Menier Chocolate Factory on July 17, 2013. The limited run ended on September 14, 2013. The cast included Cynthia Erivo (Celie), Nicola Hughes (Shug) and Christopher Colquhoun (Mister/Albert).


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: On January 9, 2015, producers Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, and Oprah Winfrey announced that the Menier Chocolate Factory production would be mounted on Broadway. Jennifer Hudson would make her Broadway debut in the role of Shug, Danielle Brooks would play the role of Sofia, and Cynthia Erivo would reprise her role as Celie. Kyle Jean-Baptiste was slated to be in it as well, but he died in a fall on August 29, 2015. Previews began November 10, 2015, with the official opening being December 10 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Erivo won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, with the production taking home the 2016 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The production closed on January 8, 2017 after 33 previews and 449 performances.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The first major international staging of the musical since the Broadway revival, opened in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 4, 2018.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The first translated production of The Color Purple opened on the 16th of April in Amsterdam at the NDSM wharf visited by the Queen of the Netherlands. This production was produced by Opus One and translated and directed by Koen van Dijk. The limited engagement will be followed by a tour in the autumn through several theatres in the Netherlands. It opened to positive reviews and starred newcomer Naomi van der Linden as Celie, Ana Milva Gomes as Shug Avery, Jeannine de la Rose as Sofia, Edwin Jonker as Mister and Carlos de Vries as Harpo.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: A new co-production between Curve, Leicester and Birmingham Hippodrome opened in Leicester on June 28, 2019 before transferring to Birmingham on July 16, 2019. The production was directed by Tinuke Craig with T'Shan Williams as Celie, Karen Mavundukure as Sofia, Joanna Francis as Shug and Ako Mitchell as Mister.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The Canadian premiere of The Color Purple opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia Neptune Theatre (Halifax) on April 9, 2019. The production is directed by Kimberley Rampersad the first African-Canadian and female to helm the show.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: The Brazilian production of the musical opened in Rio de Janeiro from September 6 to November 3, 2019, before transferring to São Paulo from December 6, 2019 to February 16, 2020. The production was directed by Tadeu Aguiar.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: On a Sunday morning in 1909, fourteen-year-old Celie – who has had one child by her father Alphonso and is now pregnant with her second – plays a clapping game with her younger sister Nettie. While attending services with the other members of their rural Georgia community, Celie goes into labor and is dragged out of the church as the congregation quietly looks on ("Huckleberry Pie/Mysterious Ways"). After Celie gives birth to a son, her father takes the child away and bluntly tells her he is going to get rid of it like the last one. Celie quietly says goodbye to her newborn and asks God for a sign ("Somebody Gonna Love You").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: Four years later, local farmer and widower Albert "Mister" Johnson approaches Alphonso and asks permission to marry one of his daughters. Alphonso agrees, offering him Celie, instead of Nettie, and throwing a cow into the bargain. Although the girls promise never to be separated, Celie goes with Mister to save Nettie's dreams of becoming a teacher ("Our Prayer"). The local Church Ladies cluck their approval ("That Fine Mister") while Mister's field hands introduce Celie to a life of hard work ("Big Dog").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: One day, Nettie arrives, explaining that she is tired of Alphonso's lecherous attentions and asking if she can stay. Mister agrees, but later attacks Nettie while she is walking to school. She fights back, prompting Mister to kick her out. Celie protests, but Mister swears they will never see each other again. As she leaves Mister's property, Nettie promises to write to Celie. But when she goes to the mailbox the next day, Mister slams the mailbox shut, threatening to kill her if he ever sees her touch it ("Lily of the Field").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: In 1920, Mister's son Harpo brings home Sofia, a strong-willed woman whom he later marries ("Dear God - Sofia"). When he complains that he is tired of Sofia bossing him around, Mister and Celie tell him the only way to get her to listen is to beat her. Harpo attempts to do so but ends up being beaten by Sofia ("A Tree Named Sofia"). After confronting Celie, Sofia learns the extent of Mister's cruelty and tells Celie to stand up for herself before leaving home to spend time with her sisters ("Hell No!").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: Harpo decides to turn his house into a juke joint and engages in an affair with a waitress named Squeak, who moves in with him ("Brown Betty"). Sometime later, the community prepares for the arrival of jazz singer Shug Avery, who is revealed to be Mister's longtime lover ("Shug Avery Comin' to Town"). But when Shug arrives with her band, she is in such bad shape that Celie nurses her back to health despite local disapproval ("All We've Got to Say").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: While tailoring a dress for Shug's debut, Celie experiences feelings of warmth and tenderness for the first time ("Dear God - Shug"). Shug, meanwhile, learns more about Celie's relationship with Mister and encourages her to find her inner strength ("Too Beautiful for Words"').


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: That night, at Harpo's Juke Joint, Shug brings down the house with a raucous blues number ("Push Da Button"). Sofia arrives with her new boyfriend Buster and dances with Harpo, prompting Squeak to pick a fight with her ("Uh-Oh!"). The fight eventually escalates into a bar brawl, prompting Shug and Celie to escape.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: After returning to Mister's house, Shug and Celie explore their newfound relationship ("What About Love?"). Shug uncovers several letters for Celie that have come from Africa. Celie recognizes Nettie's handwriting and realizes her sister is alive ("Act I Finale").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: While reading the letters that Mister has hidden from her, Celie learns Nettie is in Africa and is living with the missionary family that adopted her children ("African Homeland"). In Georgia, Sofia is arrested for assaulting the mayor after refusing to work for his wife. When Celie goes to visit her, she learns Sofia will serve out her sentence in the Mayor's custody.


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: In 1932, Shug brings her lover Grady over for Easter. After learning the extent of Celie's anger towards God, Shug invites her to come back to Memphis with her so they can enjoy the simple joys of life ("The Color Purple"). After sitting down to dinner ("Church Ladies' Easter"), Celie tells Mister that she is leaving and Squeak announces she is leaving as well. When Mister refuses and tries to beat her, Celie stands firm and curses him ("I Curse You, Mister"). Harpo then invites Sofia to come back and live at the Juke Joint, reconciling with her in the process. Eventually, Mister begins to feel the effect of Celie's curse. Harpo challenges his father to make things right after a bunch of terrible things happen to Mister, which force Mister to try to understand the meaning of Celie's curse and the meaning of life other than his tough childhood ("Mister's Song/Celie's Curse").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: At Shug's Memphis home, Celie starts writing back to Nettie and discovers that she has a natural gift for making pants. After inheriting her childhood home, Celie starts a business and begins selling her designs ("Miss Celie's Pants"). Meanwhile, Harpo and Sofia hit it off and learn Mister is having difficulty getting Nettie and the children to come to the United States. The three resolve to make a plan. ("Any Little Thing")


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: Shug tells Celie she has fallen in love with a 19-year-old musician in her band and asks her permission to have one last fling with him. Meanwhile, Mister has reconciled his life ("What About Love? [Reprise]"). While walking home, Celie realizes she isn't destroyed by this and, for the first time, feels a deep love for herself ("I'm Here").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: Several years later, while hosting a Fourth of July picnic for the community, Celie hears a car horn and a familiar voice from her childhood. It is Nettie singing the clapping song they sang years ago. They both run to each other and hug with Celie's children right behind them all grown up. After learning that Mister and Shug have made the reunion possible, Celie thanks them and God for reuniting her with her sister ("The Color Purple [Reprise]").


title: The Color Purple (musical)

text: On November 2, 2018, it was announced that a film adaptation of the musical was in development at Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, the same companies that made the 1985 film adaptation of the novel, with Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders, and Oprah Winfrey all signing on to produce. On August 24, 2020, it was announced that Marcus Gardley will write the screenplay and "Black is King"'s Blitz Bazawule will direct. Winfrey praised the selection of Bazawule as director, after she and the producers saw his work on "The Burial of Kojo", saying that "We, were all blown away by Blitz's unique vision as a director and look forward to seeing how he brings the next evolution of this beloved story to life." It was also announced that Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Carla Gardini, and Mara Jacobs will executive produce the film. It was announced on December 23, 2020 that the film will be released on December 20, 2023. Corey Hawkins plays the role of Harpo in the film and singer-songwriter H.E.R. will make her acting debut as Squeak. On February 1, 2022, Taraji P. Henson was announced to star in the role of Shug Avery. On February 3, 2022, the rest of the cast was announced, with Fantasia starring as Celie, Danielle Brooks reprising her role as Sofia, Colman Domingo as Mister, and Halle Bailey as Nettie. On March 22, 2022, it was announced that Ciara had joined the cast as older Nettie.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat (Felis chaus), also called reed cat, swamp cat and jungle lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It inhabits foremost wetlands like swamps, littoral and riparian areas with dense vegetation. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and is mainly threatened by destruction of wetlands, trapping and poisoning.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat has a uniformly sandy, reddish-brown or grey fur without spots; melanistic and albino individuals are also known. It is solitary in nature, except during the mating season and mother-kitten families. Adults maintain territories by urine spraying and scent marking. Its preferred prey is small mammals and birds. It hunts by stalking its prey, followed by a sprint or a leap; the ears help in pinpointing the location of prey. Both sexes become sexually mature by the time they are one year old; females enter oestrus from January to March. Mating behaviour is similar to that in the domestic cat: the male pursues the female in oestrus, seizes her by the nape of her neck and mounts her. Gestation lasts nearly two months. Births take place between December and June, though this might vary geographically. Kittens begin to catch their own prey at around six months and leave the mother after eight or nine months.


title: Jungle cat

text: The species was first described by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1776 based on a specimen caught in a Caucasian wetland. Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber gave the jungle cat its present binomial name and is therefore generally considered as binomial authority. Three subspecies are recognised at present.


title: Jungle cat

text: The Baltic-German naturalist Johann Anton Güldenstädt was the first scientist who caught a jungle cat near the Terek River at the southern frontier of the Russian empire, a region that he explored in 1768–1775 on behalf of Catherine II of Russia. He described this specimen in 1776 under the name "Chaus".


title: Jungle cat

text: In 1778, Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber used "chaus" as the species name and is therefore considered the binomial authority. Paul Matschie in 1912 and Joel Asaph Allen in 1920 challenged the validity of Güldenstädt's nomenclature, arguing that the name "Felis auriculis apice nigro barbatis" was not a binomen and therefore improper, and that "chaus" was used as a common name rather than as part of the scientific name.


title: Jungle cat

text: In the 1820s, Eduard Rüppell collected a female jungle cat near Lake Manzala in the Nile Delta. Thomas Hardwicke's collection of illustrations of Indian wildlife comprises the first drawing of an Indian jungle cat, named the "allied cat" ("Felis affinis") by John Edward Gray in 1830. Two years later, Johann Friedrich von Brandt proposed a new species under the name "Felis rüppelii", recognising the distinctness of the Egyptian jungle cat. The same year, a stuffed cat was presented at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal that had been caught in the jungles of Midnapore in West Bengal, India. J. T. Pearson, who donated the specimen, proposed the name "Felis kutas", noting that it differed in colouration from "Felis chaus". Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire described a jungle cat from the area of Dehra Dun in northern India in 1844 under the name "Felis jacquemontii" in memory of Victor Jacquemont.


title: Jungle cat

text: In 1836, Brian Houghton Hodgson proclaimed the red-eared cat commonly found in Nepal to be a lynx and therefore named it "Lynchus erythrotus"; Edward Frederick Kelaart described the first jungle cat skin from Sri Lanka in 1852 and stressed upon its close resemblance to Hodgson's red cat. William Thomas Blanford pointed out the lynx-like appearance of cat skins and skulls from the plains around Yarkant County and Kashgar when he described "Felis shawiana" in 1876.


title: Jungle cat

text: Nikolai Severtzov proposed the generic name "Catolynx" in 1858, followed by Leopold Fitzinger's suggestion to call it "Chaus catolynx" in 1869. In 1898, William Edward de Winton proposed to subordinate the specimens from the Caucasus, Persia and Turkestan to "Felis chaus typica", and regrouped the lighter built specimens from the Indian subcontinent to "F. c. affinis". He renamed the Egyptian jungle cat as "F. c. nilotica" because "Felis rüppelii" was already applied to a different cat. A skin collected near Jericho in 1864 led him to describe a new subspecies, "F. c. furax", as this skin was smaller than other Egyptian jungle cat skins. A few years later, Alfred Nehring also described a jungle cat skin collected in Palestine, which he named "Lynx chrysomelanotis". Reginald Innes Pocock reviewed the nomenclature of felids in 1917 and classified the jungle cat group as part of the genus "Felis". In the 1930s, Pocock reviewed the jungle cat skins and skulls from British India and adjacent countries. Based mainly on differences in fur length and colour he subordinated the zoological specimens from Turkestan to Balochistan to "F. c. chaus", the Himalayan ones to "F. c. affinis", the ones from Cutch to Bengal under "F. c. kutas", and the tawnier ones from Burma under "F. c. fulvidina". He newly described six larger skins from Sind as "F. c. prateri", and skins with shorter coats from Sri Lanka and southern India as "F. c. kelaarti".


title: Jungle cat

text: In 2005, the authors of Mammal Species of the World recognized 10 subspecies as valid taxa. Since 2017, the Cat Specialist Group considers only three subspecies as valid. Geographical variation of the jungle cat is not yet well understood and needs to be examined.


title: Jungle cat

text: The following table is based on the classification of the species provided in "Mammal Species of the World". It also shows the synonyms used in the revision of the Cat Classification Task Force:


title: Jungle cat

text: Results of an mtDNA analysis of 55 jungle cats from various biogeographic zones in India indicate a high genetic variation and a relatively low differentiation between populations. It appears that the central Indian "F. c. kutas" population separates the Thar "F. c. prateri" populations from the rest and also the south Indian "F. c. kelaarti" populations from the north Indian "F. c. affinis" ones. The central Indian populations are genetically closer to the southern than to the northern populations.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat is a medium-sized, long-legged cat, and the largest of the extant "Felis" species. The head-and-body length is typically between . It stands nearly at shoulder and weighs . Its body size decreases from west to east; this was attributed to greater competition from small cats in the east. Its body size shows a similar decrease from the northern latitudes toward the tropics. Sexually dimorphic, females tend to be smaller and lighter than males. The face is long and narrow, with a white muzzle. The large, pointed ears, in length and reddish brown on the back, are set close together; a small tuft of black hairs, nearly long, emerges from the tip of both ears. The eyes have yellow irides and elliptical pupils; white lines can be seen around the eye. Dark lines run from the corner of the eyes down the sides of the nose and a dark patch marks the nose. The skull is fairly broad in the region of the zygomatic arch; hence the head of this cat appears relatively rounder.


title: Jungle cat

text: The coat, sandy, reddish brown or grey, is uniformly coloured and lacks spots; melanistic and albino individuals have been reported from the Indian subcontinent. White cats observed in the coastline tracts of the southern Western Ghats lacked the red eyes typical of true albinos. A 2014 suggested that their colouration could be attributed to inbreeding. Kittens are striped and spotted, and adults may retain some of the markings. Dark-tipped hairs cover the body, giving the cat a speckled appearance. The belly is generally lighter than the rest of the body and the throat is pale. The fur is denser on the back compared to the underparts. Two moults can be observed in a year; the coat is rougher and lighter in summer than in winter. The insides of the forelegs show four to five rings; faint markings may be seen on the outside. The black-tipped tail, long, is marked by two to three dark rings on the last third of the length. The pawprints measure about ; the cat can cover in one step. There is a distinct spinal crest. Because of its long legs, short tail and tuft on the ears, the jungle cat resembles a small lynx. It is larger and more slender than the domestic cat.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat is found in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Indian subcontinent, central and Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and in southern China.


title: Jungle cat

text: A habitat generalist, the jungle cat inhabits places with adequate water and dense vegetation, such as swamps, wetlands, littoral and riparian areas, grasslands and shrub. It is common in agricultural lands, such as fields of bean and sugarcane, across its range, and has often been sighted near human settlements. As reeds and tall grasses are typical of its habitat, it is known as "reed cat" or "swamp cat". It can thrive even in areas of sparse vegetation, but does not adapt well to cold climates and is rare in areas where snowfall is common. Historical records indicate that it occurs up to elevations of in the Himalayas. It shuns rainforests and woodlands.


title: Jungle cat

text: In Turkey, it has been recorded in wetlands near Manavgat, in the Akyatan Lagoon on the southern coast and near Lake Eğirdir.


title: Jungle cat

text: In the Palestinian territories, it was recorded in the Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Jerusalem Governorates in the West Bank during surveys carried out between 2012 and 2016.


title: Jungle cat

text: In Iran, it inhabits a variety of habitat types from plains and agriculture lands to mountains ranging from elevations of in at least 23 of 31 provinces of Iran.


title: Jungle cat

text: In Pakistan, it was photographed in Haripur, Dera Ismail Khan, Sialkot Districts and Langh Lake Wildlife Sanctuary.


title: Jungle cat

text: In Nepal, it was recorded in alpine habitat at elevations of in Annapurna Conservation Area between 2014 and 2016.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat is typically diurnal and hunts throughout the day. Its activity tends to decrease during the hot noon hours. It rests in burrows, grass thickets and scrubs. It often sunbathes on winter days. Jungle cats have been estimated to walk at night, although this likely varies depending on the availability of prey. The behaviour of the jungle cat has not been extensively studied. Solitary in nature, it does not associate with conspecifics, except in the mating season. The only prominent interaction is the mother-kitten bond. Territories are maintained by urine spraying and scent marking; some males have been observed rubbing their cheeks on objects to mark them.


title: Jungle cat

text: Leopards, tigers, bears, crocodiles, dholes, golden jackals, fishing cats, large raptors and snakes are the main predators of the jungle cat. The golden jackal in particular, can be a major competitor to the cat. When it encounters a threat, the jungle cat will vocalise before engaging in attack, producing sounds like small roars – a behavior uncommon for the other members of "Felis". The meow of the jungle cat is also somewhat lower than that of a typical domestic cat. The jungle cat can host parasites such as "Haemaphysalis" ticks and "Heterophyes" trematode species.


title: Jungle cat

text: Primarily a carnivore, the jungle cat prefers small mammals such as gerbils, hares and rodents. It also hunts birds, fishes, frogs, insects and small snakes. Its prey typically weighs less than , but occasionally includes mammals as large as young gazelles. The jungle cat is unusual in that it is partially omnivorous: it eats fruits, especially in winter. In a study carried out in Sariska Tiger Reserve, rodents were found to comprise as much as 95% of its diet.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat hunts by stalking its prey, followed by a sprint or a leap; the sharp ears help in pinpointing the location of prey. It uses different techniques to secure prey. The cat has been observed searching for musk rats in their holes. Like the caracal, the jungle cat can perform one or two high leaps into the air to grab birds. It is an efficient climber as well. The jungle cat has been clocked at . It is an efficient swimmer, and can swim up to in water and plunge into water to catch fish.


title: Jungle cat

text: Both sexes become sexually mature by the time they are one year old. Females enter oestrus lasting for about five days, from January to March. In males, spermatogenesis occurs mainly in February and March. In southern Turkmenistan, mating occurs from January to early February. The mating season is marked by noisy fights among males for dominance. Mating behaviour is similar to that in the domestic cat: the male pursues the female in oestrus, seizes her by the nape of her neck and mounts her. Vocalisations and flehmen are prominent during courtship. After a successful copulation, the female gives out a loud cry and reacts with aversion towards her partner. The pair then separate.


title: Jungle cat

text: Gestation lasts nearly two months. Births take place between December and June, though this might vary geographically. Before parturition, the mother prepares a den of grass in an abandoned animal burrow, hollow tree or reed bed. Litters comprise one to five kittens, typically two to three kittens. Females can raise two litters in a year. Kittens weigh between at birth, tending to be much smaller in the wild than in captivity. Initially blind and helpless, they open their eyes at 10 to 13 days of age and are fully weaned by around three months. Males usually do not participate in the raising of kittens; however, in captivity, males appear to be very protective of their offspring. Kittens begin to catch their own prey at around six months and leave the mother after eight or nine months. The lifespan of the jungle cat in captivity is 15 to 20 years; this is possibly higher than that in the wild.


title: Jungle cat

text: Major threats to the jungle cat include habitat loss such as the destruction of wetlands, dam construction, environmental pollution, industrialisation and urbanisation. Illegal hunting is a threat in Turkey and Iran. Its rarity in Southeast Asia is possibly due to high levels of hunting.


title: Jungle cat

text: Since the 1960s, populations of the Caucasian jungle cat living along the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus range states have been rapidly declining. Only small populations persist today. There has been no record in the Astrakhan Nature Reserve in the Volga Delta since the 1980s. It is rare in the Middle East. In Jordan, it is highly affected by the expansion of agricultural areas around the river beds of Yarmouk and Jordan rivers, where farmers hunted and poisoned jungle cats in retaliation for attacking poultry. It is also considered rare and threatened in Afghanistan. India exported jungle cat skins in large numbers, until this trade was banned in 1979; some illegal trade continues in the country, in Egypt and Afghanistan.


title: Jungle cat

text: In the 1970s, Southeast Asian jungle cats still used to be the most common wild cats near villages in certain parts of northern Thailand and occurred in many protected areas of the country. However, since the early 1990s, jungle cats are rarely encountered and have suffered drastic declines due to hunting and habitat destruction. Today, their official status in the country is critically endangered. In Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, jungle cats have been subject to extensive hunting. Skins are occasionally recorded in border markets, and live individuals, possibly taken from Myanmar or Cambodia, occasionally turn up in the Khao Khieo and Chiang Mai zoos of Thailand.


title: Jungle cat

text: The jungle cat is listed under CITES Appendix II. Hunting is prohibited in Bangladesh, China, India, Israel, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Thailand and Turkey. But it does not receive legal protection outside protected areas in Bhutan, Georgia, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov (; born 29 October 1961) is a Russian journalist, television presenter and the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Maria Ressa for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Muratov co-founded the pro-democracy newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" in 1993 with several other journalists. He was the newspaper's editor-in-chief from 1995 to 2017, and again assumed the position in 2019. The newspaper is known for its reporting on sensitive topics such as governmental corruption, human rights violations, electoral fraud, police violence, and other misuses of power. As editor-in-chief he was a vocal advocate for an independent press and published articles by Anna Politkovskaya that scrutinised the Putin administration. Muratov helped to create "the only truly critical newspaper with national influence in Russia today", according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. On 28 March 2022, the newspaper announced that it would suspend its online and print activities after it received a second warning from Roskomnadzor.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In April 2022, the second largest Norwegian media group Amedia announced it was handing over its four printing houses in Russia worth some 4 million Euro to Muratov, as it was ceasing its business activities in Russia.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Dmitry Muratov was born on 29 October 1961 into a Russian family in the city of Kuibyshev (officially known since 1991 by its original name, Samara). He studied at the Faculty of Philology at Kuibyshev (now Samara) State University for five years, where he discovered his interest in journalism. While in college he made contact with local newspapers and held a part-time job in journalism.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: From 1983 to 1985, after graduating from university, he served in the Soviet Army as a communication equipment security specialist.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In 1987, Muratov began working as a correspondent for "Volzhsky Komsomolets" newspaper. His superiors were so impressed that by the end of his first year he was appointed to head of the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" youth department, and later was promoted to editor of news articles. Muratov left Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1992.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In 1993, Muratov and 50+ other colleagues from "Komsomolskaya Pravda" left to start their own paper titled "Novaya Gazeta". Their goal was to create a publication that was "an honest, independent, and rich" source for the citizens of Russia. The newspaper’s mission is to conduct in-depth investigations into human rights issues, corruption and abuse of power. "Novaya Gazeta"s newsroom started out with two computers, two rooms, one printer and no salary for the employees. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev generously donated some of his Nobel Peace Prize money to pay for salaries and computers for the paper. Muratov helped to create "Novaya Gazeta", where he was named Deputy Press Editor.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In December 1994 – January 1995, Muratov was a correspondent in the war zone of the First Chechen War. In 1995, he became the head of the editorial board. He held this position for over 20 years, stepping down in 2017, citing the exhausting nature of running the paper. In 2019, he returned to the position, after the paper’s staff voted for his return.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Muratov often reported on sensitive topics including human rights violations, high-level government corruption, and abuse of power. His political beliefs, such as supporting freedom of press, has led to conflict with fellow journalists and the government.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In 2004, the newspaper printed seven articles by columnist Georgy Rozhnov, which accused Sergey Kiriyenko of embezzling US$4.8 billion of International Monetary Fund funds in 1998 when he was Prime Minister of Russia. The newspaper based the accusations on a letter allegedly written to Colin Powell and signed by U.S. Congressmen Philip Crane, Mike Pence, Charlie Norwood, Dan Burton and Henry Bonilla and posted on the website of the American Defense Council. The newspaper claimed that Kiriyenko had used some of the embezzled funds to purchase real estate in the United States. It was later claimed that the letter was a prank concocted by "The eXile". In response, Kiriyenko sued "Novaya Gazeta" and Rozhnov for libel, and in passing judgement in favour of Kiriyenko the court ordered "Novaya Gazeta" to retract all publications relating to the accusations and went on to say that the newspaper "is obliged to publish only officially proven information linking Mr Kiriyenko with embezzlement."


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: After "Novaya Gazeta" published an investigation by journalist Denis Korotkov about Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, in October 2018, Denis Korotkov and the editor-in-chief at "Novaya Gazeta" were the target of threatening deliveries of a severed ram's head and funeral flowers to the paper's offices. The style of the threat resembled others by Kremlin-linked Yevgeny Prigozhin.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In 2016, the newspaper was involved in the publishing of the so-called Panama Papers, confidential documents from a Panama-based law firm that had assisted companies and individuals from around the world in hiding their wealth.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: His newspaper has been influential on shedding light of the turbulent situations in Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus in general. "Novaya Gazeta" published reports about anti-gay purges in Chechnya in 2017, where three men were allegedly killed, and dozens detained and intimidated. After publication, the Chechen Government denied the existence of persecutions in the Republic.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: The newspaper published the report by Elena Milashina and the list of 27 Chechens killed on 26 January 2017. The newspaper also addressed the report and the list to the Russian government's Investigative Committee of Russia, and asked the committee to investigate the data in the published list. While "Novaya Gazeta" listed the names of 27 Chechens killed, the newspaper suspected that real number might be even more, with up to 56 Chechens killed that night. The newspaper said that the dead Chechens were citizens of the Republic of Chechnya, who were detained by the governmental security service, put in custody inside a secure compound belonging to the traffic police regiment in the City of Grozny, and executed on 26 January by gunfire (several men brutally killed by asphyxiation)) by state security forces without any legal proceedings.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: During Muratov's time at the "Novaya Gazeta", six of its journalists have been killed. In 2000, Igor Domnikov was murdered in a Moscow apartment building. In 2001, Victor Popkov, a Novaya Gazeta contributor, died after being wounded in the crossfire of a gunfight in Chechnya. In 2003, Yury Shchekochikhin was poisoned after investigating a corruption scandal where high-ranking Russian officials were involved. Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in her apartment block in 2006 after spending her career covering Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus. In 2009, Anastasia Baburova was shot and killed on the street, while Natalia Estemirova was abducted and executed.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Muratov released dual editions of his newspaper in both Russian and Ukrainian, and said that his newspaper would defy the Russian media watchdog's rules which he stated would lead to a situation in which only Russian government statements could be reported. The law states that the media not report knowingly disseminate "false" news, with the Russian Federation deciding what is the truth, "in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens and maintain international peace and security".


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: On 28 March 2022, the newspaper suspended its print activities after receiving a second warning from Roskomnadzor; on 6 April 2022, a foreign version of the paper ("Novaya Gazeta Europa") was launched from Riga in order to avoid censorship.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: On 7 April 2022, Muratov was attacked by an unknown person and covered with red paint while on a train from Moscow to Samara, supposedly as an act of support for Russian troops; According to U.S. intelligence agencies, the attack was organized by Russian intelligence services.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Muratov is a decorated journalist who has received numerous awards and honours for his contributions to his craft. He received the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2007 from the Committee to Protect Journalists for his bravery in defending the freedom of the press in the face of danger. On 29 January 2010, he was acknowledged by the French government for his devotion to the freedom of journalists. He was given the Legion of Honour order; France’s highest civil decoration. Muratov traveled to the Netherlands in May 2010 to receive the Four Freedoms Award for the "Novaya Gazeta". In 2016, Muratov accepted the Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: Muratov was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Maria Ressa of the Philippines, "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." The Nobel Committee specifically commended Novaja Gazeta's "critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and ”troll factories” to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia." The Nobel Prize Committee was criticized for rewarding Muratov and not jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as an attempt by the Committee "to keep the maximum distance from the current political process" in Russia. Muratov is a member of the democratic political party Yabloko that did not support the smart voting initiative by Navalny. The Kremlin congratulated Muratov on winning the Nobel prize. Muratov has said that he would have given the prize to Alexei Navalny if it were his choice.


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: In an interview to "Meduza", Muratov commented that his Nobel Prize belongs to all journalists of "Novaya Gazeta" who were killed for conducting their investigations:


title: Dmitry Muratov

text: On 22 March 2022, Muratov decided to sell his Nobel Peace Prize medal to an auction, donating the proceeds to UNICEF for the benefit of refugees from Ukraine. The medal sold for US$103.5 million, the highest price ever recorded for a Nobel medal.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The Prom is a musical with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Bob Martin and Beguelin, based on an original concept by Jack Viertel. The musical follows four Broadway actors lamenting their days of fame, as they travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to high school prom.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The musical had a tryout at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2016 and premiered on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre in October 2018.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: A film adaptation, produced and directed by Ryan Murphy, was released on Netflix on December 11, 2020.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: In 2010, Constance McMillen was a senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. She had plans to bring her girlfriend to their senior prom and wear a tuxedo, and in response, was banned from attending by the school board. McMillen challenged the board's decision; in response, the board decided to entirely cancel that year's senior prom. McMillen and the ACLU sued her school district, and a federal court found the Itawamba School District guilty of violating McMillen's First Amendment rights. However, the judge did not force the school district to reinstate the prom.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The board did eventually allow McMillen to attend prom, but the event, held at a local country club, was attended by only seven students. Local parents quietly organized a separate prom for the rest of the students, making sure to keep the location secret to avoid media attention.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Celebrities—such as Green Day, Cat Cora, and Lance Bass—rallied together via social media to show their support for McMillen and agreed to help sponsor a "Second-Chance" prom, where McMillen and her girlfriend could attend without homophobic backlash.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The show played the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta from August 18 to September 25, 2016. Casey Nicholaw was director and choreographer, with set design by Scott Pask, costumes by Ann Roth and Matthew Pachtman, lighting by Kenneth Posner and sound by Peter Hylenski.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The show began previews at the Longacre Theatre on October 23, 2018, with an official opening on November 15, 2018. The production closed on August 11, 2019, having played 23 previews and 309 regular performances. The production cost $13.5 million to stage and did not recoup its investment.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: A national tour of "The Prom" was expected to begin February 2021 in Providence, Rhode Island. It was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It launched on November 2, 2021, at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio, The tour played over 20 cities concluding in October 2022.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The Le Théâtre Emmen produced a version of the Musical in Swiss German / German language which ran from December 11, 2021 until January 16, 2022. The translation by Nico Rabenald (German), Andréas Härry (Swiss German dialogues), Irène Straub and Silvio Wey (Swiss German lyrics) made some notable changes: Instead of Edgewater, Indiana, the musical is set in the Lucerne hinterland. Also, the four actors aren't from Broadway, but from the German musical hub Hamburg.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The Professional US Regional Premiere played White Plains Performing Arts Center October 7-23, 2022. The production was Directed by Frank Portanova, Choreographed by Lexie Fenelle Frare & Music Directed by Stephen Ferri.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The musical opens on Broadway, where "Eleanor!: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story" is celebrating its opening night with its lead cast members Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman ("Changing Lives"). The musical is bashed by "The New York Times" because Dee Dee and Barry do not understand their characters since they are self-absorbed narcissists, resulting in the show closing on opening night. To improve their image, the actors decide to take up "a cause" to appear selfless. They team up with two other actors—Trent Oliver, a Juilliard School graduate down on his luck but who has just been cast in the non-Equity tour of "Godspell", and Angie Dickinson, a life-long chorus girl who just quit her job of 20 years in the musical "Chicago" after the producers never let her go on for the role of Roxie Hart- to find a cause that will make it look like they care. After searching on Twitter, they find Emma, a teenager from Indiana whose prom was cancelled by the Parent-Teacher Association because she wanted to bring her girlfriend. Seeing the opportunity, and some personal connection, the actors decide to go to Indiana to help ("Changing Lives (Reprise)").


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Back in Indiana, Emma faces severe bullying, but she reminds herself to breathe and that not everyone is this cruel ("Just Breathe"). Mr. Hawkins, the school principal and Emma's ally, informs her that he has spoken to the state attorney and that he believes they have a chance to reinstate the prom. The school holds a meeting with the PTA to discuss reinstating the prom. As Emma and Mr. Hawkins begin to make progress, Dee Dee, Barry, Angie, and Trent barge in with protest signs to support Emma. Dee Dee reminds everyone what a good person she is for doing this while claiming that this isn't about her, humiliating Emma ("It's Not About Me"). After the meeting, it is revealed that the girl Emma wants to take to prom is Alyssa, a popular but closeted student and the daughter of Mrs. Greene, the head of the PTA. The two argue as Alyssa blames Emma for all the publicity around the prom but Emma reassures her that she didn't want this either and that she just wants to be with her ("Dance with You"). The actors attempt to hold a rally to inspire action for Emma but can only book the halftime show at a monster truck rally. They perform alongside the non-Equity tour cast of Godspell ("The Acceptance Song"). The performance is unsuccessful.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: It is later learned that the state attorney ruled that the school must hold a prom. Emma thanks the actors, and Mr. Hawkins and Dee Dee go to Applebee's to celebrate. With the prom back on, students begin to "prompose" to each other. Emma officially asks Alyssa to this new prom and she agrees, promising to come out to be with her ("You Happened"). At Applebee's, Mr. Hawkins, a huge fan of Dee Dee's, tells her how much she inspires him ("We Look to You"). Barry helps Emma get ready for prom and reveals he didn't have the opportunity to go to prom either. Meanwhile, across town, other teens prepare for the prom as well ("Tonight Belongs to You"). As Emma waits outside the gym, she asks Barry to walk her in because she is nervous. As they enter, they realize that the gym is empty. Mr. Hawkins, who is inside desperately trying to resolve the issue, reveals that the PTA put on another prom across town and this one just for Emma, as required by the state attorney. Dee Dee panics that this fake prom will be bad press for her, which angers Mr. Hawkins as he learns about Dee Dee's true intentions. Emma calls Alyssa who tells her she knew nothing about the other prom. Emma asks her to come and be with her but she refuses to come out. Devastated, Emma runs out of the gym, asking all the actors to just go home.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Following the fake prom, the media frenzy around the whole event increases. The actors encourage Emma to step up and become the face of the story, but she is too scared. Angie encourages her by teaching her about zazz, sharing with her a story about Bob Fosse and the original production of "Chicago" ("Zazz"). Dee Dee returns to talk to Mr. Hawkins, who berates her for being so self-centered. She performs his favorite song to make it up to him and vows to begin thinking of others ("The Lady's Improving"). Trent decides that he may be able to change the minds of the youth of the town due to his small-town upbringing. He confronts a number of the students about how they and their families break the word of the Bible every day and how hypocritical they are being. He encourages them to follow "love thy neighbor" above all ("Love Thy Neighbor").


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Alyssa meets with Emma to apologize, telling her about all the pressure her mother puts on her to be perfect and how she blames Alyssa for her father leaving. Emma is unable to accept her apology and they break up ("Alyssa Greene"). The actors book Emma a TV appearance, but she turns it down and tells them that she has her own plan to control the narrative and change minds. Convinced her plan will work and that they will be able to have a prom for everyone, Emma asks Barry to be her date so that he is finally able to fulfill his dream. Barry, overjoyed, agrees as he recounts his experience missing his own prom ("Barry Is Going to Prom"). Emma uploads a video of her singing with her guitar about her struggles and longing for acceptance, but how despite that she is proud of who she is and won't hide anymore. She inspires other members of the LGBTQ+ community in the area and across the country to comment on their support for her and how it has helped them ("Unruly Heart"). The video goes viral, inspiring the actors to plan an inclusive prom for Emma and all the LGBTQ+ kids across the state. The actors want Emma to finally have a prom but the school doesn't have the money for it.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The actors all donate, including Dee Dee, who turns over her American Express Black card. The PTA is furious over the possibility of a new prom but the students voice their support for an inclusive prom, thanks to Trent's efforts to change their minds. The students suggest Trent stay in Indiana and become their drama teacher. Alyssa comes out to her mother in front of the school, confessing her love for Emma. Mrs. Greene is reluctant to accept Alyssa as she is, but Barry steps in, saying if she doesn't accept Alyssa, she is going to lose her. She is devastated but begins to become more open and agrees to listen to her daughter. The PTA backs down, and quickly makes plans for a new prom, while Dee Dee and Barry question what "success" is. The school puts on this more inclusive prom and LGBTQ+ couples from the area attend, along with the straight couples of James Madison High School. Emma and Alyssa finally get their dance and share a kiss ("It's Time to Dance").


title: The Prom (musical)

text: The original Broadway cast recording of "The Prom" was digitally released on December 14, 2018. The physical album released on January 11, 2019.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: "The Prom" was the first musical of the 2018–2019 Broadway season to be named a "New York Times" Critics Pick, with Jesse Green calling it "such a joyful hoot. With its kinetic dancing, broad mugging and belty anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again."


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Frank Rizzo, writing for "Variety" wrote that "with a tuneful score, a playful book, and performances that remind you what Broadway heart and chutzpah are all about, this cause celebre of a show turns out to be a joyous, funny, and sweet production that should appeal to several generations of musical fans."


title: The Prom (musical)

text: "New York Magazine"'s Sara Holdren wrote: "There’s such genuine joy rolling off the stage in "The Prom" that you’re ready and willing to forgive it its minor misfires... Did I shed several real tears in "The Prom"’s final scene? Maybe I did… I also seldom stopped laughing. The show is full of witty delights."


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Adam Feldman of "Time Out Magazine" gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, saying "It is cheering to see a musical comedy that engages with modern questions, with a teenage lesbian romance at its center to boot... But while the issues are contemporary, there is a 1980s feel to the character types and the overall style of Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar’s score, which resembles their work in "The Wedding Singer"; a stronger dose of reality in the lyrics and the book (by Beguelin and Bob Martin) would better justify the show’s eventual turn to sentimental education. But Casey Nicholaw’s peppy direction helps give the show enough momentum to power past its narrative potholes and occasional bumps of heavy-handedness."


title: The Prom (musical)

text: In "The Hollywood Reporter", David Rooney called the show “one part satire, packed with delicious theatrical in-jokes delivered with aplomb by game stage veterans playing caricatures of themselves; and one part inclusivity teaching moment, reminding us there's a place for everyone beneath the Mylar balloons at a high school dance, even in conservative Indiana. If the two halves aren't entirely seamless, especially in the uneven second act, the show has enough humor and heart to paper over the cracks."


title: The Prom (musical)

text: On April 9, 2019, at a benefit performance of the show hosted by filmmaker and TV stalwart Ryan Murphy, Murphy announced his intentions to adapt the show into a film for Netflix. Murphy said in an interview that he intends for the film to be made quickly, with production on the film set to begin in December 2019. The film is expected to "arrive on the streaming service in fall 2020." On June 25, 2019 (updated on June 26), it was reported that the film is expected to star Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Andrew Rannells, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina. On November 1, 2019, it was announced that Ariana DeBose will play the role of Alyssa. On November 25, 2019, it was announced that newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman will star as the lead character, Emma Nolan. On January 25, 2020, it was announced that Kevin Chamberlin would replace Awkwafina in the role of Sheldon Saperstein, reverting the character's original gender in the musical, since Awkwafina was busy shooting her TV series "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens".


title: The Prom (musical)

text: A young adult novel adaptation of the show was released on September 10, 2019, from Penguin Young Readers’ Viking Children’s Books. Saundra Mitchell wrote it, working with the show's creators to transform the musical to print.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: Actresses Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla's kiss during "The Prom"'s performance of "Time to Dance" at the 2018 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade received significant media attention for being the first LGBTQ kiss in the parade's broadcast history.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: On August 3, 2019, after a performance of the show at the Longacre Theatre, Broadway’s first-known onstage wedding ceremony occurred, between Armelle Kay Harper, a script coordinator on the show, and Jody Kay Smith, a singer and actress who had recently worked with the show's musical director. It was a same-sex wedding.


title: The Prom (musical)

text: On June 17, 2019, New York/London Theatrical Licensing Agency Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) acquired and announced the representation of THE PROM for the ongoing licensing of the show for professional and amateur productions around the world. The musical joins TRW's catalogue of Broadway and West End shows including JERSEY BOYS, MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE COLOR PURPLE, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, and others.


title: Distributive property

text: In mathematics, the distributive property of binary operations generalizes the distributive law, which asserts that the equality


title: Distributive property

text: This basic property of numbers is part of the definition of most algebraic structures that have two operations called addition and multiplication, such as complex numbers, polynomials, matrices, rings, and fields. It is also encountered in Boolean algebra and mathematical logic, where each of the logical and (denoted formula_3) and the logical or (denoted formula_4) distributes over the other.


title: Distributive property

text: The operators used for examples in this section are those of the usual addition formula_7 and multiplication formula_23


title: Distributive property

text: If the operation denoted formula_24 is not commutative, there is a distinction between left-distributivity and right-distributivity:


title: Distributive property

text: To multiply a sum (or difference) by a factor, each summand (or minuend and subtrahend) is multiplied by this factor and the resulting products are added (or subtracted).


title: Distributive property

text: If the operation outside the parentheses (in this case, the multiplication) is commutative, then left-distributivity implies right-distributivity and vice versa, and one talks simply of .


title: Distributive property

text: The distributive laws are among the axioms for rings (like the ring of integers) and fields (like the field of rational numbers). Here multiplication is distributive over addition, but addition is not distributive over multiplication. Examples of structures with two operations that are each distributive over the other are Boolean algebras such as the algebra of sets or the switching algebra.


title: Distributive property

text: Multiplying sums can be put into words as follows: When a sum is multiplied by a sum, multiply each summand of a sum with each summand of the other sum (keeping track of signs) then add up all of the resulting products.


title: Distributive property

text: In the following examples, the use of the distributive law on the set of real numbers formula_29 is illustrated. When multiplication is mentioned in elementary mathematics, it usually refers to this kind of multiplication. From the point of view of algebra, the real numbers form a field, which ensures the validity of the distributive law.


title: Distributive property

text: Because the commutative property does not hold for matrix multiplication, the second law does not follow from the first law. In this case, they are two different laws.


title: Distributive property

text: In standard truth-functional propositional logic, in logical proofs uses two valid rules of replacement to expand individual occurrences of certain logical connectives, within some formula, into separate applications of those connectives across subformulas of the given formula. The rules are


title: Distributive property

text: where "formula_50", also written formula_51 is a metalogical symbol representing "can be replaced in a proof with" or "is logically equivalent to".


title: Distributive property

text: is a property of some logical connectives of truth-functional propositional logic. The following logical equivalences demonstrate that distributivity is a property of particular connectives. The following are truth-functional tautologies.


title: Distributive property

text: In approximate arithmetic, such as floating-point arithmetic, the distributive property of multiplication (and division) over addition may fail because of the limitations of arithmetic precision. For example, the identity formula_54 fails in decimal arithmetic, regardless of the number of significant digits. Methods such as banker's rounding may help in some cases, as may increasing the precision used, but ultimately some calculation errors are inevitable.


title: Distributive property

text: Distributivity is most commonly found in semirings, notably the particular cases of rings and distributive lattices.


title: Distributive property

text: A semiring has two binary operations, commonly denoted formula_7 and formula_56 and requires that formula_6 must distribute over formula_58


title: Distributive property

text: If either of these operations distributes over the other (say formula_3 distributes over formula_61), then the reverse also holds (formula_4 distributes over formula_3), and the lattice is called distributive. See also .


title: Distributive property

text: A Boolean algebra can be interpreted either as a special kind of ring (a Boolean ring) or a special kind of distributive lattice (a Boolean lattice). Each interpretation is responsible for different distributive laws in the Boolean algebra.


title: Distributive property

text: Similar structures without distributive laws are near-rings and near-fields instead of rings and division rings. The operations are usually defined to be distributive on the right but not on the left.


title: Distributive property

text: In several mathematical areas, generalized distributivity laws are considered. This may involve the weakening of the above conditions or the extension to infinitary operations. Especially in order theory one finds numerous important variants of distributivity, some of which include infinitary operations, such as the infinite distributive law; others being defined in the presence of only binary operation, such as the according definitions and their relations are given in the article distributivity (order theory). This also includes the notion of a completely distributive lattice.


title: Distributive property

text: In the presence of an ordering relation, one can also weaken the above equalities by replacing formula_64 by either formula_65 or formula_66 Naturally, this will lead to meaningful concepts only in some situations. An application of this principle is the notion of sub-distributivity as explained in the article on interval arithmetic.


title: Distributive property

text: In category theory, if formula_67 and formula_68 are monads on a category formula_34 a distributive law formula_70 is a natural transformation formula_71 such that formula_72 is a lax map of monads formula_73 and formula_74 is a colax map of monads formula_75 This is exactly the data needed to define a monad structure on formula_76: the multiplication map is formula_77 and the unit map is formula_78 See: distributive law between monads.


title: Distributive property

text: The ubiquitous identity that relates inverses to the binary operation in any group, namely formula_79 which is taken as an axiom in the more general context of a semigroup with involution, has sometimes been called an antidistributive property (of inversion as a unary operation).


title: Distributive property

text: In the context of a near-ring, which removes the commutativity of the additively written group and assumes only one-sided distributivity, one can speak of (two-sided) distributive elements but also of antidistributive elements. The latter reverse the order of (the non-commutative) addition; assuming a left-nearring (i.e. one which all elements distribute when multiplied on the left), then an antidistributive element formula_80 reverses the order of addition when multiplied to the right: formula_81


title: Distributive property

text: In the study of propositional logic and Boolean algebra, the term antidistributive law is sometimes used to denote the interchange between conjunction and disjunction when implication factors over them:


title: Rule 63

text: Rule 63 is an Internet meme that states that, as a rule, "for every given male character, there is a female version of that character" and vice versa. It is one of the "Rules of the Internet" that began in 2006 as a Netiquette guide on 4chan and were eventually expanded upon by including deliberately mocking rules, of which Rule 63 is an example. It began to see general use in fandom communities as a term to refer to both fan-made and official gender flips of existing fictional characters.


title: Rule 63

text: Prior to the creation of Rule 63, gender flipping was popularized in video games in the 1990s by the finishing move of "Darkstalkers" character Demitri Maximoff, a vampire. Called the "Midnight Bliss", it involved tossing a rose at a character to transform them into a helpless maiden and completely drain them of life energy. This meant that female versions of all the game's male characters had to be created, as well as those of "Street Fighter" and SNK characters when "" included Maximoff. These female interpretations became popular and resulted in large amounts of fan art, as well as prompting art of gender-swaps of other male and female characters.


title: Rule 63

text: Rule 63 was created in mid-2007 as an addition to the humorous "Rules of the Internet", originally created around the end of 2006 on 4chan. It lists two statements:


title: Rule 63

text: The primacy of the male to female transition contains an implied subtext that female to male gender flipping is less important.


title: Rule 63

text: The trope, originally seen primarily unofficially, later became more widely disseminated in popular culture, with critics stating that it had been "recognized by Hollywood".


title: Rule 63

text: Rule 63 is commonly used as a term to refer to gender-swapped interpretations of existing characters in fanworks, such as fan art, fan fiction and cosplay, and it is particularly pervasive in the anime and manga community, where communities sprang up built around romantic gender-swap relationships. It also often overlaps with the creation of "moe" anthropomorphic female versions of non-human, male characters. A well-known example of this is Bowsette, a female version of the "Mario" antagonist Bowser that became one of the most popular Internet memes of 2018. However, it has also been used by critics to refer to official characters who are gender-swapped versions of older characters or fictional beings, such as Number Six from "Battlestar Galactica" being a "sexy female" version of a Cylon Centurion, and the female main cast of the 2016 reboot of "Ghostbusters".


title: Rule 63

text: The creation of Rule 63 cosplays such as gender-swapped superheroes has been cited as popular amongst female cosplayers as giving them the ability to portray roles beyond socially approved gendered scripts. It is seen as empowering, allowing cosplayers to wear clothing and weapons usually not afforded to female characters. However, certain characters with inherent gender fluidity are said to work better than others. Such gender-bending cosplay, which allows the cosplayer to choose what behavior enhances the performance, can be contrasted with crossplay, which completely immerses the cosplayer in the codes of another gender.


title: Iris Chang

text: Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, "The Rape of Nanking", and in 2003, "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History". Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography "Finding Iris Chang", and the 2007 documentary film "Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking" starring Olivia Cheng as Iris Chang. The independent 2007 documentary film "Nanking" was based on her work and dedicated to her memory.


title: Iris Chang

text: Iris Chang was the daughter of two university professors, Ying-Ying Chang and Dr. Shau-Jin Chang, who moved from mainland China to Taiwan and eventually emigrated to the United States. Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.


title: Iris Chang

text: Chang grew up hearing stories about the Nanking massacre, from which her maternal grandparents managed to escape. When she tried finding books about the subject in Champaign Public Library, she found there were none.


title: Iris Chang

text: She attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, and graduated in 1985. She was initially a computer science major, but switched to journalism, earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. During her time in college she also worked as a "New York Times" stringer from Urbana-Champaign, and wrote six front-page articles over the course of one year.


title: Iris Chang

text: After brief stints at the Associated Press and the "Chicago Tribune", she pursued a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She then embarked on her career as an author and lectured and wrote magazine articles.


title: Iris Chang

text: In 1991, Chang married Bretton Lee Douglas, a design engineer for Cisco Systems, whom she had met in college, and had one son, Christopher, who was two years old at the time of her suicide. She lived in San Jose, California in the final years of her life.


title: Iris Chang

text: Chang wrote three books documenting the experiences of Chinese and Chinese Americans in history. Her first, "Thread of the Silkworm" (Basic Books, 1995) tells the life story of the Chinese professor, Hsue-Shen Tsien (or Qian Xuesen) during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Although Tsien was one of the founders of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and for many years helped the military of the United States debrief scientists from Nazi Germany, he was suddenly accused of being a spy and a member of the Communist Party USA, and was placed under house arrest from 1950 to 1955. Tsien left for the People's Republic of China in September 1955. Upon his return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which was used by the Iraqi military during its war on Iran and against the United States-led coalitions during the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Iris Chang

text: Her second book, "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" (1997), was published on the 60th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre and was motivated in part by her own grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. It documents atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and includes interviews with victims. "The Rape of Nanking" remained on the "New York Times" Bestseller list for 10 weeks. Based on the book, an American documentary film, "Nanking", was released in 2007.


title: Iris Chang

text: After publication of the book, Chang campaigned to persuade the Japanese government to apologize for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation.


title: Iris Chang

text: Her third book, "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History" (2003), is a history of Chinese Americans, that argues their treatment as perpetual outsiders by American society. Consistent with the style of her earlier works, the book relies heavily on personal accounts, drawing its strong emotional content from their stories. She wrote, "The America of today would not be the same America without the achievements of its ethnic Chinese," and that "scratch the surface of every American celebrity of Chinese heritage and you will find that, no matter how stellar their achievements, no matter how great their contribution to US society, virtually all of them have had their identities questioned at one point or another."


title: Iris Chang

text: Success as an author made Iris Chang a public figure. "The Rape of Nanking" placed her in great demand as a speaker and as an interview subject, and, more broadly, as a spokesperson for the viewpoint that the Japanese government had not done enough to compensate victims of their invasion of China. In one often-mentioned incident (as reported by "The Times" of London):


title: Iris Chang

text: ...she confronted the Japanese Ambassador to the United States on television, demanded an apology and expressed her dissatisfaction with his mere acknowledgement "that really unfortunate things happened, acts of violence were committed by members of the Japanese military". "It is because of these types of wording and the vagueness of such expressions that Chinese people, I think, are infuriated," was her reaction.


title: Iris Chang

text: Chang's visibility as a public figure increased with her final work, "The Chinese in America". After her death, she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. Mo Hayder dedicated a novel to her. Reporter Richard Rongstad eulogized her as "Iris Chang lit a flame and passed it to others and we should not allow that flame to be extinguished."


title: Iris Chang

text: In 2007, the documentary "Nanking" was dedicated to Chang, as well as the Chinese victims of Nanking.


title: Iris Chang

text: "The Man Who Ended History", a story in "The Paper Managerie" by Ken Liu about uncovering the history of Unit 731, is dedicated to the memory of Chang.


title: Iris Chang

text: Chang suffered a nervous breakdown in August 2004, which her family, friends, and doctors attributed in part to constant sleep deprivation, dozens of herbal supplements, and heavy doses of psychologically damaging prescription medication. At the time, she was several months into research for her fourth book, about the Bataan Death March. She was also promoting "The Chinese in America". While en route to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she planned to gain access to a "time capsule" of audio recordings from servicemen, she suffered an extreme bout of depression that left her unable to leave her hotel room in Louisville. A local veteran, Arthur Kelly, who was assisting her research helped her check into Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, where she was diagnosed with reactive psychosis, placed on heavy medication for three days and then released to her parents. After the release from the hospital, she continued to suffer from depression and experienced the side effects of several medications she was taking. Chang was also reportedly deeply disturbed by much of the subject matter of her research.


title: Iris Chang

text: On November 9, 2004, at about 9 a.m., Chang was found dead in her car by a Santa Clara Valley Water District employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos, California and west of State Route 17, in Santa Clara County. Investigators concluded that Chang had shot herself through the mouth with a revolver. At the time of her death, she had been taking the medications Depakote and Risperdal to stabilize her mood.


title: Iris Chang

text: It was later discovered that she had left behind three suicide notes each dated November 8, 2004. "Statement of Iris Chang" stated:


title: Iris Chang

text: I promise to get up and get out of the house every morning. I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. I will follow the doctor's orders for medications. I promise not to hurt myself. I promise not to visit Web sites that talk about suicide.


title: Iris Chang

text: When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute. It is far better that you remember me as I was—in my heyday as a best-selling author—than the wild-eyed wreck who returned from Louisville. ... Each breath is becoming difficult for me to take—the anxiety can be compared to drowning in an open sea. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. Please forgive me.


title: Iris Chang

text: There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. Deep down I suspect that you may have more answers about this than I do. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me.


title: Iris Chang

text: Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. I sensed suddenly threats to my own life: an eerie feeling that I was being followed in the streets, the white van parked outside my house, damaged mail arriving at my P.O. Box. I believe my detention at Norton Hospital was the government's attempt to discredit me.


title: Iris Chang

text: A report from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that news of her suicide had a strong impact on survivors of the Nanking Massacre and the Chinese community in general.


title: Iris Chang

text: In tribute to Chang, the survivors held a service at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, around the same time as her funeral, held at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos, California on November 12, 2004. The Memorial Hall, which collects documents, photos, and human remains from the massacre, added both a wing and a bronze statue dedicated to Chang in 2005.


title: Sardonicism

text: A form of wit or humour, being sardonic often involves expressing an uncomfortable truth in a clever and not necessarily malicious way, often with a degree of skepticism.


title: Sardonicism

text: Both the concept and the etymology of the word, while being of uncertain origin, appear to stem from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. The 10th-century Byzantine Greek encyclopedia "Suda" traces the word's earliest roots to the notion of grinning () in the face of danger, or curling one's lips back at evil.


title: Sardonicism

text: One explanation for the later alteration to its more familiar form and connection to laughter (supported by the "Oxford English Dictionary") appears to stem from an ancient belief that ingesting the "sardonion" (σαρδόνιον) plant from Sardinia (Σαρδώ) would result in convulsions resembling laughter and, ultimately, death. In "Theory and History of Folklore", Vladimir Propp discusses alleged examples of ritual laughter accompanying death and killing, all involving groups. These he characterized as sardonic laughter:


title: Sardonicism

text: Among the very ancient people of Sardinia, who were called "Sardi" or "Sardoni", it was customary to kill old people. While killing their old people, the Sardi laughed loudly. This is the origin of notorious sardonic laughter (Eugen Fehrle, 1930). In light of our findings things begin to look different. Laughter accompanies the passage from death to life; it creates life and accompanies birth. Consequently, laughter accompanying killing transforms death into a new birth, nullifies murder as such, and is an act of piety that transforms death into a new life.


title: Sardonicism

text: A root form may first appear in Homer's "Odyssey" as the Ancient Greek "sardánios", altered by influence of the word "Sardonios" (Σαρδονιος, "Sardinian"), originated from a Greek phrase which meant "to be sneered", "tearing of flesh" or for scornful laughter. From the evolved the , thence the , and ultimately the familiar English adjectival form, "sardonic". In the English vernacular, it was recorded and utilized in Edmund Spenser's "The Shepheard’s Calendar" (1579).


title: Sardonicism

text: "Risus sardonicus" is an apparent smile on the face of those who are convulsing because of tetanus or strychnine poisoning. From the "Oxford English Dictionary", "A fixed, grin-like expression resulting from spasm of facial muscles, esp. in tetanus." Also:


title: Sardonicism

text: [Convulsion of the] facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called "Risus sardonicus" (from the Latin for scornful laughter) or "Risus caninus" (from the Latin for doglike laughter or grinning). This facial expression has also been observed among patients with tetanus. "Risus sardonicus" causes a patient's eyebrows to rise, eyes to bulge, and mouth to retract dramatically, resulting in what has been described as an evil-looking grin.


title: Sardonicism

text: In 2009 scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont claimed to have identified hemlock water dropwort as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. This plant is the candidate for the "sardonic herb", which was a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in pre-Roman Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, they were intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.


title: Dunfermline

text: Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. According to the National Records of Scotland, the Greater Dunfermline area has a population of 76,210.


title: Dunfermline

text: The earliest known settlements in the area around Dunfermline probably date as far back as the Neolithic period. The area was not regionally significant until at least the Bronze Age. The town was first recorded in the 11th century, with the marriage of Malcolm III, King of Scots, and Saint Margaret at the church in Dunfermline. As his Queen consort, Margaret established a new church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which evolved into an Abbey under their son, David I in 1128. During the reign of Alexander I, the church – later to be known as Dunfermline Abbey – was firmly established as a prosperous royal mausoleum for the Scottish Crown. A total of eighteen royals, including seven Kings, were buried here from Queen Margaret in 1093 to Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany in 1420. Robert the Bruce, otherwise known as Robert I, became the last of the seven Scottish Kings to be buried in 1329. His bones would eventually be re-discovered and re-buried in 1821, when the excavation of the grounds of what had formerly been the eastern section of the Abbey became the site for the new Abbey Church.