title: Baron Mordo

text: Mordo would return eventually to continue to bedevil Doctor Strange. He impersonated Doctor Strange during Strange's brief retirement, but was soon vanquished. Mordo discovered the Book of Cagliostro, and battled Strange in 18th-Century Paris. He then accompanied Strange and Sise-Neg to the dawn of time. After suffering a mental breakdown, he was placed in Doctor Strange's care, but later escaped. Mordo transformed the dead Lord Phyffe into Azrael, angel of death, and dispatched him against Strange. He sent the Man-Thing to kill Strange, and assembled thirteen people for human sacrifice to the Chaos Demon. Mordo was defeated by Strange, Jennifer Kale, and the Man-Thing. He attacked Strange, and escaped into the 1940s, but was manipulated by Dormammu.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Mordo later sold his soul to both Mephisto and Satannish for power, gaming that Strange would save him. He was trapped with Sara Wolfe, and later rescued her. Mordo himself was later imprisoned, and Sara Wolfe freed him from imprisonment. Mordo battled Dormammu to defend the Earth. He was defeated, and pretended to ally himself with Dormammu, and then allied himself with Umar to defeat Dormammu.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Umar and Mordo were eventually deposed by Clea. Mordo eventually contracted terminal cancer as a side effect of his use of black magic, and renounced evil just before his death. He later returned to life. He later allies himself with Terrax, Tiger Shark and Red Hulk as the "Offenders", to be opposed by his old rival and newly costumed Doctor Strange, aided by the other three original Defenders.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Mordo appeared in the pages of "X-Factor" vol. 3 #203, where it is revealed that he kidnapped politician Cartier St. Croix in order to lure his daughter Monet St. Croix into a trap.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Mordo returns during the aftermath of the "Last Days of Magic" arc. Mordo forces a family to leave their residence, but lets the mother stay as his servant. Dormammu incinerates the woman's body as he possesses her in order to chastise Mordo for delaying his plans. Mordo heads to the Sanctum Sanctorum and attacks Wong with Doctor Strange confronting him and the two briefly battle before the latter is taken by Nightmare. Mordo, angered that his foe was taken by another, is confronted by Dormammu again (in the form of a swarm of rats) who proceeds to attack Mordo causing him to leave. He later catches up to Doctor Strange when he is attacked by Orb, until Dormammu arrives. He then helps Doctor Strange in banishing Dormammu directly to Shuma-Gorath.


title: Baron Mordo

text: During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Baron Mordo becomes the caretaker of Manhattan after it gets surrounded by Darkforce following Hydra's takeover of the United States. In addition to using the Sanctum Sanctorum as his residence, Baron Mordo has the Elder God Pluorrg guarding the Sanctum Sanctorum. He later catches Daredevil, Luke Cage, Cloak and Iron Fist when they are attempting to fight him. Mordo is then defeated by Doctor Strange, Spider-Woman, Ben Urich and Kingpin.


title: Baron Mordo

text: During the "Death of Doctor Strange" storyline, Baron Mordo appears with Kaecilius at the Sanctum Sanctorum where Wong, Doctor Voodoo, Zelma Stanton, and the Ghost of Bats the Dog find Doctor Strange dead. Wong accuses Baron Mordo of this crime as he states that somebody stole this opportunity from him. Just then, a classic version of Doctor Strange arrives having sensed that the worst has happened and asks what year is it. When the Three Mothers show up upon tracking Clea to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Baron Mordo and Kaecilius take their leave. Baron Mordo's castle is raided by Classic Doctor Strange, Clea, and Wong when they suspect that he stole the Eye of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation. Baron Mordo gives them the items stating that he wasn't the one who stole them, the investigators accepting this claim as he still denies killing Strange where Mordo's ego would have driven him to admit his guilt if he actually "was" responsible at this point. In New Umarria, Antarctica, Classic Doctor Strange, Clea, and Magik arrive and meet with Baron Mordo, Kaecilius, Aggamon, Tiboro, and Umar where he puts them through a murder mystery that involved bringing up why the inter-dimensional warlords fled to Earth and the framing of Baron Mordo. He concludes that Kaecilius is responsible for Doctor Strange's murder as Kaecilius plans to make Baron Mordo "squeal with all the agonies of the Purple Dimension" and then kill Classic Doctor Strange again with Doctor Strange's own powers. Baron Mordo later helps Doctor Strange, Classic Doctor Strange, Clea, Magik, Aggamon, Tiboro, and Umar in fighting the Peregrine Child and the Three Mothers.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Baron Mordo has vast magical abilities derived from his years of studying black magic and the mystic arts. He can manipulate magical forces for a variety of effects, including hypnotism, mesmerism, thought-casting, and illusion casting. He can separate his astral form from his body, allowing him to become intangible and invisible to most beings. He can project deadly force blasts using magic, can teleport inter-dimensionally, and can manipulate many forms of magical energy. He can tap extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power existing in dimensions tangential to Earth's through the recitation of spells. He can also summon demons, but often does not have enough power to force them to do what he wants them to do.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Baron Mordo has some knowledge of a karate-like martial art form, and has an extensive knowledge of magical lore.


title: Baron Mordo

text: Baron Mordo appears in the last issue of "Mutant X", being referred to as the 'Ancient One'. He is still considered a villain, though he allies himself with other heroes and villains in order to stop the Beyonder/Goblin Queen entity.


title: Baron Mordo

text: In "Secret Wars", the Avengers 2099 of the Battleworld domain of 2099 investigate the threat of the mysterious Martin Hargood. In the final issue, it is revealed he is Baron Mordo's descendant. After reclaiming his ancestral title, Martin Hargood uses Alchemax's Virtual Unreality lab to summon the Dweller in Darkness. Captain America 2099 punches Mordo out, while Roman, the son of Namor, summons a Giganto to defeat the Dweller.


title: Baron Mordo

text: In the miniseries "Wastelanders" (set in the different realities of Old Man Logan), Baron Mordo is shown to run a village in The Presidential Quarter on Earth-21923 where he has the Darkhold in his possession, drew his power from a captive Agatha Harkness, and enslaved Sofia Strange. After Old Man Logan had killed Red Skull and Hulk, a power vacuum was created which led to Doctor Doom taking over the Presidential Quarter. Doctor Doom came across Baron Mordo's village at that time. He cuts off Baron Mordo's access to Harkness, kills him, and takes his Darkhold.


title: Darien scheme

text: The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing "New Caledonia", a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony, located on the Gulf of Darién, to establish and manage an overland route to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The backers knew that the first sighting of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa was after crossing the isthmus through Darién.


title: Darien scheme

text: The attempt at settling the area did not go well; more than 80% of participants died within a year, and the settlement was abandoned twice.


title: Darien scheme

text: There are many explanations for the disaster. Rival claims have been made suggesting that the undertaking was beset by poor planning and provisioning; by divided leadership; by a lack of demand for traded goods, owing to an English trade blockade; by devastating epidemics of tropical disease; by the successful collaboration between the English East India Company and the English government to frustrate it; and by a failure to anticipate the Spanish Empire's military response. It was finally abandoned in March 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces, which also blockaded the harbour.


title: Darien scheme

text: As the Company of Scotland was backed by approximately 20% of all the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the entire Scottish Lowlands in financial ruin. This was an important factor in weakening their resistance to the Act of Union (completed in 1707). The land where the Darien colony was built is located in the modern territory of Guna Yala, an autonomous indigenous territory home to the Guna people.


title: Darien scheme

text: The expedition also took sovereignty over 'Crab Isle' (modern day Vieques, Puerto Rico) in 1698, yet sovereignty was short-lived.


title: Darien scheme

text: The late 17th century was a difficult period for Scotland, as it was for much of Europe; the years 1695-97 saw catastrophic famine in present-day Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden, plus an estimated two million deaths in France and Northern Italy. The 1690s were Scotland's coldest decade in the past 750 years as documented in tree ring records.


title: Darien scheme

text: Scotland's economy was relatively small, its range of exports was limited, and it was in a weak position in relation to England, its powerful neighbour (with which it was in personal but not yet political union). In an era of economic rivalry in Europe, Scotland was incapable of protecting itself from the effects of English competition and legislation. The kingdom had no reciprocal export trade and its once-thriving industries such as shipbuilding were in deep decline; goods that were in demand had to be bought from England for sterling. Moreover, the Navigation Acts further increased economic dependence on England by limiting Scotland's shipping, and the Royal Scots Navy was relatively small. Though the unusual cold affected much of the Northern Hemisphere, Scotland suffered disproportionately and lost 10-15% of its entire population, possibly due to its political isolation. A series of domestic conflicts, including the 1639-51 Wars of the Three Kingdoms and unrest related to religious differences between 1670-1690 exhausted the people and diminished their resources. The so-called "seven ill years" of the 1690s saw widespread crop failures and famine, while Scotland's deteriorating economic position led to calls for a political or customs union with England. However, the stronger feeling among Scots was that the country should become a great mercantile and colonial power like England.


title: Darien scheme

text: the Bank of Scotland was established; the Act for the Settling of Schools created a parish-based system of public education throughout Scotland; and the Company of Scotland was chartered with capital to be raised by public subscription to trade with "Africa and the Indies".


title: Darien scheme

text: In the face of opposition by English commercial interests, the Company of Scotland raised subscriptions in Amsterdam, Hamburg and London for the scheme. For his part, King William II of Scotland and III of England had given only lukewarm support to the whole Scottish colonial endeavour. England was at war with France and hence did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada.


title: Darien scheme

text: One reason for English opposition to the Scheme was the then prevalent economic theory of mercantilism, a concept as widespread and accepted then as capitalism is today. Modern economics generally assumes a constantly growing market but mercantilism viewed it as static; that meant increasing one's market share required taking it from someone else. This meant the Darien Scheme was not simply competition but an active threat to English merchants.


title: Darien scheme

text: England was also under pressure from the London-based East India Company, who were keen to maintain their monopoly over English foreign trade. It therefore forced the English and Dutch investors to withdraw. Next, the East India Company threatened legal action on the grounds that the Scots had no authority from the king to raise funds outside the English realm, and obliged the promoters to refund subscriptions to the Hamburg investors. This left no source of finance but Scotland itself.


title: Darien scheme

text: Returning to Edinburgh, the Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa raised £400,000 sterling in a few weeks (equivalent to roughly £ today), with investments from every level of society, and totalling about a fifth of the wealth of Scotland. It was, for Scotland, a massive amount of capital.


title: Darien scheme

text: Scottish-born trader and financier William Paterson had long promoted a plan for a colony on the Isthmus of Panama to be used as a gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific – the same principle which, much later, would lead to the construction of the Panama Railroad, and then the Panama Canal. Paterson was instrumental in getting the company off the ground in London. He had failed to interest several European countries in his project but, in the aftermath of the English reaction to the company, he was able to get a hearing for his ideas.


title: Darien scheme

text: The Scots' original aim of emulating the East India Company by breaking into the lucrative trading areas of the Indies and Africa was forgotten, and the highly ambitious Darien scheme was adopted by the company. Paterson later fell from grace when a subordinate embezzled funds from the company, took back Paterson's stock and expelled him from the Court of Directors; he was to have little real influence on events after this point.


title: Darien scheme

text: Many former officers and soldiers, who had little hope of other employment, eagerly joined the Darien project. Many of them were acquainted from serving in the army and several – Thomas Drummond, for example – were notorious for their involvement in the Massacre of Glencoe. In some eyes they appeared to be a clique, and this was to cause much suspicion among other members of the expedition. The first Council (appointed in July 1698), which was to govern the colony until a parliament was established, consisted of Major James Cunningham of Eickett, Daniel Mackay, James Montgomerie, William Vetch, Robert Jolly, Robert Pinkerton and Captain Robert Pennecuik (commodore of the expedition fleet).


title: Darien scheme

text: The first expedition of five ships ("Saint Andrew", "Caledonia", "Unicorn", "Dolphin", and "Endeavour") set sail from the east coast port of Leith to avoid observation by English warships in July 1698, with around 1200 people on board. The journey around Scotland for those kept below deck was so traumatic that some colonists thought it comparable to the worst parts of the whole Darien experience. Their orders were "to proceed to the Bay of Darien, and make the Isle called the Golden Island ... some few leagues to the leeward of the mouth of the great River of Darien ... and there make a settlement on the mainland". The fleet called at Madeira and the West Indies, and took possession of Crab Isle which would be taken over by the Danish after the failure of the colony. The fleet made landfall off the coast of Darien on 2 November.


title: Darien scheme

text: The settlers christened their new home "Caledonia" declaring "we do here settle and in the name of God establish ourselves; and in honour and for the memory of that most ancient and renowned name of our Mother Country, we do, and will from henceforward call this country by the name of Caledonia; and ourselves, successors, and associates, by the name of Caledonians". With Drummond in charge, they dug a ditch through the neck of land that divided one side of the harbour in Caledonia Bay from the ocean, and constructed Fort St Andrew, which was equipped with 50 cannon, but no source of fresh water. A BBC report in 2014 identified this ditch as the only identifiable remnant of Caledonia. A watchhouse on a mountain completed the fortifications. Although the harbour appeared to be a natural one, it later proved to have tides that could easily wreck a vessel trying to leave. The colony was a potential threat to the Spanish Empire by being located near routes used for silver shipments. The feasibility of the scheme, especially for a country of Scotland's limited resources, has often been considered doubtful, although some modern authorities consider that it might have possessed good prospects of success if it had been given the support of England.


title: Darien scheme

text: Close to the fort, the settlers began erecting the huts of the main settlement, New Edinburgh (until 2011 known as Puerto Escocés ("Scottish Harbour"), now Puerto Inabaginya, in Guna Yala Province, Panama), and clearing land to plant yams and maize. Letters sent home by the expedition created a misleading impression that everything was going according to plan. This seems to have been by agreement, as certain optimistic phrases kept recurring. However, it meant the Scottish public would be completely unprepared for the coming disaster.


title: Darien scheme

text: Agriculture proved difficult and the natives, though hostile to Spain, were unwilling to trade for the combs and other trinkets offered by the colonists. Most serious was the near-total failure to sell any goods to the few passing traders who put into the bay. With the onset of summer the following year, malaria and fever led to many deaths. Eventually, the mortality rate rose to ten settlers a day. Natives brought gifts of fruit and plantains, but these were appropriated by the leaders and sailors, who mostly remained on board ships. The only luck the settlers had was in giant turtle hunting, but fewer and fewer men were fit enough for such strenuous work. The situation was exacerbated by the lack of food, mainly due to a high rate of spoilage caused by improper stowing. At the same time, King William instructed the Dutch and English colonies in America not to supply the Scots' settlement, so as not to incur the wrath of the Spanish Empire. The only reward the council had to give was alcohol, and drunkenness became common, even though it sped the deaths of men already weakened by dysentery, fever and the rotting, worm-infested food.


title: Darien scheme

text: After just eight months, the colony was abandoned in July 1699, except for six men who were too weak to move. The deaths continued on the ships, and only 300 of the 1200 settlers survived. A desperate ship from the colony had called in at the Jamaican city of Port Royal, but it was refused assistance on the orders of the English government, who feared antagonising the Spanish. Those on the single ship that returned home found themselves regarded as a disgrace to their country, and were even disowned by their families. The "Caledonia", with 250 survivors, including William Paterson and the Drummond brothers, made a desperate passage to New York, then just a small town of 5000, landing on 10 August. Four days later, "Unicorn" (commanded by Captain John Anderson) limped into New York harbour. In a letter to Hugh Montgomerie, a Glasgow merchant, Robert Drummond reported that sickness and mortality continued to afflict the remnant of the colonists. When the Scots were told that two ships, the "Olive Branch" and "Hopeful Beginning", had already sailed to re-supply the now deserted colony, Thomas Drummond commissioned two sloops to aid their efforts in Darien.


title: Darien scheme

text: In August 1699, the "Olive Branch" and "Hopeful Beginning" with 300 settlers arrived in Darien to find ruined huts and 400 overgrown graves. Expecting a bustling town, the ship's captains debated their next move. When the "Olive Branch" was destroyed by an accidental fire, the survivors fled to Jamaica in the "Hopeful Beginning", and landed in Port Royal harbour. The Scots were not allowed ashore, and illness struck the crowded ship.


title: Darien scheme

text: On 20 September, Thomas E. Drummond set sail from New York in the sloop "Ann of Caledonia", (formerly the "Anne"), picking up another fully supplied vessel (the "Society") on the way. They arrived in Darien to find the burnt timbers of the "Olive Branch" rotting on the shore.


title: Darien scheme

text: Word of the first expedition did not reach Scotland in time to prevent a second voyage of more than 1000 people.


title: Darien scheme

text: A new company flagship, "The Rising Sun", boasting 38 cannon, led the way, supported by "The Duke of Hamilton", the "Hope of Bo'ness", and a smaller vessel, the "Hope". They sailed from the Clyde, on the west of Scotland, cutting out the perilous round-Scotland route taken by the previous ships.


title: Darien scheme

text: The expedition had the blessing of the Church of Scotland who had appointed Alexander Shields as the senior of the 4 ministers (including Archibald Stobo and Francis Borland).


title: Darien scheme

text: The second expedition arrived in Caledonia Bay on 30 November 1699 and found Thomas Drummond's New York sloops already there. Some men were sent ashore to rebuild the huts, which caused others to complain that they had come to join a settlement, not build one.


title: Darien scheme

text: Morale was low and little progress was made. Drummond insisted there could be no discussion, and the fort must be rebuilt as a Spanish attack would surely come soon.


title: Darien scheme

text: Drummond clashed with the merchant James Byres, who maintained that the Counsellors of the first expedition had now lost that status and had Drummond arrested. Initially bellicose, Byres began to send away all those he suspected of being offensively minded – or of being allegiant to Drummond. He outraged a kirk minister by claiming it would be unlawful to resist the Spanish by force of arms, as all war was unchristian. Byres then deserted the colony in a sloop.


title: Darien scheme

text: The colonists sank into apathy until the arrival of Alexander Campbell of Fonab, sent by the company to organise a defence. He provided the resolute leadership which had been lacking and took the initiative by driving the Spanish from their stockade at Toubacanti in January 1700. However, Fonab was wounded in the daring frontal attack and then became incapacitated with a fever.


title: Darien scheme

text: The Spanish force – who were also suffering serious losses from fever – closed in on Fort St Andrew and besieged it for a month. Disease was still the main cause of death at this time. The Spanish commander called for the Scots to surrender and avoid a final assault, warning that if they did not, no quarter would be given.


title: Darien scheme

text: After negotiations, the Scots were allowed to leave with their guns, and the colony was abandoned for the last time. Only a handful of those from the second expedition returned to Scotland. Of the total 2500 settlers that set off, just a few hundred survived.


title: Darien scheme

text: The failure of the colonisation project provoked tremendous discontent throughout Lowland Scotland, where almost every family had been affected. Some held the English responsible, and others believed that they could and should assist in yet another effort at making the scheme work. The company petitioned the king to affirm their right to the colony. However, he declined, saying that although he was sorry the company had incurred such huge losses, reclaiming Darien would mean war with Spain. The continuing futile debate on the issue served to further increase bitter feelings. An estimated 15-40% of all the actual capital in Scotland was invested in this project.


title: Darien scheme

text: Hoping to recoup some of its capital by a more conventional venture, the company sent two ships from the Clyde, the "Speedy Return" and the "Continent", to the Guinea coast laden with trade goods. Sea captain Robert Drummond was the master of the "Speedy Return"; his brother Thomas, who had played such a large part in the second expedition, was supercargo on the vessel. Instead of trying to sell for gold as the company's directors intended, however, the Drummond brothers had exchanged the goods for slaves, whom they sold in Madagascar. Carousing with the buccaneers for whom the island was a refuge, the Drummonds fell in with pirate John Bowen, who offered them loot if they would lend him their ships for a raid on homeward bound Indiamen.


title: Darien scheme

text: Drummond backed out of the agreement, only to have Bowen appropriate the ships while Drummond was ashore. Bowen burnt the "Continent" on the Malabar coast when he decided she was of no use to him, and he later scuttled the "Speedy Return" after transferring her crew to a merchant ship that he had taken. The Drummonds apparently decided against returning to Scotland, where they would have had to explain the loss of the ships they had been entrusted with, and no more was ever heard of them.


title: Darien scheme

text: The company sent out another ship, but she was lost at sea. Unable to afford the cost of fitting out yet another vessel, the company hired the "Annandale" in London to trade in the Spice Islands. However, the East India Company had the ship seized on the grounds that it was in contravention of their charter. That provoked an uproar in Scotland, greatly aided by the inflammatory rhetoric of the company's secretary, Roderick MacKenzie, a relentless enemy of the English. Fury at the country's impotence led to the scapegoating and hanging of three innocent English sailors.


title: Darien scheme

text: In July 1704, Thomas Green, the 25-year-old master of the "Worcester", an English merchant ship, arrived at Leith. Mackenzie convinced himself that the ship was an East India Company ship that should be seized in reprisal for the "Annandale". He succeeded in getting legal authority and Green, who had been given the command at 21, watched as his ship's cargo was impounded and the sails, guns and rudder were removed over the next three months.


title: Darien scheme

text: In December, the crew was arrested for piracy. Although many in Scotland were delighted, it soon became clear to the directors of the Darien company that Mackenzie's charges were not supported by any proof, and it seemed the men would be released. However, Mackenzie suddenly claimed to have ascertained from the crew of the "Worcester" that Green had drunkenly boasted of taking the "Speedy Return", killing the Drummonds and burning the ship. Green and two of his crew, John Madden and James Simpson, were sent for trial in Edinburgh. Mackenzie produced several witnesses including members of Green's crew; their statements contradicted one another and none of them could accurately describe the dates, locations, or descriptions of the supposed victims of the "Worcester". The prosecution case, which was made in medieval Latin and legal Doric, was unintelligible to jury and accused alike. The defence advocates' objections were dismissed by court officials and they fled after the trial. Some jurors resisted bringing in a verdict of guilty, but the men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.


title: Darien scheme

text: The Queen advised her 30 privy councillors in Edinburgh that the men should be pardoned, but the common people demanded for the sentence to be carried out. Nineteen councillors made excuses to stay away from the deliberations on a reprieve, fearing the wrath of a huge mob that had arrived in Edinburgh to demand the sailors be put to death. Even though they had affidavits from London by two of the crew of the "Speedy Return", who testified that Green and his crew had no knowledge or involvement in the fate of the ship, the remaining councillors refused to pardon the men.


title: Darien scheme

text: Green, Madden and Simpson were subjected to derision and insults by the mob before they were hanged. Green had complete faith that as an innocent man, he would be reprieved, and he was still looking to the Edinburgh road for a messenger as the hangman placed the hood over his head. The remainder of Green's crew were quietly pardoned and released.


title: Darien scheme

text: The failure of the Darien colonisation project has been cited as one of the motivations for the 1707 Acts of Union. According to this argument, the Scottish establishment (landed aristocracy and mercantile elites) considered that their best chance of being part of a major power would be to share the benefits of England's international trade and the growth of the English overseas possessions and so its future would have to lie in unity with England. Furthermore, Scotland's nobles were almost bankrupted by the Darien fiasco.


title: Darien scheme

text: Some Scottish nobility petitioned Westminster to wipe out the Scottish national debt and stabilise the currency. Although the first request was not met, the second was, and the Scottish shilling was given the fixed value of an English penny. Personal Scottish financial interests were also involved. Scottish commissioners had invested heavily in the Darien project and believed that they would receive compensation for their losses. The 1707 Acts of Union, Article 15, granted £398,085 10s sterling to Scotland to offset future liability towards the English national debt. This amount equates to about £100,000,000 in 2020 money.


title: Laurel Hell

text: Laurel Hell is the sixth studio album by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski, released on February 4, 2022, through Dead Oceans. Patrick Hyland produced the album, which has been characterized as a record blending synth-pop, indie pop and electronic rock styles. According to Mitski, the album title is a folk term for being trapped in thickets of laurel that grow in the southern Appalachian Mountains.


title: Laurel Hell

text: The album was preceded by the lead single "Working for the Knife" on October 5, 2021, and the second single "The Only Heartbreaker" on November 9, 2021. They were followed by two more singles: "Heat Lightning" and "Love Me More". Mitski will promote the album with a concert tour Laurel Hell Tour covering North America and Europe, starting in February 2022.


title: Laurel Hell

text: Upon release, "Laurel Hell" received acclaim from music critics, who praised its lyrics and production. Commercially, the album peaked inside the top ten in territories such as Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, marking Mitski's highest charting record in all of them. It was also the best-selling album in the US during the week of its release, and the first "Billboard" 200 top-ten album for Dead Oceans. "Laurel Hell" also became her first album to top the US Top Alternative and Rock Albums charts.


title: Laurel Hell

text: Mitski wrote most of the album's songs before and during 2018, finishing the album during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Mitski also described the album as a "soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, can all be seen as worthy of acknowledgment, and ultimately, love". She expressed that she wrote the album as she "needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost" as well as "songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. ... I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area."


title: Laurel Hell

text: "Laurel Hell" is a synth-pop, indie pop, and electro-rock album influenced by the sounds of the 1980s. It incorporates elements of new wave, pop, disco, and dance music as well. The album was previously conceived as a punk album, then a country album, before settling on its current electronic form. Album opener "Valentine, Texas" "builds into a swelling, glam rock instrumental break, with glimmering synths and driving piano lines" as "the narrator wonders who she'll be tonight; opening the door to a new self, she hopes the mountains in the distance will help lighten the mental weight she carries." "Working for the Knife" puts a "dream pop spin on the avant-garde industrial music of the late eighties". On "Stay Soft", Mitski sings about "providing love to someone who isn't willing to give it back, retreating into a shell caused by past wounds". On "Everyone", Mitski sings of "leaving, running and abandonment" over techno beats. "The Only Heartbreaker" is an '80s new wave and Scandipop song "where Mitski grapples with feeling like she can't pull her weight in a relationship." "Heat Lightning" is a song about insomnia that resembles an R&B slow jam. "Should've Been Me" is a baroque pop song "that finds Mitski witnessing a lost love attempt to find solace in a copy of herself."


title: Laurel Hell

text: At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publication, Laurel Hell received an average score of 83 out of 100, based on 26 reviews, indicating universal acclaim.


title: Laurel Hell

text: Paolo Ragusa at "Consequence" gave "Laurel Hell" a perfect score, describing it as the sound of "Mitski trusting herself, confidently blazing forward into the next decade of her storied career." Commenting on the hiatus Mitski took from music in the aftermath of her previous full-length "Be the Cowboy", "DIY"s Ben Tipple said "That "Laurel Hell" exists only because it almost didn't gives it its power. It provides the space for her mastery of songwriting, and Patrick Hyland's understated yet orchestral production places Mitski in a realm all her own. She finds her voice in loss, an involuntary yet necessary response to throwing in the towel. But there's an ever-present tentative undercurrent, one that highlights the fragility of her return. The light at the end of the tunnel is flickering at best. You can't help but feel that it's all one broken brick away from tumbling down, which is exactly why it plays out with such delicate urgency."


title: Laurel Hell

text: In less favorable reviews, Steven Hyden of "Uproxx" described the LP as a "disappointment", saying that ""Laurel Hell" meanwhile is a tentative, frustrating record of half-measures trapped between musical worlds to which Mitski refuses to commit." Meanwhile, Gabrielle Sanchez of "The A.V. Club" said "The qualities that make Mitski great—her urgency, rawness, and stark ferocity—feel muted here". The song "The Only Heartbreaker" proved particularly divisive among critics. While David Smyth of the "Evening Standard" hailed it at as an "air-punching blast of Eighties-influenced synthpop" with hit potential, "Pitchfork"s Cat Zhang cited its production as having the "effect of anonymizing her, subsuming a first-class songwriter into a tired palette."


title: The Critic

text: The Critic is an American primetime adult animated sitcom revolving around the life of New York film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by Jon Lovitz. It was created by writing partners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had previously worked as writers and showrunners on seasons 3 and 4 of "The Simpsons". "The Critic" had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994, and finishing its original run on Fox in 1995.


title: The Critic

text: Episodes featured film parodies with notable examples including a musical version of "Apocalypse Now"; "Howard Stern's End" ("Howards End"); "Honey, I Ate the Kids" ("Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/The Silence of the Lambs"); "The Cockroach King" ("The Lion King"); "Abe Lincoln: Pet Detective" (""); and "Scent of a Jackass" and "Scent of a Wolfman" ("Scent of a Woman"). The show often referenced popular films such as "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" and "The Godfather", and routinely lampooned actor Marlon Brando and actor/director Orson Welles. They also spoofed Dudley Moore, usually as his character Arthur Bach from the 1981 film "Arthur".


title: The Critic

text: Despite the ratings improving, "The Critic" was cancelled after two seasons. It continued to air through reruns on Comedy Central and then on Locomotion. From February 1, 2000, to 2001, ten webisodes were later produced using Macromedia Shockwave, and were broadcast on AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com.


title: The Critic

text: In the late 2000s, reruns of the show aired again on ReelzChannel in the US and on Teletoon's programming block Teletoon at Night in Canada.


title: The Critic

text: The show follows the life of a 36-year-old film critic from New York named Jay Sherman. His televised review show is called "Coming Attractions", which airs on the Philips Broadcasting cable network. He is widely considered to be "cold, mean-spirited, and elitist". His signature line, upon seeing a terrible film, is "It stinks!" Each episode is full of film references and parodies. Some of the secondary characters that are a part of Jay's story include his nutty adoptive father, his well-meaning son Marty, the Australian film star Jeremy Hawke, Margo—the 17-year-old biological child of his adoptive parents, his snide make-up lady Doris, and his boss Duke Phillips. In the second season, Jay acquired a love interest: a Southern woman named Alice Tompkins, who later became his long-term girlfriend.


title: The Critic

text: The show was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who along with James L. Brooks served as executive producers. "The Critic" was produced by Gracie Films, the same company behind "The Simpsons", in association with Columbia Pictures Television. The show's animation was done by Film Roman, who were also still working on "The Simpsons" at this time. It was co-produced by Patric Verrone.


title: The Critic

text: Jean and Reiss were showrunners on "The Simpsons" and had been approached by series creator Matt Groening to design a spin-off centered on Krusty the Clown. Their pitch featured many similarities to "The Critic" – Krusty would be a single father in New York with a prickly make-up lady and an eccentric boss resembling Ted Turner. Groening turned down the idea, instead wanting the Krusty spin-off to be a live-action series led by the character's animated voice, Dan Castellaneta.


title: The Critic

text: In 1993, Brooks approached Jean and Reiss with the idea of a sitcom based on a morning television program. The pair adapted their Krusty pitch to the new idea. Brooks recommended Jon Lovitz as the lead, based on his performance in "A League of Their Own". He initially turned down the role due to his commitments with three upcoming films, so at the last moment, the series became an animation.


title: The Critic

text: The show sometimes included appearances of real life critics, such as Gene Shallit, Rex Reed, Gene Siskel, and Roger Ebert, who provided their own voices. When choosing things to parody, Reiss and Jean made a conscious decision to find the right balance between current pop culture and references that would stand the test of time.


title: The Critic

text: "The Critic" was "the first major non-family sitcom animated program to appear in primetime." The show started out on ABC on January 26, 1994, where it aired 13 episodes. It was cancelled by the network after half a season, and was then moved onto Fox the following year where it ran for another ten-episode season. Around this time, it was included in a "shameless plug" crossover with "The Simpsons" (in their episode "A Star Is Burns") and assumed the timeslot immediately after the show in the TV schedule, in an attempt to popularize it. But despite improvement of the ratings, Fox moved it to a different timeslot after five episodes, and also cancelled it after this run had finished airing in May 1995. According to "The TV IV", nine scripts were already written for the planned third season and the show was going to be moved to UPN, but an agreement was not reached. Also, Fox refused to officially cancel the show until much later. The show was not renewed on any network, and effectively became cancelled. The show returned in Flash-animated webisode form in 2000–2001, for a third season with 10 three- to five-minute installments. Apparently, it aired on Cartoon Network Spain around 2000-2001 on late-nights, alongside "Duckman," months before Adult Swim was launched in the US.


title: The Critic

text: Four people have a design credit on the show: David Silverman, Rich Moore, David Cutler, and Everett Peck. Silverman designed the look of Jay Sherman. Moore and Cutler designed the general look of the show including some of the backgrounds and supporting cast. The character of Doris was based on Peck's drawings. Cutler helped in the hard task of standardizing all these animation styles. Moore was the supervising director, so oversaw a lot of the design process—and was also responsible for how the action would play out, and how each shot would be framed. Rich Moore explains "the design of Jay Sherman began as a sketch done by David Silverman" on a napkin/place-mat in a restaurant. He was designed as "Kaufmanesque," and Jim Brooks liked the design, so his design remained much the same for the pilot episode. Moore had his reservations as the character had a "flat head and tiny eyes that were hard to act with", and was composed of shapes that were difficult to turn in a 3D space. It was decided the drawing encapsulated the humanity and reality of the critic, so was left unchanged. Over the course of the two seasons, however, the design was altered slightly. The flat head was made more round, and his eyes became bigger—in order to make Sherman more appealing and easier to animate. The design team never intended to make the characters too cartoony as it would not have fit tonally with the type of show. The characters were designed via a general think-tank process of "what do we like about the characters and what are we trying to say about them?". Quick sketches were completed in front of the full creative team after a discussion about characters, which were then critically analysed. In particular, the design of the parents caused some issues. Jim Brooks described the father as a "crazy wasp." The designs were eventually based on a photo of a professor and his wife. Moore explains that the animation should never "step on the voices or the writing."


title: The Critic

text: Vlada, an Eastern European restaurateur, was named after Jean and Reiss's film professor at Harvard University, Vlada Petrić. The character's physical appearance was based on Gábor Csupó, a Hungarian animator on the early seasons of "The Simpsons". Though some believed Sherman to look like the film critic James Wolcott, this was not intentional.


title: The Critic

text: Script supervisor Doris Grau, who had played Lunchlady Doris on "The Simpsons", was cast as Sherman's make-up lady, Doris. Four actresses, including Margaret Cho, were hired and dismissed as the voice of Sherman's younger sister Margo. The role eventually went to the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, who was pleased to finally be voicing a female. Duke Phillips, Jay's Ted Turner-esque boss was played by Charles Napier, using his real voice. Due to the sheer number of film and TV parodies, the team also sought character actors who could play many different roles. During the audition process, they asked them to perform their acts, which Reiss described as "very entertaining." Maurice LaMarche impressed Jean by doing "perfect" impressions. LaMarche even beat out genuine Australians for the role of Australian actor Jeremy Hawke. He was often asked to work on his accent of a pop culture figure related to media just released or that would have been released by the time of the episode's airing. Depending on who could do the voice better, the characters were divided up between Nick Jameson and LaMarche. Each would play about 20–30 characters per show. According to LaMarche, he played twenty-seven characters in one episode. He specialized in impressions, while Jameson's specialty was accents and dialects.


title: The Critic

text: Nathan Rabin of "The A.V. Club" explains "in creating "The Critic", Al Jean and Mike Reiss set out to make the show as dissimilar from "The Simpsons" as humanly possible". Nevertheless, there are many similarities between the two series. "Gen X TV: The Brady Bunch to Melrose Place" argues that "The Critic" became a critical success while other animated shows of the early 1990s flopped was because "the makers of these shows failed to realize that "The Simpsons" didn't become a hit because of animation [but] because of its style of humor", and says that "The Critic" understood this. It adds the show "took the media-obsession/parody portions of "The Simpsons" and created a separate show around them". "Planet Simpson" describes the show as "the closest thing "The Simpsons" ever had to a spin-off." "The Critic" also shares "The Simpsons" love for criticizing Fox and the audience, such as Jay's frequent line "You're watching Fox, shame on you" and ""The Critic" will be right back, you TV-addicted couch monkeys" before the show went to commercial break. Rabin said ""The Critic" made its protagonist the anti-Homer Simpson. Where Homer is a booze-sodden everyman, Jay Sherman is an unabashed elitist. Where Homer is a rudely physical creature, Jay leads a life of the mind. Homer is a slob. Jay is a snob." While "Springfield is very aggressively and deliberately Anywhere, United States, "The Critic" is an extended Valentine to a certain kind of pointy-headed East Coast elitism." PopMatters said ""The Critic"s humor is very much in the spirit of "The Simpsons", taken in a more brazenly surreal direction."


title: The Critic

text: Matt Groening had no part in its inception, and wanted to make this very clear, so he would not be associated with any success or failure the show would have. He claimed that in the public consciousness, this was his show—a direct spin-off to "The Simpsons".


title: The Critic

text: Many voice actors appear in both "The Simpsons" and "The Critic", and regulars on both shows have made cameos in the others. For example, Nancy Cartwright, Doris Grau, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, and Jon Lovitz have all played primary/secondary characters on both shows. Maurice LaMarche, who played many characters on "The Critic", "played George C. Scott getting hit in the groin with a football" in the crossover episode. His only line was "Ow, my groin." He also did Jay's belch in the episode.


title: The Critic

text: In "Dukerella", Jay and Alice attend a costume ball dressed as Homer and Marge. Homer and Bart Simpson made a brief appearance in "Dial M for Mother". During an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Jay is asked about talking over the heads of his audience and does just that in his answer. An annoyed family watching changes the channel to "The Simpsons", where Homer—after stepping on a rake—exclaims, "D'oh!" and Bart replies, ""¡Ay caramba!"" The family's father comments, "Now, this I understand." This can be seen as a suggestion that "The Simpsons" is relatively low-brow.


title: The Critic

text: Jay makes a guest appearance on "The Simpsons" in "A Star Is Burns" presiding over a local film festival. When Jay enters the Simpson household, Bart is watching a "Flintstones"-"Jetsons" crossover show, which he criticizes; he then praises Jay and "Coming Attractions"/"The Critic", before shuddering and saying to himself "I feel so "dirty"." At the end of the episode, as he is leaving for New York, Jay offers the Simpsons an appearance on "Coming Attractions"/"The Critic", but Bart declines, saying, "Nah, we're not going to be doing that." Jay has yellow skin when he appears on "The Simpsons" but pink skin on "The Critic". This episode caused some conflict between "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks. Groening decided to take his name off the credits and did not appear in the DVD commentary. He publicly complained about the episode, which went to air in the end. He said "for more than six months I tried to convince Jim Brooks and everyone connected with the show not to do such a cynical thing, which would surely be perceived by the fans as nothing more than a pathetic attempt to...advertise "The Critic" at the expense of the integrity of "The Simpsons"." In response, Brooks said "[Groening] is a gifted, adorable, cuddly ingrate. But his behavior right now is rotten. And, it's not pretty when a rich man acts like this."


title: The Critic

text: Jay appeared briefly on "The Simpsons" a few more times. In the episode "Hurricane Neddy", he was in a mental hospital, apparently unable to say anything more than his catchphrase (“It stinks! It stinks! It stinks!”) In the episode "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", he is seen at Moe's Tavern with all the other characters on the show that Lovitz voices or has voiced.


title: The Critic

text: Much like the opening sequence in "The Simpsons" with its chalkboard, sax solo, and couch gags, "The Critic" has a distinctive opening sequence featuring minor gags. Jay is always awakened by a disquieting phone call or radio news report, and eventually watches a clip that parodies a well-known film before delivering the same negative opinion: "It stinks!" He watches the closing credits in a theater and delivers a comeback line to an usher who tells him the show is over.


title: The Critic

text: One of the main elements featured on "The Critic" is the lampooning of the entertainment industry. "The A.V. Club" mentioned that Jean and Reiss's "The Simpsons" episodes have a high number of parodies, spoofs and homages from the characters watching television and films: "They didn't need any such excuse for film parodies on "The Critic" since Jay's life was inherently and organically filled with film. It proved the perfect delivery system for an endless series of clever, bite-sized spoofs." The book "I'm an English Major—Now What?" epitomises this by recounting a scene where Jay is forced to rate films "on a scale of good to excellent"—thereby negating his credibility as a film critic. Sherman says "but what if I won't like something," to which his boss Duke replies, "That's what good is for." This shows the corruption of an industry that aims to provide unbiased thoughtful analyses of films, due to bribery and politics. Another example is in the June 22 episode "L.A. Jay," where after trying to break into the film business by writing a script, which is revealed to be rather good, a studio buys it off him for $100,000 in order to bury it, thereby keeping quality out of the industry. While episodes typically dealt with his private life, Jay's position as a film critic "offer[ed] numerous opportunities for the show to satirize the film industry, establishing a dialogue with popular culture" in a very similar way to what "The Simpsons" had been doing for years.


title: The Critic

text: "The Critic" often made fun of celebrities and also frequently comments on television. For example, one episode satirizes Duke's project involving making the films "more attractive to a contemporary audience" by "inserting computer-generated happy endings." (ex: "Casablanca"'s Rick Blaine gets his girl while the restored version of Stanley Kubrick's "deadwood" "Spartacus" combined with a chase scene spoofing "Smokey and the Bandit") The article "Ten Frighteningly Prophetic Parodies from ‘The Critic'" considered that some of the show's spoofs "have come true (or close to true), proving that there really isn't anything that's too stupid for Hollywood to make".


title: The Critic

text: GrabBagCinema said the show would appeal to cinema fans "because it really understood movies, celebrities, Hollywood and humour...[you would understand] the references and [see] the effort the writers and animators put in, to recapture the movies you grew up loving and remembering... but they did it with clever humour that wouldn't offend you." The same review praised how unlike many modern critics, Sherman was honest with how much he disliked certain films.


title: The Critic

text: "The Critic" received mixed to positive reviews when it first aired. In 1994, The "Chicago Sun-Times" gave a typical review of the show with, "Jay Sherman, the eponymous culture vulture of "The Critic", would undoubtedly say his new animated comedy on ABC 'stinks.' Fortunately for him [The Critic] smells pretty good to me." The show has since developed a cult following, with much of it coming through the show's weekend reruns on Comedy Central up until about 2005.


title: The Critic

text: The DVD set also got many positive reviews, such as one from Animated Views which gave it an overall rating of 10/10. Mike Reiss's favourite episode is the Siskel and Ebert one.


title: The Critic

text: In September 2006, IGN ranked "The Critic" ninth on its list of the "Top 25 Primetime Animated Series of All Time". In January 2009, they ranked the show 26th in their other list of the "Top 100 Best Animated TV Series". In the latter article, IGN said: "Of all the projects completed by ex-Saturday Night Live players, "The Critic" is the most fully realized, hilarious and heartwarming. It took its cues from Woody Allen movies like "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan", and offered up a style of random abstract humor that wouldn't really be seen again until "Family Guy."" In December 2011, "Complex" ranked the show 6th in their list of "The 25 Most Underrated Animated TV Shows Of All Time".


title: The Critic

text: "People" magazine gave it a B, saying "This animated series is slyly amusing when sticking it to showbiz, taking sarcastic swipes at everyone from Steven Seagal to Gene Shalit. At its best, it's still several strides behind the savage, protean wit of "The Simpsons", and the humor sputters when the focus is personal." Of the third season, IGN said "I was thrilled to find out that Gracie Films has started producing new episodes of the cancelled ABC/Fox/Comedy Central show "The Critic"—and for web cartoons that don't depend on the violence/swear cop-out for the humor, the shows are actually really well produced."


title: The Critic

text: Early on in its run, "Siskel and Ebert" did a review of the show. It was the only television series they ever reviewed. Some of the criticisms they provided, if left unattended to, may have been factors to the show's cancellation. They said the show doesn't have as many memorable characters as "The Simpsons", and encouraged the writers to work on that. They said the second episode was a let down because "it didn't seem to be about the world of a movie critic," and was instead about "a single dad and his geeky son." They said the jokes involving Jay's dad get tiresome, and that the station boss isn't as sharp a parody as he could be. Gene Siskel said, "if "The Critic" is gonna succeed—and I hope it does—it desperately needs to refocus itself on the movies and the way critics interact with them." He added that the show needs a second critic, and jokingly said he and Roger Ebert should (and would love to) save the show by writing scripts for them. Ebert said the show should have 2 to 3 movie/genre parodies per episode. He added he would like to see Jay watch television to allow the show to satirize that medium as well. This would focus the show on the media, and not let it become another show about a man and his problems. Siskel said the writers should keep Jay as a smart critic. Regardless of his personality, if his critiques are witty and intelligent, by extension the show's satire becomes much sharper. The two critics later appeared as themselves in an episode where they ended their partnership and each recruited Jay to join them for a new series; when Jay realized that Gene and Roger deeply missed working together, he engineered their reconciliation and went back to his own series.


title: The Critic

text: AOL TV published an article in 2009 entitled "Gone Too Soon: The Critic", in which they analyzed the cancellation of the show. It said "The creators and Lovitz seem to [care about the show], as there are always talks cropping up of a revival of "The Critic", either as an animated project, or possibly a live-action one. There are fan sites out there, but as time passes with no new material, many of these are becoming floating time capsules". Plus, a lot of effort was put into the release of the DVD (for which there was a lot of demand), meaning there is still a fan base as well as a passionate cast and crew.


title: The Critic

text: "Drawn to Television" says that like Jay's show-within-a-show Coming Attractions, "audiences never quite warmed up to Sherman and his surrounding cast of characters" in "The Critic", perhaps due to the lack of warmth between character interactions in both shows. He also criticized the sometimes rather mean-spirited ways the fat jokes were directed at Marlon Brando or Orson Welles. The book "The Magic Behind the Voices" put its cancellation down to "so-so ratings and network politics." "Planet Simpson" says it "failed to click with "Simpsons" fans." In 1994, Austin American-Statesman said ""The Critic" never had a prayer on ABC, where the comedy overload consists of domestic sitcoms". The show is generally considered one of the great TV shows cancelled too early into its run. The "Columbia Spectator" said the show was "one of television's great lost causes." Voice actor Maurice LaMarche considered "The Critic" one of his "personal favorites," saying "I would almost give anything to bring back "The Critic", along with "Pinky and the Brain"; those are the two most satisfying jobs I've ever had." Ogeeku said "This show did not last as long as it should have and that is truly a shame. "The Critic" was in its time, one of the greatest animated shows ever made and one of the funniest shows period on television." Reiss thinks the show holds up very well.


title: The Critic

text: PopMatters considered Sherman a perfect role for Lovitz, due to his strengths of "sarcasm and ironic overacting," but believed that there were too many jokes about the character's obesity, and these were too similar to and inferior to such jokes about Homer Simpson. The same review called the show "outlandish in a way that "The Simpsons" would not adopt until later", and likened its cutaway humor to "Family Guy". However, it considered the cutaways on "The Critic" to be better than those of "Family Guy", due to a lack of "Family Guy"s overt shock value.


title: The Critic

text: Responding to the successful DVD sales of "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons", Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment decided to release "The Critic: The Complete Series" DVD box set on January 27, 2004, which includes all 2 seasons and 23 TV episodes (in their original production order) and the webisodes. The show achieved good sales, jumping onto the DVD list at 14 on Amazon, and quickly going through five issuings.


title: The Critic

text: On June 8, 2021, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released "The Critic: The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1.


title: The Critic

text: As of 2021, the series can be viewed for free on Crackle, though the ninth episode of season one, "L.A. Jay" is missing for unknown reasons.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Iranian cuisine () refers to the culinary practices of Iran. Due to the historically common usage of the term "Persia" to refer to Iran in the Western world, it is alternatively known as Persian cuisine, despite Persians being only one of a multitude of Iranian ethnic groups who have contributed to Iran's culinary traditions.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The cuisine of Iran has made extensive contact throughout its history with the cuisines of its neighbouring regions, including Caucasian cuisine, Central Asian cuisine, Greek cuisine, Levantine cuisine, Mesopotamian cuisine, Russian cuisine and Turkish cuisine. Aspects of Iranian cuisine have also been significantly adopted by Indian cuisine and Pakistani cuisine through various historical Persianate sultanates that flourished during Muslim rule on the Indian subcontinent, with the most notable and impactful of these polities being the Mughal Empire.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Typical Iranian main dishes are combinations of rice with meat, vegetables and nuts. Herbs are frequently used, along with fruits such as plums, pomegranates, quince, prunes, apricots and raisins. Characteristic Iranian spices and flavourings such as saffron, cardamom, and dried lime and other sources of sour flavoring, cinnamon, turmeric and parsley are mixed and used in various dishes.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Outside of Iran, a strong presence of Iranian cuisine can be found in cities with significant Iranian diaspora populations, namely the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Houston and especially Los Angeles and its environs.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Among the writings available from the Middle Persian scripts, the treatise of Khosrow and Ridag, points about stews and foods and the way of using them and how they are obtained in the Sassanid period are found as valid references in compiling the history of cooking in Iran. The names of many of the Iranian dishes and culinary terms that have been translated can be seen in Arabic language books. This was probably due to the fact that a large number of Iranians were involved in the court and administrative apparatus of the Abbasid caliphs, and naturally their customs and habits influenced the life of the Arabs, including the Iranian method of cooking during the Abbasid period.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Ancient Persian philosophers and physicians have influenced the preparation of Iranian foods to follow the rules of the strengthening and weakening characteristics of foods based on the Iranian traditional medicine.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Although the Arabic cookbooks written under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate—one of the Arab caliphates which ruled Iran after the Muslim invasion—include some recipes with Iranian names, the earliest surviving classical cookbooks in Persian are two volumes from the Safavid period. The older one is entitled "Manual on cooking and its craft" ("Kār-nāmeh dar bāb e tabbāxī va sanat e ān") written in 927/1521 for an aristocratic patron at the end of the reign of Ismail I. The book originally contained 26 chapters, listed by the author in his introduction, but chapters 23 through 26 are missing from the surviving manuscript. The recipes include measurements for ingredients—often detailed directions for the preparation of dishes, including the types of utensils and pots to be used—and instructions for decorating and serving them. In general, the ingredients and their combinations in various recipes do not differ significantly from those in use today. The large quantities specified, as well as the generous use of such luxury ingredients as saffron, suggest that these dishes were prepared for large aristocratic households, even though in his introduction, the author claimed to have written it "for the benefit of the nobility, as well as the public."


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The second surviving Safavid cookbook, entitled "The substance of life, a treatise on the art of cooking" ("Māddat al-ḥayāt, resāla dar ʿelm e ṭabbāxī"), was written about 76 years later by a chef for Abbas I. The introduction of that book includes elaborate praise of God, the prophets, the imams, and the shah, as well as a definition of a master chef. It is followed by six chapters on the preparation of various dishes: four on rice dishes, one on qalya, and one on āsh. The measurements and directions are not as detailed as in the earlier book. The information provided is about dishes prepared at the royal court, including references to a few that had been created or improved by the shahs themselves. Other contemporary cooks and their specialties are also mentioned.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The usage of rice, at first a specialty of the Safavid Empire's court cuisine, evolved by the end of the 16th century CE into a major branch of Iranian cookery. Traditionally, rice was most prevalent as a major staple item in northern Iran and the homes of the wealthy, while bread was the dominant staple in the rest of the country.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Varieties of rice in Iran include gerde, domsia (literally meaning black-tail, because it is black at one end), champa, doodi (smoked rice), Lenjan (from Lenjan County), Tarom (from Tarom County), and anbarbu.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Second only to rice is the production and use of wheat. The following table lists several forms of flatbread and pastry bread commonly used in Iranian cuisine.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The agriculture of Iran produces many fruits and vegetables. Thus, a bowl of fresh fruit is common on Iranian tables, and vegetables are standard side dishes with most meals. These are not only enjoyed fresh and ripe as desserts but are also combined with meat as accompaniments to main dishes. When fresh fruits are not available, a large variety of dried fruits such as dates, figs, apricots, plums and peaches are served instead. Southern Iran is one of the world's major date producers, where some special cultivars such as the Bam date are grown.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Vegetables such as pumpkins, spinach, green beans, fava beans, courgette, varieties of squash, onion, garlic and carrot are commonly used in Iranian dishes. Tomatoes, cucumbers and scallion often accompany a meal. While the eggplant is "the potato of Iran", Iranians are fond of fresh green salads dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, chili, and garlic.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Fruit dolma is probably a specialty of Iranian cuisine. The fruit is first cooked, then stuffed with meat, seasonings, and sometimes tomato sauce. The dolma is then simmered in meat broth or a sweet-and-sour sauce.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Verjuice, a highly acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes or other sour fruit, is used in various Iranian dishes. It is mainly used within soup and stew dishes, but also to simmer a type of squash dolma. Unripe grapes are also used whole in some dishes such as "khoresh e qure" (lamb stew with sour grapes). As a spice, verjuice powder ("pudr e qure") is sometimes reinforced by verjuice and then dried.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: "Advieh" or "chāshni" refers to a wide variety of pungent vegetables and dried fruits that are used in Iranian cuisine to flavor food.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: One of the traditional and most widespread Iranian spices is saffron, derived from the flower of "Crocus sativus". Rose water, a flavored water made by steeping rose petals in water, is also a traditional and common ingredient in many Iranian dishes.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Persian hogweed ("golpar"), which grows wild in the humid mountainous regions of Iran, is used as a spice in various Iranian soups and stews. It is also mixed with vinegar into which broad beans are dipped before eating.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Some other common spices are cardamom, made from the seeds of several "Elettaria" and "Amomum" plants; shevid, an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae; mahleb, an aromatic spice made from the seeds of "Prunus mahaleb"; and limu amani, dried lime.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: There are also several traditional combinations of spices, two of which are "arde", made from toasted ground hulled sesame seeds, and delal sauce, made of heavily salted fresh herbs such as cilantro and parsley.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Typical Iranian cuisine includes a wide variety of dishes, including several forms of kebab, stew, soup, and pilaf dishes, as well as various salads, desserts, pastries, and drinks.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: In Iran, kebabs are served either with rice or with bread. A dish of chelow white rice with kebab is called "chelow kabab", which is considered the national dish of Iran. The rice can also be prepared using the kateh method, and hence the dish would be called "kateh kabab".


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Khoresh is an Iranian form of stew, which is usually accompanied by a plate of white rice. A khoresh typically consists of herbs, fruits, and meat pieces, flavored with tomato paste, saffron, and pomegranate juice. Other non-khoresh types of stew such as dizi are accompanied by bread instead of rice.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: There are various forms of soup in Iranian cuisine, including "sup e jow" (barley soup), "sup e esfenaj" (spinach soup), "sup e qarch" (mushroom soup), and several forms of thick soup. A thick soup is referred to as "āsh" in Iran, which is an Iranian traditional form of soup. Also, "shole qalamkar" is the Iranian term for "hodge-podge" soup, a soup made of a mixture of various ingredients.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Apart from dishes of rice with kebab or stew, there are various rice-based Iranian dishes cooked in the traditional methods of polow and dami.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: "Polow" is the Persian word for pilaf and it is also used in other Iranian languages, in the English language it may have variations in spelling. A polow dish includes rice stuffed with cuts of vegetables, fruits, and beans, usually accompanied by either chicken or red meat. Dami dishes are similar to polow in that they involve various ingredients with rice, however they are cooked using the dami method of cooking the dish all in one pot.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: In 400 BC, the ancient Iranians invented a special chilled food, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty in summertime. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. Today, one of the most famous Iranian desserts in the semi-frozen noodle dessert known as "faloodeh", which has its roots in the city of Shiraz, a former capital of the country. Bastani e zaferani, Persian for "saffron ice cream", is a traditional Iranian ice cream which is also commonly referred to as "the traditional ice cream". Other typical Iranian desserts include several forms of rice, wheat and dairy desserts.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th-century Iran, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. There are numerous traditional native and adopted types of snack food in modern Iran, of which some are listed within the following table.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Iran is one of the world's major tea producers, mostly cultivated in its northern regions. In Iranian culture, tea ("čāy") is widely consumed and is typically the first thing offered to a guest. Iranians traditionally put a lump of sugar cube in the mouth before drinking the tea. Rock candies are also widely used, typically flavored with saffron.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Iran's traditional coffee ("qahve", or "kāfe") is served strong, sweet, and "booby-trapped with a sediment of grounds". In 16th-century Safavid Iran, coffee was initially used for medical purposes among the society. Traditional coffeehouses were popular gatherings, in which people drank coffee, smoked tobacco, and recited poetry—especially the epic poems of "Shahnameh". In present-day Iran, cafés are trendy mostly in urban areas, where a variety of brews and desserts are served. Turkish coffee is also popular in Iran, more specifically among Iranian Azeris.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Wine ("mey") has also a significant presence in Iranian culture. Shirazi wine is Iran's historically most famous wine production, originating from the city of Shiraz. By the 9th century, the city of Shiraz had already established a reputation for producing the finest wine in the world, and was Iran's wine capital. Since the 1979 Revolution, alcoholic beverages have been prohibited in Iran; though non-Muslim recognized minorities (i.e. Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians) are allowed to produce alcoholic beverages for their own use. While non-alcoholic beer ("ābjow") is available from legal outlets, other citizens prepare their alcoholic beverages illegally through the minority groups and largely from Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Araq sagi, literally meaning "doggy distillate", is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage in Iran which contains at least 65% pure ethanol. It is usually produced at homes from raisins, and is similar to Turkish rakı. Prior to the 1979 Revolution, it had been produced traditionally in several cities of Iran. Since it was outlawed following the 1979 Revolution, it has become a black market and underground business.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The Azerbaijani people, living primarily in the region of Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, have a number of local dishes that include Bonab kabab ('), the dumpling dish of joshpara ('), a dish identical to the Scottish haggis that is called , a variety of āsh called ', a variation of qeyme that is called ', and a variation of kufte that is called Tabriz meatballs. There is also the traditional pastry of shekerbura (""), which is identical to Khorasan's shekarpare (). Despite the influences from Turkey, the food tastes noticeably Iranian, though also with its own unique features, such as using more lemon juice and butter than other groups of Iranians.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Meat and dates are the main ingredients in the cuisine of Iran's southeastern region of Baluchistan. Rice is primarily cultivated in the region of Makran. Foods that are specific to the Iranian region of Baluchistan include tanurche (; ), a local variety of grilled meat that is prepared in a tanur, doogh-pa (), a type of khoresh that contains doogh, and tabahag (), that is meat prepared with pomegranate powder. Baluchi cuisine also includes several date-based dishes, as well as various types of bread.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The southern coast of the Caspian Sea, which consists of the Iranian provinces of Gilan, Mazanderan, Alborz, and Golestan, has a fertile environment that is also reflected in its cuisine. Kateh is a method of cooking rice that originates from this region. This type of rice dish is also eaten there as a breakfast meal, either heated with milk and jam or cold with cheese and garlic. Caviar fish roes also hail from this region, and are typically served with eggs in frittatas and omelettes. Local cookies () of the region are also popular.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The region of Kurdistan in western Iran is home to a variety of local āsh, pilaf, and stew dishes. Some local Kurdish dishes include a traditional grilled rib meat that is called , a type of khoresh made of chives that is called , and a dish of rice and potatoes that is called .


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The food of southern Iran is typically spicy. Mahyawa is a tangy sauce made of fermented fish in this region. Being a coastal region, Khuzestan's cuisine includes especially seafood, as well as some unique local beverages. In southern Khuzestan, there is also a variation of kufte that is known as "kibbeh" and is made of ground meat, cracked wheat, different types of herbs and vegetables and various spices.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Iran's Turkmen people are predominantly centered in the Iranian provinces of Golestan and North Khorasan. Chegderme () is a Turkmen dish made of rice, meat, and tomato paste.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: The basic traditional Iranian breakfast consists of a variety of flat breads, butter cubes, white cheese, whipped heavy cream (sarshir; often sweetened with honey), nuts (especially walnuts) and a variety of fruit jams and spreads.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Many cities and towns across Iran feature their own distinct versions of breakfast dishes. Pache, a popular traditional dish widely eaten in Iran and the neighboring Caucasus, is almost always only served from three in the morning until sometime after dawn, and specialty restaurants (serving only pache) are only open during those hours.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Traditional Iranian cooking is done in stages, at times needing hours of preparation and attention. The outcome is a well-balanced mixture of herbs, meat, beans, dairy products, and vegetables. Major staples of Iranian food that are usually eaten with every meal include rice, various herbs, cheese, a variety of flat breads, and some type of meat (usually poultry, beef, lamb, or fish). Stew over rice is by far the most popular dish, and the constitution of these vary by region.


title: Iranian cuisine

text: Traditional Iranian table setting firstly involves the tablecloth, called "sofre", and is spread out over either a table or a rug. Main dishes are concentrated in the middle, surrounded by smaller dishes containing appetizers, condiments, and side dishes, all of which are nearest to the diners. When the food is perfectly served, an invitation is made to seat at the "sofre" and start having the meal.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Six Flags Great Adventure is an amusement park located in Jackson, New Jersey. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park complex is situated between New York City and Philadelphia and includes a water park named Hurricane Harbor. It first opened to the public as simply Great Adventure in 1974 under the direction of restaurateur Warner LeRoy. Six Flags acquired the park in 1977.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 2012, Six Flags combined its Great Adventure with its Wild Safari animal park to form Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari park. At , it is the second-largest theme park in the world following Disney's Animal Kingdom. The park is located right off of Interstate 195 and is along Monmouth Road (County Route 537).


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 1972, entrepreneurial businessman Warner LeRoy developed concept plans for the Great Adventure entertainment complex, proposing seven parks be built within the complex: An amusement park, a safari park, a show park, a floral park, a sports complex, a shopping district, and a campground with beach/waterpark and stables. His proposal also included plans for hotels, which were connected to the parks and could be reached by boats, buses, a sky ride and/or a monorail. LeRoy wanted his parks to flow naturally through the forest and lakes, capitalizing on the back-to-nature movement of the era. He chose a property then owned by the Switlik family, in an area centrally located between the New York City and Philadelphia regions. The property on County Route 537 had easy access to the newly constructed Interstate 195, which connected central New Jersey to the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) and would eventually (in 1981) connect to the Garden State Parkway.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Since the park's opening, it has been served by in-house emergency services composing of the Fire Department (Ocean County Station 58) and Emergency Medical Service (Ocean County Squad 80).


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: LeRoy collaborated with Hardwicke Industries, who previously built safari parks in Canada and Europe. Together, they set out to open the seven parks in stages over a 5-year period. After a 4,500 invitation-only guest opening on June 30, 1974, the Great Adventure entertainment complex opened to the general public on July 1, 1974, at a price tag of $10 million. At the time of the opening, only the "Enchanted Forest" and "Safari" parks were operational, with elements from five of the other planned parks being used to create the Enchanted Forest.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: The Enchanted Forest was designed and built to look bigger-than-life. A "Big Balloon" was a tethered hot-air balloon that loomed over the park's entrance and was the biggest of its kind in the world. The "Log Flume" was the longest log ride constructed in the world at that time and it was accompanied by a giant "Conestoga Wagon", an over-sized log cabin restaurant called "Best of the West" and a huge Western Fortress, in the park's Rootin' Tootin' Rip Roarin' section. The "Giant Wheel" (now Big Wheel), then the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, and the "Freedom Fountain", then the largest spraying fountain in the world, were located on the opposite end of the park. One of the few smaller-than-real life attractions was an outdoor walk-through attraction called the "Garden of Marvels." It used working G-scale (o-g scale) LGB trains and boats among models of American landmarks and 1/25-scale recreations of European castles.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: This miniature village was an idea taken from LeRoy's proposed "Over the Rainbow" floral park. A tree filled with snakes, a carousel, antique cars, koi pond, children's playground (called Kiddie Kingdom), petting zoo (named Happy Feeling) and a restaurant named Gingerbread Fancy (now Granny's Country Kitchen) were also borrowed from the floral park concept to create a section of The Enchanted Forest. This section created the park's main midway named "Dream Street".


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: "Shoppe Lane" was named after a proposed "shopping extravaganza" park, which LeRoy had designed for the property. It lent its large open squares, huge fountain (Main Street Fountain), street performers (clowns and stilt walkers) and shops to the Enchanted Forest. Fairy Tales was the name of a shop that opened with the park in one of the park's over-sized bazaar tents. It sold stuffed animals and toys, including Superman. Other influences from LeRoy's proposal would surface in the years to come.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: "Neptune's Kingdom" was a concept for a lakeside, aquatic show park. From its design came "Aqua Spectacle", the home for dolphin performances and high dive shows. Today, the stadium features dolphins but is now known as Fort Independence. Neptune's Kingdom was designed to run the length from Runaway Train to Northern Star Arena, but most of its influences appear in the park's Lakefront area.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Rootin' Tootin' Ready for shootin' opened with Runaway Mine Train on the grand opening on Independence Day. A small compact coaster named "Big Fury" opened later in the season. The "Sky Ride" connected two ends of the park with stations in "Rootin' Tootin' Ready for shootin" and "Dream Street". The double sky ride ran originally at the 1964–'65 New York World's Fair. The Great Train Ride was a small train ride that brought guests through a loop of the woods, rather than to a destination of another gate. A small handful of spin rides were located in the "Strawberry Fair" section and were as close to any thematic journey as the guests were going to take. The "Fantasy Fling" is older than the park and is the only survivor of these spin rides in 2008.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: The "Fun Fair" area debuted in 1975 with several new spinning rides, a smaller Ferris wheel, and a Schwarzkopf Jumbo Jet roller coaster. The coaster never opened and was removed at the end of the season. A second flume called the "Moon Flume" was built by Arrow Dynamics to ease crowds on the Log Flume. It was built on the opposite end of the park and the station turntable is used for the stage of the Wiggles show today. The "Fortune Festival" was a new game section that was located where the Boardwalk section exists today.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: LeRoy's original vision for the amusement park featured many dark rides. Although "Man, Time and Space", "The Keystone Cops" and "(Alice) Down the Wishing Well" (among others) never came to be, the "Haunted Castle Across the Moat", which was added a few years later, took its cue from the rooms and monsters of the "Hotel Transylvania".


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In the early 1980s, the park's entrance was moved to a new central location, which is still in use today. It was designed with an outer mall called "Liberty Court", and its Federal style architecture was influenced by the celebration of the United States bicentennial. An inner mall called "Avenue of States" was adorned by fifty state flags in the central corridor. Six flags remain on Main Street today. The Enchanted Forest name on the park was changed to the complex's main name of Great Adventure. The Strawberry Fair and Fun Fair names were discontinued and the attractions in these areas became part of the newly named Enchanted Forest section. More spin rides, "yummy yummy" food, shows, games and the Safari became a part of "the greatest day of your life." The park became a major attraction with dozens of rides, shows, and several steel roller coasters. The "Big Balloon", "Happy Kid Ride", "The Gondola", "Pretty Monster", and "Super Cat" were the first attractions to be removed from the park before a new owner would make big changes.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 1977, construction began on a steel looping shuttle coaster called Lightnin' Loops (which was removed in 1992). Late that year, however, the park was purchased by Six Flags. This regional theme park company was owned then by Penn Central, which had large stakes in the Philadelphia and New York City regions. Six Flags added rides found in bigger theme parks such as the wooden coaster called Rolling Thunder in 1979, The Buccaneer (a swinging ship from Intamin), Roaring Rapids (now Congo Rapids, an Intamin River Rapids ride), Parachuter's Perch (now Parachute Training Center: Edwards AFB Jump Tower, an Intamin Parachute ride) and Freefall (later Stuntman's Freefall, an Intamin First Generation Freefall), all before the park's tenth anniversary.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: 1980 saw very few changes. In 1981, the park added a water ride called Roaring Rapids (now called Congo River Rapids). In 1983, the park added a Freefall Ride and in 1984, the park added a roller coaster called the Sarajevo Bobsleds but closed and removed Lil' Thunder, a kiddie coaster, keeping the coaster count to four.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Eight teenagers, including four students and one graduate of Franklin K. Lane High School, lost their lives in a fire at the Haunted Castle on May 11, 1984, sparking controversy over the safety of such attractions. After the incident, new fire safety laws were passed for amusement park fun houses and dark rides.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: 1986 saw the addition of a second looping coaster and the park's fifth roller coaster, Ultra Twister, with spiral inline twists. The ride was built next to Rolling Thunder, partially taking away the area's western theme. Another water ride called Splashwater Falls (which became Movietown Water Effect in 1992 and has since been removed) was added in which riders rode in a large boat which was pulled uphill and then down a steep waterfall, soaking riders. The new addition was made since attendance at the park had lowered since the Haunted Castle fire, and the park realized new additions were needed to keep the park alive.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Attendance dropped even further when an accident occurred on the Lightnin' Loops roller coaster in 1987. A teenage girl was thrown from the train because she was seated on the wrong side of the shoulder restraint. After the accident, new safety features were added not only to Great Adventure's roller coasters but also to roller coasters around the world. Once again, Great Adventure set both a bad and later good example for the amusement park world. However, the accident was not good for the park's attendance. Attendance was so low, in fact, that in 1987 rumors began to spread that the park may close in a few years. At the end of that season, the park was slated to get a new multiple looping coaster but by the end of the year, it was decided that Six Flags Great America would get the coaster since Great Adventure was not seen as a good investment. At the end of 1988, the park was about to lose its license to sell food, and attendance was so low park management realized a big new addition was necessary.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In the spring of 1988, it was announced that the park would indeed get a new coaster. Sarajevo Bobsleds was removed to make room for the new coaster, The Great American Scream Machine, which opened in April 1989. This coaster had multiple loops and for a month was the tallest roller coaster in the world and brought the park back to five roller coasters. The Scream Machine was removed in 2010 to make room for the new Green Lantern stand-up coaster.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 1990, as part of a ride rotation program, a stand up looping roller coaster called Shockwave was added to the park. Shockwave had previously operated at Six Flags Magic Mountain. However, Ultra Twister was removed at the end of 1989 and sent to Six Flags Astroworld for the 1991 season keeping the park's coaster count at five. In 1991, the park added a huge complex of "dry" waterslides. While guests got wet on them, they could ride these with regular clothes or swimsuits. These slides were themed after the rivers of the world. Roaring Rapids, as well as the second flume ride in the park, were incorporated into this complex. Roaring Rapids became Congo Rapids, and The Hydro Flume became Irrawaddy Riptide.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 1990, Time Warner acquired a 19.5% stake in Six Flags, then by the end of 1991 acquired an additional 30.5% giving them 50% ownership of the corporation, with the remaining divided equally by silent partners, The Blackstone Group and Wertheim Schroder. Time Warner used the opportunity to advertise and promote their movies through the Six Flags parks. Time Warner purchased the remaining 50% in 1993, then in 1995 sold 51% of the corporation to Boston Ventures. Time Warner, however continued to manage the parks through 1997.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 1992, the eastern area or Fun Fair area of the park was re-themed Action Town, and then Movietown in 1993. A Batman stunt show was added and the announcement that a new inverted looping roller coaster called Batman The Ride would be added. Lightnin' Loops opened for the first half of the season but was disassembled at the end of July to begin construction of Batman. That coaster was sold to Premier Parks, which at the time was a different company than Six Flags (but would eventually buy Six Flags). Premier Parks put one of the Lightnin' Loops tracks in Frontier City located in Oklahoma City and it still operates today. Premier Parks put the other Lightnin' Loops track in their park in Largo, Maryland (near Washington, DC), then called Adventure World. That track was renamed the Python, which would be removed in 1999. At the end of 1992, the roller coaster Shockwave was removed as part of the "Ride Rotation Program" of Six Flags. Shockwave would be sent to Six Flags Astroworld and would reopen there in 1994 as Batman The Escape. So by the end of 1992, the park was down to just three coasters.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Batman, designed by Bolliger & Mabillard, opened in the spring of 1993 bringing the coaster count back up to four. In 1994, a motion simulator theatre ride was added. Initially, it was an airplane flying themed attraction but has since been changed to a Halloween theme in the fall over the years. A dinosaur theme and a three-dimensional dinosaur theme was also used for this attraction. For several years, it operated as SpongeBob the ride and then as "Fly Me To The Moon". For the 2010 season, the attraction did not run and that building remained vacant for future use.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: 1995 saw the addition of Viper, a steel spiral looping roller coaster similar to Ultra Twister and in Ultra Twister's old spot, bringing the coaster count to five again. 1996 saw the addition of an indoor themed junior roller coaster called Skull Mountain. In 1997, a multiple looping dual track shuttle coaster called was built but only opened for a day and encountered more technical difficulties. This coaster ended up not opening again until the spring of 1998. This coaster ran rather rough and was referred to as a "headbanger" as was Viper and to a lesser extent The Scream Machine. The Mine Train and Rolling Thunder were also rough rides by then. Also, many flat rides were removed over the years and the park was showing signs of wear and tear, as well as obsolete attractions.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Premier Parks purchased Six Flags from Time Warner and Boston Ventures on April 1, 1998. The following year, the new management team added a dozen flat rides to the park and declared a "war on lines". The Adventure River complex was retired but the flume ride and the Congo Rapids remained. A kiddie water play area also remained as part of a new kiddie ride area called Looney Tunes Seaport. A junior roller coaster called Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train (now known as Harley Quinn Crazy Train) as well as a kiddie roller coaster called Road Runner Railway were also added, but the star attraction was a floorless steel multiple looping roller coaster called Medusa.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: No changes were made at the park in 2000, but across the property on a separate parking lot, a Waterpark named Hurricane Harbor was built and opened at the end of May. This was also separately gated and charges a separate admission from Great Adventure. The park consists of a dozen waterslides, a kiddie water play area, and a wavepool.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 2001, the park added another state of the art roller coaster called Nitro. In 2002, Batman & Robin: The Chiller was renovated and new trains without over the shoulder harnesses were added making it a much smoother ride. In 2003, was added. Exact models of this are found at Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Great America. In 2004, new harnesses were added to the Runaway Mine Train and the up-charge attraction erUPtion was added to the Boardwalk.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 2005, the park added the world's tallest coaster called Kingda Ka and also dismantled Viper. With the addition of Kingda Ka, the season pass holders entrance to the park was closed because Kingda Ka's footprint went right over it. A new children's play area called Balin's Jungleland was also added. In 2006, a wooden twister coaster called El Toro was added in the spot formerly occupied by Viper, along with a new themed area, and another kiddie ride area to replace Bugs Bunny Land which was retired at the end of 2004.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: At the end of 2005, a proxy battle resulted in two major stockholders assuming control of the Six Flags Board. The Premier Group was ousted in December and the new board appointed Mark Shapiro as CEO. In 2007, the park added Wiggles World and removed . The rolls were replaced with banked hills to enhance ride performance. However, the ride closed forever on June 28 due to technical problems with the ride. Disassembling occurred that September. In addition, the path leading to Chiller was blocked off and several rides including Freefall, Splashwater Falls/Movietown Water Effect, and a couple other flat rides were removed.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 2008, in the area occupied by the Movietown Water Effect, a new junior indoor Wild Mouse rollercoaster was added called The Dark Knight. Motion Simulator Ride ended the SpongeBob theming in favor of "Fly Me To The Moon". Also Glow in the Park Parade was added to the entertainment lineup.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: Medusa was refurbished over the off-season and returned in 2009 as "Bizarro", a new incarnation of the same ride. The whole coaster, station, and surrounding theme elements were all changed and repainted to go with the new theme of the ride. Bizarro comic strips were put up along the queue line, and special effects and audio were added to the actual ride. The refurbishment brought crowds back to a ride that was beginning to lose its original charm and popularity.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: The theme park's parent Six Flags emerged from a 2008–2010 bankruptcy with Al Weber Jr. as an interim CEO and subsequently by Jim Reid-Anderson in August 2010. The company parent also moved its corporate headquarters from New York City back to Texas, where the company started.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: For the 2010 season, the Motion Simulator ride "Fly Me To The Moon" did not reopen and was not replaced with anything and remained vacant. In April 2010, rumors also began that the Great American Scream Machine would be removed at the end of the season. By mid-June, rumors were that the coaster would be removed on July 1. That date came and went but on July 5, 2010, via Facebook, Six Flags confirmed the rumored removal of the Great American Scream Machine on July 18, 2010. The ride closed late on that date and was demolished immediately after to make room for "a major new attraction in 2011." On September 16, 2010, the park announced that the Green Lantern, a standup roller coaster formerly known as Chang at the recently closed Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, would debut in the Boardwalk section for the 2011 season. Green Lantern's lift hill and first drop run parallel to the lift hill of Superman Ultimate Flight, which involved the demolition of a rarely used section of the preferred parking area.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In late 2010, Six Flags began the process of removing licensed theming from attractions. They terminated several licenses including their license with The Wiggles. Wiggles' World was renamed and rethemed to Safari Kids in time for the 2011 season. Also in 2011, eruption was removed. Construction for the new Funtime Slingshot replacing eruption started mid-June 2011 and was recently finished a few weeks after.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: In 2012, Great Adventure introduced "SkyScreamer", a Funtime StarFlyer, that soars riders in a circle at speeds over 43 miles per hour (69 km/h), that opened in the spring of 2012, along with bumper cars, flying elephants, and a musical themed scrambler that opened in the newly transformed area "Adventure Alley" (formerly Fantasy Forest area around the Big Wheel). On February 13, 2012, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in New Jersey announced a new major water attraction "King Cobra", that is the first in the United States. The ride "Falls" at "Hurricane Harbor" was proposed to get a transformation, giving it a trapdoor release in 2012, but was later cancelled for the new attraction King Cobra. Furthermore, in 2012, Six Flags Great Adventure removed two of its four Johnny Rockets food stands, one located in Plaza Del Carnival and the other in the Boardwalk. Both were replaced with a new food stand named Totally Kickin' Chicken.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: On August 30, 2012, Six Flags combined its Great Adventure Park with its Wild Safari animal park to form the Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari park, the second-largest theme park in the world, after Disney's Animal Kingdom.


title: Six Flags Great Adventure

text: During the 2018 off-season, El Diablo was removed from the park and was relocated to La Ronde, where it reopened as Chaos.