title: Walter Johnson

text: His earned run average of 1.14 in 1913 was the fourth-lowest ever at the time he recorded it; it remains the sixth-lowest today, despite having been surpassed by Bob Gibson in 1968 (1.12) for lowest ERA ever by a 300+ inning pitcher. It could have been lower if not for one of manager Clark Griffith's traditions. For the last game of the season, Griffith often treated the fans to a farce game. Johnson actually played center field that game until he was brought in to pitch. He allowed two hits before he was taken out of the game. The next pitcher—who was actually a career catcher—allowed both runners to score. The official scorekeeper ignored the game, but later, Johnson was charged with those two runs, raising his ERA from 1.09 to 1.14. For the decade from 1910 to 1919, Johnson averaged 26 wins per season and had an overall ERA of 1.59.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson won 36 games in 1913, 40% of the team's total wins for the season. In April and May, he pitched 55.2 consecutive scoreless innings, still the American League record and the third-longest streak in history. He won 25 games and lost 20 games in 1916, the last pitcher to win and lose 20 in a season until knuckleballer Wilbur Wood did so in 1973. In May 1918, Johnson pitched 40 consecutive scoreless innings; he is the only pitcher with two such 40+ inning streaks.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Although he often pitched for losing teams during his career, Johnson finally led the Washington Senators to the World Series in 1924, his 18th year in the American League. Johnson lost the first and fifth games of the 1924 World Series, but became the hero by pitching four scoreless innings of relief in the seventh and deciding game, winning in the 12th inning. Washington returned to the World Series the following season, but Johnson's experience was close to the inverse: two early wins, followed by a game seven loss. On October 15, 1927, Johnson's request for an unconditional release from the club was granted.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson's Hall of Fame plaque reads that he pitched "for many years with a losing team." While the Senators had only nine winning seasons during his career, they finished in the first division (i. e., fourth place or higher) 11 times, and the second division 10 times. In Johnson's first five seasons, Washington finished last twice and next-to-last three times. But they finished second in the American League in both 1912 and 1913, which were Johnson's two 30-win seasons. Then, for the next decade, they typically finished in the middle of the pack before their back-to-back pennants.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson was a good hitter for a pitcher, compiling a career batting average of .235, including a record .433 average in 1925. He also made 13 appearances in the outfield during his career. He hit over .200 in 13 of his 21 seasons, hit three home runs in 1914, and hit 12 doubles and a triple in 130 at-bats in 1917. Johnson finished his career with 23 home runs as a pitcher (24 overall, including a pinch-hit home run in 1925), the tenth-highest total for a pitcher in Major League history.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson had a reputation as a kindly person, and made many friends in baseball. As reported in "The Glory of Their Times", Sam Crawford was one of Johnson's good friends, and sometimes in non-critical situations, Johnson would ease up so Crawford would hit well against him. This would vex Crawford's teammate Ty Cobb, who could not understand how Crawford could hit the great Johnson so well. Johnson was also friendly with Babe Ruth, despite Ruth's having hit some of his longest home runs off him at Griffith Stadium.


title: Walter Johnson

text: In 1928, he began his career as a manager in the minor leagues, managing the Newark Bears of the International League. He continued on to the major leagues, managing the Washington Senators (1929–1932), and finally the Cleveland Indians (1933–1935). His managing record was 529–432, with his best team managed being in 1930, when the team finished 94–60, 8 games out of first place. In seven seasons, he had five winning seasons, with the only two losing seasons being at the beginning of his tenure with Washington and Cleveland, though his teams did not come close to winning the pennant, finishing 12 games behind in his last season. Johnson also served as a radio announcer on station WJSV for the Senators during the 1939 season.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Johnson, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner were known as the "Five Immortals" because they were the first players chosen for the Baseball Hall of Fame.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Walter Johnson retired to Germantown, Maryland. A lifelong Republican and friend of President Calvin Coolidge, Johnson was elected as a Montgomery County commissioner in 1938. His father-in-law was Rep. Edwin Roberts, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1940 Johnson ran for a congressional seat in Maryland's 6th district, but came up short against the incumbent Democrat, William D. Byron, by a total of 60,037 (53%) to 52,258 (47%).


title: Walter Johnson

text: Joseph W. Martin, Jr., before he was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1947–1949 and 1953–1955), recruited Johnson to run for Congress. "He was an utterly inexperienced speaker," Martin later said. "I got some of my boys to write two master speeches for him—one for the farmers of his district and the other for the industrial areas. Alas, he got the two confused. He addressed the farmers on industrial problems, and the businessmen on farm problems."


title: Walter Johnson

text: Walter married Hazel Lee Roberts on June 24, 1914, and they had five children. Johnson's eldest daughter died from influenza in 1921. His wife died in August 1930 from complications resulting from heat stroke after a long motorcar ride from Kansas. Ty Cobb was a good friend of Johnson, often bringing the pitcher's children gifts when he visited the family.


title: Walter Johnson

text: At 11:40 pm on Tuesday, December 10, 1946, Johnson died of a brain tumor in Washington, D.C., five weeks after his 59th birthday, and was interred at Rockville Union Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.


title: Walter Johnson

text: He was also called "Sir Walter", "the White Knight", and "The Gentle Johnson" for his gentlemanly sportsmanship, and "Barney" after auto racer Barney Oldfield (he got out of a traffic ticket when a teammate in the car told the policeman Johnson was Barney Oldfield).


title: Walter Johnson

text: In 1999, "The Sporting News" ranked Johnson number 4 on its list of Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, the highest-ranked pitcher. Later that year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.


title: Walter Johnson

text: In 1985, Jonathan Richman recorded the song "Walter Johnson", which dwelt on Johnson's personality and behaviour as an exemplar of what can be good in sport.


title: Walter Johnson

text: In 2015, he along with Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson and Cy Young were named the "Greatest Pioneers Group." They were voted for by baseball fans online as part of the Franchise Four competition and were "selected as the most impactful players". The results were announced at the 2015 MLB All-Star Game.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Johnson's gentle nature was legendary, and to this day he is held up as an example of good sportsmanship, while his name has become synonymous with friendly competition. This attribute worked to Johnson's disadvantage in the case of fellow Hall of Famer Ty Cobb. Virtually all batters were concerned about being hit by Johnson's fastball, and many would not "dig in" at the plate because of that concern. Cobb realized that the good-hearted Johnson was privately nervous about the possibility of seriously injuring a batter. Almost alone among his peers, Cobb would actually stand closer to the plate than usual when facing Johnson.


title: Walter Johnson

text: Note that official MLB stats show 3,508 career strikeouts, with 70 in his first (1907) season. Stats at the websites of Baseball Hall of Fame, ESPN, Baseball Reference and Baseball Cube (see "External Links", below) all show 3,509 career strikeouts, with 71 in his first season. This has resulted in minor differences seen in references to Johnson's record when reading media and Wikipedia articles of other 3000 strikeout club pitchers.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude (; , , ; ; , , ) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the 2021 Census, 437,565 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 404,426 recorded in the 2010 Census, making the city the third-largest in the Russian Far East by population.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude was first called Udinskoye (, ) for its location on the Uda River. It was founded as a small fort in 1666. From around 1735, the settlement was called Udinsk (, ) and was granted town status under that name in 1775. It was renamed Verkhneudinsk (, ; "Upper Udinsk") in 1783, to differentiate it from Nizhneudinsk ("Lower Udinsk") lying on a different Uda River near Irkutsk which was granted town status that year.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The descriptors "upper" and "lower" refer to the positions of the two cities relative to each other, rather than the location of the cities on their respective Uda rivers. Verkhneudinsk lies at the mouth of its river, while Nizhneudinsk is along the middle stretch. The current name was given to the city on 27 July 1934 and means "red Uda" in Buryat, reflecting the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude lies east of Moscow and southeast of Lake Baikal. It is above sea level at the foot of the Khamar-Daban and Ulan-Burgas mountain ranges, next to the confluence of the Selenga River and its tributary, the Uda, which divides the city.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude is traversed by two rivers, the Selenga and Uda. The Selenga provides the greatest inflow to Baikal Lake, supplying 50% of all rivers in its basin. The Selenga brings about of water into the lake per year, exerting a major influence on the lakewater's renewal and its sanitary condition. Selenga is the habitat of the most valuable fish species such as Omul, Siberian sturgeon, Siberian taimen, Thymallus and Coregonus.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and, later, the Buryat Mongols. Ulan-Ude was settled in 1666 by the Russian Cossacks as the fortress of Udinskoye. Due to its favorable geographical position, it grew rapidly and became a large trade center which connected Russia with China and Mongolia and, from 1690, was the administrative center of the Transbaikal region.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: By 1775, it was known as Udinsk, and in 1783 it was granted city status and renamed Verkhneudinsk. After a large fire in 1878, the city was almost completely rebuilt. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached the city in 1900 causing an explosion in growth. The population, which was 3,500 in 1880, reached 126,000 in 1939.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: From 6 April to October 1920, Verkhneudinsk was the capital of the Far Eastern Republic (Дальневосточная Республика), also known as the Chita Republic. It was a nominally independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East. On 27 July 1934, the city was renamed Ulan-Ude.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude is the capital of the republic. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the city of republic significance of Ulan-Ude — an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of Ulan-Ude is incorporated as Ulan-Ude Urban Okrug.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: According to the 2010 Census, 404,426 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 359,391 recorded in the 2002 Census. In terms of population, it is the third-largest city in eastern Siberia.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The city is the center of Tibetan Buddhism in Russia and the important Ivolginsky datsan is located from the city.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude is located on the main line (Trans-Siberian line) of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Irkutsk and Chita at the junction of the Trans-Mongolian line (the Trans-Mongolian Railway) which begins at Ulan Ude and continues south through Mongolia to Beijing in China.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The city also lies on the M55 section of the Baikal Highway (part of the Trans-Siberian Highway), the main federal road to Vladivostok. Air traffic is served by the Ulan-Ude Airport (Baikal), as well as the smaller Ulan-Ude Vostochny Airport. Intracity transport includes tram, bus, and "marshrutka" (share taxi) lines.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Until 1991, Ulan-Ude was closed to foreigners. There are old merchants' mansions richly decorated with wood and stone carving in the historical center of Ulan-Ude, along the river banks which are exceptional examples of Russian classicism. The city has a large ethnographic museum which recalls the history of the peoples of the region. There is a large and highly unusual statue of the head of Vladimir Lenin in the central square: the largest in the world. Built in 1970 for the centennial of Lenin's birth and weighing 42 tons, it continued to tower over the main plaza at .


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The "Ethnographic Museum of the peoples of Transbaikal" is one of Russia's largest open-air museums. The museum contains historical finds from the era of the Slab Grave Culture and the Xiongnu until the mid 20th century, including a unique collection of samples of wooden architecture of Siberia – more than forty architectural monuments.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Odigitrievsky Cathedral – Eastern Orthodox Church Diocese of the Buryat, was the first stone building in the city and is a Siberian baroque architectural monument. The cathedral is considered unique because it is built in a zone of high seismic activity in the heart of the city on the banks of the River Uda River where it flows into the Selenga.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: One of the attractions of Ulan-Ude is a monument in the town square — the square of the Soviets — in the form of the head of Lenin (sculptors G.V. Neroda, J.G. Neroda, architects Dushkin, P.G. Zilberman). The monument, weighing 42 tons and with a height of , was opened in 1971 in honor of the centenary of Lenin's birth.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: The Voice of Nomads international music and culture festival is held annually at various sites in the city.


title: Ulan-Ude

text: Ulan-Ude can be described as possessing a humid steppe climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk"), bordering on a humid continental climate ("Dwb") and a subarctic climate ("Dwc"). The climate is characterised by long, dry, cold winters and short but very warm summers. Precipitation is low and heavily concentrated in the warmer months.


title: Gravlax

text: Gravlax () or graved salmon is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt and sugar, and either dill or sprucetwigs placed on top, and may occasionally be cold-smoked afterwards. Gravlax is usually served as an appetizer, sliced thinly and accompanied by (literally 'maitre d'hôtel sauce', also known in Sweden as , in Norway as , literally 'mustard sauce', in Denmark as , literally 'fox sauce', and in Iceland as ), a dill and mustard sauce, either on bread or with boiled potatoes.


title: Gravlax

text: The word comes from the Northern Germanic word ('to dig'; modern sense 'to cure (fish)') which goes back to the Proto-Germanic , ('hole in the ground; ditch, trench; grave') and the Indo-European root 'to dig, to scratch, to scrape', and "/", 'salmon'.


title: Gravlax

text: During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line.


title: Gravlax

text: Fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is "buried" in a dry marinade of salt, sugar, and dill, and cured for between twelve hours and a few days. As the salmon cures, by the action of osmosis, the moisture turns the dry cure into a highly concentrated brine, which can be used in Scandinavian cooking as part of a sauce. This same method of curing can be employed for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most commonly used.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Christopher Joseph Burke (born August 26, 1965) is an American actor. He has become best known for his character Charles "Corky" Thatcher on the television series "Life Goes On".


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Burke is the youngest of four children of Marian Burke, a retired trade-show manager, and Frank Burke, a retired NYPD inspector. Burke was born with Down syndrome at a time when little was known about the disorder, and his parents were told to institutionalize him. Instead, they decided to raise him at home and nurture his talents with the help of his siblings. From a young age, Burke enjoyed watching TV and movies and wanted to be on television. He was encouraged by his supportive family to follow his career objectives no matter how unconventional they seemed, especially for a young man with Down syndrome.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: In the early 1970s, American public schools were not yet mainstreaming students with disabilities into general education classes. Burke attended the Kennedy Child Study Center in New York City, from age five until graduating shortly before his eighth birthday. At that time there were no suitable private education programs for students with disabilities in the area, so, in the fall of 1973, Burke was sent to board at the Cardinal Cushing School and Training Center in Hanover, Massachusetts. In 1978, Burke transferred to the Don Guanella School in Springfield, Pennsylvania, to be closer to his brother, J.R., who lived close by. Burke graduated from Don Guanella in 1986. After graduation, he worked as an elevator operator and did volunteer work for programs for students with disabilities at New York City's Public School 138.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Burke's first acting performance was in a production of "The Emperor's New Clothes" at the Cardinal Cushing School. His dramatic reading made quite an impression on the audience as well as Hollywood producer Robert Evans, who happened to be in the theatre at the time. This role inspired him to participate in a talent show after he transferred to Don Guanella, in which he acted as a zombie in a reenactment of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. He continued to hone his talent by attending night classes, going to auditions, writing scripts, and voraciously reading books about his favorite actors.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Burke got his first professional acting job in 1987 in the ABC TV movie "Desperate". Network executives at ABC were impressed by his performance in "Desperate" and created "Life Goes On" with Burke's character, Charles "Corky" Thatcher, as the main role. Corky was the first character in a network television series with Down syndrome. Burke's revolutionary role conveyed a realistic portrayal of people with Down syndrome and changed the way audiences viewed people with disabilities. "Life Goes On" propelled Burke into fame and wide recognition. The series ran from 1989 to 1993.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Since "Life Goes On", Burke has made appearances on numerous TV shows and movies, most notably co-starring with JoBeth Williams in the NBC Movie of the Week "".


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Burke has been the Goodwill Ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society since 1994. He has starred in the organization's acclaimed public service announcements, including Tracey Ullman in 1999 and, more recently, for the My Great Story public awareness campaign with actor John C. McGinley and TV Hosts Meredith Vieira and Nancy O'Dell. As a Goodwill Ambassador, he travels the country attending Buddy Walks, making public appearances, speaking with the press and greeting fans. When he is not on the road, Burke is a valued member of the National Down Syndrome Society's staff, working in their New York City office.


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: Burke has delivered inspirational speeches around the world and continues to speak at schools, seminars, conferences and non-profit organizations. He also tours the U.S. with his three piece musical group, "Chris Burke with Joe and John DeMasi", for which he is the singer. Burke met his bandmates, twin brothers Joe and John DeMasi, when they were music counselors at the town of Hempstead, New York's ANCHOR program for individuals with disabilities, when Burke was a teenager. The group has released four albums. "Lollipops and Love Songs" was released in 1993. In 1994, they signed a record deal with BMGKidz and released "Singer with the Band". This was followed up by the release of "Forever Friends", which won a Parents Choice Gold Seal for Excellence Award, and "A World of Kindness" in 1998. They also have produced a two-episode DVD for children called "The Forever Friends Show" and have appeared on television performing their signature song, "Celebrate."


title: Chris Burke (actor)

text: In 1991, Burke co-wrote his autobiography, "A Special Kind of Hero", with Jo Beth McDaniel. From 1994 to 2005, he was the editor-in-chief of "News 'n Views" and "UpBeat", publications written by and for people with Down syndrome, and in 2009, he contributed to the National Down Syndrome Society's My Great Story campaign by writing his story, "Great Expectations".


title: Mr. Sandman

text: "Mr. Sandman" (or "Mister Sandman") is a popular song written by Pat Ballard and published in 1954. It was first recorded in May of that year by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra and later that year by the Chordettes and the Four Aces. The song's lyrics convey a request to "Mr. Sandman" to "bring me a "dream"" – the traditional association of the folkloric figure (but in this context the meaning of "dream" is more akin to 'dreamboat'). The pronoun used to refer to the desired dream is often changed depending on the sex of the singer or group performing the song, as the original sheet music publication, which includes male and female versions of the lyrics, intended.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: Emmylou Harris' recording of the song was a hit in multiple countries in 1981. Other versions of the song have been produced by Chet Atkins (1954) and Bert Kaempfert (1968).


title: Mr. Sandman

text: Vaughn Monroe, with his orchestra, was the first to record the song in 1954. It was released as the B-side of "They Were Doin' the Mambo", on RCA Victor label as catalog number 20-5767 / 47-5767. This record lacked the complex vocal harmonies found in many later versions of the song.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: In December 1954, the song reached No. 1 on the "Cash Box" Top 50, in a tandem ranking of the versions by the Chordettes, the Four Aces, Buddy Morrow, Vaughn Monroe, Les Elgart, the Lancers, and the Song Singers, with the Chordettes and the Four Aces' versions marked as bestsellers. It also reached No. 1 on "Cash Box"s chart of "The Nation's Top Ten Juke Box Tunes", in the same tandem ranking, and No. 1 on "Cash Box"s chart of "The Ten Records Disk Jockeys Played Most This Week", with only the Chordettes version listed initially, but later in a tandem ranking of the Chordettes and the Four Aces' versions.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: The song also reached No. 1 on "Billboard"s "Honor Roll of Hits", with the Chordettes and the Four Aces' versions listed as best sellers, and was ranked No. 12 on "Billboard"s ranking of "1955's Top Tunes" based on the Honor Roll of Hits.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: The Chordettes' recording of the song was released on the Cadence Records label on both 78 RPM and 45 RPM formats. Cadence's founder, Archie Bleyer, was the orchestra conductor on the recording and provided a rhythmic beat on the recording, using his knees. Bleyer's voice is heard in the third verse, when he says the word "Yes?" The piano is played by Moe Wechsler. Liberace's name is mentioned for his "wavy hair", and a glissando (a flourish common in his music) immediately follows. Pagliacci is mentioned for having a lonely heart, which is a reference to the opera "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: In the United States, the Chordettes' single reached No. 1 on all three of "Billboard"s popular music charts, and was ranked No. 9 in "Cash Box"s ranking of "1955's Top Pop Records as Voted in the "Cash Box" Poll".


title: Mr. Sandman

text: In 1954, the Four Aces released a version of the song, backed by the Jack Pleis Orchestra. The Four Aces' version was a top-ten hit in the United States, United Kingdom, and Flanders. The Four Aces' version was notably featured in the movie "Back to the Future", when Marty first realizes he is in 1955.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: On November 17, 1954, Chet Atkins recorded an instrumental version during a four-song recording session at RCA Victor's Nashville recording studio. Atkins used the Ray Butts EchoSonic guitar amp on this recording, and was backed by celesta, piano, bass, and drums. Atkins' version was released as a single in January 1955. It was Atkins' first single to chart on "Billboard"s country charts, and reached No. 15 on "Billboard"s Country & Western Records chart of "Best Sellers in Stores" and No. 13 on "Billboard"s Country & Western Records chart of "Most Played by Jockeys".


title: Mr. Sandman

text: In 1968, Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra released an instrumental version as a single and on the album "My Way of Life". It reached No. 12 on "Billboard"s Easy Listening chart, No. 14 on "Record World"s "Top Non-Rock" chart, No. 3 on "Record World"s chart of "Singles Coming Up", and No. 1 on "Cash Box"s "Looking Ahead" chart of singles with potential of entering the "Cash Box" Top 100.


title: Mr. Sandman

text: In January 1978, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt recorded a version of the song for a planned trio album which was ultimately scrapped. (The three would eventually reunite and release the first of two "Trio" albums nearly a decade later in 1987). Harris included the trio recording of "Mr. Sandman" on her 1981 album "Evangeline", though with the stipulation that it not be released as a single (given that Parton and Ronstadt both were affiliated with other record labels). However, when Harris later changed her mind and wanted to put the song out as a single, she rerecorded it, singing all three parts herself, and releasing it in 1981, under the title "Mister Sandman". The single reached number 10 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart, and number 37 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making it Harris' only single to reach the top 40 on that chart.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: "Mickey" originally titled as 'Kitty' is a song recorded by American singer and choreographer Toni Basil for her debut studio album, "Word of Mouth", in 1981. It was first recorded by the pop group Racey and Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn wrote the song, while production was helmed by Greg Mathieson and Trevor Veitch. Basil's version is new wave, featuring guitar, synthesizers and cheerleading chants. It garnered a mixed response from music critics, with some critics praising the radio-friendly nature of the song, while others described some of the lyrics as obscene.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: The song was originally performed by British pop group Racey, with the title "Kitty", and was included on their debut studio album "Smash and Grab" in 1979. The original Racey song did not include the "Oh Mickey, you're so fine" chant, which Basil added.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: For years, it was rumored that the name was changed to Mickey because Basil developed a crush on the Monkees' drummer and lead vocalist Micky Dolenz, after meeting him on the set of their movie, "Head", for which she was the choreographer. However, that claim has been denied by Basil, who has said that she "didn't really know Micky at all". In January 2020, Basil released a re-recording of the song as "Hey Mickey" to digital and streaming platforms.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: On August 31, 2017, Basil filed a multi-claim lawsuit against Razor & Tie Direct, Forever 21, Disney, Viacom, VH1, and "South Park". Basil alleged that the defendants had commercially used the song "Mickey" without a license and damaged her right of publicity, claiming excess of $25,000 in damages. Basil also filed a lawsuit against AMC on May 12, 2020, for the unauthorized use of "Mickey" in a trailer for "Preacher". On August 27, 2020, a California state of appeals court affirmed dismissal of Basil's case.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music, the song is written in the key of E major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 145 beats per minute. Basil's vocal range spans two octaves, from B to C♯.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: Rock critic Robert Christgau commented on the perceived 'obscene' content of the lyric "So come on and give it to me / Any way you can / Any way you want to do it / I'll take it like a man". Christgau wrote in a review at the time that Basil "was the only woman ever to offer to take it up the ass on Top 40 radio." However, Basil adamantly denies this: "NO! That's ridiculous. People read shit into everything. It's not about anything dirty. You change the name from boy to girl" — i.e., from "Mickey" to "Kitty" — "and they read anything they want into it! When it's a guy singing about a girl, it's a sweet line. But when a girl sings it, it must mean butt-fucking! This is how the wrong foot gets cut off when the doc wheels you into the E.R. Then it's Micky Dolenz and butt-fucking."


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: The single scored number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 for one week and number two in the UK Singles Chart. The song was Basil's only Top 40 success. It was named Number 6 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80's.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: The music video was directed, produced and choreographed by Basil herself. The cheerleaders featured in the video were members of a championship squad from Carson High School in Carson, California. The cheerleading uniform Basil wore in the music video was the one she actually wore in high school. According to Basil, "They didn't put anything in the budget, I did everything myself. And this is the actual cheer sweater from Las Vegas High."


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: English singer Lolly covered "Mickey" and released it as a single in September 1999. Her version reached number four on the UK Singles Chart the same month. There is also a karaoke version of the cover on the album.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied this song for his 1983 self titled debut album as "Ricky", a parody of and tribute to "I Love Lucy". Yankovic himself sang the Ricky part while voice actress Tress MacNeille performed the Lucy part.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: Carola Häggkvist released a Swedish version of the song in 1983, which achieved success in Scandinavia. The Swedish version had lyrics written by Ingela "Pling" Forsman for the 1983 album "Främling".


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: Japanese comedian-musician Gorie scored no. 1 on the Japanese singles chart for two weeks with a Japanese-language version featuring vocals by American-born Jasmine Ann Allen.


title: Mickey (Toni Basil song)

text: The entire structure of the Run–D.M.C. song "It's Tricky" was consciously lifted from "Mickey". According to DMC: "I just changed the chorus around and we just talked about how this rap business can be tricky to a brother."


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell lived in Teesdale, Victoria, for most of her life and has one sibling. She attended Toorak College.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell started acting in 1994 when a casting agent suggested she model in a few television advertisements. She also appeared in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation musical "Harriet". After she had completed work on an advertisement for Just Jeans, a make-up artist advised Satchwell to get an agent. A year later she successfully auditioned for the role of Anne Wilkinson in the daily television soap opera "Neighbours", which she played for five years.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell got her first lead role on a film in 2008 in "Subdivision" which was released in cinemas on 20 August 2009. In 2012, Satchwell joined the cast of drama series "Packed to the Rafters" as Frankie, an electrician and employee of Dave Rafter. In 2013, she became a regular panellist on celebrity gossip, comedy show "Dirty Laundry Live". That same year, Satchwell joined the cast of "Wonderland" as lawyer Grace Barnes. After three seasons, "Wonderland" was cancelled due to falling ratings. Satchwell has appeared in some episodes of children's television show Play School.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: In 2014, Satchwell made a guest appearance on sketch comedy series "Black Comedy", as Tiffany. She reprised the character in the second series in 2016. She also appeared in the "Jack Irish" series. 2018 saw Satchwell make guest appearances on "Hughesy, We Have a Problem", and the SBS drama "Dead Lucky". She also plays Ally, the girlfriend of hit-man Ray Shoesmith, in the black comedy-drama "Mr Inbetween". Towards the end of the year, Satchwell replaced Jane Harber as team captain for the second season of comedy panel show "Show Me the Movie!".


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell plays park ranger Miranda Gibson, the estranged daughter of Laura Gibson (Sigrid Thornton), in the revival series of "SeaChange". Satchwell admitted that she almost missed the casting call, as she was moving house. The actress flew between Sydney and Byron, Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads to film "SeaChange" and the second season of "Mr Inbetween".


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell has promoted charity work as a fundraiser for the Starlight Children's Foundation Gift of a Lifetime, and in joining the fight against sand mining of Sydney's historic Kurnell sand dunes. In 2009, Satchwell supported Power Shift, a climate-change conference for young people held in Sydney.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell's five-year relationship with actor Matthew Newton ended in 2006. Newton was charged with four offences including common assault, intimidation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Satchwell. Three of the charges were withdrawn by prosecutors, Newton pleading guilty on the remaining charge of common assault.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: On 26 November 2008, Satchwell was in a building which was attacked by terrorists in the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks. She hid in a cupboard until gunfire ceased. One gunman passed by the cupboard as she sat hidden from view. Upon leaving the hotel, she said she had seen several dead bodies.


title: Brooke Satchwell

text: Satchwell was engaged to film editor David Gross from 2012 until 2019. In 2015, she stated that long times separated by distance made it hard for them to ever set a date for the wedding.


title: Sound card

text: A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term "sound card" is also applied to external audio interfaces used for professional audio applications.


title: Sound card

text: Sound functionality can also be integrated onto the motherboard, using components similar to those found on plug-in cards. The integrated sound system is often still referred to as a "sound card". Sound processing hardware is also present on modern video cards with HDMI to output sound along with the video using that connector; previously they used a S/PDIF connection to the motherboard or sound card.


title: Sound card

text: Typical uses of sound cards or sound card functionality include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education and entertainment (games) and video projection. Sound cards are also used for computer-based communication such as voice over IP and teleconferencing.


title: Sound card

text: Sound cards use a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which converts recorded or generated digital signal data into an analog format. The output signal is connected to an amplifier, headphones, or external device using standard interconnects, such as a TRS phone connector.


title: Sound card

text: A common external connector is the microphone connector. Input through a microphone connector can be used, for example, by speech recognition or voice over IP applications. Most sound cards have a line in connector for an analog input from a sound source that has higher voltage levels than a microphone. In either case, the sound card uses an analog-to-digital converter to digitize this signal.


title: Sound card

text: Some cards include a sound chip to support the production of synthesized sounds, usually for real-time generation of music and sound effects using minimal data and CPU time.


title: Sound card

text: The card may use direct memory access to transfer the samples to and from main memory, from where a recording and playback software may read and write it to the hard disk for storage, editing, or further processing.


title: Sound card

text: An important sound card characteristic is polyphony, which refers to its ability to process and output multiple independent voices or sounds simultaneously. These distinct channels are seen as the number of audio outputs, which may correspond to a speaker configuration such as 2.0 (stereo), 2.1 (stereo and sub woofer), 5.1 (surround), or other configurations. Sometimes, the terms "voice" and "channel" are used interchangeably to indicate the degree of polyphony, not the output speaker configuration. For example, much older sound chips could accommodate three voices, but only one output audio channel (i.e., a single mono output), requiring all voices to be mixed together. Later cards, such as the AdLib sound card, had a 9-voice polyphony combined in 1 mono output channel.


title: Sound card

text: Early PC sound cards had multiple FM synthesis voices (typically 9 or 16) which were used for MIDI music. The full capabilities of advanced cards are often not fully used; only one (mono) or two (stereo) voice(s) and channel(s) are usually dedicated to playback of digital sound samples, and playing back more than one digital sound sample usually requires a software downmix at a fixed sampling rate. Modern low-cost integrated sound cards (i.e., those built into motherboards) such as audio codecs like those meeting the AC'97 standard and even some lower-cost expansion sound cards still work this way. These devices may provide more than two sound output channels (typically 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound), but they usually have no actual hardware polyphony for either sound effects or MIDI reproduction these tasks are performed entirely in software. This is similar to the way inexpensive softmodems perform modem tasks in software rather than in hardware.


title: Sound card

text: In the early days of wavetable synthesis, some sound card manufacturers advertised polyphony solely on the MIDI capabilities alone. In this case, typically, the card is only capable of two channels of digital sound and the polyphony specification solely applies to the number of MIDI instruments the sound card is capable of producing at once.


title: Sound card

text: Modern sound cards may provide more flexible "audio accelerator" capabilities which can be used in support of higher levels of polyphony or other purposes such as hardware acceleration of 3D sound, positional audio and real-time DSP effects.


title: Sound card

text: Connectors on the sound cards are color-coded as per the PC System Design Guide. They may also have symbols of arrows, holes and soundwaves that are associated with each jack position.


title: Sound card

text: Sound cards for IBM PC compatible computers were very uncommon until 1988. For the majority IBM PC users, the internal PC speaker was the only way for early PC software to produce sound and music. The speaker hardware was typically limited to square waves. The resulting sound was generally described as "beeps and boops" which resulted in the common nickname "beeper". Several companies, most notably Access Software, developed techniques for digital sound reproduction over the PC speaker like RealSound. The resulting audio, while functional, suffered from the heavily distorted output and low volume, and usually required all other processing to be stopped while sounds were played. Other home computers of the 1980s like the Commodore 64 included hardware support for digital sound playback or music synthesis, leaving the IBM PC at a disadvantage when it came to multimedia applications. Early sound cards for the IBM PC platform were not designed for gaming or multimedia applications, but rather on specific audio applications, such as music composition with the AdLib Personal Music System, IBM Music Feature Card, and Creative Music System, or on speech synthesis like Digispeech "DS201", Covox Speech Thing, and Street Electronics "Echo".


title: Sound card

text: In 1988, a panel of computer-game CEOs stated at the Consumer Electronics Show that the PC's limited sound capability prevented it from becoming the leading home computer, that it needed a $49–79 sound card with better capability than current products, and that once such hardware was widely installed, their companies would support it. Sierra On-Line, which had pioneered supporting EGA and VGA video, and 3-1/2" disks, promised that year to support the AdLib, IBM Music Feature, and Roland MT-32 sound cards in its games. A 1989 "Computer Gaming World" survey found that 18 of 25 game companies planned to support AdLib, six Roland and Covox, and seven Creative Music System/Game Blaster.


title: Sound card

text: One of the first manufacturers of sound cards for the IBM PC was AdLib, which produced a card based on the Yamaha YM3812 sound chip, also known as the OPL2. The AdLib had two modes: A 9-voice mode where each voice could be fully programmed, and a less frequently used "percussion" mode with 3 regular voices producing 5 independent percussion-only voices for a total of 11.


title: Sound card

text: Creative Labs also marketed a sound card about the same time called the Creative Music System (C/MS). Although the C/MS had twelve voices to AdLib's nine, and was a stereo card while the AdLib was mono, the basic technology behind it was based on the Philips SAA1099 chip which was essentially a square-wave generator. It sounded much like twelve simultaneous PC speakers would have except for each channel having amplitude control, and failed to sell well, even after Creative renamed it the Game Blaster a year later, and marketed it through RadioShack in the US. The Game Blaster retailed for under $100 and was compatible with many popular games, such as Silpheed.


title: Sound card

text: A large change in the IBM PC compatible sound card market happened when Creative Labs introduced the Sound Blaster card. Recommended by Microsoft to developers creating software based on the Multimedia PC standard, the Sound Blaster cloned the AdLib and added a sound coprocessor for recording and playback of digital audio. The card also included a game port for adding a joystick, and the capability to interface to MIDI equipment using the game port and a special cable. With AdLib compatibility and more features at nearly the same price, most buyers chose the Sound Blaster. It eventually outsold the AdLib and dominated the market.


title: Sound card

text: Roland also made sound cards in the late 1980s such as the MT-32 and LAPC-I. Roland cards sold for hundreds of dollars. Many games had music written for their cards, such as Silpheed and Police Quest II. The cards were often poor at sound effects such as laughs, but for music was by far the best sound cards available until the mid-nineties. Some Roland cards, such as the SCC, and later versions of the MT-32 were made to be less expensive.


title: Sound card

text: By 1992, one sound card vendor advertised that its product was "Sound Blaster, AdLib, Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing Compatible!" Responding to readers complaining about an article on sound cards that unfavorably mentioned the Gravis Ultrasound, "Computer Gaming World" stated in January 1994 that, "The de facto standard in the gaming world is Sound Blaster compatibility ... It would have been unfair to have recommended anything else." The magazine that year stated that "Wing Commander II" was "Probably the game responsible" for making it the standard card. The Sound Blaster line of cards, together with the first inexpensive CD-ROM drives and evolving video technology, ushered in a new era of multimedia computer applications that could play back CD audio, add recorded dialogue to video games, or even reproduce full motion video (albeit at much lower resolutions and quality in early days). The widespread decision to support the Sound Blaster design in multimedia and entertainment titles meant that future sound cards such as Media Vision's Pro Audio Spectrum and the Gravis Ultrasound had to be Sound Blaster compatible if they were to sell well. Until the early 2000s, when the AC'97 audio standard became more widespread and eventually usurped the SoundBlaster as a standard due to its low cost and integration into many motherboards, Sound Blaster compatibility was a standard that many other sound cards supported to maintain compatibility with many games and applications released.


title: Sound card

text: When game company Sierra On-Line opted to support add-on music hardware in addition to built-in hardware such as the PC speaker and built-in sound capabilities of the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000, what could be done with sound and music on the IBM PC changed dramatically. Two of the companies Sierra partnered with were Roland and AdLib, opting to produce in-game music for King's Quest 4 that supported the MT-32 and AdLib Music Synthesizer. The MT-32 had superior output quality, due in part to its method of sound synthesis as well as built-in reverb. Since it was the most sophisticated synthesizer they supported, Sierra chose to use most of the MT-32's custom features and unconventional instrument patches, producing background sound effects (e.g., chirping birds, clopping horse hooves, etc.) before the Sound Blaster brought digital audio playback to the PC. Many game companies also supported the MT-32, but supported the Adlib card as an alternative because of the latter's higher market base. The adoption of the MT-32 led the way for the creation of the MPU-401, Roland Sound Canvas and General MIDI standards as the most common means of playing in-game music until the mid-1990s.


title: Sound card

text: Early ISA bus sound cards were half-duplex, meaning they couldn't record and play digitized sound simultaneously. Later, ISA cards like the SoundBlaster AWE series and Plug-and-play Soundblaster clones supported simultaneous recording and playback, but at the expense of using up two IRQ and DMA channels instead of one. Conventional PCI bus cards generally do not have these limitations and are mostly full-duplex.


title: Sound card

text: Sound cards have evolved in terms of digital audio sampling rate (starting from 8-bit , to 32-bit, that the latest solutions support). Along the way, some cards started offering wavetable synthesis, which provides superior MIDI synthesis quality relative to the earlier Yamaha OPL based solutions, which uses FM-synthesis. Some higher-end cards introduced their own RAM and processor for user-definable sound samples and MIDI instruments as well as to offload audio processing from the CPU.


title: Sound card

text: With some exceptions, for years, sound cards, most notably the Sound Blaster series and their compatibles, had only one or two channels of digital sound. Early games and MOD-players needing more channels than a card could support had to resort to mixing multiple channels in software. Even today, the tendency is still to mix multiple sound streams in software, except in products specifically intended for gamers or professional musicians.


title: Sound card

text: The number of physical sound channels has also increased. The first sound card solutions were mono. Stereo sound was introduced in the early 1980s, and quadraphonic sound came in 1989. This was shortly followed by 5.1 channel audio. The latest sound cards support up to 8 audio channels for the 7.1 speaker setup.


title: Sound card

text: A few early sound cards had sufficient power to drive unpowered speakers directlyfor example, two watts per channel. With the popularity of amplified speakers, sound cards no longer have a power stage, though in many cases they can adequately drive headphones.


title: Sound card

text: Professional sound cards are sound cards optimized for high-fidelity, low-latency multichannel sound recording and playback. Their drivers usually follow the Audio Stream Input/Output protocol for use with professional sound engineering and music software.


title: Sound card

text: Professional sound cards are usually described as "audio interfaces", and sometimes have the form of external rack-mountable units using USB, FireWire, or an optical interface, to offer sufficient data rates. The emphasis in these products is, in general, on multiple input and output connectors, direct hardware support for multiple input and output sound channels, as well as higher sampling rates and fidelity as compared to the usual consumer sound card.


title: Sound card

text: On the other hand, certain features of consumer sound cards such as support for 3D audio, hardware acceleration in video games, or real-time ambience effects are secondary, nonexistent or even undesirable in professional audio interfaces, and as such audio interfaces are not recommended for the typical home user.


title: Sound card

text: The typical consumer-grade sound card is intended for generic home, office, and entertainment purposes with an emphasis on playback and casual use, rather than catering to the needs of audio professionals. In general, consumer-grade sound cards impose several restrictions and inconveniences that would be unacceptable to an audio professional. Consumer sound cards are also limited in the "effective" sampling rates and bit depths they can actually manage and have lower numbers of less flexible input channels. Professional studio recording use typically requires more than the two channels that consumer sound cards provide, and more accessible connectors, unlike the variable mixture of internal—and sometimes virtual—and external connectors found in consumer-grade sound cards.


title: Sound card

text: In 1984, the first IBM PCjr had a rudimentary 3-voice sound synthesis chip (the SN76489) which was capable of generating three square-wave tones with variable amplitude, and a pseudo-white noise channel that could generate primitive percussion sounds. The Tandy 1000, initially a clone of the PCjr, duplicated this functionality, with the Tandy 1000 TL/SL/RL models adding digital sound recording and playback capabilities. Many games during the 1980s that supported the PCjr's video standard (described as "Tandy-compatible", "Tandy graphics", or "TGA") also supported PCjr/Tandy 1000 audio.


title: Sound card

text: In the late 1990s, many computer manufacturers began to replace plug-in sound cards with an audio codec chip (a combined audio AD/DA-converter) integrated into the motherboard. Many of these used Intel's AC'97 specification. Others used inexpensive ACR slot accessory cards.


title: Sound card

text: From around 2001, many motherboards incorporated full-featured sound cards, usually in the form of a custom chipset, providing something akin to full Sound Blaster compatibility and relatively high-quality sound. However, these features were dropped when AC'97 was superseded by Intel's HD Audio standard, which was released in 2004, again specified the use of a codec chip, and slowly gained acceptance. As of 2011, most motherboards have returned to using a codec chip, albeit an HD Audio compatible one, and the requirement for Sound Blaster compatibility relegated to history.


title: Sound card

text: Various non-IBM PC compatible computers, such as early home computers like the Commodore 64 (1982) (and by extension Commodore 128 in 1985) and Amiga (1985), NEC's PC-88, and PC-98, Fujitsu's FM-7 and FM Towns, Sharp's X1 and X68000, Acorn's BBC Micro, Electron and Archimedes, Atari's 8-bit home computers, ST and Falcon, Amstrad's CPC, later revisions of Sinclair's ZX Spectrum, the MSX, Apple's Macintosh and IIGS, and workstations from manufacturers like Sun, Silicon Graphics and NeXT have had their own motherboard-integrated sound devices. In some cases, most notably in those of the Macintosh, IIGS, Amiga, C64, PC-98, SGI Indigo, X68000, MSX, Falcon, Archimedes, FM-7 and FM Towns, they provide very advanced capabilities (as of the time of manufacture), in others they are only minimal capabilities. Some of these platforms have also had sound cards designed for their bus architectures that cannot be used in a standard PC.


title: Sound card

text: Several Japanese computer platforms, including the PC-88, PC-98, MSX, X1, X68000, FM Towns and FM-7, featured built-in FM synthesis sound from Yamaha by the mid-1980s. By 1989, the FM Towns computer platform featured built-in PCM sample-based sound and supported the CD-ROM format.


title: Sound card

text: The custom sound chip on Amiga, named Paula, had four digital sound channels (2 for the left speaker and 2 for the right) with 8-bit resolution for each channel and a 6-bit volume control per channel. Sound playback on Amiga was done by reading directly from the chip-RAM without using the main CPU.


title: Sound card

text: Most arcade games have integrated sound chips, the most popular being the Yamaha OPL chip for music coupled with a variety of DACs for sampled audio and sound effects.


title: Sound card

text: The earliest known sound card used by computers was the Gooch Synthetic Woodwind, a music device for PLATO terminals, and is widely hailed as the precursor to sound cards and MIDI. It was invented in 1972.


title: Sound card

text: Certain early arcade machines made use of sound cards to achieve playback of complex audio waveforms and digital music, despite being already equipped with onboard audio. An example of a sound card used in arcade machines is the Digital Compression System card, used in games from Midway. For example, Mortal Kombat II on the Midway T-Unit hardware. The T-Unit hardware already has an onboard YM2151 OPL chip coupled with an OKI 6295 DAC, but said game uses an added on DCS card instead. The card is also used in the arcade version of Midway and Aerosmith's Revolution X for complex looping music and speech playback.


title: Sound card

text: MSX computers, while equipped with built-in sound capabilities, also relied on sound cards to produce better quality audio. The card, known as Moonsound, uses a Yamaha OPL4 sound chip. Prior to the Moonsound, there were also sound cards called "MSX Music" and "MSX Audio" for the system, which uses OPL2 and OPL3 chipsets.


title: Sound card

text: The Apple II series of computers, which did not have sound capabilities beyond a beep until the IIGS, could use plug-in sound cards from a variety of manufacturers. The first, in 1978, was ALF's Apple Music Synthesizer, with 3 voices; two or three cards could be used to create 6 or 9 voices in stereo. Later ALF created the Apple Music II, a 9-voice model. The most widely supported card, however, was the Mockingboard. Sweet Micro Systems sold the Mockingboard in various models. Early Mockingboard models ranged from 3 voices in mono, while some later designs had 6 voices in stereo. Some software supported use of two Mockingboard cards, which allowed 12-voice music and sound. A 12-voice, single card clone of the Mockingboard called the Phasor was made by Applied Engineering.


title: Sound card

text: The Sinclair ZX Spectrum that initially only had a beeper had some sound cards made for it. Examples include TurboSound Other examples are the Fuller Box, and Zon X-81.


title: Sound card

text: The Commodore 64, while having an integrated SID chip, also had sound cards made for it. For example, the Sound Expander, which added on an OPL FM synthesizer.


title: Sound card

text: The PC-98 series of computers, like their IBM PC cousins, also do not have integrated sound contrary to popular belief, and their default configuration is a PC speaker driven by a timer. Sound cards were made for the C-Bus expansion slots that these computers had, most of which used Yamaha's FM and PSG chips and made by NEC themselves, although aftermarket clones can also be purchased, and Creative did release a C-Bus version of the SoundBlaster line of sound cards for the platform.


title: Sound card

text: Devices such as the Covox Speech Thing could be attached to the parallel port of an IBM PC and fed 6- or 8-bit PCM sample data to produce audio. Also, many types of professional sound cards take the form of an external FireWire or USB unit, usually for convenience and improved fidelity.


title: Sound card

text: Sound cards using the PC Card interface were available before laptop and notebook computers routinely had onboard sound. Most of these units were designed for mobile DJs, providing separate outputs to allow both playback and monitoring from one system, however, some also target mobile gamers.


title: Sound card

text: USB sound "cards" are external devices that plug into the computer via USB. They are often used in studios and on stage by electronic musicians including live PA performers and DJs. DJs who use DJ software typically use sound cards integrated into DJ controllers or specialized DJ sound cards. DJ sound cards sometimes have inputs with phono preamplifiers to allow turntables to be connected to the computer to control the software's playback of music files with vinyl emulation.


title: Sound card

text: The USB specification defines a standard interface, the USB audio device class, allowing a single driver to work with the various USB sound devices and interfaces on the market. Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux support this standard. However, some USB sound cards do not conform to the standard and require proprietary drivers from the manufacturer.


title: Sound card

text: Cards meeting the older USB 1.1 specification are capable of high-quality sound with a limited number of channels, but USB 2.0 or later is more capable.


title: Sound card

text: The main function of a sound card is to play audio, usually music, with varying formats (monophonic, stereophonic, various multiple speaker setups) and degrees of control. The source may be a CD or DVD, a file, streamed audio, or any external source connected to a sound card input.


title: Sound card

text: Audio may be recorded. Sometimes sound card hardware and drivers do not support recording a source that is being played.


title: Sound card

text: A card can also be used, in conjunction with software, to generate arbitrary waveforms, acting as an audio-frequency function generator. Free and commercial software is available for this purpose; there are also online services that generate audio files for any desired waveforms, playable through a sound card.


title: Sound card

text: A card can be used, again in conjunction with free or commercial software, to analyse input waveforms. For example, a very-low-distortion sinewave oscillator can be used as input to equipment under test; the output is sent to a sound card's line input and run through Fourier transform software to find the amplitude of each harmonic of the added distortion. Alternatively, a less pure signal source may be used, with circuitry to subtract the input from the output, attenuated and phase-corrected; the result is distortion and noise only, which can be analysed.


title: Sound card

text: For all measurement purposes a sound card must be chosen with good audio properties. It must itself contribute as little distortion and noise as possible, and attention must be paid to bandwidth and sampling. A typical integrated sound card, the Realtek ALC887, according to its data sheet has distortion of about 80 dB below the fundamental; cards are available with distortion better than −100 dB.


title: Sound card

text: Sound cards with a sampling rate of 192 kHz can be used to synchronize the clock of the computer with a time signal transmitter working on frequencies below 96 kHz like DCF 77 with a special software and a coil at the entrance of the sound card, working as antenna , .


title: Sound card

text: To use a sound card, the operating system (OS) typically requires a specific device driver, a low-level program that handles the data connections between the physical hardware and the operating system. Some operating systems include the drivers for many cards; for cards not so supported, drivers are supplied with the card, or available for download.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Safdar Hashmi (12 April 1954 – 2 January 1989) was a communist playwright and director, best known for his work with street theatre in India. He was also an actor, lyricist, and theorist, and he is still considered an important voice in Indian political theatre. He was an activist of the Students' Federation of India (SFI).


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: He was a founding member of "Jana Natya Manch" (People's Theatre Front; JANAM for short) in 1973, which grew out of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). He was murdered in 1989 in Jhandapur, while performing a street play, "Halla Bol".


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Safdar Hashmi was born on 12 April 1954 in Delhi, to Haneef and Qamar Azad Hashmi. He spent the early part of his life in Delhi and Aligarh, where he grew up in a liberal Marxist environment, and went on to complete his schooling in Delhi. Actress Saba Azad is his niece.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi with a degree in English Literature, and went on to complete his M.A. in English from Delhi University. During this period, he became associated with the cultural unit of the Students' Federation of India, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and eventually with the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). In the years before and after his graduation, he worked on several plays with IPTA, such as "Kimlesh", and "Dekhte Lena".


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi co-founded the "Jana Natya Manch" (People's Theatre Front), with the acronym JANAM ("birth" in Hindi), in 1973. JANAM grew out of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and was associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with which he was actively involved in the 1970s. When Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was accused of rigging the elections, he produced a street play, "Kursi, Kursi, Kursi" ("Chair, Chair, Chair"), as a reaction to the controversy. The play narrates the story of a king whose throne moves with him when he attempts to give it up in favour of an elected representative. The play was performed every day for a week, at the Boat Club Lawns in New Delhi, then a hub of political activity. It proved to be a turning point for JANAM.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Until 1975, JANAM performed open-air proscenium and street plays for mass audiences. When Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency and made political theatre difficult, Hashmi began to work as a lecturer in English literature in universities in Garhwal, Kashmir, and Delhi.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: When the Emergency ended in 1977, he returned to political activism, and in 1978, JANAM took to street theatre in a big way with "Machine", which was performed for a trade union meeting of over 200,000 workers on 20 November 1978. This was followed by plays on the distress of small peasants ("Gaon Se Shahar Tak"), on clerical fascism ("Hatyare & Apharan Bhaichare Ke"), on unemployment ("Teen Crore"), on violence against women ("Aurat") and on inflation ("DTC ki Dhandhli"). Hashmi also produced several documentaries and a TV serial for Doordarshan, including "Khilti Kaliyan" ("Flowers in Bloom"), which examined rural empowerment. He also wrote books for children and criticism of the Indian stage.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi was the de facto director of JANAM, and prior to his death, it gave about 4,000 performances of 24 street plays, mostly in working-class neighbourhoods, factories and workshops.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi was a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest communist party in India. In 1979, he married his comrade and theatre actress, Moloyshree. Later, he worked for the Press Trust of India (PTI) and "The Economic Times" as a journalist, and then became Press Information Officer of the Government of West Bengal in Delhi. In 1984, he gave up his job and devoted himself full-time to political activism.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi’s output includes two proscenium plays – an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s "Enemies" (1983) and "Moteram ka Satyagraha" (with Habib Tanvir, 1988) – many songs, a television series script, poems and plays for children, and documentary films. While committed to radical, popular, and left-wing art, Hashmi refrained from clichéd portrayals, and was not afraid of formal experimentation.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: On 1 January 1989, the JANAM troupe began a performance of the street play "Halla Bol" ("Raise Your Voice!"), during the Ghaziabad municipal elections in Sahibabad's Jhandapur village (near Delhi). During the performance, the troupe was attacked by Indian National Congress workers. Hashmi was fatally injured and died the following day. On 4 January 1989, two days after his death, his wife Moloyshree Hashmi went to the same spot again with the JANAM troupe, and defiantly completed the play.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Fourteen years after the incident, a Ghaziabad court convicted ten people, including Congress Party member Mukesh Sharma, for the murder.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Hashmi has become a symbol of cultural resistance against authoritarianism for the Indian Left. JANAM continues its theatre work, and on 12 April 2012, Hashmi's birthday, the group inaugurated Studio Safdar, a performance and workshop space located in Shadi Khampur, near Patel Nagar in Central Delhi. The space is next door to a left-wing cafe and bookstore, May Day. The writer Bhisham Sahni, along with many other artists, founded the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) in February 1989, as an open platform for politically and socially conscious artists. Hashmi's writings were later collected in "The Right to Perform: Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi" (New Delhi, 1989).


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: Each year on 1 January, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Day is observed as a "Day of Resolve" by SAHMAT, and a daylong cultural congregation, "Jashn-e-Daura", is organised in New Delhi. The day is also commemorated by JANAM, which organises street plays at Jhandapur village, in Sahibabad, where he was killed. In 1998, Safdar Hashmi Natyasangham was formed in Kozhikode, Kerala, which provides free training to economically backward students.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: The 2003 film "Anbe Sivam", made by Sundar C., and the 2008 film "Halla Bol", made by Rajkumar Santoshi, were inspired by his life. The latter also depicts a scene where a street theatre activist is beaten by men hired by a political party, an incident which turns into a catalyst for a public uprising.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: In 1989, the painter M.F. Husain had a painting "Tribute to Hashmi" sold at auction for over $1 million, the first time a painting by an Indian artist reached this valuation.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: The 2020 book "Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi" by Sudhanva Deshpande recounts the events leading up to the attack on Jana Natya Manch's performance of the play "Halla Bol" in Jhandapur on January 1, 1989, in which Safdar sustained fatal injuries. It also discusses Safdar's work in Jana Natya Manch.


title: Safdar Hashmi

text: The Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a non-governmental organisation from Lucknow, has been awarding the Safdar Hashmi Award for Human Rights in reverence to his contributions to the cause of human rights.


title: Near-open front unrounded vowel

text: The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".


title: Near-open front unrounded vowel

text: The rounded counterpart of , the near-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically in Danish; see open front rounded vowel for more information.


title: Near-open front unrounded vowel

text: In practice, is sometimes used to represent the open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.


title: French Consulate

text: The Consulate () was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term "The Consulate" also refers to this period of French history.


title: French Consulate

text: During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul (), established himself as the head of a more authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the Consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history." Napoleon brought authoritarian personal rule which has been viewed as military dictatorship.


title: French Consulate

text: French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the political downfall of the Directory to 18 June 1799 (Coup of 30 Prairial VII by the French Republican calendar). This was when anti-Jacobin Director Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, after only a month in office, with the help of the Directory's only surviving original member, Paul Barras, also an anti-Jacobin, successfully rid himself of the other three then-sitting directors. The March–April 1799 elections to the two councils had produced a new "Neo-Jacobin" majority in the two bodies, and being unhappy with the existing five man Directory, by 5 June 1799, these councils had found an irregularity in the election of the Director Jean Baptiste Treilhard, who thus retired in favor of Louis Jérôme Gohier, a Jacobin more 'in tune' with the feelings in the two councils. The very next day, 18 June 1799, the anti-Jacobins Philippe-Antoine Merlin (Merlin de Douai) and Louis-Marie de La Revellière-Lépeaux were also driven to resign, although one long time anti-Jacobin, popularly known for his cunning, survived the day's coup; they were replaced by the Jacobin Baron Jean-François-Auguste Moulin and by the non-Jacobin, or 'weak' Jacobin, Roger Ducos. The three new directors were generally seen by the anti-Jacobin elite of France as non-entities, a 'put-down' if ever there was one, but that same elite could take some comfort in knowing that the five man Directory was still in anti-Jacobin hands, but with a reduced majority.


title: French Consulate

text: A few more military disasters, royalist insurrections in the south, Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of the western part of France (mainly in Brittany, Maine and eventually Normandy), "Orléanist" intrigues, and the end became certain. In order to soothe the populace and protect the frontier, more than the French Revolution's usual terrorist measures (such as the law of hostages) was necessary. The new Directory government, led by the anti-Jacobin Sieyès, decided that the necessary revision of the constitution would require "a head" (his own) and "a sword" (a general to back him). Jean Victor Moreau being unattainable as his sword, Sieyès favoured Barthélemy Catherine Joubert; but, when Joubert was killed at the Battle of Novi (15 August 1799), he turned to General Napoleon Bonaparte.


title: French Consulate

text: Although Guillaume Marie Anne Brune and André Masséna won the Battles of Bergen and of Zürich, and although the Allies of the Second Coalition lingered on the frontier as they had done after the Battle of Valmy, still the fortunes of the Directory were not restored. Success was reserved for Bonaparte, suddenly landing at Fréjus with the prestige of his victories in the East, and now, after Hoche's death (1797), appearing as sole master of the armies.


title: French Consulate

text: In the coup of 18 Brumaire Year VIII (9 November 1799), Napoleon seized French parliamentary and military power in a two-fold "coup d'état", forcing the sitting directors of the government to resign. On the night of the 19 Brumaire (10 November 1799) a remnant of the Council of Ancients abolished the Constitution of the Year III, ordained the consulate, and legalised the "coup d'Etat" in favour of Bonaparte with the Constitution of the Year VIII.


title: French Consulate

text: The initial 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès, rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic, and the coup initially seemed certain to bring his system into force. Bonaparte's cleverness lay in counterposing Pierre Claude François Daunou's plan to that of Sieyès, and in retaining only those portions of each which could serve his ambition.


title: French Consulate

text: The new government was composed of three parliamentary assemblies: the Council of State which drafted bills, the Tribunate which could not vote on the bills but instead debated them, and the Corps législatif, whose members could not discuss the bills but voted on them after reviewing the Tribunate's debate record. The Sénat conservateur was a governmental body equal to the three aforementioned legislative assemblies and verified the draft bills and directly advised the First Consul on the implications of such bills. Ultimate executive authority was vested in three consuls, who were elected for ten years. Popular suffrage was retained, though mutilated by the lists of notables (on which the members of the Assemblies were to be chosen by the Senate). The four aforementioned governmental organs were retained under the Constitution of the Year XII, which recognized Napoleon as the French sovereign Emperor, but their respective powers were greatly diminished.


title: French Consulate

text: Napoleon vetoed Sieyès' original idea of having a single "Grand Elector" as supreme executive and Head of State. Sieyès had intended to reserve this important position for himself, and by denying him the job Napoleon helped reinforce the authority of the consuls, an office which he would assume. Nor was Napoleon content simply to be part of an equal triumvirate. As the years would progress he would move to consolidate his own power as First Consul, and leave the two other consuls, Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and Charles-François Lebrun, as well as the Assemblies, weak and subservient.


title: French Consulate

text: By consolidating power, Bonaparte was able to transform the aristocratic constitution of Sieyès into an unavowed dictatorship.


title: French Consulate

text: On 7 February 1800, a public referendum confirmed the new constitution. It vested all of the real power in the hands of the First Consul, leaving only a nominal role for the other two consuls. A full 99.9% of voters approved the motion, according to the released results.


title: French Consulate

text: While this near-unanimity is certainly open to question, Napoleon was genuinely popular among many voters, and after a period of strife, many in France were reassured by his dazzling but unsuccessful offers of peace to the victorious Second Coalition, his rapid disarmament of , and his talk of stability of government, order, justice and moderation. He gave everyone a feeling that France was governed once more by a real statesman, and that a competent government was finally in charge.


title: French Consulate

text: Bonaparte needed to rid himself of Sieyès and of those republicans who had no desire to hand over the republic to one man, particularly of Moreau and Masséna, his military rivals. The victory of Marengo (14 June 1800) momentarily in the balance, but secured by Desaix and Kellermann, offered a further opportunity to his ambition by increasing his popularity. The royalist plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise on 24 December 1800 allowed him to make a clean sweep of the democratic republicans, who despite their innocence were deported to French Guiana. He annulled the Assemblies and made the Senate omnipotent in constitutional matters.


title: French Consulate

text: The Treaty of Lunéville, signed in February 1801 with Austria (which had been disarmed by ’s victory at ), restored peace to Europe, gave nearly the whole of Italy to France, and permitted to eliminate from the Assemblies all the leaders of the opposition in the discussion of the Civil Code. The Concordat of 1801, drawn up not in the Church's interest but in that of his own policy, by giving satisfaction to the religious feeling of the country, allowed him to put down the constitutional democratic Church, to rally round him the consciences of the peasants, and above all to deprive the royalists of their best weapon. The hid from the eyes of his companions-in-arms and councillors a reaction which, in fact if not in law, restored to a submissive Church, despoiled of her revenues, her position as the religion of the state.


title: French Consulate

text: The Peace of Amiens (25 March 1802) with the United Kingdom, of which France's allies, Spain and the Batavian Republic, paid all the costs, finally gave the peacemaker a pretext for endowing himself with a Consulate, not for ten years but for life, as a recompense from the nation. The Rubicon was crossed on that day: ’s march to empire began with the Constitution of the Year X dated 16 Thermidor or 4 August 1802.


title: French Consulate

text: On 2 August 1802 (14 Thermidor, An X), a second national referendum was held, this time to confirm as "First Consul for Life." Once again, a vote claimed 99.7% approval.


title: French Consulate

text: As increased his power, he borrowed many techniques of the in his new form of one-man government. Like the old monarchy, he re-introduced plenipotentiaries; over-centralised, strictly utilitarian administrative and bureaucratic methods, and a policy of subservient pedantic scholasticism towards the nation's universities. He constructed or consolidated the funds necessary for national institutions, local governments, a judiciary system, organs of finance, banking, codes, traditions of conscientious well-disciplined labour force.


title: French Consulate

text: France enjoyed a high level of peace and order under that helped to raise the standard of comfort. Prior to this, Paris had often suffered from hunger and thirst, and lacked fire and light, but under Napoleon, provisions became cheap and abundant, while trade prospered and wages ran high. The pomp and luxury of the were displayed in the of the good , the beautiful , and the "divine" .


title: French Consulate

text: In strengthening the machinery of state, created the elite order of the (The Legion of Honour), the , and restored indirect taxes, an act seen as a betrayal of the Revolution.


title: French Consulate

text: In contradistinction to the opposition of senators and republican generals, the majority of the French populace remained uncritical of 's authority. No suggestion of the possibility of his death was tolerated. The Napoleonic age began here when he became officer of the French state and established the consulate.


title: French Consulate

text: Because Napoleon's hold on political power was still tenuous, French Royalists devised a plot that involved kidnapping and assassinating him and inviting Louis Antoine de Bourbon, the Duke of Enghien, to lead a coup d'état that would precede the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy with Louis XVIII on the throne. The British government of William Pitt the Younger had contributed to this Royalist conspiracy by financing one million pounds and providing naval transport (with the ship of Captain John Wesley Wright) to the conspirators Georges Cadoudal and General Charles Pichegru for their return to France from England. Pichegru met Jean Victor Marie Moreau, one of Napoleon's generals and a former protege of Pichegru, on 28 January 1804. The next day, a British secret agent named Courson was arrested and he, under torture, confessed that Pichegru, Moreau and Cadoudal were conspiring to overthrow the consulate. The French government sought more details of this plot by arresting and torturing Louis Picot, Cadoudal's servant. Joachim Murat ordered the city gates of Paris to be closed from 7 pm to 6 am while Pichegru and Moreau were arrested during the next month.


title: French Consulate

text: These further arrests revealed that the Royalist conspiracy would eventually involve the active participation of the Duke of Enghien, who was a relatively young Bourbon prince and thus another possible heir to a restored Bourbon monarchy. The Duke, at that time, was living as a French "émigré" in the future Grand Duchy of Baden, but then still the 1803-1806 Electorate of Baden, but he also kept a rented house in Ettenheim, which was close to the French border. Perhaps at the urging of Talleyrand, Napoleon's foreign minister, and Fouché, Napoleon's minister of police who had warned that "the air is full of daggers", the First Consul came to the political conclusion that the Duke must be dealt with. Two hundred French soldiers crossed the border, surrounded the Duke's home in Baden and arrested him.


title: French Consulate

text: On the way back to France d'Enghien stated that "he had sworn implacable hatred against Bonaparte as well as against the French; he would take every occasion to make war on them."


title: French Consulate

text: After three plots to assassinate him and the further financing of a supposed insurrection in Strasbourg, Napoleon had enough. Based on d'Enghien's who were seized at his home in Germany and the material from the police, d'Enghien was charged as a conspirator in time of war and was subject to a military court. He was ordered to be tried by a court of seven colonels at Vincennes.


title: French Consulate

text: D'Enghien during his questioning at the court told them that he was being paid £4,200 per year by England "in order to combat not France but a government to which his birth had made him hostile." Further, he stated that "I asked England if I might serve in her armies, but she replied that that was impossible: I must wait on the Rhine, where I would have a part to play immediately, and I was in fact waiting."


title: French Consulate

text: D'Enghien was found guilty of being in violation of Article 2 of a law of 6 October 1791, to wit, "Any conspiracy and plot aimed at disturbing the State by civil war, and arming the citizens against one another, or against lawful authority, will be punished by death." He was executed in the ditch of the fortress of Vincennes.


title: French Consulate

text: The aftermath caused hardly a ripple in France, but abroad, it produced a storm of anger. Many of those who had favored or been neutral to Napoleon now turned against him. But Napoleon always assumed full responsibility for allowing the execution and continued to believe that, on balance, he had done the right thing.


title: Stendhal

text: Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels "Le Rouge et le Noir" ("The Red and the Black", 1830) and "La Chartreuse de Parme" ("The Charterhouse of Parma", 1839), he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the early and foremost practitioners of realism. A self-proclaimed egotist, he coined the same characteristic in his characters' "Beylism".


title: Stendhal

text: Born in Grenoble, Isère, he was an unhappy child, disliking his "unimaginative" father and mourning his mother, whom he passionately loved, and who died when he was seven. His closest friend was his younger sister, Pauline, with whom he maintained a steady correspondence throughout the first decade of the 19th century. His family was part of the bourgeois class and was attached to the Ancien Regime, explaining his ambiguous view toward Napoleon, the Bourbon Restoration, and the monarchy later on.


title: Stendhal

text: The military and theatrical worlds of the First French Empire were a revelation to Beyle. He was named an auditor with the Conseil d'État on 3 August 1810, and thereafter took part in the French administration and in the Napoleonic wars in Italy. He travelled extensively in Germany and was part of Napoleon's army in the 1812 invasion of Russia. Upon arriving, Stendhal witnessed the burning of Moscow from just outside the city as well as the army's winter retreat. He was appointed Commissioner of War Supplies and sent to Smolensk to prepare provisions for the returning army. He crossed the Berezina River by finding a usable ford rather than the overwhelmed pontoon bridge, which probably saved his life and those of his companions. He arrived in Paris in 1813, largely unaware of the general fiasco that the retreat had become. Stendhal became known, during the Russian campaign, for keeping his wits about him, and maintaining his "sang-froid and clear-headedness." He also maintained his daily routine, shaving each day during the retreat from Moscow.


title: Stendhal

text: After the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau, he left for Italy, where he settled in Milan. In 1830, he was appointed as French consul at Trieste and Civitavecchia. He formed a particular attachment to Italy, where he spent much of the remainder of his career. His novel "The Charterhouse of Parma", written in 52 days, is set in Italy, which he considered a more sincere and passionate country than Restoration France. An aside in that novel, referring to a character who contemplates suicide after being jilted, speaks about his attitude towards his home country: "To make this course of action clear to my French readers, I must explain that in Italy, a country very far away from us, people are still driven to despair by love."


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal identified with the nascent liberalism and his sojourn in Italy convinced him that Romanticism was essentially the literary counterpart of liberalism in politics. When Stendhal was appointed to a consular post in Trieste in 1830, Metternich refused his "exequatur" on account of Stendhal's liberalism and anti-clericalism.


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal was a dandy and wit about town in Paris, as well as an obsessive womaniser. His genuine empathy towards women is evident in his books; Simone de Beauvoir spoke highly of him in "The Second Sex". She credited him for perceiving a woman as just a woman and simply a human being. Citing Stendhal's rebellious heroines, she maintained that he was a feminist writer. One of his early works is "On Love", a rational analysis of romantic passion that was based on his unrequited love for Mathilde, Countess Dembowska, whom he met while living at Milan. Later, he would also suffer "restlessness in spirit" when one of his childhood friends, Victorine got married. In a letter to Pauline, he described her as the woman of his dreams and wrote that he would have discovered happiness if he became her husband. This fusion of, and tension between, clear-headed analysis and romantic feeling is typical of Stendhal's great novels; he could be considered a Romantic realist.


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal suffered miserable physical disabilities in his final years as he continued to produce some of his most famous work. He contracted syphilis in December 1808. As he noted in his journal, he was taking iodide of potassium and quicksilver to treat his sexual disease, resulting in swollen armpits, difficulty swallowing, pains in his shrunken testicles, sleeplessness, giddiness, roaring in the ears, racing pulse and "tremors so bad he could scarcely hold a fork or a pen". Modern medicine has shown that his health problems were more attributable to his treatment than to his syphilis. He is said to have sought the best treatment in Paris, Vienna, and Rome.


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal died on 23 March 1842, a few hours after collapsing with a seizure on the streets of Paris. He is interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre.


title: Stendhal

text: Before settling on the pen name Stendhal, he published under many pen names, including "Louis Alexandre Bombet" and "Anastasius Serpière". The only book that Stendhal published under his own name was "The History of Painting" (1817). From the publication of "Rome, Naples, Florence" (September 1817) onwards, he published his works under the pseudonym "M. de Stendhal, officier de cavalerie". He borrowed this pen name from the German city of Stendal, birthplace of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, an art historian and archaeologist famous at the time.


title: Stendhal

text: In 1807, Stendhal stayed near Stendal, where he fell in love with a woman named Wilhelmine, whom he called Minette, and for whose sake he remained in the city. "I have no inclination, now, except for Minette, for this blonde and charming Minette, this soul of the north, such as I have never seen in France or Italy." Stendhal added an additional "H" to make the Germanic pronunciation more clear.


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal used many aliases in his autobiographical writings and correspondence, and often assigned pseudonyms to friends, some of whom adopted the names for themselves. Stendhal used more than a hundred pseudonyms, which were astonishingly diverse. Some he used no more than once, while others he returned to throughout his life. "Dominique" and "Salviati" served as intimate pet names. He coins comic names "that make him even more bourgeois than he really is: Cotonnet, Bombet, Chamier." He uses many ridiculous names: "Don phlegm", "Giorgio Vasari", "William Crocodile", "Poverino", "Baron de Cutendre". One of his correspondents, Prosper Mérimée, said: "He never wrote a letter without signing a false name."


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal's "Journal" and autobiographical writings include many comments on masks and the pleasures of "feeling alive in many versions." "Look upon life as a masked ball," is the advice that Stendhal gives himself in his diary for 1814. In "Memoirs of an Egotist" he writes: "Will I be believed if I say I'd wear a mask with pleasure and be delighted to change my name?...for me the supreme happiness would be to change into a lanky, blonde German and to walk about like that in Paris."


title: Stendhal

text: Contemporary readers did not fully appreciate Stendhal's realistic style during the Romantic period in which he lived. He was not fully appreciated until the beginning of the 20th century. He dedicated his writing to "the Happy Few" (in English in the original). This can be interpreted as a reference to Canto 11 of Lord Byron's "Don Juan", which refers to "the thousand happy few" who enjoy high society, or to the "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers" line of William Shakespeare's "Henry V", but Stendhal's use more likely refers to "The Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith, parts of which he had memorized in the course of teaching himself English.


title: Stendhal

text: In "The Vicar of Wakefield", "the happy few" refers ironically to the small number of people who read the title character's obscure and pedantic treatise on monogamy. As a literary critic, such as in "Racine and Shakespeare", Stendhal championed the Romantic aesthetic by unfavorably comparing the rules and strictures of Jean Racine's classicism to the freer verse and settings of Shakespeare, and supporting the writing of plays in prose.


title: Stendhal

text: According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, in his novel "The Red and the Black", Stendhal refers to a novel as a mirror being carried in a basket. The metaphor of the realistic novel as a mirror of contemporary reality, accessible to the narrator, has certain limitations, which the artist is aware of. A valuable realistic work exceeds the Platonic meaning of art as a copy of reality. A mirror does not reflect reality in its entirety, nor is the artist’s aim to document it fully. In "The Red and the Black", the writer emphasizes the significance of selection when it comes to describing reality, with a view to realizing the cognitive function of a work of art, achieved through the categories of unity, coherence and typicality". Stendhal was an admirer of Napoleon and his novel "Le Rouge et le Noir" is considered his literary tribute to the emperor.


title: Stendhal

text: Today, Stendhal's works attract attention for their irony and psychological and historical dimensions. Stendhal was an avid fan of music, particularly the works of the composers Domenico Cimarosa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini. He wrote a biography of Rossini, "Vie de Rossini" (1824), now more valued for its wide-ranging musical criticism than for its historical content. He also idealized aristocracy, noting its antiegalitarianism but appreciating how it is liberal in its love of liberty.


title: Stendhal

text: In his works, Stendhal reprised excerpts appropriated from Giuseppe Carpani, Théophile Frédéric Winckler, Sismondi and others.


title: Stendhal

text: Stendhal's brief memoir, "Souvenirs d'Égotisme" ("Memoirs of an Egotist") was published posthumously in 1892. Also published was a more extended autobiographical work, thinly disguised as the "Life of Henry Brulard".


title: Stendhal

text: His other works include short stories, journalism, travel books ("A Roman Journal"), a famous collection of essays on Italian painting, and biographies of several prominent figures of his time, including Napoleon, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini and Metastasio.


title: Stendhal

text: In Stendhal's 1822 classic "" he describes or compares the "birth of love", in which the love object is 'crystallized' in the mind, as being a process similar or analogous to a trip to Rome. In the analogy, the city of Bologna represents "indifference" and Rome represents "perfect love":


title: Stendhal

text: When we are in Bologna, we are entirely indifferent; we are not concerned to admire in any particular way the person with whom we shall perhaps one day be madly in love; even less is our imagination inclined to overrate their worth. In a word, in Bologna "crystallization" has not yet begun. When the journey begins, love departs. One leaves Bologna, climbs the Apennines, and takes the road to Rome. The departure, according to Stendhal, has nothing to do with one's will; it is an instinctive moment. This transformative process actuates in terms of four steps along a journey:


title: Stendhal

text: This journey or crystallization process (shown above) was detailed by Stendhal on the back of a playing card while speaking to Madame Gherardi, during his trip to the Salzburg salt mine.


title: Stendhal

text: Hippolyte Taine considered the psychological portraits of Stendhal's characters to be "real, because they are complex, many-sided, particular and original, like living human beings." Émile Zola concurred with Taine's assessment of Stendhal's skills as a "psychologist", and although emphatic in his praise of Stendhal's psychological accuracy and rejection of convention, he deplored the various implausibilities of the novels and Stendhal's clear authorial intervention.


title: Stendhal

text: The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche refers to Stendhal as "France's last great psychologist" in "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886). He also mentions Stendhal in the "Twilight of the Idols" (1889) during a discussion of Dostoevsky as a psychologist, saying that encountering Dostoevsky was "the most beautiful accident of my life, more so than even my discovery of Stendhal".


title: Stendhal

text: Ford Madox Ford, in "The English Novel", asserts that to Diderot and Stendhal "the Novel owes its next great step forward...At that point it became suddenly evident that the Novel as such was capable of being regarded as a means of profoundly serious and many-sided discussion and therefore as a medium of profoundly serious investigation into the human case."


title: Stendhal

text: Erich Auerbach considers modern "serious realism" to have begun with Stendhal and Balzac. In "", he remarks of a scene in "The Red and the Black" that "it would be almost incomprehensible without a most accurate and detailed knowledge of the political situation, the social stratification, and the economic circumstances of a perfectly definite historical moment, namely, that in which France found itself just before the July Revolution."


title: Stendhal

text: In Auerbach's view, in Stendhal's novels "characters, attitudes, and relationships of the "dramatis personæ", then, are very closely connected with contemporary historical circumstances; contemporary political and social conditions are woven into the action in a manner more detailed and more real than had been exhibited in any earlier novel, and indeed in any works of literary art except those expressly purporting to be politico-satirical tracts."


title: Stendhal

text: Simone de Beauvoir uses Stendhal as an example of a feminist author. In "The Second Sex" de Beauvoir writes “Stendhal never describes his heroines as a function of his heroes: he provides them with their own destinies.” She furthermore points out that it “is remarkable that Stendhal is both so profoundly romantic and so decidedly feminist; feminists are usually rational minds that adopt a universal point of view in all things; but it is not only in the name of freedom in general but also in the name of individual happiness that Stendhal calls for women’s emancipation.” Yet, Beauvoir criticises Stendhal for, although wanting a woman to be his equal, her only destiny he envisions for her remains a man.