title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Olmec colossal heads vary in height from and weigh between 6 and 50 tons. All of the Olmec colossal heads depict mature men with flat noses and fleshy cheeks; the eyes tend to be slightly crossed. The general physical characteristics of the heads are of a type that is still common among people in the Olmec region in modern times. The backs of the heads are often flat, as if the monuments were originally placed against a wall. All examples of Olmec colossal heads wear distinctive headdresses that probably represent cloth or animal hide originals. Some examples have a tied knot at the back of the head, and some are decorated with feathers. A head from La Venta is decorated with the head of a bird. There are similarities between the headdresses on some of the heads that has led to speculation that specific headdresses may represent different dynasties, or perhaps identify specific rulers. Most of the heads wear large earspools inserted into the ear lobes.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: All of the heads are realistic, unidealised and frank descriptions of the men. It is likely that they were portraits of living (or recently deceased) rulers well known to the sculptors. Each head is distinct and naturalistic, displaying individualised features. They were once thought to represent ballplayers although this theory is no longer widely held; it is possible, however, that they represent rulers equipped for the Mesoamerican ballgame. Facial expressions depicted on the heads vary from stern through placid to smiling. The most naturalistic Olmec art is the earliest, appearing suddenly without surviving antecedents, with a tendency towards more stylised sculpture as time progressed. Some surviving examples of wooden sculpture recovered from El Manatí demonstrate that the Olmecs are likely to have created many more perishable sculptures than works sculpted from stone.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: In the late nineteenth century, José Melgar y Serrano described a colossal head as having "Ethiopian" features and speculations that the Olmec had African origins resurfaced in 1960 in the work of Alfonso Medellín Zenil and in the 1970s in the writings of Ivan van Sertima. Such speculation is not taken seriously by Mesoamerican scholars such as Richard Diehl and Ann Cyphers. Genetic studies have shown that, rather than Africa, the earliest Americans had ancestry closer to Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Although all the colossal heads are broadly similar, there are distinct stylistic differences in their execution. One of the heads from San Lorenzo bears traces of plaster and red paint, suggesting that the heads were originally brightly decorated. Heads did not just represent individual Olmec rulers; they also incorporated the very concept of rulership itself.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The production of each colossal head must have been carefully planned, given the effort required to ensure the necessary resources were available; it seems likely that only the more powerful Olmec rulers were able to mobilise such resources. The workforce would have included sculptors, labourers, overseers, boatmen, woodworkers and other artisans producing the tools to make and move the monument, in addition to the support needed to feed and otherwise attend to these workers. The seasonal and agricultural cycles and river levels needed to have been taken into account to plan the production of the monument and the whole project may well have taken years from beginning to end.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Archaeological investigation of Olmec basalt workshops suggest that the colossal heads were first roughly shaped using direct percussion to chip away both large and small flakes of stone. The sculpture was then refined by retouching the surface using hammerstones, which were generally rounded cobbles that could be of the same basalt as the monument itself, although this was not always the case. Abrasives were found in association with workshops at San Lorenzo, indicating their use in the finishing of fine detail. Olmec colossal heads were fashioned as in-the-round monuments with varying levels of relief on the same work; they tended to feature higher relief on the face and lower relief on the earspools and headdresses. Monument 20 at San Lorenzo is an extensively damaged throne with a figure emerging from a niche. Its sides were broken away and it was dragged to another location before being abandoned. It is possible that this damage was caused by the initial stages of re-carving the monument into a colossal head but that the work was never completed.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: All seventeen of the confirmed heads in the Olmec heartland were sculpted from basalt mined in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz. Most were formed from coarse-grained, dark-grey basalt known as Cerro Cintepec basalt after a volcano in the range. Investigators have proposed that large Cerro Cintepec basalt boulders found on the southeastern slopes of the mountains are the source of the stone for the monuments. These boulders are found in an area affected by large lahars (volcanic mudslides) that carried substantial blocks of stone down the mountain slopes, which suggests that the Olmecs did not need to quarry the raw material for sculpting the heads. Roughly spherical boulders were carefully selected to mimic the shape of a human head. The stone for the San Lorenzo and La Venta heads was transported a considerable distance from the source. The La Cobata head was found on El Vigia hill in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas and the stone from Tres Zapotes Colossal Head 1 and Nestepe Colossal Head 1 (also known as Tres Zapotes Monuments A and Q) came from the same hill.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The boulders were transported over from the source of the stone. The exact method of transportation of such large masses of rock are unknown, especially since the Olmecs lacked beasts of burden and functional wheels, and they were likely to have used water transport whenever possible. Coastal currents of the Gulf of Mexico and in river estuaries might have made the waterborne transport of monuments weighing 20 tons or more impractical. Two badly damaged Olmec sculptures depict rectangular stone blocks bound with ropes. A largely destroyed human figure rides upon each block, with their legs hanging over the side. These sculptures may well depict Olmec rulers overseeing the transport of the stone that would be fashioned into their monuments. When transport over land was necessary, the Olmecs are likely to have used causeways, ramps and roads to facilitate moving the heads. The regional terrain offers significant obstacles such as swamps and floodplains; avoiding these would have necessitated crossing undulating hill country. The construction of temporary causeways using the suitable and plentiful floodplain soils would have allowed a direct route across the floodplains to the San Lorenzo Plateau. Earth structures such as mounds, platforms and causeways upon the plateau demonstrate that the Olmec possessed the necessary knowledge and could commit the resources to build large-scale earthworks.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The flat backs of many of the colossal heads represented the flat bases of the monumental thrones from which they were reworked. Only four of the seventeen heartland heads do not have flattened backs, indicating the possibility that the majority were reworked monuments. Alternatively, the backs of many of these massive monuments may have been flattened to ease their transport, providing a stable form for hauling the monuments with ropes. Two heads from San Lorenzo have traces of niches that are characteristic of monumental Olmec thrones and so were definitely reworked from earlier monuments.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Seventeen confirmed examples are known. An additional monument, at Takalik Abaj in Guatemala, is a throne that may have been carved from a colossal head. This is the only known example outside of the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Possible fragments of additional colossal heads have been recovered at San Lorenzo and at San Fernando in Tabasco. Crude colossal stone heads are also known in the Southern Maya area where they are associated with the potbelly style of sculpture. Although some arguments have been made that they are pre-Olmec, these latter monuments are generally believed to be influenced by the Olmec style of sculpture.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The ten colossal heads from San Lorenzo originally formed two roughly parallel lines running north-south across the site. Although some were recovered from ravines, they were found close to their original placements and had been buried by local erosion. These heads, together with a number of monumental stone thrones, probably formed a processional route across the site, powerfully displaying its dynastic history. Two of the San Lorenzo heads had been re-carved from older thrones.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 1) was lying facing upwards when excavated. The erosion of a path passing on top of the monument uncovered its eye and led to the discovery of the Olmec site. Colossal Head 1 is high; it measures wide and it weighs 25.3 tons. The monument was discovered partially buried at the edge of a gully by Matthew Stirling in 1945. When discovered, it was lying on its back, looking upwards. It was associated with a large number of broken ceramic vessels and figurines. The majority of these ceramic remains have been dated to between 800 and 400 BC; some pieces have been dated to the Villa Alta phase (Late Classic period, 800–1000 AD). The headdress possesses a plain band that is tied at the back of the head. The upper portion of the headdress is decorated with a U-shaped motif. This element descends across the front of the headdress, terminating on the forehead. On the front portion it is decorated with five semicircular motifs. The scalp piece does not meet the horizontal band, leaving a space between the two pieces. On each side of the face a strap descends from the headdress and passes in front of the ear. The forehead is wrinkled in a frown. The lips are slightly parted without revealing the teeth. The cheeks are pronounced and the ears are particularly well executed. The face is slightly asymmetric, which may be due to error on the part of the sculptors or may accurately reflect the physical features of the portrait's subject. The head has been moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa ("Anthropological Museum of Xalapa").


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 2 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 2) was reworked from a monumental throne. The head stands high and measures wide by deep; it weighs 20 tons. Colossal Head 2 was discovered in 1945 when Matthew Stirling's guide cleared away some of the vegetation and mud that covered it. The monument was found lying on its back, facing the sky, and was excavated in 1946 by Stirling and Philip Drucker. In 1962 the monument was removed from the San Lorenzo plateau in order to put it on display as part of "The Olmec tradition" exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston in 1963. San Lorenzo Colossal Head 2 is currently in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. The head was associated with a number of ceramic finds; they have been dated to the Early Preclassic and Late Classic periods. Colossal Head 2 wears a complex headdress that sports a horizontal band tied at the back of the head; this is decorated with three bird's heads that are located above the forehead and temples. The scalp piece is formed from six strips running towards the back of the head. The front of the headdress above the horizontal band is plain. Two short straps hang down from the headdress in front of the ears. The ear jewellery is formed by large squared hoops or framed discs. The left and right ornaments are different, with radial lines on the left earflare, a feature absent on the right earflare. The head is badly damaged due to an unfinished reworking process. This process has pitmarked the entire face with at least 60 smaller hollows and 2 larger holes. The surviving features appear to depict an ageing man with the forehead creased into a frown. The lips are thick and slightly parted to reveal the teeth; the head has a pronounced chin.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 3 is also known as San Lorenzo Monument 3. The head measures high by wide by deep and weighs 9.4 tons. The head was discovered in a deep gully by Matthew Stirling in 1946; it was found lying face down and its excavation was difficult due to the wet conditions in the gully. The monument was found southwest of the main mound at San Lorenzo, however, its original location is unknown; erosion of the gully may have resulted in significant movement of the sculpture. Head 3 has been moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa. The headdress is complex, with the horizontal basal band being formed by four horizontal cords, with diagonal folds above each eye. A small skullcap tops the headdress. A large flap formed of four cords drops down both sides of the head, completely covering the ears. The face has a typically frowning brow and, unusually, has clearly defined eyelids. The lips are thick and slightly parted; the front of the lower lip has broken away completely, and the lower front of the headdress is pitted with 27 irregularly spaced artificial depressions.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 4 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 4) weighs 6 tons and has been moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa. Colossal Head 4 is high, wide and deep. The head was discovered by Matthew Stirling in 1946, northwest of the principal mound, at the edge of a gully. When excavated, it was found to be lying on its right-hand side and in a very good state of preservation. Ceramic materials excavated with the head became mixed with ceramics associated with Head 5, making ceramic dating of the monument difficult. The headdress is decorated with a horizontal band formed of four sculpted cords, similar to those of Head 3. On the right-hand side, three tassels descend from the upper portion of the headdress; they terminate in a total of eight strips that hang down across the horizontal band. These tassels are judged to represent hair rather than cords. Also on the right hand side, two cords descend across the ear and continue to the base of the monument. On the left-hand side, three vertical cords descend across the ear. The earflare is only visible on the right hand side; it is formed of a plain disc and peg. The face is that of an ageing man with a creased forehead, low cheekbones and a prominent chin. The lips are thick and slightly parted.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 5 is also known as San Lorenzo Monument 5. The monument stands high and measures wide by deep. It weighs 11.6 tons. The head was discovered by Matthew Stirling in 1946, face down in a gully to the south of the principal mound. The head is particularly well executed and is likely to have been found close to its original location. Ceramics recovered during its excavation became mixed with those from the excavation of Head 4. The mixed ceramics have been dated to the San Lorenzo and Villa Alta phases (approximately 1400–1000 BC and 800–1000 AD respectively). Colossal Head 5 is particularly well preserved, although the back of the headdress band was damaged when the head was moved from the archaeological site. The band of the headdress is set at an angle and has a notch above the bridge of the nose. The headdress is decorated with jaguar paws; this general identification of the decoration is contested by Beatriz de la Fuente since the "paws" have three claws each; she identifies them as the claws of a bird of prey. At the back of the head, ten interlaced strips form a net decorated with disc motifs. Two short straps descend from the headdress in front of the ears. The ears are adorned with disc-shaped earspools with pegs. The face is that of an ageing man with wrinkles under the eyes and across the bridge of the nose, and a forehead that is creased in a frown. The lips are slightly parted. Colossal Head 5 has been moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 6 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 17) is one of the smaller examples of colossal heads, standing . It measures wide by deep and is estimated to weigh between 8 and 10 tons. The head was discovered by a local farmworker and was excavated in 1965 by Luis Aveleyra and Román Piña Chan. The head had collapsed into a ravine under its own weight and was found face down on its left hand side. In 1970 it was transported to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the museum's centenary exhibition. After its return to Mexico, it was placed in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. It is sculpted with a net-like head covering joined together with sculpted beads. A covering descends from under the headdress to cover the back half of the neck. The headband is divided into four strips and begins above the right ear, extending around the entire head. A short strap descends from either side of the head to the ear. The ear ornaments are complex and are larger at the front of the ear than at the back. The face is that of an ageing male with the forehead creased in a frown, wrinkles under the eyes, sagging cheeks and deep creases on either side of the nose. The face is somewhat asymmetric, possibly due to errors in the execution of the monument.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 7 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 53) measures high by wide by deep and weighs 18 tons. San Lorenzo Colossal Head 7 was reworked from a monumental throne; it was discovered by a joint archaeological project by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and Yale University, as a result of a magnetometer survey. It was buried at a depth of less than and was lying facing upwards, leaning slightly northwards on its right hand side. The head is poorly preserved and has suffered both from erosion and deliberate damage. The headdress is decorated with a pair of human hands; a feathered ornament is carved at the back of the headband and two discs adorn the front. A short strap descends from the headband and hangs in front of the right ear. The head sports large earflares that completely cover the earlobes, although severe erosion makes their exact form difficult to distinguish. The face has wrinkles between the nose and cheeks, sagging cheeks and deep-set eyes; the lips are badly damaged and the mouth is open, displaying the teeth. In 1986 the head was transported to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 8 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 61) stands high; it measures wide by deep and weighs 13 tons. It is one of the finest examples of an Olmec colossal head. It was found lying on its side to the south of a monumental throne. The monument was discovered at a depth of during a magnetometer survey of the site in 1968; it has been dated to the Early Preclassic. After discovery it was initially reburied; it was moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa in 1986. The headdress is decorated with the talons or claws of either a jaguar or an eagle. It has a headband and a cover that descends from under the headdress proper behind the ears. Two short straps descend in front of the ears. The head sports large ear ornaments in the form of pegs. The face is that of a mature male with sagging cheeks and wrinkles between these and the nose. The forehead is gathered in a frown. The mouth is slightly parted to reveal the teeth. Most of the head is carved in a realistic manner, the exception being the ears. These are stylised and represented by one question mark shape contained within another. The head is very well preserved and displays a fine finish.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 9 is also known as San Lorenzo Monument 66. It measures high by wide by deep. The head was exposed in 1982 by erosion of the gullies at San Lorenzo; it was found leaning slightly on its right hand side and facing upwards, half covered by the collapsed side of a gully and washed by a stream. Although it was documented by archaeologists, it remained for some time in its place of discovery before being moved to the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa. The headdress is of a single piece without a distinct headband. The sides display features that are possibly intended to represent long hair trailing to the bottom of the monument. The earflares are rectangular plates with an additional trapezoid element at the front. The head is also depicted wearing a nose-ring. The face is smiling and has wrinkles under the eyes and at the edge of the mouth. It has sagging cheeks and wide eyes. The mouth is closed and the upper lip is badly damaged. The sculpture suffered some mutilation in antiquity, with nine pits hollowed into the face and headdress.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: San Lorenzo Colossal Head 10 (also known as San Lorenzo Monument 89) has been moved to the Museo Comunitario de San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán near Texistepec. It stands tall and measures wide by deep; it weighs 8 tons. The head was discovered by a magnetometer survey in 1994; it was found buried, lying face upwards in the bottom of a ravine and was excavated by Ann Cyphers. The headdress is formed of 92 circular beads that completely cover the upper part of the head and descend across the sides and back. Above the forehead is a large element forming a three-toed foot with long nails, possibly the foot of a bird. The head wears large earspools that protrude beyond the beads of the headdress. The spools have the form of a rounded square with a circular sunken central portion. The face is that of a mature man with the mouth closed, sagging cheeks and lines under the eyes. The mouth is sensitively carved and the head possesses a pronounced chin.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Three of the La Venta heads were found in a line running east-west in the northern Complex I; all three faced northwards, away from the city centre. The other head was found in Complex B to the south of the Great Pyramid, in a plaza that included a number of other sculptures. The latter, the first of the La Venta heads to be discovered, was found during archaeological exploration of La Venta in 1925; the other three remained unknown to archaeologists until a local boy guided Matthew Stirling to them while he was excavating the first head in 1940. They were located approximately to the north of Monument 1.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: La Venta Monument 1 is speculated to have been the portrait of La Venta's final ruler. Monument 1 measures high by wide by deep; it weighs 24 tons. The front of the headdress is decorated with three motifs that apparently represent the claws or fangs of an animal. Above these symbols is an angular U-shaped decoration descending from the scalp. On each side of the monument a strap descends from the headdress, passing in front of the ear. Each ear has a prominent ear ornament that descends from the earlobe to the base of the monument. The features are those of a mature man, with wrinkles around the mouth, eyes and nose. Monument 1 is the best preserved head at La Venta but has suffered from erosion, particularly at the back. The head was first described by Franz Blom and Oliver La Farge who investigated the La Venta remains on behalf of Tulane University in 1925. When discovered, it was half-buried; its massive size meant that the discoverers were unable to excavate it completely. Matthew Stirling fully excavated the monument in 1940, after clearing the thick vegetation that had covered it in the intervening years. Monument 1 has been moved to the Parque-Museo La Venta in Villahermosa. The head was found in its original context; associated finds have been radiocarbon dated to between 1000 and 600 BC.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: La Venta Monument 2 measures high by wide by deep; the head weighs 11.8 tons. The face has a broadly smiling expression that reveals four of the upper teeth. The cheeks are given prominence by the action of smiling; the brow that is normally visible in other heads is covered by the rim of the headdress. The face is badly eroded, distorting the features. In addition to the severe erosion damage, the upper lip and a part of the nose have been deliberately mutilated. The head was found in its original context a few metres north of the northwest corner of pyramid-platform A-2. Radiocarbon dating of the monument's context dates it to between 1000 and 600 BC. Monument 2 has suffered erosion damage from its exposure to the elements prior to discovery. The head has a prominent headdress but this is badly eroded and any individual detail has been erased. A strap descends in front of the ear on each side of the head, descending as far as the earlobe. The head is adorned with ear ornaments in the form of a disc that covers the earlobe, with an associated clip or peg. The surviving details of the headdress and earflares are stylistically similar to those of Tres Zapotes Monument A. The head has been moved to the Museo del Estado de Tabasco in Villahermosa.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: La Venta Monument 3 stands high and measures wide by deep; it weighs 12.8 tons. Monument 3 was located a few metres to the east of Monument 2, but was moved to the Parque-Museo La Venta in Villahermosa. Like the other La Venta heads, its context has been radiocarbon dated to between 1000 and 600 BC. It appears unfinished and has suffered severe damage through weathering, making analysis difficult. It had a large headdress that reaches to the eyebrows but any details have been lost through erosion. Straps descend in front of each ear and continue to the base of the monument. The ears are wearing large flattened rings that overlap the straps; they probably represent jade ornaments of a type that have been recovered in the Olmec region. Although most of the facial detail is lost, the crinkling of the bridge of the nose is still evident, a feature that is common to the frowning expressions of the other Olmec colossal heads.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: La Venta Monument 4 measures high by wide and deep. It weighs 19.8 tons. It was found a few metres to the west of Monument 2 and has been moved to the Parque-Museo La Venta. As with the other heads in the group, its archaeological context has been radiocarbon dated to between 1000 and 600 BC. The headdress is elaborate and, although damaged, various details are still discernible. The base of the headdress is formed by three horizontal strips running over the forehead. One side is decorated with a double-disc motif that may have been repeated on the other; if so, damage to the right side has obliterated any trace of it. The top of the headdress is decorated with the clawed foot of a bird of prey. Either straps or plaits of hair descend on either side of the face, from the headdress to the base of the monument. Only one earspool survives; it is flat, in the form of a rounded square, and is decorated with a cross motif. The ears have been completely eroded away and the lips are damaged. The surviving features display a frown and creasing around the nose and cheeks. The head displays prominent teeth.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The two heads at Tres Zapotes, with the La Cobata head, are stylistically distinct from the other known examples. Beatriz de la Fuente views them as a late regional survival of an older tradition while other scholars argue that they are merely the kind of regional variant to be expected in a frontier settlement. These heads are sculpted with relatively simple headdresses; they have squat, wide proportions and distinctive facial features. The two Tres Zapotes heads are the earliest known stone monuments from the site. The discovery of one of the Tres Zapotes heads in the nineteenth century led to the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture, carried out by Matthew Stirling in 1938.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Tres Zapotes Monument A (also known as Tres Zapotes Colossal Head 1) was the first colossal head to be found, discovered by accident in the middle of the nineteenth century, to the north of the modern village of Tres Zapotes. After its discovery it remained half-buried until it was excavated by Matthew Stirling in 1939. At some point it was moved to the plaza of the modern village, probably in the early 1960s. It has since been moved to the Museo Comunitario de Tres Zapotes. Monument A stands tall; it measures wide by deep, and is estimated to weigh 7.8 tons. The head is sculpted with a simple headdress with a wide band that is otherwise unadorned, and wears rectangular ear ornaments that project forwards onto the cheeks. The face is carved with deep creases between the cheeks and the nose and around the mouth; the forehead is creased into a frown. The upper lip has suffered recent damage, with the left portion flaking away.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Tres Zapotes Monument Q (also known as the Nestape Head and Tres Zapotes Colossal Head 2) measures high by wide by deep and weighs 8.5 tons. Its exact date of discovery is unknown but is estimated to have been some time in the 1940s, when it was struck by machinery being used to clear vegetation from Nestape hill. Monument Q was the eleventh colossal head to be discovered. It was moved to the plaza of Santiago Tuxtla in 1951 and remains there to this day. Monument Q was first described by Williams and Heizer in an article published in 1965. The headdress is decorated with a frontal tongue-shaped ornament, and the back of the head is sculpted with seven plaits of hair bound with tassels. A strap descends from each side of the headdress, passing over the ears and to the base of the monument. The face has pronounced creases around the nose, mouth and eyes.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The La Cobata region was the source of the basalt used for carving all of the colossal heads in the Olmec heartland. The La Cobata colossal head was discovered in 1970 and was the fifteenth to be recorded. It was discovered in a mountain pass in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, on the north side of El Vigia volcano near to Santiago Tuxtla. The head was largely buried when found; excavations uncovered a Late Classic (600–900 AD) offering associated with the head consisting of a ceramic vessel and a long obsidian knife placed pointing northwards towards the head. The offering is believed to have been deposited long after the head was sculpted. The La Cobata head has been moved from its original location to the main plaza at Santiago.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The La Cobata head is more or less rounded and measures by high, making it the largest known head. This massive sculpture is estimated to weigh 40 tons. It is stylistically distinct from the other examples, and Beatriz de la Fuente placed it late in the Olmec time frame. The characteristics of the sculpture have led to some investigators suggesting that it represents a deceased person. Norman Hammond argues that the apparent stylistic differences of the monument stem from its unfinished state rather than its late production. The eyes of the monument are closed, the nose is flattened and lacks nostrils and the mouth was not sculpted in a realistic manner. The headdress is in the form of a plain horizontal band.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The original location of the La Cobata head was not a major archaeological site and it is likely that the head was either abandoned at its source or during transport to its intended destination. Various features of the head suggest that it was unfinished, such as a lack of symmetry below the mouth and an area of rough stone above the base. Rock was not removed from around the earspools as on other heads, and does not narrow towards the base. Large parts of the monument seem to be roughed out without finished detail. The right hand earspool also appears incomplete; the forward portion is marked with a sculpted line while the rear portion has been sculpted in relief, probably indicating that the right cheek and eye area were also unfinished. The La Cobata head was almost certainly carved from a raw boulder rather than being sculpted from a throne.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Takalik Abaj Monument 23 dates to the Middle Preclassic period, and is found in Takalik Abaj, an important city in the foothills of the Guatemalan Pacific coast, in the modern department of Retalhuleu. It appears to be an Olmec-style colossal head re-carved into a niche figure sculpture. If originally a colossal head then it would be the only known example from outside the Olmec heartland.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Monument 23 is sculpted from andesite and falls in the middle of the size range for confirmed colossal heads. It stands high and measures wide by deep. Like the examples from the Olmec heartland, the monument features a flat back. Lee Parsons contests John Graham's identification of Monument 23 as a re-carved colossal head; he views the side ornaments, identified by Graham as ears, as rather the scrolled eyes of an open-jawed monster gazing upwards. Countering this, James Porter has claimed that the re-carving of the face of a colossal head into a niche figure is clearly evident.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Monument 23 was damaged in the mid-twentieth century by a local mason who attempted to break its exposed upper portion using a steel chisel. As a result, the top is fragmented, although the broken pieces were recovered by archaeologists and have been put back into place.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: All of the 17 confirmed colossal heads remain in Mexico. Two heads from San Lorenzo are on permanent display at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. Seven of the San Lorenzo heads are on display in the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa. Five of them are in Sala 1, one is in Sala 2, and one is in Patio 1. The remaining San Lorenzo head is in the Museo Comunitario de San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán near Texistepec. All four heads from La Venta are now in Villahermosa, the state capital of Tabasco. Three are in the Parque-Museo La Venta and one is in the Museo del Estado de Tabasco. Two heads are on display in the plaza of Santiago Tuxtla; one from Tres Zapotes and the La Cobata Head. The other Tres Zapotes head is in the Museo Comunitario de Tres Zapotes.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Several colossal heads have been loaned to temporary exhibitions abroad; San Lorenzo Colossal Head 6 was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1970. San Lorenzo colossal heads 4 and 8 were lent to the "Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico" exhibition in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., which ran from 30 June to 20 October 1996. San Lorenzo Head 4 was again loaned in 2005, this time to the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The de Young Museum was loaned San Lorenzo colossal heads 5 and 9 for its "Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico" exhibition, which ran from 19 February to 8 May 2011.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: On 12 January 2009, at least three people, including two Mexicans and one American, entered the Parque-Museo La Venta in Villahermosa and damaged just under 30 archaeological pieces, including the four La Venta colossal heads. The vandals were all members of an evangelical church and appeared to have been carrying out a supposed pre-Columbian ritual, during which salts, grape juice, and oil were thrown on the heads. It was estimated that 300,000 pesos (US$21,900) would be needed to repair the damage, and the restoration process would last four months. The three vandals were released soon after their arrest after paying 330,000 pesos each.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: The majority of replicas around the world, though not all, were placed under the leadership of Miguel Alemán Velasco, former governor of the state of Veracruz. The following is a list of replicas and their locations within the United States:


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: Mexico donated a resin replica of an Olmec colossal head to Belgium; it is on display in the Art & History Museum in Brussels.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: In February 2010, the Mexican Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Secretariat of Foreign Affairs) announced that the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia would be donating a replica Olmec colossal head to Ethiopia. It was placed in Plaza Mexico in Addis Ababa in May 2010 and is locally known as the "Mexican Warrior". Online conspiracy theory memes have surfaced claiming this is 'proof' of Africans arriving in the Americas before Columbus.


title: Olmec colossal heads

text: In November 2017, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto donated a full-size replica of San Lorenzo Head 8 to the people of Belize. It was installed in Belmopan at the roundabout facing the Embassy of Mexico.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Dennis Lee Eckersley (born October 3, 1954), nicknamed "Eck", is an American professional baseball pitcher and former color commentator. Between 1975 and 1998, he pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals. Eckersley had success as a starter, but gained his greatest fame as a closer, becoming the first of two pitchers in major league history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season in a career.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility. He previously worked with NESN as a part-time color commentator for Red Sox broadcasts, and has also worked for Turner Sports as a game analyst for their Sunday MLB Games and MLB postseason coverage on TBS. He retired from NESN in 2022.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley grew up in Fremont, California, rooting for both the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). Two of his boyhood heroes were the Giants' Willie Mays and Juan Marichal, and he later adopted Marichal's high leg kick pitching delivery.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley attended Washington High School in Fremont, California. He played for the football team as a quarterback until his senior year, when he gave up football to protect his throwing arm from injury. He won 29 games as a pitcher at Washington, throwing a fastball and a screwball.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: The Cleveland Indians selected Eckersley in the third round of the 1972 MLB draft; he was disappointed that he was not drafted by the Giants. He made his major league debut on April 12, 1975. He was the American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year in 1975, compiling a 13–7 win–loss record and 2.60 earned run average (ERA). His unstyled long hair, moustache, and live fastball made him an instant and identifiable fan favorite. Eckersley pitched reliably over three seasons with the Indians.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: On May 30, 1977, Eckersley threw a no-hitter against the California Angels at Cleveland Stadium. He struck out 12 batters and only allowed two to reach base, Tony Solaita on a walk in the first inning and Bobby Bonds on a third strike that was a wild pitch. He earned his first All-Star Game selection that year and finished the season with a 14–13 win–loss record.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: The Indians traded Eckersley and Fred Kendall to the Boston Red Sox for Rick Wise, Mike Paxton, Bo Díaz, and Ted Cox on March 30, 1978. Over the next two seasons, Eckersley won a career-high 20 games in 1978 and 17 games in 1979, with a 2.99 ERA in each year. However, during the remainder of his tenure with Boston, from 1980 to 1984, Eckersley pitched poorly. His fastball had lost some steam, as demonstrated by his 43–48 record with Boston. He later developed a very effective slider.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: On May 25, 1984, the Red Sox traded Eckersley with Mike Brumley to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Buckner, one of several mid-season deals that helped the Cubs to their first postseason appearance since 1945. He won 10 games and lost 8, with a 3.03 ERA.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley remained with the Cubs in 1985, when he posted an 11–7 won-lost record with two shutouts (the last two of his career). Eckersley's performance deteriorated in 1986, when he posted a 6–11 record with a 4.57 ERA. After the season, he checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic to treat alcoholism. Eckersley noted in Pluto's book that he realized the problem he had after family members videotaped him while drunk and played the tape back for him the next day. During his Hall of Fame speech he recalled that time in his life, saying "I was spiraling out of control personally. I knew I had come to a crossroads in my life. With the grace of God, I got sober and I saved my life."


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley was traded again on April 3, , to the Oakland Athletics, where manager Tony La Russa intended to use him as a set-up pitcher or long reliever. Indeed, Eckersley started two games with the A's before an injury to then-closer Jay Howell opened the door for Eckersley to move into the closer's role. He saved 16 games in 1987 and then established himself as a dominant closer in 1988 by recording a league-leading 45 saves. Eckersley recorded 4 saves against the Red Sox in the regular season, and he dominated once more by recording saves in all four games as the A's swept the Red Sox in the 1988 ALCS. (which was matched by Greg Holland in the 2014 ALCS), but he found himself on the wrong end of Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series home run (Eckersley himself first coined the phrase "walk-off home run" to describe that moment) as the A's lost to the Dodgers in 5 games.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: In the 1989 World Series he secured the victory in Game Two, and then earned the save in the final game of the Series, as the A's swept the San Francisco Giants in four games.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley was the most dominant closer in the game from 1988 to , finishing first in the A.L. in saves twice, second two other times, and third once. He saved 220 games during the five years and never posted an ERA higher than 2.96. He gave up five earned runs in the entire season, resulting in a 0.61 ERA. Eckersley's control, which had always been above average even when he was not otherwise pitching well, became his trademark; he walked only three batters in 57.2 innings in , four batters in 73.1 innings in 1990, and nine batters in 76 innings in 1991. Between August 7, 1989, and June 10, 1990, Eckersley appeared in 41 games without walking a single batter, setting a record which still stands and surpassing the previous mark set by Lew Burdette 23 years earlier. In his 1990 season, Eckersley became the first relief pitcher in baseball history to have more saves than baserunners allowed (48 saves, 41 hits, 4 walks, 0 hit by pitch). In a statistical anomaly, he had exactly the same walks plus hits per innings pitched and ERA: both were 0.614.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley was the American League's Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner in 1992, a season in which he posted 51 saves. Only two relievers had previously accomplished the double feat: Rollie Fingers in and Willie Hernández in . Since Eckersley, one other reliever, Éric Gagné, has won Cy Young honors (Gagné won the National League award in with the Los Angeles Dodgers). In the 1992 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, during Game 4 in what some considered the turning point in the series that the Jays won, Eckersley gave up a game-tying 2-run home run to Roberto Alomar and his team eventually lost 7–6 in 11 innings.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley's numbers slipped following 1992: although he still was among the league leaders in saves, his ERA climbed sharply, and his number of saves never climbed above 36.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: On September 16, 1993, in a game against the Minnesota Twins, Eckersley allowed Dave Winfield's 3,000th career hit.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: After the 1994 season, the Athletics elected not to exercise a $4 million option on Eckersley, making him a free agent. The team indicated that it would be interested in signing him at a lower salary. Oakland signed him to a one-year contract in early April 1995. His contract was the first major league deal after a three-month signing ban resulting from a labor dispute between owners and the players union.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: When La Russa left the Athletics after the 1995 season to become the St. Louis Cardinals' new manager, he arranged to bring Eckersley along with him. Eckersley continued in his role as closer and remained one of the league's best, with 66 saves in two seasons in St. Louis.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Following the 1997 season, he signed on with the Red Sox for one final season, serving as a set-up man for Tom Gordon, as Boston qualified for the AL playoffs.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley announced his retirement in December 1998. He commented on his career, saying, "I had a good run. I had some magic that was with me for a long time, so I know that I was real lucky to not have my arm fall off for one thing, and to make it this long physically is tough enough. But to me it's like you're being rescued too when your career's over. It's like, 'Whew, the pressure's off'."


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: He retired with a career 197–171 win–loss record, a 3.50 ERA and 390 saves. Eckersley's career saves total ranks seventh on the all-time list as of early 2017. When he retired, Eckersley had appeared in more games (1,071) than any other pitcher in major league history, though he ranks fifth all-time as of early 2021.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley's unusual delivery utilized a high leg kick along with a long, pronounced sidearm throwing motion. He had pinpoint accuracy, and fellow Hall of Famer Goose Gossage said of him, "He could hit a gnat in the butt with a pitch if he wanted to.” Eckersley was aggressive and animated on the mound, and he was known for his intimidating stare and pumping his fist after a strikeout. As a starter, Eckersley was able to throw four pitches for strikes, but as a reliever he narrowed his repertoire to two pitches; a sinker and a backdoor slider.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: In 1999, he ranked Number 98 on "The Sporting News"' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. On January 6, 2004, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, with 83.2% of the votes. On August 13, 2005, Eckersley's uniform number (43) was officially retired by the Oakland Athletics. The baseball field at his alma mater, Washington High School, has been named in his honor.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: In 2017, Eckersley rejoined the Athletics as the special assistant to Dave Kaval, the team's president.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley began working as a studio analyst and color commentator for the Boston Red Sox on NESN in 2002. "Eck" became known for his easy-going manner and his own baseball vernacular, with Red Sox Nation attempting to keep up via "The Ecktionary," a defining list of his on-air sayings.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: In the spring of 2009, when regular NESN commentator Jerry Remy took time off for health reasons, Eckersley filled in for him, providing color commentary alongside play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo. Eckersley was the primary substitute for Remy when he was unavailable, including filling in for the final two months of the 2013 season, when Remy took extended time off due to the murder indictment of his son, Jared. Eckersley continued to work with Orsillo's successor, Dave O'Brien, for various Red Sox games, and often worked with Remy and O'Brien in a three-man booth prior to Remy's death in 2021.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley also worked with TBS as a studio analyst from 2008 to 2012. In 2013, Eckersley moved to the booth with TBS, calling Sunday games for the network and also providing postseason analysis from the booth. In the 2017 postseason, he worked with Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and Lauren Shehadi.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley announced his retirement from NESN on August 8, 2022. In a statement released by NESN, he said:


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: After 50 years in Major League Baseball, I am excited about this next chapter of my life. I will continue to be an ambassador for the club and a proud member of Red Sox Nation while transitioning to life after baseball alongside my wife Jennifer, my children and my grandchildren. I’m forever grateful to NESN, the Red Sox, my family and the fans for supporting me throughout my career and through this decision and I look forward to remaining engaged with the team in a variety of capacities for years to come.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: During an interview with "The Boston Globe", Eckersley said, "I've been thinking about this for a long time. Not that it matters, but it's kind of a round number, leaving. I started in pro ball in '72, when I was a 17-year-old kid right out of high school. Fifty years ago ... So it's time." Following his announcement, Sean McGrail, NESN president and CEO said that NESN was "...fortunate that Dennis has been a part of our Red Sox coverage ... His unbridled passion, nuanced insights and Eck humor will be dearly missed and we are thankful for his many contributions to NESN. We wish him the best as he embarks on this next chapter of his life as a grandfather, father, husband and member of Red Sox Nation." Eckersley's final Red Sox broadcast as a NESN commentator was October 5, 2022.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: Eckersley married his first wife Denise in 1973 and they had a daughter, Mandee Eckersley. Denise left him for Rick Manning, his then–Cleveland Indians teammate, in 1978; the affair precipitated Eckersley's trade to the Red Sox that year. Two years later, Eckersley married model Nancy O'Neil. They had two children together, a daughter Allie and a son Jake. They divorced shortly after his retirement from baseball. His third wife, Jennifer, is a former lobbyist and manages Eckersley's business and charitable affairs.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: During the first half of his career, Eckersley had problems with alcohol; he became sober in January 1987.


title: Dennis Eckersley

text: An MLB Network documentary about Eckersley, titled "Eck: A Story of Saving", premiered on December 13, 2018.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's "Metamorphoses". The story has since been retold by many authors.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their respective parents, driven by rivalry, forbid them to wed. Through a crack in one of the walls they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near a tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak: the lioness had torn it and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming that a wild beast has killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus's blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus's dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after praying to their parents and the gods to have them buried together and a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honor forbidden love. Pyramus and Thisbe proved to be faithful lovers to each other until the very end.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Ovid's is the oldest surviving version of the story, published in 8 AD, but he adapted an existing aetiological myth. While in Ovid's telling Pyramus and Thisbe lived in Babylon, and Ctesias had placed the tomb of his imagined king Ninus near that city, the myth probably originated in Cilicia (part of Ninus' Babylonian empire) as Pyramos is the historical Greek name of the local Ceyhan River. The metamorphosis in the primary story involves Pyramus changing into this river and Thisbe into a nearby spring. A 2nd-century mosaic unearthed near Nea Paphos on Cyprus depicts this older version of the myth.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: The story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's "On Famous Women" as biography number twelve (sometimes thirteen) and in his "Decameron", in the fifth story on the seventh day, where a desperate housewife falls in love with her neighbor, and communicates with him through a crack in the wall, attracting his attention by dropping pieces of stone and straw through the crack.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: In the 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer, in his "The Legend of Good Women", and John Gower, in his "Confessio Amantis", were the first to tell the story in English. Gower altered the story somewhat into a cautionary tale. John Metham's "Amoryus and Cleopes" (1449) is another early English adaptation.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: The tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet" ultimately sprang from Ovid's story. Here the star-crossed lovers cannot be together because Juliet has been engaged by her parents to another man and the two families hold an ancient grudge. As in Pyramus and Thisbe, the mistaken belief in one lover's death leads to consecutive suicides. The earliest version of "Romeo and Juliet" was published in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano, while it mostly obtained its present form when written down in 1524 by Luigi da Porto. Salernitano and Da Porto both are thought to have been inspired by Ovid and Boccaccio's writing. Shakespeare's most famous 1590s adaptation is a dramatization of Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet", itself a translation of a French translation of Da Porto's novella.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: In Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act V, sc 1), a comedy written in the 1590s, a group of "mechanicals" enact the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe". Their production is crude and, for the most part, badly done until the final monologues of Nick Bottom, as Pyramus and Francis Flute, as Thisbe. The theme of forbidden love is also present in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (albeit a less tragic and dark representation) in that a girl, Hermia, is not able to marry the man she loves, Lysander, because her father Egeus despises him and wishes for her to marry Demetrius, and meanwhile Hermia and Lysander are confident that Helena is in love with Demetrius.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: The Beatles performed a humorous performance of “Pyramus and Thisbe” on the 1964 television special "Around the Beatles". Primarily based around William Shakespeare's adaptation, the performance featured Paul McCartney as Pyramus, John Lennon as his lover Thisbe, George Harrison as Moonshine, and Ringo Starr as Lion, with Trevor Peacock in the role of Quince.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Spanish poet Luis de Góngora wrote a "Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe" in 1618, while French poet Théophile de Viau wrote "Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbée", a tragedy in five acts, in 1621.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: In 1718 Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello wrote his only opera, "La Tisbe", for Württemberg court. François Francoeur and François Rebel composed "Pirame et Thisbé", a lyric tragedy in five acts and a prologue, with libretto by Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre; it was played at the Académie royale de musique, on October 17, 1726. The story was adapted by John Frederick Lampe as a "Mock Opera" in 1745, containing a singing "Wall" which was described as "the most musical partition that was ever heard." In 1768 in Vienna, Johann Adolph Hasse composed a serious opera on the tale, titled "Piramo e Tisbe".


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Edmond Rostand adapted the tale, making the fathers of the lovers conspire to bring their children together by pretending to forbid their love, in "Les Romanesques", whose 1960 musical adaptation, "The Fantasticks," became the world's longest-running musical.


title: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Pyramus and Thisbe were featured in "The Simpsons" 2012 episode "The Daughter Also Rises". Nick and Lisa's misunderstood love was compared to Thisbe and Pyramus’ forbidden love. Much like the crack in the wall, Lisa and Nick met through a crack between two booths in an Italian restaurant. Lisa and Nick are portrayed as the two characters during a later portion of the episode. They go to finish off their story and head for the tree under which Pyramus and Thisbe's fate presented itself.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: Buzz is a Polish airline headquartered in Warsaw. Formerly called Ryanair Sun, it is a subsidiary of the Irish airline company Ryanair Holdings and a sister airline to Ryanair, Ryanair UK, Malta Air and Lauda Europe.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: Formed in 2017 and initially positioned as a charter airline without any scheduled services, Buzz operates scheduled flights on behalf of Ryanair, and charter flights in its own right, out of Poland. In March 2019, Ryanair announced that Ryanair Sun would be rebranded as Buzz in autumn 2019. Buzz commenced operations in January 2020.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: On April 3, 2018, the carrier received an air operator's certificate granted by the Polish Civil Aviation Authority. It started operations on 23 April 2018 and the first flight took place on 26 April 2018, on the route from Poznań–Ławica Airport to Zakynthos International Airport. In Poznan and Wroclaw the carrier will use the infrastructure of already existing bases, while in Katowice and Warsaw new ones were created.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: Representatives of the carrier announced that all five aircraft in the Ryanair Sun fleet would receive Polish registration numbers. During summer 2018, Ryanair Sun operated one own Boeing 737-800 registered as SP-RSA. The aircraft was employed on charter flights from Warsaw-Chopin.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: In September 2018 Ryanair announced the closure of its own Polish bases by 1 January 2019. Operations were to be transferred to Ryanair Sun, meaning Ryanair Sun would operate on behalf of its parent company. In late October 2018, the then-only Ryanair Sun aircraft SP-RSA ceased charter operations out of Warsaw Chopin. The aircraft subsequently replaced Ryanair mainline capacity out of Warsaw Modlin, now operating scheduled services on behalf of its parent company. Starting from November 2018, several former Ryanair-operated Boeing 737 were moved from the Irish to the Polish registry and now operated by Ryanair Sun on behalf of its parent companies scheduled flights out of Poland.


title: Buzz (Ryanair)

text: In March 2019, Ryanair announced that the airline would be rebranded Buzz in autumn 2019. Buzz was the name of a UK budget airline Ryanair bought from KLM in April 2003. Buzz will still operate scheduled and charter flights from its bases in Poland, Czechia, and Bulgaria and aims to expand its fleet from 17 Boeing 737-800s to 25 by summer 2019.


title: Dan Gilroy (musician)

text: Daniel Alan Gilroy (born May 19, 1947) is an American singer and musician best known as the former lead singer of the group Breakfast Club. Following Breakfast Club, he acted in the children's programs "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme" and "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle".


title: Dan Gilroy (musician)

text: Gilroy met Madonna, then an aspiring dancer, at a party in 1979. They became romantically involved and she moved into the synagogue where Gilroy lived with his brother Ed Gilroy in Corona, Queens. It also served as a studio for the brothers, who at times worked as musicians or comics under the name Bil and Gil. While Gilroy and his brother were waiting tables during the day and performing their comedy routines at night, Madonna was at the synagogue practicing drums. She also began writing songs, Gilroy taught her how to play guitar and they formed the band Breakfast Club. She convinced Gilroy to let her perform her own songs, which he reluctantly agreed. Madonna promoted the band and they performed local gigs. In 1980, Madonna left Breakfast Club to form the band Emmy and the Emmys.


title: Dan Gilroy (musician)

text: By the mid-1980s, Breakfast Club consisted of the Gilroy brothers: Dan concentrated on singing, with Ed on guitar. Gary Burke joined the band, playing the bass. Also, Paul Kauk on keyboards, and Stephen Bray on drums. In 1987, Breakfast Club signed a record deal with MCA Records and released the album "Breakfast Club". Their single "Right On Track" peaked at No. 7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. They recorded a second album that was never released. Their last song was a cover version of the Beatles "Drive My Car", which was included on the soundtrack for the 1988 movie "License To Drive".


title: Dan Gilroy (musician)

text: Gilroy has been in a relationship with actress Shelley Duvall since 1989. They co-starred in the Disney Channel film "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme" (1990). Gilroy also appeared as Pete the Postman in the TV series "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" in 1994.


title: Dan Gilroy (musician)

text: Gilroy was portrayed by actor Calvin Knie in the 2019 documentary film "Madonna and the Breakfast Club". The documentary—which follows Gilroy's relationship with Madonna—includes re-enactments as well as interviews from members of the Breakfast Club.


title: Franco Amurri

text: Franco Amurri (born 12 September 1958) is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter, best known for directing films such as "Da grande", which inspired the Tom Hanks film "Big", "Monkey Trouble" and "Flashback".


title: Franco Amurri

text: His father was the author and television writer Antonio Amurri. He has a daughter, Eva Amurri, with actress Susan Sarandon. He is married to Heide Lund, a sometime actress and producer with whom he has two children: son Leone and daughter Augusta. He also has two stepdaughters, Tallulah and Ruby, from Lund's previous marriage to Lord Antony Rufus Isaacs, son of Margot Rufus Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading.


title: Allison Cameron

text: Allison Cameron, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama "House", portrayed by American actress Jennifer Morrison. An immunologist, Cameron was a member of Dr. Gregory House's team of handpicked specialists at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital's Department of Diagnostic Medicine. She returned for the final episode of the series, "Everybody Dies".


title: Allison Cameron

text: At the start of the show, Cameron was the only woman on House's initial diagnostic team. She is known for her honesty, sincerity, idealism and strong ethical center. Even so, she is not out of her depth teasing others, as she does when alone with Chase, telling him that women can have hour-long orgasms (in response to Foreman telling her Chase is interested but shy); but, when Foreman enters, she acts completely deadpan. She is a deist, claiming "I believe in a higher order that's in control of what happens, but not in one anthropomorphic entity called 'God' that's concerned with the everyday workings of you and me", but expresses a feeling of respect for people with religious beliefs, unlike House, who openly and mercilessly taunts religious people. Joyce Millman of "The New York Times" has stated she plays "Jane Eyre to House's Edward Rochester." Millman stated that House's description of Cameron in "Love Hurts" (see box on the right) " cut to the core of Cameron's motivation and personality". Morrison has said that Cameron hates herself for being in love with House, "but she can't help but find him desirable". Cameron objects to House's reliance on deceiving their patients and has gone head-to-head with him several times on the issue. She has also been reluctant to deliver bad news to patients or their families.


title: Allison Cameron

text: Cameron's interest in House supposedly subsided as she began a relationship with Chase, although it resurfaces occasionally with flirtations and Freudian slips; in the season 4 episode "Ugly", Cameron lets slip to a documentary team that she loves House. In "No More Mr. Nice Guy", when House is believed to have neurosyphillis, Chase asks her directly in front of Foreman and the other fellows if she has slept with House, to which she ambiguously replies "It's none of your business". Chase thinks she did; however, later, when they are in private, she says she did not. In season 4, Cameron also dyes her hair blonde. Early in season 4, House, who was told by Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) that Cameron and Chase moved to Arizona, finds her in the ER after finally discovering that they were still working at the hospital. House tells her that she was an "idiot". When Cameron asks if it was either the hair or where she was working, he said where she was working, stating that her hair made her look like a hooker and that he liked it.


title: Allison Cameron

text: In the season 5 episode "Big Baby", Cameron temporarily moves up to Acting Dean of Medicine and Hospital Administrator, after Cuddy decides to spend more time being a mother. However, she soon quits, stating that she can never say no to House after studying under him for three years.


title: Allison Cameron

text: In season 6, Cameron left PPTH and divorced Chase after finding out about the events that took place in the episode The Tyrant. Her last episode as a main character was Teamwork, the 8th episode of the season. She left when she realized that House had a heavy impact on Chase and she couldn't live with it, after her failed attempt to make Chase quit the hospital as well.


title: Allison Cameron

text: She later appeared in the season 6 episode, Lockdown, to get Chase to sign their divorce papers and after having done so, the two of them ended on good terms. This was her last appearance in the show until her cameo in the series finale.


title: Allison Cameron

text: Maureen Ryan of the "Chicago Tribune" reported that many fans were disappointed the character received less airtime in season 4.


title: Allison Cameron

text: David Shore and producer Katie Jacobs stated that Chase and Cameron would be getting sufficient screentime and storylines soon throughout the series when many of the show's fans complained and took action.


title: Allison Cameron

text: Fox Broadcasting announced in September 2009 that Cameron would be written out of the series in the middle of season 6. This was a decision on the part of the writers and producers, and not Morrison's.


title: Allison Cameron

text: Before her final episode aired on November 16, 2009, Morrison commented on the announcement of her departure, stating that it was not definite. "I don't think anyone really knows...they're always just a couple of episodes ahead, and [executive producer] David Shore has always been very true to the writing of the characters and what he believes them to be." Morrison says that Shore is currently trying to figure out the truth of where Cameron's supposed to be right now, and "if she fits into the hospital...and as far as I know, they don't know. So that's what I know," Morrison said at the "Star Trek" home video premiere party. Cameron returned in the season 6 episode, "Lockdown" as well as in the series finale, "Everybody Dies", as a hallucination. Cameron was also present at House's funeral, telling everyone that "somewhere... he knew how to love."


title: Petit four

text: A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, "petit four" (), meaning "small oven".


title: Petit four

text: In 18th and 19th century France, gas ovens did not exist. Large brick (Dutch design) ovens were used, which took a long time to heat up to bake bread, but also to cool down. Bakers used the ovens during the cooling process, taking advantage of their stored heat, for baking pastry. This was called baking "à petit four" (literally "at small oven"), a lower temperature which allowed pastry baking.


title: Petit four

text: In a French patisserie, assorted small desserts are usually called "mignardises", while hard, buttery biscuits are called petits fours.


title: Southern France

text: Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin, Spain, the Mediterranean Sea and Italy. It includes southern Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the west, Occitanie in the centre, the southern parts of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in the northeast, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the southeast, as well as the island of Corsica in the southeast. Southern France is generally included into Southern Europe because of its association with the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Southern France

text: The term derives from ('middle') and ('day') in Old French, comparable to the term to indicate southern Italy, which is a synonym for south in Romanian, or which is a synonym for the south direction in Spanish. The time of midday was synonymous with south because in France, as in the rest of the Northern Hemisphere north of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun is in the south at noon. The synonymy has existed since Middle French as well; could refer to both "midday" and "south". The Midi is considered to start at Valence, hence the saying ("At Valence the Midi starts).


title: Southern France

text: The area corresponds in large part to Occitania ("Occitanie") in Southern Europe, the historical and cultural region in which Occitan (), as distinct from the of northern France, was the predominant language. Despite being part of Occitania, the regions of Auvergne and Limousin are not normally considered part of southern France. The largest cities of southern France are Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nice and Montpellier. The Pyrenees and French Alps are also located in the area, in respectively its southwestern and eastern parts. Corsica, which is south of Continental France and just north of Sardinia, Italy, may also be included.


title: Southern France

text: Notable touristic landmarks include the Roman-era Pont du Gard and the Arena of Nîmes; the Verdon Gorge, in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence; the Canal du Midi, linking Toulouse by to the Mediterranean Sea; and the natural regions of Larzac, Luberon and Camargue. The French Riviera is in southern France's southeastern quadrant. Several towns in southern France are renowned for their architecture and surroundings, such as Roussillon, Ménerbes, Cordes-sur-Ciel, Gordes, Rocamadour, Rennes-le-Château, Les Baux-de-Provence, Lourmarin, Gassin, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Seillans, Crillon-le-Brave and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.


title: Southern France

text: Southern France has a cuisine that is different from those of northern France and other Mediterranean countries. The major difference from the rest of France is in the use of olive oil, instead of butter. Local agriculture supplies the olives for consumption as well as cooking, the ducks and geese to make foie gras, haricot beans that are used in cassoulet, the sheep whose milk produces Roquefort cheese, tomatoes and melons. To accompany the richer food, the area also supplies much stronger wines, from Bordeaux, Cahors, Madiran, and Languedoc, all of which are washed down with brandy from Armagnac.


title: Deadline Hollywood

text: Deadline Hollywood, commonly known as Deadline and also referred to as Deadline.com, is an online news site founded as the news blog Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with entertainment industry news as its focus. It has been a brand of Penske Media Corporation since 2009.


title: Deadline Hollywood

text: "Deadline" was founded by Nikki Finke, who began writing an "LA Weekly" column series called "Deadline Hollywood" in June 2002. She began the "Deadline Hollywood Daily" (DHD) blog in March 2006 as an online version of her column. She officially launched it as an entertainment trade website in 2006. The site became one of Hollywood's most followed websites by 2009. In 2009, Finke sold "Deadline" to Penske Media Corporation (then Mail.com Media) for a low-seven-figure sum. Finke was also given a five-year-plus employment contract reported by the "Los Angeles Times" as being worth "millions of dollars", as well as part of the site's revenue. In September 2009, the URL was changed to "deadline.com" and the site's name became "Deadline Hollywood."


title: Deadline Hollywood

text: The publication expanded to New York in 2010 with the hiring of "Variety" reporter Mike Fleming Jr. as the new "Deadline" New York editor, "Financial Times" editor Tim Adler to lead "Deadline London", and Nellie Andreeva for the site's television coverage as "co-editors-in-chief, TV". Finke remained the editor of "Deadline Hollywood" until November 2013, when she left after a year-long disagreement between herself and Penske, which had bought "Variety", a competing trade magazine and website.


title: They Cloned Tyrone

text: They Cloned Tyrone is an upcoming American science fiction comedy mystery film directed by Juel Taylor in his feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay by Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier. The film stars John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jamie Foxx. Foxx also serves as a producer of the film.


title: They Cloned Tyrone

text: A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.


title: They Cloned Tyrone

text: In February 2019, Brian Tyree Henry joined the cast of the film, with Juel Taylor set to make his feature film directorial debut from a screenplay he wrote alongside Tony Rettenmaier. In October 2019, John Boyega joined the cast of the film, replacing Henry, with Netflix set to distribute. In September 2020, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris joined the cast of the film.


title: They Cloned Tyrone

text: The first trailer for "They Cloned Tyrone" was released on September 24, 2022 during Netflix's global fan event, Tudum. It featured a rendition of the Gap Band's 1982 song "You Dropped a Bomb on Me". Several critics noted the Blaxploitation influence in the trailer. Jeremy Fuster of "TheWrap" drew comparisons between the film's premise and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a government-funded medical experiment done on Black subjects in Tuskegee, Alabama.


title: Ignition coil

text: An ignition coil (also called a spark coil) is an induction coil in an automobile's ignition system that transforms the battery's voltage to the thousands of volts needed to create an electric spark in the spark plugs to ignite the fuel. Some coils have an internal resistor, while others rely on a resistor wire or an external resistor to limit the current flowing into the coil from the car's 12-volt supply. The wire that goes from the ignition coil to the distributor and the high voltage wires that go from the distributor to each of the spark plugs are called spark plug wires or high tension leads. Originally, every ignition coil system required mechanical contact breaker points and a capacitor (condenser). More recent electronic ignition systems use a power transistor to provide pulses to the ignition coil. A modern passenger automobile may use one ignition coil for each engine cylinder (or pair of cylinders), eliminating fault-prone spark plug cables and a distributor to route the high voltage pulses.


title: Ignition coil

text: Ignition systems are not required for diesel engines which rely on compression to ignite the fuel/air mixture.


title: Ignition coil

text: An ignition coil consists of a laminated iron core surrounded by two coils of copper wire. Unlike a power transformer, an ignition coil has an open magnetic circuit — the iron core does not form a closed loop around the windings. The energy that is stored in the magnetic field of the core is the energy that is transferred to the spark plug.


title: Ignition coil

text: The primary winding has relatively few turns of heavy wire. The secondary winding consists of thousands of turns of smaller wire, insulated from the high voltage by enamel on the wires and layers of oiled paper insulation. The coil is usually inserted into a metal can or plastic case with insulated terminals for the high voltage and low voltage connections. When the contact breaker closes, it allows current from the battery to flow through the primary winding of the ignition coil. The current does not flow instantly because of the inductance of the coil. Current flowing in the coil produces a magnetic field in the core and in the air surrounding the core. The current must flow long enough to store enough energy in the field for the spark. Once the current has built up to its full level, the contact breaker opens. Since it has a capacitor connected across it, the primary winding and the capacitor form a tuned circuit, and as the stored energy oscillates between the inductor formed by the coil and the capacitor, the changing magnetic field in the core of the coil induces a much larger voltage in the secondary of the coil. More modern electronic ignition systems operate on exactly the same principle, but some rely on charging the capacitor to around 400 volts rather than charging the inductance of the coil. The timing of the opening of the contacts (or switching of the transistor) must be matched to the position of the piston in the cylinder so that the spark may be timed to ignite the air/fuel mixture to extract the most angular momentum possible. This is usually several degrees before the piston reaches top dead center. The contacts are driven off a shaft that is driven by the engine camshaft, or, if electronic ignition is used, a sensor on the engine shaft controls the timing of the pulses.


title: Ignition coil

text: The amount of energy in the spark required to ignite the air-fuel mixture varies depending on the pressure and composition of the mixture, and on the speed of the engine. Under laboratory conditions as little as 1 millijoule is required in each spark, but practical coils must deliver much more energy than this to allow for higher pressure, rich or lean mixtures, losses in ignition wiring, and plug fouling and leakage. When gas velocity is high in the spark gap, the arc between the terminals is blown away from the terminals, making the arc longer and requiring more energy in each spark. Between 30 and 70 milli-joules are delivered in each spark.


title: Ignition coil

text: Formerly, ignition coils were made with varnish and paper insulated high-voltage windings, inserted into a drawn-steel can and filled with oil or asphalt for insulation and moisture protection. Coils on modern automobiles are cast in filled epoxy resins which penetrate any voids within the winding.


title: Ignition coil

text: A modern single-spark system has one coil per spark plug. To prevent premature sparking at the start of the primary pulse, a diode or secondary spark gap is installed in the coil to block the reverse pulse that would otherwise form.


title: Ignition coil

text: In a coil meant for a wasted spark system, the secondary winding has two terminals isolated from the primary, and each terminal connects to a spark plug. With this system, no extra diode is needed since there would be no fuel-air mixture present at the inactive spark plug.


title: Ignition coil

text: In a low-inductance coil, fewer primary turns are used, so primary current is higher. This is not compatible with the capacity of mechanical breaker points, so solid-state switching is used.


title: Ignition coil

text: Early gasoline (petrol) internal combustion engines used a magneto ignition system, since no battery was fitted to the vehicle; magnetos are still used in piston-engine aircraft to keep the engine running in the event of an electrical failure. The voltage produced by a magneto is dependent on the speed of the engine, making starting difficult. A battery-operated coil can provide a high-voltage spark even at low speeds, making starting easier. When batteries became common in automobiles for cranking and lighting, the ignition coil system displaced magneto ignition.


title: Ignition coil

text: In older vehicles, a single coil would serve all the spark plugs via the ignition distributor. Notable exceptions are the Saab 92, some Volkswagens, and the Wartburg 353 which have one ignition coil per cylinder. The flat twin cylinder 1948 Citroën 2CV used one double ended coil without a distributor, and just contact breakers, in a wasted spark system.


title: Ignition coil

text: In modern systems, the distributor is omitted and ignition is instead electronically controlled. Much smaller coils are used with one coil for each spark plug or one coil serving two spark plugs (for example two coils in a four-cylinder engine, or three coils in a six-cylinder engine). A large ignition coil puts out about 40 kV, and a small one such as from a lawn mower puts out about 15 kV. These coils may be remotely mounted or they may be placed on top of the spark plug, known as direct ignition (DI) or coil-on-plug. Where one coil serves two spark plugs (in two cylinders), it is through the wasted spark system. In this arrangement, the coil generates two sparks per cycle to both cylinders. The fuel in the cylinder that is nearing the end of its compression stroke is ignited, whereas the spark in its companion that is nearing the end of its exhaust stroke has no effect. The wasted spark system is more reliable than a single coil system with a distributor and less expensive than coil-on-plug.


title: Ignition coil

text: Where coils are individually applied per cylinder, they may all be contained in a single molded block with multiple high-tension terminals. This is commonly called a coil-pack.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Deborah Ann Stabenow ( ; née Greer, born April 29, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Michigan, a seat she has held since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she became the state's first female U.S. senator after defeating Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in the 2000 election. Before her election to the Senate, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001. Previously she served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and in the Michigan State Legislature.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was reelected to Senate in 2006, 2012 and 2018. She became the state's senior U.S. senator upon Carl Levin's retirement in 2015. Stabenow chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee from 2011 to 2015 and again since 2021. She became chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in 2017. At the start of the 118th Congress, Stabenow will become the dean of the Michigan congressional delegation, upon the retirement of Representative Fred Upton.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was born in Gladwin, Michigan, the daughter of Anna Merle (née Hallmark) and Robert Lee Greer. She grew up in Clare, Michigan. She graduated from Clare High School, where she was president of her junior class, the first female class president at the school. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University in 1972 and a Master of Social Work "magna cum laude" from Michigan State University in 1975.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: While a graduate student at Michigan State University in 1974, Stabenow ran for public office for the first time, inspired by the threatened closure of a local nursing home. She won her first election in November 1974, becoming just the third woman elected to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, on which she served from 1975 to 1978. Stabenow was the first woman and youngest person to date to chair the board of commissioners in 1977 and 1978. She was preceded as chair by one of her political mentors, Ken Hope. She was also instrumental in establishing a women's commission in Ingham County.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 1978, Stabenow challenged Michigan State Representative Tom Holcomb in a primary election. She won the primary and eventually the general election for the 58th House District. Stabenow served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1990. She became a force in state Democratic politics and the first woman in House leadership to preside over the House. In 1990, Stabenow ran for the Michigan Senate seat being vacated by William A. Sederburg. She won the election, taking office in 1991 and serving one term through 1994.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 1994, Stabenow ran in Michigan's Democratic gubernatorial primary to challenge incumbent Republican John Engler in the general election. U.S. Congressman Howard Wolpe won the primary with a plurality of 35% of the vote to Stabenow's 30%. After the primary, Wolpe chose Stabenow as his running mate, and she appeared on the general election ballot as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Engler defeated the Wolpe–Stabenow ticket, 61%–38%.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 1996, Stabenow ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Dick Chrysler for the opportunity to represent Michigan's 8th congressional district. She defeated Chrysler 54%–44%. In 1998, she was reelected with 57% of the vote. In the House, Stabenow served on the Agriculture and Science Committees.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow did not seek reelection to the House in 2000, choosing instead to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham. She won the Democratic primary unopposed. In the general election, Stabenow defeated Abraham 49.5%–48% (a difference of 67,259 votes).


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was challenged by Republican Michael Bouchard, Oakland County sheriff and former State Senate Majority Floor Leader. Stabenow defeated him 57%–41%.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican nominee Pete Hoekstra, former U.S. representative, 59% to 38%.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Republican nominee John E. James, 52.3%–45.8%. The margin was 275,660 votes (6.50%), making this the closest U.S. Senate election in Michigan since 2000.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Before her current committee assignments, Stabenow also served on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Special Committee on Aging.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow is only the second person from Michigan to have served in both houses of the Michigan State Legislature and both houses of the United States Congress, the other being Thomas W. Ferry. She is also the first person to have served as a Michigan state legislator to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate (until enactment of the Seventeenth amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, U.S. Senators were selected by the state legislature).


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow became the third-ranking Democratic Party member in the U.S. Senate on November 16, 2004, when she was elected secretary of the Democratic caucus. As caucus secretary, she assisted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in setting the Democratic agenda and priorities. Senator Dick Durbin was elected minority whip, the second-ranking Democratic spot. In November 2006, Reid announced that Stabenow would leave the caucus secretary position to succeed Hillary Clinton as chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, charged with "engag[ing] Democratic Senators and community leaders across the country in an active dialogue".


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: After Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, withdrew his name, the National Organization for Women urged the president to appoint Stabenow, citing her focus on health care and "her background as a social worker".


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow became chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 2011, following the defeat of Blanche Lincoln. A controversial item during Stabenow's tenure was the renewal and reform of the 2012 U.S. Farm Bill. Reid reintroduced 2012's Senate Farm Bill in the 113th Congress in January 2013, saying that it was on his top priority list, and Stabenow voiced support for Reid's move, saying, "Majority Leader Reid has demonstrated that the Senate will once again make supporting our nation’s agriculture economy while cutting spending a top priority."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: On October 29, 2014, Stabenow introduced the Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act (S. 1603; 113th Congress), a bill that would reaffirm the status of lands taken into trust by the Department of the Interior for the benefit of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band. The bill would clarify that the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band's land trust could not be challenged in court under the Supreme Court decision "Carcieri v. Salazar".


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol. Along with other senators and staff, she was evacuated from the Senate chamber, through a stairwell, and to a safe location. She called the experience "heartbreaking" and "one of those things out of a movie" and said she hadn't felt that much fear since she was at the Capitol during the September 11 attacks. After the Capitol was secure, Congress returned to session to certify the election. Stabenow supported the certification. The day after the attack, Stabenow called for Trump's immediate removal from office through the invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution or impeachment.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow supports keeping abortion legal. She has voted to expand embryonic stem cell research, and against prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortions, barring HHS grants to institutions that perform abortions, and criminal penalties for harm or death to a fetus in a violent crime.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow supported Michigan Proposal 1 in 2018 to legalize cannabis for recreational use, though she would like to ensure law enforcement is involved so that the law is implemented correctly.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2013, Greg Kaufmann of "The Nation" wrote an article stating that Stabenow was prepared to cut $8 to $9 billion from the food stamp (SNAP) program. In a lengthy statement, Stabenow's office rejected these accusations, maintaining that she "strongly opposes any changes to food assistance that make cuts in benefits for people who need help putting food on the table" and that she "has been the number one defender against the House Republican proposal to cut food assistance by $40 billion." Kaufmann doubled down on his charges and challenged Stabenow's office's claims in detail.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2017, Stabenow fought to prevent the creation of additional work-requirement rules on SNAP recipients who were older or had smaller children and led a bipartisan effort to get the legislation passed.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In October 2002, Stabenow was one of 23 senators who voted against authorization of the use of military force in Iraq.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In April 2019, Stabenow was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" by preventing the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the U.S. by helping to improve conditions in those countries.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow secured $100 million to repair and replace the water lines in Flint, Michigan, which were contaminating the drinking water with lead. She also pushed to include a program that would provide fresh fruits and vegetables to Flint children as part of the Farm Bill.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow has received low scores from free-market groups (Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2013, 0%; American Conservative Union, 2016, 0%; Americans for Prosperity, 2015–16, 0%) and high scores from fiscally liberal groups (Progressive Punch, 2015, 92%; NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, 2012, 91%).


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2007, Senator Stabenow joined the bipartisan (70-23) support of NOPEC in order to combat conspiratorial policies by foreign oil producers, extending Sherman Anti-Trust Act protection to include foreign cartels such as OPEC, and bring down US oil and gas costs for US consumers. In 2008, she voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program proposed by President George W. Bush.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2010, she introduced the China Fair Trade Act, saying it would "prevent federal taxpayer dollars from being used to purchase Chinese products and services until they sign on to and abide by the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement." The bill would also require a report on Chinese industrial policies and require the Department of Energy to monitor the development of China's renewable energy sector.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In October 2011, Stabenow called for tax breaks for firms developing bio-based products, using crops like soybeans and corn to create prescriptions drugs, plastics, and soaps.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In August 2012, Stabenow expressed support for "strategic partnerships between farmers and industry" and for a recent Obama directive to boost federal purchases of bio-based products.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2015, she introduced the Stabenow-Portman Amendment (SA 1299) to address currency manipulation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2015, the International Economic Development Council gave Stabenow the Congressional Leadership Award "for her significant contributions in the area of economic development." The IEDC cited her work on the 2014 Farm Bill, her sponsorship in 2013 of the New Skills for New Jobs Act, and her role in the federal bridge loan program."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In 2017, Stabenow introduced her American Jobs Agenda, which included two acts: the Make It In America Act and the Bring Jobs Home Act. The former, "would close loopholes in a 1933 law designed to give American companies priority when the federal government purchases goods." She said the act would require that the U.S. government: "buy American...If the federal agency says they need a waiver, they need to measure how many American jobs will be impacted by purchasing that product made overseas." The latter, "would create a tax cut for companies bringing jobs and business activities back to America from another country."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In April 2017, Stabenow was one of eight Democratic senators to sign a letter to Trump noting government-subsidized Chinese steel had been placed into the American market in recent years below cost and had hurt the domestic steel industry and the iron ore industry that fed it, calling on him to raise the steel issue with President of China Xi Jinping in his meeting with him.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: In May 2017, she and Senator Gary Peters announced a $210,000 EDA grant to the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission "to help spur economic development in West Michigan." The same month, she said that owing to a major change in farmers' margins since the 2014 Farm Bill, the farm safety net needed to be strengthened, especially for dairy farmers.


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: At a July 13, 2017, economics roundtable, she said that the "#1 request she gets in Michigan" is for "Professional technical jobs, building construction jobs—folks that can actually make things and do things." She said that Democrats can succeed in elections by "going to our core. We are the party that are willing to take risks to make things better...We believe in our core in an economy that actually works for everybody. That is how you grow America."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: The Biotechnology Industry Organization thanked Stabenow in 2017 for supporting development of a "biobased economy," specifically for her introduction of the Renewable Chemicals Act of 2017, which would "allow taxpayers to claim a production tax credit of 15 cents per pound of biobased content of each renewable chemical produced during the taxable year."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: On October 3, 2017, Stabenow and Peters introduced the Small Business Access to Capital Act, designed to "reauthorize and improve the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) to help small businesses grow and create jobs." It built "on the successful SSBCI initiative that both lawmakers championed in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010" and that "funds the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and other state-led lending programs that leverage private financing to help small businesses access the capital they need."


title: Debbie Stabenow

text: Stabenow has received high marks from groups supporting immigration (American Immigration Lawyers Association, 2013–14, 100%; National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, 2013–14, 100%) and low marks from groups opposed to immigration: Federation for American Immigration Reform, 2014, 0%; Numbers USA, 2017, 0%.