title: Chartwell

text: The bottom section of Tilden's "promontory" extension, the dining room contains the original suite of table and dining chairs designed by Heal's to Churchill's exacting requirements – (see box). An early study for a planned picture by William Nicholson entitled "Breakfast at Chartwell" hangs in the room. Nicholson, a frequent visitor to Chartwell who gave Churchill painting lessons, drew the study for a finished picture which was intended as a present for the Churchills' Silver Wedding anniversary in 1933 but, disliking the final version, Nicholson destroyed it. The picture depicts the Churchills breakfasting together, which in fact they rarely did, and Churchill's marmalade cat, Tango. The tradition of keeping a marmalade cat at Chartwell, which Churchill began and followed throughout his ownership, is maintained by the National Trust in accordance with Churchill's wishes. In a letter to Randolph written in May 1942, Churchill wrote of a brief visit to Chartwell the previous week, "the goose and the black swan have both fallen victim to the fox. The Yellow Cat however made me sensible of his continuing friendship, although I had not been there for eight months".


title: Chartwell

text: Churchill depicted the dining room in one of his own pictures, "Tea at Chartwell: 29 August, 1927". The scene shows Churchill in one of his dining chairs with his family and guests: Thérèse Sickert, and her husband, Walter Richard Sickert, Churchill’s friend and artistic tutor; Edward Marsh, Churchill’s secretary; his friends Diana Mitford and Frederick Lindermann; and Clementine, Randolph and Diana Churchill. Above the dining room is the drawing room and, above that, Lady Churchill's bedroom, described by Churchill as "a magnificent aerial bower".


title: Chartwell

text: Churchill's study, on the first floor, was his "workshop for over 40 years" and "the heart of Chartwell". In the 1920s, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he planned his budgets in the room; in the 1930s, in isolation, he composed his speeches that warned against the rise of Hitler and dictated the books and articles that paid the bills; in 1945, defeated, he retreated here to write his histories; and here, in final retirement, he passed much of his old age. Throughout the 1930s, the study was his base for the writing of many of his most successful books. His biography of his ancestor Marlborough and his "The World Crisis" were written there, and "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" was begun and concluded there, although interrupted by the Second World War. He also wrote many of his pre-war speeches in the study, although the house was less used during the war itself. Tilden exposed the early roof beams by removing the late-Victorian ceiling and inserted a Tudor doorcase. From the beams hang three banners, Churchill's standards as Knight of the Garter and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and the Union Flag raised over Rome on the night of 5 June 1944, the first British flag to fly over a liberated capital. The latter was a gift from Lord Alexander of Tunis. The study also contains portraits of Churchill's parents, Lord Randolph Churchill and Lady Randolph Churchill, the latter by John Singer Sargent. The floor is covered with a Khorassan carpet, a 69th birthday gift to Churchill from the Shah of Iran at the Teheran Conference in 1943.


title: Chartwell

text: Beyond the study are Churchill's bedroom and his en suite bathroom, with sunken bath. At the time of the house's opening to the public in 1966, these rooms were not made accessible, at the request of Churchill's family but, shortly before her death in 2014, Churchill's daughter Mary gave permission for their opening, and the Trust plans to make them accessible by 2020.


title: Chartwell

text: Neither the original Victorian house with its extensions, nor Tilden's reconstruction, created a building that has been highly regarded by critics. John Newman noted that the massing of the house on the garden terraces, taking advantage of the Wealden views, was "the grouping that mattered". He dismissed the other side of the house as a, "long, indecisive entrance front close to the road" and the overall composition as of "dull red brick and an odd undecided style". The architectural writer and Chairman of the National Trust Simon Jenkins considered the house, "undistinguished". The National Trust's guidebook describes the original building as "Victorian architecture at its least attractive". The house is Grade I listed but its brief, Historic England listing makes clear that this is "for historical reasons" rather than for its architectural merit. The gardens are Grade II* listed.


title: Chartwell

text: The gardens surrounding the house comprise , with a further of parkland. They are predominantly the creation of the Churchills, with significant later input from Lanning Roper, Gardens Adviser to the National Trust. The Victorian garden had been planted with conifers and rhododendrons which were typical of the period. The Churchills removed much of this planting, while retaining the woodlands beyond. Within the garden proper, they created almost all of the landscape, architectural and water features seen today. The garden front of the house opens onto a terraced lawn, originally separated from the garden beyond by a ha-ha and subsequently by a Kentish ragstone wall constructed in the 1950s. To the north lies the Rose garden, laid out by Lady Churchill and her cousin Venetia Stanley. The nearby Marlborough Pavilion was built by Tilden and decorated with frescos by Churchill's nephew, John Spencer Churchill in 1949. Beyond the Rose Garden is the Water Garden, constructed by the Churchills and including the Golden Orfe pond where Churchill fed his fish, and the swimming pool constructed in the 1930s. Churchill sought advice from his friend and scientific guru Professor Lindemann on the optimal methods for heating and cleaning the pool.


title: Chartwell

text: To the south is the croquet lawn, previously a tennis court—Lady Churchill was an accomplished and competitive player of both, although Churchill was not. Beyond the lawn are several structures grouped around the Victorian kitchen garden, many of which Churchill was involved in building. He had developed an interest in bricklaying when he bought Chartwell and throughout the 1920s and 1930s constructed walls, a summerhouse and some houses on the estate. In 1928, he joined the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, a move which caused controversy. Near the kitchen garden is the Golden Rose walk containing thirty-two varieties of golden roses, a Golden Wedding anniversary present to the Churchills from their children in 1958, and Churchill's painting studio, constructed in the 1930s, which now houses a large collection of his artistic works.


title: Chartwell

text: South of the terrace lawn are the Upper and Lower lakes, scene of Churchill's most ambitious landscaping schemes. The Lower lake had existed during the Colquhouns' ownership, but the island within it, and the Upper lake, were Churchill's own creations. On 1 January 1935, while Lady Churchill was on a cruise off Sumatra, Churchill described the beginnings of his endeavours in one of his Chartwell Bulletins; "I have arranged to have one of those great mechanical diggers. In one week he can do more than 40 men can do. There is no difficulty about bringing him in as he is a caterpillar and can walk over the most sloppy fields". Excavation work proved more challenging than Churchill had anticipated, two weeks later he wrote again, "The mechanical digger has arrived. He moves about on his caterpillars only with the greatest difficulty on this wet ground".


title: Chartwell

text: On the lakes lived Churchill's large collection of wildfowl, including the black swans, a gift from the Australian Government, which restocked the lakes with them in 1975. Churchill had a sentimental attachment to the fauna that lived at Chartwell: his close friend Violet Bonham Carter recalled their conversation in the garden in the early 1950s; "He was bemoaning the fact that the summer had been a bad one for butterflies when suddenly to his delight he saw two Red Admirals alighting on a clump of Buddleia bushes he had planted to attract them. I shall never forget his pleasure".


title: Chartwell

text: In 1946–47, Churchill extended his land-holdings around Chartwell, purchasing Chartwell Farm and Parkside Farm, and subsequently Bardogs Farm and a market garden. By 1948, he was farming approximately 500 acres. The farms were managed by Mary Soames's husband, Christopher and Churchill kept cattle and pigs and also grew crops and market vegetables. The farms did not prove profitable, and by 1952 Churchill's operating losses on them exceeded £10,000 a year. By the end of the decade, both the farms and the livestock had been sold.


title: Chartwell

text: A more lucrative venture was the owning, and later breeding, of racehorses. In 1949, Churchill had purchased Colonist II, which won its first race, the Upavon Stakes, at Salisbury that year, and subsequently netted Churchill £13,000 in winnings. In 1955, Churchill bought the Newchapel Stud and by 1961 his total prize money from racing exceeded £70,000. In the 1950s, he reflected on his racing career; "Perhaps Providence had given him Colonist as a comfort in his old age and to console him for disappointments".


title: Rhinestone

text: A rhinestone, paste or diamante is a diamond simulant originally made from rock crystal but since the 19th century from crystal glass or polymers such as acrylic.


title: Rhinestone

text: Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine, hence the name, although some were also found in areas like the Alps, but today the name "rhinestone" applies only to varieties of lead glass known as crystal glass. The availability was greatly increased in the 18th century when the Alsatian jeweller Georg Friedrich Strass had the idea to imitate diamonds by coating the lower side of lead glass with metal powder. Hence, rhinestones are called "strass" in many European languages.


title: Rhinestone

text: As opposed to the classic rhinestones, which had a metal powder coating on the bottom side only, several companies have opted to mass-produce iridescent lead glass, by reducing the metal coating thickness and applying it uniformly, not using metal powder with a binder but by applying various forms of metal deposition (thin foil, vapor deposition, etc): Favrile glass by Tiffany in 1894, Carnival glass under the name "Iridrill" by Fenton in 1908, "Aurora Borealis" glass by Swarovski in 1956 and PVD-coated dichroic glass in the late 20th century, amongst many other decorative lead glasses coated with a thin metal layer sold under various commercial names such as "rainbow glass", "aurora glass" and such.


title: Rhinestone

text: Rhinestones can be used as imitations of diamonds, and some manufacturers even manage to partially reproduce the glistening effect real diamonds have in the sun.


title: Rhinestone

text: Typically, crystal rhinestones have been used on costumes, apparel and jewelry. Crystal rhinestones are produced mainly in Austria by Swarovski and in the Czech Republic by Preciosa and a few other glassworks in northern Bohemia. In the US, these are sometimes called "Austrian crystal".


title: Rhinestone

text: The rhinestone-studded Nudie suit was invented by Nudie Cohn in the 1940s, an Americanization of the matador's "suit of lights". Rhinestone material is often used as an alternative to sequins.


title: Rhinestone

text: Liberal use of rhinestones was associated with country music singers, as well as with singer Elvis Presley and pianist Liberace. In 1974 David Allan Coe released the album "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy" and referred to himself as The Rhinestone Cowboy again in the 1977 song "Longhaired Redneck". In 1975 Glen Campbell had a top hit with the song "Rhinestone Cowboy" and became known as the "Rhinestone Cowboy". That song served as the basis for the 1984 movie "Rhinestone", starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. The British virtual band Gorillaz has also released a single by the name of "Rhinestone Eyes" in 2010. The closing track on Madvillain's "Madvillainy" is called Rhinestone Cowboy. Carrie Underwood's ninth album, released in 2022, is called Denim & Rhinestones.


title: Rhinestone

text: Rhinestones are sized by using the term "ss", or stone size, following a number to indicate size (e.g. 8ss is equivalent to 2.3 mm diameter, 10ss is 2.8 mm). SS is more commonly used for apparel means, while PP (or pearl plate) is used for jewelry.


title: Rhinestone

text: Hot-fix rhinestones, also called heat-transfer rhinestones, are mainly used for apparel. The flat bottom of the stone has a glue backing and, when heated, melts onto the surface of the clothing. These can be adhered using a regular iron, although it is recommended to use a heat press, as they are able to reach higher temperatures (standard transfers require temperatures of up to ) while applying heavy pressures resulting in a more professional quality.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: "Polly" is a song by the American alternative rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the sixth song on their second album "Nevermind", released by DGC Records in September 1991.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The song was written about the abduction, rape and torture of a 14-year-old girl returning home from a punk rock concert in Tacoma, Washington in 1987. Written from the perspective of the perpetrator, "Polly" has frequently been cited as evidence of Cobain's support of feminism and women's rights.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: Originally titled "Hitchhiker" and later "Cracker", "Polly" dates back to at least 1987. The earliest known version is a home demo featuring Cobain on vocals and guitar. This version was released posthumously on the Nirvana rarities box set, "With the Lights Out", in November 2004.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The song was first performed live on June 23, 1989, at Rhino Records in Westwood, Los Angeles. It was first recorded in the studio in August 1989 by Steve Fisk at Music Source in Seattle, Washington. The sessions were for a planned EP to coincide with the band's European tour, but only two of the five songs recorded, "Stain" and "Been a Son," were officially released, on the "Blew" EP later that year. Unreleased during the band's lifetime, this version of "Polly" also appeared on "With the Lights Out".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: On October 26, 1989, the band recorded a version during their first BBC "Peel Session", at Maida Vale Studios in London, England. The four-song session, engineered by Ted de Bono, was originally broadcast on November 22, 1989.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: "Polly" was re-recorded by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin in April 1990. This acoustic version, featuring Chad Channing on drums, later appeared on the band's major label debut, "Nevermind", released in September 1991. It was the only recording from Vig's original session with the band to appear on the album, the rest of which was recorded by Vig in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The recording featured Cobain playing a five-string Stella guitar that he said he purchased from a pawn shop for $20. "I didn't bother changing the strings," Cobain told Jeff Gilbert in a 1992 "Guitar World" interview. "It barely stays in tune. In fact, I had to use duct tape to hold the tuning keys in place." According to Vig, the guitar's "strings were so old they didn't have any tone to them. A real plunky sound." Cobain's guitar and Krist Novoselic's bass were recorded live, after which Cobain recorded lead and harmony vocals, and then Channing added the cymbal crashes.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: According to Vig in the 2005 "" documentary, Cobain accidentally sang the first two words of the third verse, "Polly said," too early, during the instrumental break, but the band decided to leave it in. However, earlier versions of the song also feature this line, including the original home demo, the 1989 Peel version, and most pre-"Nevermind" live versions.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The band recorded another version of the song for the BBC on November 9, 1991, at Maida Vale in London during their appearance on Radio 1's "Mark Goodier Radio Session". The session, their last for the BBC, was first broadcast on November 18, 1991, and three of the four songs from the session, including "Polly", appeared on the band's compilation album "Incesticide" in December 1992. This faster version of the song appeared under the title "(New Wave) Polly."


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: In December 1992, a live version of the song, recorded at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California on December 28, 1991, was released as a b-side on the forth single for "Nevermind", for the song, "In Bloom".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: An acoustic version of "Polly", featuring Pat Smear on second guitar and Lori Goldston on cello, was performed during Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" appearance at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The last live performance of "Polly" was at Nirvana's final concert, at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany, on March 1, 1994.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: / grunge song that lasts for two minutes and 57 seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by BMG Rights Management, it is written in common time, with a moderate tempo of 122 beats per minute. "Polly" is composed in the key of E minor, while Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and one note, from a low of D3 to a high of E4. The song has a basic sequence of Em–G–D–C in the verses and D–C–G–B during the refrain as its chord progression. The song starts with Cobain playing a soft, sludgy acoustic guitar riff and singing the vocals until the first chorus when bass enters, a cymbal crash is played, and Cobain adds a vocal harmony. This is done for all verses and choruses. After the second chorus the guitar stops playing and a bass break starts. The song ends with a final cymbal crash after the third chorus.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: Cobain wrote "Polly" about an incident in Tacoma, Washington involving the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl in August 1987. Gerald Arthur Friend kidnapped the girl while she was leaving a rock concert and then suspended her upside down from a pulley in his mobile home and raped and tortured her with a blowtorch. She managed to escape by jumping from his truck at a gas station, attracting attention from surrounding people. Arthur was later arrested and convicted for his crimes. Cobain's addition to the story was to have the victim fool the kidnapper into thinking she was enjoying what he was doing to her, causing him to let his guard down long enough for her to escape.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: In his Nirvana biography "Come As You Are", journalist Michael Azerrad noted that rape seemed to be a consistent theme in Cobain's songs and interviews, as if Cobain was "apologizing for his entire gender." However, Cobain explained, "I don't feel bad about being a man at all. There are all kinds of men that are on the side of the woman and support them and help influence other men. In fact, a man using himself as an example toward other men can probably make more impact than a woman can". In the liner notes to the band's 1992 compilation album "Incesticide", Cobain wrote that "last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly'. I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: In 2021, Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, discussed the song in a "Los Angeles Times" interview, saying "you can’t write that song today, from the point of view of the perpetrator. Kurt would definitely not be allowed to sing 'Polly' today, and I think that’s pretty sad".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: "Polly" was ranked number 18 in "NME"s 2004 "Top 20 Nirvana Songs" list. In 2015, "Rolling Stone" ranked it number 29 in their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs, with Julianne Sheperd writing, "Though it's certainly not a protest song, it deftly delves into the mind of a sicko, like a succinct "", and is an example of the thoughtful depths Cobain was willing to plumb." In 2019, it was ranked at number 14 in "The Guardian"s list of "Nirvana's 20 greatest songs".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: According to "Heavier than Heaven", American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was impressed with "Polly" upon hearing the song while at a Nirvana concert, remarking of Cobain that "that kid has heart".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: American alternative rock musician Amanda Palmer, who covered "Polly" on the 2011 tribute album, "Newermind", discussed the song in a 2011 "Spin" interview, saying, "It's entirely possible that the production on "Nevermind" is going to feel dated in 50 years, if it doesn't already. The mystery in the lyrics to a song like 'Polly' is so profound. People will always be trying to make sense of what the fuck exactly Kurt was singing about. That's what makes a song last".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The song appears as downloadable content in the video games "Rock Band", "Rock Band 2", "Rock Band 3" and "Rock Band 4".


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: A live version of "Polly", recorded at the London Astoria on December 3, 1989, was released as a promotional single in 1996 to promote the live compilation "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah", released in November 1996.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: The "MTV Unplugged" version of "Polly" was released as a promo single in 1994, the promote the album, "MTV Unplugged in New York", released in November 1994. The single received moderate airplay on American rock and alternative stations in 1994 and 1995.


title: Polly (Nirvana song)

text: Video of the full "MTV Unplugged" performance was released on the "MTV Unplugged in New York" DVD in 2007. The DVD also featured footage of the band rehearsing "Polly" during the show's soundcheck as bonus material.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1968 on Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first album widely recognized as country rock and represented a stylistic move away from the psychedelic rock of the band's previous LP, "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". The Byrds had occasionally experimented with country music on their four previous albums, but "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" represented their fullest immersion into the genre to that point in time. The album was responsible for bringing Parsons, who had joined the Byrds in February 1968 prior to the start of recording, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. Thus, the album is an important chapter in Parsons' crusade to make country music fashionable for a young audience.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The album was conceived as a history of 20th century American popular music, encompassing examples of country music, jazz and rhythm and blues, among other genres. However, steered by the passion of the little-known Parsons, this concept was abandoned early on and the album instead became purely a country record. The recording of the album was divided between sessions in Nashville and Los Angeles, with contributions from session musicians including Lloyd Green, John Hartford, JayDee Maness, and Clarence White. Tension developed between Parsons and the rest of the band, guitarist Roger McGuinn especially, and some of Parsons' vocals were re-recorded, partly due to legal issues. By the time the album was released Parsons had left the band. The Byrds' move away from rock and pop towards country music elicited a great deal of resistance and hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment, who viewed the Byrds as a group of long-haired hippies attempting to subvert country music.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Upon its release, the album reached number 77 on the "Billboard" Top LPs chart, but failed to reach the charts in the United Kingdom. Two attendant singles were released during 1968, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", which achieved modest success, and "I Am a Pilgrim", which failed to chart. The album received mostly positive reviews in the music press, but the band's shift away from psychedelic music alienated much of its pop audience. Despite being the least commercially successful Byrds' album to date upon release, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is today considered to be a seminal and highly influential country rock album.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The initial concept by Roger McGuinn for the album that would become "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was to expand upon the genre-spanning approach of the Byrds' previous LP, "The Notorious Byrd Brothers", by recording a double album overview of the history of American popular music. The planned album would begin with bluegrass and Appalachian music, then move through country and western, jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock music, before culminating with futuristic proto-electronica featuring the Moog modular synthesizer.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: But with a U.S. college tour to promote "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" looming, a more immediate concern was the recruitment of new band members. David Crosby and Michael Clarke had been dismissed from the band in late 1967, leaving Roger McGuinn as "de facto" leader of the Byrds, along with Chris Hillman, the only other remaining member of the band. To address this problem, McGuinn hired Hillman's cousin, Kevin Kelley (formerly a member of the Rising Sons), as the band's new drummer, and it was this three-piece line-up, with McGuinn on guitar and Hillman on bass, that embarked on the early 1968 college tour. It soon became apparent, however, that the Byrds were having difficulty performing their studio material live as a trio, and so it was decided that a fourth member was required. McGuinn, with an eye still on his envisaged American music concept album, felt that a pianist with a jazz background would be ideal for the group.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: A candidate was found by Larry Spector, the band's business manager, in the shape of 21-year-old Gram Parsons. Parsons, a marginal figure in the L.A. music scene, had been acquainted with Hillman since 1967 and he auditioned for the band as a piano player in February 1968. His faux-jazz piano playing and genial personality at audition was enough to impress both McGuinn and Hillman; so Parsons was recruited as the fourth member of the band, although he quickly switched to playing guitar instead of piano. Although Parsons and Kelley were considered full members of the Byrds, they both received a salary from McGuinn and Hillman, and did not sign with Columbia Records when the Byrds' recording contract was renewed on February 29, 1968.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Unbeknownst to McGuinn or Hillman, Parsons had his own musical agenda in which he planned to marry his love of traditional country music (which he saw as being the purest form of American music) with youth culture's passion for rock. He had already successfully attempted this fusion as a member of the little-known International Submarine Band, on the album "Safe at Home", but Parsons' new status as a Byrd offered him an international stage from which to launch his bid to reclaim country music for his generation.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Following his recruitment, Parsons began to lure Hillman away from McGuinn's proposed concept album idea and towards a blend of what Parsons would later term "Cosmic American Music". In essence, this was a hybrid of various roots music forms, primarily oriented towards honky tonk country music but also encompassing American folk, soul, rhythm and blues, rock ’n’ roll and contemporary rock. Hillman, who had come from a musical background firmly rooted in bluegrass, had himself successfully persuaded the Byrds to incorporate country influences into their music in the past, beginning with the song "Satisfied Mind" on their 1965 album, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Many of Hillman's songs on the "Younger Than Yesterday" and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" albums also had a pronounced country feel to them, with several featuring Clarence White (a renowned bluegrass guitar player and session musician) on lead guitar, rather than McGuinn. During time spent singing old country songs with Parsons, Hillman became convinced that Parsons' concept of a country-oriented version of the Byrds could work.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Parsons' passion for his country rock vision was so contagious that he even convinced McGuinn to abandon his plans for the Byrds' next album and follow Parsons' lead in recording a country rock album. Parsons also persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to record the album in the country music capital of Nashville, Tennessee, as Bob Dylan had done for his "Blonde On Blonde" and "John Wesley Harding" albums. Although McGuinn had some reservations about the band's new direction, he decided that such a move could expand the already declining audience of the group. After long-time Byrds' producer Gary Usher, who had little interest in producing McGuinn's proposed concept album, indicated a preference for the country concept, McGuinn finally acquiesced. On March 9, 1968, the band decamped to Columbia's recording facility in Nashville to begin recording sessions for "Sweetheart of the Rodeo".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Between March 9 and March 15, 1968, the band, accompanied by several prominent session musicians, recorded multiple takes of eight songs at Columbia Records' recording studios in the Music Row area of Nashville. Recording sessions for the album continued from April 4 through May 27, 1968, at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, with a further seven songs recorded during these sessions and finishing touches applied to many of the tracks recorded in Nashville.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The songs that the Byrds recorded for the album included "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "Nothing Was Delivered", two country-influenced Dylan covers from his then-unreleased "Basement Tapes" sessions. Despite the change in musical style that the "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album represented for the Byrds, the inclusion of two Dylan covers provided a link with their previous folk-rock incarnation, when Dylan's material had been a mainstay of their repertoire. The Byrds also recorded a trio of classic country songs for the album: the traditional "I Am a Pilgrim", which had been popularized by Merle Travis in the late-1940s; the Cindy Walker-penned "Blue Canadian Rockies", which had been sung by Gene Autry in the 1952 film of the same name; and "The Christian Life", written by the Louvin Brothers, which was the antithesis of a traditional rock song with its gentle lyrics extolling the simple pleasures of Christianity as a lifestyle.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The band supplemented these older country standards and Dylan covers with a couple of contemporary country songs: Merle Haggard's maudlin convict's lament, "Life in Prison"; and Luke McDaniel's "You're Still On My Mind", a sorrowful tale of a heartbroken drunkard failing to find solace at the bottom of a bottle. Additionally, the Byrds gave William Bell's Stax hit, "You Don't Miss Your Water", a country flavored make-over, highlighted by the band's trademark crystal clear harmonies and contributions from JayDee Maness and Earl P. Ball, on pedal steel guitar and honky-tonk piano respectively. With its fusion of country and soul, "You Don't Miss Your Water" was a perfect example of what Parsons would later define, with his self-coined phrase, as "Cosmic American Music".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Lacking any country songs of his own, McGuinn delved into his pre-Byrds folk song repertoire instead, contributing Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd", a romanticized portrayal of the real-life folk hero and outlaw. The March 12, 1968 recording session that produced "Pretty Boy Floyd" saw McGuinn attempting to play the song's banjo accompaniment, but feeling dissatisfied with his efforts he finally ceded the part to session player John Hartford. The Byrds also recorded a Kelley original, "All I Have Are Memories", Tim Hardin's "You Got a Reputation", and the traditional song, "Pretty Polly", but none of these songs were selected for the final "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Parsons also brought three of his songs to the recording sessions: "Lazy Days", "One Hundred Years from Now" and "Hickory Wind", the latter of which had been written by Parsons and former International Submarine Band member, Bob Buchanan, during an early 1968 train ride from Florida to Los Angeles. "One Hundred Years from Now" has a quicker tempo than most of the material on "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" and functions as a speculation on current human vanities and how they might be viewed by successive generations. The Chuck Berry influenced "Lazy Days" was not included in the final album, but was re-recorded by Parsons and Hillman's later band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, for their 1970 album, "Burrito Deluxe".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Upon completion of the Music Row recording sessions, the band ended their stay in Nashville with an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium (introduced by future "outlaw" country star Tompall Glaser), on March 15, 1968. The band was greeted with derision by the conservative audience because they were the first group of hippie "longhairs" to play at the venerable country music establishment. In fact, the Byrds had all had their hair cut shorter than they normally wore it, specifically for their appearance at the "Grand Ole Opry", but this did nothing to appease their detractors in the audience. The Byrds opened with a rendition of Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home", which was met with derisive heckling, booing, and mocking calls of "tweet, tweet" from the hostile "Opry" audience. Any hope of salvaging the performance was immediately destroyed when Parsons, rather than singing a song announced by Glaser, launched into a rendition of "Hickory Wind" dedicated to his grandmother. The deviation from protocol stunned "Opry" regulars such as Roy Acuff and embarrassed Glaser, ensuring that the Byrds would never be invited back to play on the show.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Nearly as disastrous was the group's appearance on the WSM program of legendary Nashville DJ, Ralph Emery, who mocked his guests throughout the interview and initially refused to play an acetate of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere". Eventually playing the record, he dismissed it over the air and in the presence of the band as being mediocre. Clearly upset by their treatment, Parsons and McGuinn would make Emery the subject of their song, "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man", which was written by the pair in London in May 1968. The song appeared on the Byrds' next album, "Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde", although this recording did not feature Parsons because he had left the band by this time.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: After returning from Nashville, the band played a handful of concerts throughout the Los Angeles area with the addition of pedal steel guitarist JayDee Maness, who had played on several tracks on the album and Parsons' earlier "Safe at Home". Throughout April 1968, McGuinn came under considerable pressure from Parsons to recruit Maness as a full member of the Byrds, so that the band's new country material would sound authentic in concert, but McGuinn resisted, although Maness has stated in interview that he declined the invitation anyway. Having failed to recruit Maness as a permanent member of the band, Parsons next recommended another pedal steel guitar player, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, but once again, McGuinn held firm. Parsons' attempts to recruit new members and dictate the band's musical direction caused a power struggle within the band, with McGuinn finding his position as band leader challenged by Parsons, who was also pushing for a higher salary. At one point Parsons even demanded that the album be billed as "Gram Parsons and the Byrds", a demand that was ignored by McGuinn and Hillman.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: In May 1968 the band embarked on a short European tour and while in England for concerts at the Middle Earth Club and Blaises, the Byrds met with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who both expressed concern over the Byrds' intention to tour South Africa during the summer. McGuinn remained undaunted regarding these concerns over the country's apartheid policies, having already received the blessing of South African singer Miriam Makeba. He convinced the rest of the Byrds that a trip to South Africa would be an interesting experience. This meeting between the Byrds and the two Rolling Stones would play an important part in Parsons' departure from the band two months later.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Upon the group's return to California, post-production work on the "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album was disrupted when Parsons' appearance on the album was contested by Lee Hazlewood, who contended that the singer was still under contract to his LHI record label. While the legal problems were being resolved, McGuinn replaced three of Parsons' lead vocals with his own singing, a move that still infuriated Parsons as late as 1973, when he told Cameron Crowe in an interview that McGuinn "erased it and did the vocals himself and fucked it up." However, Parsons was still featured singing lead vocals on the songs "Hickory Wind", "You're Still on My Mind", and "Life in Prison". There has been speculation that McGuinn's decision to re-record Parsons' lead vocals himself was not entirely motivated by the threat of legal action, but by a desire to decrease Parsons' presence on the album. According to producer Gary Usher:


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The three songs that had their lead vocals replaced by McGuinn were "The Christian Life", "You Don't Miss Your Water", and "One Hundred Years from Now", with the last featuring McGuinn and Hillman sharing vocals on the final album version. However, Parsons' lead vocals weren't completely eradicated from these songs and can still be faintly heard, despite having either McGuinn or Hillman's voice overdubbed on them. The master recordings of these three songs, with their original Parsons' vocals restored to full prominence, were finally issued as part of "The Byrds" box set in 1990. These same master recordings, featuring Parsons' lead vocals, were also included as bonus tracks on disc one of the 2003 Legacy Edition of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: With the legal problems surrounding Parsons' appearance on the album resolved, the Byrds returned to England for an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall on July 7, 1968. Following the concert, Parsons announced that he would not be accompanying the band on their imminent tour of South Africa in protest over the country's policies of apartheid (a policy that did not cease until 1994). Both McGuinn and Hillman doubted the sincerity of Parsons' protest, believing instead that Parsons had used the apartheid issue as a convenient excuse to leave the band and stay in England to hang out with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Consequently, by the time "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was released in August 1968, Parsons had been an ex-member of the Byrds for almost eight weeks. Following the South African tour, McGuinn and Hillman replaced Parsons with longtime Byrd-in-waiting Clarence White, and Kevin Kelley was dismissed from the band soon after. In total, the McGuinn, Hillman, Parsons, and Kelley line-up of the Byrds had lasted a mere five months.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was released on August 30, 1968, in the United States (catalogue item CS 9670) and September 27, 1968, in the UK (catalogue item 63353). However, there is some doubt about the American release date, as the album was first listed on the U.S. charts in the August 24 issue of "Cashbox" magazine and therefore must have been on sale a few weeks earlier than August 30.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: It was the first Byrds LP to be issued exclusively in stereo in the United States, although the album was released in both mono and stereo variations in the United Kingdom. Columbia Records launched an accompanying print advertising campaign proclaiming, "This Country's for the Byrds" and featuring the tag line "Their message is all country … their sound is all Byrds." In spite of this, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" only reached number 77 on the "Billboard" Top LPs chart, during a chart stay of ten weeks, and failed to chart in the United Kingdom at all. The lead single from the album was a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", which was released on April 2, 1968, climbing to number 75 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 45 in the UK charts. A second single from the album, "I Am a Pilgrim", was released on September 2, 1968, but failed to chart. The album cover artwork was adapted by Geller and Butler Advertising from elements of the 1932 poster "The American Cowboy Rodeo" by Uruguyan artist Jo Mora.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Despite receiving generally favorable reviews from the critics, the country-rock style of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was such a radical departure from the band's previous sound that large sections of the group's counterculture following were alienated by its contents, resulting in the lowest sales of any Byrds album up to that point. Barry Gifford, in the August 1968 edition of "Rolling Stone" magazine, said of the album: "The new Byrds do not sound like Buck Owens & his Buckaroos. They aren't that good. The material they've chosen to record, or rather, the way they perform the material, is simple, relaxed and folky. It's not pretentious, it's pretty. The musician-ship is excellent." Gifford added that "The Byrds have made an interesting album. It's really very uninvolved and not a difficult record to listen to. It ought to make the 'Easy-Listening' charts. 'Bringing it all back home' has never been an easy thing to do." "Rolling Stone" praised the album in a September 1968 issue, with Jon Landau writing: "The Byrds, in doing country as country, show just how powerful and relevant unadorned country music is to the music of today." Landau added that "they leave just enough rock in the drums to let you know that they can still play rock & roll." In a 1969 article for "The New York Times", Robert Christgau described "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" as "a bittersweet tribute to country music".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Among the less favorable contemporary critiques, a "Melody Maker" reviewer dismissed the album as "Not typical Byrds music, which is rather a pity." Robert Shelton of "The New York Times" commented that "The latest Byrds album adheres to most of the 'rules of the game' about country sound, and yet, sad to say, to this old fan of the Byrds, the album is a distinguished bore."


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: In more recent years, AllMusic critic Mark Deming remarked in his review of the album that "no major band had gone so deep into the sound and feeling of classic country (without parody or condescension) as the Byrds did on Sweetheart; at a time when most rock fans viewed country as a musical "L'il Abner" routine, the Byrds dared to declare that C&W could be hip, cool, and heartfelt." Alexander Lloyd Linhardt, reviewing the album for "Pitchfork Media", described it as "a blindingly rusty gait through parched weariness and dusted reverie. It's not the natural sound of Death Valley or Utah, but rather, a false portrait by people who wished it was, which makes it even more melancholy and charismatic." Journalist Matthew Weiner commented in his review for "Stylus" that "Thirty-five years after it startled Byrds fans everywhere with its Podunk proclivities, Sweetheart remains a particularly fascinating example of two musical ships passing in the night, documenting both Parsons’ transformation into a visionary country-rock auteur and a pop band's remarkable sense of artistic risk."


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The Byrds' biographer, Johnny Rogan, has said that the album "stood alone as a work almost completely divorced from the prevailing rock culture. Its themes, mood and instrumentation looked back to another era at a time when the rest of America was still recovering from the recent assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy." Ultimately, the Byrds' experimentation with the country genre on "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was slightly ahead of its time, to the detriment of the band's commercial fortunes, as the international success of country rock-flavored bands like the Eagles, America and Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show during the 1970s demonstrated.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Released at a time when the Byrds' surprising immersion in the world of country music coincided with their declining commercial appeal, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was an uncommercial proposition. However, the album has proved to be a landmark, serving not only as a blueprint for Parsons' and Hillman's the Flying Burrito Brothers, but also for the entire nascent 1970s Los Angeles country rock movement. The album was also influential on the outlaw country and new traditionalist movements, as well as the so-called alternative country genre of the 1990s and early 21st century. Among fans of the Byrds, however, opinion is often sharply divided regarding the merits of the album, with some seeing it as a natural continuation of the group's innovations, and others mourning the loss of the band's trademark Rickenbacker guitar jangle and psychedelic experimentation. Nonetheless, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is widely considered by critics to be the Byrds' last truly influential album.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Although it was not the first country rock album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was the first album widely labeled as country rock to be released by an internationally successful rock act, pre-dating the release of Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" by over six months. The first bona fide country rock album is often cited as being "Safe at Home" by Parsons' previous group, The International Submarine Band. However, the genre's antecedents can be traced back to the Rockabilly music of the 1950s, the Beatles' covers of Carl Perkins and Buck Owens' material on "Beatles For Sale" and "Help!", as well as the stripped down arrangements of Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" album and the Byrds' own forays into country music on their pre-"Sweetheart" albums. The Band's debut album, "Music from Big Pink", released in July 1968, was also influential on the genre, but it was "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" that saw an established rock band playing pure country music for the first time.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The album was included in "A Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in "" (1981). In 2003, the album was ranked number 117 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 120 in a 2012 revised list, and 274 in a 2020 revised list. "Stylus Magazine" named it their 175th favorite album of all time also in 2003. It was voted number 229 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" went on to inspire the name of the 1980s country duo, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, who paid tribute to the Byrds' album with the sleeve of their 1990 album, "Buffalo Zone".


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: In 2018, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman reunited for a U.S. tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". The duo, who were backed on the tour by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, performed all of the songs from the album and told stories about its creation.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: Personnel adapted from "The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-by-Day (1965–1973)", the Sundazed Records website, "Hot Burritos: The True Story of the Flying Burrito Brothers", and the 1997 CD liner notes.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The credits on the original album erroneously include drummer Jon Corneal, who plays only on the outtake "Lazy Days"


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series and reissued in an expanded form on March 25, 1997. The eight bonus tracks featured on this reissue include the outtakes "You Got a Reputation", "Lazy Days", and "Pretty Polly", as well as four previously unreleased rehearsal takes and an instrumental backing track for "All I Have Are Memories". A hidden track on the CD features a 1968 Columbia Records radio advertisement for the album.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: On September 2, 2003, a 2 CD Legacy Edition of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was released by Columbia/Legacy. This version of the album features additional outtakes, rehearsal versions, and the master takes of the songs that had their Parsons' lead vocals replaced, presented here with their Parsons' vocals intact. Most of the alternate versions and rehearsal takes on disc two of the Legacy Edition feature Parsons singing songs that were later released with vocals by McGuinn on the original album. Also included on the Legacy Edition is an outtake from the album sessions called "All I Have Are Memories", written and sung by drummer Kevin Kelley. In addition, the Legacy Edition of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" includes six tracks performed by the International Submarine Band (Parsons' previous group).


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: In 2007, Sundazed Records released a 7" single featuring previously unreleased alternate versions of "Lazy Days" and "You Got a Reputation" (titled "Reputation" on this release) that date from the Byrds' March 1968 recording sessions in Nashville. These two alternate versions have not been issued on CD.


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The final song on the 1997 reissue ("All I Have Are Memories") ends at 2:48; at 3:48 begins the hidden track "Radio Spot: Sweetheart of the Radio Album"


title: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

text: The 2003 CD reissue contains alternative versions of songs with Parsons singing lead, along with recordings by Parsons' pre-Byrds group, The International Submarine Band (tracks 1–6 on disc two).


title: Sap (EP)

text: Sap is the second studio EP by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on February 4, 1992, through Columbia Records. "Sap" is mostly acoustic and marks the first time that guitarist Jerry Cantrell sings lead vocals in an Alice in Chains release, with the song "Brother". The EP was produced by Alice in Chains and Rick Parashar and features guest vocals by Ann Wilson of the band Heart, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Mark Arm of Mudhoney. The track "Got Me Wrong" became a hit two years later after being featured on the soundtrack to the 1994 film "Clerks". On January 14, 1994, "Sap" was certified gold by the RIAA for the sale of more than 500,000 copies.


title: Sap (EP)

text: Following the tour for "Facelift," Alice in Chains entered the studio to record a song for the Cameron Crowe movie "Singles", but decided to turn the engagement to their advantage. As the guitarist Jerry Cantrell recalled: "So in the session that was meant for recording that one song ['Would?'], we ended up demoing about 10 songs, which included all the stuff that ended up on the [1992] "Sap" EP, 'Rooster' and a couple of others from "Dirt".”


title: Sap (EP)

text: While in the studio, drummer Sean Kinney had a dream about "making an EP called "Sap."" The band decided "not to mess with fate," and "Sap" was recorded and mixed in 1991 with producer Rick Parashar at London Bridge Studio.


title: Sap (EP)

text: Lead vocalist Layne Staley encouraged guitarist Jerry Cantrell to sing lead vocals on the EP. Cantrell sings lead vocals on "Brother" and splits lead vocals with Staley on "Got Me Wrong".


title: Sap (EP)

text: The EP features guest vocals by Ann Wilson from the band Heart, who joined vocalist Layne Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell for the choruses of "Brother" and "Am I Inside". It also features Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, who appeared together on the song "Right Turn", credited to "Alice Mudgarden" in the liner notes. The song was featured in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down". It was guitarist Jerry Cantrell who invited Wilson, Cornell and Arm to sing on "Sap".


title: Sap (EP)

text: Regarding the lyrical content, Cantrell said he wrote "Brother" about his relationship with his younger brother. The song specifically refers to the period after Cantrell's parents divorced, when his younger brother went off to live with his father while he stayed with his mother, and Cantrell said that the song "was a way of trying to build a bridge." Commenting on "Got Me Wrong", Cantrell said he wrote the song about a relationship where one person thinks he or she can change the other person, and added that the song speaks of "the different ways that men and women see each other."


title: Sap (EP)

text: A version of the song "Rooster" was recorded during the sessions for "Sap" and was to be included on the EP, but the band then decided to use the song on their second full-length album instead. This version is featured on the band's 1999 box set "Music Bank".


title: Sap (EP)

text: The hidden track, "Love Song", described by Cantrell as "the most bizarre song we've ever recorded", was Kinney's idea. All four members switched instruments for the recording, with Kinney on lead vocals and piano, Starr on guitar, Cantrell on bass, and Staley on drums.


title: Sap (EP)

text: On February 4, 1992, Alice in Chains released their second EP, "Sap." The band did not want any ads or promotion for the EP, they just put it in the stores to see if people would buy it. Cantrell said that Alice in Chains released "Sap" "without any fuss or fanfare so as the real Alice fans could find it." The EP was released while Nirvana's "Nevermind" was at the top of the "Billboard" 200 charts, resulting in a rising popularity of Seattle-based bands, and the term grunge music. "Sap" was soon certified gold.


title: Sap (EP)

text: The album was re-released on March 21, 1995, when "Got Me Wrong" became a hit after its inclusion on the soundtrack to the 1994 film, "Clerks." The re-released version included lyrics and slightly different artwork. The aforementioned song, as well as "Brother," were performed live during Alice in Chains' "MTV Unplugged" concert.


title: Sap (EP)

text: In addition to the CD, the album was also released in a limited edition double vinyl along with "Jar of Flies" ("Jar of Flies" was on sides 1 and 2, "Sap" was on side 3, and an etching of the Alice in Chains logo was on side 4). In the UK, "Sap" and "Jar of Flies" were issued as a double CD, as "Sap" had not previously had a UK release. In the UK, "Brother" and "Right Turn" were initially released on the "Would" single and "Got Me Wrong" and "Am I Inside" were released on the "Them Bones" single. Hidden track "Love Song" never appeared on a UK single release and was previously unreleased when "Sap" was released with "Jar of Flies".


title: Sap (EP)

text: "Love Song" is a hidden track and there are no credits for it in the album. The ASCAP database lists all four members as songwriters.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Quandre Diggs (born January 22, 1993) is an American football free safety for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas, and was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He played his first two years in the NFL as a cornerback before being moved to safety. In 2019, Diggs was traded to the Seahawks.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Diggs attended Angleton High School, where he played on the football team. As a member of the Angleton Wildcats, he primarily played cornerback and safety, but occasionally played quarterback on offense. Considered a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, Diggs was listed as the top-ranked cornerback in the nation in the Class of 2011.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Diggs played college football at Texas from 2011 to 2014 under head coaches Mack Brown (2011–2013) and Charlie Strong (2014). He played in 52 career games, of which he started 49. He was named the Big 12 Conference Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2011. He was named to the Second-team All-Big 12 in 2011 and was named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention in 2013. He ended his collegiate career tied for ninth on the University of Texas all-time interceptions list with 11 and tied for ninth with 37 career pass breakups.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: On December 1, 2014, it was announced that Diggs would be playing in the Senior Bowl after accepting his invitation. On January 24, 2015, Diggs played in the 2015 Senior Bowl and recorded four solo tackles and an interception as part of Ken Whisenhunt's North team that defeated the South 34–13. He attended the NFL Scouting Combine and completed all of the combine drills. He finished eighth among all participating cornerbacks in the bench press, 12th in the short shuttle, and finished 19th among cornerbacks in the 40-yard dash. On March 24, 2015, Diggs attended Texas's pro day, but opted to stand on the majority of his combine numbers and only performed positional drills and broad jump. He added six inches to his broad jump from the combine (9'11"). At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Diggs was projected to be a seventh round pick by the majority of NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked the 10th best cornerback in the draft by Bleacher Report, was ranked the 21st best cornerback by WalterFootball.com, and was ranked the 30th best cornerback prospect in the draft by DraftScout.com.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: The Detroit Lions selected Diggs in the sixth round (200th overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft. He was the 26th cornerback drafted in 2015.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: On May 7, 2015, the Detroit Lions signed Diggs to a four-year, $2.39 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $115,352.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Throughout training camp, Diggs competed for the role as the first-team nickelback against Bill Bentley, Nevin Lawson, and Mohammed Seisay. Head coach Jim Caldwell named Diggs the backup nickelback, behind Nevin Lawson, to begin the regular season.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: He made his professional regular season debut in the Detroit Lions' season-opener at the San Diego Chargers and recorded two solo tackles in their 33–28 loss. Diggs made his first career tackle on Keenan Allen, stopping a five-yard reception in the fourth quarter. On October 23, 2015, Diggs earned his first career start and recorded four combined tackles in their 28–19 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 7. The following week, he was elevated to first-team nickelback replacing Nevin Lawson who was moved to outside cornerback after Rashean Mathis sustained a concussion the previous week. On November 22, 2015, Diggs collected a season-high six combined tackles and a pass deflection in the Lions' 18–13 win against the Oakland Raiders in Week 11. He finished his rookie season with 38 combined tackles (31 solo) and six pass deflections in 16 games and four starts. He finished the season with the 33rd highest overall grade from Pro Football Focus.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Diggs entered training camp slated as the No. 1 nickelback on the depth chart, but saw minor competition from Crezdon Butler. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin named Diggs the first-team nickelback and third cornerback on the depth chart to start the season, behind Darius Slay and Nevin Lawson.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 6, he collected five solo tackles during a 31–28 victory against the Los Angeles Rams. It was his third consecutive game with five solo tackles. On November 24, 2016, Diggs recorded a season-high six solo tackles in the Lions' 16–13 victory against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 12. On December 6, 2016, the Detroit Lions placed Diggs on injured reserve after he suffered a pectoral injury during a Week 13 victory at the New Orleans Saints. Diggs finished the season with 44 combined tackles (40 solo) and a pass deflections in 12 games and four starts. He earned an overall grade of 49.5 from Pro Football Focus in 2016 and ranked 95th among the 111 qualifying cornerbacks.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: During training camp, Diggs competed to be the starting nickelback against D. J. Hayden and Jamal Agnew. Head coach Jim Caldwell named Diggs the first-team nickelback on and the fifth cornerback on the Lions' depth chart, behind Darius Slay, Nevin Lawson, Teez Tabor, and D.J. Hayden, to start the season.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: He started in the Detroit Lions' season-opener against the Arizona Cardinals and made a season-high three pass deflections and three solo tackles in their 35–23 victory. On December 3, 2017, Diggs started his first game as a strong safety and collected five solo tackles and a pass deflection during a 44–20 loss at the Baltimore Ravens in a Week 13. Diggs was named the starter after Tavon Wilson injured his shoulder the previous week and was required to undergo surgery. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin's decision to start Diggs at strong safety was unexpected as many people assumed backup strong safety Miles Killebrew would be taking over the role. In Week 14, he collected seven combined tackles, deflected a pass, and made his first career interception off a pass by quarterback Jameis Winston during a 24–21 victory at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The following week, Diggs made his third consecutive start at safety and recorded three solo tackles, two pass deflections, an interception, and a sack in the Lions' 20–10 win against the Chicago Bears in Week 15. He made his first career sack on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky during the second quarter. On December 24, 2017, Diggs recorded four combined tackles, a pass deflection, and intercepted a pass by Andy Dalton in a 26–17 loss at the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16. His interception extended his streak to three consecutive games with a pick. He finished the season with a career-high 55 combined tackles (45 solo), nine pass deflections, three interceptions, and a sack in 16 games and 11 starts. Pro Football Focus gave Diggs an overall grade of 73.5, ranking him 73rd among all qualifying cornerbacks in 2017.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: On September 10, in the season opener on "Monday Night Football", Diggs intercepted Sam Darnold's first career pass attempt and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown in a game against the Jets.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: On October 22, 2019, Diggs was traded along with a 7th round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for a fifth round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Diggs made his debut with the Seahawks in week 10 against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football. In the game, Diggs recorded an interception off Jimmy Garoppolo which he returned for 44 yards in the 27–24 overtime win.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In week 12 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Diggs forced a fumble on tight end Dallas Goedert which he recovered in the 17–9 win. In week 14 against the Los Angeles Rams, he intercepted 2 passes thrown by Jared Goff and returned one for a 55 yard touchdown in the 12–28 loss.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons, Diggs intercepted a pass thrown by quarterback Matt Ryan late in the fourth quarter to seal a 38–25 Seahawks' win.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 2 against the New England Patriots on "Sunday Night Football", Diggs was ejected from the game after initiating a helmet to helmet hit with Patriots' wide receiver N'Keal Harry.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 7 against the Arizona Cardinals on "Sunday Night Football", Diggs recorded an interception off a pass thrown by Kyler Murray during the 37–34 overtime loss.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 12 against the Philadelphia Eagles on "Monday Night Football", Diggs intercepted a pass thrown by Carson Wentz in the end zone during the 23–17 win.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Diggs was named to the Pro Bowl on December 21, 2020 as the NFC starter at free safety. Diggs and teammate Jamal Adams became the first safety tandem to make the Pro Bowl together since former Seahawks safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor in 2015.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: In Week 16 against the Los Angeles Rams, Diggs recorded his fifth interception of the season off a pass thrown by Jared Goff during the 20–9 win.


title: Quandre Diggs

text: Earlier in the NFL preseason, On May 17, 2021, Diggs has announced that he would change his number 37 to number 6, per the new NFL jersey rule. In Week 18 of the 2021 regular season, Diggs suffered a dislocated ankle and a broken right fibula in the 38-30 win against the Arizona Cardinals.


title: Murder of Adrianna Hutto

text: Adrianna Elaine Hutto (September 16, 1999 – August 8, 2007) was a 7-year-old American girl who lived in Esto, Florida. On August 8, 2007, Adrianna's mother, Amanda E. Lewis, made a 911 call stating that she had found her daughter in the family's pool and she was not breathing. Emergency personnel rushed Adrianna to the nearby hospital Bay Medical, where she was pronounced dead about an hour after arrival. The death was initially treated as an accident until Adrianna's half-brother A.J., then 6 years old, told police that he had witnessed his mother "dunk" Adrianna in the pool as a form of corporal punishment.


title: Murder of Adrianna Hutto

text: During the investigation, police discovered that Adrianna had been diagnosed with ADHD and Lewis stated that while she initially had trouble bonding with her daughter, her affection for Adrianna had grown over time. Investigators also found that neither Adrianna nor A.J. appeared to have any toys in the house, to which Lewis stated that the toys had been taken away for a week as a form of punishment and that the toys were stored in a shed. After searching the shed, investigators noted that there were no toys in the shed or any evidence to suggest that they had been there. There was a little red wagon and two inflatable toys for the pool in the yard but no other toys. Dr. Renee Fox, the emergency room physician who had handled Adrianna's medical care, informed investigators that Lewis had not shown any emotion or reaction when informed that her daughter had died, which she had found odd. Lewis submitted to and passed a lie detector test where she claimed that she had not killed her daughter. In September 2007, Lewis was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of Adrianna. She was offered a plea bargain that would have required her to plead guilty to manslaughter and receive a ten-year sentence, which she declined in favor of going to trial.


title: Murder of Adrianna Hutto

text: Lewis went to trial in February 2008, where the statements by A.J. and Dr. Fox were brought up as evidence and the defense argued that A.J. was not a reliable witness, as his story had changed several times during further questioning. Other evidence brought to trial included an autopsy performed by Dr. Charles Siebert, statements from Lewis's co-workers, evidence of poor housekeeping, and the lack of toys, including Lewis's statement over the toys' whereabouts. The prosecution also pointed out multiple bruises on Adrianna's forehead that correlated with A.J.'s testimony. Four days after the case went to trial and after only two hours (including lunch) of deliberation, the jury found Lewis guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. In March of the same year, Lewis was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


title: Murder of Adrianna Hutto

text: In 2010 Lewis filed an appeal, referring to the Merger doctrine, which she claimed "precludes the use of aggravated child abuse as the underlying felony in a felony murder charge if only a single act of abuse led to the child's death". This appeal was unsuccessful, and the conviction was affirmed.


title: Murder of Adrianna Hutto

text: Three television shows have highlighted this case: the Investigation Discovery show "True Crime with Aphrodite Jones", an episode of 20/20, "What A.J. Saw: Mother's Fate Hinged on 7-Year-Old's Testimony", and also an episode of the UK documentary series "Killer Women with Piers Morgan".


title: Assay

text: An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity of a target entity. The measured entity is often called the analyte, the measurand, or the target of the assay. The analyte can be a drug, biochemical substance, chemical element or compound, or cell in an organism or organic sample. An assay usually aims to measure an analyte's intensive property and express it in the relevant measurement unit (e.g. molarity, density, functional activity in enzyme international units, degree of effect in comparison to a standard, etc.).


title: Assay

text: If the assay involves exogenous reactants (the reagents), then their quantities are kept fixed (or in excess) so that the quantity and quality of the target are the only limiting factors. The difference in the assay outcome is used to deduce the unknown quality or quantity of the target in question. Some assays (e.g., biochemical assays) may be similar to chemical analysis and titration. However, assays typically involve biological material or phenomena that are intrinsically more complex in composition or behavior, or both. Thus, reading of an assay may be noisy and involve greater difficulties in interpretation than an accurate chemical titration. On the other hand, older generation qualitative assays, especially bioassays, may be much more gross and less quantitative (e.g., counting death or dysfunction of an organism or cells in a population, or some descriptive change in some body part of a group of animals).


title: Assay

text: Assays have become a routine part of modern medical, environmental, pharmaceutical, and forensic technology. Other businesses may also employ them at the industrial, curbside, or field levels. Assays in high commercial demand have been well investigated in research and development sectors of professional industries. They have also undergone generations of development and sophistication. In some cases, they are protected by intellectual property regulations such as patents granted for inventions. Such industrial-scale assays are often performed in well-equipped laboratories and with automated organization of the procedure, from ordering an assay to pre-analytic sample processing (sample collection, necessary manipulations e.g. spinning for separation, aliquoting if necessary, storage, retrieval, pipetting, aspiration, etc.). Analytes are generally tested in high-throughput autoanalyzers, and the results are verified and automatically returned to ordering service providers and end-users. These are made possible through the use of an advanced laboratory informatics system that interfaces with multiple computer terminals with end-users, central servers, the physical autoanalyzer instruments, and other automata.


title: Assay

text: According to Etymology Online, the verb "assay" means "to try, endeavor, strive, test the quality of"; from Anglo-French "assaier", from "assai" (noun), from Old French "essai", "trial". Thus the noun "assay" means "trial, test of quality, test of character" (from mid-14th century), from Anglo-French "assai"; and its meaning "analysis" is from the late 14th century.


title: Assay

text: For assay of currency coins this literally meant analysis of the purity of the gold or silver (or whatever the precious component) that represented the true value of the coin. This might have translated later (possibly after the 14th century) into a broader usage of "analysis", e.g., in pharmacology, analysis for an important component of a target inside a mixture—such as the active ingredient of a drug inside the inert excipients in a formulation that previously was measured only grossly by its observable action on an organism (e.g., a lethal dose or inhibitory dose).


title: Assay

text: An assay (analysis) is never an isolated process, as it must be accompanied with pre- and post-analytic procedures. Both the communication order (the request to perform an assay plus related information) "and" the handling of the specimen itself (the collecting, documenting, transporting, and processing done before beginning the assay) are pre-analytic steps. Similarly, after the assay is completed the results must be documented, verified and communicated—the post-analytic steps. As with any multi-step information handling and transmission system, the variation and errors in reporting final results entail not only those intrinsic to the assay itself but also those occurring in the pre-analytic and post-analytic procedures.


title: Assay

text: While the analytic steps of the assay itself get much attention, it is those that get less attention of the chain of users—the pre-analytic and post-analytic procedures—that typically accumulate the most errors; e.g., pre-analytic steps in medical laboratory assays may contribute 32–75% of all lab errors.


title: Assay

text: Depending on whether an assay just looks at a single time point or timed readings taken at multiple time points, an assay may be:


title: Assay

text: Depending on the nature of the signal amplification system assays may be of numerous types, to name a few:


title: Assay

text: A cell-counting assay may determine the number of living cells, the number of dead cells, or the ratio of one cell type to another, such as numerating and typing red versus different types of white blood cells. This is measured by different physical methods (light transmission, electric current change). But other methods use biochemical probing cell structure or physiology (stains). Another application is to monitor cell culture (assays of cell proliferation or cytotoxicity).


title: Assay

text: Many cell assays have been developed to assess specific parameters or response of cells (biomarkers, cell physiology). Techniques used to study cells include :


title: Assay

text: The HPCE-based viral titer assay uses a proprietary, high-performance capillary electrophoresis system to determine baculovirus titer.


title: Assay

text: The viral plaque assay is to calculate the number of viruses present in a sample. In this technique the number of viral plaques formed by a viral inoculum is counted, from which the actual virus concentration can be determined.


title: Assay

text: A wide range of cellular secretions (say, a specific antibody or cytokine) can be detected using the ELISA technique. The number of cells which secrete those particular substances can be determined using a related technique, the ELISPOT assay.


title: Assay

text: When multiple assays measure the same target their results and utility may or may not be comparable depending on the natures of the assay and their methodology, reliability etc. Such comparisons are possible through study of general quality attributes of the assays e.g. principles of measurement (including identification, amplification and detection), dynamic range of detection (usually the range of linearity of the "standard curve"), analytic sensitivity, functional sensitivity, analytic specificity, positive, negative predictive values, turn around time i.e. time taken to finish a whole cycle from the preanalytic steps till the end of the last post analytic step (report dispatch/transmission), throughput i.e. number of assays done per unit time (usually expressed as per hour) etc. Organizations or laboratories that perform Assays for professional purposes e.g. medical diagnosis and prognostics, environmental analysis, forensic proceeding, pharmaceutical research and development must undergo well regulated quality assurance procedures including method validation, regular calibration, analytical quality control, proficiency testing, test accreditation, test licensing and must document appropriate certifications from the relevant regulating bodies in order to establish the reliability of their assays, especially to remain legally acceptable and accountable for the quality of the assay results and also to convince customers to use their assay commercially/professionally.


title: Assay

text: Bioactivity databases correlate structures or other chemical information to bioactivity results taken from bioassays in literature, patents, and screening programs.


title: Assay

text: Protocol databases correlate results from bioassays to their metadata about experimental conditions and protocol designs.


title: Lewis Burton

text: Lewis Steven E. Burton (born 23 March 1992) is a British model and former professional tennis player.


title: Lewis Burton

text: Burton started playing tennis at the age of seven. He reached a career-high ranking of 172 (singles and doubles combined) on the Juniors circuit, achieved in July 2010. Along with George Morgan, he reached the final of the boys' doubles at Wimbledon in 2010. However, they lost the final 6–7, 4–6 to the fellow British pairing of Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson. The following year, Morgan won the boys' doubles title with Mate Pavić, with Burton being too old to compete. In 2012, Burton and Morgan, now both too old for the boys' tournament, were given a wildcard into qualifying for the men's doubles at Wimbledon. They qualified for the main draw, but lost to Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus in the first round, by a scoreline of 6–4, 5–7, 6–7, 4–6.


title: Lewis Burton

text: Burton began dating television presenter Caroline Flack in August 2019. On 12 December 2019, police were called to Flack's flat in London after she allegedly assaulted Burton by hitting him in the head with a lamp. Burton called the police from Flack's flat and was allegedly "begging for help" from the operator, with Burton saying "she tried to kill me mate". Flack's lawyer stated during proceedings that Burton did not consider himself a victim, instead describing him as a witness. Flack died by suicide in her flat on 15 February 2020.


title: Lewis Burton

text: Since November 2020, he has been in a relationship with model and entrepreneur Lottie Tomlinson. Their son, Lucky Burton, was born in August 2022.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Novaya Gazeta () is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Moscow, in regions within Russia, and in some foreign countries. The print edition is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; English-language articles on the website are published on a weekly basis in the form of the "Russia, Explained" newsletter.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Seven "Novaya Gazeta" journalists, including Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya and Anastasia Baburova, have been murdered since 2000, in connection with their investigations.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: In October 2021, "Novaya Gazeta" editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Maria Ressa, for their safeguarding of freedom of expression in their homelands.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: In March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper suspended publication due to increased government censorship. The next month, a European edition of the paper, "Novaya Gazeta Europe", was launched from Riga in order to avoid censorship; the website was blocked in Russia later that month. In July, the newspaper launched a magazine, "Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta", with its website blocked shortly later. On 5 September, "Novaya Gazeta" media license was revoked.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: A group of former journalists from "Komsomolskaya Pravda" organised the newspaper in 1993, its first name was "Ezhednevnaya Novaya Gazeta" (Daily New Gazette). Mikhail Gorbachev used the money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize to help establish the "Novaya Gazeta" in 1993 and purchase its first computers.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 26 November 2001, "Novaya Gazeta" published an article by Oleg Lurie stating that the management of the International Industrial Bank, headed by Sergey Pugachyov, had been involved in money laundering in the Bank of New York. Pugachyov's bank brought a libel suit against the newspaper, citing financial losses, as a number of its customers had allegedly changed the terms of their accounts in a way which made the bank lose money because of the publication. On 28 February 2002, the bank won the case in Moscow's Basmanny municipal court and was awarded 15 million rubles (about $500,000) in lost revenue, an unprecedented sum for Russian newspapers that might undermine the very existence of "Novaya Gazeta", especially as on 22 February "Novaya Gazeta" had been ordered by the same Basmanny court to pay about $1 million for a corruption allegation against the Krasnodar Krai's top judge. In April, the decision on the International Industrial Bank case was reconfirmed by a court. However, in an article of 27 May 2002, Yulia Latynina, a "Novaya Gazeta" journalist, revealed that the bank's three customers named in the lawsuit were its subsidiaries or otherwise controlled by its board of directors, and claimed that "Novaya Gazeta" had requested the opening of a criminal fraud investigation into the activities of the bank. As a result, in June 2002 the International Industrial Bank renounced its claim to the compensation.


title: Novaya Gazeta

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


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 13 April 2009, the newspaper was granted the first-ever print interview in a Russian publication with President Dmitri Medvedev, discussing issues such as civil society and the social contract, transparency of public officials and Internet development.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 26 January 2010, the paper's web site was subjected to a denial of service attack and effectively taken offline. As of 1 February 2010, the site was still inaccessible. At the peak of the attack the server was receiving 1.5 million connections per second. The newspaper maintained its online presence by publishing articles on its LiveJournal page. On 7 April 2011, the web site was targeted again with the same botnet that appears to be used in a large scale attack on LiveJournal that hosts many opposition blogs.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 25 July 2014, the paper opened with "Vergeef ons, Nederland" / "Прости, Голландия" ("Forgive us, Netherlands" in both Dutch and Russian), in response to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: In early 2016 the newspaper published an article alleging existence of a so-called "Blue whale" game, seeking to cause Russian youngsters to commit suicide. The publication caused a moral panic to sweep Russia.


title: Novaya Gazeta

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


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: "Novaya Gazeta" published reports about anti-gay purges in Chechnya in 2017, where 3 men were allegedly killed, and dozens detained and intimidated. After publication, the Chechen Government denied the existence of persecutions in the Republic. The newspaper published a report by Elena Milashina and the list of 27 Chechens killed on 26 January 2017. The newspaper also addressed the report and the list to the Investigative Committee of Russia, and asked the committee to investigate the data about the published list. While "Novaya Gazeta" published the names of 27 Chechens killed in the list, the newspaper said that the real number might be even more, possibly 56. The newspaper said that the allegedly killed Chechens were detained by the local security service, put in custody inside guarded territory owned by the traffic police regiment in the city of Grozny, and executed on 26 January by gunfire with several killed by asphyxiation.) by State Security forces without filing any legal accusations.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov stated that the newspaper would publish an edition in both Russian and Ukrainian in solidarity. On 4 March 2022, the newspaper said it would remove materials and cut reporting on the war, after receiving an official warning from Roskomnadzor. It published materials from occupied Kherson and other Ukrainian cities. On 28 March, the newspaper announced that it would suspend its online and print activities until the end of the "special military operation" after it received another warning from Roskomnadzor.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 7 April 2022, as a result of the crackdown, journalists from "Novaya Gazeta" announced the launch of "Novaya Gazeta Europe", with its editor-in-chief, Kirill Martynov, stating that "Novaya Gazeta Europe" would be independent from "Novaya Gazeta" "both legally and in practice", with its newsroom consisting of staffers who have left Russia. The new outlet would publish articles in other languages aside from Russian, and Martynov stated that the journalists hoped to eventually resume their work in Moscow. On 29 April 2022, "Novaya Gazeta Europe" announced that its website had been blocked in Russia. On 15 July, staff launched the magazine "Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta", with its first issue containing analysis of Putin's ideology, however by 24 July, the website was blocked in Russia.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 28 July 2022, Roskomnadzor demanded that "Novaya Gazeta" media license be cancelled, claiming that "the editorial office was not providing its editorial statute within the timeframe established by the law on media". On 5 September, the Basmanny District Court in Moscow cancelled the license, which Muratov called "political". That same month the Supreme Court revoked "Novaya Gazeta" online license, making it no longer available on the internet in Russia.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: In a video posted by "Novaya Gazeta" on YouTube in January 2017, the editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, revealed that the newspaper's employees jointly own 76% of shares, while the remaining 24% are owned by Alexander Lebedev (14%) and Mikhail Gorbachev (10%).


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Since 2009, the editor-in-chief position is elected every second year by the editorial staff through a secret ballot. A few days before the November 2017 election, Muratov announced that he would not stand, as there was need for a change after his 22 years, but that he would continue to work for the newspaper. He was replaced by Sergey Kozheurov, the general director of the newspaper and its first editor-in-chief. However, Muratov was re-elected again in November 2019.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Igor Domnikov was well known in "Novaya Gazeta" among his colleagues for his witty essays and acerbic tone. He was attacked on his way to his Moscow apartment, near the doorway, on 12 May 2000. Hit with a hard object, presumably a hammer by an unknown assailant, he was lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood when found by a neighbor; Igor Domnikov was delivered to a hospital with skull and brain injuries, underwent surgery, but remained in a coma. He died from the injuries on 16 July 2000. 5 members of a gang were arrested in August 2007 on suspicion of murder and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 years to life for the murder as well as other crimes. On 11 March 2015, Former Deputy Governor of Lipetsk Oblast Sergei Dorovskoi was charged by Investigative Committee of Russia with inciting the murder, but Sergei Dorovskoi was never punished because of the statute of limitations. Investigations have found that Igor Domnikov had written a series of reports about life in the Lipetsk region in 1999–2000, where he criticized the local government for corruption, which was the motive for Sergei Dorovskoi to incite others to kill the journalist.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Yury Shchekochikhin, a journalist and deputy in the State Duma, had also worked for the newspaper as an investigative journalist and had been a deputy Editor-in-Chief until he died from a mysterious and severe allergy on 3 July 2003. Some of his contributions published in "Novaya Gazeta" were related to the investigation of the Three Whales Corruption Scandal.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was critical of Russia's actions in Chechnya, wrote for "Novaya Gazeta" until her assassination on 7 October 2006. Politkovskaya wrote in an essay that the editors received: "Visitors every day in our editorial office who have nowhere else to bring their troubles, because the Kremlin finds their stories off-message, so that the only place they can be aired is in our newspaper, "Novaya Gazeta"." Vyacheslav Izmailov, a retired army major who was military correspondent, was part of the team investigating her death, and in 2007 claimed to know who had ordered her death. Fifteen years after her murder,"Novaya Gazeta" released a short film investigating her death, documenting failures at every level of the subsequent investigation.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Journalist and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot and killed in Moscow on 19 January 2009 while leaving a press conference about his last minute appeal against the early release of Yuri Budanov, a former Russian military officer convicted for kidnapping and aggravated murder of a young Chechen woman. Anastasia Baburova, a freelance journalist for "Novaya Gazeta" and a member of Autonomous Action, was with Markelov at the time and was also killed.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: Natalya Estemirova, human rights researcher and lawyer who lived in Chechen Republic, had sometimes met journalist Anna Politkovskaya and lawyer Stanislav Markelov, because they all were investigating crimes in Chechnya and defending victims rights, she also wrote reports in "Novaya Gazeta". Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped on 22 July 2009 in the Chechnyan capital Grozny and two hours later killed in neighboring Ingushetia Republic.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: In 2018 three journalists of "Novaya Gazeta", Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in an ambush outside the town of Sibut in Central African Republic. They did investigations to the Russian merchant engagement in CAR by Wagner group.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: On 7 April 2022, Muratov was attacked by an unknown person and covered with red paint while on a train from Moscow to Samara, supposedly as an act of the attacker's support for Russian troops. Muratov said the attacker had shouted "Muratov, here’s one for our boys". He said his eyes were "burning terribly" after the attack and posted a selfie showing the effects of the attack. The substance was red paint containing acetone. A declassified United States intelligence report concluded the attackers were part of an unnamed Russian intelligence unit.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: "Svobodnoe Prostranstvo" ("Free Space", ), which had been a colour supplement to "Novaya Gazeta", is included in the Friday issue.


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: "Novaya Gazeta" regularly contain free inserts of its side-projects or other newly launched newspapers. The "United Civil Front" (by the corresponding organisation) and Yabloko's newspaper were published in the form of inserts in the past. Current inserts include the "Shofyor" ("Driver" or "chauffeur", ) side project and the popular science "Kentavr" ("Centaur", ).


title: Novaya Gazeta

text: The Russian version of "Le Monde diplomatique" was promoted by being issued as such inserts for one year. The number of subscribers after that amounted to 43 and continuation of issuing the insert would have been considered senseless. "Novaya Gazeta" has also published "The New York Times International Weekly" on Fridays since 2009. This eight-page supplement features a selection of articles from "The New York Times" translated into Russian.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes () is a Catholic Marian shrine and pilgrimage site dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France. The sanctuary includes several religious buildings and monuments around the grotto of Massabielle, the place where the events of the Lourdes apparitions occurred in 1858, among them three basilicas, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Rosary Basilica and the Basilica of St. Pius X, respectively known as the upper, lower and underground basilica.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: The sanctuary is a destination for sick and disabled pilgrims, as the Lourdes water, which has flowed from the grotto since the apparitions, is reputed for miraculous healings. The area is owned and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes, and has several functions, including devotional activities, offices, and accommodation for sick and disabled pilgrims and their helpers. In addition to the grotto and the three basilicas, the sanctuary includes fountains providing Lourdes water, baths for immersion in the water, an esplanade for processions, a calvary, the offices of the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and several places of worship in a 52 hectares area.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: The sanctuary of Lourdes is one of the most-visited Catholic shrines in the world, with around four million pilgrims coming every year. The grotto of Massabielle, which is the most famous site in the sanctuary, has hundreds of replicas in the world, known as "Lourdes grottos".


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: The sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes began with the marian apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 in the town of Lourdes. On 11 February 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl, called Bernadette Soubirous, said she saw a "lady" while playing near the grotto of Massabielle (from "masse vieille": "old mass") with her sister and a friend, on the left bank of the Gave de Pau river. The "lady" was standing on a rose bush in a niche above the main cavity of the Massabielle grotto.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: At the time of the apparitions, the grotto lay well outside town, on common ground which was used by the villagers variously for pasturing animals, collecting firewood, and as a garbage dump, and it had a reputation for being an unpleasant place.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: Bernadette told her sister not to tell their parents about the apparition, but she told them anyway and their parents forbid them to go to the grotto again. Bernadette ignored their orders and kept going to the grotto. From 11 February 1858 to 16 July 1858, Bernadette saw the same vision 18 times. The "lady" eventually introduced herself to Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception, which had been proclaimed as a dogma for the Virgin Mary by Pope Pius IX in 1854. This convinced local priest Dominique Peyramale that Bernadette saw an authentic apparition of the Virgin Mary.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: During the apparitions, Bernadette was given instructions by the "lady", which were to prove central in the development of the sanctuary and its ceremonies. Bernadette was told to go and drink water from a spring which was to appear inside the grotto and wash herself with it. She was also told to go and tell the priests to build a chapel at the grotto site where people were to come in procession.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: During the months after the apparitions, public interest in the apparitions grew, and curious visitors began to be replaced by pilgrims from increasingly far away, drawn by compelling stories of apparitions and miracles.


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: Local priest Dominique Peyramale and local bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence bought the grotto and the land around it from the town of Lourdes in 1861, three years after the apparitions. Immediately they set about modifying the area to make it more accessible to pilgrims, and started work to build the first of the churches, which is now known as the "Crypt".


title: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

text: In 1864, the French sculptor Joseph-Hugues Fabisch was commissioned to create a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes based on Bernadette's descriptions. Although it has become an iconic symbol of Our Lady of Lourdes, it depicts a figure which is not only older and taller than Bernadette's description, but also more in keeping with orthodox and traditional representations of the Virgin Mary. The statue rests in the niche where the Virgin appeared to Bernadette. The original wild rose bush was destroyed shortly after the apparitions by pilgrims seeking relics, but a newer one has been planted nearby.