title: Serbian campaign

text: The operational army consisted of 11 and 1/2 infantry (six of 1st and five of the 2nd ban) and 1 cavalry division. Aged men of the 3rd ban were organized in 15 infantry regiments with some 45–50,000 men designated for use in rear and line of communications duties. However, some of them were by necessity used as part of operational army as well, bringing its strength up to around 250,000 men. Serbia was in a much more disadvantageous position when compared with Austria-Hungary with regard to human reserves and replacement troops, as its only source of replacements were new recruits reaching the age of military enlistment. Their maximum annual number was theoretically around 60,000, which was insufficient to replace the losses of more than 132,000 sustained during operations from August to December 1914. This shortage of manpower forced the Serbian army to recruit under- and over-aged men to make up for losses in the opening phase of the war.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Because of the poor financial state of the Serbian economy and losses in the recent Balkan Wars, the Serbian army lacked much of the modern weaponry and equipment necessary to engage in combat with their larger and wealthier adversaries. There were only 180,000 modern rifles available for the operational army, which meant that the Serbian Army lacked between one-quarter to one-third of the rifles necessary to fully equip even their front line units, let alone reserve forces. Although Serbia tried to remedy this deficit by ordering 120,000 rifles from Russia in 1914, the weapons did not begin to arrive until the second half of August. Only 1st ban troops had complete grey-green M1908 uniforms, while 2nd ban troops often wore the obsolete dark blue M1896 issue, with the 3rd ban having no proper uniforms at all and were reduced to wearing their civilian clothes with military greatcoats and caps. The Serbian troops did not have service issued boots at all, and the vast majority of them wore everyday footwear made of pig skin called "opanak".


title: Serbian campaign

text: Ammunition reserves were also insufficient for sustained field operations as most of it had been used in the 1912–13 Balkan wars. Artillery ammunition was sparse and only amounted to several hundred shells per unit. Because Serbia lacked a significant domestic military-industrial complex, its army was completely dependent on imports of ammunition and arms from France and Russia, which themselves were chronically short of supplies. The inevitable shortages of ammunition, which later would include a complete lack of artillery ammunition, reached their peak during decisive moments of the Austro-Hungarian invasion.


title: Serbian campaign

text: These figures detail the number of all Austro-Hungarian troops concentrated on the southern (Serbian) theater of war at the beginning of August 1914 and the resources of the entire Serbian army (the number of troops actually available for the operations on both sides was however somewhat less):


title: Serbian campaign

text: Serbia's ally Montenegro mustered an army of some 45–50,000 men, with only 14 modern quick firing field guns, 62 machine guns and some 51 older pieces (some of them antique models from the 1870s). Unlike the Austro-Hungarian and the Serbian armies, the Montenegrin army was a militia type without proper military training or a career officer's corps.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Serbian campaign started on 28 July 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and bombarded Belgrade the following day. On August 12 the Austro-Hungarian armies crossed the border, the Drina River (see map).


title: Serbian campaign

text: Initially, three out of six Austro-Hungarian armies were mobilized at the Serbian frontier, but due to Russian intervention, the 2nd Army was redirected east to the Galician theater. However, since the railroad lines leading to Galicia were busy with transport of other troops, the 2nd Army could only start its departure northward on 18 August. In order to make use of the temporary presence of the 2nd Army, AOK allowed parts of it to be used in the Serbian campaign until that date. Eventually, AOK directed significant parts of the 2nd Army (around four divisions) to assist General Potiorek's main force and postponed their transportation to Russia until the last week of August. Defeats suffered in the first invasion of Serbia eventually forced AOK to transfer two divisions from 2nd Army to Potiorek's army permanently.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The V and VI Austro-Hungarian Armies had about 270,000 men who were much better equipped than the Serbs. Overall, Austro-Hungarian command was in the hands of General Potiorek. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had the third largest population in Europe in 1914, behind Russia and Germany (almost twelve times the population of the Kingdom of Serbia), giving it an enormous manpower advantage.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Potiorek rushed the attack against Serbia from northern Bosnia with his Fifth Army, supported by elements of the Second Army from Syrmia. The Second Army was due to be transported to Galicia to face the Russians at the end of August, but he made use of it until then. The Sixth was positioning itself in southern Bosnia and was not yet able to commence offensive operations. Potiorek's desire was to win a victory before Emperor Franz Joseph's birthday and to knock Serbia out as soon as possible. Thus he made two grave strategic errors by attacking with only just over half of his strength and attacking hilly western Serbia instead of the open plains of the north. This move surprised Marshal Putnik, who expected attack from the north and initially believed that it was a feint. Once it became clear that it was the main thrust, the strong Second Army under the command of General Stepa Stepanović was sent to join the small Third Army under Pavle Jurišić Šturm already facing the Austro-Hungarians and expel the invaders. After a fierce four-day battle, the Austro-Hungarians were forced to retreat, marking the first Allied victory of the war over the Central Powers led by Germany and Austria-Hungary. Casualties numbered 23,000 for the Austro-Hungarians (of whom 4,500 were captured) and 16,500 for the Serbs.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Under pressure from its allies, Serbia conducted a limited offensive across the Sava river into the Austro-Hungarian region of Syrmia with its Serbian First Army. The main operational goal was to delay the transport of the Austro-Hungarian Second Army to the Russian front. The objective was shown to be futile as forces of the Second Army were already in transport. Meanwhile, the Timok division I of the Serbian Second Army suffered a heavy defeat in a diversionary crossing, suffering around 6,000 casualties while inflicting only 2,000.


title: Serbian campaign

text: With most of his forces in Bosnia, Potiorek decided that the best way to stop the Serbian offensive was to launch another invasion into Serbia to force the Serbs to recall their troops to defend their much smaller homeland.


title: Serbian campaign

text: 7 September brought a renewed Austro-Hungarian attack from the west, across the river Drina, this time with both the Fifth Army in Mačva and the Sixth further south. The initial attack by the Fifth Army was repelled by the Serbian Second Army, with 4,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties, but the stronger Sixth Army managed to surprise the Serbian Third Army and gain a foothold. After some units from the Serbian Second Army were sent to bolster the Third, the Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army also managed to establish a bridgehead with a renewed attack. At that time, Marshal Putnik withdrew the First Army from Syrmia (against much popular opposition) and used it to deliver a fierce counterattack against the Sixth Army that initially went well, but finally bogged down in a bloody four-day fight for a peak of the Jagodnja mountain called Mačkov Kamen, in which both sides suffered horrendous losses in successive frontal attacks and counterattacks. Two Serbian divisions lost around 11,000 men, while Austro-Hungarian losses were probably comparable.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Marshal Putnik ordered a retreat into the surrounding hills and the front settled into a month and a half of trench warfare, which was highly unfavourable to the Serbs, who had little in the way of an industrial base and were deficient in heavy artillery, ammunition stocks, shell production and footwear, since the vast majority of infantry wore the traditional (though state-issued) opanaks, while the Austro-Hungarians had waterproof leather boots. Most of their war material was supplied by the Allies, who were short of such materials themselves. In such a situation, Serbian artillery quickly became almost silent, while the Austro-Hungarians steadily increased their fire. Serbian casualties reached 100 soldiers a day from all causes in some divisions.


title: Serbian campaign

text: During the first weeks of trench warfare, the Serbian Užice Army (first strengthened division) and the Montenegrin Sanjak Army (roughly a division) conducted an abortive offensive into Bosnia. In addition, both sides conducted a few local attacks, most of which were soundly defeated. In one such attack, the Serbian Army used mine warfare for the first time: the Combined Division dug tunnels beneath the Austro-Hungarian trenches (that were only 20–30 meters away from the Serbian ones on this sector), planted mines and set them off just before an infantry charge.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Having thus weakened the Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Army launched another massive attack on 5 November. The Serbs withdrew step by step, offering strong resistance at the Kolubara River, but to no avail, due to the lack of artillery ammunition. It was at that time that General Živojin Mišić was made commander of the battered First Army, replacing the wounded Petar Bojović. He insisted on a deep withdrawal in order to give the troops some much-needed rest and to shorten the front. Marshal Putnik finally relented, but the consequence was the abandonment of the capital city of Belgrade. After suffering heavy losses, the Austro-Hungarian Army entered the city on 2 December. This action led Potiorek to move the whole Fifth Army into the Belgrade area and use it to crush the Serbian right flank. This, however, left the Sixth alone for a few days to face the whole Serbian army.


title: Serbian campaign

text: At this point, artillery ammunition finally arrived from France and Greece. In addition, some replacements were sent to the units and Marshal Putnik correctly sensed that the Austro-Hungarian forces were dangerously overstretched and weakened in the previous offensives, so he ordered a full-scale counterattack with the entire Serbian Army on 3 December against the Sixth Army. The Fifth hurried its flanking maneuver, but it was already too late – with the Sixth Army broken, the Second and Third Serbian Armies overwhelmed the Fifth. Finally, Potiorek lost his nerve and ordered yet another retreat back across the rivers into Austria-Hungary's territory. The Serbian Army recaptured Belgrade on 15 December.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The first phase of the war against Serbia had ended with no change in the border, but casualties were enormous compared to earlier wars, albeit comparable to other campaigns of World War I. The Serbian army suffered 170,000 men killed, wounded, captured or missing. Austro-Hungarian losses were approaching 215,000 men killed, wounded or missing.. Austro-Hungarian General Potiorek was removed from command and replaced by Archduke Eugen of Austria (C. Falls p. 54). On the Serbian side, a deadly typhus epidemic killed hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians during the winter.


title: Serbian campaign

text: After the Battle of Kolubara, the Serbian Parliament adopted the Niš Declaration (7 December 1914) on the war goals of Serbia:


title: Serbian campaign

text: "Convinced that the entire Serbian nation is determined to persevere in the holy struggle for the defense of their homesteads and their freedom, the government of the Kingdom (of Serbia) considers that, in these fateful times, its main and only task is to ensure the successful completion of this great warfare which, at the moment when it started, also became a struggle for the liberation and unification of all our unliberated Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian brothers. The great success which is to crown this warfare will make up for the extremely bloody sacrifices which this generation of Serbs is making". This amounted to announcing Serbia's intention to annex extensive amounts of Austria-Hungary's Balkan provinces.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Early in 1915, with Ottoman defeats at the Battle of Sarikamish and in the First Suez Offensive, the German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn tried to convince the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf, of the importance of conquering Serbia. If Serbia were taken, then the Germans would have a direct rail link from Germany through Austria-Hungary, then down to Istanbul and beyond. This would allow the Germans to send military supplies and even troops to help the Ottoman Empire. However, Russia was the more dangerous enemy, and furthermore, with the entry of Italy into the war on the Allied side, the Austro-Hungarians had their hands full (see Italian Front (World War I)).


title: Serbian campaign

text: Both the Allies and the Central Powers tried to get Bulgaria to pick a side in the Great War. Bulgaria and Serbia had fought two wars in the last 30 years: the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885, and the Second Balkan War in 1913. The result was that the Bulgarian government and people felt that Serbia was in possession of lands to which Bulgaria was entitled, and when the Central Powers offered to give them what they claimed, the Bulgarians entered the war on their side. With the Allied loss in the Gallipoli campaign and the Russian defeat at Gorlice, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria signed a treaty with Germany and on 23 September 1915, Bulgaria began mobilizing for war.


title: Serbian campaign

text: During the preceding nine months, the Serbs had tried and failed to rebuild their battered armies and improve their supply situation. Despite their efforts, the Serbian Army was only about 30,000 men stronger than at the start of the war (around 225,000) and was still badly equipped. Although Britain and France had talked about sending serious military forces to Serbia, nothing was done until it was too late. When Bulgaria began mobilizing, the French and British sent two divisions, but they arrived late in the Greek town of Salonika. Part of the reason for the delay was the National schism in Greek politics of the time that generating conflicting views about the war.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Against Serbia were marshalled the Bulgarian First Army commanded by Kliment Boyadzhiev, the German Eleventh Army commanded by Max von Gallwitz and the Austro-Hungarian Third Army commanded by Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza, all under the control of Field Marshal August von Mackensen. In addition the Bulgarian Second Army commanded by (Georgi Todorov), which remained under the direct control of the Bulgarian high command, was deployed against Macedonia.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Austro-Hungarians and Germans began their attack on 7 October with their troops crossing the Drina and Sava rivers, covered by heavy artillery fire. Once they crossed the Danube, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians moved on Belgrade itself. Vicious street fighting ensued, and the Serbs' resistance in the city was finally crushed on 9 October.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Then, on 14 October, the Bulgarian Army attacked from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš and from the south towards Skopje (see map). The Bulgarian First Army defeated the Serbian Second Army at the Battle of Morava, while the Bulgarian Second Army defeated the Serbians at the Battle of Ovche Pole. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became untenable; the main army in the north (around Belgrade) could either retreat or be surrounded and forced to surrender. In the Battle of Kosovo, the Serbs made a last and desperate attempt to join the two incomplete Allied divisions that made a limited advance from the south, but were unable to gather enough forces due to the pressure from the north and east. They were halted by the Bulgarians under General Todorov and had to pull back.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Marshal Putnik ordered the Great Retreat, a full retreat south and west through Montenegro and into Albania. The weather was terrible, the roads poor, and the army had to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them with almost no supplies or food left. But the bad weather and poor roads worked for the refugees as well, as the Central Powers forces could not press them hard enough, so they evaded capture. Many of the fleeing soldiers and civilians did not make it to the coast, though – they were lost to hunger, disease, and attacks by enemy forces and Albanian tribal bands, due to the memory of suppressed rebellions and massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The circumstances of the retreat were disastrous. All told, only some 155,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers, reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea and embarked on Allied transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands (many to Corfu) before being sent to Salonika. The evacuation of the Serbian army from Albania was completed on 10 February 1916. The survivors were so weakened that thousands of them died from sheer exhaustion in the weeks after their rescue. Marshal Putnik had to be carried during the whole retreat and he died around fifteen months later in a hospital in France.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The French and British divisions had marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail. The War Office in London was reluctant to advance too deep into Serbia, so the French divisions advanced on their own up the Vardar River. This advance gave some limited help to the retreating Serbian Army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the Battle of Krivolak (October–November 1915). By the end of November, General Sarrail had to retreat in the face of massive Bulgarian assaults on his positions. During his retreat, the British at the Battle of Kosturino were also forced to retreat. By 12 December, all allied forces were back in Greece.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Army of Serbia's ally Montenegro did not follow the Serbs into exile, but retreated to defend their own country. The Austrian-Hungarians launched their Montenegrin campaign on 5 January 1916 and despite some success of The Montenegrins in the Battle of Mojkovac, they were completely defeated within two weeks.


title: Serbian campaign

text: This was a nearly complete victory for the Central Powers at a cost of around 67,000 casualties as compared to around 94,000 Serbs killed or wounded and 174,000 captured, of which 70,000 were wounded. The railroad from Berlin to Istanbul was finally opened. The only flaw in the victory was that much of the Serbian Army had successfully retreated, although it was left very disorganized and required rebuilding.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Serbian army was evacuated to Greece and joined up with the Allied Army of the Orient. They then fought a trench war against the Bulgarians on the Macedonia Front. The Macedonian front in the beginning was mostly static. French and Serbian forces re-took limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916 as a result of the costly Monastir Offensive, which brought stabilization of the front.


title: Serbian campaign

text: French and Serbian troops finally made a breakthrough in the Vardar Offensive in 1918, after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had withdrawn. This breakthrough was significant in defeating Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary, which led to the final victory of World War I. After the Allied breakthrough, Bulgaria capitulated on 29 September 1918. Hindenburg and Ludendorff concluded that the strategic and operational balance had now shifted decidedly against the Central Powers and insisted on an immediate peace settlement during a meeting with government officials a day after the Bulgarian collapse. On 29 September 1918, the German Supreme Army Command informed Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling, that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless .


title: Serbian campaign

text: German Emperor Wilhelm II in his telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I stated: “Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided the war!".


title: Serbian campaign

text: The collapse of the Macedonian front meant that the road to Budapest and Vienna was now opened for the 670,000-strong army of General Franchet d'Esperey as the Bulgarian surrender deprived the Central Powers of the 278 infantry battalions and 1,500 guns (the equivalent of some 25 to 30 German divisions) that were previously holding the line. The German high command responded by sending only seven infantry and one cavalry division, but these forces were far from enough for a front to be re-established. In September, Entente armies spearheaded by Serbian and French troops, broke through the remaining German and Bulgarians defense, forcing Bulgaria to exit the war and liberating Serbia two weeks before the ceasefire.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The ramifications of the war were manifold. When World War I ended, the Treaty of Neuilly awarded Western Thrace to Greece, whereas Serbia received some minor territorial concessions from Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary was broken apart, and Hungary lost much land to both Yugoslavia and Romania in the Treaty of Trianon. Serbia assumed the leading position in the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia, joined by its old ally, Montenegro. Meanwhile, Italy established a quasi-protectorate over Albania and Greece re-occupied Albania's southern part, which was autonomous under a local Greek provisional government (see Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus), despite Albania's neutrality during the war.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Before the war, the Kingdom of Serbia had 4,500,000 inhabitants. According to "The New York Times", 150,000 people are estimated to have died in 1915 alone during the worst typhus epidemic in world history. With the aid of the American Red Cross and 44 foreign governments, the outbreak was brought under control by the end of the year. The number of civilian deaths is estimated by some sources at 650,000, primarily due to the typhus outbreak and famine, but also direct clashes with the occupiers. Serbia's casualties accounted for 8% of the total Allied military deaths. 58% of the regular Serbian Army (420,000 strong) perished during the conflict. According to the Serb sources, the total number of casualties is placed around 1,000,000: 25% of Serbia's prewar size, and an absolute majority (57%) of its overall male population. "L.A. Times" and "N.Y. Times" also cited early Serbian sources which claimed over 1,000,000 victims in their respective articles. Modern western and non-Serb historians put the casualties number either at 45,000 military deaths and 650,000 civilian deaths or 127,355 military deaths and 82,000 civilian deaths.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The extent of the Serbian demographic disaster can be illustrated by the statement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov: "Serbia ceased to exist" ("New York Times", summer 1917). In July 1918 the US Secretary of State Robert Lansing urged the Americans of all religions to pray for Serbia in their respective churches.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Serbian Army suffered a staggering number of casualties. It was largely destroyed near the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war. Of 4.5 million people, there were 275,000 military deaths and 450,000 among the ordinary citizenry. The civilian deaths were attributable mainly to food shortages and the effects of epidemics such as Spanish flu. In addition to the military deaths, there were 133,148 wounded. According to the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 365,164 soldiers, or 26% of all mobilized personnel, while France suffered 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.


title: Serbian campaign

text: The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, was followed by violent anti-Serb demonstrations of angry Croats and Muslims in the city during the evening of 28 June 1914 and for much of the following day. This happened because most Croats and many Muslims considered the archduke the best hope for the establishment of a South Slav political entity within the Habsburg Empire. The crowd directed its anger principally at shops owned by ethnic Serbs and the residences of prominent Serbs. Two ethnic Serbs were killed on 28 June by crowd violence. That night there were anti-Serb demonstrations in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: Serbian campaign

text: Incited by anti-Serbian propaganda with the collusion of the command of the Austro-Hungarian Army, soldiers committed numerous atrocities against the Serbs in both Serbia and Austria-Hungary. According to the German-Swiss criminologist and observer R.A. Reiss, it was a "system of extermination". In addition to executions of prisoners of war, civilian populations were subjected to mass murder and rape. Villages and towns were burned and looted. Fruit trees were cut down and water wells were poisoned in an effort on the Austro-Hungarian part to discourage Serb inhabitants from ever returning.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Cesária Évora (; 27 August 194117 December 2011), more commonly known as Cize, was a Cape Verdean singer-songwriter. She received a Grammy Award in 2004 for her album "Voz d'Amor". Nicknamed the "Barefoot Diva" for performing without shoes, she was known as the "Queen of Morna".


title: Cesária Évora

text: Évora began singing as a young woman in bars in her hometown of Mindelo, and came to international prominence in the 1990s.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Cesária Évora was born on 27 August 1941 in Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde. When she was seven years old her father, Justino da Cruz Évora, who was a part-time musician, died, and at the age of ten she was placed in an orphanage, as her mother Dona Joana could not raise all six children. At the age of 16, she was persuaded by a friend to sing in a sailors' tavern.


title: Cesária Évora

text: She grew up at the house in Mindelo which other singers used from the 1940s to the 1970s, at 35 Rua de Moeda. Other Cape Verdean singers came to the house, including Djô d'Eloy, Bana, Eddy Moreno, Luis Morais and Manuel de Novas (also known as Manuel d'Novas), and it was there she received her musical education.


title: Cesária Évora

text: In the 1960s, she started singing on Portuguese cruise ships stopping at Mindelo and on the local radio. In 1985, at the invitation of Cape Verdean singer Bana, she went to perform in Portugal. In Lisbon she was discovered by the producer José da Silva and invited to record in Paris.


title: Cesária Évora

text: She recorded the track "Ausência", composed by Yugoslav musician Goran Bregovic, which was released as the second track of the soundtrack of the film "Underground" (1995) by Emir Kusturica.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Évora's international success came only in 1988 with the release of her first commercial album "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus", recorded in France. Before that album had been released, she recorded her first LP titled "Cesária" in 1987. This album was later released on CD in 1995 as Audiophile Legends. Her 1992 album "Miss Perfumado" sold over 300,000 copies worldwide. It included one of her most celebrated songs, "Sodade".


title: Cesária Évora

text: In 1994, Bau joined her touring band and two years later, he became her musical director up to September 1999.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Her 1995 album "Cesária" brought her international success and the first Grammy Award nomination. In 1997, she won the KORA All African Music Awards in three categories, including "Best Artist of West Africa", "Best Album" and "Merit of the Jury". In 2003, her album "Voz d'Amor" was awarded a Grammy in the World Music category.


title: Cesária Évora

text: In 2006, Évora met with Alberto Zeppieri, an Italian songwriter, journalist and record producer and agreed to duet with Gianni Morandi, Gigi D'Alessio and Ron. The project, now in its fifth volume, gives visibility and raises funds for the UN World Food Programme, for which Évora was the ambassador from 2003.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Later in 2006, she released her next album "Rogamar". It was a success and charted in six European countries including France, Poland and the Netherlands. On her tour in Australia in 2008, she suffered a stroke. In 2009, she released her final album "Nha Sentimento" which was recorded in Mindelo and Paris by José da Silva. The album reached number 6 in Poland and number 21 in France.


title: Cesária Évora

text: In 2009, she was made a knightess of the French Legion of Honour by the French Minister of Culture and Communications, Christine Albanel, the first Cape Verdean to become one.


title: Cesária Évora

text: She received her last award at the 2010 Kora All African Music Awards, the "Merit of the Jury" award for the second time.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Évora had briefly engaged into acting by performing in two Cape Verdan films, "Black Dju", a comedy directed by Pol Cruchten; and the critically acclaimed drama "Napomuceno's Will", both released in 1997.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Évora dated Eduardo de Jon Xalino when she lived at Rua de Moeda. She was also a relative of the great Bana, who emigrated from Montenegro in the 1880s with his maternal family (siblings Milo, Drago, Milica, who later married Santiago the great craftsman of Salamanca, Petrinja and Brano) after his mother, the great Djetinja, was abused by her late husband Petar Petrovic Njegos.


title: Cesária Évora

text: Her cousin was another singer Hermínia da Cruz Fortes. She was an aunt of António da Rocha Évora and Xavier da Cruz.


title: Cesária Évora

text: In 2010, Évora performed a series of concerts, the last of which was in Lisbon on 8 May. Two days later, after a heart attack, she underwent surgery at a local hospital in Paris. On the morning of 11 May 2010 she was taken off artificial pulmonary ventilation, and on 16 May she was discharged from the intensive-care unit and transported to a clinic for further treatment. In late September 2011, Évora's agent announced that she was ending her career due to poor health.


title: Cesária Évora

text: On 17 December 2011, aged 70, Évora died in São Vicente, Cape Verde, from respiratory failure and hypertension. A Spanish newspaper reported that 36 hours before her death she was still receiving people – and smoking – in her home in Mindelo, popular for always having its doors open.


title: Lamina propria

text: The lamina propria is a thin layer of connective tissue that forms part of the moist linings known as mucous membranes or mucosae, which line various tubes in the body, such as the respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract, and the urogenital tract.


title: Lamina propria

text: The lamina propria is a thin layer of loose (areolar) connective tissue, which lies beneath the epithelium, and together with the epithelium and basement membrane constitutes the mucosa. As its Latin name indicates, it is a characteristic component of the mucosa, or the mucosa's "own special layer." Thus, the term mucosa or mucous membrane refers to the combination of the epithelium and the lamina propria.


title: Lamina propria

text: The connective tissue of the lamina propria is loose and rich in cells. The cells of the lamina propria are variable and can include fibroblasts, lymphocytes, plasma cells, macrophages, eosinophilic leukocytes, and mast cells. It provides support and nutrition to the epithelium, as well as the means to bind to the underlying tissue. Irregularities in the connective tissue surface, such as papillae found in the tongue, increase the area of contact of the lamina propria and the epithelium.


title: Lamina propria

text: The lamina propria is a loose connective tissue, hence it is not as fibrous as the underlying connective tissue of the submucosa. The connective tissue and architecture of the lamina propria is very compressible and elastic, this can be seen in organs that require expansion such as the bladder. The collagen in the lamina propria of elastic organs has been shown to play a major role in mechanical function. In the bladder the collagen composition of its lamina propria allows for structure, tensile strength, and compliance, through complex coiling. It has been suggested that myofibroblasts also reside in the lamina propria of several organs. These cells have characteristics of both smooth muscle and fibroblasts.


title: Lamina propria

text: The lamina propria may also be rich in vascular networks, lymphatic vessels, elastic fibers, and smooth muscle fascicles from the muscularis mucosae. Afferent and efferent nerve endings can be found in the lamina propria as well. Immune cells as well as lymphoid tissue, including lymphoid nodules and capillaries, may be present. Smooth muscle fibers may be in the lamina propria, such as in the intestinal villi. It is practically void of fat cells. Lymphatics penetrate the mucosa and lie below the basement membrane of the epithelium, from there they drain the lamina propria. The fast rate of cell death and regeneration of the epithelium leaves behind many apoptotic cell bodies. These have been found to go into the lamina propria, most of which are inside its macrophages.


title: Lamina propria

text: Because the epithelium is often under external stress and is somewhat delicate, the lamina propria hosts many immune cells. In the intestinal tract the immune system must have tolerance to the normal intestinal flora, yet respond to pathogenic microorganisms. Imbalance of this causes inflammation diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. The lamina propria’s richness in macrophages and lymphoid cells makes it a key place for immune responses to occur. It forms part of the barrier that protects internal tissues from external pathogenic microorganisms, especially from the gastrointestinal tract.


title: Lamina propria

text: Progression of epithelial cancer often relies on deep and regional lymph node invasion. The lamina propria, being one of the barriers to the submucosa, is an area where epithelial cancer invasion is of significance since lymphatic invasion is an independent predictor of lymph node metastasis, especially in gastric cancer. As soon as the tumors breach the basement membrane and reach the lamina propria, they are exposed to lymphatics which may increase the rate of metastasis and cancer progression. Deeper invasion into the submucosa will increase the exposure to lymphatics.


title: Lamina propria

text: Long-standing inflammation is a risk factor for the development of cancer. The lamina propria macrophages when under much stress release pro-inflammatory signals that may lead to increased probability of developing cancer. An example of this is the over activation of the IL-6/STAT3 pathway, which has been linked to colitis-associated cancer.


title: N95 respirator

text: An N95 filtering facepiece respirator, commonly abbreviated N95 respirator, is a particulate-filtering facepiece respirator that meets the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) N95 classification of air filtration, meaning that it filters at least 95% of airborne particles. This standard does not require that the respirator be resistant to oil; another standard, P95, adds that requirement. The N95 type is the most common particulate-filtering facepiece respirator. It is an example of a mechanical filter respirator, which provides protection against particulates but not against gases or vapors. An authentic N95 respirator is marked with the text "NIOSH" or the NIOSH logo, the filter class ("N95"), a "TC" approval number of the form XXX-XXXX, the approval number must be listed on the NIOSH Certified Equipment List (CEL) or the NIOSH Trusted-Source page, and it must have headbands instead of ear loops.


title: N95 respirator

text: The N95 mask filter was invented by Taiwanese-American Peter Tsai and his team, and received its U.S. patent in 1995. N95 respirators are considered similar to other respirators regulated under non-U.S. jurisdictions, but slightly different criteria are used to certify their performance, such as the filter efficiency, test agent and flow rate, and permissible pressure drop. For example, FFP2 respirators of the European Union are required to meet at least 94% filtration, and KN95 respirators of China are expected to meet at least 95% filtration. However, NIOSH found that some products labeled "KN95" failed to meet these standards, some of them filtering out as little as one percent. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada require such KN95 products failing to meet the filtration standards to be re-labeled as "face masks" instead of "respirators", when being sold in the U.S. and Canada.


title: N95 respirator

text: The N95 respirator requires a fine mesh of synthetic polymer fibers, specifically a nonwoven polypropylene fabric. It is produced by melt blowing and forms the inner filtration layer that filters out hazardous particles.


title: N95 respirator

text: Fit testing is a critical component to a respiratory protection program whenever workers use tight-fitting respirators. OSHA (US) requires an initial respirator fit test to identify the right model, style, and size respirator for each worker; as well, as annual fit tests. Additionally, tight-fitting respirators, including the N95, require a user seal check each time one is put on. Facial hair at the sealing area of the respirator will cause it to leak.


title: N95 respirator

text: Respirators require a medical evaluation before use because they can make breathing more difficult. Some conditions that could prevent respirator use include heart conditions, lung disease, and psychological conditions such as claustrophobia. In the United States medical evaluation is required once, prior to initial fit testing and use, although it may need to be repeated if any adverse signs or symptoms are observed. Correct use of the respirator decreases the chances of airborne contamination by viruses.


title: N95 respirator

text: For persons who are medically disqualified from negative-pressure respirators, or who cannot pass a fit test due to facial hair or other reasons, a powered air-purifying respirator is a possible alternative.


title: N95 respirator

text: N95 respirators were originally designed for industrial use in sectors such as mining, construction, and painting. They have also been shown to be effective as protection against engineered nanoparticles.


title: N95 respirator

text: According to the NIOSH Respirator Selection Logic, respirators with filters in the N, R, and P series are recommended for concentrations of hazardous particulates that are greater than the relevant occupational exposure limit but less than the immediately dangerous to life or health level and the manufacturer's maximum use concentration, subject to the respirator having a sufficient assigned protection factor.


title: N95 respirator

text: N series respirators, including the N95 respirator, are only effective in the absence of oil particles, such as lubricants, cutting fluids, or glycerine. For substances hazardous to the eyes, a respirator equipped with a full facepiece, helmet, or hood is recommended. They are not effective during firefighting, in oxygen-deficient atmosphere, or in an unknown atmosphere; in these situations a self-contained breathing apparatus is recommended instead. They are not effective against hazardous gases or vapors, for which a cartridge respirator is recommended.


title: N95 respirator

text: In industrial settings where infectious disease exposure is not a concern, users can wear and reuse a filtering facepiece respirator until it is damaged, soiled, or causing noticeably increased breathing resistance, unless there is a manufacturer-specified duration of use. However, in laboratories at biosafety level 2 and higher, respirators are recommended to be discarded as hazardous waste after a single use.


title: N95 respirator

text: Some industrial N95 series respirators have an exhaust valve to improve comfort, making exhalation easier, reducing leakage on exhalation and steaming-up of glasses. It was previously believed that if the exhalation air from those respirators was not filtered, then an additional well-fitting cloth facemask or other exhalation filter needed to be used with the respirator for source control to prevent the spread of disease, such as COVID-19, when worn by asymptomatic, but possibly infected users. Newer research indicates that source control of valved respirators can be "similar to or better than those provided by surgical masks and unregulated barrier face coverings." According to the CDC, the "study also shows that modifications [such as the use of an electrocardiogram pad or surgical tape secured over the valve from the inside of the FFR] [...] can further reduce particle emissions." The CDC recommends that "In general, individuals wearing NIOSH-approved N95s with an exhalation valve should not be asked to use one without an exhalation valve or to cover it with a face covering or mask."


title: N95 respirator

text: Respirators used in healthcare are traditionally a specific variant called a surgical respirator, which is both approved by NIOSH as a respirator and cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as a medical device similar to a surgical mask. These may also be labeled "Surgical N95", "medical respirators", or "healthcare respirators". The difference lies in the extra fluid-resistant layer outside, typically colored blue. As part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, changes were made to liability and certification laws to allow industrial respirators to be used in healthcare settings, in response to shortages of respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: N95 respirator

text: In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires healthcare workers who are expected to perform patient activities with those suspected or confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 to wear respiratory protection, such as an N95 respirator. The CDC recommends the use of respirators with at least N95 certification to protect the wearer from inhalation of infectious particles including "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), pandemic influenza, and Ebola.


title: N95 respirator

text: Unlike a respirator, a surgical mask is designed to provide barrier protection against droplets and does not have an air-tight seal and thus does not protect its wearer against airborne particles such as virus material to the same extent.


title: N95 respirator

text: During crisis situations where there is a shortage of N95 respirators, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended strategies for optimizing their use in healthcare settings. N95 respirators can be used beyond their manufacturer-designated shelf life, although components such as the straps and nose bridge material may degrade, making it particularly important that the wearer perform the expected seal check. N95 respirators can be reused a limited number of times after being removed, as long as they have not been used during aerosol-generating procedures and are not contaminated with patients' bodily fluids, because this increases the risk of surface contamination with pathogens. The respirator manufacturer may recommend a maximum number of donnings or uses; if no manufacturer guidance is available, preliminary data suggests limiting to five uses per device. Respirators approved under standards used in other countries and are similar to NIOSH-approved N95 respiratorsincluding FFP2 and FFP3 respirators regulated by the European Unioncan be used.


title: N95 respirator

text: According to NIOSH, respirators may still be used in crisis situations if standard respirator fit testing is not available, as a respirator will still provide better protection than a surgical mask or no mask. In this case, best practices for getting a good face seal include trying different models or sizes, using a mirror or asking a colleague to check that the respirator is touching the face, and doing multiple user seal checks.


title: N95 respirator

text: Given that the global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is insufficient during the pandemic, as of 2 February 2020, the World Health Organization recommends minimizing the need for PPE through telemedicine; physical barriers such as clear windows; allowing only those involved in direct care to enter a room with a COVID-19 patient; using only the PPE necessary for the specific task; continuing use of the same respirator without removing it while caring for multiple patients with the same diagnosis; monitoring and coordinating the PPE supply chain; and discouraging the use of masks for asymptomatic individuals. It should be stressed that for advice updates up until 3 July 2020, the CDC and WHO recommend individuals wear non-medical face coverings in public settings where there is an increased risk of transmission and where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Many countries and local jurisdictions encourage or mandate the use of face masks or cloth face coverings by members of the public to limit the spread of the virus.


title: N95 respirator

text: When it is no longer possible for all healthcare workers to wear N95 respirators when caring for a COVID-19 patient, CDC recommends that respirators be prioritized for workers performing aerosol-generating procedures on symptomatic persons, and those within three feet of an unmasked symptomatic person. Under these conditions, masking of symptomatic patients with a surgical mask and maintaining distance from the patient are particularly important to reduce the risk of transmission. When no respirators are left, workers who are at higher risk for severe illness may be excluded from caring for patients, and workers who have clinically recovered from COVID-19 may be preferred to care for patients. Portable fans with HEPA filters may also be used to increase ventilation in isolation rooms when surgical masks are being used in place of respirators. A high-quality HEPA filter can trap 99.97% of dust particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter. If neither respirators nor surgical masks are available, as a last resort, it may be necessary for healthcare workers to use masks that have never been evaluated or approved by NIOSH or homemade masks, such as cloth face masks, although caution should be exercised when considering this option.


title: N95 respirator

text: Disposable filtering facepiece respirators such as N95 respirators are not approved for routine decontamination and reuse as standard of care. However, their decontamination and reuse may need to be considered as a crisis capacity strategy to ensure continued availability.


title: N95 respirator

text: There have been efforts to evaluate cleaning methods for respirators in emergency shortages, although there is concern that this may reduce filter performance, or affect mask fit by deforming the mask. Duke University researchers have published a method for cleaning N95 respirators without damaging them using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to allow reuse for a limited number of times. Battelle received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its technology used to sterilize N95 respirators.


title: N95 respirator

text: OSHA does not currently have any standards for disinfecting N95 respirators. NIOSH recommends that during shortages N95 respirators may be used up to five times without cleaning them, as long as aerosol-generating procedures are not performed, and respirators are not contaminated with patients' bodily fluids. Contamination can be reduced by wearing a cleanable face shield over an N95 respirator, as well as using clean gloves when donning and seal-checking a used N95 respirator and discarding the gloves immediately after. According to CDC, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, vaporous hydrogen peroxide and moist heat showed the most promise as potential methods to decontaminate N95 respirators and other filtering facepiece respirators.


title: N95 respirator

text: A surgical mask is a loose-fitting, disposable device that creates a physical barrier between the mouth and nose of the wearer and potential contaminants in the immediate environment. If worn properly, a surgical mask is meant to help block large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays, or splatter that may contain viruses and bacteria. Surgical masks may also help reduce exposure of the wearer's saliva and respiratory secretions to others.


title: N95 respirator

text: A surgical mask, by design, does not filter or block very small particles in the air that may be transmitted by coughs, sneezes, or certain medical procedures. Surgical masks also do not provide complete protection from germs and other contaminants because of the loose fit between the surface of the face mask and the face. Collection efficiency of surgical mask filters can range from less than 10% to nearly 90% for different manufacturers’ masks when measured using the test parameters for NIOSH certification. However, a study found that even for surgical masks with "good" filters, 80–100% of subjects failed an OSHA-accepted qualitative fit test, and a quantitative test showed 12–25% leakage.


title: N95 respirator

text: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends surgical masks (over no mask) in procedures where there can be an aerosol generation from the wearer, if small aerosols can produce a disease to the patient.


title: N95 respirator

text: N95 respirators have several historical predecessors. In the late 19th century, Miles Philips began using a "mundebinde" ("mouth bandage") of sterilized cloth which he refined by adapting a chloroform mask with two layers of cotton mull. Paul Berger, a Paris surgeon, likewise investigated the protective effect of masks during surgery. Another mask design was a cloth facemask by Lien-teh Wu, who was working for the Chinese Imperial Court in the autumn of 1910 during the Manchurian plague outbreak. It inspired masks used during the 1918 flu pandemic. Another predecessor was gas masks developed during World War I, which were adapted for use by miners. They were reusable but bulky and uncomfortable due to their fiberglass filters and heavy rubber construction.


title: N95 respirator

text: Mass production of filtering facepieces was started in 1956 in the Soviet Union (the first mass-produced model was called meaning "petal" in Russian). The air was purified with nonwoven filtering material consisting of polymeric fibres carrying a strong electrostatic charge. Respirator was used in nuclear industry (as single-used PPE), and then in other branches of economy. In about 60 years, more than 6 billion respirators were manufactured. Unfortunately, the developers overestimated the efficiency (APF 200–1000), which led to serious errors in the choice of personal protective equipment by employers.


title: N95 respirator

text: In the 1970s, the US Bureau of Mines and NIOSH developed standards for single-use respirators, and the first single-use N95 "dust" respirator was developed by 3M and approved in 1972. 3M used a melt blowing process that it had developed decades prior and used in products such as ready-made ribbon bows and bra cups; its use in a wide array of products had been pioneered by designer Sara Little Turnbull.


title: N95 respirator

text: Originally designed for industrial use, N95 respirators became a healthcare standard subsequent to virus-blocking technology invented by University of Tennessee professor Peter Tsai, and patented in 1995. The novel material consists of both positive and negative charges, which are able to attract particles (such as dust, bacteria and viruses) and trap at least 95% of them by polarization before the particles can pass through the mask. The anti-viral technology was first developed to prevent the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai ended his retirement to help alleviate shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic by researching N95 mask decontamination.


title: N95 respirator

text: Many American companies stopped producing N95 respirators in the 2000s due to litigation costs and foreign competition.


title: N95 respirator

text: On January 24, 2020, Taiwan announced that it was imposing a temporary ban on the export of masks. The respirators came to be in short supply and high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing price gouging and hoarding, often leading to confiscation of masks. Production of N95 respirators was limited due to constraints on the supply of nonwoven polypropylene fabric (which is used as the primary filter) as well as the cessation of exports from China.


title: N95 respirator

text: In Canada, AMD Medicom began making masks in 1997 through an agreement with United Medical Enterprises in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Medicom added factories in Shanghai in 2002, Yilan Taiwan in 2010 and France in 2011. As the pandemic escalated, China, France and Taiwan either prohibited the export of masks, or requisitioned Medicom's output for local use. The federal government of Canada came to an agreement with Medicom to buy millions of masks over the next ten years, leading to Medicom announcing plans to open a new factory; in Montreal. Novo Textiles in British Columbia quickly acquired a surgical mask making machine, and announced plans to acquire an N95 making machine as well.


title: N95 respirator

text: In March 2020, US President Donald Trump applied the Defense Production Act (DPA) against the American company 3M that allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain as many N95 respirators as it needs from 3M.


title: N95 respirator

text: Also in early April 2020, the United States federal government, invoking the DPA, ordered 3M to stop exporting N95 respirators to customers in Canada and Latin America, and to keep them within the U.S. instead. However, 3M refused, citing humanitarian implications, and the possibility of backfire: "Ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done. If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek."


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Metairie ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and is part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. With a population of 143,507 in 2020, Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish and was (as of 2010) the fifth-largest CDP in the United States. It is an unincorporated area that (as of 2020) would have been Louisiana's fourth-largest city behind Shreveport if incorporated.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: "Métairie" () is the French term for a small tenant farm which paid the landlord with a share of the produce, a practice also known as sharecropping (in French, "métayage"). In the 1760s many of the original French farmers were tenants; after the Civil War, the majority of the community's inhabitants were sharecroppers until urbanization started in the 1910s.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: In the 1720s French settlers became the first Europeans to settle Metairie in the area known then as Tchoupitoulas and now as Metairie Ridge, a natural levee formed by an ancient branch of the Mississippi River, Bayou Metairie, which flowed through modern-day River Ridge, Metairie, Gentilly, and New Orleans East. It emptied into Mississippi Sound. The Acolapissa Native Americans used this ridge as a road; it is the oldest road in the New Orleans area. Paved in the 1920s, it is called Metairie Road. An electric streetcar was installed running along Metairie Road in the late 1910s, opening the area to greater development. Upscale housing tracts were constructed off the road in the 1920s; this area is now known as "Old Metairie". The areas to the north and northwest of Metairie Road were not developed until after World War II. The land between Metairie Ridge and Lake Pontchartrain, which was cypress swamps and marshlands, was drained with the Wood Pump. With development of this new land for residences, Metairie's population grew in the 1940s as a result of cheaper land, lower taxes, and larger lots as compared to Orleans Parish.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, with winds of , directly hit Metairie. Much of the community was under of water.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Hurricane Betsy, a Category Three storm, hit the area in 1965, causing extensive wind damage and moderate flooding. In 1995 the May 8th 1995 Louisiana flood, which dumped upwards of of rain into Metairie in a twelve-hour period, also flooded some parts of the region, especially areas south and west of Metairie, including Kenner, Harahan, and River Ridge.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: In 1989, a Metairie district elected white supremacist David Duke to the Louisiana state legislature for a single term.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused a new migration from Orleans Parish, because housing was needed to replace what had been destroyed in the flooding of the city. It has been a racially neutral migration, with equal numbers of black and white residents moving to Jefferson Parish. The 2010 census showed that Metairie has increasingly become more diverse.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Veterans Boulevard was laid out alongside a drainage canal, and became a commercial center of the region. The central business district of Metairie is located on Causeway Boulevard near Lake Pontchartrain. Metairie also has one of the handful of major malls located in the New Orleans metro area. Lakeside Shopping Center is the highest-grossing mall in the New Orleans metropolitan area. In the 1970s and early 1980s, an area of bars and nightclubs opened in a section of Metairie known as "Fat City", which is now the most racially diverse area in the New Orleans metropolitan area and is home to a vibrant restaurant scene. Several New Orleans radio and television stations have transmitter facilities in Metairie and Jefferson Parish; two of them, WGNO-TV and WNOL, now have studios and main offices in Metairie. Metairie has a large Mardi Gras season that touts itself as more family-friendly than the New Orleans Mardi Gras.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Metairie is located in eastern Jefferson Parish and is bordered by New Orleans to the east, Kenner to the west, Lake Pontchartrain to the north, and the Illinois Central Railroad tracks to the south. South of the railroad are River Ridge, Harahan, Elmwood, and Jefferson. The 17th Street Canal forms the border between Metairie and New Orleans to the east. It is a principal community in Greater New Orleans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Metairie CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.18%, is water.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: The climate of Metairie has been classified as humid subtropical. Like the city of New Orleans, it has short, generally mild winters and hot, humid summers. The average precipitation is annually; the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest month. Precipitation in winter usually accompanies the passing of a cold front. On average, there are 77 days of or greater highs, 8.1 days per winter where the high does not exceed , and 8.0 nights with freezing lows annually. It is rare for the temperature to reach , with the last occurrence of each being February 5, 1996, and June 26, 2016, respectively.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: According to the 2019 American Community Survey, there were 130,427 people living in the census-designated place. At the 2010 United States census, there were 138,481 people living in Metairie. The 2020 census reported 143,507 people living in the CDP. As of 2019, population density was 5,607.7 people per square mile, with a median age of 40.6.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: At the 2019 American Community Survey, the racial and ethnic makeup was 69% non-Hispanic white, 10% Black and African American, 4% Asian, 1% multiracial, and 16% Hispanic and Latino American. According to 2017 census estimates, the racial makeup of Metairie was 67.5% White, 16.2% Hispanic or Latino American of any race, 9.9% Black and African American, 3.9% Asian, 0.7% from other races, 0.9% from two or more races, and 0.1% Native American. By the time of the 2020 census, its racial and ethnic makeup was 62.89% non-Hispanic white, 10.98% Black or African American, 0.49% Native American, 3.73% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 18.20% two or more races, and 18.42% Hispanic or Latino American of any race.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Among the population of Metairie, 52% were female in 2019. There were 56,421 households with an average of 2.63 persons per household. An estimated 52% of households were married couples living together, 23% non-family, 18% female householder with no male present, and 7% male householder with no female present. Approximately 61,354 housing units were in the community, and 92% were occupied; 59% of housing units were owner-occupied, and 64% of housing units were single unit structures. The median value of owner-occupied housing units was $246,600, and the median household income was $60,404. Residents had a per capita income of $35,007 at the 2019 American Community Survey.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: In Metairie, 54.1% of residents identified with some religion as of 2019. Due to Spanish and French colonial influence, Metairie and the surrounding area have an overwhelmingly Catholic populace. Approximately 34.6% identify with the Catholic Church, served by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans; 5.9% were Baptist, 3.1% Pentecostal, 1.4% Methodist, 0.6% Lutheran, 0.6% Latter-Day Saints, 0.5% Anglican, and 0.5% from another Christian group including the Metropolitan Community Church among others.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Approximately 0.7% were Muslims and 0.4% identified with an Eastern religion such as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Sikhism; 0.6% of the community claimed affiliation with Judaism. Metairie is home to Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform synagogue, and beside it is Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans metro area. Beth Israel constructed its new building in Metairie in 2012, several years after its building in Lakeview, New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Jefferson Parish Library operates public libraries. The East Bank Regional Library, which houses the library system's headquarters, is in Metairie. Other public libraries in Metairie include the Lakeshore Library, the Old Metairie Library, and the Wagner Library.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Metairie was home to the New Orleans Baby Cakes Triple-A Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League from 1993 to 2019. The minor league club played its home games at Privateer Park, home to the University of New Orleans's NCAA baseball team, from 1992 through 1996, and at Shrine on Airline from 1997 to 2019.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: The training facilities of NFL franchise New Orleans Saints and the NBA franchise New Orleans Pelicans are located in Metairie. As such, many players reside in the area.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Beginning in 2020, the New Orleans Gold of Major League Rugby will play their homes games in Metairie at the Gold Mine on Airline.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Jefferson Parish has created many parks in Metairie. Many of these playgrounds have organized sports leagues such as football, baseball, and basketball. Some of them also have other programs, such as low-cost piano lessons. The parks in Metairie are:


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Metairie's public schools are operated by the Jefferson Parish Public School System.There are two zoned public high schools in Metairie:


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Additionally, some residents are zoned to Alfred Bonnabel High School in Kenner, and some are zoned to Riverdale High School in Jefferson.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: The most common method of transportation within Metairie is the automobile. Mass transit is provided by "JeT" (Jefferson Transit), but it does not run on Sundays, holidays, or late at night, unlike many lines of New Orleans' RTA. JeT's coverage is also very limited in terms of usability.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Major east–west roads (starting from north to south) include West Esplanade Avenue, Veterans Memorial Boulevard, West Napoleon Avenue, West Metairie Avenue, Metairie Road, Airline Drive (which is part of U.S. Route 61) and Jefferson Highway (which is part of U.S. Route 90). The Earhart Expressway, running east–west immediately south of Airline Drive, is the only other freeway entering New Orleans from the west, but it ends as an expressway soon after crossing into Orleans Parish and well before the New Orleans CBD (in Central City.)


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: For many of the major east–west roadways, the eastbound and westbound lanes are separated by large, open-topped drainage canals. These canals are one of the most distinct characteristics of the Metairie landscape. Similar canals once bisected many streets in neighboring New Orleans, but most were covered over in the mid-20th century.


title: Metairie, Louisiana

text: Multi-line, continuous north–south roads (starting from west to east) include Power Boulevard/David Drive/Hickory Avenue, Transcontinental Drive, Clearview Parkway, Causeway Boulevard, and Bonnabel Boulevard.


title: House finch

text: The house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) is a bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is native to western North America and has been introduced to the eastern half of the continent and Hawaii. This species and the other two American rosefinches are placed in the genus "Haemorhous".


title: House finch

text: This is a moderate-sized finch. Adult birds are long, with a wingspan of . Body mass can vary from , with an average weight of . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the culmen is and the tarsus is .


title: House finch

text: Adults have a long, square-tipped brown tail and are a brown or dull-brown color across the back with some shading into deep gray on the wing feathers. Breast and belly feathers may be streaked; the flanks usually are. In most cases, adult males' heads, necks and shoulders are reddish. This color sometimes extends to the belly and down the back, between the wings. Male coloration varies in intensity with the seasons and is derived from the berries and fruits in its diet. As a result, the colors range from pale straw-yellow through bright orange (both rare) to deep, intense red. Adult females have brown upperparts and streaked underparts.


title: House finch

text: This bird belongs to the genus "Haemorhous", together with the purple finch and Cassin's finch. These three species are not closely related to the similar Old World "Carpodacus" rosefinches, although they were formerly included in that genus.


title: House finch

text: These birds are mainly permanent residents throughout their range; some northern and eastern birds migrate south. Their breeding habitat is urban and suburban areas across North America, as well as various semi-open areas in the west from southern Canada to the Mexican state of Oaxaca; the population in central Chiapas may be descended from escaped cagebirds. Analyses of nest records from House Finches in California spanning more than a century found that egg‐laying occurred significantly earlier in warmer springs.


title: House finch

text: Originally only a resident of Mexico and the southwestern United States, they were introduced to eastern North America in the 1940s. The birds were sold illegally in New York City as "Hollywood Finches", a marketing artifice. To avoid prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, vendors and owners released the birds. They have since become naturalized; in largely unforested land across the eastern U.S. they have displaced the native purple finch and even the non-native house sparrow. In 1870 or before, they were introduced to Hawaii and are now abundant on all its major islands.


title: House finch

text: Instances of naturalization originating in escapes or releases of cage birds have been recorded in Europe, such as in 2020 in Murcia, (Spain).


title: House finch

text: House finches forage on the ground or in vegetation normally. They primarily eat grains, seeds and berries, being voracious consumers of weed seeds such as nettle and dandelion; included are incidental small insects such as aphids. They are frequent visitors to bird feeders throughout the year, particularly if stocked with sunflower or nyjer seed, and will congregate at hanging nyjer sock feeders. The house finch is known to damage orchard fruit and consume commercially grown grain, but is generally considered an annoyance rather than a significant pest.


title: House finch

text: Nests are made in cavities, including openings in buildings, hanging plants, and other cup-shaped outdoor decorations. Sometimes nests abandoned by other birds are used. Nests may be re-used for subsequent broods or in following years. The nest is built by the female, sometimes in as little as two days. It is well made of twigs and debris, forming a cup shape, usually above the ground.


title: House finch

text: During courtship, the male will touch bills with the female. He may then present the female with choice bits of food, and if she mimics the behavior of a hungry chick, he may actually feed her. The male also feeds the female during breeding and incubation of the eggs, and raising of the young, and the male is the primary feeder of the fledgelings (who can be differentiated from the females by the pin feathers remaining on their heads). Females are typically attracted to the males with the deepest pigment of red to their head, more so than the occasional orange or yellowish-headed males that sometimes occur.


title: House finch

text: The female lays clutches of eggs from February through August, two or more broods per year with 2 to 6 eggs per brood, most commonly 4 or 5. The egg laying usually takes place in the morning, at the rate of one egg per day. The eggs are a pale bluish green with few black spots and a smooth, somewhat glossy surface. In response to mite infestation, which has a more deleterious effect on male chicks than on females, the mother finch may lay eggs containing females first, in order to reduce the length of time male chicks are exposed to mites. This strategy increases the likelihood that representative numbers of both sexes will survive. The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days. Shortly after hatching, she removes the empty eggshells from the nest. The hatchlings are pink with closed eyes and tufts of fluffy down. The female always feeds the young, and the male usually joins in. The young are silent for the first seven or eight days, and subsequently start peeping during feedings. Initially, the mother carries fecal sacs out of the nest, but when the young become older, she no longer carries them all away, allowing droppings to accumulate around the edge of the nest. Before flying, the young often climb into adjacent plants, and usually fledge at about 11 to 19 days after hatching. Dandelion seeds are among the preferred seeds fed to the young. Contrary to the way most birds, even ones with herbivorous leanings as adults, tend to feed their nestlings animal matter in order to give them the protein necessary to grow, house finches are one of the few birds who feed their young only plant matter.


title: House finch

text: The house finch may be infected by a number of parasites including "Plasmodium relictum" and "Mycoplasma gallisepticum", which caused the population of house finches in eastern North America to crash during the 1990s.


title: House finch

text: The mite "Pellonyssus reedi" is often found on house finch nestlings, particularly for nests later in the season.


title: House finch

text: The brown-headed cowbird, a brood parasite, will lay its eggs in house finch nests, although the diet house finches feed their young is inadequate for the young cowbirds, which rarely survive.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was the third son of the Longqing Emperor. His reign of 48 years (1572–1620) was the longest among all the Ming dynasty emperors and it witnessed several successes in his early and middle reign, followed by the decline of the dynasty as the emperor withdrew from his active role in government around 1600.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: Zhu Yijun ascended the throne at the age of eight and adopted the regnal name "Wanli", thus he is historically known as the Wanli Emperor. For the first ten years of his reign, he was aided by a notable statesman, Zhang Juzheng, who governed the country as Wanli's regent. During this period, the Wanli Emperor deeply respected Zhang as a mentor and a valued minister. Archery competitions, equestrianism and calligraphy were some of the pastimes of Wanli. Shortly after Wanli's ascension, a new star appeared in the sky, and Zhang warned him to consider his misbehaviour, as was tradition with the appearance of new stars in the sky, which was considered to be a bad omen. It is generally agreed that this 'new star' was SN 1572, a supernova observed independently by many individuals across the globe.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: As Zhang Juzheng was appointed Senior Grand Secretary ("Shǒufǔ") in 1572, he launched a reform by the name of "abiding by ancestors' rules". He started from rectifying administration with a series of measures such as reducing redundant personnel and enhancing assessment of officials' performance. This improved officials' quality and efficiency of administration, and based on such facts he launched relevant reforms in the fields of land, finance, and military affairs. In essence, Zhang Juzheng's reform was a rectification of social maladies without offending the established political and fiscal system of the Ming dynasty. Although it did not eradicate political corruption and land annexation, it positively relieved social contradictions. More over, Zhang efficiently protected the dynasty from Japan не, Jurchens and Mongols so he could save national defense expenditure. By the 1580s, Zhang stored an astronomical amount of silver, worth 10 years of the state's total tax revenue. The first ten years of Wanli's regime led to a renaissance, economically, culturally and militarily, an era known in historiography as the Wanli Restoration (萬曆中興).


title: Wanli Emperor

text: During the first ten years of the Wanli era, the Ming dynasty's economy and military power prospered in a way not seen since the Yongle Emperor and the Reign of Ren and Xuan from 1402 to 1435. After Zhang's death, the Wanli Emperor felt free to act independently, and reversed many of Zhang's administrative improvements. In 1584, the Wanli Emperor issued an edict confiscating all of Zhang's personal wealth and purging his family members. Especially after 1586 when he had conflicts with ministers about his heir, Wanli decided to not hold the council for 20 years. The Ming dynasty's decline began in the interim.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: After Zhang Juzheng's death, the Wanli Emperor decided to take complete personal control of the government. During this early part of his reign, he showed himself to be a competent and diligent emperor. Overall, the economy continued to prosper and the empire remained powerful. Unlike the last 20 years of his reign, the Wanli Emperor at this time would attend court and discuss affairs of state.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: After the last of these three wars were concluded, the Wanli Emperor withdrew from active participation in court, a practice which he continued throughout the rest of his reign.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: During the later years of the Wanli Emperor's reign, he became thoroughly alienated from his imperial role and, in effect, went on strike. He refused to attend morning meetings, see his ministers or act upon memoranda. He also refused to make necessary personnel appointments, and as a result the whole top echelon of the Ming administration became understaffed. He did, however, pay close attention to the construction of his own tomb, a magnificent structure that took decades to complete.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: There are several reasons why the Wanli Emperor deliberately neglected his duties as emperor. One was that he became disenchanted with the moralistic attacks and counterattacks of officials, rooted in an abstract Confucian orthodoxy. A more important reason, though, was a dispute about the imperial succession. The emperor's favorite consort was Noble Consort Zheng, and throughout the 1580s and 1590s, the emperor very much wanted to promote his son by her (Zhu Changxun) as crown prince, even though he was only the emperor's third son and not favored for the succession. Many of his powerful ministers were opposed, and this led to a clash between sovereign and ministers that lasted more than 15 years. In October 1601, the Wanli Emperor finally gave in and promoted Zhu Changluo – the future Taichang Emperor – as crown prince. Although the ministers seem to have triumphed, the Wanli Emperor adopted a policy of passive resistance, refusing to play his part in allowing the government to function adequately, leading to serious problems both within China itself and on the borders. Additionally, the emperor continued to express his objection to the choice of Zhu Changluo as heir apparent, even delaying the burial of Crown Princess Guo by two years, before allowing her to be buried appropriately for the wife of the crown prince.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: The area known as Manchuria in northeastern China was gradually conquered by the Jurchen chieftain Nurhaci. Nurhaci would go on to create the Later Jin (the precursor of the Qing dynasty), which would now become an immediate threat to the Ming dynasty. By this time, after 20 years of imperial dysfunction, the Ming army was in decline. The Jurchens were fewer in number, but they were able to upset the Ming. For instance, in the Battle of Sarhū in 1619, the Ming government sent out an army of 200,000 against the Later Jin army of 60,000, with Nurhaci controlling six banners and 45,000 troops as the central attack, while Daišan and Hong Taiji each controlled 7,500 troops and one banner and attacked from the sides. After five days of battle, the Ming army suffered casualties of over 100,000, with 70% of their food supply stolen.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: When the Oirats transmitted some descriptions of China to the Russians in 1614, the name "Taibykankan" was used to refer to the Wanli Emperor by the Oirats.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: In 1615, the Ming imperial court was hit by yet another scandal. A man named Zhang Chai (張差), armed with only a wooden staff, managed to chase away the eunuchs guarding the gates and broke into Ciqing Palace (慈慶宮), then the crown prince's living quarters. Zhang Chai was eventually subdued and thrown into prison. Initial investigation found him to be a lunatic, but upon further investigation by a magistrate named Wang Zhicai (王之寀), Zhang Chai confessed to being party to a plot instigated by two eunuchs working under Noble Consort Zheng. According to Zhang Chai's confession, the two had promised him rewards for assaulting the Crown Prince, thus implicating the Emperor's favorite concubine in an assassination plot. Presented with the incriminating evidence and the gravity of the accusations, the Wanli Emperor, in an attempt to spare Noble Consort Zheng, personally presided over the case. He laid the full blame on the two implicated eunuchs who were executed along with the would-be assassin. Although the case was quickly hushed up, it did not quash public discussion and eventually became known as the "Case of the Wooden Staff Assault" (梃擊案), one of three notorious 'mysteries' of the late Ming dynasty.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: Some scholars believe that the Wanli Emperor's reign was a significant factor contributing to the decline of the Ming dynasty. He refused to play the emperor's role in government, and delegated many responsibilities to eunuchs, who made up their own faction. The official administration was so dissatisfied that a group of scholars and political activists loyal to the thoughts of Zhu Xi and against those of Wang Yangming created the Donglin movement, a political group who believed in upright morals and tried to influence the government according to strict Neo-Confucian principles.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: His reign also experienced heavy fiscal and military pressures, especially during the final years of the Wanli era when the Jurchens began to conduct raids on the northern border of the Ming Empire. Their depredations ultimately led to the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The fall of the Ming dynasty was not a result of the last Ming emperor's Chongzhen Emperor's rule, but instead due to the lingering consequences of the Wanli Emperor's gross neglect of his duties as emperor.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: The Wanli Emperor died in 1620 and was buried in the Dingling Mausoleum among the Ming tombs on the outskirts of Beijing. His tomb is one of the biggest in the vicinity and one of only two that are open to the public. The tomb was excavated in 1956, and remains the only imperial tomb that had been excavated since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards stormed the Dingling Mausoleum, and dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and his two empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously denounced and burned after photographs were taken of their skulls. Thousands of other artifacts were also destroyed.


title: Wanli Emperor

text: In 1997, China's Ministry of Public Security published a book on the history of drug abuse. It alleged that the Wanli Emperor's remains had been examined in 1958 and found to contain morphine residues at levels which indicate that he had been a heavy and habitual user of opium.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver (c. 1957 – 2 June 2012) was a former "performing" ape once promoted as a missing link or "humanzee" due to his somewhat human-like appearance and a tendency to walk upright. Despite his somewhat unusual appearance and behavior, scientists found that Oliver was not a human-chimpanzee hybrid.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver was acquired as a young animal in 1970 by trainers Frank and Janet Berger. Supposedly, the chimpanzee had been caught in the Congo. Some physical and behavioral evidence led the Bergers to believe Oliver was a creature other than a chimpanzee, perhaps a human-chimpanzee hybrid. Oliver possessed a flatter face than his fellow chimpanzees; was in the habit of walking bipedally, rather than on his knuckles much more often than his chimpanzee peers (until he was later struck with arthritis); and may have preferred human females over chimpanzee females. In a December 16, 2006 Discovery Channel special, Janet Berger stated that Oliver started to become attracted to her when he reached the age of 16. She and her husband Frank Berger decided to sell Oliver to New York attorney Michael Miller.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: In 1977, Oliver's owner, Michael Miller, gave Oliver to Ralph Helfer, partner in a small theme park called Enchanted Village in Buena Park, California, built on the site of the defunct Japanese Village and Deer Park attraction. When Enchanted Village closed later that year, Helfer continued exhibiting Oliver in a new venture, Gentle Jungle, which changed locations a few times before finally closing in 1982. The "Los Angeles Times" did an extensive article about Oliver as a possible missing link or a new subspecies of chimpanzee. Oliver was transferred to the Wild Animal Training Center in Riverside, California, owned by Ken Decroo, but he was reportedly sold by Decroo in 1985. The last trainer to own Oliver was Bill Rivers. Rivers reported problems with Oliver not getting along with other chimpanzees.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver was purchased in 1989 by the Buckshire Corporation, a Pennsylvania laboratory leasing out animals for scientific and cosmetic testing. His intake examination revealed some previous rough handling. He was never used in experiments, but for the next nine years, his home was a small cage, whose restricted size resulted in muscular atrophy to the point that Oliver's limbs trembled. In 1996, Sharon Hursh, president of the Buckshire Corporation, after being petitioned by animal sanctuary Primarily Primates, allowed his retirement to Buckshire's colony of 13 chimpanzees.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: In 1998, Oliver was transferred to Primarily Primates, which was founded by Wallace Swett in 1978. Older, partially sighted and arthritic, Oliver ended up at a spacious, open-air cage at Primarily Primates in Bexar County, Texas.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: In 2006, Oliver was placed in the temporary care of wildlife rehabilitator Lee Theisen-Watt, who had been court-appointed to oversee Primarily Primates while the state of Texas determined who would ultimately be in charge of the facility.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: On April 27, 2007, the state of Texas entered into a settlement agreement which removed Lee Theisen-Watt as overseer of Primarily Primates and replaced her with a board of directors that was headed by Eric Turton and Priscilla Feral. The settlement also dismissed all charges against Primarily Primates. Wally Swett was required to leave the property and was prohibited from serving either on the board or as an employee in the future.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver remained in the care of Primarily Primates while the facility went through major renovations. Members of the re-formed board of directors expressed concern for Oliver in court proceedings and in news articles about the ongoing dispute over management of the sanctuary. Ethan Calamusa of the "Star-Telegram" reported that Friends of Animals was merging with Primarily Primates in order to restructure its management and address past concerns about the future of the sanctuary. Oliver lived out the remainder of his life in the care of the restructured Primarily Primates sanctuary.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver spent his last years with another chimpanzee, a female known as Raisin. She was placed with Oliver for companionship since Oliver's advanced age and years in the research lab left him arthritic, mostly blind, and unable to interact daily with younger, more playful chimpanzees at the sanctuary.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: News of Oliver as well as photos were often posted online by his caregivers, owing to public interest. He took part in regular enrichment activities including a watermelon smashing party documented in the Friends of Animals online newsletter, and even the chance to paint. Although elderly, Oliver had access to the outdoors and lived the rest of his life in quiet retirement.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: Oliver died in his sleep and was found on June 2, 2012, with Raisin next to him; he was at least 55 years old. Stephen René Tello, executive director of Primarily Primates, said that Oliver would be cremated and his ashes would be spread on the grounds of the sanctuary of the primates.


title: Oliver (chimpanzee)

text: In 1996, while Oliver was still housed by the Buckshire Corporation, a geneticist from the University of Chicago tested portions of his DNA, and revealed that he had the 48 chromosomes of a normal chimpanzee, disproving an earlier claim that he had 47 (chimpanzees normally have 48 and humans normally have 46). In a separate study, Oliver's cranial morphology, ear shape, freckles, and baldness were found to fall within the range of variability exhibited by the common chimpanzee. Further genetic testing, published in the "American Journal of Physical Anthropology", found that Oliver's mitochondrial DNA closely matched that of the central chimpanzee subspecies, which lives in the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and other areas of Central Africa.


title: Sam the Sham

text: Domingo "Sam" Samudio (born February 28, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, United States), better known by his stage name Sam the Sham, is a retired American rock and roll singer. Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains. As the front man for the Pharaohs, he sang on several Top 40 hits in the mid-1960s, including the "Billboard" Hot 100 runners-up "Wooly Bully" and "Li'l Red Riding Hood".


title: Sam the Sham

text: Samudio made his singing debut in second grade, representing his school in a radio broadcast. Later, he took up guitar and formed a group with friends, one of whom was Trini Lopez. After graduating from high school, Samudio joined the Navy, where he was known as "Big Sam." He lived in Panama for six years, until his discharge.


title: Sam the Sham

text: Back in the States, Samudio enrolled in college, studying voice at Arlington State College, now the University of Texas at Arlington. He recalled: "I was studying classical in the daytime and playing rock and roll at night. That lasted about two years, before I dropped out and became a carny."


title: Sam the Sham

text: In late 1966, three women, Fran Curcio, Lorraine Gennaro, and Jane Anderson, joined as The Shamettes. The group traveled to Asia as Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs and The Shamettes and released the album titled "The Sam the Sham Revue" (originally to be titled "Nefertiti" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, which is printed on the inside record labels). Sam also released a solo album in late 1967, titled "Ten of Pentacles". In 1970, Sam went off on his own, and in 1971, issued an Atlantic album called "Sam, Hard and Heavy", which won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1972. The album featured Duane Allman on guitar, the Dixie Flyers, and the Memphis Horns. He formed a new band in 1974. In the late 1970s, he worked with baritone saxophonist Joe Sunseri and his band, based in New Orleans. The early 1980s found Sam working with Ry Cooder and Freddy Fender on the soundtrack for the Jack Nicholson film "The Border".


title: Sam the Sham

text: After leaving the music business, Sam worked in Mexico as an interpreter and as a mate on small commercial boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Sam later became a motivational speaker and still makes occasional concert appearances. He was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016.


title: Sam the Sham

text: Sam married Louise Smith on August 28, 1959, in Dallas, Texas. They had one son named Dimitrius Samudio, born on May 28, 1963, in Dallas. They divorced on May 16, 1968, in Dallas.


title: Sam the Sham

text: Most sources refer to Samudio's ancestry as Mexican-American. However, a 1998 article by the "Chicago Tribune" described Samudio as being of Basque/Apache descent. In a 2007 conversation with music writer Joe Nick Patoski, Samudio described his grandparents fleeing the Mexican Revolution and settling in Texas where his family supported themselves working in the cotton fields.


title: Sam the Sham

text: In Dallas in 1961, Sam formed The Pharaohs, the name inspired from the costumes in Yul Brynner's portrayal as pharaoh in the 1956 film "The Ten Commandments". The other members of The Pharaohs were Carl Miedke, Russell Fowler, Omar "Big Man” Lopez, and Vincent Lopez (no relation to Omar). In 1962, the group made a record that did not sell and later disbanded.


title: Sam the Sham

text: In May 1963, Vincent Lopez was playing for Andy and the Nightriders in Louisiana. When their organist quit, Sam joined. Andy and the Nightriders were Andy Anderson, David A. Martin, Vincent Lopez, and Sam. The Nightriders became house band at The Congo Club, near Leesville, Louisiana. It was here that Sam took the name Sam the Sham from a joke about his lack of ability as a vocalist.


title: Sam the Sham

text: In June 1963, The Nightriders headed for Memphis, Tennessee, and became the house band at The Diplomat. In late summer 1963, Andy Anderson and Vincent Lopez left to return to Texas. Sam and bassist David A. Martin replaced them with drummer Jerry Patterson and guitarist Ray Stinnett and changed the band's name to Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Shortly thereafter, the band added saxophonist Butch Gibson.


title: Sam the Sham

text: After paying to record and press records to sell at gigs, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs wound up with the XL label in Memphis. There they recorded their first and biggest hit, "Wooly Bully", in late 1964. Once MGM picked up the record, "Wooly Bully" ended up selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on 5 June 1965, at a time when American pop music charts were dominated by the British Invasion. It was awarded a gold disc. Leonard Stogel was their manager.


title: Sam the Sham

text: Although "Wooly Bully" never reached No. 1, it lingered on the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the most weeks for any single within the calendar year 1965, 14 of which were in the top 40. The record achieved the distinction of becoming the first "Billboard" "Number One Record of the Year" not to have topped a weekly Hot 100 and remained the only one for 35 years, until Faith Hill's "Breathe", Lifehouse's "Hanging by a Moment", and Dua Lipa's "Levitating" in 2000, 2001, and 2021, respectively.


title: Sam the Sham

text: The Pharaohs' next releases – "Ju Ju Hand" (No. 26 US, Canadian No. 31) and "Ring Dang Doo" – were minor successes. In late 1965, 11 months after "Wooly Bully", David A. Martin, Jerry Patterson, Ray Stinnett, and Butch Gibson left over a financial dispute. Sam's manager, Leonard Stogel, discovered Tony Gee & The Gypsys at the Metropole Cafe in Times Square, New York City. The band were Tony "Butch" Gerace (bass guitar and vocals), Frankie Carabetta (keyboards, saxophone and vocals), Billy Bennett (drums and percussion), and Andy Kuha (guitar and vocals). This new set of Pharaohs recorded "Li'l Red Riding Hood". On the Hot 100, "Lil' Red Riding Hood" began its two-week peak at No. 2 the week of August 6, 1966, just as another fairy tale title, "The Pied Piper" by Crispian St. Peters, was ending its three-week peak at No. 4. The track did even better by "Cash Box Magazine"s reckoning, reaching No. 1 the same week. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It also reached No. 2 on the Canadian "RPM Magazine" chart on August 22, 1966.


title: Sam the Sham

text: A series of mostly novelty tunes followed, all on the MGM label, keeping the group on the charts into 1967. Titles included "The Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin" (US No. 22, Canadian No. 13), "How Do You Catch a Girl" (US No. 27, Canadian No. 12), "I Couldn't Spell !!*@!", and "Oh That's Good, No That's Bad" (US No. 54).


title: Life of Crime (film)

text: Life of Crime is a 2013 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Daniel Schechter, based on Elmore Leonard's novel "The Switch" (1978), which includes characters later revisited in his novel "Rum Punch" (1992), which was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino film "Jackie Brown" (1997). "Life of Crime" was screened on the closing night 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, at the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival and released in theaters on August 29, 2014 by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.


title: Life of Crime (film)

text: In Detroit in 1978, stoic socialite Mickey Dawson becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot by a pair of fumbling ex-cons, Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. However, things become complicated for the duo when her wealthy husband, Frank, refuses to pay the ransom, as he is on the cusp of filing for divorce to make way for his mistress, Melanie Ralston. The two kidnappers have to figure out how to quickly turn the tables before their time runs out.


title: Life of Crime (film)

text: Principal photography lasted 26 days. The major portion of the film was shot in Greenwich, Connecticut. Tod A. Maitland did the sound mixing.


title: Life of Crime (film)

text: "Life of Crime" received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave it a approval rating based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: "It may not stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best Elmore Leonard adaptations, but "Life of Crime" has enough ambling charm—and a sharp enough cast—to get by." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 60 based on 28 critics.