title: Anointing

text: In the sympathetic magic common to prehistoric and primitive religions, the fat of sacrificial animals and persons is often reckoned as a powerful charm, second to blood as the vehicle and seat of life. East African Arabs traditionally anointed themselves with lion's fat to gain courage and provoke fear in other animals. Australian Aborigines would rub themselves with a human victim's caul fat to gain his powers.


title: Anointing

text: In religions like Christianity where animal sacrifice is no longer practiced, it is common to consecrate the oil in a special ceremony.


title: Anointing

text: According to scholars belonging to the early part of the twentieth century (Wilhelm Spiegelberg, Bonnet, Cothenet, Kutsch, Martin-Pardey) officials of ancient Egypt were anointed as part of a ceremony that installed them into office. This assumption has been questioned by scholars like Stephen Thompson, who doubt such anointing ever existed:


title: Anointing

text: "After a review of the evidence for the anointing of officials in ancient Egypt as a part of their induction into office, I must conclude that there is no evidence that such a ceremony was ever practiced in ancient Egypt. Attempts to trace the origin of the Hebrew practice of anointing kings to an Egyptian source are misdirected. The only definite case in which an Egyptian king anointed one of his officials is that of EA 51. In this instance, it is probable that Thutmosis III was engaging in a custom common among Asiatics, rather than that he was introducing an Egyptian custom into Syria-Palestine"


title: Anointing

text: Anointment of the corpse with scented oils was however a well attested practice as an important part of mummification.


title: Anointing

text: In Indian religion, late Vedic rituals developed involving the anointing of government officials, worshippers, and idols. These are now known as abhisheka. The practice spread to Indian Buddhists. In modern Hinduism and Jainism, anointment is common, although the practice typically employs water or yoghurt, milk, or (particularly) butter from the holy cow, rather than oil. Many devotees are anointed as an act of consecration or blessing at every stage of life, with rituals accompanying birthing, educational enrollments, religious initiations, and death. New buildings, houses, and ritual instruments are anointed, and some idols are anointed daily. Particular care is taken in such rituals to the "direction" of the smearing. People are anointed from head to foot, downwards. The water may derive from one of the holy rivers or be scented with saffron, turmeric, or flower infusions; the waste water produced when cleaning certain idols or when writing certain verses of scripture may also be used. Ointments may include ashes, clay, powdered sandalwood, or herbal pastes.


title: Anointing

text: Buddhist practices of anointing are largely derived from Indian practices but tend to be less elaborate and more ritualized. Buddhists may sprinkle assembled practitioners with water or mark idols of Buddha or the Bodhisattvas with cow or yak butter. Flower-scented water is also used, as are ink-water and "saffron water" stained yellow using saffron or turmeric.


title: Anointing

text: In antiquity, use of a holy anointing oil was significant in the Hebrews' consecration of priests, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), and the sacred vessels. Prophets and the Israelite kings were anointed as well, the kings from a horn. Anointment by the chrism prepared according to the ceremony described in the Book of Exodus was considered to impart the "Spirit of the Lord". It was performed by Samuel in place of a coronation of either Saul or David. The practice was not always observed and seems to have been essential only at the consecration of a new line or dynasty.


title: Anointing

text: Because of its importance, the High Priest and the king were sometimes called "the Anointed One". The term—, "Mashiaẖ"—gave rise to the prophesied figure of the Messiah ("q.v.") and a long history of claimants.


title: Anointing

text: The expression "anoint the shield" which occurs in Isaiah is a related or poetic usage, referring to the practice of rubbing oil on the leather of the shield to keep it supple and fit for war. The practice of anointing a shield predates the anointing of other objects in that the "smearing" (Hebrew "mashiach") of the shield renewed the leather covering on a wooden shield. A victorious soldier was elevated on his shield by his comrades after a battle or upon his selection as a new king. The idea of protection and selection arose from this and was extended to the idea of a "chosen one" thus leading to the modern concept of a Messiah (Hebrew for the one who was anointed.)


title: Anointing

text: Christianity developed from the association of Jesus of Nazareth with the Jewish prophecies of an "Anointed One". His epithet "Christ" is a form of the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew title. He was not anointed by the High Priest in accordance with the ceremony described in Exodus, but he was considered to have been anointed by the Holy Spirit during his baptism. A literal anointing of Jesus also occurs when he was lavishly oiled by Mary of Bethany. Performed out of affection, the anointment is said by Jesus to have been preparation for his burial.


title: Anointing

text: In the New Testament, John describes "anointing from the Holy One" and "from Him abides in you". Both this spiritual anointment and literal anointment with oil are usually associated with the Holy Spirit. Eastern Orthodox churches in particular attach great importance to the oil said to have been originally blessed by the Twelve Apostles.


title: Anointing

text: The practice of "chrismation" (baptism with oil) appears to have developed in the early church during the later 2nd century as a symbol of Christ, rebirth, and inspiration. The earliest surviving account of such an act seems to be the letter written "To Autolycus" by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch. In it, he calls the act "sweet and useful", punning on "khristós" (, "anointed") and "khrēstós" (, "useful"). He seems to go on to say "wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God", and "what person on entering into this life or being an athlete is not anointed with oil?" The practice is also defended by Hippolytus in his "Commentary on the Song of Songs" and by Origen in his "Commentary on Romans". Origen opines that "all of us may be baptized in those visible waters and in a visible anointing, in accordance with the form handed down to the churches".


title: Anointing

text: Anointing was particularly important among the Gnostics. Many early apocryphal and Gnostic texts state that John the Baptist's baptism by water was incomplete and that anointment with oil is a necessary part of the baptismal process. The Gospel of Philip claims that chrism is superior to baptism, for it is from the word "chrism" that we have been called "Christians", certainly not from the word "baptism". And it is from the "chrism" that the "Christ" has his name. For the Father anointed the Son, and the Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us. He who has been anointed possesses everything. He possesses the Resurrection, the Light, the Cross, the Holy Spirit. The Father gave him this in the bridal chamber; he merely accepted the gift. The Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Acts of Thomas, the anointing is the beginning of the baptismal ritual and essential to becoming a Christian, as it says God knows his own children by his seal and that the seal is received through the oil. Many such chrismations are described in detail through the work.


title: Anointing

text: In medieval and early modern Christianity, the oil from the lamps burnt before the altar of a church was felt to have particular sanctity. New churches and altars were anointed at their four corners during their dedication, as were tombs, gongs, and some other ritual instruments and utensils.


title: Anointing

text: In particular, James 5:14-15 illustrates that anointing oil, applied in faith, is a powerful weapon against a spiritual attack of the enemy, which can translate into a disease designed to destroy the body.


title: Anointing

text: The Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches bless three types of holy oils for anointing: "Oil of the Catechumens" (abbreviated OS, from the Latin , meaning holy oil), "Oil of the Infirm" (OI), and "Sacred Chrism" (SC). The first two are said to be blessed, while the chrism is consecrated.


title: Anointing

text: The Oil of Catechumens is used to people immediately before baptism, whether they are infants or adult catechumens. In the early church converts seeking baptism, known as "catechumens", underwent a period of formation known as catechumenate, and during that period of instruction received one or more anointings with the oil of cathecumens for the purpose of expelling evil spirits. Before the 1968 revision of the rite of ordination the ordaining bishop anointed the hands of the new priest with the Oil of Catechumens, The older form is now used only in ordaining members of associations, such as the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, dedicated to the preservation of the pre-Vatican II liturgy. In the later form, priests, like bishops, are anointed with chrism, the hands of a priest, the head of a bishop. (In the older form, a bishop's hands, as well as the head, are anointed with chrism. The traditional Roman Pontifical also has a rite of coronation of kings and queens including anointing with the Oil of Catechumens. In some countries, as in France, the oil used in that rite was chrism.


title: Anointing

text: Oil of the Infirm is used for administration of the sacrament of anointing of the sick, the ritual treatment of the sick and infirm through what was usually called Extreme Unction in Western Christianity from the late 12th to the late 20th century.


title: Anointing

text: Sacred Chrism is used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders. It is also used in the dedication of new churches, new altars, and in the consecration of new patens and chalices for use in Mass. In the case of the sacrament of baptism, the subject receives two distinct unctions: one with the oil of catechumens, prior to being baptized, and then, after baptism with water is performed, the subject receives an unction with chrism. In the case of the sacrament of confirmation, anointing with chrism is the essential part of the rite.


title: Anointing

text: Any bishop may consecrate the holy oils. They normally do so every Holy Thursday at a special "Chrism Mass". In the Gelasian sacramentary, the formula for doing so is:


title: Anointing

text: Send forth, O Lord, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit the Paraclete from heaven into this fatness of oil, which thou hast deigned to bring forth out of the green wood for the refreshing of mind and body; and through thy holy benediction may it be for all who anoint with it, taste it, touch it, a safeguard of mind and body, of soul and spirit, for the expulsion of all pains, of every infirmity, of every sickness of mind and body. For with the same thou hast anointed priests, kings, and prophets and martyrs with this thy chrism, perfected by thee, O Lord, blessed, abiding within our bowels in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


title: Anointing

text: In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, confirmation is known as chrismation. The Mystery of Chrismation is performed immediately after the Mystery of Baptism as part of a single ceremony. The ritual employs the sacred "" (, "chrism"), which is said to contain a remnant of oil blessed by the Twelve Apostles. In order to maintain the apostolic blessing unbroken, the container is never completely emptied but it is refilled as needed, usually at a ceremony held on Holy Thursday at the Patriarchate of Constantinople or the patriarchal cathedrals of the autocephalous churches. At the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the process is under the care of the "Archontes Myrepsoi", lay officials of the Patriarchate. Various members of the clergy may also participate in the preparation, but the Consecration itself is always performed by the Patriarch or a bishop deputed by him for that purpose. The new "myron" contains olive oil, myrrh, and numerous spices and perfumes. This "myron" is normally kept on the Holy Table or on the Table of Oblation. During chrismation, the "newly illuminate" person is anointed by using the "myron" to make the sign of the cross on the forehead, eyes, nostrils, lips, both ears, breast, hands, and feet. The priest uses a special brush for this purpose. Prior to the 20th century, the "myron" was also used for the anointing of Orthodox monarchs.


title: Anointing

text: The oil that is used to anoint the catechumens before baptism is simple olive oil which is blessed by the priest immediately before he pours it into the baptismal font. Then, using his fingers, he takes some of the blessed oil floating on the surface of the baptismal water and anoints the catechumen on the forehead, breast, shoulders, ears, hands, and feet. He then immediately baptizes the catechumen with threefold immersion in the name of the Trinity.


title: Anointing

text: Anointing of the sick is called the "Sacred Mystery of Unction". The practice is used for spiritual ailments as well as physical ones, and the faithful may request unction any number of times at will. In some churches, it is normal for all of the faithful to receive unction during a service on Holy Wednesday of Holy Week. The holy oil used at unction is not stored in the church like the "myron", but consecrated anew for each individual service. When an Orthodox Christian dies, if he has received the Mystery of Unction and some of the consecrated oil remains, it is poured over his body just before burial. It is also common to bless using oils which have been blessed either with a simple blessing by a priest (or even a venerated monastic), or by contact with some sacred object, such as relics of a saint, or which has been taken from an oil lamp burning in front of a wonderworking icon or some other shrine.


title: Anointing

text: In the Armenian Church, crosses are traditionally not considered holy until they have been anointed and prayed over, thus introducing the Holy Spirit into them. The same ritual was formerly observed in the other Orthodox churches.


title: Anointing

text: Owing to their particular focus upon the action of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostal churches sometimes continue to employ anointing for consecration and ordination of pastors and elders, as well as for healing the sick.


title: Anointing

text: The Pentecostal expression "the anointing breaks the yoke" derives from a passage in Isaiah which discusses the power given the prophet Hezekiah by the Holy Spirit over the tyrant Sennacherib.


title: Anointing

text: Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice anointing with pure, consecrated olive oil in two ways: 1) as a priesthood ordinance in preparation for the administration of a priesthood blessing, and 2) in conjunction with washing as part of the endowment.


title: Anointing

text: The Doctrine and Covenants contains numerous references to anointing and administration to the sick by those with authority to perform the laying on of hands. On 21 January 1836, Joseph Smith instituted anointing during the rites of sanctification and consecration preparatory to the rites practiced in the Kirtland Temple. The anointing would prepare church members to receive the endowment of "power from on high" promised in an earlier 1831 revelation. At the present time, any holder of the Melchizedek priesthood may anoint the head of an individual by the laying on of hands. Olive oil must be used if available, and it must have been consecrated earlier in a short ordinance that any holder of the Melchizedek priesthood may perform.


title: Anointing

text: In addition to its use for the Israelite kingship, anointing has been an important ritual in Christian rites of Coronation, especially in Europe. As reported by the jurisconsult Tancredus, initially only four monarchs were crowned and anointed, they were the Kings of Jerusalem, France, England and Sicily:


title: Anointing

text: Later French legend held that a vial of oil, the Holy Ampulla, descended from Heaven to anoint Clovis I as King of the Franks following his conversion to Christianity in 493. The Visigoth Wamba is the earliest Catholic king known to have been anointed, although the practice apparently preceded him in Spain. The ceremony, which closely followed the rite described by the Old Testament., was performed in 672 by Quiricus, the archbishop of Toledo; It was apparently copied a year later when Flavius Paulus defected and joined the Septimanian rebels he had been tasked with quieting. The rite epitomized the Catholic Church's sanctioning the monarch's rule; it was notably employed by usurpers such as Pepin, whose dynasty replaced the Merovingians in France in 751. While it might be argued that the practice subordinated the king to the church, in practice the sacral anointing of kings was seen as elevating the king to priestly or even saintly status. It provided a directly religious aspect to Europe's regimes apart from the church hierarchy and, for political and practical reasons, was seldom performed by the popes. Instead, the anointment was usually administered by a bishop from a major see of the realm, often the national primate. Lupoi argues that this set in motion the conflicting claims that developed into the Investiture Crisis. At the same time, royal unction recontextualized the elections and popular acclamations still legally responsible for the elevation of new rulers. They were no longer understood as autonomous authorities but merely agents in service of God's will. The divine right of kings was thus gradually recreated in a Christian context, continuing even when monarchs might choose to forgo the anointment ceremony altogether. The supposedly indelible nature of anointment was alluded to in Shakespeare's "Richard II":


title: Anointing

text: In Eastern Orthodoxy, the anointing of a new king is considered a Sacred Mystery. The act is believed to empower him—through the grace of the Holy Spirit—with the ability to discharge his divinely appointed duties, particularly his ministry in defending the faith. The same "myron" used in Chrismation is used for the ceremony. In Russian Orthodox ceremonial, the anointing took place during the coronation of the tsar towards the end of the service, just before his receipt of Holy Communion. The sovereign and his consort were escorted to the Holy Doors (Iconostasis) of the cathedral and jointly anointed by the metropolitan. Afterwards, the tsar was taken alone through the Holy Doors—an action normally reserved only for priests—and received communion at a small table set next to the Holy Table.


title: Anointing

text: In the present day, royal unction is less common, being practiced only upon the monarchs of Britain and of Tonga. The utensils for the practice are sometimes reckoned as regalia, like the ampulla and spoon used in the former Kingdom of France and the anointing horns used in Sweden and Norway. The Biblical formula is not necessarily followed. For the 1626 coronation of King Charles I of England, the holy oil was made of a concoction of orange, jasmine, distilled roses, distilled cinnamon, and ben oil.


title: Adam Curry

text: Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964) is an American podcaster, announcer, Internet entrepreneur and media personality, known for his stint as a VJ on MTV and being one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer Web sites. Also known for co-hosting the "No Agenda" show, in the 2000s, he first became involved in podcasting, and has been called the 'Podfather' because of his efforts.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry was born in Arlington, Virginia, but lived in Amstelveen, Netherlands, from 1972 to 1987. After a time working in Dutch pirate radio at Radio Picasso in Amstelveen and in Amsterdam in the early 1980s under the pseudonym "John Holden", he got a break in broadcasting as the host of the Dutch weekly pop-music television program "Countdown", and the English version of the same show, which was broadcast on pan-European music channel Music Box. He also hosted several other radio and television programs for the Dutch broadcast station Veronica. Aside Countdown, in the Netherlands Adam Curry is mostly known for his part in the Curry and Van Inkel radioshow (together with Dutch DJ Jeroen van Inkel), broadcast on Radio 3 for Veronica between 19:00 and 22:00 on Friday.


title: Adam Curry

text: In 1987, Curry became a VJ for MTV. Besides making spot appearances between music videos, he was also host of the programs "Headbangers Ball" and "MTV Top 20 Video Countdown" in which he interviewed stars like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. While working for MTV, he also did radio work, including drive-time


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry hosted the radio countdown show "Adam Curry's Top 30 Hitlist" for Entertainment Radio Networks from November 1991 to June 1994.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry registered the then-unclaimed domain name "mtv.com" in 1993 with the idea of being MTV's unofficial new voice on the Internet. Although this move was sanctioned by his superiors at MTV Networks at the time, when Curry left to start his own web-portal design and hosting company, OnRamp Inc, MTV subsequently sued him for the domain name.


title: Adam Curry

text: OnRamp eventually grew to 4,000 employees and was sold to Think New Ideas Inc., another company that he co-founded, becoming Chief Technology Officer of Think. In 1996, as the Internet was undergoing its "bubble", the company made an initial public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol THNK. It subsequently grew to employ over 7,400 people, with offices in seven countries, and was absorbed into Answerthink Inc. in a later merger.


title: Adam Curry

text: In 2005, Curry founded a video-sharing site called PodShow, which later changed its name to Mevio, with Ron Bloom. In May 2008, Mevio claimed to have reached 9 million unique visitors. It offers advertisers "brand-safe" content on a large scale. It raised a US$15 million third round in July 2008, bringing the total amount it has raised since its launch to over US$38 million. Mevio later rebranded as Bitesize Entertainment and ultimately BiteSizeTV, located in Los Angeles, CA.


title: Adam Curry

text: After selling his business in the United States, Curry and his family moved to the Netherlands in 1999, where Curry hosted a morning talk/music show for Radio Veronica. He also landed various television assignments and his family briefly starred in the reality show "Adam's Family".


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry and two business partners founded the multimedia company United Resources of Jamby in 1999. It was to act as an incubator and cultivator for new Internet-related businesses. The business was ultimately unsuccessful. Curry's participation in "Kennisnet", another venture to introduce the Internet to Dutch schools, ended in a bitter argument and lawsuits.


title: Adam Curry

text: Sportus.nl, an online webshop in collaboration with Dutch athletes like Marcel Wouda, Jacco Eltingh, Ron Zwerver and Daniëlle Overgaag, started in 1999, went bankrupt in 2001.


title: Adam Curry

text: In 2000 he and business partner Simon Cavendish, a participant in his earlier ventures, founded the RotorJet company to offer helicopter services. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2005. In the subsequent dispute, Cavendish seized the assets of the company, and in April 2005, Curry was ordered by a Dutch court to repay approximately US$3 million that he had withdrawn from RotorJet.


title: Adam Curry

text: In 2002 he produced and starred in the reality soap "Adam's Family: een kijkje in het leven van de familie Curry" which was aired by the Dutch SBS6 network.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry founded PodShow, now Mevio, with his business partner Ron Bloom, in January 2005. PodShow is a podcast promotions and advertising company that encompasses the Podshow Podcast Network, the Podcast Delivery Network, and the Podsafe Music Network. Some of Podshow's top podcasts are Curry's own "Daily Source Code", "The Dawn and Drew Show", and "GeekBrief.TV".


title: Adam Curry

text: From June 2005 to May 2007, Curry hosted a weekday evening show on Sirius Satellite Radio called 'Adam Curry's PodShow'.


title: Adam Curry

text: Since October 2007, he has hosted the twice-weekly podcast the "No Agenda" Show with John C. Dvorak, discussing recent news whilst deconstructing mainstream news media.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry has heavily promoted his podcasting endeavors. He promoted his podcast "Daily Source Code" in Second Life under the name 'Adam Neumann', along with a Second Life island called Podshow Island. Curry used podcasting to endorse 2008 Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul. He also uses his show to discuss alternative takes on topics in the daily news, as well as offering up topics of discussion that are "off the beaten path", such as Free energy suppression and the 9/11 Truth Movement.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry is widely credited for popularizing the podcast medium. As Annalee Newitz noted in "Wired", "Every new medium needs a celebrity, and Curry is happy to fill that role."


title: Adam Curry

text: On March 4, 2020, Curry appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and later re-appeared on September 8, 2020. During the September show, he discussed having Tourette syndrome. Curry returned to the podcast for a third time on July 6, 2021. Adam Curry made a fourth appearance on the show on January 8th, 2022.


title: Adam Curry

text: In February 2006, Curry sued the Dutch tabloid "Weekend" for reprinting photos from his Flickr page and publishing details about his daughter. The photos were released under a version of the Creative Commons license that forbids commercial use and requires acknowledgement, but the tabloid printed a few of them without contacting Curry. The verdict did not award Curry any damages, but forbade the tabloid from reprinting the photos in the future, setting a fine of €1,000 for each subsequent violation. It was one of the first times the license was tested in court.


title: Adam Curry

text: In May 2009, Curry posted on his blog that another Dutch tabloid had published another Creative Commons-licensed photo from Curry's Flickr account. After Curry asserted Creative Commons license requirements, the publisher settled on Curry's terms.


title: Adam Curry

text: Since 1999, Curry has, at one time or another, lived in Belgium; Guildford and London, England; San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, and Austin, Texas, U.S.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry was married to Dutch television/radio personality Patricia Paay from 1989 to 2009. They have a daughter, Christina.


title: Adam Curry

text: In July 2012, Curry married Micky Hoogendijk. On January 29, 2015, Curry announced on the "No Agenda" show that he and Hoogendijk had separated. Hoogendijk and Curry divorced in 2015.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry married his girlfriend of four years, Tina Snider (dubbed "The Keeper" by John C. Dvorak on the "No Agenda Show"), on May 19, 2019, in Austin, Texas.


title: Adam Curry

text: Curry is the nephew of former CIA official and United States Ambassador to Korea, Donald Gregg, whom he calls "Uncle Don" in his podcast.


title: Bruce Kirby (actor)

text: Bruce Kirby (born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu; April 28, 1925 – January 24, 2021) was an American character actor.


title: Bruce Kirby (actor)

text: Bruce Kirby started his television career in the 1950s with appearances in "Goodyear Television Playhouse". During the 1960s, he appeared in "I Dream of Jeannie", "The Nurses", "The Defenders", "Car 54, Where Are You?" (in 9 episodes), "Hogan's Heroes" (in 3 episodes), and "The Patty Duke Show" among others. He played in "Bonanza" (in 3 episodes), "Ironside" (in 3 episodes), "Barney Miller" (in 3 episodes), "The Rockford Files" (in 3 episodes), "The Marcus-Nelson Murders", "Kojak" (in 6 episodes), "M*A*S*H" and "Alice" during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he appeared in "Remington Steele", "Hunter" (in 5 episodes), "Night Court", "Matlock", "Hill Street Blues", "Lou Grant" and "Punky Brewster". His 1990s television credits include "The Golden Girls", "L.A. Law", "In the Heat of the Night", "Murphy Brown", "Murder, She Wrote" (in 2 episodes) and "Chicago Hope". During 1999-2000 he appeared in 8 episodes of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives". During the 2000s, he appeared in "The Sopranos", "The Agency", "Scrubs" and "The West Wing".


title: Bruce Kirby (actor)

text: Kirby appeared a total of 9 times in the long-running series "Columbo", most notably in the role as the gullible Sergeant Kramer in 6 episodes. In 1981–1982, he appeared as San Francisco police officer Schmidt in the crime drama "Shannon". He played the part of District Attorney Bruce Rogoff in 13 episodes of "L.A. Law" from 1986 until 1991. He also played minor roles in some films, including the film classics "Catch-22" (1970) and "Stand by Me" (1986). He also appeared in the 1971 movie called "How to Frame a Figg" with Don Knotts and the 1972 comedy "Another Nice Mess" with Rich Little. A notable later appearance was as Pop Ryan, father of Officer John Ryan (played by Matt Dillon) in the 2005 film "Crash". Bruce Kirby was also active as an actor on New York's Broadway, appearing in "Diamond Orchid" (1965) and "Death of a Salesman" (1984).


title: Olestra

text: Olestra (also known by its brand name Olean) is a fat substitute that adds no calories to products. It has been used in the preparation of otherwise high-fat foods thereby lowering or eliminating their fat content. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) originally approved olestra for use in the US as a replacement for fats and oils in prepackaged ready-to-eat snacks in 1996, concluding that such use "meets the safety standard for food additives, reasonable certainty of no harm". In the late 2000s, olestra lost its popularity due to supposed side effects and has been largely phased out, but products containing the ingredient can still be purchased at grocery stores in some countries.


title: Olestra

text: Olestra was discovered accidentally by Procter & Gamble (P&G) researchers F. Mattson and R. Volpenhein in 1968 while researching fats that could be more easily digested by premature infants. In 1971, P&G met with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to examine what sort of testing would be required to introduce olestra as a food additive.


title: Olestra

text: During the following tests, P&G noticed a decline in blood cholesterol levels as a side effect of olestra replacing natural dietary fats. Following this potentially lucrative possibility, in 1975, P&G filed a new request with the FDA to use olestra as a "drug", specifically to lower cholesterol levels. The lengthy series of studies that followed failed, however, to demonstrate the 15% reduction required by the FDA to be approved as a treatment. Further work on Olestra languished.


title: Olestra

text: In 1984, the FDA allowed Kellogg to claim publicly that their high-fiber breakfast cereals were effective in reducing the risk of cancer. P&G immediately started another test series that lasted three years. When these tests were completed, P&G filed for approval as a food additive for up to 35% replacement of fats in home cooking and 75% in commercial uses.


title: Olestra

text: One of the main concerns the FDA had about olestra was it might encourage consumers to eat more of the "top of the pyramid" foods because of the perception of its being healthier. This could result in consumers engaging in over-consumption, thinking the addition of olestra would remove negative consequences. In light of this possibility, approving it as an additive would have meant consumers would be consuming a food with a relatively high amount of an additive, whose long-term health effects were not documented. This made the FDA particularly hesitant to approve the product, as well as the side effects, such as diarrhea, and concern for the loss of fat-soluble vitamins. In August 1990, P&G narrowed their focus to "savory snacks", potato chips, tortilla chips, crackers and similar foods.


title: Olestra

text: By this point, the original patents were approaching their 1995 expiration. P&G lobbied for an extension, which they received in December 1993. This extension lasted until 25 January 1996. With pressure from P&G, the approval was finally granted on 24 January, one day before the patent expired, automatically extending the patent two years.


title: Olestra

text: At the time of the 1996 ruling, FDA concluded that, "to avoid being misbranded... olestra-containing foods would need to bear a label statement to inform consumers about possible effects of olestra on the gastrointestinal system. The label statement also would clarify that the added vitamins were present to compensate for any nutritional effects of olestra, rather than to provide enhanced nutritional value". The FDA later removed the label saying that the "current label does not accurately communicate information to consumers". The FDA also agreed with P&G that the "label statement could be misleading and cause consumers of olestra to attribute serious problems to olestra when this was unlikely to be the case".


title: Olestra

text: Olestra was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a food additive in 1996, and was initially used in potato chips under the WOW brand by Frito Lay. In 1998, the first year olestra products were marketed nationally after the FDA's Food Advisory Committee confirmed a judgment it made two years earlier, sales were over $400 million. By 2000, though, sales slowed to $200 million. P&G abandoned attempts to widen the uses of olestra, and sold off its Cincinnati-based factory to Twin Rivers Technologies in February 2002. The WOW chips were rebranded to "Lay's Light" in 2004 and were discontinued by 2016.


title: Olestra

text: Pringles Light potato crisps, manufactured by Kellogg's (though at one time a P&G product), used Olean-brand olestra before being discontinued in 2015.


title: Olestra

text: Starting in 1996, an FDA-mandated health warning label reads "This Product Contains Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. Olestra inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E, and K have been added".


title: Olestra

text: These symptoms, normally occurring only by excessive consumption in a short period of time, are known as steatorrhea and are caused by an excess of fat in stool.


title: Olestra

text: The FDA removed the warning requirement in 2003, as it had "conducted a scientific review of several post-market studies submitted by P&G, as well as adverse event reports submitted by P&G and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The FDA concluded the label statement was no longer warranted". The FDA also agreed with P&G that the "label statement could be misleading and cause consumers of olestra to attribute serious problems to olestra when this [was] unlikely to be the case".


title: Olestra

text: When removing the olestra warning label, the FDA cited a six-week P&G study of more than 3000 people showing the olestra-eating group experienced only a small increase in bowel movement frequency compared to the control group. The FDA concluded that "subjects eating olestra-containing chips were no more likely to report having had loose stools, abdominal cramps, or any other GI symptom compared to subjects eating an equivalent amount of [potato] chips".


title: Olestra

text: In addition to the effects of the health warnings on public acceptance of the product, olestra might not have lived up to consumer expectations of speedy results. If consumers believed that they could eat more to compensate for the fat calories "saved", olestra would not be an effective way to improve overall diet. The manufacturers claim that the authentic taste and feel of olestra offsets this tendency, and some studies have shown that people who consume foods with olestra don't eat more to offset the loss in calories. P&G conducted publicity campaigns to highlight olestra's benefits, including working directly with the health-care community.


title: Olestra

text: Consumption of olestra may encourage rats to eat too much of foods containing regular fats, due to the learning of an incorrect association between fat intake and calories. Rats that were fed regular potato chips as well as chips cooked with olestra gained more weight when subsequently eating a high-fat diet than rats that received just regular chips.


title: Olestra

text: Triglycerides, the energy-yielding dietary fats, consist of three fatty acids bonded in the form of esters to a glycerol backbone. Olestra uses sucrose as the backbone in place of glycerol, and it can form esters with up to eight fatty acids. Olestra is a mixture of hexa-, hepta-, and octa-esters of sucrose with various long chain fatty acids. The resulting radial arrangement is too large and irregular to move through the intestinal wall and be absorbed into the bloodstream. Olestra has the same taste and mouthfeel as fat, but it passes through the gastrointestinal tract undigested without contributing calories or nutritive value to the diet.


title: Olestra

text: From a mechanical point of view, scientists were able to manipulate the compound in such a way that it could be used in place of cooking oils in the preparation of many types of food.


title: Olestra

text: Since it contains fatty acid functional groups, olestra is able to dissolve lipid-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and vitamin A, along with carotenoids. Fat-soluble nutrients consumed with olestra products are excreted with the undigested olestra molecules. To counteract this loss of nutrients, products made with olestra are fortified with oil-soluble vitamins.


title: Olestra

text: P&G is marketing its sucrose ester products under the brand "Sefose" for use as an industrial lubricant and paint additive. Because olestra is made by chemically combining sugar and vegetable oil, it releases no toxic fumes and could potentially become a safe and environmentally friendly replacement for petrochemicals in these applications. It is currently used as a base for deck stains and a lubricant for small power tools, and there are plans to use it on larger machinery.


title: Olestra

text: There is preliminary evidence that indicates that administration of olestra may accelerate the excretion of hydrophobic toxins, although there have been no randomized controlled clinical trials to establish the effectiveness of this potential treatment. Toxins that have been studied in conjunction with olestra treatment include dioxins, hexachlorobenzene, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).


title: Stars Hollow

text: Stars Hollow is a fictional town in Connecticut featured on the television show "Gilmore Girls" and the Netflix miniseries "". It is the town in which the protagonists Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory Gilmore reside. Stars Hollow is a close-knit community located roughly thirty minutes from Hartford. The original town square set was located on the Warner Bros. studio back lot, just around the corner from the exterior set for the hospital from "ER".


title: Stars Hollow

text: The town of Stars Hollow was founded in 1779 with conflicting legends regarding how it got its name. The traditionally accepted legend involves two star-crossed lovers who seemed destined never to be together, until separate cosmological phenomena involving stars led them to each other at the spot where the town now exists. This is celebrated annually at the Firelight Festival, shown in season one, episode 16, "Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers" and season four, episode 13, "Nag Hammadi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels." Some within the town doubt the theory, such as when Luke Danes remarks it's just as likely the town is named after a hypothetical sex worker named Star.


title: Stars Hollow

text: Another story of Stars Hollow's founding was presented in the season five, episode 18, "To Die and Let Diorama." A talking display built in the new Stars Hollow Museum explained that a Puritan family first discovered the area while looking for a place to settle. They named it as such because of "the stars, so bright; this forest, so hollow!"


title: Stars Hollow

text: During the American Revolutionary War, a "battle" fought in Stars Hollow when 12 men stood and waited for the Redcoats who never came. This battle is re-enacted annually in the town square, as seen in season one, episode eight, "Love and War and Snow" and in season five, episode 11, "Women of Questionable Morals." This second occurrence marked the beginning of the addition of the town prostitute, who slept with the British general to delay the troops.


title: Stars Hollow

text: A statue of Casimir Pulaski, Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called, together with his counterpart Michael Kovats de Fabriczy, "the father of the American cavalry." sits across from the town square, next to Luke's Diner.


title: Stars Hollow

text: The center of town consists primarily of businesses surrounding a park with a gazebo. The town square is the location of Luke's Diner, Doose's Market, Miss Patty's dance studio (which hosts town meetings), the town's house of worship (which functions as both a church and synagogue), and the public high school. In the "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" episode "Summer," the office of "The Stars Hollow Gazette" is shown to be located here, as well.


title: Stars Hollow

text: The town square serves as a primary setting throughout the "Gilmore Girls" TV show and "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life". Many town functions and private events are held in this area, including the Firelight Festival and the Battle of Stars Hollow. In the "Gilmore Girls" series finale "Bon Voyage," Rory's farewell party is held in a rainstorm under a tent in the park. The wedding of Lorelai and Luke takes place in the gazebo in "Fall," the fourth episode of "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life".


title: Stars Hollow

text: Third Street is the location of the Dragonfly Inn, which Lorelai and Sookie St. James purchase in season three after its previous owner, Fran Weston, dies in episode 20, "Say Goodnight, Gracie." The inn undergoes renovations throughout season four until its test-run opening in episode 22, "Raincoats and Recipes." It remains Lorelai and Sookie's primary business for the rest of the show.


title: Stars Hollow

text: According to the Stars Hollow Historical Society, Third Street is among the town's worst historical landmarks to take your children. In the 18th century, it was known as "Sores and Boils Alley," where sick and suffering people throughout the region came to have sores and boils lanced. A small leper colony is said to have existed there as well.


title: Stars Hollow

text: In the sixth season's sixth episode, "Welcome to the Doll House," it's revealed that throughout history Third Street held various other names, aside from the aforementioned "Sores and Boils Alley," including "Constabulary Road," "Crusty Bulge," and a Nipmuc name, "Chargogagogmanchogagogcharbunagunggamog." The Nipmuc name is said to mean, "You fish on your side of the lake, I'll fish on my side, and no one will fish in the middle." According to Kirk Gleason, it could also mean "Buffalo." This place-name is based on the local name for a lake in Webster, Massachusetts, which is more formally known as Webster Lake.


title: Stars Hollow

text: Stars Hollow was inspired by and is loosely based on the actual villages of Kent, Connecticut; Washington Depot, Connecticut; West Hartford, Connecticut; and the town of New Milford, Connecticut while the show's writer spent 3 weeks at the Mayflower Grace in Washington, Connecticut. Sherman-Palladino later said, "Now, I've never been there in winter, when you're snowed in and you can't go anywhere, and you and your husband want to kill each other because you can't go to a movie. But at the time I was there, it was beautiful, it was magical, and it was feeling of warmth and small-town camaraderie. . . . There was a longing for that in my own life, and I thought – that's something that I would really love to put out there."


title: Stars Hollow

text: Greg Morago of "the Hartford Courant" writes, "Unlike the Hartford depicted on "Judging Amy", the Stars Hollow of "The Gilmore Girls" rings true. The town's antiques shops, small businesses, schools, government and infrastructure look the part. But where Sherman-Palladino has truly excelled, despite her "Clueless" origins, is in her drawing of colorful Connecticut characters. The populace of Stars Hollow, from the town busybody to the town troubadour, is familiar to any Nutmegger who ever attended a town meeting."


title: Bread pudding

text: Bread pudding is a bread-based dessert popular in many countries' cuisines. It is made with stale bread and milk or cream, generally containing eggs, a form of fat such as oil, butter or suet and, depending on whether the pudding is sweet or savory, a variety of other ingredients. Sweet bread puddings may use sugar, syrup, honey, dried fruit, nuts, as well as spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, or vanilla. The bread is soaked in the liquids, mixed with the other ingredients, and baked.


title: Bread pudding

text: In other languages, its name is a translation of "bread pudding" or even just "pudding", for example "pudín" or "budín". In the Philippines, banana bread pudding is popular. In Mexico, there is a similar dish eaten during Lent called capirotada. In the United Kingdom, a moist version of Nelson cake, itself a bread pudding, is nicknamed "Wet Nelly".


title: Bread pudding

text: The 18th-century English cookbook "The Compleat Housewife" contains two recipes for baked bread pudding. The first is identified as "A Bread and Butter Pudding for Fasting Days". To make the pudding a baking dish is lined with puff pastry, and slices of penny loaf with butter, raisins and currants, and pieces of butter are added in alternating layers. Over this is poured thickened, spiced cream and orange blossom water, and the dish is baked in the oven. There is another version of the dish that is simpler, omitting the spices and dried fruits.


title: Bread pudding

text: In Belgium, particularly Brussels, bread pudding is baked with brown sugar, cinnamon, stale bread, and raisins or apple.


title: Bread pudding

text: In Hungary, it is called 'Máglyarakás' (literally, "bonfire") which is baked with whipped egg whites on top.


title: Bread pudding

text: In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, black bread is used to make "black bread pudding" ("Schwarzbrotpudding").


title: Bread pudding

text: In the Philippines, stale unsold bread are commonly used by bakeries to make the characteristically bright red filling of "pan de regla".


title: Bread pudding

text: In Puerto Rico, there are many variations of bread pudding on the island. Cream cheese with lime zest and guava or coconut-sweet plantain with rum raisins is perhaps the most popular. Bread pudding is always made with a variety of spices. Puerto Rican bread pudding is cooked the same as crème caramel with caramel poured into a baking dish and then the pudding mix is poured on top. The baking dish is placed in a bain-marie and then in the oven.


title: Bread pudding

text: In the United States, especially Louisiana, bread puddings are typically sweet and served as dessert with a sweet sauce of some sort, such as whiskey sauce, rum sauce, or caramel sauce, but typically sprinkled with sugar and eaten warm in squares or slices. Sometimes, bread pudding is served warm topped with or alongside a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


title: Acadiana

text: Acadiana (French and Louisiana French: "L'Acadiane"), also known as the Cajun Country (Louisiana French: "Le Pays Cadjin", ), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population. Many inhabitants of the Cajun Country have Acadian ancestry and identify as Cajuns or Creoles. Of the 64 parishes that make up the U.S. state of Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment make up this intrastate region.


title: Acadiana

text: The word "Acadiana" reputedly has two origins. Its first recorded appearance dates to the mid-1950s, when a Crowley, Louisiana, newspaper, the "Crowley Daily Signal", coined the term in reference to Acadia Parish, Louisiana. However, KATC television in Lafayette independently coined "Acadiana" in the early 1960s, giving it a new, broader meaning, and popularized it throughout southern Louisiana. Founded in 1962, KATC was owned by the Acadian Television Corporation. In early 1963, the ABC affiliate received an invoice erroneously addressed to the "Acadiana" Television Corp. Someone had typed an extra "a" at the end of the word "Acadian". The station started using it to describe the region covered by its broadcast signal.


title: Acadiana

text: Today, numerous business, governmental, and nonprofit organizations incorporate Acadiana in their names, e.g., Mall of Acadiana and Acadiana High School. Notably, KLFY-TV, the regional CBS affiliate, used the term in its very successful "Hello News" branding campaign as "Hello Acadiana." KATC hosts a morning television show, "Good Morning Acadiana".


title: Acadiana

text: Historically part of French Louisiana, present-day Acadiana was inhabited by Attakapa Native Americans. After their expulsion from Canada at the end of the Seven Years' War, Acadian refugees settled the region. The Acadians intermarried with other settlers, forming what became known as Cajun culture.


title: Acadiana

text: In 1971, the Louisiana State Legislature officially recognized 22 Louisiana parishes and "other parishes of similar cultural environment" for their "strong French Acadian cultural aspects" (House Concurrent Resolution No. 496, June 6, 1971, authored by Carl W. Bauer of St. Mary Parish), and made the "Heart of Acadiana" the official name of the region. The public, however, prefers the one-word place name "Acadiana" to refer to the region. The official term appears on regional maps and highway markers.


title: Acadiana

text: On October 3, 2002, the central Acadiana region suffered a direct hit from category one Hurricane Lili. The hurricane caused most of Acadiana to lose power, and some areas lost phone service. In addition, some high-rise buildings in downtown Lafayette had windows broken and many homes throughout the region had roof damage. The high winds of Lili toppled the tower of KLFY TV-10 onto the station's studio facilities. Only one injury inside the station was reported from the tower's collapse.


title: Acadiana

text: The eastern Acadiana region was somewhat affected by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, although the damage was nowhere near what it was farther east in Greater New Orleans. The region was used by many returning evacuees as a "last stop" of temporary domicile before returning to Greater New Orleans. This was due in large part to the Greater Baton Rouge area already being inundated with evacuees. Governor Kathleen Blanco made a public request that those returning not try to seek lodging in the capital due to this crisis of overpopulation. Lafayette and several other municipalities had both public and church-run shelters set up to handle the influx. The largest of these shelters, run by the Red Cross, was the Lafayette sports arena (the Cajundome) holding a reported 9,800 persons.


title: Acadiana

text: The western Acadiana region and east Texas were most affected by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. The Greater Lake Charles metropolitan area suffered the majority of the damage.


title: Acadiana

text: On Labor Day 2008, Hurricane Gustav caused severe damage to the region. Although Lafayette, Saint Martinville and Crowley had little damage (comparatively) and some residents still had power, the rest of the region stood in contrast. From Alexandria to the coast and Baton Rouge to Lake Charles, there were reports of massive power failures and flooding. Most notable was the flooding south of Louisiana Highway 14 and the communities there. U.S. 90 was shut down for several days due to the flooding caused by Gustav.


title: Acadiana

text: The total death toll from Gustav in Acadiana was limited. This was attributed to the evacuation and mitigation plans that had been drilled by state and local official, and to a strong presence of both the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In total, almost two million people along the Louisiana coast were evacuated in over two days. This made Gustav preparations the largest evacuation in Louisiana history, and one of the most successful evacuations in the nation's history.


title: Acadiana

text: In 2015, the region's largest city (Lafayette) gained international attention for a mass shooting and murder-suicide at Grand 16 Theater.


title: Acadiana

text: In 2020, hurricanes Laura and Delta caused significant damage to the western-most portion of Acadiana, including Calcasieu, Cameron, Jeff Davis, and portions of Vermilion and Acadia. A confirmed 18 people died in the storm and its aftermath. In addition, Intracoastal City saw a storm surge of . Storm surge also flooded over SH 317 at Burns Point in St. Mary Parish, and flash flooding surrounded homes in Abbeville.


title: Acadiana

text: Six weeks later, Delta made landfall near Creole, Louisiana, with winds of 100 mph. Virtually the same parishes were affected by Laura and Delta. Over 740,000 residents had no power following both storms.


title: Acadiana

text: Acadiana consists mainly of low gentle hills in the north section and dry land prairies, with marshes and bayous in the south closer to the Gulf Coast area. The wetlands increase in frequency in and around the Calcasieu River, Atchafalaya Basin, and the Mississippi River Delta. The area is cultivated with fields of rice and sugarcane.


title: Acadiana

text: Acadiana, as defined by the Louisiana legislature, refers to the area that stretches from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and about inland to Marksville. This includes the 22 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion, and West Baton Rouge. The total land area of Acadiana is . If Acadiana was a U.S. state, it would be larger than Maryland; if it were a sovereign state, it would be larger than the Bahamas.


title: Acadiana

text: Three of the parishes (St. Charles, St. James, and St. John the Baptist) are considered the River Parishes and made up the area formerly known as the German Coast or "les côtes des Allemands", because of settlement by German immigrants in the 18th century. Ascension Parish is sometimes included within the River Parishes; the River Parishes border the first and third largest regions in Louisiana by population (the Greater New Orleans area and Florida Parishes). St. James and Ascension parishes were originally known as the "Comté d'Acadie" (Acadia County) because of the initial settlement of 18th-century exiled Acadians. St. James Parish was known as the First Acadian Coast and Ascension Parish was known as the Second Acadian Coast. Collectively they were known as "les côtes des Acadiens", the Acadian Coasts.


title: Acadiana

text: The largest metropolitan areas in Acadiana are Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Houma-Thibodaux. Other cities and towns within Acadiana are Abbeville, Berwick, Breaux Bridge, Broussard, Bunkie, Carencro, Church Point, Crowley, Donaldsonville, Erath, Eunice, Franklin, Gonzales, Gueydan, Jeanerette, Jennings, Kaplan, Lutcher, Mamou, Marksville, Maurice, Morgan City, New Iberia, New Roads, Opelousas, Patterson, Plaquemine, Port Allen, Rayne, Scott, Simmesport, St. Gabriel, St. Martinville, Sulphur, Sunset, Ville Platte, and Youngsville.


title: Acadiana

text: At the 2000 U.S. census the total population of Acadiana was 1,352,646 residents. At the 2019 American Community Survey, the tabulated population of Acadiana was an estimated 1,490,449. In 2020, the tabulated population of Acadiana's parishes was 1,486,345.


title: Acadiana

text: Cajuns are the descendants of 18th-century Acadian exiles from what are now Canada's Maritime Provinces, expelled by the British and New Englanders during and after the French and Indian War (see Expulsion of the Acadians). They prevail among the region's visible cultures, but not everyone who lives in Acadiana is ethnically Acadian or speaks Louisiana French. Similarly, not everyone who is culturally "Cajun" is descended from the Acadian refugees.


title: Acadiana

text: German and Polish settlers found their way to this area as early as 1721, settling an area that became known as the German Coast. They preceded the Acadians. Acadiana is home to several Native American tribes, including the Chitimacha, Houma, Tunica-Biloxi, Attakapas, and Coushatta. Acadiana also is home to other ethnic groups, including Anglo-Americans, who came into the region in increasing numbers beginning notably with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Since the late 20th century, political refugees from Southeast Asia (Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, among others) have brought their families, cultures, and languages to the area, and have contributed significantly to its fishing industry.


title: Acadiana

text: The region also boasts a large population of Creoles, descendants of the region's original "Old World" settlers who arrived in Louisiana before and after the arrival of the Acadians. In the broadest sense, the term "Creole" has been used to denote anyone who is "native to Louisiana", regardless of race or ethnic origin. In this sense, Creoles can identify as black, white, and persons of mixed-race origin. The term has also come to denote cultural origins in addition to racial classification. While many in Acadiana associate Creoles specifically with those people descended from the "gens de couleur libres" (free people of color), others cling to the word's original definition, so Creoles of every ethnic background are still present in the region. Many Creoles also identify as Cajuns (and vice versa), whereas others reject association with one identity while still claiming the other. The two identities have never been mutually exclusive of one another, and documents written in Acadiana throughout the 19th century often make references to Acadiana's "Creole populations" that are understood to include people of Acadian descent.


title: Acadiana

text: Prior to the U.S. Civil War, Louisiana Creoles of color were a class of free people who either gained their freedom or were born into free families. The "gens de couleur libres" played an important role in the history of New Orleans and French Louisiana, both under French and Spanish occupation, and after the Louisiana Purchase by the United States . Some Creoles of color were wealthy businessmen, entrepreneurs, clothiers, real estate developers, doctors, and other respected professions; they owned estates and properties in French Louisiana. Being a French, and later Spanish colony, Louisiana maintained a three-tiered society that was very similar to other Latin American and Caribbean countries.


title: Acadiana

text: In the colonial period of French and Spanish rule, men tended to marry later after becoming financially established. Men frequently took Native American women as their wives (see Marriage 'à la façon du pays'), and as slaves were imported into the colony, settlers also took African wives. Intermarriage between the different groups of Louisiana created a large multiracial Creole population.


title: Acadiana

text: As more families settled Louisiana, young Frenchmen or French Creoles coming from wealthy backgrounds courted mixed-race women as their mistresses, known as "placées," before they officially married. The "gens de couleur libres" developed formal arrangements for "placées", which the young women's mothers negotiated. Under the system of "plaçage," the suitor had to be wealthy and prove that he could support the daughter, and take care of their children. Often the mothers arranged a kind of dowry or property transfer to their daughters; if the daughter was a slave, she and their children would gain freedom. The fathers often paid for the education of their mixed-race children from "plaçage" relationships, especially if they were sons, generally sending them to France to be educated.


title: Acadiana

text: Many descendants of the "gens de couleur", or free people of color, of the Louisiana area celebrate their culture and heritage through a New Orleans-based Louisiana Creole Research Association (LA Créole). The term "Créole" is not synonymous with "free people of color" or "gens de couleur libres", but many members of LA Créole have traced their genealogies through those lines. Today, the multiracial descendants of the French and Spanish colonists, Africans, and other ethnicities are widely known as Louisiana Creoles. Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal signed Act 276 on 14 June 2013, creating the license plate, "I'm Creole," honoring Louisiana Creoles' contributions and heritage.


title: Acadiana

text: Similarly, the Acadiana region is home to many African Americans, who have contributed greatly to the region over the centuries. Many primarily descend from those persons brought to the State of Louisiana in various waves during the colonial period to work the area's sugarcane and rice plantations in the southern part of the state and the cotton plantations in the northern part of the state. Between 1723 and 1769, most slaves imported to Louisiana were from modern day Senegal, Mali and Congo, many thousands being imported to Louisiana from there. A large number of the imported slaves from the Senegambia region were members of the Wolof and Bambara ethnic groups. Saint-Louis and Goree Island were sites where a great number of slaves destined for Louisiana departed from Africa.


title: Acadiana

text: During the Spanish control of Louisiana, between 1770 and 1803, most of the slaves still came from the Congo and the Senegambia region but they imported also more slaves from modern day Benin. Many slaves imported during this period were members of the Nago people, a Yoruba subgroup. The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship, as well as Roman Catholic Christianity—all of which were key elements of Louisiana Voodoo. In addition, in the early nineteenth century, many Saint Dominicans also settled in Louisiana, both free people of color and slaves, following the Haitian Revolution on Saint-Domingue, contributing to the Voodoo tradition of the state. During the American period (1804-1820), almost half of the slaves came from the Congo. Before the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), African Americans comprised a significant portion of the state's population, with most being employed on sugar cane and cotton plantations (see history of slavery in Louisiana and Louisiana African American Heritage Trail).


title: Acadiana

text: Religiously, Acadiana differs from much of the American South because a majority of its people are Christians of the Roman Catholic tradition in contrast to the surrounding regions (e.g., Central and Northern Louisiana), which are part of the largely Protestant Bible Belt. This is largely attributed to the region's French, Spanish, and Caribbean influences. Among the Catholic population of Acadiana, the majority are served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana, though some areas in western and eastern Acadiana belong to the Diocese of Lake Charles, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge in the Florida Parishes.


title: Acadiana

text: The traditional industries of the area, agriculture, petroleum, and tourism, initially drove the need for transportation development. In recent years, hurricane evacuation plans for the area's growing towns and cities have hastened the planning and construction of better roadways. The abundance of swamps and marshes previously made Acadiana difficult to access, a major reason for the near isolation of the early Cajun people.


title: Acadiana

text: After oil was found in the area in the early 20th century, oil industry development was geared to improving access by roads and waterways. Damage has been done to the region by dredging and straightening of waterways, which has damaged the wetlands that used to absorb water and storms, leaving the area more vulnerable. Coastline continues to erode.


title: Acadiana

text: High-capacity, modern highways are the lifelines of the region. U.S. highways 90, 190, and 167 were the main connectors through south Louisiana until the 1950s. Interstates 10, 210, 55, and 49 now play the major role in transportation. US and state highways also cross the region.


title: Acadiana

text: Rail transport through the area is limited by the difficult terrain and the sheer number of bridges required to build over numerous streams and bayous. A robust railroad system was being built at the time of the American Civil War, but much of it was destroyed during the conflict. By the end of the war, river transport via paddlewheeler had taken over as the preferred mode of travel. The major railways in operation through the region are the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad.


title: Acadiana

text: Waterways are vital to the commercial and recreational activities of the region. Seaports, rivers, lakes, bayous, canals, and spillways dot the landscape, and served as the primary source of shipping and travel through the early 1930s. The Mississippi River is important to the eastern section, the Atchafalaya River to the middle. Calcasieu River flowing through Lake Charles enables shipping traffic in the western portion, while the Sabine River forms the western border of both Acadiana and Louisiana. Fresh and saltwater lakes, along with almost the entire Louisiana portion of the Intracoastal Waterway, enable the flow of people and materials.


title: Acadiana

text: Airports in Lafayette and Lake Charles provide scheduled airline service. Helicopter pilots serve the oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico. Small planes are used for short trips and agricultural needs. Small general aviation airports serve communities throughout the area.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The Chevrolet Trax is a crossover SUV manufactured by General Motors and marketed under the Chevrolet brand since 2013. The first generation model was released globally in 2013 as the smallest, entry-level crossover SUV offering from the brand. Development and production were centered in South Korea by GM Korea. A restyled model was also produced as the Buick Encore in North America, and as the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka in Europe. In several markets, the vehicle was marketed as the Chevrolet Tracker, and as the Holden Trax in Australia and New Zealand. The Trax became available in Canada, Mexico, Germany, South Korea, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Europe for the 2013 model year and was released in the U.S. for the 2015 model year.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In 2019, GM released the replacement of the Trax for China and Latin America, the Tracker. The first-generation Trax continued to be sold in North America, South Korea and several other markets until 2022, when it was replaced by the larger second-generation Trax due for the 2024 model year. The second-generation Trax is also marketed in China as the Chevrolet Seeker.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The first-generation Trax (model code U200, designated TJ in Australia) was first shown as a concept car, which was first unveiled at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, with the final model unveil having happened at the 2013 North American International Auto Show. It was then available for test driving at the 2013 Montreal Auto Show, with four essay models shown.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The SUV was in development since 2008 by GM’s small vehicle development team centered in South Korea. It is based on the GM Gamma II platform, which is shared with the Chevrolet Aveo/Sonic and the Opel Mokka/Buick Encore. It was marketed as the Holden Trax in Australia, and as the Chevrolet Tracker in Russia and South America. For most global markets, the Trax was produced by both GM Korea and GM Mexico. SAIC-GM also produced the model for the Chinese market from the 2015 model year until 2020. GM Uzbekistan also be produced this model starting from late 2018.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: During 2013 and early 2014, the Trax was only sold in Canada, Mexico, Germany, South Korea, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Europe.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In Canada, the Trax was the first compact Chevrolet crossover SUV since the discontinuation of the Tracker (read below). The vehicle started shipping on April 2, however pre-sales began as early as the fourth quarter of 2012 for both Mexico (1.8L) and Canada (1.4L Turbo). Korean sales started in late February 2013.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In late 2014, the Trax was marketed to more countries including China, Indonesia and the Philippines.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The Trax was introduced in South Korea in February 2013. It is powered by the 1.4-litre turbocharged gasoline engine. In 2015, a 1.6-litre diesel engine was added. The facelift model was introduced in October 2016.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The Trax came to the United States as a 2015 model, due to the success of the Buick Encore (the Trax and Encore share the GM Gamma II platform) and possible competition from the Jeep Renegade; GM initially had no plans to offer the Trax to the US market. The US-market Trax is largely unchanged from the global version, but has some US-specific features including OnStar with AT&T 4G LTE and SiriusXM satellite radio.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The US version is powered by the 1.4-liter turbocharged inline-4 with at 4,900 rpm and at 1,850 rpm. Trailer towing is not recommended. Only the 6-speed automatic transmission is available.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: Three trim levels, both available with front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive, are available: LS, LT and LTZ.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: Chevrolet performed a mid-cycle update on the Trax for the 2017 model year, first unveiled at the 2016 Chicago Auto Show on February 12, 2016. The updated Trax carried design cues from the Malibu and Volt, including new halogen projector headlights, LED daytime running lights, dual taillights and a new grille design. A set of 18-inch aluminum wheels are offered on the Premier model trim. The interior is also redesigned with a new dashboard and center instrument panel. Overall, the 2017 facelift improves the Trax's perceived quality. The 2017 Trax went on sale in the fall of 2016.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The Trax continued unchanged for the 2020 model year in North America. It was joined by a slightly larger model, the Trailblazer (no relation to the previous North American or international mid-sized SUVs of the same name).


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: For the 2021 model year, the base L and high end Premier levels were deleted from the offering trims, leaving the bottom tier LS and now top tier LT.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In Australia and other Oceania markets, the Chevrolet Trax was offered under the Holden brand until that brand was discontinued in 2020. It went on sale in 2013.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In Russia and South America, the Trax is instead named the Chevrolet Tracker, which was the name used in North and Latin America from 1989–1991 and 1999–2008 for a Chevrolet/Geo version of the Suzuki Sidekick.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The Trax is offered in different markets with different choices of drivetrains. In Latin America the Trax is only available with the 1.8 liter gasoline engine. In Canada and the US, only the 1.4 liter turbocharged gasoline engine is offered. In Mexico and Australia (from 2015) it is available both in 1.8 liter and 1.4 liter turbocharged engines. European customers can choose between the 1.4 liter turbo gasoline engine, a 1.6 liter gasoline engine, and a 1.7 liter diesel engine.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In China and South America, the first-generation Trax was discontinued and replaced by the Tracker in 2019. It is the similar size as the Trax, but built on a new platform (GEM) for emerging markets and not intended for North America.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: General Motors discontinued the first-generation Trax, as well as the related Buick Encore, following the 2022 model year in North America.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: The second-generation Trax was first unveiled in China in July 2022 as the Chevrolet Seeker. The North American second-generation Trax was revealed in October 2022 as a 2024 model, with sales to begin in the second quarter of 2023. It is larger than the previous model with a lower height. While being larger than the Trailblazer crossover, the Trax is priced below it. Chevrolet expects a $5,000 lower average transaction price compared to Trailblazer.


title: Chevrolet Trax

text: In North America, the second-generation Trax is offered in five trim levels: LS, 1RS, LT, 2RS, and Activ. The RS grades have different grille and body trim. The Activ gets accents with a titanium-chrome finish and a faux rear skid plate. All-wheel-drive is no longer offered. All models are powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged, three-cylinder gasoline engine rated at and . The U.S.-market Trax will continue to be built in South Korea.


title: Elastomer

text: An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of "elastic polymer", is often used interchangeably with rubber, although the latter is preferred when referring to vulcanisates. Each of the monomers which link to form the polymer is usually a compound of several elements among carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and silicon. Elastomers are amorphous polymers maintained above their glass transition temperature, so that considerable molecular reconformation is feasible without breaking of covalent bonds. At ambient temperatures, such rubbers are thus relatively compliant (E ≈ 3 MPa) and deformable. Their primary uses are for seals, adhesives and molded flexible parts. Application areas for different types of rubber are manifold and cover segments as diverse as tires, soles for shoes, and damping and insulating elements. The importance of these rubbers can be judged from the fact that global revenues are forecast to rise to US$56 billion in 2020.


title: Elastomer

text: Rubber-like solids with elastic properties are called elastomers. Polymer chains are held together in these materials by relatively weak intermolecular bonds, which permit the polymers to stretch in response to macroscopic stresses.


title: Elastomer

text: Elastomers are usually thermosets (requiring vulcanization) but may also be thermoplastic (see thermoplastic elastomer). The long polymer chains cross-link during curing (i.e. vulcanizing). The molecular structure of elastomers can be imagined as a 'spaghetti and meatball' structure, with the meatballs signifying cross-links. The elasticity is derived from the ability of the long chains to reconfigure themselves to distribute an applied stress. The covalent cross-linkages ensure that the elastomer will return to its original configuration when the stress is removed.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4, also known as the 4L (pronounced "Quatrelle" in French), is a small economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1994. Although the Renault 4 was marketed as a short station wagon, its minimal rear overhang, and single top-hinged rear opening made it the world's first mass-produced hatchback car, as well as the first front-wheel drive family car produced by Renault.


title: Renault 4

text: The car was launched at a time when several decades of economic stagnation were giving way to and surging car ownership in France. The first million cars were produced by 1 February 1966, less than four and a half years after launch; eventually over eight million were built, making the Renault 4 a commercial success because of the timing of its introduction and the merits of its design. Inearly 2020, the 33-year production run of the Renault 4 was counted as the seventeenth most long-lived single generation car in history.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4 was Renault's response to the 1948 Citroën 2CV. Renault was able to review the advantages and disadvantages of the 2CV design. The Citroën had made motoring available to low-income people in France, and especially to farmers and other people in rural areas, for whom the car was as much a working tool as personal transport. The 2CV had been designed in the 1930s for use in the French countryside where the road network was poor - speed was not a requirement but a good ride, useful rough-terrain ability, a versatile body for load carrying, and economy and simplicity of operation were its key considerations. However, by the late 1950s, the 2CV was becoming outdated. Rural roads in France were improved and the national system of autoroutes was being developed. Agriculture was becoming more mechanized with fewer smallholdings and family farms for which the 2CV was designed. The Citroën had also proved popular with people living in towns and cities as affordable, economical transport but the 2CV's rural design brief made it less than ideal as a city car and, despite improvements, the late-1950s 2CV had a top speed of just . Its air-cooled two-cylinder engine was reliable and economical but noisy and offered poor performance. The 2CV's suspension gave it an excellent ride and good grip and handling but was mechanically complex with many moving parts that required regular maintenance and lubrication at intervals as low as every 1000 miles (1600km). With its roots in the 1930s, the 2CV's styling was also outdated and, with its separate wing/fenders, had a relatively narrow and cramped body for its overall footprint. While the Citroën had been designed during the Great Depression when money was tight and living standards were relatively low, by the 1960s the French economy was growing and people would be able to afford a more modern, refined, and less utilitarian small car.


title: Renault 4

text: In early 1956, Renault Chairman Pierre Dreyfus launched this new project: designing a new model to replace the rear engined 4CV and compete against the Citroën 2CV that would become an everyman's car, capable of satisfying the needs of most consumers. It would be a family car, a woman's car, a farmer's car, or a city car.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4 shared many design traits with the older Citroën 2CV to allow it to fulfill the same role as a versatile utility car, especially for people in rural France and other parts of the world with poor roads. It had a large structural platform with a separate body. It had front-wheel drive, long-travel fully independent suspension, and Rack and pinion steering. It had a simple body with minimal equipment, a large space for cargo or luggage, and 'deckchair' seats which could be easily removed. However, the Renault 4 updated this basic concept with a larger four-cylinder water-cooled engine with a sealed cooling system offering much better refinement and performance than the contemporary 2CV, with a top speed of over . The suspension consisted of torsion bars which required no regular maintenance. The boxy full-width body offered more space for both passengers and luggage than the similar-sized 2CV and the car boasted an early hatchback body for greater practicality.


title: Renault 4

text: Renault launched the Renault 3 and the Renault 4 simultaneously in July 1961. The cars shared the same body and most mechanical components, but the R3 was powered by a 603 cc version of the engine while the R4 featured a 747 cc engine. This placed the R3 in the 3CV taxation class while the R4 was in the 4CV class. Maximum power output was rated by Renault as 22.5 hp for the R3, and 26.5 or 32 hp for the R4, depending on price level and the type of carburettor fitted. Initially the base versions of the R3 and R4 came with a thick C-pillar behind each of the rear doors. Quarter glass was a 400 francs option for the basic R4. The extra visibility increased the weight of the vehicle, but these windows soon became standard for all R4s.


title: Renault 4

text: The R3 and R4 were targeted at the Citroën 2CV that employed soft springs and long wheel travel to absorb bumps on rough roads. The Renault 3/4 applied the same approach and two models appeared at the Paris Motor Show in 1961 on a specialized demonstration display that incorporated an irregular rolling road. Visitors could sit inside a car, which remained undisturbed while the suspension absorbed the erratic bumps of the rolling road. In 1962 Renault employed the same display at the Turin Motor Show.


title: Renault 4

text: The basic version of the R3 was priced 40 francs below the lowest-priced version of the Citroën 2CV in 1961 and featured painted bumpers and grille, a simplified instrument panel, a single sun visor, no windshield washer, and no interior door trim panels. This trim was also offered in the more powerful R4. The R4L with six side windows, chrome-colored bumper and grille, as well as a less spartan interior cost 400 francs (roughly 8%) more than the R4 with its four side windows. However, as with the Renault 4CV “Service” in 1953, customers shunned the basic model and in October 1962, the Renault R3 was discontinued, along with the most basic version of the Renault 4.


title: Renault 4

text: A "super" version (branded "de luxe" in some export markets) with opening rear quarter-light windows and extra trim was also offered. The de luxe and super versions of the R4L received a version of the engine from the Renault Dauphine giving them an engine capacity of 845 cc. After the withdrawal of the 603 cc engined R3, the 747 cc R4 model continued to be listed with an entry-level recommended retail price, but the slightly larger-engined L versions were more popular. By 1965, Renault had removed the extra "R" from their model names: the Renault R4L had become the Renault 4L.


title: Renault 4

text: Early versions of the Renault R4 used engines and transmissions from the Renault 4CV. The original design brief called for an engine size between 600 cc and 700 cc, but there was no consensus as to whether to use a four-cylinder unit or to follow Citroën with a two-cylinder unit. With Volkswagen rapidly growing market share across Europe and North America, Renault also gave serious consideration to an air-cooled boxer motor option for the forthcoming R3/R4. However, using the existing water-cooled unit from the 4CV was a solution, especially in view of the extended period of teething troubles encountered by the Renault Fregate, which was then Renault's most recent attempt to develop an innovative powerplant. The existing engines were larger than that specified by management for the new 4CV, but the automaker addressed this by reducing the bore so that the overall capacity of the base engine for the new R3 worked out to be 603 cc, comfortably at the lower end of the required 600–700 cc range. However, since Renault already produced the 747 cc version of the engine that was well proven in the 4CV, it made sense to use this as well in what would in many respects be the older car's successor. Therefore, in 1961, the R3 had a 49 mm bore and 80 mm stroke, while the R4 received the 54.5 mm × 80 mm existing engine.


title: Renault 4

text: Moving the engine from the rear of the 4CV to the front of the new model involved significant planning: design changes to the unit were introduced as part of the process. The inlet manifold was now a steel casting whereas on the 4CV it had been constructed of a light-weight alloy: this was driven by cost considerations now that aluminum was not so inexpensive as it had been fifteen years earlier. Renault also took the opportunity to introduce a feature which subsequently became mainstream. Renault also designed a “sealed-for-life” cooling system, supported by a small expansion tank on the right side of the engine bay. The cooling system contained antifreeze intended to enable operation without topping up or other intervention throughout a car's life provided ambient temperatures below -40 C were avoided.


title: Renault 4

text: The engines were larger than the small 425 cc (later 602 cc and 29 hp), engines in the 2CV. The R4 always had a four-cylinder watercooled engine. The original Renault R4’s engine capacity of 747 cc served to differentiate the model from the more powerful Renault Dauphine, but the Dauphine’s 845 cc engine was used in the 4 itself from 1963 onwards: for most markets at this stage the Dauphine engine now came as standard in the top of the range Renault R4 Super, and was available in some other versions only as an optional extra. Given that Renault’s 603, 747, and 845 cc engines all shared the same cylinder stroke and were all of the same basic design, it is likely that there was very little difference between the manufacturing costs of the basic engine block between the three. From the perspective of the sales and marketing department, they did fall within different taxation classes (respectively 3CV, 4CV, and 5CV) but at this end of the market tax level differences were by now less of an issue even in those European countries that still taxed cars according to engine size.


title: Renault 4

text: With time, the increasing trend to the production of Renault 4s in a wide range of countries reduces the validity of generalized statements as to which engines were fitted when: in French-built cars the old 845 cc engine continued in the low versions until the mid-1980s, but in 1978 the top-end Renault 4 GTLs received the new 1108 cc engine: this engine was not new to Renault, however, being the five-bearing “Sierra” engine, first installed in the Estafette van and R8 in the summer of 1962. A smaller version (956 cc) of this new engine finally replaced the by now venerable 845 cc engine in the 4 in 1986. Unlike the original "Billancourt" engine from the 4CV, Renault's “Sierra” engine rotated in a clockwise direction, so fitting it required reversing the direction of the differential in the gear box in order to avoid producing a car with one forward speed and four reverse speeds.


title: Renault 4

text: The initial transmission was a three-speed manual, described by one critic as an obsolete feature when compared to the four-speed manual of the then thirteen-year-old Citroën 2CV. Ironically the new Renault 4 did not inherit its transmission from the Renault 4CV nor from anyone else: the transmission was newly developed for the car. The dash-mounted gear lever was linked via a straight horizontal rod that passed over the longitudinally mounted engine and clutch directly to the gearbox right at the front. The resulting absence of any linkage at floor level permitted a flat floor across the full width of the car's cabin. Synchromesh featured only on the top two ratios, even though the low power of the engine required frequent gear changes by drivers using normal roads and wishing to make reasonable progress. On this point Renault quickly acknowledged their error and cars produced from 1962 featured synchromesh on all three ratios. In 1968 the Renault 4 finally received a four-speed transmission.


title: Renault 4

text: The three principal new models introduced by Renault since the war featured monocoque "chassisless" construction that was less expensive to manufacture process and reduced operating costs because of lower vehicle weight. The Renault R3/R4 design defied this by now widely accepted mantra, employing a separate platform to which the body shell was then attached. The body's structural role in maintaining the overall rigidity of the car body was thereby reduced, placing less stress on the roof and allowing for thinner window pillars. Although the use made of a separate platform resembled, in some respects, the use that pre-war designs would have made of a chassis, the outcome was a structure described as semi-monocoque, and it would later allow Renault to use the R4 platform, with very little modification, to build new models such as the Renault 6 and Rodeo. (Later, the successful Renault 5 used the R4 running gear, but in a monocoque shell).


title: Renault 4

text: The R3 and R4 had four-wheel torsion-bar independent suspension. This was an innovation that would be copied on a succession of subsequent front-engined Renaults introduced during the 1960s and 70s.


title: Renault 4

text: The car features a shorter wheelbase on the left than on the right because the rear wheels are not mounted directly opposite one another. This concept allowed a very simple design of the rear suspension using transverse torsion bars located one behind the other without affecting handling. The front torsion bars were longitudinal.


title: Renault 4

text: The fixed end of the torsion bars is mounted on quadrants that can be adjusted via a holes/fixing bolt arrangement. This enables the suspension to be "beefed up" and the ground clearance increased. With specialist tools provided by Renault, adjustments can be made to provide the light 4L some off-road capabilities. This feature, along with the installation of a thick protecting aluminum plate under the engine, has been used by and off-road drivers and student 4L Trophy entrants. Damping was provided by hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers on all four wheels. Those at the rear were mounted virtually horizontally which avoided the intrusion of rear suspension componentry into the flat-floored passenger cabin.


title: Renault 4

text: The longitudinal layout of the front-wheel drive engine and transmission with the engine behind the front axle, and gearbox/differential in front, is identical to the Citroën Traction Avant. The suspension is similar with the difference being the deletion of the Citroën's flexible beam between the rear wheels to give the Renault 4 fully independent rear suspension.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4 was a basic car with a simple dashboard and sliding windows. Suspension and seats were designed for comfort, and ventilation and the heater were effective.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4 was not significantly changed during its production. Exterior chrome trim was eventually phased out on all models, and aluminium grilles were replaced with plastic. There were three different dashboard designs. On the right side of the car at the back the position of the fuel filler was raised by approximately 15 cm (6 inches) less than a year after the car's launch, but changes to the body panels were limited to a slightly altered hood and hinges.


title: Renault 4

text: Renault developed small cars, the Renault 6 and the Renault 5, while the Renault 4 was still selling well. The Renault 5 competed in a different sector (three-and five-door supermini). The Renault 4 is intermediate between the small utility vehicle (2CV) and the supermini design (R5, Peugeot 205).


title: Renault 4

text: There were many different 'special edition' Renault 4s. Some (including the Safari, Sixties, and Jogging) were sold in special colour schemes, upholstery and other details, while others (Clan, Savane) were standard models with special decals.


title: Renault 4

text: There were also special models that were not solely a marketing exercise, such as the Renault 4 Sinpar 4x4, the Plein Air, a pickup truck, LPG versions, and electric versions.


title: Renault 4

text: The Plein Air was a doorless and roofless version originally developed to meet a 1964 request by the French Army. Sinpar's version, called the Sinpar 4x4 Torpedo, was first shown as a prototype at the 1968 Geneva Salon, equipped with Sinpar's four-wheel-drive system. Sinpar was quickly given a contract to build a front-wheel-drive version at their works in Colombes near Paris; it appeared in May 1968. Called the Plein Air (meaning "Open Air"), it had no doors, with only a chain protecting the passengers. A military contract did not materialize but Renault and Sinpar attempted to ride the late sixties/early seventies buggy wave in marketing it as a fun beach car. Being more expensive and less capable than the Citroën Méhari it did not catch on and was discontinued in March 1970, after only 563 had been built. In 1989, Colombian SOFASA produced the variants "Brisa" (Breeze) which was based on the French "Plein Air" and "Jogging", which was marketed as a sportier version of the car and featured red accessories.


title: Renault 4

text: In 1978, the "R4 GTL" arrived. It had the 1108 cc engine from the Renault 6 TL, albeit with the performance reduced for better economy, and bigger drum brakes. The GTL was identifiable by its grey front grille, grey bumpers, and grey plastic strips along the bottoms of the doors. It also had an extra air intake below the front grille (as a result, the registration plate was moved down to the bumper), and 12 inch (304.8 mm) wiper blades instead of the original 10 inch (254 mm) ones. For the 1983 model year, the GTL got front disc brakes, the handbrake now working on the rear wheels, and there were a modified dashboard and cloth seats. The Renault 4 was the last French automobile to be sold with drum brakes on all four wheels, after the Citroën 2CV received disc brakes in 1981. The very first 1983 models had the handbrake lever moved from left to right under the steering wheel before it was moved to the floor like in almost any other car by then.


title: Renault 4

text: There was also a panel van (Fourgonnette) version of the R4, which with its "high cube" bodyshell and the unique 'giraffon' (giraffe hatch) at the rear became the idiosyncratic French "Boulangerie" van. For many years, this was a successful vehicle of its type and for many customers, as it represents their idea of a Renault 4 more than a passenger version. It remained on sale in Europe until 1993 and was replaced by the Renault Express (called Extra in UK and Ireland, Rapid in Germany), which was based on the second generation Renault 5 'Supercinq'.


title: Renault 4

text: Though reasons such as emissions and safety legislation are often given for the Renault 4's demise in Europe during the 1980s, it would appear that its popularity would not have lasted. Outmoded production methods, more advanced competition and the reasons outlined above meant that the Renault 4's days were numbered, at least as a mainstream product. And Renault was already enjoying huge sales success with the far more modern R5, which was only slightly more expensive. Comparable products had already been discontinued in Europe or had their production scaled back, as more modern designs enjoyed the strongest sales. British Leyland's Mini had been produced in smaller figures since the launch of the Austin Metro in 1980 with production continuing until 2000. Volkswagen had switched Beetle production from West Germany to Mexico in 1978 (where it was made until 2003), with the new Polo and Golf proving hugely popular in Europe. Citroën kept its 2CV in production until 1990, but did not directly replace it, with the AX (launched in 1986) taking its place as the entry-level model in the Citroën range. It had also produced the earlier Dyane and Visa as more modern and only marginally more expensive alternatives to 2CV.


title: Renault 4

text: There were several projects to replace the Renault 4, starting from the early 1970s. However, the continuing success of the Renault 4, the need to replace the more popular Renault 5 during the early 1980s, the difficulties coming up with a suitable replacement (and the idea that the Renault 4's market would die with it) all meant that a new entry-level Renault (the Twingo) did not appear until 1992. To conclude production, a series of 1000 examples marketed as "Bye-Bye" was released, each with a numbered plaque.


title: Renault 4

text: To mark the end of Renault 4 production, a retrospective series of ten black-and-white photographs by was published in Libération in early December 1992, when R4 production finally finished after 31 years. This series later won first prize from Le Club des Directeur Artistiques in the category of daily newspaper. It was also awarded the Lion d'Or at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.


title: Renault 4

text: In 2003, a Japanese car modification company called DAMD came up with a design called the Ancel Lapin which could transform a first-generation Suzuki Lapin into a Renault 4 lookalike.


title: Renault 4

text: In 2021, it was announced that the Renault 4 would be reintroduced during the 2020s as the "4ever", a compact crossover cousin of the forthcoming all-electric Renault 5 EV. It will be built alongside the 5 EV at Renault ElectriCity, a union of three existing Renault factories in northern France that is planned to produce 400,000 EVs per year by 2025. The 4ever is based on the same CMF-B EV platform as the 5 EV; because the platform shares of its components with the existing CMF-B platform, production costs are expected to be of the current Zoe.


title: Renault 4

text: The Renault 4 was originally powered by a engine and its suspension were never intended for sporting dynamics. The Renault 4 had certain advantages in its high torque and a suspension and ground-clearance that gave it go-anywhere capabilities. This meant that Renault was able to give it a sporting image with programs such as the "Cross Elf Cup of France" in 1974 and the "Routes du Monde" program in 1968. The latter was a project in which Renault would lend young people cars to travel the world in, and this would help to give the Renault 4 an adventurous and durable image. The "Coupe de France Renault Cross Elf" was a series of races in France on dirt tracks with slightly tuned 782 cc R4s.