title: Sleeping Murder

text: The book features Miss Marple. Released posthumously, it was the last published Christie novel, although not the last Miss Marple novel in order of writing. The story is explicitly set in 1944 but the first draft of the novel had been written even earlier than this during the Second World War. She aids a young couple who choose to uncover events in the wife's past life, and not let sleeping murder lie.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Newlywed Gwenda Reed travels ahead of her husband to find a home for them on the south coast of England. In a short time, she finds and buys Hillside, a large old house that feels just like home. She supervises workers in a renovation, staying in a one-time nursery room while the work progresses. She forms a definite idea for the little nursery. When the workmen open a long sealed door, she sees the very wallpaper that was in her mind. Further, a place that seems logical to her for a doorway between two rooms proves to have been one years earlier. She goes to London for a visit with relatives, the author Raymond West, his wife, and his aunt, Miss Jane Marple. During the play, "The Duchess of Malfi", when the line "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young" is spoken, Gwenda screams out; she saw an image of herself viewing a man saying those words strangling a blonde-haired woman named Helen.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Gwenda was born in India where her father was stationed, then raised in New Zealand by her mother's sister from a toddler, once her mother died. Her father died a few years after her mother. She has memories of being on a ship, but it is clearly two ships. Miss Marple suggests that Gwenda lived in England with her father and his second wife, which proves to be the case. Her stepmother, Helen Halliday née Kennedy, met her father travelling from India back to England, where their shipboard romance led to marriage upon arrival in England. They rented a house in Dillmouth, where Helen grew up. The coincidences prove to be memories from Gwenda's stay in that house 18 years ago as a very young child. Now Gwenda ponders her frightening image and the closing words of the play: are they real memories as well? Her husband Giles arrives from New Zealand and the couple decide to pursue this mystery.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Helen was raised mainly by her half brother, Dr Kennedy, now retired from practice and moved to another village. He replies to an advertisement placed by Giles seeking information about Helen.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Miss Marple arranges to visit friends in Dillmouth. Miss Marple is often at the house, pulling out bindweed from the neglected garden. She finds the man who once gardened for the Kennedy family, brother and sister, who supplies several useful descriptions of events then. Miss Marple finds the cook from the Halliday household, Edith, who remembers that time well. The Hallidays were soon to move to a house in Norfolk before Helen disappeared. Helen wanted to get away. The servants presumed this was from her husband, but it was not. She was mainly interested in escaping her brother. She did fall in love with Halliday, and loved his daughter.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The Reeds advertise, seeking the Hallidays' former maid Lily. She writes first to Dr Kennedy, thinking he is a friend. She says that she does not believe that Helen ran off, as the clothes packed in her suitcase made no sense (taking an evening gown but not the shoes and belt that go with it). The Reeds and Dr Kennedy agree he should write back to her to arrange a meeting at his present home. Lily never arrives.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The police find Lily's body, strangled, in a copse near the train station. She came by an earlier train, but had Dr Kennedy's letter with her, for the later arrival time. Miss Marple advises Gwenda to tell the police everything. Soon, they are digging up the garden, at the end of the terrace, to find Helen’s body. Gwenda is in the house alone when Dr Kennedy approaches her, ready to kill her by strangling when his attempt to poison her failed. Miss Marple arrives with a container of soapy solution, which she sprays in his eyes to stop the murder attempt.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Dr Kennedy had strangled his sister, saying the closing words from that play, unaware of young Gwenda at the stair railing above. He buried Helen in the garden. He set up her husband to think he had strangled her, but there was no body, so he was taken as insane, and died in a nursing home. His diary from that time showed him to be quite sane, but he could not explain what he had seen, his strangled wife next to him. Kennedy had first given drugs to make Halliday paranoid, and then drugged his drink so Dr Kennedy could pose him next to the strangled Helen. Then Kennedy moved her body again. The letter found with Lily was not the one she received from Kennedy; he switched it after he killed her. He knew the police would see through his scheme. He sent the nanny Leonie home to Switzerland with medicines that killed her. Miss Marple explains all this to the Reeds, the full confession from Kennedy and how they should have seen it from the start, from those words in the play.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Agatha Christie wrote "Curtain" (Hercule Poirot's last mystery, which concludes the sleuth's career and life) and "Sleeping Murder" during World War II to be published after her death, and "Sleeping Murder" was written sometime during the Blitz, which took place between September 1940 and May 1941. Agatha Christie's literary correspondence files indicate that the initial draft of the novel eventually published as "Sleeping Murder" was written early in 1940.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Christie's notebooks are open to interpretation in hindsight; John Curran argues that "Sleeping Murder" was still being planned at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. His basis is the many changes to the title of the novel, as other authors used her first title ideas: one of Christie's notebooks contain references to "Cover Her Face" (second title) under "Plans for Sept. 1947" and "Plans for Nov. 1948", suggesting she was planning to re-read and revise the manuscript. It is on the basis of these dates John Curran argues that Christie had still to write the manuscript.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Previous biographers, who did not have access to the Notebooks, state that "Sleeping Murder" was written in 1940.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Nevertheless, support for the story being first written in 1940 is found in the correspondence files of Christie's literary agents: Christie's royalty statement for 15 March 1940 states that the secretarial agency hired by Edmund Cork to type up "Murder in Retrospect" (first title of manuscript) charged £19 13s. 9d. On 7 June 1940 Edmund Cork wrote to Christie advising her that he would have the necessary 'deed of gift' drawn up so her husband Max would become the owner of the unpublished Miss Marple novel. Christie eventually visited Edmund Cork's offices at 40 Fleet Street, London, on 14 October 1940 and signed the document transferring ownership of the copyright of "Murder in Retrospect" to her husband in consideration of what was termed her "natural love and affection for him".


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Christie refers to the last Poirot and Miss Marple novels that she penned during the Second World War in her autobiography. She writes that she had written an extra two books during the first years of the war in anticipation of being killed in the raids, as she was working in London. One was for her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, which she wrote first – a book with Hercule Poirot in it – and the other was for Max – with Miss Marple in it. She adds that these two books, after being composed, were put in the vaults of a bank, and were made over formally by deed of gift to her daughter and husband.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The last Marple novel Christie wrote, "Nemesis", was published in 1971, followed by Christie's last Poirot novel "Elephants Can Remember" in 1972 and then in 1973 by her very last novel "Postern of Fate". Aware that she would write no more novels, Christie authorised the publication of "Curtain" in 1975 to send off Poirot. She then arranged to have "Sleeping Murder" published in 1976, but she died before its publication in October 1976.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: By contrast to Poirot, who dies in the final novel, Miss Marple lives on. This last published novel is set in 1944, but follows novels set in later years and which show Miss Marple to have aged. In "Nemesis", Miss Marple does no gardening on the advice of her doctor, showing the effects of her more fragile health; in "Sleeping Murder", Miss Marple is frequently on her knees pulling bindweed from the neglected garden at the home of the Reeds, showing her to be stronger, and in the chronology of the fictional character's life, not working on her truly final case. There is a reference to a wireless set as being a special purchase by Lily were she to receive money by responding to the newspaper notice seeking her, which reinforces the story's setting in the 1930s as the author intended in her final revisions done in 1950.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Christie's original manuscript of "Sleeping Murder" was entitled "Murder in Retrospect" after one of the chapters in the book. When the Hercule Poirot novel "Five Little Pigs" was later serialized in the US in "Collier's Weekly" from September to November 1941, the magazine's editing board retitled it "Murder in Retrospect". This was also the title used by Christie's American publisher Dodd Mead and Company, presumably in order to capitalize on the recent US serialization. Christie's original manuscript of "Sleeping Murder" was duly retitled "Cover Her Face".


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Following the publication of P.D. James's début crime novel "Cover Her Face" in 1962, Christie became aware of the need to think up yet another title for the last Miss Marple book. She wrote to Edmund Cork on 17 July 1972, asking him to send her a copy of the unpublished Miss Marple manuscript and a copy of Max's deed of gift. So much time had passed that she was unable to remember if the manuscript was still called "Cover Her Face" or "She Died Young".


title: Sleeping Murder

text: George Thaw in the "Daily Mirror" of 22 October 1976 said, "Agatha Christie's last novel is very good. "Sleeping Murder" is the last of Miss Marple's excursions into detection. But perhaps it is her best. Agatha Christie wrote it years ago but if I was going to pick a swansong book this is certainly the one that I would choose. It's her best for years."


title: Sleeping Murder

text: Robert Barnard: "Slightly somniferous mystery, written in the 'forties but published after Christie's death. Concerns a house where murder has been committed, bought (by the merest coincidence) by someone who as a child saw the body. Sounds like Ross Macdonald, and certainly doesn't read like vintage Christie. But why should an astute businesswoman hold back one of her better performances for posthumous publication?"


title: Sleeping Murder

text: "Sleeping Murder" was filmed by the BBC as a 100-minute film in the sixth adaptation (of twelve) in the series "Miss Marple" starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. It was transmitted in two 50-minute parts on Sunday, 11 January and Sunday, 18 January 1987. This adaptation is fairly true to the plot of the novel.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The novel was adapted to a Syrian drama series, "جريمة في الذاكرة" "Crime in the Memory" that was broadcast in 1992.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The novel was adapted as a set of 4 episodes of the Japanese animated television series "Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple", airing in 2005.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: A second British television adaptation, set in 1951, was transmitted on 5 February 2006 as part of ITV's "Agatha Christie's Marple", starring Geraldine McEwan and Sophia Myles, as Miss Marple and Gwenda, respectively. This adaptation had numerous plot changes. The most significant change is at the end it is revealed that Gwenda's mother and stepmother were one and the same person. Claire was a jewel thief and to escape the Indian Police-Detectives, she faked her death and assumed the identity of "Helen Marsden". Other changes include the deletion of some of Helen's suitors, and the addition of a travelling company of performers called "The Funnybones", which Helen was performing with at the time of her death. Dr Kennedy became the half-brother of Kelvin's first wife, (whose name is changed from Megan to Claire). Gwenda has an absent fiancé, Charles, rather than a husband. At the end, Gwenda leaves him and becomes engaged to a member of his company, Hugh Hornbeam. Dr Kennedy does not try to kill Gwenda and does not appear to be crazy, merely that he was in love with his sister and killed her so no one could have her. Kelvin is not taken to hospital and drugged by Dr Kennedy with datura. Instead, he is murdered when Dr Kennedy pushes him over a rocky cliff.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The tenth episode of the French television series "Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie" was an adaptation of this novel. It aired in 2012.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: The novel was adapted as a 90-minute play for BBC Radio 4 and transmitted as part of the Saturday Play strand on 8 December 2001. June Whitfield reprised her role as Miss Marple (she played Miss Marple in several radio adaptations in the 20th century). It was recorded on 10 October 2001.


title: Sleeping Murder

text: In the US the novel was serialised in "Ladies' Home Journal" in two abridged instalments from July (Volume XCIII, Number 7) to August 1976 (Volume XCIII, Number 8) with an illustration by Fred Otnes.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: The Ford Godzilla engine is a V8 engine offered by the Ford Motor Company. The engine is intended to replace the Modular V10 engine and displaces the Boss V8 engine in many uses. The engine was first used with Ford Super Duty trucks starting with the 2020 model year and was later added to the Ford E-Series for the 2021 model year. It is also available as a crate engine. Exterior dimensions are smaller than the 385-series 460 engine, and slightly larger than those of the 351 Windsor engine.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: Because the engine uses overhead valves actuated by pushrods, it is smaller than many of the overhead camshaft Ford Modular engines, and can be fitted to older cars.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: Ford offers several different ratings of the engines that can prioritize either performance or economy. More performance oriented tunings are intended as a replacement for the Modular V10 engine, while economy tunings replace the Boss V8 engine.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: The highest current state of tune, offered on the Ford Super Duty (F-250/350/450) pickup trucks, offers at 5,500 RPM and of torque at 4,000 RPM.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: For the largest Super Duty trucks (F-550/600) and the medium-duty Ford F-650/750 trucks, the engine is de-tuned to at 3,750 RPM, but with more torque, at 3,750 RPM.


title: Ford Godzilla engine

text: The E-Series offers two versions that were de-tuned even further. The "premium-rated" version generates and of torque at 3,750 RPM, while the "economy-rated" variant produces and of torque at 3,250 RPM.


title: Celia Walden

text: Walden is a feature writer and former gossip columnist. She was the last editor of "The Daily Telegraph's" now defunct diary, "Spy". She previously wrote for the "Evening Standard" and the "Daily Mail". Her first novel, "Harm's Way", was published in August 2008.


title: Celia Walden

text: Walden wrote a column published in "The Daily Telegraph" on 24 March 2011, expressing her hatred of cyclists. The end of her article read "(…) and of course this lot are so confident on the roads that they will all be plugged into their iPods, calmly humming 'lalalalala' along to Sasha Distel, as that articulated lorry indicates left". The article was published in the same week that a cyclist in central London had been killed by a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) turning left into her path. Her column was condemned by the "Cycling Intelligence" website.


title: Celia Walden

text: Walden's memoir from 2011 of her time spent with footballer George Best, "Babysitting George", was vehemently criticised as "largely fictional" by his widow, Alex Best, who threatened legal action against the book's publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing. "The Observer" quoted Best's former mistress, Gina Devivo, describing the work as being by someone "with a very good imagination". Devivo added: "I am most angry for George, because he is not here to defend himself. It just didn't happen that way. George would be absolutely livid. He only ever spent a few days with Celia at most and had no rapport with her at all. I did tell Celia it was wrong before publication, and she told me she would put something in the front of the book saying it had all happened 'to the best of her memory'. In the end, though, she didn't, and she even thanked me for my 'continuing friendship', in the first pages, even though she hadn't seen me for eight years".


title: Celia Walden

text: Walden began a relationship with fellow journalist Piers Morgan in January 2006. She married Morgan in a private ceremony in the Oxfordshire village of Swinbrook on 24 June 2010.


title: Celia Walden

text: Morgan announced in June 2011 that the couple were expecting a child, and on 25 November 2011, Walden gave birth to Elise Pughe-Morgan, her first child, and her husband's fourth.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: Marianne Bachmeier (3 June 1950 – 17 September 1996) became famous in Germany after she shot and killed the murderer of her daughter in an act of vigilantism in the hall of the District Court of Lübeck in 1981.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: Marianne Bachmeier grew up in Sarstedt, after her parents fled from East Prussia. Her father had been a member of the Waffen-SS. Her parents divorced, and her mother later remarried.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: In 1966, at the age of 16, Marianne Bachmeier had her first child, who she gave up for adoption as an infant. She became pregnant again at the age of 18 by her then-boyfriend. Shortly before the birth of her daughter, Marianne was raped. Her second child was also given up for adoption as an infant. In 1973, Marianne's third daughter, Anna, was born. After Anna's birth, Marianne had a tubal ligation operation, and she raised Anna alone as a single parent.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: On 5 May 1980, when Anna Bachmeier was seven years old, she had an argument with her mother and decided to skip school. Anna was abducted by Klaus Grabowski, a 35-year-old butcher, whose home she had visited to play with his cats. He held Anna for several hours at his home, sexually assaulted her, and ultimately strangled her with a pair of his fiancée's tights. According to the prosecutor, he tied the girl up and packed her into a box, which he then left on the bank of a canal. His fiancée turned him in to the police.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: Klaus Grabowski was a convicted sex offender and had previously been sentenced for the sexual abuse of two girls. In 1976, he voluntarily submitted to chemical castration, though it was later revealed that he underwent hormone treatment to try to reverse the castration. Once arrested, Grabowski stated that he did not intend to abuse Anna sexually. He said that Anna tried to seduce and extort him, and his fear of going back to prison prompted him to kill her. He said the girl had wanted to tell her mother that he had touched her inappropriately, with the aim of extorting money from him.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: On 6 March 1981, the third day of the trial, Marianne Bachmeier smuggled a Beretta 70 into the courtroom of Lübeck District Court and shot the confessed killer of her daughter, Klaus Grabowski, in the back. She aimed the gun at Grabowski's back and pulled the trigger eight times. Seven of the shots hit him, and the 35-year-old defendant was killed almost instantly.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: This is likely the most well-known case of vigilante justice in West Germany. It sparked extensive media coverage, and television crews from all over the world traveled to Lübeck to report on this case.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: A large part of the population showed understanding for her actions. She sold her life story for about 250,000 Deutsche Mark in an exclusive to the news magazine "Stern".


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: On 2 November 1982, Marianne Bachmeier was initially charged in court with murder. Later the prosecution dropped the murder charge. After 28 days of negotiations, the Board agreed on the verdict. Four months after the opening of proceedings she was convicted on 2 March 1983 by the Circuit Court Chamber of the District Court Lübeck for manslaughter and sentenced for unlawful possession of a firearm to six years in prison but was later released after serving three years.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: Marianne Bachmeier married in 1985 and in 1988 moved to Lagos, Nigeria, with her husband, a teacher. They lived in a German camp where her husband taught at a German school. They divorced in 1990 and she moved to Sicily. She was diagnosed with cancer in Sicily, and then returned to Germany.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: On 21 September 1995, she appeared on the talk show "Fliege" on the Das Erste TV channel. She admitted that she had shot the alleged killer of her daughter after careful consideration, to enforce the law on him, and to prevent him from further spreading lies about Anna.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: On 17 September 1996, she died at the age of 46 from pancreatic cancer in a hospital in Lübeck. It had actually been her desire to die in her adopted home of Palermo. Before her death, she asked the NDR reporter, Lukas Maria Böhmer, to accompany her and film the last stages of her life. She is buried in the same grave as her daughter Anna in a graveyard in Lübeck.


title: Marianne Bachmeier

text: In the early 1980s, the Anna Collective, a group made up of Aida Jordão, Suzanne Odette Khuri, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Patricia Nichols, Baņuta Rubess, Tori Smith, Barb Taylor, and Maureen White, began work on a theatre piece about Bachmeier and her vigilante act. A short version of the play premiered in 1983. The completed play, "This is for You, Anna", premiered in 1984.


title: Flower (film)

text: Flower is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed by Max Winkler, from a screenplay by Alex McAulay, Winkler, and Matt Spicer. It stars Zoey Deutch, Kathryn Hahn, Tim Heidecker, Adam Scott, Joey Morgan, and Dylan Gelula.


title: Flower (film)

text: It had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2017. It was released theatrically on March 16, 2018, by The Orchard.


title: Flower (film)

text: Seventeen-year-old Erica Vandross gives a police officer oral in his patrol car, after which two of her friends sneak up and record them. They extort $400 from the cop as Erica is underage. Erica and her friends are vigilantes who frequently entrap pedophiles. Erica is saving up to bail her father out of prison, where he is awaiting trial for trying to rob a casino.


title: Flower (film)

text: Erica's mother Laurie is not bothered by Erica's promiscuity, but Laurie is disappointed that Erica does not like Laurie's new boyfriend Bob. Bob has an obese son named Luke, an emotionally disturbed 18-year-old who gets out of rehab and comes to live with them. Erica offers Luke oral sex, which he refuses, but they soon develop an unlikely friendship.


title: Flower (film)

text: At a bowling alley, Luke has a panic attack when he sees his middle school teacher, Will Jordan, whom he accused of sexual assault. Will was never charged due to inconsistencies in Luke's story. Later that night, Erica interrupts Luke's suicide attempt.


title: Flower (film)

text: Erica and her posse decide to make Will their next target, and Luke reluctantly agrees to participate. At a grocery store, Erica flirts with Will, and later she approaches him at the bowling alley. Although Will is aware that Erica is underage, they make out in his car in the parking lot. Before things can go any further, she abruptly stops it. Her friends accuse her of sabotaging the plan because she likes Will.


title: Flower (film)

text: The gang forms a new plan. Erica blows a drug dealer in exchange for roofies and they lace a beer with it. Erica visits Will's house with a six pack, apologizes for the previous night, and they go inside his house to hang out. She asks about a model of the Eiffel Tower on his coffee table, and this prompts him to tell the story of being fired and divorced after he was falsely accused of molestation. Erica slaps the beer out of his hand, but as he feels the strong effect of the roofies, he grabs her arm and she screams. Luke runs in and knocks Will onto the glass coffee table, smashing it. The four of them pick Will up and prop him up on the couch while two of the girls strip down to their underwear and take pictures with him to use as blackmail. Luke worries that Will's breathing is too slow, but they leave, shaken by the encounter. On the way out, Erica sees that the other girls have spray-painted the word "pedophile" on the garage door.


title: Flower (film)

text: The next morning, police show up at the Vandross house and accuse Erica and Luke of vandalism. They mention that they have not been able to contact Will yet, so Erica and Luke go back to his house to make sure he is okay. They find Will sitting on the couch exactly where they left him and try to shake him awake, but he is dead. He falls over, revealing blood and the Eiffel Tower model impaled in his back. Luke convinces Erica they have to run away to Mexico.


title: Flower (film)

text: While on the run, Erica looks for reassurance from Luke that Will deserved what happened to him. Luke reveals that he was never molested by Will; he walked in on Will molesting his classmate, but she was afraid to tell anyone, so Luke lied to keep it from happening to anyone else. Luke surprises Erica by driving her to her father's prison and giving her bail money. However, she is heartbroken to find out that he was bailed out a few days ago and did not contact her.


title: Flower (film)

text: Erica decides she does not want to live life as a fugitive; she wants them to go home and turn themselves in. Luke agrees, but on their way back, a police car tries to pull them over. Erica tells Luke that they cannot get caught before turning themselves in, so they try to lose the police on a dirt road. During the chase, Luke confesses his love for Erica. They give up on the chase, stop the car, and have sex on the ground, where the police find them. One month later, Erica visits Luke in prison shortly before her house arrest begins. Despite their circumstances, they are happy and in love.


title: Flower (film)

text: On June 23, 2016, it was reported that Zoey Deutch, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, and Tim Heidecker would star in "Flower", directed by Max Winkler from a script by Alex McAulay that was on the 2012 Black List of best unproduced screenplays. Filming was set to begin that summer.


title: Flower (film)

text: "Flower" premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2017. Shortly after, The Orchard acquired distribution rights to the film. The first trailer teaser was released on December 1, 2017. The film was released on March 16, 2018.


title: Flower (film)

text: The film holds an approval rating of 50% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 74 reviews with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critics consensus states, ""Flower" proves Zoey Deutch can bring even the most preposterously written characters vividly to life—and that she isn't quite enough to carry a fundamentally flawed film." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: C/o Kancharapalem (spelt as Care of Kancharapalem) is a 2018 Telugu-language slice of life anthology film written and directed by debutant Venkatesh Maha. It is produced by American filmmaker Praveena Paruchuri and distributed by Rana Daggubati under the banner of Suresh Productions. The film features a cast of over 80 non-actors, most of them native to Kancharapalem, a neighbourhood of Visakhapatnam where the film is set. The plot follows four uncoventional love stories parallelly, all set in the neighbourhood of Kancharapalem.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: "C/o Kancharapalem" premiered in May 2018 at the New York Indian Film Festival, The film was released theatrically in India on 7 September 2018. The film received positive reviews from the audience and a majority of the film critics. The film received the Best Critic Movie award at 2019 Zee Cine Awards Telugu. It was also screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. It was honored with "Best Film Award" at the "Critics' Choice Festival of Indian films" in Mumbai, the "Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival" in Boston, where in the lead actor Subba Rao received the "Best Actor" honor, and Film Companion's "25 Best Telugu Films of the Decade". The film was remade in Tamil as "C/o Kaadhal" (2021) and in Kannada as "Monsoon Raga" (2022).


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: The story focuses on four couples cutting across age, religion, caste and class barrier in the small town of Kancharapalem near Visakhapatnam. It also shows how life and time plays a significant role in the fate of the four couples who break social norms for the sake of love.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: The idea of "C/o Kancherapalem" struck director Maha while he was visiting an old friend living in the neighbourhood of Kancharapalem. After interacting with the local people and closely observing their lifestyle, Maha decided to make an independent film about the locality and its people.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Maha later happened to meet Praveena Paruchuri, an Indian American cardiologist who was looking to make a film in India. Maha showed Parachuri a pitch video of his story, for which she was instantly impressed and told him, "This is made for Cannes." Parachuri offered to produce the film and paid Maha as an initial amount.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Maha recruited most of his cast, nearly 80 non-actors, who are from the town itself. While no one in the town took seriously that he was making a film, they had shown great enthusiasm to act nonetheless. Maha also cast Paruchuri for a role when she flew down from U.S. to visit the sets.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: The film was shot for 62 days over two schedules in Kancharapalem and Bheemili suburbs of Visakhapatnam.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Post production work of the film is done at Ramanaidu Studios where its owner D. Suresh Babu happened to watch the film. Babu acquired the distribution rights of the film immediately.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: The soundtrack and background score was scored by Sweekar Agasthi, and the audio was released on 8 September 2018 on Aditya Music.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of "The Hindu" called it a "small film with a large heart", further appreciating it by remarking "a rare Telugu film that takes us beyond the habitual cinematic settings to familiarize us with the sights, sounds and lives of people of a locality."


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Baradwaj Rangan of "Film Companion South" reviewed, "A deeply moving romantic drama," and added "The format may suggest we are watching "Love, Actually" set in a village, in the midst of “what will people say?” considerations and drunks singing a Telugu song to the tune of "Gori tera gaon bada pyara". But "C/o Kancharapalem" is a slow burn that builds and builds, and it goes far beyond the "Love, Actually" template. Yes, it’s cute and charming and very funny. But it’s also… real. [...] There’s a lot of mindfulness in the writing.[...] It’s been a while since a film showed us a side of love that’s so expansive, so generous, so attuned to the fact that love means… not just romantic love."


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: Srivathsan Nadadhur of "The Times of India" rated it a "4/5" and reviewed, "C/O Kancharapalem raises a toast to sincere, uncinematic storytelling, gives power to those unheard regional voices and does its part in undoing the stereotypical portrayal of community-specific stories in Telugu cinema."


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: At the US Box office, the film collected $36,000 on its first day, and $185,000 in the opening weekend.


title: C/o Kancharapalem

text: The film was remade in Tamil and Kannada as "C/O Kaadhal" and "Monsoon Raaga" respectively. The Tamil version was directed by debutant, Hemambar Jasti.


Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Ukrainian: Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу, "Zyma u vohni: Borot'ba Ukrayini za svobodu") is a 2015 documentary film directed by Evgeny Afineevsky, written by Den Tolmor about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 to 23 February 2014.


title: Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

text: Produced by Evgeny Afineevsky, Den Tolmor and Netflix, the film is a coproduction of Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom.


text: "Winter on Fire" was screened at various film festivals before its release on 9 October 2015 on Netflix.


text: The film had its world premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, it won the .


text: This documentary follows the 2013–2014 Maidan Uprising, in Kyiv, via a chronological approach to key events via historic footage and testimonies of two dozen protesters. The first events narrated are the expected EU-Ukraine trade agreement being promised as a way to elevate Ukraine's future, but this agreement is suddenly discarded in favor of one with Russia. Pro-Europe citizens organize protests and occupations, centered on and around Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti. After 4 months, the standoff between the government, its forces, and increasingly organized and dedicated protesters escalate into barricades, violent skirmishes, brutal repression, and deadly shootings by police on protesters. With the latest bloody and gruesome killings of protesters in February 2014, protest leaders vow to take down the government by force the following day. Ukraine's pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych flew to Russia in the early hours opening the way to new elections and a new Ukraine looking toward Europe.


text: On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 88%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5. It also has a score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


text: Stephen Farber from "The Hollywood Reporter" gave the film a positive review, stating that "Afineevsky found a variety of witnesses, including student activists, journalists, laborers, artists and clergy, who all add sharp voices to the collage. One of the most engaging of these interviewees is a 12-year-old boy who offers a remarkably unjaundiced view of the turmoil." He praised the editing and music, but criticized the fact that "the film does grow repetitive, partly because it provides so little historical context or a larger overview of how the growing authoritarianism of Putin's Russia is affecting this part of the world. Yet there are unmistakably moving moments that convey the brutality of the government's response to an authentic popular movement".


text: Jay Weissberg from "Variety" stated that "Winter on Fire" is an "accessible film, with greater TV appeal, but it's also more limited by its insistence on shoehorning everything into one perspective, albeit a perspective shared by the majority of Ukrainians."


text: Dan Fainaru of "Screen Daily" wrote, "Consistently avoiding any attempt at political analysis, Afineevsky's cameras show ever-expanding crowds, young and old, men and women, Christians, Jews, Muslims, academics and proletarians, all united under the one common cause, the removal of a man who, in their eyes, embodied the concept of corruption. Often exasperated by the politicians who were supposed to represent them and who cheated them, these people were willing to die, if necessary, to achieve their goal, displaying an idealistic fervour (i.e. the joined support of all religions) rarely encountered in normal circumstances". He also praised Will Znidaric for the editing, calling it "brisk and energetic".


text: Eric Kohn from "IndieWire" gave it a grade "A−" on scale of A to F, stating that ""Winter on Fire" features the intensity of an action movie and the fury of a clear-eyed polemic. [...] An exciting montage of the developing crowd ends with close to a million protestors gathered together at the centre of town in a stunning act of defiance. [...] Despite the ongoing power of these scenes, "Winter on Fire" achieves its finest shot with a bird’s eye view of the Maidan protests, as thousands of activists push back against a black mass of officers and congeal into an insurmountable wall. With images like these, Afineevsky doesn't need to push the message about the protesters' durability; it's right there on the screen."


text: Critics Lev Golinkin, Amy Cooter and Jay Weissberg criticized the film for showing several symbols and flags described as "neo-Nazi symbols used by extreme right wing protesters, left uncommented in the film." Golinkin was the most critical of the film. According to Golinkin, "The colorful array of activists, artists, scarf-wrapped babushki, bearded priests and fresh-faced students makes it appear as if Ukraine's people from all walks of life in participated in the Maidan uprising. But some are missing — neo-Nazis, who were edited out".


text: The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category.


text: "Winter on Fire" was widely shown around in Caracas in 2017 during the Venezuelan anti-government protests, in which protesters were rallying against President Nicolás Maduro, and the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. On 5 March 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netflix officially made the film available for free via its YouTube channel. In the same year, Afineevsky released the new companion film "".


title: Galium odoratum

text: Galium odoratum, the sweet woodruff or sweetscented bedstraw, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae, native to much of Europe from Spain and Ireland to Russia, as well as Western Siberia, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, China and Japan. It is also sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in the United States and Canada. It is widely cultivated for its flowers and its sweet-smelling foliage.


title: Galium odoratum

text: It owes its sweet smell to the odoriferous agent coumarin, and is sometimes used as a flavouring agent due to its chemical content.


title: Galium odoratum

text: The leaves are simple, lanceolate, glabrous, long, and borne in whorls of 6–9. The small (4–7 mm diameter) flowers are produced in cymes, each white with four petals joined together at the base. The fruits are 2–4 mm diameter, produced singly, and each is covered in tiny hooked bristles which help disperse them by sticking temporarily to clothing and animal fur.


title: Galium odoratum

text: This plant prefers partial to full shade in moist, rich soils. In dry summers it needs frequent watering. Propagation is by crown division, separation of the rooted stems, or digging up of the barely submerged perimeter stolons. It is ideal as a groundcover or border accent in woody, acidic gardens where other shade plants fail to thrive. Deer and chickens avoid eating it (Northeast US).


title: Galium odoratum

text: As the epithet "odoratum" suggests, the plant is strongly scented, the sweet scent being derived from coumarin. This scent increases on wilting and then persists on drying, and the dried plant is used in potpourri and as a moth deterrent. It was, and partially is, used to flavour May wine (called "Maibowle" or "Maitrank" in German/French), sweet juice punch, syrup for beer (Berliner Weisse), brandy, jelly, jam, a soft drink (Tarhun, which is Georgian), ice cream, and herbal tea. Also very popular are sweet woodruff flavoured jellies, with and without alcohol. In Germany, it was and to some extent still is also used to flavour sherbet powder, which features prominently in Günter Grass' novel "The Tin Drum".


title: Galium odoratum

text: However, the usage of the plant for sweets was prohibited in Germany in 1974, due to coumarin, the flavorant found in woodruff, being toxic to rats and mice in studies. It has however not been found to be harmful to humans, even in large doses, in which it follows a different metabolic pathway. The flavour is still popular for sweets in Germany, but is achieved artificially with 6-methyl coumarin. Products targeted towards adults, such as alcoholic drinks, are still permitted to include coumarin, in limited quantities.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Raphael Sbarge (born February 12, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on "The Guardian" (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on "Once Upon a Time" (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk on the TNT series "Murder in the First" (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in "" (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in "" (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the "Mass Effect" trilogy (2007–12).


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Raphael Sbarge was born into a theater-oriented family in New York City. His mother, Jeanne Button (1930-2017), was a professional costume designer. His father, Stephen Sbarge, was an artist, writer and stage director who named his son after the Renaissance artist Raphael. His parents divorced. In 1981, his mother married MacDonald Eaton (1929-2013), a production designer and painter. In her private life, she was known as Mrs. Button-Eaton. Raphael Sbarge began his career at age 5 on "Sesame Street".


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Sbarge made his stage debut in 1973 in Edward Bond's stage production "Lear". In 1981, the played in Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park production of "Henry IV, Part 1". The following year he made his Broadway debut opposite Faye Dunaway in the short-lived play "The Curse of an Aching Heart". Other New York stage credits include "Hamlet" (1982), "Ah, Wilderness!" (1988), "Ghosts" (1988), "The Twilight of the Golds" (1993), "The Shadow Box", and "Voices in the Dark" (1999).


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Sbarge's film credits include "Risky Business" (1983), "Vision Quest" (1985), "My Man Adam" (1985), "My Science Project" (1985), "Carnosaur" (1993), "The Hidden II" (1993), "Babes in Toyland" (1997), "Independence Day" (1996), "BASEketball" (1998), "Message in a Bottle" (1999), "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Home Room" (2002) and "The Duel" (2015).


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Sbarge has appeared in numerous television series and television movies, including "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Ann-Margret in 1984; the pilot of the Fox series "Werewolf" in 1987; "Billionaire Boys Club", "" in 1990; "Murder 101" with Pierce Brosnan and "Final Verdict" with Treat Williams in 1991; "Breast Men" with Chris Cooper; "Quicksilver Highway" with Christopher Lloyd in 1997; and "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" with Halle Berry in 1999.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: He had recurring roles in five episodes of "" in 1996, and in the first four episodes of the sixth season of "24". From 2001 to 2004, Sbarge was a regular cast member of "The Guardian", starring Simon Baker. He voiced the character Professor Zei in the "" episode "The Library". He was in an episode of "Six Feet Under". In 2007, he appeared in a two-part episode of "Journeyman". In 2009, he appeared in an episode of "The Mentalist". In 2010, he was in "Practically Perfect", a season five episode of "Dexter", as Jim McCourt, an Internal Affairs Agent.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: He had a recurring role as Howard Aucker on "The Young and the Restless". He played Brian McGuire on "Better Days", which lasted for five weeks before being canceled. In 2011, he first appeared in "Once Upon a Time", playing the dual roles of Archie Hopper, a therapist, and his fairy tale counterpart, Jiminy Cricket from "Pinocchio". In 2013, he played Larry Hermann on "Chicago Fire". He played Inspector David Molk, a philosophizing SFPD homicide inspector, on TNT's 2014 series, "Murder in the First". In 2016, he made a cameo appearance as the deceased father of Jimmy McGill on the television series "Better Call Saul".


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: He also has voice acted for video games such as "Grim Fandango," "," and "" as Carth Onasi; as RC-1262 "Scorch" in ""; and as Kaidan Alenko in the "Mass Effect" series.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: In 2013, Sbarge began directing Web series, serving as executive producer and director of "On Begley Street" and "Jenna's Studio". His 2017 short film "The Bird Who Could Fly" premiered at the Asians on Film Festival.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Sbarge's 2019 documentary "LA Foodways" was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Education/Information category.


title: Raphael Sbarge

text: Sbarge, actor Ed Begley, Jr., and Rachelle Carson Begley launched an environmentalist non-profit organization called Green Wish, aimed at donating to local green organizations through donations at retailers throughout the country. Sbarge was also executive producer of "On Begley Street", a web series chronicling the deconstruction of Begley's home and the "building of North America's greenest, most sustainable home."


title: Tevar

text: Tevar () is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by debutante Amit Ravindernath Sharma and produced by Boney Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Sunil Lulla, Naresh Agarwal and Sunil Manchanda, based on a script by Sharma and Shantanu Shrivastav. An official remake of the 2003 Telugu film "Okkadu", the film stars Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha while Manoj Bajpayee plays the primary antagonist. Shruti Haasan makes a special appearance in a special dance number, while crooning another song on the soundtrack. The film was released worldwide on 9 January 2015.


title: Tevar

text: Ghanshyam "Pintoo" Shukla (Arjun Kapoor) is a young Kabaddi player from Agra who goes to factionism-hit Mathura to take part in practice. There, in a twist of fate, he saves a civilian, Radhika Mishra (Sonakshi Sinha) from a goon, Gajendar Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), a dangerous faction leader, who is in love with Radhika and wants to marry her against her wishes. Pintoo tries to comfort her because Gajendar Singh killed her brother Mahesh (Mahendra Mewati). When he saves Radhika, he humiliates Gajendar into taking his pants off. Gajendar refuses to put them back on until someone finds Radhika and brings her back. Pintoo helps Radhika escape and takes her to his house in Agra, hiding her in his room with the help of his sister, Pinky (Gunjan Malhotra).


title: Tevar

text: Soon, his parents find out she is hiding in their house. Radhika and Pintoo run away again and she falls in love with him. The next day, after taking care of Gajendar and his men, Pintoo and his friends drop Radhika off at the airport to go to America. Radhika cries on the way there, not wanting to leave Pintoo. They bring her parents to see her one last time before she leaves. After Radhika is past airport security, Pintoo realizes he loves Radhika. She shows up behind him, saying that she was waiting for him to stop her. She turns to leave when Pintoo is silent, taking it as a refusal, but Pintoo calls her back, and they confirm their love with a hug.


title: Tevar

text: Pintoo's police chief father, SP Ravikant Shukla (Raj Babbar) and Gajendar show up at the airport, and Ravikant arrests him while Gajendar takes Radhika away. While under Gajendar's jurisdiction, Radhika taunts him and claims that Pintoo will definitely return for her. Gajendar goes to the jail and asks Pintoo to come with him. Here, Pintoo and Ravikant solve their relationship, when Ravikant expresses that he's not worried Pintoo will come home hurt; rather, he's worried for Gajendar.


title: Tevar

text: Gajendar and his men get Pintoo injured in front of the whole town. Home Minister Mahender Singh (Rajesh Sharma), who is the reason Gajendar has not gotten in trouble all this time, tells him to stop making a scene, as he's ruining his political party, but Gajendar slaps Mahender and goes on to fight Pintoo. He is further enraged when he sees how much Radhika loves Pintoo, and stabs him with a knife. Pintoo falls to the ground. Radhika tries to run to him, crying his name, but Gajendar drags her away. Pintoo is able to get up again, picking up the scarf that Radhika dropped. He ties it around his waist where the knife wound is, and fights and defeats Gajender's men. He also defeats Gajender until Gajendar gets back up with a gun. However, he is shot down by Kakdi (Subrat Dutta), his own right-hand man on the instructions of Mahender who has had enough of Gajender's antics and insubordination and it is implied that Kakdi has now been appointed as Gajender's replacement. With Gajender dead, his goons have no interest in Pintoo and Radhika who are now reunited.


title: Tevar

text: In November 2013, it was reported that Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha had joined an upcoming untitled film that was being produced by Boney Kapoor. On 10 December 2013, the film was titled "Tevar" and it was revealed that Kapoor will play the role of a college student from Agra, who is a Kabaddi champion. On 17 December 2013 it was announced that Sanjay Kapoor will be producing the film, and that Amit Sharma will be making his directorial debut. Manoj Bajpayee also joined the film on 30 December.


title: Tevar

text: The shooting of the film began on 21 January 2014 at Sambhar Lake in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The film's shooting continued in different locations including Mumbai, Maheshwar, Agra, Mathura, Pandharpur at river side of Chandrabhaga and also in Haridas ves in Pandharpur (solapur, Maharashtra) Akluj (Solapur, Maharashtra) (khargone, Madhya Pradesh).


title: Tevar

text: The soundtrack was composed by duo Sajid–Wajid. Pakistani-Dutch singer Imran Khan made his Bollywood debut with this film. The lyrics were written by Kausar Munir, Danish Sabri, Sajid and Imran Khan. Prior to the soundtrack's full release, "Superman" was released as the lead single, followed by "Let's Celebrate"..


title: Tevar

text: "Tevar" was rated low by most critics. Raja Sen of Rediff rated the film 1 and wrote, "And since one can’t, in all good conscience, let anyone stray into Gangs Of Jockeypur, consider yourselves warned. Stay away" Saurabh Dwivedi of "India Today" said, "The film becomes a watch because of its power packed dialogues written by Shantanu Shrivastava."


title: Curt Flood

text: Curtis Charles Flood (January 18, 1938 – January 20, 1997) was an American professional baseball player and activist. He was a center fielder who played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Washington Senators. Flood was a three-time All-Star, a Gold Glove winner for seven consecutive seasons, and batted over .300 in six seasons. He led the National League (NL) in hits (211) in 1964 and in singles, 1963, 1964, and 1968. Flood also led the National League in putouts as center fielder four times and in fielding percentage as center fielder three times. He retired with the third most games in center field (1683) in NL history, trailing Willie Mays and Richie Ashburn.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood became one of the pivotal figures in the sport's labor history when he refused to accept a trade following the 1969 season, ultimately appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it brought about additional solidarity among players as they fought against baseball's reserve clause and sought free agency.


title: Curt Flood

text: Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Oakland, California, Flood played in the same outfield in West Oakland's McClymonds High School as Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson. All three would eventually sign professional contracts with the Cincinnati Reds. Flood transferred to Oakland Technical High School, from which he graduated.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1956 and made a handful of appearances for the team in 1956–57. However, Flood was deemed expendable with future star centerfielder Vada Pinson preparing to be promoted to the majors. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in December 1957. For the next 12 seasons, he became a fixture in center field for St. Louis; although he struggled at the plate from 1958 to 1960, his defensive skill was apparent. He had his breakthrough year at the plate after Johnny Keane took over as manager in 1961: he batted .322, followed by .296 in 1962 with 11 home runs. He continued to improve offensively in 1963, hitting .302 and scoring a career-high 112 runs, third-most in the NL; he also had career bests in doubles (34), triples (9) and stolen bases (17) and collected 200 hits in an NL-leading 662 at bats. In that year he received the first of his seven consecutive Gold Gloves.


title: Curt Flood

text: He earned his first All-Star selection in 1964. He batted .311. His 679 at-bats led the NL again and were the fifth-highest total in league history to that point, setting a team record by surpassing Taylor Douthit's 1930 total of 664; Lou Brock broke the team record three years later with 689. He tied for tops in hits with The Pittsburgh Pirates' Roberto Clemente with 211. Batting leadoff in the World Series against the New York Yankees, he hit only .200 but scored in three of the Cardinal victories as the team won in seven games for its first championship since 1946. In 1965, Flood had his greatest power output with 11 home runs and 83 runs batted in while he was hitting .310. He made the All-Star team again in 1966, a season in which he did not commit a single error in the outfield; his record errorless streak of 226 games (NL record for an outfielder) and 568 total chances (major league record) ran from September 3, 1965, to June 4, 1967.


title: Curt Flood

text: In 1967, he had his highest batting mark with a .335 average (though his other batting totals fell off from previous years), helping the Cardinals to another championship. In the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, he hit a woeful .179 but made some crucial contributions. In game 1, he advanced Brock to third base twice, putting him in position to score both runs in a 2–1 victory; in game 3, he drove Brock in with the first run of a 5–2 win. As team co-captain (with Tim McCarver) in 1968 he had perhaps his best year, earning his third All-Star selection and finishing fourth in the MVP balloting (won by teammate Bob Gibson) on the strength of a .301 batting average and 186 base hits. Against the San Francisco Giants that year, Flood was involved in the final outs of the first back-to-back no-hitters in major league history. On September 17, he struck out for the final out of Gaylord Perry's 1–0 gem. The next day, he caught Willie McCovey's fly ball for the final out of Ray Washburn's 2–0 no-hitter. Had he not momentarily lost his footing chasing a Jim Northrup fly ball (ruled a triple) with two out in the seventh inning of game 7 of the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Cardinals might have won their third championship of the decade; Detroit scored twice on the play, with Northrup later coming in for a 3–0 lead, and won the game, 4–1. Up to that point, Flood had been enjoying the best series of his career despite dealing with personal problems at home, hitting .286 with three steals.


title: Curt Flood

text: After the season ended, Flood was upset when Cardinals' president Gussie Busch, and CEO of team owner Anheuser-Busch, offered him only a $5,000 raise, far short of the $90,000 salary he believed he deserved after his stellar regular season. He believed Busch, with whom he had previously enjoyed a close personal friendship, was expressing his displeasure over the error that had likely cost the team the Series. While Busch eventually relented, Flood took it personally when Busch publicly chewed the team out after most players boycotted spring training before the 1969 season for a week, accusing players of forgetting that fans were what kept the sport going (although he did not mention any player by name).


title: Curt Flood

text: In 1969, despite the lower pitching mound instituted that season, which saw a general rise in batting average league-wide, Flood's batting average slipped to .285. His brother was arrested during the season. Late in the season, he publicly criticized the team for reorganizing before they were officially eliminated. He received his seventh Gold Glove that season just as other events in his career began to affect the entire sport. Flood collected the first hit in a major league regular-season game in Canada. He doubled off Montreal Expos pitcher Larry Jaster in the first inning of the Expos' inaugural home game on April 14 at Jarry Park. (Jaster, a Cardinal teammate of Flood's the year before, had been selected by the Expos in the expansion draft.)


title: Curt Flood

text: Despite his outstanding playing career, Flood's principal legacy developed off the field. He believed that Major League Baseball's decades-old reserve clause was unfair in that it kept players beholden for life to the team with which they originally signed, even when they had satisfied the terms and conditions of those contracts.


title: Curt Flood

text: On October 7, 1969, the Cardinals traded Flood, Tim McCarver, Byron Browne, and Joe Hoerner to the Philadelphia Phillies for Dick Allen, Cookie Rojas, and Jerry Johnson. Flood refused to report to the moribund Phillies, citing the team's poor record and dilapidated Connie Mack Stadium, and for what he alleged were belligerent—and racist—fans. Flood said, "That I didn't think that I was going to report to Philadelphia, mainly because I didn't want to pick up twelve years of my life and move to another city." Some reports say he was also irritated that he had learned of the trade from a reporter; but Flood wrote in his autobiography that he was told by midlevel Cardinals management and was angry that the call did not come from the general manager, further alienating him from Busch. He met with Phillies' general manager John Quinn, who left the meeting believing that he had persuaded Flood to report to the team. Flood stood to forfeit a lucrative $100,000 () contract if he did not report; but after a meeting with players' union head Marvin Miller, who informed him that the union was prepared to fund a lawsuit, he decided to pursue his legal options.


title: Curt Flood

text: In a letter to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Flood demanded that the commissioner declare him a free agent:


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood was influenced by the events of the 1960s that took place in the United States. According to Marvin Miller, Flood told the executive board of the players' union, "I think the change in black consciousness in recent years has made me more sensitive to injustice in every area of my life." However, he added that he was challenging the reserve clause primarily as a major league ballplayer.


title: Curt Flood

text: Commissioner Kuhn denied Flood's request for free agency, citing the propriety of the reserve clause and its inclusion in Flood's 1969 contract. On January 16, 1970, Flood filed a $1 million lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball, alleging violation of federal antitrust laws. Flood likened the reserve clause to slavery. Among those testifying on his behalf were former players Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg, and former owner Bill Veeck; no active players testified, nor did any attend the trial. Although players' union representatives had voted unanimously to support Flood, rank-and-file players were strongly divided, with many avid supporters of the management position.


title: Curt Flood

text: "Flood v. Kuhn" (407 U.S. 258) was argued before the Supreme Court on March 20, 1972. Flood's attorney, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, asserted that the reserve clause depressed wages and limited players to one team for life. Major League Baseball's counsel, Louis Hoynes, countered that if Flood won his case, "it would be a shambles." On June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court, invoking the principle of "stare decisis" ("to stand by things decided"), ruled 5–3 in favor of Major League Baseball, citing as precedent a 1922 ruling in "Federal Baseball Club v. National League" (259 U.S. 200). Justice Lewis Powell recused himself owing to his ownership of stock in Anheuser-Busch, which owned the Cardinals.


title: Curt Flood

text: Despite the loss in the Supreme Court, the baseball player's union continued to push to eliminate the reserve clause. It was finally struck down in December 1975 in a case involving players Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith. In July 1976, the union and the baseball team owners agreed to a contract that included free agency.


title: Curt Flood

text: In 1998, the federal government passed the Curt Flood Act of 1998. The act, passed by the 105th Congress and signed into law by President Clinton, revokes baseball's antitrust status (save for expansion, minor leagues, and franchise relocation), a status that major league baseball had enjoyed for seventy-five years after the Supreme Court had ruled that baseball was eligible for the status under interstate commerce. This act did exactly what Flood wanted; it stopped owners from controlling the players' contracts and careers.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood also helped bring about the 10/5 Rule, also known as the Curt Flood Rule. The rule states that when a player has played for a team for five straight years and played in MLB for a total of ten years, they have to give the club their consent to be traded.


title: Curt Flood

text: After Flood's lawsuit failed, Flood was blackballed from baseball. There were questions similar to "Do you realize you won't be able to play in MLB ever again?" or "You realize you are going to lose your job?" Everyone Flood consulted was convinced he would be blackballed from baseball. Flood soon realized that his career was over as he later said,It would be difficult to come back. And besides, I don't think I'll be getting the opportunity to play again. As big as it is, baseball is a closely-knit unit. I doubt even one of the 24 men controlling the game . You can't buck the Establishment.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood sat out the entire 1970 season. During this period he was bombarded with hate mail from fans, who accused him of trying to destroy baseball; his teammate Bob Gibson estimated "He got four or five death threats a day." The Cardinals sent two minor leaguers to the Phillies in compensation for Flood's refusal to report. One of them—centerfielder Willie Montañez—went on to a 14-year major league career. In November 1970, the Phillies traded Flood and four other players to the Washington Senators. He signed a $110,000 contract with Washington but played only thirteen games of the 1971 season, with a .200 batting average and lackluster play in center field. Despite manager Ted Williams's vote of confidence, Flood left the team in late April and retired. He had a lifetime batting average of .293 with 1,861 hits, 85 home runs, 851 runs, and 636 RBI. Defensively, Flood posted a .987 fielding percentage in his major-league career. Later that year Flood published a memoir entitled "The Way It Is" in which he spelled out in detail his argument against the reserve clause.


title: Curt Flood

text: After his retirement, Flood purchased a bar in the resort town of Palma on the island of Majorca, where he had moved in the wake of the bankruptcy of his Curt Flood Associates business, two lawsuits, and an IRS lien on a home he bought for his mother. He returned to baseball as a member of the Oakland Athletics broadcasting team in 1978. In 1988 he was named commissioner of the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association. In the mid-1990s, he joined the management group of the United Baseball League (UBL), which was envisioned as a smaller alternative to MLB. While the group negotiated a long-term TV contract with Liberty Media, the deal (and the UBL) failed when Liberty was absorbed by MLB contractor Fox Sports. In his spare time, he painted; his 1989 oil portrait of Joe DiMaggio sold at auction for $9,500 in 2006.


title: Curt Flood

text: On January 20, 1997, just two days after his 59th birthday, Flood died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, after developing pneumonia, and was interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood.


title: Curt Flood

text: Just before his death, Flood's legacy was acknowledged in Congress in 1997 via the "Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1997". Numbered HR 21 (Flood's Cardinals uniform number) and introduced in the House of Representatives on the first day of the 105th Congress by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D–Michigan), the legislation established federal antitrust law protection for major league baseball players to the same extent as provided for other professional athletes.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood's struggle for free agency was featured in Ken Burns' documentary series "Baseball" in 1994. He was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 1999.


title: Curt Flood

text: In 2020, 102 members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to the Baseball Hall of Fame, co-signed by Players' unions from the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS, asking the Hall of Fame to admit Flood.


title: Curt Flood

text: Flood was married twice and had five children. His first marriage was to Beverly Collins from 1959 until 1966, and together they had five children; Debbie, Gary, Shelly, Scott, and Curt Flood, Jr. Flood later married actress Judy Pace in 1986, whom he had met and dated previously from 1966 until 1970. They remained married until his death. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1995, Flood was initially given a 90–95 percent chance of survival. He underwent radiation treatments, chemotherapy, and throat surgery, which left him unable to speak.


title: Sun Quan

text: Sun Quan (, Chinese: 孫權) (183 – 21 May 252), courtesy name Zhongmou (), posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of the Eastern Wu dynasty, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. He inherited control of the warlord regime established by his elder brother, Sun Ce, in 200. He declared formal independence and ruled from 222 to 229 as the King of Wu and from 229 to 252 as the Emperor of Wu. Unlike his rivals Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Sun Quan was much younger than they were and governed his state mostly separate of politics and ideology. He is sometimes portrayed as neutral considering he adopted a flexible foreign policy between his two rivals with the goal of pursuing the greatest interests for the country.


title: Sun Quan

text: Sun Quan was born while his father Sun Jian served as the adjutant of Xiapi County. After Sun Jian's death in the early 190s, he and his family lived at various cities on the lower Yangtze River, until Sun Ce carved out a warlord regime in the Jiangdong region, based on his own followers and a number of local clan allegiances. When Sun Ce was assassinated by the retainers of Xu Gong () in 200, the 18-year-old Sun Quan inherited the lands southeast of the Yangtze River from his brother. His administration proved to be relatively stable in those early years as Sun Jian and Sun Ce's most senior officers, such as Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong (), and Cheng Pu () supported the succession. Thus throughout the 200s, Sun Quan, under the tutelage of his able advisers, continued to build up his strength along the Yangtze River. In early 207, his forces finally won complete victory over Huang Zu, a military leader under Liu Biao, who dominated the middle Yangtze. Huang Zu was killed in battle.


title: Sun Quan

text: In winter of that year, the northern warlord Cao Cao led an army of approximately 220,000 to conquer the south to complete the reunification of China. Two distinct factions emerged at his court on how to handle the situation. One, led by Zhang Zhao, urged surrender whilst the other, led by Zhou Yu and Lu Su, opposed capitulation. Eventually, Sun Quan decided to oppose Cao Cao in the middle Yangtze with his superior riverine forces. Allied with Liu Bei and employing the combined strategies of Zhou Yu and Huang Gai, they defeated Cao Cao decisively at the Battle of Red Cliffs.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 220, Cao Pi, King of Wei, Cao Cao's son and successor, seized the throne and proclaimed himself to be the Emperor of China, ending and succeeding the nominal rule of the Han dynasty. At first Sun Quan nominally served as a Wei vassal with the Wei-created title of King of Wu, but after Cao Pi demanded that he send his son Sun Deng as a hostage to the Wei capital Luoyang and he refused, in 222, he declared himself independent by changing his era name. It was not until the year 229 that he formally declared himself emperor.


title: Sun Quan

text: After the death of his original crown prince, Sun Deng, two opposing factions supporting different potential successors slowly emerged. When Sun He succeeded Sun Deng as the new crown prince, he was supported by Lu Xun and Zhuge Ke, while his rival Sun Ba () was supported by Quan Cong () and Bu Zhi and their clans. Over a prolonged internal power struggle, numerous officials were executed, and Sun Quan harshly settled the conflict between the two factions by exiling Sun He and forcing Sun Ba to commit suicide. Sun Quan died in 252 at the age of 70. He enjoyed the longest reign among all the founders of the Three Kingdoms and was succeeded by his son, Sun Liang.


title: Sun Quan

text: The "Records of the Three Kingdoms" ("Sanguozhi") describes Sun Quan as a tall man with bright eyes and oblong face. He was known as a wise and outgoing man who was fond of making jokes and playing tricks. Because of his skill in valuing the strength of his subordinates and avoiding their shortcomings, as well as treating them like his family, Sun Quan was able to delegate authority to capable figures. This primary strength served him well in gaining the support of the common people and surrounding himself with capable generals.


title: Sun Quan

text: The "Records of the Three Kingdoms" mentioned that Sun Jian was a descendant of Sun Wu (better known as Sun Tzu), a militarist in the Spring and Autumn Period and the author of "The Art of War". Sun Quan was born in 183, while his father Sun Jian was still a low-ranking official of the Han dynasty. He was the second son of Sun Jian and his wife Lay Wu; he had two younger full brothers, Sun Yi and Sun Kuang, and a younger full sister, Lady Sun.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 184, a year after Sun Quan was born, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jue broke out across the country. Sun Jian joined the general Zhu Jun to quell the rebellion and allocated his family to stay in Shouchun. When Sun Quan's elder brother Sun Ce met Zhou Yu in 189, Sun Ce decided to take his mother Lady Wu and younger brothers to Shu County, Zhou Yu's hometown. There, the Sun family became acquainted with Zhou Yu.


title: Sun Quan

text: After Sun Jian's death in 191, the Sun family moved again to Jiangdu in order to mourn him. Two years later, Sun Ce decided to join Yuan Shu's army so he ordered Lü Fan to take his family members to his maternal uncle Wu Jing's home in Danyang. However, Liu Yao, the Governor () of Yang Province became angry when Sun Ce and Yuan Shu defeated Lu Kang, the administrator of Lujiang in 194. He felt worried that they would attack him further so he drove Wu Jing away from Danyang. Since Sun Quan and his mother were still in Liu Yao's territory, Zhu Zhi sent people to rescue them. Sun Quan and his mother moved to Fuling later.


title: Sun Quan

text: When Sun Ce defeated Liu Yao in 195, he ordered Chen Bao to bring his family back to Danyang. As Sun Quan grew up, he served his brother during the conquests of the region south of the Yangtze River. He was made Yangxian County magistrate in 196, at the age of 14, and continued to rise through the ranks as his brother gave him more and more important tasks. Since he was passionate about gathering the retainers like Pan Zhang and Zhou Tai, his fame soon approached his father and elder brother. Zhu Ran and Hu Zong, the men he met during his schooldays, later became ministers of Eastern Wu. He was loved by his brother Sun Ce, who said that he would put his men under Sun Quan's management in the future. In 199, Sun Quan was promoted to the rank of Colonel () and followed his brother to conquer Lujiang and Yuzhang. While Cao Cao attempted to further reinforce the alliance with Sun Ce, both Sun Quan and his younger brother Sun Yi were invited to be officials in Xuchang, but they refused.


title: Sun Quan

text: Sun Ce was assassinated in 200 during a hunt. On his deathbed, he knew that his son was still too young to be considered a realistic heir, so he entrusted the 18-year-old Sun Quan to his faithful subordinates. Initially, Sun Quan mourned his brother's death so much that he couldn't stop crying, but at Zhang Zhao's behest, he dressed himself in military uniform and set out to visit the commanderies under his brother's control. Many of Sun Ce's subordinates thought that Sun Quan was too young to sustain Sun Ce's domain and wanted to leave. Particularly, Li Shu, the Administrator of Lujiang, defected to Cao Cao. Sun Quan wrote a letter to Cao Cao to state Li Shu's crime then headed his troops to defeat Li Shu and regain Lujiang.


title: Sun Quan

text: Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu saw special qualities in the young man and chose to stay to serve Sun Quan. Zhang Hong, whom Sun Ce had earlier sent as a liaison to the warlord Cao Cao, also returned from Cao's domain to assist Sun Quan. At Zhang Hong's request, Cao Cao, in the name of Emperor Xian who was controlled by Cao Cao at the time, commissioned Sun Quan as "General Who Attacks Barbarians" (), a title under which he would be known for a long time. He listened carefully to his mother Lady Wu's encouraging words, and greatly trusted Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong with regard to civilian affairs and Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, and Lü Fan with regard to military matters. Sun Quan also sought out talented young men to serve as his personal advisors, and it was around this time that he befriended Lu Su and Zhuge Jin, who would later play prominent roles in his administration. In addition, Lu Xun, Bu Zhi, Gu Yong, Shi Yi, Yan Jun, Xu Sheng and Zhu Huan also became his men. Throughout this period and decades to come, Sun Quan's leadership would be characterised by his ability to find men of character and entrust important matters to him, and his ability to react swiftly to events.


title: Sun Quan

text: For the next several years, Sun Quan was largely interested in expanding against the Shanyue, hill tribes which controlled the most southern part of China and outside the reach of the Han government, in order to ensure his realm. Sun Quan launched numerous campaigns against the Shanyue. In 206, he conquered the fortress of Shanyue in Matun and Baodun and captured more than 10,000 men. Furthermore, he gradually sought to harass and weaken Liu Biao's key subordinate, Huang Zu (who controlled the northeastern region of Liu Biao's domain) – particularly because Huang Zu had killed his father in battle. He made war on Huangzu twice in 203 and 207. In 208, he was finally able to defeat and kill Huang Zu in battle, and as a result, he obtained the most of the territory of Jiangxia. Soon after, Liu Biao died while Cao Cao was preparing a major campaign to subjugate both Liu Biao and Sun Quan under his control, precipitating a major confrontation.


title: Sun Quan

text: At the end of 208. After Liu Biao's death, a succession struggle for his domain came into being, between his sons Liu Qi and younger son Liu Cong, whom Liu Biao's second wife Lady Cai favoured (because he had married her niece). After Huang Zu's death, Liu Qi was therefore given Huang's post as the governor of Jiangxia Commandery. Liu Cong therefore succeeded Liu Biao after his death, and Liu Qi was displeased and considered, but did not carry out, an attack against his brother. Nevertheless, Liu Cong, in fear of having to fight Cao Cao and his brother on two fronts, surrendered to Cao Cao against the advice of Liu Biao's key ally Liu Bei. Liu Bei, unwilling to submit to Cao Cao, fled south. Cao caught up to him and crushed his forces, but Liu Bei escaped with his life; he fled to Dangyang. Cao Cao took over most of Jing Province, and appeared set on finally unifying the empire.


title: Sun Quan

text: Sun Quan was well aware of Cao Cao's intentions, and he quickly entered into an alliance with Liu Bei and Liu Qi to prepare for an attack by Cao. Cao Cao wrote Sun Quan with a letter intending to intimidate, and in face of Cao's overwhelming force (estimated to be about 220,000 men, although Cao claimed 800,000, against Sun's 30,000 and the Lius' combined force of 10,000), many of Sun's subordinates, including Zhang Zhao, advocated surrender. Sun Quan refused, under advice from Zhou Yu and Lu Su that Cao Cao would surely not tolerate him even if he surrendered.


title: Sun Quan

text: Sun Quan put Zhou Yu in charge of his 30,000 men, largely stationed on naval ships, and Zhou set up a defensive position in conjunction with Liu Bei, whose army was stationed on land. About this time, there was a plague developing in Cao Cao's forces which significantly weakened it. Zhou Yu set up a trap where he pretended to be punishing his subordinate Huang Gai, and Huang pretended to surrender to Cao Cao in fear. Zhou Yu then sent ships under Huang Gai's command to pretend to surrender and, as Huang's ships approached Cao Cao's fleet, they were set aflame to assault Cao's fleet, and Cao's fleet was largely destroyed by fire. Cao Cao led his forces to escape on land, but much of the force was destroyed by Sun Quan and Liu Bei's land forces.


title: Sun Quan

text: Immediately after Cao Cao withdrew, Sun Quan took over the northern half of Jing Province. Liu Bei marched south and took over the southern half. The Sun-Liu alliance was further cemented by a marriage of Sun Quan's younger sister, Lady Sun, to Liu Bei. Zhou Yu was suspicious of Liu Bei's intentions, however, and suggested to Sun Quan that Liu be seized and put under house arrest (albeit be very well-treated) and his forces be merged into Sun's; Sun Quan, believing that Liu Bei's forces would rebel if he did that, declined. Sun Quan did agree to Zhou Yu's plans to consider attacking Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu (who controlled the modern southern Shaanxi) to try to take over their territories, but after Zhou Yu died in 210, the plans were abandoned. However, Sun Quan was able to persuade the warlords in Jiao Province to submit to him, and they became part of his domain. He then yielded parts of northern Jing Province to Liu Bei as well, agreeing with Liu that the south was insufficient to supply his troops. At the same time, Sun Quan appointed his subordinate Bu Zhi as the Inspector () of Jiao Province to replace Lai Gong. Shi Xie led his followers to submit to Bu Zhi's governorship. Sun Quan took over the entire Jiao Province.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 211, Sun Quan moves his headquarters from Dantu to the city of Moling, and in the next year he rebuilt the walls and renamed the city Jianye. This new location gave him better control of the Yangtze River and better communications with his various other commanders. He also constructed fortresses at Ruxu, since Lü Meng anticipated an invasion there from Cao Cao.


title: Sun Quan

text: The invasion Lü Meng expected came at the start of 213. Sun Quan personally led the army there to resist Cao Cao and relied heavily on the fortresses Lü Meng built to give his soldiers strong positions from which to defend. At one point, Cao Cao tried to send his navy across the river to break Sun Quan's lines, but Sun Quan's own ships surrounded them and destroyed them. Due to the stalemate in the war, Sun Quan drove a big ship to enter the military camp of Cao Cao on the other side of Yangtze River to observe his enemy situation. Cao Cao was very impressed with the military discipline of his opponent so he said that he should have a child like Sun Quan and didn't launch an attack on this occasion. Sun Quan ordered people to play music on the ship and returned to his camp safely. Ultimately, Lü Meng's defences held and Sun Quan wrote a letter to Cao Cao to warn that the spring rains would come a month later, Cao Cao had to take his advice and pull back.


title: Sun Quan

text: After Cao Cao's defeat at Ruxu, many people along the Yangtze River fled south to join Sun Quan. With the exception of Wan County and the immediate area, the region became abandoned. In 214, Cao Cao sent a man named Zhu Guang to Wan County with orders to revitalise the region and bring it under Cao Cao's control. Zhu Guang began extensive agricultural projects, and he also stirred up bandits and malcontents into rebellion in Sun Quan's territory. Lü Meng feared that if Zhu Guang's programmes were successful, it would make Cao Cao's hold in the area unbreakable and urged for a campaign against Huan. Sun Quan followed Lü Meng's strategy and used the seasonal flooding to travel to the city by boat, which allowed them to attack unexpectedly. Rather than a lengthy siege, Lü Meng, Gan Ning and Ling Tong led a quick strike and broke Zhu Guang's defences, capturing the city.


title: Sun Quan

text: After Liu Bei's conquest of Yi Province, he was able to supply his troops on his own, so Sun Quan sent Lu Su as an emissary to demand for the return of Jing Province, but Liu Bei refused. Sun Quan then sent Lü Meng and Ling Tong to lead 20,000 men to attack southern Jing Province and they succeeded in capturing Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling commanderies. Meantime, Lu Su and Gan Ning advanced to Yiyang () with 10,000 men (to block Guan Yu) and took over command of the army at Lukou (). Liu Bei personally went to Gong'an County and Guan Yu led 30,000 men to Yiyang. When an all-out war was about to break out, the news that Cao Cao planned to attack Hanzhong was received by Liu Bei, and he requested for a border treaty with Sun Quan as he became worried about Cao Cao seizing Hanzhong. Liu Bei asked Sun Quan to give him back Lingling Commandery and create a diversion for Cao Cao by attacking Hefei; in return, Liu Bei ceded Changsha and Guiyang commanderies to Sun Quan, setting the new border along the Xiang River. Sun Quan's attack on Hefei was disastrous - he was nearly captured on one occasion, if not saved by Ling Tong.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 217, Cao Cao brought a massive army to attack Ruxu again. Sun Quan personally led 70,000 men to defend the city, though he left actual command of the battle to Lü Meng. It was a furious campaign, and after several weeks of gruelling battle, Lü Meng's defences held and the spring floods forced Cao Cao to retreat once again.


title: Sun Quan

text: Still, this was not a complete victory. Most of Cao Cao's army was still intact and he had a huge force under Xiahou Dun north of Sun Quan's position. This resulted in a stalemate in which as long as Sun Quan kept his army in Ruxu, Xiahou Dun could not hope to invade him; but as soon as Sun Quan pulled out of Ruxu, Xiahou Dun could break through. Also, Xiahou Dun's force was simply too large and too well-entrenched to be driven away. Sun Quan had no military options, so he settled on a diplomatic solution. In 217, Sun Quan allied with Cao Cao, recognising him as the legitimate representative of the Han central government. While officially this was a surrender, Cao Cao knew that Sun Quan would not be content with being treated like a subject, so he confirmed all of the titles Sun Quan had claimed for himself and formalised his control over the lands he held. Sun Quan was permitted to continue to rule independently but was now officially one of Cao Cao's subordinates.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 219, Guan Yu advanced north, attacking Fancheng, scoring a major victory over Cao Ren. While Fancheng did not fall at this time, Guan Yu put it under siege, and the situation was severe enough that Cao Cao considered moving the capital away from Xu. However, Sun Quan, resentful of Guan Yu's prior constant instigation of hostilities (including seizing Sun's food supplies to use for his campaign north), took the opportunity to attack Guan from the rear, and Guan's forces collapsed. Guan Yu was captured by forces under Lü Meng and Jiang Qin; Guan Yu was executed, Jing Province came under Sun's control, and the Sun-Liu alliance ended.


title: Sun Quan

text: After Cao Cao's death in 220, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to yield the throne to him, ending the Han dynasty and establishing the state of Cao Wei. Sun Quan did not immediately submit to Wei or declare independence after Cao Pi's enthronement, but took a wait-and-see attitude; by contrast, in early 221, Liu Bei declared himself emperor, establishing the state of Shu Han. Immediately, Liu Bei planned a campaign against Sun Quan to avenge Guan Yu. After attempting to negotiate peace and receiving no positive response from Liu Bei, fearing attack on both sides, Sun Quan became a vassal of Wei. Cao Pi's strategist Liu Ye suggested that Cao Pi decline — and in fact attack Sun Quan on a second front, effectively partitioning Sun's domain with Shu, and then eventually seek to destroy Shu as well. Cao Pi declined, in a fateful choice that most historians believe doomed his empire to ruling only the northern and central China — and this chance would not come again. Indeed, against Liu Ye's advice, on 23 September 221 he appointed Sun Quan the King of Wu and granted him the nine bestowments.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 222, at the Battle of Xiaoting, Sun Quan's general Lu Xun dealt Liu Bei a major defeat, stopping the Shu offensive. Shu would not again pose a threat to Sun Quan from that point on. Later that year, when Cao Pi demanded that Sun Quan send his crown prince Sun Deng to the Wei capital Luoyang as a hostage (to guarantee his loyalty), Sun Quan refused and declared independence (by changing era name), thus establishing Eastern Wu as an independent state. Cao Pi launched a major attack on Wu, but after Wei defeats in early 223, it became clear that Wu was secure. After Liu Bei's death later that year, Zhuge Jin's brother Zhuge Liang, the regent for Liu Bei's son and successor Liu Shan, reestablished the alliance with Sun Quan, and the two states would remain allies until Shu's eventual destruction in 263.


title: Sun Quan

text: Early in Sun Quan's reign, the Wu administration was known for its efficiency, as Sun showed a knack for listening to correct advice and for delegating authorities to the proper individuals. For example, he correctly trusted the faithful Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin, so much so that he made a duplicate imperial seal and left it with Lu Xun; whenever he would correspond with Shu's emperor Liu Shan or regent Zhuge Liang, he would deliver the letter to Lu Xun first (as Lu's post was near the Shu border), and then if, in Lu's opinion, changes were needed, he would revise the letter and then restamp it with Sun's imperial seal. Further, Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin were authorised to coordinate their actions with Shu without prior imperial approval. Sun Quan treated his high-level officials as friends and addressed them accordingly (with courtesy names), and in accordance they dedicated all effort to Wu's preservation. He also knew what were the proper roles for officials that he trusted; for example, in 225, when selecting a chancellor, while the key officials all respected Zhang Zhao greatly and wanted him to be chancellor, Sun Quan declined, reasoning that while he respected Zhang greatly, a chancellor needed to handle all affairs of state, and Zhang, while capable, had such strong opinions that he would surely be in conflict with Sun Quan and other officials at all times. He also repeatedly promoted his official Lü Fan even though, while he was young, Lü Fan had informed to Sun Ce about his improper spending habits, understanding that Lü did so only out of loyalty to Sun Ce.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 224 and 225, Cao Pi again made attacks on Wu, but each time the Wu forces were able to repel Wei's with fair ease — so easily that Cao Pi made the comment, "Heaven created the Yangtze to divide the north and south." However, Sun Quan was himself equally unsuccessful in efforts to make major attacks on Wei. After Cao Pi's death in 226, for example, Sun Quan launched an attack on Wei's Jiangxia Commandery, but was forced to withdraw as soon as Wei reinforcements arrived. However, later that year, he was able to increase his effective control over Jiao Province when his general Lü Dai was able to defeat the warlord Shi Hui () and end the effective independence that the Shi clan had. In addition, the several independent kingdoms in modern Cambodia, Laos, and southern Vietnam all became Wu vassals as well.


title: Sun Quan

text: The "Book of Liang" records the arrival in 226 of a merchant from the Roman Empire (Daqin) at Jiaozhi (Chinese-controlled northern Vietnam). The Prefect of Jiaozhou sent him to the court of Sun Quan in Nanjing. Sun Quan requested that he provide him with a report on his native country and its people. An expedition was mounted to return the merchant along with 10 female and 10 male "blackish coloured dwarfs" he had requested as a curiosity and a Chinese officer who, unfortunately, died en route.


title: Sun Quan

text: The one major victory that Wu would have over Wei during this period came in 228, when, with Sun Quan's approval, his general Zhou Fang pretended to be surrendering to Wei after pretending to have been punished repeatedly by Sun Quan. This tricked the Wei general Cao Xiu, who led a large army south to support Zhou Fang. He walked into the trap set by Zhou Fang and Lu Xun and suffered major losses, but was saved from total annihilation by Jia Kui.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 229, Sun Quan declared himself emperor, which almost damaged the alliance with Shu, as many Shu officials saw this as a sign of betrayal of the Han dynasty — to which Shu claimed to be the legitimate successor. However, Zhuge Liang opposed ending the alliance and in fact confirmed it with a formal treaty later that year, in which the two states pledged to support each other and divide Wei equally if they could conquer it. Later that year, he moved his capital from Wuchang to Jianye, leaving his crown prince Sun Deng, assisted by Lu Xun, in charge of the western parts of Eastern Wu.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 230, however, the first sign of the deterioration of Sun Quan's reign occurred. That year, he sent his generals Wei Wen () and Zhuge Zhi () with a navy of 10,000 into the East China Sea to seek the legendary islands of Yizhou () and Danzhou (), likely Taiwan or Ryukyu, to seek to conquer them, despite strenuous opposition of Lu Xun and Quan Cong. The navy was not able to locate Danzhou but located Yizhou, and returned in 231 after capturing several thousand men — but only after 80-90% of the navy had died from illness. Instead of seeing his own fault in this venture, Sun Quan simply executed Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi. Perhaps concerned about this deterioration in Sun Quan's judgment, Sun Deng left the western empire in Lu Xun's hands in 232 and returned to Jianye, and would remain at Jianye until his own death in 241.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 232, Sun Quan had another misadventure involving his navy — as he sent his generals Zhou He () and Pei Qian () to the nominal Wei vassal Gongsun Yuan, in control of Liaodong Commandery, to purchase horses, against the advice of Yu Fan - and indeed, he exiled Yu Fan to the desolate Cangwu Commandery (roughly modern Wuzhou, Guangxi) as punishment. Just as Yu Fan predicted, however, the venture would end in failure — as Zhou He and Pei Qian, on their way back, were intercepted by Wei forces and killed. Regretting his actions, Sun Quan tried to recall Yu Fan back to Jianye, only to learn that Yu had died in exile.


title: Sun Quan

text: The next year, however, Sun Quan would have yet another misadventure in his dealings with Gongsun Yuan, as Gongsun sent messengers to him, offering to be his subject. Sun Quan was ecstatic, and appointed Gongsun Yuan the Prince of Yan and granted him the nine bestowments, and further sent a detachment of 10,000 men by sea north to assist Gongsun Yuan in his campaign against Wei, against the advice of nearly every single one of his high-level officials, particularly Zhang Zhao. Once the army arrived, however, Gongsun Yuan betrayed them, killing Sun Quan's officials Zhang Mi () and Xu Yan (), whom Sun had sent to grant the bestowments and seized their troops. Once that happened, the enraged Sun Quan wanted to personally head north with a fleet to attack Gongsun Yuan, and initially, not even Lu Xun's opposition was able to stop him, although he eventually calmed down and did not follow through. To his credit, he also personally went to Zhang Zhao's house and apologised to him. Further, despite the deterioration in his previous clear thinking, he was still capable of making proper decisions at times. For example, in 235, when, as a sign of contempt, Wei's emperor Cao Rui offered horses to him in exchange for pearls, jade, and tortoise shells, Sun Quan ignored the implicit insult and made the exchange, reasoning that his empire needed horses much more than pearls, jade or tortoise shells.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 234, in coordination with Zhuge Liang's final northern expedition against Wei, Sun Quan personally led a major attack against Wei's border city Hefei, while having Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin attack Xiangyang, with the strategy of trying to attract Wei relief forces and then attacking them. However, Wei generals correctly saw the situation and simply let Sun Quan siege Hefei. Only after Sun Quan's food supplies ran low did Cao Rui personally arrive with reinforcements, and Sun withdrew, as did Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 238, when Gongsun Yuan was under attack by Wei's general Sima Yi, Sun Quan, despite his prior rage against Gongsun, correctly judged the situation as one where he might be able to take advantage if Sima Yi were initially unsuccessful, so he did not immediately refuse Gongsun's request for help. However, as Sima Yi was able to conquer Gongsun Yuan quickly, Sun Quan never launched the major attack that he considered if Sima got stuck in a stalemate with Gongsun. That year, he also recognised how Lü Yi, the supervisor of the audit bureau, had been abusing his powers, and had Lü Yi executed; he then further confirmed his trust in the high-level officials by personally writing an emotional letter to Zhuge Jin, Bu Zhi, Zhu Ran, and Lü Dai, blaming himself for the recent problems with his administration while urging them to speak out honestly whenever they saw faults in him.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 241, Sun Quan would launch the last major assault against Wei of his reign, in light of Cao Rui's death in 239, but he rejected a strategy offered by Yin Zha () to attack Wei in coordinated effort with Shu on four different fronts, and the campaign ended in failure as well.


title: Sun Quan

text: Later in 241, the crown prince Sun Deng died — an event that left open the issue of succession and appeared to mark the start of a precipitous decline in Sun Quan's mental health. In 242, he appointed his son Sun He, born to Consort Wang, crown prince. However, he also favoured another son by Consort Wang, Sun Ba, and permitted Sun Ba to have the same staffing level as the crown prince — a move that was objected to by a number of officials as encouraging Sun Ba to compete with Sun He, but Sun Quan did not listen to them. After 245, when Sun He and Sun Ba began to have separate residences, their relationship deteriorated further, and Sun Ba began to scheme at how to seize heir status from Sun He. Fanned by gossip from his daughter Sun Luban, Sun Quan blamed Sun He's mother Consort Wang for this — and she died in fear. He also cut off Sun He and Sun Ba's access to the officials who supported them in hopes of receiving future favours, but this could not stop Sun Ba's machinations. Indeed, when Lu Xun tried to intervene to protect Sun He, Sun Ba falsely accused him of many crimes, and Sun Quan became provoked so much that he repeatedly rebuked Lu Xun, causing him to die in frustration.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 250, fed up with Sun Ba's constant attacks against Sun He, Sun Quan carried out an inexplicable combination of actions, He forced Sun Ba to commit suicide, while deposing Sun He (who had not been shown to have committed any crimes), and instead creating his youngest son, Sun Liang, crown prince to replace Sun He. This move was opposed by his son-in-law Zhu Ju (the husband of Sun Quan's daughter Sun Luyu), but Zhu Ju's pleas not only did not help Sun He, but also resulted in his own death, as Sun Quan forced him to commit suicide. Many other officials who also opposed the move, as well as officials who had supported Sun Ba, were executed.


title: Sun Quan

text: Around this time, Sun Quan also had his generals destroy a number of levees near the border with Wei, creating large areas of flooding, in order to obstruct potential attacks from Wei.


title: Sun Quan

text: In 251, Sun Quan created the first empress of his reign — Sun Liang's mother Consort Pan (previously, he had a succession of wives, but never made any of them empress, except for his favourite, Lady Bu, who was created empress posthumously after her death in 238). Later that year, however, he realised that Sun He was blameless and wanted to recall him from his exile, but was persuaded not to do so by his daughter Sun Luban and Sun Jun, who had supported Sun Liang's ascension. He realised that he was getting very old (69 by this point) and, at Sun Jun's recommendation, commissioned Zhuge Jin's son Zhuge Ke as the future regent for Sun Liang, even though he correctly had misgivings about how Zhuge Ke was arrogant and had overly high opinions of his own abilities. At that time virtually the entire empire, awed by Zhuge's prior military victories, was convinced that Zhuge would be the correct choice for regent.