title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The law of Louisiana is distinct from the other 49 states; it has a civil law legal system rather than a common law system. The start of a grand jury may be attributed to an 1805 enactment of a law requiring all "crimes, offenses and misdemeanors [to] be taken, intended and construed according to and in conformity with the common law of England." Provisions for a grand jury are spelled out in "Article V Section § 34 (a)" of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 which states a grand jury shall consist of twelve members of a community, as peers of an accused, to weigh evidence presented to them to determine whether there is probable cause to charge the person with the offense. Secrecy is also covered, to be stipulated by law. Section §34 (b) provides for a witness's "right to counsel" stating, "The legislature may establish by law the terms and conditions under which a witness may have the right to the advice of counsel while testifying before the grand jury." However, since a witness has no "right to counsel" under the United States Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment would be required to implement this language.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Historically, a grand jury was empowered to investigate crimes committed within its jurisdiction, identify persons suspected of having committed offenses, determine whether there is probable cause to charge the person with the offense, and publish its findings to the court. This has changed over time, most notably in Article 209 of the 1928 Code stating the grand jury "is to investigate non-capital offenses triable within the parish only when called to their attention by the district attorney or the court," and further removing the ability "to act as a censory body of public morals." This effectively relegated the grand jury as a tool of the prosecutor. The 1950 Revised Statutes made a return to an 1870 provision that "any member of the grand jury is required, under penalty of law, to bring to the attention of his fellow members any violation of the criminal law which may have come to his personal knowledge, or of which he may have been informed." This gives the view that a grand jury could initiate investigations or file charges on its own. Privileges against self-incrimination and the fact that a prosecutor can declare Nolle prosequi provides limitations. Although a grand jury may have the right to subpoena and to have persons and documents called before it, this is almost always limited to evidence and witnesses presented by a prosecutor. A grand jury is considered a jury of accusation and the petit jury as the jury of conviction.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: A grand jury may be presented with a bill of indictment, before or after a warrant of arrest on an indictable charge, at the discretion of a district attorney. The district attorney then presents evidence and witnesses to prove the charge. A grand jury can return a true bill, no true bill or a third option, "pretermitting entirely the matter investigated". This requires nine of the twelve grand jurors to determine there is not enough evidence presented to determine if a person should or should not be charged with a crime. A grand jury is sometimes referred to as the passive collaborator of a prosecutor or a "rubber stamp" for an indictment, especially if simple acceptance of the bill of indictment is returned as a "true bill." If a "No True Bill" is presented by a grand jury, the case is usually dropped. If a defendant is incarcerated, unless there are other charges, a prosecutor declares nolle prosequi, resubmits an indictment with new evidence, or brings charges of a lesser crime then, providing there is no gross oversight, the defendant is released. The theory is that if a prosecutor cannot obtain a true bill, presenting the prosecutorial evidence with no defensive rebuttal, then a conviction is not likely.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: A 1979 National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) document identifies three steps that could be taken to remove the adversarial role of the grand jury and make them more independent; (1) giving the target of the grand jury investigation the opportunity to testify; (2) making a grand jury subpoena returnable only when the grand jury is sitting and identifying the general subject area of the investigation; and (3) recording all grand jury proceedings (except the jurors' deliberations), making them accessible for pretrial discovery.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Hennepin County, Minnesota (which contains Minneapolis) keeps a grand jury impaneled at all times. Each grand jury serves a term of four months, typically meets one day each week, and focuses almost exclusively on homicide cases.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: In the State of New York, while a person can initially be charged with a felony via a sworn written accusation alone (a "felony complaint"), the state constitution provides a defendant with a right to have all felonies prosecuted by way of a grand jury indictment. This right can be waived by a defendant, who can then be prosecuted using an indictment substitute called a "superior court information." Grand juries are composed of between 16 and 23 jurors (16 being a quorum for all proceedings) and indictments require a minimum vote of 12 such jurors. Grand juries may produce not only indictments but may direct the filing of misdemeanor charges in local courts, the removal of cases to Family Court, and may also issue "grand jury reports" concerning malfeasance of public officials and recommending their discipline.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Both the prosecutor and the grand jury itself have the right to call witnesses to testify before the grand jury. With few exceptions, every witness who testifies before a grand jury receives transactional immunity automatically, whether they invoke their right to silence or not. If a grand jury is considering criminal charges against a person, that person has a right to testify before that grand jury, provided they make a timely written demand and then agree to waive their right to immunity. Despite this fact, an unwitting target of a grand jury proceeding has no right to be informed that their case is even being considered by a grand jury in the first place, unless they have already been arraigned on a felony complaint charging a related crime and are awaiting a preliminary hearing on that complaint. A defendant held in the state may testify to the grand jury.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The Commonwealth of Virginia requires that all felonies be presented to a grand jury either directly or, more often, after certification following a preliminary hearing in district court. Commonwealth's attorneys also have the option of obtaining a misdemeanor indictment from a grand jury. Grand juries are a part of the Commonwealth's circuit court system and they meet at the beginning of each court term.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The most persistent criticism of grand juries is that jurors are not a representative sampling of the community, and are not qualified for jury service, in that they do not possess a satisfactory ability to ask pertinent questions, or sufficient understanding of local government and the concept of due process. Unlike potential jurors in regular trials, grand jurors are not screened for bias or other improper factors. They are rarely read any instruction on the law, as this is not a requirement; their job is only to judge on what the prosecutor produced. The prosecutor drafts the charges and decides which witnesses to call.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The prosecutor is not obliged to present exculpatory evidence in favor of those being investigated before the grand jury. This is because the Supreme Court has held grand juries to be separate from the judicial branch, and therefore not adjudicatory bodies. Four justices dissented to that characterization, stating that the grand jury is "not an autonomous body completely beyond the reach of the other branches," and that the grand jury ought to be subject to the control of courts.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Individuals subject to grand jury proceedings "do not" have a Sixth Amendment constitutional right to counsel in the grand jury room, nor do they have a Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine witnesses. Additionally, individuals in grand jury proceedings can be charged with holding the court in contempt (punishable with incarceration for the remaining term of the grand jury) if they refuse to appear before the jury. Media coverage is not allowed. Furthermore, all evidence is presented by a prosecutor in a cloak of secrecy, as the prosecutor, grand jurors, and the grand jury stenographer are prohibited from disclosing what happened before the grand jury unless ordered to do so in a judicial proceeding.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: In 1974 the Supreme Court of the United States held in "U.S. v. Calandra" that "the exclusionary rule in search-and-seizure cases does not apply to grand jury proceedings because the principal objective of the rule is 'to deter future unlawful police conduct,' ... and 'it is unrealistic to assume that application of the rule to grand jury proceedings would significantly further that goal.'" Illegally obtained evidence, therefore, is admissible in grand jury proceedings, and the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule does not apply.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: After a grand jury was commissioned to investigate whistleblowers organization WikiLeaks, grand juries have been accused of being used as an intimidation and persecution mechanism against whistleblowers who have been accused of leaking classified information.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: According to the American Bar Association (ABA), the grand jury has come under increasing criticism for being a mere "rubber stamp" for the prosecution without adequate procedural safeguards. Critics argue that the grand jury has largely lost its historic role as an independent bulwark protecting citizens from unfounded accusations by the government. Grand juries provide little protection to accused suspects and are much more useful to prosecutors. Grand juries have such broad subpoena power that they can investigate alleged crimes very thoroughly and often assist the prosecutor in his or her job. Grand juries sometimes compel witnesses to testify without the presence of their attorneys. Evidence uncovered during the grand jury investigation can be used by the prosecutor in a later trial. Grand jurors also often lack the ability and knowledge to judge sophisticated cases and complicated federal laws. This puts them at the mercy of very well trained and experienced federal prosecutors. Grand jurors often hear only the prosecutor's side of the case and are usually persuaded by them.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Grand juries almost always indict people on the prosecutor's recommendation. An unnamed Rochester defense lawyer was quoted in a 1979 newspaper article claiming that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich", a saying subsequently repeated by the chief judge of New York State's highest court, Sol Wachtler. And William J. Campbell, a former federal district judge in Chicago, noted: "[T]oday, the grand jury is the total captive of the prosecutor who, if he is candid, will concede that he can indict anybody, at any time, for almost anything, before any grand jury."


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The grand jury system in the United States came under renewed criticism following three high-profile cases in 2014, where police officers killed Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. In all three cases, after being presented the evidence, the grand juries voted not to return indictments. Public perception was that the officers involved had failed to follow proper police procedure. As a result, these grand jury decisions sparked protests across the United States.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: In 2020, a grand jury returned no charges for the police killing of Breonna Taylor. That result too sparked protests across the United States, especially in Louisville, Kentucky, the city where the incident took place. It also led to criticism of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who supported the result, as well as calls for the grand jury transcript to be released to the public.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Due to the criticism against the federal grand jury system there are some reform proposals which include the following proposals:


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Besides the above stated reform proposals, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) established "The Commission to Reform the Federal Grand Jury", a bi-partisan, blue-ribbon panel that included current and former prosecutors, as well as academics and defense attorneys. The unanimous conclusions and proposals of this diverse group were contained in the publication "Federal Grand Jury Reform Report & 'Bill of Rights"'. Among the reforms detailed in that report were the right to counsel for grand jury witnesses who are not receiving immunity, an obligation to present evidence which may exonerate the target or subject of the offense, and the right for targets or subjects to testify.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Researchers Erin Crites, Jon Gould and Colleen Shepard of the Center for Justice, Law & Society at George Mason University studied the experiences of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and retired judges in New York and Colorado. Four key reform recommendations emerged from their "Evaluating Grand Jury Reform in Two States: The Case for Reform" research study are:


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., presented a report, "A Grand Facade: How the Grand Jury was Captured by Government" which addresses the history of, problems with, and reforms for the grand jury system.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Occasionally, grand juries go aggressively beyond the control of the prosecuting attorney. When the grand jury does so the situation is called a "runaway" grand jury. Runaway grand juries sometimes happen in government corruption or organized crime cases if the grand jury comes to believe that the prosecutor himself has been improperly influenced. Such cases were common in the 19th century but have become infrequent since the 1930s.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: The 1935 Runaway Grand Jury in New York County was investigating gambling and mobster Dutch Schultz when jury members complained in open court that prosecutors were not pursuing obvious leads and hinted that the district attorney was possibly receiving payoffs. Thomas E. Dewey was appointed as an independent prosecutor.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: In the "Perry Mason" episode "The Case of the Fraudulent Foto", Mason's client is a district attorney. When the DA is arrested, Mason substitutes for him in a grand jury investigation.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: In "The Rockford Files" episode "So Help Me God", Rockford is subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. The episode shows the viewer the shortcomings of the grand jury system, specifically relating to the Fifth Amendment.


title: Grand juries in the United States

text: Scott Turow's second novel "The Burden of Proof" deals extensively with the workings and shortcomings of the federal grand jury system in a fictional county in Illinois. Turow is himself a practicing lawyer and acted as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago between 1978 and 1986.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: J. Wellington Wimpy, generally referred to as Wimpy, is one of the characters in the comic strip "Popeye", created by E. C. Segar and originally called "Thimble Theatre", and in the "Popeye" cartoons based upon the strip. Wimpy debuted in the strip in 1931 and was one of the dominant characters in the newspaper strip, but when "Popeye" was adapted as an animated cartoon series by Fleischer Studios, Wimpy became a minor character; Dave Fleischer said that the character in the original Segar strip was "too smart" to be used in the film cartoon adaptations. Wimpy appears in Robert Altman's 1980 live-action musical film "Popeye," played by Paul Dooley.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: The character seems to have been inspired by more than one person whom Segar had encountered. Wimpy's personality was based upon that of William Schuchert, the manager of the Chester Opera House where Segar was first employed. "Windy Bill", as he was known, was a pleasant, friendly man, fond of tall tales and hamburgers.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Additional sources suggest that Segar composed the character's name from the names of two other acquaintances. According to fellow cartoonist Bill Mauldin, the name was suggested by that of Wellington J. Reynolds, one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute. In a brief 1935 interview in "The Daily Oklahoman", H. Hillard Wimpee of Atlanta indicated that he was connected to the character, having worked with Segar at the "Chicago Herald-Examiner" in 1917. It became a custom in the office that whoever accepted an invitation for a hamburger would pay the bill. According to Wimpee, after seeing the character in the newspaper, he wrote to Segar in 1932 about Wimpy, "afraid of being connected with what [Segar] was doing with [the character]." He said Segar replied, "You haven't seen anything yet."


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy is Popeye's friend, and plays the role of “straight man” to Popeye. Wimpy is a soft-spoken romantic, intelligent and educated, a lazy coward, a miser, and a glutton. He is a scam artist, and almost a tramp, but pretends to have high social status. Besides mooching hamburgers, he also picks up discarded cigars. Popeye often tries to reform Wimpy's character, but Wimpy never reforms.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Hamburgers are Wimpy's all-time favorite food, and he is usually seen carrying or eating one or more at a time – e.g., in "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" he is seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time – however, he is usually too cheap to pay for them himself. A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con other patrons of the diner owned by Rough House into buying his meal for him. His best-known catchphrase started in 1931 as, "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Tuesday." In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". Rough House explains why Wimpy is able to get away with this tactic in one strip, stating that "He never comes around on Tuesday". Rough House once suffered a mental breakdown from Wimpy's shenanigans, and demanded that Wimpy be kept out of his hospital room. Wimpy disobeyed this command, resulting in a rare altercation with Popeye. The phrase was also slightly altered in the episode "Spree Lunch" to "I'll have a hamburger, for which I will gladly pay you Tuesday." This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate financial irresponsibility and still appears in modern comedies such as "The Drew Carey Show" and "The Office". The initial part of the phrase was even the title of Episode 6 of the fourth season of "Cheers" "I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday."


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: In Robert Altman's 1980 live-action musical film "Popeye", where Wimpy was played by veteran character actor Paul Dooley, one of Harry Nilsson's original songs, "Everything Is Food", featured Dooley singing the catch-phrase, as he took a hamburger, as "I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." The response from the chorus, as they reclaimed the same hamburger from him, uneaten, was "He would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Later in the film, a sign in a restaurant reads "Positively NO CREDIT. This means YOU, Wimpy."


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy had other frequently used lines in the original comic strip. On some occasions, Wimpy tries to placate someone by saying, "I'd like to invite you over to my house for a duck dinner." He then moves away quickly to a safe distance and yells, "You bring the ducks!" Another such line was, "Jones is my name...I'm one of the Jones boys" – an attempt to defuse a hostile situation with a mistaken identity. To deflect an enemy's wrath, he would sometimes indicate a third party and say, "Let's you and him fight", starting a brawl from which he quickly withdrew. He also said "Shake hands, my friend...I want to start my wristwatch" on occasion, once more a reference to his lazy behavior. Wimpy is especially fond of duck hunting, and goes hunting with Popeye on numerous occasions, but usually gains his ducks in dishonest ways as well.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy's mother made a cameo appearance in the Sunday strips. She is an elderly widow. Popeye and Rough House both try to make Wimpy seem as respectable as possible when she visits, because she doesn't know about her son's disreputable behavior. On one occasion, Popeye almost makes the truth come out by remarking that Wimpy is a loafer, but then relieves Mrs. Wimpy by stating that Wimpy is actually a baker who "makes loaves" and that he was only having a good natured jest. In the daily strips, Wimpy was appointed general of Popeye's country, Popilania, and injured his head by saluting.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy made two cameo appearances in the Segar universe outside of the Thimble Theater comic strip. He appeared once in the side feature "Popeye's Cartoon Club," as an example of how not to behave, and once in a Sappo strip. The Sappo occurrence came out when Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle invented a machine that would produce synthetic hamburger, only to discover that Wimpy was going to eat it all. This led Sappo to say, "Yeah, break it up... we don't want him around," indicating that they both somehow knew about Wimpy's obsession with hamburgers. Wotasnozzle promptly destroys the device with a hammer. This storyline break was equally as bizarre as the iconic joke with Sappo's nose where Sappo's elongated nose breaks a panel and becomes the swing on which a child (In Popeye's Cartoon Club) is swinging.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy is an annoyance and an irritant to his nemesis, Nazilian shoemaker George W. Geezil, a satirical immigrant character, who goes so far as to poison Wimpy and shoot him. He has a habit of slurping soup. In Geezil's opinion, "He should be killed to death!" This, too, was a repetitive catchphrase. In the Plunder Island storyline, Wimpy disguises himself as Alice the Goon and scares Geezil off the boat. Geezil attempts to commit suicide upon learning that he is in close proximity to Wimpy on board the ship. Wimpy also converts the Sea Hag's five lions into hamburgers through the use of a meat grinder. He refuses to eat a cheese sandwich that Olive Oyl offers him. He tries to make an ape into a hamburger, but the ape refuses to submit. The Plunder Island storyline also contained a creative alteration of one of Wimpy's famous lines. Upon coming to a cannibal island, a cannibal says to Wimpy, "Come on down to the house for a duck dinner...you BE the duck".


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: In one storyline, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea, and Castor Oyl go on a trip to the desert to find gold. After leaving his landlady with an enormous amount of bills, he gets lost in the desert and separated from the rest of the group, in part because he drank Swee'Pea's milk and wasted his own rations. He gets "Desert Madness", a condition which involves long poems and illusions. He eventually reunites with his friends, and finds a cache of gold but admits that he wasn't working hard to look for the gold, he was only trying to kill a snake with his pickaxe. While at home, Wimpy ponders his gold, and a caption states that "he may take unto himself a wife..." This storyline was either scrapped or forgotten, however; Wimpy never gets married for the rest of the Segar strips.


title: J. Wellington Wimpy

text: Wimpy does have romance in his soul, however, although usually with ulterior motives. Popeye once found that Rough House had employed a sexy waitress, but Wimpy decided that he was in love with her instead. When Popeye kicks him out to make love, Wimpy betrays Popeye and informs Olive Oyl that Popeye is cheating, resulting in a catfight between Olive and the sexy waitress. In another incident, Wimpy tried to seduce Olive herself by stating that he was, in reality, an eccentric millionaire who hid his money beneath a rock. Olive falls for the ploy, but stops falling for it when Wimpy states that he forgot his hiding place. In yet another notable incident, Wimpy had his own lover, Waneeta, but only loved her because her father owned a herd of beef cows.


title: Blintz

text: A blintz (; ) is a rolled filled pancake of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, similar to a "crepe" or Russian "blini".


title: Blintz

text: Traditional blintzes are filled with sweetened cheese, sometimes with the addition of raisins. They are served on Shavuot.


title: Blintz

text: The word "blintz" in English comes from the Yiddish word or , coming from a Slavic word "блинец [blin-yets]" meaning pancake.


title: Blintz

text: Like the knishes, blintzes represent foods that are now considered typically Jewish, and exemplify the changes in foods that Jews adopted from their Christian neighbors.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Phillip Joseph Nevin (born January 19, 1971) is an American professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He is the manager for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for 12 seasons, appearing in 1,217 games played between 1995 and 2006 for the Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, Anaheim Angels, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins. He has previously served as a coach in MLB for the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin attended California State University, Fullerton, where he played college baseball for the Cal State Fullerton Titans team. He led the Titans to the championship game in the 1992 College World Series (CWS), after which he was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player and won the Golden Spikes Award. Chosen with the first-overall pick in the 1992 Major League Baseball draft, Nevin went on to play in MLB for seven teams across 12 seasons. He was selected to appear in the 2001 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.


title: Phil Nevin

text: After retiring, Nevin went into broadcasting, and then managed the unaffiliated Orange County Flyers for a season. He managed the Class AA Erie SeaWolves and the Class AAA Toledo Mud Hens in the Tigers organization before joining the Arizona Diamondbacks organization in 2014, managing the Reno Aces. He then returned to MLB to coach the Giants in 2017 and for the Yankees from 2018 through 2021. He joined the Angels as a coach in 2022 and became interim manager after the firing of Joe Maddon. On October 5, 2022 the Angels signed him to a one year contract as their permanent manager.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin attended El Dorado High School in Placentia, California. After graduating, he was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round of the 1989 Major League Baseball draft with the 82nd overall selection. He decided to attend California State University, Fullerton after turning down an offer that included a signing bonus of $100,000.


title: Phil Nevin

text: A two-sport star, Nevin played American football and baseball for the Cal State Fullerton Titans, competing in the Big West Conference of NCAA Division I. He was a punter and placekicker on the Cal State Fullerton Titans football team. He was named an All-American placekicker his freshman year for the Titans as he connected successfully on his first nine field goal attempts and finished the year with a 15-for-21 field goal percentage. His longest field goal of the season was . In his junior year, he averaged per punt.


title: Phil Nevin

text: For the Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball team, Nevin batted .358 with 56 RBIs as a freshman. The Titans won the conference championship and reached the 1990 College World Series (CWS) that year. The Titans lost two games in the 1990 CWS, however, and were eliminated. Nevin batted .335 in his sophomore season. As a junior, he batted .391 with 20 home runs and 71 RBIs, winning the Big West Conference Triple Crown. "Collegiate Baseball" and "Baseball America" named Nevin the College Player of the Year. He credited his past CWS experience with allowing him to remain calm.


title: Phil Nevin

text: In three seasons at Cal State Fullerton, Nevin had a .364 average with 39 home runs and 184 RBIs. He led the Titans to the finals of the 1992 CWS, where the Titans lost to the Pepperdine Waves baseball team, which represented the West Coast Conference. Despite the loss, Nevin was voted the CWS Most Outstanding Player after he batted 10-for-19 with two home runs and 11 RBIs. He also won the Golden Spikes Award, given to the best amateur player in the nation.


title: Phil Nevin

text: The Houston Astros chose Nevin with the first overall pick in the 1992 Major League Baseball draft. Hal Newhouser, a scout for the Astros, had evaluated Derek Jeter extensively prior to the draft. Convinced that Jeter would anchor a winning team, Newhouser lobbied team management to select Jeter, and quit in protest over the Astros' decision to take Nevin instead. The Astros believed that Jeter would insist on a signing bonus of at least $1 million to forgo his college scholarship for a professional contract. Signing bonuses given to the best player in the draft were increasing rapidly. Todd Van Poppel, regarded by many at the time the first pick of the 1990 MLB draft, signed for $1.2 million, while the 1991 MLB draft's first pick, Brien Taylor, signed for $1.55 million after insisting he would otherwise enroll in college. Meanwhile, the Astros were unable to sign their first-round draft pick in 1991, John Burke, who insisted on a bonus of $500,000 as the sixth overall selection. Consequently, the Astros passed on Jeter in the draft.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Bill Wood, the Astros' general manager, said the team believed Nevin was close to a major-league level and would require little development in minor league baseball. As evidence for this, the Astros pointed to Nevin's training with the wooden bats used in professional baseball in an effort to prepare himself for the transition from metal bats. The Astros believed he would be a solid power hitter and have a strong work ethic. Nevin also did not intend to seek a signing bonus approaching those received by Van Poppel and Taylor. The Astros decided to employ Nevin as a third baseman. Not wanting to draw out his contract negotiations, Nevin signed with Houston in June, receiving a $700,000 bonus.


title: Phil Nevin

text: In 1990, Nevin tried out for the United States national baseball team to play in that year's Goodwill Games and World University Baseball Championship (WUBC). To prepare for those tournaments, the team played a series against Japan and a game in Cuba. Nevin played second and third base for Team USA in 13 of its 22 games, batting .229. The team released him before the Goodwill Games and WUBC as it cut players to meet the roster maximum. Nevin was also considered for the 1991 Pan American Games.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin tried out for the national team again before the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The team embarked on a 30-game tour and 38-city exhibition-game schedule in the United States before leaving for Spain. He made the team and served as its starting third baseman throughout the tournament. Olympic coach Ron Fraser called Nevin an excellent player and student of the game. The United States finished fourth out of eight teams in the Olympics.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin traveled with the Astros at the end of their 1992 season but was not on the team's roster. The Astros sent Nevin to the instructional Arizona Fall League during the off-season. Before the 1993 season, "Baseball America" ranked Nevin as the 30th-best prospect in baseball.


title: Phil Nevin

text: The Astros considered sending Nevin to the Jackson Generals of the Class AA Texas League to start his professional career. The team also considered promoting him directly to the major leagues, skipping the minor leagues entirely. At the Astros' spring training in 1993, Nevin batted .350 and showed good power hitting. The Astros weighed bringing Nevin to Houston for Opening Day as they sought to add a right-handed batter to complement the left-handed power of Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley and Eric Anthony and make the team less vulnerable to left-handed pitching. But with Ken Caminiti in the first year of a three-year contract to play as the starting third baseman, Nevin had nowhere to play defensively. The Astros assigned him to the Class AAA Tucson Toros of the Pacific Coast League, one level below the major leagues, where he made his professional debut.


title: Phil Nevin

text: While Nevin was with the Toros, the Astros asked Toros manager Rick Sweet to play Nevin as a left fielder, which would allow the Astros to promote Nevin sooner, as he and Caminiti could play different positions. Veteran first baseman Jim Lindeman served as Nevin's mentor, helping him keep his composure under significant attention and pressure to perform. Nevin started the 1993 season with a .247 batting average, but batted .309 with baserunners in scoring position and had 49 RBIs. By July, he had made ten starts in left field, without committing an error. The Astros, however, were concerned that Nevin did not apply the level of intensity he had in "clutch" situations to cases where there were no baserunners and the score was not close.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin's intensity almost got the best of him during a June 1993 game with Tucson. He was taunted by a man seated in the front row, and nearly attempted to jump into the stands to confront the fan before he was restrained by teammates. The fan was arrested.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin played third base and left field in 1993. He batted .286 that season, with 10 home runs and 91 RBIs. He had a .359 on-base percentage (OBP) and .413 slugging percentage (SLG). "Baseball America" rated him the 24th best prospect before the 1994 season. He returned to Tucson that year, posting a .263 batting average with 12 home runs and 71 RBIs. He had a .343 OBP, and .393 SLG. Nevin also played first base. His major-league debut, however, was delayed both by his defense (61 errors in his first two seasons) and the MLB 1994–95 work stoppage.


title: Phil Nevin

text: The Astros traded Caminiti to the San Diego Padres before the 1995 season. With Caminiti no longer blocking his path to the major leagues, Nevin hoped he would be named the Astros' starting third baseman. But the Astros did not invite him to spring training. Nevin attributed the snub to his refusal to work out with replacement players during the work stoppage. Not wanting to be seen as "scabs" by the Major League Baseball Players Association, minor league players who felt they would play in MLB after the resolution of the strike felt pressure to avoid playing with replacement players, while career minor-leaguers were happy to get a taste of the major leagues. When prospects including Nevin and Billy Wagner refused to play with the replacement players, Astros' general manager Bob Watson issued an ultimatum, saying anyone who refused to play in the team's first exhibition game would be sent out of camp until further notice and be held in breach of contract. The Astros sent Nevin back to Tucson to start the 1995 season, while Dave Magadan started at third base on Opening Day. The Astros also planned to use Shipley and Chris Donnels at third base.


title: Phil Nevin

text: With the Toros in 1995, Nevin's batting average improved to .291. He also posted a .367 OBP, and .463 SLG, while contributing seven home runs and 41 RBIs. The Astros promoted him on June 10, 1995, and he made his major-league debut a day later. Nevin played 18 games for the Astros during the 1995 season. He struggled with the Astros, however, batting .117 with no home run, one RBI, a .221 OBP, and .133 SLG in 60 at-bats. When he learned of his demotion to Tucson on July 5 in Colorado, Nevin cursed at Watson and Astros manager Terry Collins. After Watson called for an apology, Nevin said he would use the incident as a learning experience in controlling his temper.


title: Phil Nevin

text: The Astros acquired pitcher Mike Henneman from the Detroit Tigers for a player to be named later on August 10; Nevin was identified as the player five days later. In 1996, Nevin played in Class AA for the Tigers with the Jacksonville Suns of the Southern League, where he was converted into a catcher by Jacksonville manager and former catcher Bill Plummer.


title: Phil Nevin

text: After the 1997 season, the Tigers traded Nevin and catcher Matt Walbeck to the Anaheim Angels, where Collins was manager, for minor league player Nick Skuse. After an injury to starting catcher Todd Greene, Collins gave Nevin the opportunity to compete for the starting job with Walbeck. Nevin, by then well known for his volatile temper, tore off his jersey while arguing balls and strike calls with the home plate umpire in a 1998 game.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Before the 1999 season, the Angels traded Nevin and minor league player Keith Volkman to the San Diego Padres. Nevin made a late-career break with the Padres, appearing in 100 games for the first time during the 1999 season. He then had the best offensive years of his career: he hit 31 home runs with a .916 on-base plus slugging (OPS) during the 2000 season. He was named to the National League All-Star team in , when he hit 41 home runs with 126 RBIs and had a .976 OPS. He also led major-league third basemen in errors, however, with 27, and had the lowest fielding percentage of all major league third basemen (.930).


title: Phil Nevin

text: In 2002 Nevin played first base, which was considered his strongest defensive position. But injuries shortened his 2002 and 2003 seasons. In 2002, he missed time with a strained left elbow. Three games after returning from the elbow injury, he broke his arm diving for a ground ball, causing him to miss another six weeks. After being heckled by a fan during a September 2002 game, Nevin gave the fan the finger, for which he apologized.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin suffered a dislocated shoulder in spring training in 2003 while making a diving catch. He had surgery on his left shoulder and returned to the Padres in June. The Padres acquired Rondell White to replace Nevin, and White went on to have an All-Star season in left field. Ryan Klesko filled in at first base and rookie Sean Burroughs played well at third base, Nevin's favorite position. Nevin offered to be used in a utility role, alternating with White, Klesko, and Burroughs, as well as Xavier Nady in right field. In 2004, Nevin had more than 100 RBIs for the third time in his career, but underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee in July.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin was often frustrated with the dimensions of Petco Park. He hit a double during a 2004 game that he believed would have been a home run in other stadiums; when he reached second base, he pointed toward Padres' general manager Kevin Towers' suite and threw down his helmet, resulting in a postgame argument. At the time, Petco Park had dimensions of 403 feet for left-center and 411 for right center (each would be shifted by at least ten feet eight years later). Towers said the two had a "love-hate" relationship.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Two nights after San Diego Padres management informed Nevin that Xavier Nady would replace him as the starting first baseman, Nevin rejected a trade to the Baltimore Orioles for Sidney Ponson on July 25, 2005. Nevin exercised a clause in his contract that gave him the right to block transactions that would send him to any of eight franchises, one of which was the Orioles. He was instead traded on July 30, a day before the non-waiver trade deadline, to the Texas Rangers for Chan Ho Park, whose salary the Rangers wanted to dump. In his first thirteen games with the Rangers, the team posted a 1–12 record as Nevin batted 5-for-44. That put his season batting average under .200, known as the "Mendoza Line". The Rangers benched Nevin in September, giving his starts to prospect first baseman Adrián González after the team was eliminated from playoff contention. In his first game back in the lineup on September 24, his average dropped to .182. He refuted opinions that he was losing bat speed.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin had one year remaining on a contract worth $9 million. Manager Buck Showalter said that despite Nevin's benching at the end of the 2005 season, he was his starting designated hitter for the 2006 season. Despite hopes that help from renowned hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo and the hitter-friendly Ameriquest Field would increase Nevin's offensive production in 2006, he continued to struggle. He batted .216 with nine home runs and 31 RBIs in 46 games. The Rangers promoted rookie Jason Botts on May 23, and Botts began to receive Nevin's playing time.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin had only two hits in his last 32 at-bats with the Rangers, though both of them were home runs. The Chicago Cubs sought a slugging first baseman to replace the injured Derrek Lee, and the Rangers traded Nevin to Chicago on May 31, 2006. The Rangers received second baseman and outfielder Jerry Hairston Jr. in return. The Rangers also agreed to pay the difference in the two players' salaries. On August 31, the deadline for trades of players who had cleared waivers, the Cubs traded Nevin to the Twins for cash and a player to be named later. To make room for Nevin, Twins' outfielder Shannon Stewart was placed on the 60-day disabled list.


title: Phil Nevin

text: With the Twins, Nevin stopped worrying about his statistics and enjoyed playing in a pennant race. Nevin appeared in the MLB postseason for the first time in his career with the Twins in 2006. The Twins were swept by the Oakland Athletics in three games; Nevin appeared in one of the three games, batting 0-for-3.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Unsigned at the beginning of the following season, Nevin announced his retirement on May 12, 2007. During his twelve-season career, Nevin had a .270 batting average with 208 home runs and 743 RBIs in 1,217 games. After retiring, Nevin joined the Padres' pre-game radio show. He also joined ESPN as an analyst for the college baseball regionals during the College World Series.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Two seasons removed from his playing career, Nevin decided to return to baseball as a manager in 2008. That December, he was named the manager of the Orange County Flyers in the independent Golden Baseball League (GBL). The Flyers finished with a 37–39 record in 2009, fourth in the five-team GBL. Nevin planned to return to the Flyers in 2010, but a chance meeting at baseball's winter meetings led to Nevin's hiring as manager of the Erie SeaWolves, the Class-AA minor-league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. He replaced the previous manager, Tom Brookens after Brookens was promoted to the Tigers' major-league first-base coach.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin managed the SeaWolves for one season. On November 11, 2010, Nevin was named manager of the Toledo Mud Hens, the Tigers' Class AAA minor league affiliate. He is considered a potential future MLB manager. Catcher Omir Santos described his managing the Mud Hens as "like having a big league manager in [Class AAA]." Nevin had his first taste of coaching in the big leagues when he was added to Jim Leyland's staff as an extra coach for the Tigers 2011 playoff run. On August 31, 2013, Nevin was fired after the team's final home game of the season. Nevin's record as manager was 192–238; the team never finished higher than third in the International League's West division.


title: Phil Nevin

text: The Arizona Diamondbacks named Nevin as manager of the Reno Aces, their Class AAA affiliate, for the 2014 season. In his first season with Reno, he guided the Aces to a Pacific Coast League-best 81–63 record and an eventual Pacific Coast League Championship Series berth. After the season, the Astros interviewed Nevin for their open managerial position. However Nevin remained the manager of the Reno Aces for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.


title: Phil Nevin

text: On November 7, 2016, the San Francisco Giants named Nevin their third-base coach for the 2017 season, succeeding Roberto Kelly. After the 2017 season, the New York Yankees hired Nevin to be their third base coach. The Yankees did not renew his contract for the 2022 season.


title: Phil Nevin

text: On November 29, 2021, Nevin was hired by the Los Angeles Angels to serve as the team's third base coach for the 2022 season. On June 7, 2022, following the firing of Joe Maddon, Nevin was named the Angels' interim manager. On the same day, Nevin managed his first game, but lost to the Boston Red Sox 6–5. On June 9, 2022, the Angels defeated the Red Sox 5–2, giving Nevin his first major league win as a manager as well as snapping the team's 14-game losing streak. On October 5, 2022, the Angels retained Nevin as the team's manager for the 2023 season.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin's first daughter, Koral, was born during his freshman year at Cal State Fullerton; he is no longer in a relationship with Koral's mother. He met his wife, Kristin, at Cal State Fullerton. The couple have two children together; though they were separated during the late 1990s, the couple reconciled. His son, Tyler, made his MLB debut with the Baltimore Orioles in 2021. Another son, Kyle, played college baseball for Baylor University and was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022 MLB Draft.


title: Phil Nevin

text: Nevin lives in the Heritage Estates neighborhood of Poway, California, along with San Diego sporting figures including Bruce Bochy and LaDainian Tomlinson. The neighborhood suffered significant damage in the October 2007 California wildfires. Nevin hosted a baseball camp for children aged six through 16 in 2010.


title: Phil Nevin

text: On May 11, 2021, the Yankees announced that Nevin had tested positive for COVID-19. He also developed a staph infection, and lost .


title: Lasagna

text: Lasagna (, also , also known as lasagne, ) is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made of very wide, flat sheets. Either term can also refer to an Italian dish made of stacked layers of lasagna alternating with fillings such as ragù (ground meats and tomato sauce), vegetables, cheeses (which may include ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan), and seasonings and spices, like Italian seasoning, such as garlic, oregano and basil. The dish may be topped with grated cheese, which becomes melted after baking. Typically cooked pasta is assembled with the other ingredients and then baked in an oven. The resulting baked pasta is cut into single-serving square portions.


title: Lasagna

text: Lasagna originated in Italy during the Middle Ages. The oldest transcribed text about lasagna appears in 1282 in the "Memoriali Bolognesi" ("Bolognesi Memorials"), in which lasagna was mentioned in a poem transcribed by a Bolognese notary; while the first recorded recipe was set down in the early 14th-century "Liber de Coquina" ("The Book of Cookery"). It bore only a slight resemblance to the later traditional form of lasagna, featuring a fermented dough flattened into thin sheets, boiled, sprinkled with cheese and spices, and then eaten with a small pointed stick. Recipes written in the century following the "Liber de Coquina" recommended boiling the pasta in chicken broth and dressing it with cheese and chicken fat. In a recipe adapted for the Lenten fast, walnuts were recommended.


title: Lasagna

text: Mass-produced lasagna with a ruffled edge is called "lasagna riccia", "doppio festone", "sciabò" and "sciablò". In the Veneto, factory-produced "lasagne" are called "bardele" or "lasagnoni". Narrower "lasagne" are "mezze lasagne", and if with a ruffled edge, "mezze lasagne ricche". Similar pastas are the narrower "lasagnette" and its longer cousin, the "lasagnotte" ("cappellasci" ["sic"] in Liguria), as well as the "sagne" of Salento (the "heel" of the Italian "boot") and "lagana" in the reminder of Apulia.


title: Lasagna

text: The lasagna of Naples, "lasagne di carnevale", is layered with local sausage, small fried meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and sauced with a Neapolitan ragù, a meat sauce.


title: Lasagna

text: "Lasagne al forno", layered with a thicker ragù and béchamel sauce and corresponding to the most common version of the dish outside Italy, is traditionally associated with the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Here, and especially in its capital, Bologna, layers of lasagna are traditionally green (the color is obtained by mixing spinach or other vegetables into the dough) and served with ragù (a thick sauce made from onions, carrots, celery, finely ground pork and beef, butter, and tomatoes), bechamel and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.


title: Lasagna

text: In other regions lasagna can be made with various combinations of ricotta or mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, meats (such as ground beef, pork or chicken), and vegetables (such as spinach, zucchini, olives, mushrooms), and the dish is typically flavoured with wine, garlic, onion, and oregano. In all cases, the lasagne are baked (al forno).


title: Lasagna

text: Traditionally pasta dough prepared in Southern Italy used semolina and water; in the northern regions, where semolina was not available, flour and eggs were used. In modern Italy, since the only type of wheat allowed for commercially sold pasta is durum wheat, industrial lasagna are made of semolina from durum wheat. Nonetheless, in the north and especially in Emilia-Romagna, the tradition of egg-based dough remains popular for artisanal and home-made productions.


title: Lasagna

text: In Ancient Rome there was a dish similar to a traditional lasagna called "lasana" or "lasanum" (Latin for 'container' or 'pot') described in the book "De re coquinaria" by Marcus Gavius Apicius, but the word could have a more ancient origin. The first theory is that "lasagna" comes from Greek λάγανον ("laganon"), a flat sheet of pasta dough cut into strips. The word λαγάνα ("lagana") is still used in Greek to mean a flat thin type of unleavened bread baked for the holiday Clean Monday.


title: Lasagna

text: Another theory is that the word lasagna comes from the Greek λάσανα ("lasana") or λάσανον ("lasanon") meaning 'trivet', 'stand for a pot' or 'chamber pot'. The Romans borrowed the word as "lasanum", meaning 'cooking pot'. The Italians used the word to refer to the cookware in which lasagna is made. Later the food took on the name of the serving dish.


title: Lasagna

text: Another proposed link or reference is the 14th-century English dish "loseyn" as described in "The Forme of Cury", a cookbook prepared by "the chief Master Cooks of King Richard II", which included English recipes as well as dishes influenced by Spanish, French, Italian, and Arab cuisines. This dish has similarities to modern lasagna in both its recipe, which features a layering of ingredients between pasta sheets, and its name. An important difference is the lack of tomatoes, which did not arrive in Europe until after Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, while the earliest cookbook found with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, but the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.


title: Lasagna

text: As with most other types of pasta, the Italian word is a plural form: "lasagne" meaning more than one sheet of "lasagna", though in many other languages a derivative of the singular word "lasagna" is used for the popular baked pasta dish. Regional usage in Italy, when referring to the baked dish, favours the plural form "lasagne" in the north of the country and the singular "lasagna" in the south. The former plural usage has influenced the usual spelling found in British English, while the southern Italian singular usage has influenced the spelling often used in American English. Both "lasagne" and "lasagna" are used as singular non-count (uncountable) nouns in English.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Sirens is a 1994 film, based on the real life artist Norman Lindsay, written and directed by John Duigan and set in Australia during the interwar period.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: "Sirens", "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Bitter Moon—"all released in the US within weeks of one another—were the films that brought Hugh Grant to the attention of American audiences.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Tony, an Anglican priest newly arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom, is asked to visit the notorious artist Norman Lindsay, out of the church's concern about a blasphemous painting of the crucifix that the artist plans to exhibit.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Estella, the priest's wife, accompanies him on the visit to the artist's bucolic compound in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. There, they meet Lindsay's wife, Rose, two models, Pru and Sheela, and the maid, Giddy, all of whom pose for Lindsay. Devlin, the half-blind "odd-job" man, also poses for Lindsay.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Initially, Tony and Estella are both disturbed by the frank conversations about human sexuality in which the members of the bohemian group all participate. They are further startled by the amount of nudity they encounter, both in the studio and outside. As the story unfolds, both Tony and Estella find themselves observing the young women bathing naked in a nearby pool and instead of turning instantly away, each pauses to watch.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Joining the models to swim one morning, Estella is shocked when they bathe naked (she and the maid have come in swimming costumes). Estella is further shocked when Devlin arrives on the scene and the naked women flirt with him, knowing that he cannot see them. On a later occasion, Estella observes the two models caressing the maid, and joins them in stroking her. She doesn't realise that her husband, walking nearby, observes this and is disturbed by the scene's sexual content. At another time, Estella observes Devlin sunbathing naked, and flees when she realises he knows she is there.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Estella is increasingly affected by the sensuality of her surroundings and the bohemian attitude towards sexuality. Her relationship with her husband includes intimacy and commitment, but lacks passion.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: The surroundings and the lives of the models are siren calls that lead Estella to fantasize with increasing intensity, and (with encouragement from the models) act on a few of her impulses. She suffers morning-after remorse about a late-night visit to Devlin. Influenced by supportive words from her husband, who had witnessed her earlier intimacy with the models, Estella shares a passionate moment with her husband.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: While Tony is outraged to discover his wife's naked likeness included in one of Lindsay's paintings of a group of naked women, Estella merely observes that it is a good likeness, thus deflating her husband's moral outrage and threats to sue. The next day, Tony and Estella leave the bucolic compound. They travel back home on a train in a shared suite and, showing a changed attitude, Estella caresses Tony with her stocking-covered foot. She falls asleep on the train, and dreams she is naked on a cliff with the other women.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: The starting point was the idea of doing something on the tension between the church's teaching and the sensual side of life. I have always felt that the church's actual teachings on this issue—since I experienced it first-hand as a boy at school—reflected some biases, particularly against the place and role of women in the church, and the place of women's sensuality. I wanted to deal with these sorts of issues but I also wanted to explore them in a comic context. It's a film about sensuality but if you don't have a humorous aspect, then I think you're missing out on a particular dimension of the sensuality.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Duigan told film critic Stephen Farber what drew him to cast Grant: "Hugh has the capacity to be a terrific player of light comedy, in the tradition of Cary Grant and David Niven. He has the same ease and urbanity in the way he moves and talks." Grant told Farber what he brought to the character of the Anglican priest:


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: I kept looking at the part and wondered how I could crack it, because he was such a straitlaced character. And then I realized that if he thought he was trendy and "avant-garde", that added a whole new swing to it. I see him as quite the star of his theological college, probably quite daring with his Turkish cigarettes. And I imagine that he even makes the occasional sexual reference in his conversation after a couple of glasses of sherry. But confronted with the real McCoy, in the form of Elle Macpherson without her clothes, he's hopeless.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Most of the film is set at what is now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, which was the original home of the real-life Lindsay with sequences filmed at the railway station at Mount Victoria, New South Wales.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote: ""Sirens" is best watched as a soft-core, high-minded daydream about the liberating sensuality of art...[it] has an archly intelligent performance from Mr. Grant, who turns the priest's embarrassment into a real comic virtue. Ms. Fitzgerald, who made a strong first impression in "Hear My Song", is again a forceful presence, even when acting out the story's giddy erotic fantasies." Maslin said the film "often verges on silliness and desperately overworks the symbolic importance of snakes. Still, it's hard not to enjoy a film whose most intellectually daring character—Mr. Neill's stern Lindsay—claims to have spent a previous life in Atlantis."


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" was less forgiving: he called the ideas presented by the film "warmed-over D. H. Lawrence" and the film, a "peculiar, not entirely undesirable sort of art-house hybrid, like a marriage between "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Baywatch"", citing "scenes, like the one in which Estella is brought to orgasm by the tender, knowing hands of a blind laborer, [that] are almost laughable."


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: Roger Ebert, guessing incorrectly that the inspiration for Neill's character was Augustus John, noted that "Sirens" has "no particular plot"; he also called it a "good-hearted, whimsical movie which makes no apologies for the beauty of the human body and yet never feels sexually obsessed."


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: "Sirens" grossed A$2,780,839 at the box office in Australia, which is . The film also earned £2,640,396 at the UK box office.


title: Sirens (1994 film)

text: "Sirens" was released on DVD by Miramax Films in May 1999 and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment in May 2011. Umbrella Entertainment released "Sirens" on DVD in May 2010 and later, on Blu-ray, in March 2013. The "Umbrella Entertainment" disc releases are compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the theatrical trailer, script, press clippings, stills gallery, an ABC Lively Arts interview with Norman Lindsay, an informal home movie chat with Hugh Grant and John Duigan, and audio commentary with John Duigan and Sue Milliken.


title: Firepower (album)

text: Firepower is the eighteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest. Released in 2018, it is the band's first studio album since 1988's "Ram It Down" to be produced by Tom Allom and the first one with Andy Sneap as co-producer. The album sold around 49,000 copies in the United States within its first week of release, debuting at No. 5 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. The album also reached No. 5 in the UK, making it their first top-ten album in the UK since "British Steel". Music videos were made for "Lightning Strike", "Spectre" and "No Surrender". A lyric video was made for "Never the Heroes". The record also produced three singles.


title: Firepower (album)

text: In an interview with Reverb.com in November 2015, Richie Faulkner said that Judas Priest would start work on a new album in 2016. In April 2016, Loudwire posted a photo showing Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Faulkner himself in the studio, with Halford stating in a radio interview that the album would arrive by early 2017. Halford expressed dissatisfaction on making an album similar to the previous album "Redeemer of Souls". The band entered the studio in March 2017 to begin recording the album, recruiting Allom and Sneap to produce it, which concluded in June 2017.


title: Firepower (album)

text: Halford describes "Firepower" as "some of our best work — without a doubt", praising Faulkner for his contributions.


title: Firepower (album)

text: Drummer Scott Travis says that it was "a little bit of both" of a conscious effort to revisit some of the band's musical past organically and naturally, expressing uncertainty in terms of the writings of the guitar riffs. He cites the songs "Rising from Ruins", "Lone Wolf", "Evil Never Dies" and "Never the Heroes" as his favourites. Travis says that "Never the Heroes" is "a great, meaningful song in the sense just lyrically, even though I had nothing to do with the lyrics, but it's a great song [with] a great hook." The album has "a lot of ebbs and flows and, hopefully, it has some movement to it where the first song doesn't like the fifth song sounds like the eighth song. Hopefully there's some different sounds and just vibes that people are gonna get when they listen to it." The production is described as an improvement over "Redeemer of Souls".


title: Firepower (album)

text: Both Faulkner and Travis agree that "Firepower" is a heavier album than "Redeemer of Souls", with Faulkner saying that the title track "might be the fastest Priest song. Especially in terms of the drum approach. A friend of mine, he said it sounds like 'Painkiller', but faster. So I can't think of another song that's quicker than 'Painkiller'. So if you define heavy in terms of speed, it's a pretty heavy track, it's pretty full-on."


title: Firepower (album)

text: Halford describes the album's title as "the fire and the power of heavy metal music", mentioning the band's other titles such as "Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, British Steel and Sad Wings of Destiny", "They all sound great, don't they? They got to have some strength and conviction in the statement that "Firepower" certainly does." He also expressed satisfaction on his overall vocal performance on the album, describing it being "something I can listen to now without self-criticism. It doesn't matter how many records you've made, there's always a new experience you can get with a new producer. We've always made that perfectly clear; we know the value of recording with an outside producer. On "Firepower", I was encouraged, coached, and captured."


title: Firepower (album)

text: Halford said that the band's desire to create the sound of "Firepower" was to "re-invent some of the classic moments of Priest, which we could trace to the length and breadth of our roots if you think about it with albums like "Sad Wings of Destiny, Screaming For Vengeance, Painkiller, British Steel, Sin After Sin, Killing Machine"... it just goes on and on (laughs), but internally we knew what that meant so that was the focus". He describes the album being "an incredible moment, not just for Priest, but for heavy metal", and that its success "shows you don't have much control over the music." Halford thanked the production staff for their work and expressed his gratitude towards the fans for its achievement.


title: Firepower (album)

text: Faulkner described the songwriting process as "free and really relaxed", and that the writing and recording ideas from "Redeemer of Souls" remained the same, but was slightly different in terms of his guitar performance. He also says that it wasn't a conscious thing on his part to revisit the band's classic albums for inspiration. Faulkner explains that some of the melodies and the ideas for "Firepower" were already written a long time ago. He cites the songs "Rising From Ruins", "Evil Never Dies" and "Sea of Red" as his favourites. When Allom and Sneap were selected to produce the album, Faulkner explained that it was "one of those lightbulb-moments, because it was never been done before with Priest but it just worked out great. It could have gone horribly wrong with clashing egos and things like that, but it was a great marriage of a classic producer and a more modern producer. They were really instrumental in getting the sound and the energy right for "Firepower" and I think that they did a fantastic job."


title: Firepower (album)

text: When recording the album, Faulkner used a white Gibson Les Paul that he had used on prior Judas Priest tours for distorted rhythm parts. He used a combination of amplifiers, including a Marshall JCM800 and EVH 5150. For clean passages, he used a Fender Telecaster through a Roland JC-120. Glenn Tipton recorded the album primarily his signature ESP Viper and his old custom Hamer models, as well as a variety of Stratocasters. For amplification, he primarily used an Engl Invader but also experimented with EVHs and Marshalls. He improvised his leads on the album while Faulkner both improvised and composed his leads.


title: Firepower (album)

text: Shortly after Tipton announced that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease on 12 February 2018, former guitarist K. K. Downing insinuated that Sneap's contributions on "Firepower" were more than being just a producer, given the idea that Sneap covered Tipton's guitar parts and not Tipton himself. Halford and Faulkner responded negatively. Downing later clarified that he only meant to say that Sneap not only produced, but likely "contributed song ideas, riffs and licks, lyric ideas etc."


title: Firepower (album)

text: Halford says that technology did not change the writing process. He also said that the band did not listen to their classic albums for inspiration during production, "but we certainly thought about what was at the core of all those records, at the metal heart of Priest. That's what gave us the direction for "Firepower"."


title: Firepower (album)

text: "Firepower" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 77 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". At AnyDecentMusic?, that collates critical reviews from more than 50 media sources, the album scored 7.1 points out of 10, based on 10 reviews. The album made several publications' lists of best albums and top metal albums of 2018.


title: Firepower (album)

text: William Nesbitt of "PopMatters" wrote ""Firepower" welcomes fans of previous Priest records, but it also sounds modern. That's not surprising given that the band used two producers for the album... It's not the nuclear assault of "Painkiller", a touchstone for many Priest fans, or the late-day resurrection of "Redeemer of Souls", but Firepower proves Judas Priest still pack some heavy artillery and can still hit the target even if not every shot is a bullseye." Rich Davenport of "Record Collector" noted " Flamethrower is a weaker moment, somewhat generic in parts, but the overall quality of writing and performance stays high, from Rob Halford's commanding range and presence to the agile Tipton/ Faulkner guitar team's riffing and lead work, the whole band sounding like they've still got something to prove." Josh Gray of "Clash" stated "... as far as I can tell, Judas Priest just woke up one morning and suddenly remembered how to be the greatest heavy metal band on the planet again. Though it is far too early to start talking about this as one of their finest records, I have no doubt that 'Firepower' could slip through a wormhole in time to stand in the mighty presence of 'British Steel' and 'Screaming For Vengeance' and feel no shame. Thom Jurek of "AllMusic" added "Closing in on their 50th anniversary, Judas Priest still possess the musical rigor, showmanship, and force that make other bands bow down. FIREPOWER smokes." Michael Hann of "The Guardian" wrote "Firepower's success depends on the songwriting, though, and that's pretty strong... Of course, Firepower could never sound as revolutionary as Priest did when they were codifying metal 40 years ago, but it's often excellent."


title: Firepower (album)

text: In December 2017, "Firepower" was listed by Ultimate Guitar as one of the "Top 25 Most Anticipated Albums of 2018", alongside expected albums by bands like A Perfect Circle, Megadeth, Testament, Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, Muse and The Offspring.


title: Firepower (album)

text: The tour edition boxed set contains a 7" vinyl; it is limited only to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.


title: Chindits

text: The Chindits, officially as Long Range Penetration Groups, were special operations units of the British and Indian armies which saw action in 1943–1944 during the Burma Campaign of World War II.


title: Chindits

text: The British Army Brigadier Orde Wingate formed the Chindits for raiding operations against the Imperial Japanese Army, especially long-range penetration, attacking Japanese troops, facilities and lines of communication deep behind Japanese lines.


title: Chindits

text: Their operations featured long marches through extremely difficult terrain, undertaken by underfed troops often weakened by diseases such as malaria and dysentery. Controversy persists over the extremely high casualty-rate and the debatable military value of the achievements of the Chindits.


title: Chindits

text: During the East African Campaign of 1940–41, Wingate – under General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Command – had begun to explore guerilla tactics, when he created and commanded a unit known as Gideon Force, composed of regular troops from Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as Ethiopean partisans. Gideon Force disrupted Italian supply lines and collected intelligence.


title: Chindits

text: In 1942, after the disbandment of Gideon Force, Wavell – who had since been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the India Command – requested the services of Wingate in Burma. It was intended that he would raise irregular forces to operate behind the Japanese lines, in a manner similar to Gideon Force. Wingate arrived in Burma in March 1942 and for two months, as Japanese forces advanced rapidly, toured the country developing his theories of long-range penetration, during the two months preceding the Japanese conquest of Burma. After returning to Delhi, he presented his proposals to Wavell.


title: Chindits

text: The first Chindit unit, the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, was gradually formed in the area around Jhansi in the summer of 1942. Wingate took charge of the training of the troops in the jungles of central India during the rainy season. Half of the Chindits were British: the 13th Battalion, the King's Liverpool Regiment (nominally a second-line battalion, which contained a large number of older men) and men from the former Bush Warfare School in Burma, who were formed into 142 Commando Company. The other portion of the force consisted of the 3rd Battalion, the 2nd Gurkha Rifles (a battalion that had only just been raised) and the 2nd Battalion, the Burma Rifles (a composite unit formed from several depleted battalions of Burmese troops that had retreated into India in 1942).


title: Chindits

text: Wingate trained this force as long-range penetration units that were to be supplied by stores parachuted or dropped from transport aircraft and were to use close air support as a substitute for heavy artillery. They would penetrate the jungle on foot, essentially relying on surprise through mobility to target enemy lines of communication (a tactic that the Japanese had previously used in 1942 to great effect against British forces in Singapore and Burma).


title: Chindits

text: The standard brigade and battalion structures were abandoned. The force was instead formed into eight columns, each of which was organised as: an infantry rifle company (with nine Bren light machine guns and three 2-inch mortars); a support group with the heavy weapons (four Boys anti-tank rifles, two medium Vickers machine guns and two light anti-aircraft guns); a reconnaissance platoon from the Burma Rifles; and a sabotage group from 142 Commando Company. Small detachments from the Royal Air Force (equipped with radios to call in air support), Royal Corps of Signals and Royal Army Medical Corps were attached to the column headquarters. The heavy weapons, radios, reserve ammunition, and rations and other stores were carried on mules, which would also provide an emergency source of food once their loads had been depleted. With 57 mule handlers, each British column numbered 306 men (the Gurkha columns were slightly stronger, with 369 men).


title: Chindits

text: Each man carried more than of equipment, which was proportionally more than the mules carrying the support weapons and other stores. This included a personal weapon, such as the SMLE rifle or Sten Gun, ammunition, grenades, a machete or Gurkha kukri knife, seven days' rations, groundsheet, change of uniform and other assorted items. Much of this load was carried in an Everest carrier, which was essentially a metal rucksack frame without a pack.


title: Chindits

text: Shortly before the first operation, one column was broken up to bring the remaining seven up to full strength. Two or more columns were commanded by a group headquarters, which in turn was commanded by the brigade headquarters.


title: Chindits

text: The original intent had been to use the Chindits as a part of a larger offensive. When this offensive was cancelled, Wingate convinced General Wavell to send the Chindits into Burma anyway. Accordingly, on 8 February 1943, Operation Longcloth commenced and 3,000 Chindits, Wingate with them, began their march into Burma.


title: Chindits

text: The Chindits crossed the Chindwin River on 13 February and faced the first Japanese troops two days later. Two columns marched to the south and received their air supply drops in broad daylight to create an impression that they were the main attack. They even had a man impersonating a British general along with them. The RAF mounted air attacks on Japanese targets to support the deception. These columns were to swing east at the beginning of March and attack the main north-south railway in areas south of the main force. One column successfully carried out demolitions along the railway, but the other column was ambushed. Half of the ambushed column returned to India.


title: Chindits

text: Five other columns proceeded eastward. Two, those of Michael Calvert and Bernard Fergusson, proceeded towards the main north-south railway in Burma. On 4 March, Calvert's column reached the valley and demolished the railway in 70 places. Fergusson arrived two days later to do the same. Despite these successes, however, the railway was only temporarily disabled, and resumed operation shortly afterwards.


title: Chindits

text: On many occasions, the Chindits could not take their wounded with them; some were left behind in villages. Wingate had, in fact, issued specific orders to leave behind all wounded, but these orders were not strictly followed. Since there were often no established paths in the jungle along their routes, many times they had to clear their own with machetes and kukris (and on one occasion, a commandeered elephant). Supply was delivered by air using three Hudsons and three Dakotas of 31 Squadron operating from Agartala in eastern Bengal.


title: Chindits

text: Once in Burma, Wingate repeatedly changed his plans, sometimes without informing all the column commanders. The majority of two of the columns marched back to India after being ambushed by the Japanese in separate actions. After the railway attacks, Wingate decided to cross his force over the Irrawaddy River. However, the area on the other side of the river turned out to be inhospitable to operations. Water was difficult to obtain and the combination of rivers with a good system of roads in the area allowed the Japanese to force the Chindits into a progressively smaller "box".


title: Chindits

text: In late March, Wingate made the decision to withdraw the majority of the force, but sent orders to one of the columns to continue eastward. The operations had reached the range limit of air supply and prospects for new successful operations were low, given the Japanese pressure. The columns were generally left to make their own way back to India. On the journey back, the most difficult actions involved crossing back over the Irrawaddy River. The Japanese had observers and patrols all along the river bank and could quickly concentrate once an attempt at a crossing was detected. Gradually, all the columns broke up into small groups. Wingate's headquarters returned to India on its own ahead of most of the columns. Through the spring and even into the autumn of 1943, individual groups of men from the Chindits made their way back to India. The army did what they could for the men. In one case, an aeroplane was landed in an open area and wounded men were evacuated by air. Part of one column made it to China. Another body of men escaped into the far north of Burma. Others were captured or died.


title: Chindits

text: By the end of April, after a three-month mission, the majority of the surviving Chindits had crossed the Chindwin river, having marched between 750–1,000 miles. Of the 3,000 men that had begun the operation, a third (818 men) had been killed, taken prisoner or died of disease, and of the 2,182 men who returned, about 600 were too debilitated from their wounds or disease to return to active service. Of the remaining men, Wingate practically hand picked those few he would retain, while the rest were put back under the normal army command structure as part of their original battalions.


title: Chindits

text: Although British Army officers in India criticised the effectiveness of the Chindits (Japanese railway communications had been out of commission for less than a week), their effect on the morale of the Allied troops in India was refreshing, and they were given plenty of publicity.


title: Chindits

text: Wingate wrote an operations report on returning to India, which was controversial for many reasons, including attacks on officers under his command. The report had a tendency to excuse any mistakes made by its author (Wingate), while making vicious attacks on other officers, often based on limited information. Eventually, through his political allies in London, a copy of the report was given to Winston Churchill, who was impressed and took Wingate with him to the Quebec Conference. His concepts for long-range penetration operations behind Japanese lines received official backing at high level, and he obtained substantial US support for his force. The US Army also began its own plans for the group that later became Merrill's Marauders.


title: Chindits

text: As the members of the first expedition were making their way back to India, a second long range penetration unit, 111th Indian Infantry Brigade was being formed. Popularly known as "The Leopards", the brigade was raised by General Wavell without the knowledge of Wingate, who was still in Burma and who was known to have a strong dislike for the Indian Army, its diverse troop formations, and its British officers in particular. Wavell personally selected the commander of 111th Brigade, Brigadier Joe Lentaigne.


title: Chindits

text: Wavell intended to use two Chindit brigades alternately during 1944. While one brigade was operating behind Japanese lines for two to three months at a time, the other would be resting in India, while training for and planning the next operation. However, Wingate returned from Quebec with authority to implement far more ambitious plans for the second expedition, which required that the force be greatly expanded to a strength of six brigades. Wingate refused to use Indian Army formations in this force, because he maintained that their training in long-range penetration techniques would take longer and their maintenance by air would be difficult due to the varied dietary requirements of different Gurkha and Indian castes and religions, although he had little choice but to accept 111th Brigade, and two Gurkha battalions in 77th brigade. Since large numbers of trained British infantry were required, three brigades (the 14th, 16th and 23rd) were added to the Chindits by breaking up the experienced British 70th Infantry Division, much against the wishes of Lieutenant General William Slim and other commanders, who wished to use the division in a conventional role. A sixth brigade was added to the force by taking a brigade (the 3rd (West African) Infantry Brigade) from the British 81st (West Africa) Division.


title: Chindits

text: At Quebec, Wingate had also succeeded in obtaining a "private" air force for the Chindits, the 1st Air Commando Group, mainly consisting of USAAF aircraft. The Chindits were greatly encouraged by having aircraft on which they could call immediately for supply drops, casualty evacuation and air support. Other welcome American aid was the "K" Ration pack which, although it provided insufficient calories for prolonged active operations, was far better than the equivalent British or Indian ration pack.


title: Chindits

text: The forces for the second Chindit operation were called "Special Force", officially 3rd Indian Infantry Division, or "Long Range Penetration Groups", but the nickname, the Chindits, had already stuck.


title: Chindits

text: The new Chindit force commenced training in Gwalior. Men were trained in crossing rivers, demolitions and bivouacking. Calvert and Fergusson, both newly promoted to Brigadier, took command of two of the brigades, and were responsible for much of the training program and the development of tactical planning. Wingate himself was absent for much of the training period, first being out of the country to attend the Quebec Conference and then struck ill with typhoid from drinking bad water in North Africa on his return.


title: Chindits

text: The methods of the new Long Range Penetration force in 1944 differed from those of 1943. Wingate had decided on a strategy of creating fortified bases behind the Japanese lines, which would then send out raiding columns over short distances. This change was in part forced on him by strengthened Japanese patrols along the Burmese frontier, making a repeat of the successful infiltration in 1943 unlikely. In an imaginative move prompted by Colonel Philip Cochran's assurance that he could transport both troops and supplies by glider, Wingate arranged for the bulk of the force to enter Burma by air, greatly accelerating the force's ability to reach its target objectives. Advance units would land in gliders in preselected open fields in Burma, and prepare them for large-scale landings by transport aircraft. The lavish air support provided by Colonels Cochran and Alison of the 1st Air Commando Group proved critical to the success of the operation.


title: Chindits

text: Wingate also had plans for a general uprising of the Kachin population of Northern Burma. He fought over these plans with the leadership of Force 136 (an organisation set up to liaise with resistance forces in Japanese-occupied countries), which was concerned that a premature uprising of the Kachins without a permanent British military presence would lead to their slaughter by the Japanese at the end of operations. Force 136 also had their own plans for a rising to be coordinated with the arrival of the regular army in Burma. Wingate was eventually convinced to scale back his original plans. Further complicating relations between the organisations were orders issued by Wingate to the commander of Dah Force (a British-led force of Kachin irregulars attached to the Chindits) not to coordinate operations with Force 136 for security reasons.


title: Chindits

text: During the last months of 1943, planning was conducted to carry out the strategy for India as originally determined at the Quebec Conference. In November, the overall plan for the dry season campaign of 1944 determined by South East Asia Command focused on the use of the Chindits in the reconquest of northern Burma. These plans were approved by the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Cairo Conference and although other offensives in Burma were scaled back or cancelled, Stilwell's Northern Front offensive with the Chindits' participation survived the cuts. The uncertainty of the plans nevertheless meant that the plans and contingency plans for the use of the Chindits repeatedly changed up to the very start of operations.


title: Chindits

text: The Chindits were assigned the task of helping the forces of Joseph Stilwell push the Ledo Road through northern Burma to link up with the Burma Road and re-establish an overland supply route to China, by mounting a long range penetration operation behind the Japanese opposing his forces on the Northern Front. It had originally been intended that the IV Corps would attack on the Central Front and cross the Chindwin to tie up Japanese forces which could otherwise be used to aid the Northern Front. As the Japanese launched their own attack on the Central Front this advance did not take place, but it still meant that most Japanese forces were engaged on the Central Front and were not available to reinforce the Japanese 18th Division on the Northern Front. The Japanese offensive on the Central Front resulted in further proposals and refinements of the plans for the Chindits.


title: Chindits

text: On 4 February 1944, Lieutenant General Slim, commander of the British Fourteenth Army, and USAAF General George E. Stratemeyer, commander of Eastern Air Command, issued a joint directive to General Wingate and Cols. Cochran and Alison of the 1st Air Commando Group, to march and fly into Indaw and from there under the command of the Fourteenth Army carry out the objectives of:


title: Chindits

text:
(i) Helping the advance of Stilwell's Ledo force on Myitkyina by cutting the communications of the Japanese 18th Division, harassing its rear, and preventing its reinforcement.
(ii) Creating a favourable situation for the Yunnan Chinese forces to cross the Salween and enter Burma.
(iii) Inflicting the greatest possible damage and confusion on the enemy in North Burma.


title: Chindits

text: On 5 February 1944, Fergusson's 16th Brigade left Ledo for Burma. They avoided Japanese forces by traversing exceptionally difficult terrain. The rest of the Brigades were brought in by air to create fortified bases with airstrips.


title: Chindits

text: Three landing zones, codenamed "Piccadilly", "Broadway" and "Chowringhee", were selected. Calvert's 77th Brigade prepared to fly by Hadrian glider into "Piccadilly" on the night of 5 March. A last-minute aerial reconnaissance revealed "Piccadilly" to be covered with logs, making landing impossible. In some accounts of the incident, Wingate insisted that the operation had been betrayed and that the other landing zones would be ambushed. To proceed would be "murder". Slim accepted the responsibility of ordering a willing Calvert to proceed with the operation, using "Broadway" instead. While "Piccadilly" had already been used to evacuate casualties during the first Chindit operation in 1943, "Broadway" had to be selected from the results of aerial reconnaissance. It turned out to be a poor landing ground and there were many casualties in crash landings, but Calvert's men were just able to make the strip fit to take transport aircraft the next day. Chindit gliders also landed on "Chowringhee" the next day, without opposition.


title: Chindits

text: It was later revealed that the logs on "Piccadilly" had been placed there to dry by Burmese teak loggers. The real problem was the failure to maintain continuous observation of the landing zones (e.g. by high-flying Spitfire photo-reconnaissance aircraft) before the forces were deployed.


title: Chindits

text: Over the next week, 600 sorties by Dakota transport aircraft transferred 9,000 men to the landing zones. "Chowringhee" was abandoned once the fly-in was completed, but "Broadway" was held with a garrison which included field artillery, anti-aircraft guns and even a detachment of six Mk.VIII Spitfires of No.81 Squadron RAF from 12 March to 17 March. On 17 March they were attacked during take-off by Japanese Ki-43 'Oscars'. S/L William 'Babe' Whitamore and F/O Alan M Peart managed to get airborne, with both shooting down one 'Oscar' each. Whitamore was shot down and killed but Peart survived for over half an hour, holding off over 20 enemy fighters. The remaining Spitfires were destroyed on the ground for the loss of another pilot, F/Lt Coulter. Peart flew back to Kangla the same day in his damaged Spitfire (FL-E JF818) and reported the action. The detachment was duly ended by AFC Stanley Vincent, the CO of No. 221 Group.


title: Chindits

text: Fergusson's brigade set up another base named "Aberdeen" north of Indaw, into which 14th Brigade was flown. Calvert's brigade established yet another, named "White City" at Mawlu, astride the main railway and road leading to the Japanese northern front. 111 Brigade set up ambushes and roadblocks south of Indaw (although part of the brigade which landed at "Chowringhee" was delayed in crossing the Irrawaddy River), before moving west to Pinlebu.


title: Chindits

text: Ferocious jungle fighting ensued around "Broadway" and "White City". At times, British and Japanese troops were in close combat, bayonets and kukris against katanas. On 27 March, after days of aircraft attack, the Japanese attacked "Broadway" for several nights before the attack was repulsed with flown-in artillery and the aid of locally recruited Kachin irregulars.


title: Chindits

text: However, a setback occurred when Fergusson's brigade tried to capture Indaw on 24 March. The original intention had been to seize the town and its airfields on 15 March but Fergusson had to report that this was impossible. Wingate appeared ready to change the brigade's mission but on 20 March, he reinstated Indaw as the target. The brigade was already exhausted from its long march, and there was no time to properly reconnoitre the objective. The units were dismayed to find that the Japanese controlled the only water sources. Fergusson expected that 14th Brigade would cooperate in the attack, but they moved west instead. Japanese reinforcements had also moved into Indaw, which was a major road and rail centre. Fergusson's battalions, attacking separately, were each repulsed. Calvert later commented "They had attacked as clutching fingers from all sides, and not as a fist". After this, most of the tired 16th Brigade were flown out.


title: Chindits

text: On 24 March, Wingate flew to Imphal to confer with air force commanders. On the return journey, the USAAF B-25 bomber in which he was flying is believed to have flown into a thunderstorm and crashed in the jungle-covered mountains. All aboard were killed.


title: Chindits

text: Slim, the commander of the Fourteenth Army which had loose operational control over Special Force, selected Brigadier Lentaigne to be Wingate's replacement after conferring with Brigadier Derek Tulloch, Wingate's Chief of Staff. Lentaigne was judged to be the most balanced and experienced commander in the force; he had been an instructor at the Staff College at Quetta, had led a Gurkha battalion with distinction during the gruelling retreat from Burma in 1942 and had commanded a Chindit brigade in the field (albeit for only a few weeks, but none of the other brigade commanders had more experience). As an officer of Gurkha troops, he had a similar outlook and background to Slim. The other Chindit brigade commanders were unknown quantities, mostly without staff qualifications, some of whom had never even commanded a battalion-sized unit in combat before 1944, and Wingate's staff officers lacked the necessary combat experience. The force's second-in-command, Major General George William Symes, was bypassed by Slim and formally protested and asked to be relieved. In selecting Lentaigne, Slim did not take into account the tensions between those Chindit commanders and staff who were closely associated with Wingate, and Lentaigne, who had a classical "line" officer's background and had been critical of Wingate's methods and techniques.


title: Chindits

text: Several major changes were made at the highest level. Much of the air support was diverted to the critical battles of Imphal and Kohima, where troops were cut off and could only be resupplied by air. 23rd Brigade, yet to fly in, was also despatched to Kohima. Those Chindits already operating in Burma were formally subordinated to General Joseph Stilwell, who ordered the Chindits to abandon their dispersed operations around Indaw, and concentrate on interdicting the supply lines to the Japanese forces opposing his Northern Combat Area Command.


title: Chindits

text: In April, Lentaigne ordered the main body of 111 Brigade west of the Irrawaddy, now commanded by John Masters, to move north and build a new stronghold, codenamed "Blackpool", which would block the railway and main road at Hopin, south of Mogaung. Calvert was ordered to abandon "White City" and "Broadway" and move north to support Masters. Calvert was opposed to this, as his brigade had successfully held these two strongholds for months. Stilwell also feared that abandoning "White City" would allow Japanese reinforcements to move north. However, Lentaigne insisted that the Chindit brigades were too far apart to support each other, and that the airstrips at "White City" and "Broadway" would be unusable during the monsoon.


title: Chindits

text: Masters's force established "Blackpool" on 8 May and was almost immediately engaged in fierce fighting. Whereas "White City" had been deep in the Japanese rear, its defenders had had plenty of time to prepare their defences and its attackers had been a mixed bag of detachments from several formations, "Blackpool" was close to the Japanese northern front, and was immediately attacked by Japanese troops with heavy artillery support. As Calvert and Stilwell had feared, abandoning "White City" had allowed the Japanese 53rd Division to move north from Indaw. A heavy attack against "Blackpool" was repulsed on 17 May, but a second attack on 24 May captured vital positions inside the defences.


title: Chindits

text: Because the monsoon had broken and heavy rain made movement in the jungle very difficult, neither Calvert nor Brodie's 14th Brigade could help Masters. Finally, Masters had to abandon "Blackpool" on 25 May, because the men were exhausted after 17 days of continual combat. Nineteen Allied soldiers, who were so badly injured as to be beyond hope of recovery and could not be moved, were shot by the medical orderlies and hidden in heavy stands of bamboo.


title: Chindits

text: On 17 May, Slim had formally handed control of the Chindits to Stilwell. Stilwell insisted that the Chindits capture several well-defended Japanese positions. The Chindits had no support from tanks or artillery and this led to heavier casualties than before. According to David Rooney, the Chindits were misused under Stillwell's command and suffered heavy casualties undertaking roles that they were not trained or equipped for.


title: Chindits

text: Over the period from 6 June to 27 June, Calvert's 77th Brigade took Mogaung and suffered 800 casualties – 50 per cent of the brigade's men involved in the operation. Fearing that they would then be ordered to join the siege of Myitkyina, Calvert handed Mogaung over to Force X, shut down his radios and retreated to Kamaing, where Stilwell had his headquarters. A court-martial was likely until Stilwell and Calvert met in person, and Stilwell finally appreciated the conditions under which the Chindits had been operating.


title: Chindits

text: 111 Brigade, after resting, was ordered to capture a hill south west of Mogaung, known as Point 2171. It did so but was now utterly exhausted. Most of the men were suffering from malaria, dysentery and malnutrition. On 8 July, at the insistence of the Supreme Commander, Admiral Louis Mountbatten, doctors examined the brigade. Of the 2,200 men present from four and a half battalions, only 119 were declared fit. The brigade was evacuated, although Masters sarcastically kept the fit men, "111 Company", in the field until 1 August.


title: Chindits

text: The portion of 111 Brigade east of the Irrawaddy were known as "Morris Force", after its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. "Jumbo" Morris. They had spent several months harassing Japanese traffic from Bhamo to Myitkyina. They had then attempted to complete the encirclement of Myitkyina. Stilwell was angered that they were unable to do so but Slim pointed out that Stilwell's Chinese troops (numbering 5,500) had also failed. By 14 July, Morris Force was down to three platoons. A week later, they only had 25 men fit for duty. Morris Force was evacuated about the same time as the 77th Brigade.


title: Chindits

text: The 14th Brigade and the 3rd West African Brigade remained in action, assisting the newly arrived 36th Infantry Division in its advance down the "Railway Valley" south of Mogaung. Finally, they were relieved and withdrawn, starting on 17 August. The last Chindit left Burma on 27 August 1944.