title: Sweet Trip

text: The group was formed in 1993 by producer and songwriter Roberto Burgos when he met former band-member Viet Le at a high school talent show sign-up that summer. The two would spend weekends listening to songs in Le's garage, performing jam sessions with Burgos on guitar and Le on drums. It is through this and a mutual acquaintance that they met Valerie Cooper, and the three formed a band under the name Ophelia Satellite. Initially, the band attempted to write songs as a "traditional guitar, bass, and drums" group, albeit lacking a bass player. Despite this, they began playing these original songs live, but eventually took a break as they were unable to find someone to play bass. During this break, Burgos began recording lo-fi demos to cassette with more electronic elements than their previous work, and it was through these demos that the band decided to change course and pursue a less traditional style where their live performances would not need a bass player. Burgos jokingly labelled these cassettes "The Sweet Trip", which eventually became the band's new name. Five of these demos were later printed onto cassette tapes and sent to several indie labels, one of which was Darla Records. According to Cooper, they were one of the first labels to show genuine interest in their work, and so the band signed on with them; songs from the cassette sent to Darla would eventually be part of their debut's album "Halica"'s track list.


title: Sweet Trip

text: After the release of "Halica" (and its sister EP "Fish Remixes & Versions") the band continued to release new material, contributing songs to the Darla compilation series "Little Darla Has a Treat for You" and "Drum & Bliss". Only a few months after the release of "Halica", the band released the followup EP "Alura", which featured their first use of computers and computer software in the music creation process. The band were also invited to live shows and festivals, such as SXSW 1999. During these live performances, the band would play early versions of songs "Dsco" and "Velocity", which would find their way to the album "Velocity : Design : Comfort" years later. As the band's sound became more focused on electronics, Le would take over as sound engineer for the band's "ever-growing" live kit, with Aaron Porter joining to take over his former bassist duties.


title: Sweet Trip

text: After a year and a half break to record new music, the band released their second album, "Velocity : Design : Comfort", in 2003. Whilst receiving little mainstream attention, the album garnered positive reviews at the time, with AllMusic giving the album four and a half stars and labelling it "one of the most interesting and best records of 2003". After this, the band contributed the "Velocity" outtake "Noise Is a Social Skill (V.0.8)" to volume 24 of the "Little Darla" compilation series in 2004, and proceeded to go on another long hiatus.


title: Sweet Trip

text: In 2006, Sweet Trip reunited once again, with founding member Viet Le departing; Rob Uytingco joined the band, adding live drums to their performances and recordings. The band played rearrangements of songs from their previous album alongside new songs, these new songs would eventually be released on their third album, "You Will Never Know Why", released in 2009. "YWNKW" featured a departure from the band's previous releases, with reviewers noting that it had a more traditional "streamlined indie pop" sound and that it was possibly the band's most accessible album to date. This would be Sweet Trip's last release as a four-piece band, with the band releasing no new material before entering yet another hiatus four years later, and Porter and Uytingco not rejoining for their fourth and final album.


title: Sweet Trip

text: In 2013, Burgos posted a new song, "Things to Ponder While Falling," on his SoundCloud account. He referred to it as "Probably the last Sweet Trip song ever." (later updated to "*not* the last Sweet Trip song ever,") informally announcing the band's hiatus. During the hiatus, Burgos began uploading music to SoundCloud and Bandcamp under the name "Blacktunic", while Valerie uploaded unreleased, rare and alternate Sweet Trip recordings on her personal SoundCloud.


title: Sweet Trip

text: While the group was on hiatus, their 2003 album "Velocity : Design : Comfort" garnered a cult following online. This led to increased interest in Sweet Trip and re-releases of their discography, with people reaching out online to interview the band; Burgos credits these interviews for reconnecting him and Cooper and leading to the band reforming.


title: Sweet Trip

text: In August 2019, Darla Records commented on a Facebook post about "Velocity : Design : Comfort", announcing that the album would be printed on vinyl for the first time as a double LP in 2020. Following this, Burgos posted an update to his Twitter account, stating: "We've realized that we can't put out a VDC vinyl reissue without following up with new music, and that's an exciting realization." Soon after this, Burgos and Cooper began doing interviews together as Sweet Trip, officially reforming the band as a duo. In early 2020, Sweet Trip released their first new song since 2013, "In Sound, We Found Each Other", on the "Little Darla Has a Treat for You, Vol. 30" compilation.


title: Sweet Trip

text: On November 8, 2020, Sweet Trip announced the title of their fourth album, "A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals", which was released digitally on May 28, 2021. Alongside this, a single was announced titled "Walkers Beware! We Drive Into the Sun", which was released on January 15, 2021. On January 22, 2021, they released a remastered version of "You Will Never Know Why," with new artwork and three new songs.


title: Sweet Trip

text: On January 7, 2022, Burgos announced on his Twitter that an "Expanded Edition" of "Halica" would be released on February 11, with a reorganized track list and material from their "Fish EP" released around the same period. Darla Records soon after announced that a re-release of the "Alura" EP with five additional tracks would be coming May 27. Two months later, Darla Records released the compilation album "Seen / Unseen", having been put together prior to Cooper's departure, and formally announced Sweet Trip's disbandment. On April 15, Darla Records released a statement saying that Cooper had left the band because she experienced something "hurtful and traumatic" done by Burgos.


title: Sweet Trip

text: In a December 2020 Sonemic interview, Burgos and Cooper listed Iron Maiden, Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin, Slowdive, Led Zeppelin, the Black Dog, the Chameleons, Jean Sibelius, Broadcast, Moose, Seefeel, Michael Jackson, Cocteau Twins, 101 Strings, Glenn Miller Orchestra, My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints and Sérgio Mendes as musical inspirations for Sweet Trip.


title: Sweet Trip

text: While initially an underground act with little following, Sweet Trip gained a cult following online in the decades proceeding the release of their first three albums, with their music being shared across music boards and dedicated music sites such as Rate Your Music, even becoming Internet memes. Following their initial disbandment in 2013, the band became aware of their internet presence some time around 2017, leading to their reformation in 2019. Following this, they reissued their album "Velocity : Design : Comfort" in 2020, which at this point had become a cult classic release; music outlets such as "Far Out Magazine" list "Velocity : Design : Comfort" as one of the best shoegaze albums of all time.


title: Sweet Trip

text: In popular media, Sweet Trip's song "Dsco" appeared in the 2007 reboot of "Bionic Woman", while their song "Palomar, Your Shadow is the Yellow Sun" was featured in the trailer for the 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.


title: Aminah

text: Aminah bint Wahb (, "", ), was a woman of the clan of Banu Zuhrah in the tribe of Quraysh, and the mother of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.


title: Aminah

text: Aminah was born to Wahb ibn Abd Manaf and Barrah bint 'Abd al-'Uzzā ibn 'Uthmān ibn 'Abd al-Dār in Mecca. Her tribe, Quraysh, claimed descent from Ibrahim (Abraham), through his son Isma'il (Ishmael). Her ancestor Zuhrah was the elder brother of Qusayy ibn Kilab, who was an ancestor of Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib, and was the first Qurayshi custodian of the Kaaba. Abd al-Muttalib proposed the marriage of Abdullah, his youngest son, to Aminah. Some sources state that Aminah's father accepted the match, while others say that it was Aminah's uncle Wuhaib, who was serving as her guardian. The two were married soon after. Abdullah spent much of Aminah's pregnancy away from home as part of a merchant caravan, and died of disease before the birth of his son.


title: Aminah

text: Three months after Abdullah's death, in 570–571 CE, Muhammad was born. As was tradition among all the great families at the time, Aminah sent Muhammad to live with a milk mother in the desert as a baby. The belief was that in the desert, one would learn self-discipline, nobility, and freedom. During this time, Muhammad was nursed by Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, a poor Bedouin woman from the tribe of Banu Sa'ad, a branch of the Hawāzin.


title: Aminah

text: When Muhammad was six years old, he was reunited with Aminah, who took him to visit her relatives in Yathrib (later Medina). Upon their return to Mecca a month later, accompanied by her slave Umm Ayman, Aminah fell ill. She died around the year 577 or 578, and was buried in the village of Al-Abwa'. Her grave was destroyed in 1998. The young Muhammad was taken in first by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib in 577, and later by his paternal uncle Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib.


title: Aminah

text: Islamic scholars have long been divided over the religious beliefs of Muhammad's mother and her fate in the afterlife. One transmission by Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah states that Allah (God) refused to forgive Aminah for her "kufr" (disbelief). Another transmission in Musnad al-Bazzar states that the Muhammad's mother was brought back to life and accepted Islam, then returned to the "Barzakh". Some Ash'ari and Shafi'i scholars argued that neither would be punished in the afterlife, as they were "Ahl al-fatrah", or "People of the interval" between the prophetic messages of 'Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad. The concept of "Ahl al-fatrah" is not universally accepted among Islamic scholars, and there is debate concerning the extent of salvation available for active practitioners of "Shirk" (Polytheism), though the majority of scholars have come to agree with it, and disregard the "ahadith" (narrations) stating that Muhammad's parents were condemned to hell.


title: Aminah

text: While a work attributed to Abu Hanifah, an early Sunni scholar, stated that both Aminah and Abdullah died upon their innate nature ("Mata 'ala al-fitrah"), some later authors of "mawlid" texts related a tradition in which Aminah and Abdullah were temporarily revived and embraced Islam. Scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah stated that this was a lie, though Al-Qurtubi stated that the concept did not disagree with Islamic theology. According to Ali al-Qari, the preferred view is that both the parents of Muhammad were Muslims. According to Al-Suyuti, Isma'il Haqqi, and other Islamic scholars, all of the narrations indicating that the parents of Muhammad were not forgiven were later abrogated when they were brought to life and accepted Islam. Shia Muslims believe that all of Muhammad's ancestors, Aminah included, were monotheists, and therefore entitled to Paradise. A Shia tradition states that Allah forbade the fires of Hell from touching either of Muhammad's parents.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: Mistresses is an American mystery drama soap opera television series based on the 2008–10 U.K. series of the same name, about the lives of four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships. This adaptation was developed by K. J. Steinberg, and stars Alyssa Milano, Rochelle Aytes, Yunjin Kim, Jes Macallan, and Jennifer Esposito in the lead roles. The series was originally set to premiere on May 27, 2013. However, ABC announced that "Mistresses" would premiere on June 3, 2013.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: It had been expected that if there had been a fifth season it would have been intended to be the final season.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: In February 2012, ABC announced that it had green-lighted "Mistresses" with a direct-to-series order and a planned summer 2013 airdate. Thirteen episodes were ordered. K.J. Steinberg wrote the pilot episode, which had previously been under consideration for a pilot order for ABC's fall 2012 schedule. This is the second attempt by a network to import the British series to the U.S. In 2008, Lifetime announced it was developing the series, but it never made it to air. The Lifetime version was also to have starred Aytes, alongside Milano's "Charmed" co-star Holly Marie Combs.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: On September 25, 2013, ABC renewed "Mistresses" for a second season, which aired from June 2 to September 1, 2014. On September 30, 2014, ABC renewed the series for a third season with production of the program being moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, British Columbia. The season premiered on June 18, 2015, with a special two-hour premiere in a new Thursday timeslot. On September 25, 2015, ABC renewed "Mistresses" for a fourth season of 13 episodes. In December 2015, "Mistresses" was selected for the California film and TV tax credit, relocating filming of the series back to Los Angeles.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: Casting announcements began in early March, with Rochelle Aytes and Jes Macallan being the first actors cast. Aytes portrays April, a widow and mother of one, while Macallan plays Josslyn, a real estate broker and the youngest of the women. Yunjin Kim came on board the project in mid-March in the role of Karen, a psychiatrist who is upset over the death of a patient with whom she was involved. Alyssa Milano completed the lead cast when she signed on to portray Savannah, a married lawyer and older sister to Josslyn.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: On September 30, 2014, Milano announced that she would not be returning for the third season of the series as production would be later moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver in order to cut production costs. On February 10, 2015, it was confirmed that actress Jennifer Esposito would join the cast as the new co-lead Calista Raines, described as the creative director of a luxury fashion brand. On September 25, 2015, the same day when ABC announced "Mistresses"'s fourth season renewal, Esposito also left the show after one season. On February 19, 2016, it was announced that Tabrett Bethell, who previously guest starred as Kate Davis in season two for one episode, would return in the remaining lead role during the fourth season.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: "Mistresses" holds a score of 42 out of 100, on Metacritic, based on 16 negative reviews by critics from early in the first season. Brian Lowry of "Variety" was quite optimistic about the series, stating: "A frothy prime time soap with a definite naughty streak, the program looks well suited to scratch an itch for daytime serial fans ABC abandoned." He went on to state: "Although the characters and situations largely mirror its inspiration, this U.S. version wisely seeks a somewhat cheekier and less somber tone." Writing for "The Wall Street Journal", Dorothy Rabinowitz likened the show to "Sex and the City", stating: ""Mistresses" carries very little hint of any complex lineage, give or take a few scenes that could, with ferocious effort, evoke memories of Carrie Bradshaw and company." Rabinowitz also stated that "the really delectable fun, the best of the sparkle, is to be found in the darkest plots, the looming catastrophes, which promise to come in an endless flow."


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: In less positive reviews, "New York Daily News"' David Hinckley gave the premiere two out of five stars, stating that "ABC loves racy romantic dramas, but "Mistresses" is not its best work in the genre." He continued by saying that "the problem with "Mistresses" may lie with the expectations it has set." Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" stated that executive producer K.J. Steinberg is "grasping the letter yet not the spirit of the thing, appears more interested in replicating plot from the British version rather than character or anything like nuance."


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: The premiere episode scored a 1.2 in the 18–49 age demographic and 4.40 million viewers. The first season ranked as the No. 2 scripted summer drama among adults 18–49, behind "Under the Dome", and averaged around 5 million viewers and a 2.0 18–49 rating, with DVR ratings factored in.


title: Mistresses (American TV series)

text: "Mistresses" premiered on CTV in Canada on June 3, 2013, the same day it premiered in the US. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2013, on TLC In Australia, "Mistresses" premiered on September 30, 2013, on the Seven Network.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: Major Ronald Ivor Ferguson OStJ (10 October 1931 – 16 March 2003) was a polo manager, initially to the Duke of Edinburgh and later, for many years, to then Charles, Prince of Wales. His daughter, Sarah, Duchess of York, is the former wife of the Duke of York. He was the maternal grandfather of princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: Ferguson was the son of Colonel Andrew Henry Ferguson (1899–1966) and his wife Marian Montagu Douglas Scott (1908–1996), a first cousin of Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, who became (after her wedding to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester) Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and an aunt-by-marriage of Queen Elizabeth II. His maternal grandfather was Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Herbert Montagu Douglas Scott, son of William Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch, a direct descendant of Charles II of England, and Lady Louisa Jane Hamilton. His great-grandfather (through his paternal grandmother) was Henry Brand, 2nd Viscount Hampden. Ferguson's elder brother, John Ferguson, died at 10 years of age from peritonitis.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: He was born in London and grew up at Dummer Down Farm, his later home in adulthood, at Dummer, near Basingstoke in Hampshire. He attended Ludgrove School followed by Eton College and Sandhurst.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: He entered the Life Guards in February 1952, the regiment of which his father had previously been Colonel. In 1954 Ferguson was promoted to Lieutenant and Captain in 1958. Ferguson retired in 1968 and was "granted the honorary rank of Major". During his career he served with the regiment in Germany, Egypt, Aden, and Cyprus. In 1987, he was entered as an officer (brother) in the Venerable Order of Saint John.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: After he retired, he devoted himself to polo. His interest in polo frequently brought him into contact with the Royal Family, and it was through this connection that his daughter, Sarah, met Prince Andrew.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: In 1979, on the England II team alongside Alan Kent, Patrick Churchward and Charles, Prince of Wales, he won the Silver Jubilee Cup.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: In 1988, while his daughter Sarah was married to Prince Andrew, the "News of the World" printed a story about Ferguson's membership of the Wigmore Club, "a health club and massage parlour in London staffed by girls who, dressed in starched white 'medical' gowns, allegedly offered à la carte sexual services to members." He maintained that he had used the club "for massage only... and by that I mean a totally straight one" and as "a kind of cocoon where I could shut myself away for an hour and think". The controversy did not affect his marriage; however, it allegedly led him to leave his post as the Prince of Wales' polo manager and his position at the Guards Polo Club.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: Ferguson's first wife was Susan Wright. They married in St Margaret's, Westminster on 17 January 1956. They had two daughters:


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: The couple divorced in 1974. During their marriage, the Fergusons were recognised society figures. The Major retired from his army career, and his family moved to Dummer Down Farm which he inherited upon his father's death.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: In 1976, Ferguson married for the second time to Susan Rosemary Deptford (b. 1946). They had three children:


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: Ferguson's widow Susan remarried in Dummer in 2012, Lt-Gen Sir Richard Swinburn, who was made Commander UK Field Army in 1994. Prince Andrew, Sarah, Duchess of York and their two daughters attended Sir Richard and Lady Swinburn's wedding celebrations. Sir Richard died in October 2017.


title: Ronald Ferguson (polo)

text: His rare media appearances were to defend his daughter Sarah and raise awareness of prostate cancer. He had cancer during the last decade of his life. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996, and also had skin cancer. He suffered a heart attack in November 2002. In March 2003, he died, aged 71, of a heart attack at the Hampshire Clinic, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Terrence William James Ryan (born January 14, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and actor. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens eighth overall in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft and played eight games with the organization between 1996 and 1999.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Raised in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, Ryan started playing sports at an early age. His father, Terry Ryan Sr., played for the Hamilton Red Wings in the OHA before venturing on his own hockey quest that would see him play five years of pro hockey highlighted by a year in the WHA with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: When the younger Ryan was 10, his second cousin Michelle Meger was killed in Edmonton by a drunk driver. Meger was in her early twenties when she lost her life. The families were so close that Ryan stayed with her parents in Edmonton when he was drafted to the NHL. He continues to advocate against drunk driving.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: As a youth, Ryan played in the 1990 and 1991 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a minor ice hockey team from Mount Pearl.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: In 1991, at 14 years of age, Ryan was invited to play Junior “A” hockey for the Quesnel Millionaires in BC for two years, where he won the Top Scorer Award and was selected as a member of the Rocky Mountain League All Star Team.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Ryan was the third-overall draft pick in the major junior Western Hockey League bantam draft, by the Tri-City Americans. Ryan was named the Western Hockey League Rookie of the Year in ’93 and Most Improved Player in ‘94. The following year, he won the WHL's Plus-Minus Award, was named Most Spirited Player, and claimed the fourth overall ranking in league scoring (50 goals, 60 assists).


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Ryan was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens, in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. His hockey career continued with the Fredericton Canadiens where he was named Rookie of the Year in 1998, claimed second in goals (21) and led the league in fights (34).


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Despite his high draft ranking, Ryan played only 8 games in the NHL over parts of three seasons, all spent with Montreal, failing to register a single point and suffering a career-ending ankle injury in 2001, ending his chances at returning to the big leagues. Due to such a short NHL career, Ryan is often considered a draft bust. The majority of his career was spent in the minor professional hockey leagues. He signed in St John's in 1999–2000 to play for his hometown Maple Leafs, but was never signed by Toronto themselves due to a contractual conflict with the Canadiens. In 2000, Ryan won the St. John's Maple Leafs Humanitarian of the Year Award; in 2003 he led the Orlando Seals with playoff goals (8) to help them win the league championship.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: In 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013 Ryan represented Canada at the ISBHF ball hockey tournament in Switzerland, Pittsburgh, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Canada respectively. He led the team to a gold medal in ’03 and ’07, won a silver in 2011, and won a bronze medal representing Canada again at the 2013 Worlds in St John’s, NL, his hometown. In 2011 in Bratislava, Slovakia, Ryan was Canada’s leading scorer. He also has two national ball hockey championships to his credit (Montreal Black Knights, 2008, and Newfoundland Black Horse, 2010). In 2016, he reached the provincial ball hockey championship finals. In 2018, his team, Colonial Auto Parts from St. John’s, won the 2018 Canadian men’s masters championship, and his other team, Black Horse, took silver in the national ball hockey championships in the senior men’s A competition.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Ryan has played Newfoundland senior hockey with the St. John’s Capitals and the Clarenville Caribous, who lost the 2014 Allan Cup final to the Dundas Real McCoys in overtime. He played with his hometown Mount Pearl Blades for two seasons, missing the playoffs both years. In 2006 he was named Top Scorer for the Avalon East League and the Newfoundland Provincial League; in 2007 he claimed the title of MVP and Avalon East Top Scorer. In 2008, he played with the Bentley Generals of the Alberta Senior Hockey League, winning a silver medal at the Allan Cup, and was named Top Scorer. Ryan is an avid baseball player in the summers, suiting up for the Mount Pearl Knights of the St John's men's baseball league. He also swims laps at the local swimming hole behind Agnes Pratt Mercy Home in Rennies River.


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Ryan works in the film industry and has appeared on several episodes of the hit CBC television program "Republic of Doyle", playing small roles. He has also played himself in the OLN's "Road Hockey Rumble", and played Zombie #22 in Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" (2004). In addition to playing "British Soldier #1" (Episode 1) - (the first on-screen casualty in the Netflix/Discovery Channel television series "Frontier", starring Jason Momoa in the lead role), in 2017 Ryan also had small roles in "Frontier Season 2", "Little Dog (CBC)", "Caught (CBC)", "Schitt's Creek", and various short films. He wrote and played the lead role in a short film called ""A Stand In"" due in 2018. He has made multiple appearances on the hockey podcast Spittin' Chiclets and most recently appeared in the eighth season of the Crave/Hulu show "Letterkenny" as a hockey player whose Newfie chirps annoyed the native team bench. He has a regular role in the "Letterkenny" spinoff "Shoresy".


title: Terry Ryan (ice hockey, born 1977)

text: Ryan, who has a bachelor of arts degree (Folklore/English), released his first book, "Tales of a First Round Nothing," in May 2014, which was well-received by critics. He is now also trying his hand at stand-up comedy and performed his second show to good reviews opening for Gerry Dee at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa, Ontario on April 22, 2016.


title: Sultanate of Nejd

text: The Sultanate of Nejd (, ') was the third iteration of the Third Saudi State"', from 1921 to 1926. It was a monarchy led by the House of Saud. This version of the Third Saudi State was created when Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Emir of Riyadh, declared himself sultan over Nejd and its dependencies. In December 1925, the Kingdom of Hejaz surrendered to the forces of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who was thereafter proclaimed king of Hejaz in January 1926 and merged his dominions into the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd.


title: Hostess Brands

text: Hostess Brands is an American-based bakery company formed in 2013. It owns several bakeries in the United States that produce snack cakes under the Hostess and Dolly Madison brand names and its Canadian subsidiary, Voortman Cookies Limited, produces wafers and cookies under the Voortman brand name. It is headquartered in Lenexa within Johnson County, Kansas. Its main operating subsidiaries are Hostess Brands, LLC, and Voortman Cookies Limited.


title: Hostess Brands

text: The Hostess Brands company formed in June 2013, having started as a venture by Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos and Company, to acquire assets from Old HB, the company formerly known as Interstate Bakeries and Hostess Brands Inc. Apollo and Metropoulos purchased certain cake business assets of Old HB – which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and bankruptcy liquidation – through the bankruptcy court, ultimately assuming the name, branding and much of the product line of the former Hostess Brands.


title: Hostess Brands

text: These assets included four bakeries, located in Columbus, Georgia; Emporia, Kansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Schiller Park, Illinois. The Schiller Park facility later closed in October 2014.


title: Hostess Brands

text: In July 2016, Hostess announced it would be going public in an offering valuing the company at $2.3 billion. The deal would see Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos and Company become minority owners, with The Gores Group taking a majority ownership position in the firm.


title: Hostess Brands

text: Instead of making an initial public offering, Gores acquired Hostess via a spin-off, under a special-purpose acquisition company process. Gores Holdings subsequently renamed itself Hostess Brands, Inc., changing its ticker symbol from GRSH to TWNK, after the Twinkie brand snack cake.


title: Hostess Brands

text: On June 14, 2016, Hostess acquired Superior Cake Products, making it the company's first acquisition since the Hostess brand returned in 2013.


title: Hostess Brands

text: On August 1, 2019, Hostess announced that it was selling Superior Cake Products to Sara Lee Frozen Bakery for $65 million.


title: Hostess Brands

text: On December 2, 2019, Hostess announced that it was purchasing Voortman Cookies Limited, a Canadian company, from Swander Pace Capital for approximately US$320 million (C$425 million). The transaction closed in January 2020.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters:


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire sisters were born to Asa and Lillie (Fultz) McGuire in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Miamisburg near Dayton. Their mother, Lillie, was a minister of the Miamisburg First Church of God, where, as children, they sang in church at weddings, funerals, and revivals. When they started singing in 1935, the youngest sister, Phyllis, was four years old. Eventually, they sang at occasions outside church, and by 1949 were singing at military bases and veterans' hospitals, performing a more diverse repertoire than they had in church.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters signed with Coral Records in 1952. In the same year, they appeared on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," and Godfrey hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. The November 1953 issue of "Cosmopolitan" called them "Godfrey's Merry McGuires". The sisters often were compared to the Andrews Sisters. Maxene Andrews said in an interview with Joe Franklin on WOR (AM) radio in 1979, "The McGuire Sisters were fine once they stopped imitating the Andrews Sisters." While working on the Godfrey show, the McGuires befriended singer Lu Ann Simms and attended her wedding to music publisher Loring Buzzell in July 1956. Buzzell's music publishing firm, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music (co-owned by Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster) provided two songs for the McGuire Sisters, "May You Always", which became the best-selling 45 and sheet music of 1959, and "Theme from The Unforgiven (The Need for Love)", which became another big hit in 1960.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters were the Mystery Guests on the May 29, 1955 airing of "What's My Line?" Fred Allen guessed who they were. In 1958, their mother appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show "To Tell the Truth." In December 1958 they appeared and performed as themselves in Season 4, Episode 11 of "The Phil Silvers Show", "Bilko Presents the McGuire Sisters".


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters and the Andrews Sisters met several times during their careers. Phyllis credited Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne Andrews during a television interview with Maxene in the 1990s, hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael, saying that her sisters and she met the Andrews Sisters in New York in the early 1950s and received important advice. The McGuires moved when they sang, often executing dance routines in lavish production numbers on countless television specials. The Andrews Sisters performed similarly in films in the 1940s, and were the first female vocal group to move when they sang, rather than just standing at a microphone. The sisters had mimicked that style, as well as those of the Mills Brothers and the Dinning Sisters ever since they were young, when they would perform short shows for family and friends in their parents' living room. Phyllis McGuire recounted that she and her sisters did not know any popular songs when they became famous, only the hymns taught to them by their mother. The trio imitated other singing groups long before their success.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: They performed for five Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Queen Elizabeth II. In London they performed a set for the Royal Variety Performance of 1961.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: During the 1960s, the sisters maintained a busy television schedule, making frequent appearances on popular variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Danny Kaye, Milton Berle, Andy Williams, Perry Como, and Red Skelton. The trio was dressed and coiffed identically, and performed synchronized body movements and hand gestures with military precision. Their recordings of "Sincerely", "Picnic", and "Sugartime" all sold more than one million copies.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: They retired from public appearances in 1968, giving their last performance that year on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Phyllis McGuire continued to perform solo for a time. The demise of the group is often attributed to Phyllis' long-standing personal relationship with mobster Sam Giancana (although for years she claimed that their friendship was strictly platonic), which reportedly led to the group's blacklisting.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: During one of his 1960s court appearances for which Phyllis was subpoenaed, Giancana told reporters outside the courthouse, "Phyllis knows everything" about the rumored unethical behaviors of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. Giancana was shot in 1975 by an unknown gunman thought to be Dominic "Butch" Blasi, his closest confidant and right hand man of sorts.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Phyllis resided for decades in a famously showcased mansion in Las Vegas, boasting its own beauty parlor, a swan moat, and a replica of the Eiffel Tower which actually rose through the home's roof. When asked by Barbara Walters during a 1980s ABC-TV "20/20" interview from within the mansion if any of the money to build the lavish home came from Giancana, Phyllis denied the innuendo, claiming that she invested heavily in oil when the sisters were at the height of their popularity. In the same interview, she acknowledged that her relationship with Giancana was in fact a love affair, saying, "When I met him, I did not know who he was, and he was not married, and I was an unmarried woman. And according to the way I was brought up, there was nothing wrong with that. And I didn't find out until sometime later really who he was, and I was already in love."


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The sisters reunited in 1986, performing at Toronto's Royal York Hotel for the first time since their retirement. Numerous nightclub engagements followed in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and New York City's Rainbow & Stars, showcasing the group and Phyllis' impersonations of Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, and even Louis Armstrong.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Singing their greatest hits as part of their act, they were also featured performing specialty numbers such as the frantic "I Love a Violin", the "a cappella" "Danny Boy", and a segment during which Phyllis retired backstage as Christine and Dorothy shared the spotlight playing a concert arrangement of "The Way We Were" on twin pianos. Other highlights in the act were a comical Trinidad-flavored tune, a soft rendering of "Memory" from Broadway's "Cats", and a "Money Medley", which they also performed live on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in 1994. Since then, the sisters had made occasional public appearances together, including in 2004, when they reunited to perform in a PBS special "Magic Moments: Best of '50s Pop." The sisters' command of their vocal cords and harmonious blend, perhaps the most impressive of any trio before or since, had not significantly diminished.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: After their careers wound down, they opened a restaurant in Bradenton, Florida, calling it McGuire's Pub.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: They were inducted into the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. They also have been inducted into the Coca-Cola Hall of Fame and the Headliners' Hall of Fame. They were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2009.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters were among hundreds of artists whose tapes were destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Christine was married six times. Her first marriage to Harold Ashcraft (1942 until August 16, 1950) she had two children, Herold and Asa. Christine later married John Henry Teeter (December 30, 1952 until December, 18, 1962), Robert Hugh Spain (December 12, 1967 until 1970), Guy Marks (from 1975 until unknown), George Rosenfeld (from ?? until his death on August 23, 1996), and David Mudd (2002 until his death on August 19, 2011). All the latter marriages remained childless.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Christine's grandson, Army Cpl. Evan Asa Ashcraft, aged 24, was killed in Iraq in 2003, when the convoy he was traveling in came under fire.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: On July 30, 1951, Dorothy married Sgt. John Henry Brown, whom she divorced on January 9, 1956. During their childless marriage, Dorothy was romantically linked with singer Julius La Rosa. On December 6, 1958, she married Lowell James Williamson, with whom she had two sons, Rex and David.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: In November 1952, Phyllis married Cornelius (Neal) Anthony Burke Van Ells. They divorced in 1956. She had no children.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: On September 7, 2012, Dorothy McGuire died at her son's home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, after suffering from Parkinson's disease and age-related dementia; she was 84. Dorothy's husband of 54 years, Lowell Williamson, died six months later on February 25, 2013, after sustaining a fractured back from a fall; he was 89.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Christine McGuire died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 28, 2018, at the age of 92. No cause of death was given.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: Phyllis McGuire, the last surviving member of the trio, died peacefully at her estate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 29, 2020, of natural causes; she was 89.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The McGuire Sisters, and most especially Phyllis McGuire, who lived in Las Vegas, were the subjects of the 1995 HBO movie "Sugartime", which depicted a romantic relationship between Phyllis and mobster Sam Giancana. Giancana was played by actor John Turturro, and Phyllis was played by actress Mary-Louise Parker.


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: The Robert Altman film "Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean" (1982) prominently features the music of The McGuire Sisters. Their number one single, "Sincerely", is lip-synced by the film's stars Cher, Karen Black and Sandy Dennis as "The Disciples of James Dean."


title: The McGuire Sisters

text: "Join the Club", the second episode of the sixth season of "The Sopranos", references both The McGuire Sisters and Sam Giancana.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: While out at a pub with friends, Yoko Okazaki misses a call on her cellphone, but the caller ID says it's from herself. She and her friend Yumi Nakamura listen to Yoko's voice message, dated two days into the future, where she says it's starting to rain, followed by a horrendous scream. Two days later, Yumi receives a call from Yoko and realizes that Yoko is on the same routine as the voicemail. Yoko screams as she is violently thrown off an overpass onto a speeding train; her severed hand is seen dialing a number. Although authorities assume suicide, her schoolmates recall similar deaths that were preceded by voicemails. Yoko's boyfriend Kenji Kawai tells Yumi he got a voicemail from himself dated two days after. Kenji is pulled down an elevator shaft unexplainably and a red jawbreaker candy falls out of his mouth as his phone dials another number by itself.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: A nervous Yumi invites her friend Natsumi Konishi to stay with her. Yumi turns both of their cell phones off, but Natsumi still receives a call from her own number. Rather than a voicemail, she is messaged a photo of her with a shadowy figure behind her. At their university, the media picks up on the story and offers Natsumi a chance to be exorcised on live TV. Despite Yumi's protests, Natsumi anxiously agrees.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: Yumi meets Hiroshi Yamashita, a detective who has been investigating the curse that also claimed his sister Ritsuko. Yamashita shares that the next victim is called one minute after the previous death, and that the victims have red jawbreakers in their mouths. Their investigation leads them to a hospital which has since changed its building and number. Yumi recognizes a sound she heard before Kenji's death: a spritz from an asthma inhaler. They trace the autopsy records to a girl named Mimiko Mizunuma who had died from an asthma attack, with her mother Marie going missing. Ritsuko's journal shows that whenever Mimiko had an attack, her sister Nanako would suffer some injury at the same time. They suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, where a parent purposely makes a child sick so she can take care of her and be praised for it.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: The night of Natsumi's exorcism goes horribly wrong. As Yumi and Yamashita arrive, Natsumi is violently killed and beheaded. A jawbreaker drops out of her mouth and Yumi gets the cursed voicemail next. When Yamashita escorts her home and encourages her to stay with her family, she reveals to Yamashita that her mother abused her as a child.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: At an orphanage, Yamashita meets Nanako, who is unable to talk, but has a teddy bear that plays the same song as the ringtone. Yumi travels to the abandoned hospital alone and is haunted by the spirit of Mimiko. Her cell messages her that she will die in one minute. Unable to reach Yumi, Yamashita races to the hospital and finds an arm clutching an active cellphone; he stops its call. After the minute elapses, Yamashita uncovers a crate holding Marie's body. It comes to life and Yumi sees her own abusive mother in Marie. She tearfully embraces her, apologizing for leaving, and Marie's body returns to a corpse.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: Yumi goes home and Yamashita is called back to the police station. The Mizunuma videotape that Yamashita found reveals that Marie did not abuse her children; instead, Mimiko abused her sister. The tape shows her cutting Nanako, then suffering an asthma attack. Marie found out the truth and rushed Nanako to the hospital, leaving Mimiko to die. Nanako tells Yamashita that she would get a candy from Mimiko if she stayed silent. Yumi is haunted by Mimiko in her home, playing out the same events her voicemail showed. When Yamashita arrives, he finds Yumi in an apparently normal state. When he embraces her, he is stabbed and sees Yumi appearing as Mimiko in the mirror. After a dream where he helps the dying Mimiko with an inhaler, he wakes in a hospital where a possessed Yumi feeds him a candy with her mouth and smiles, revealing that Mimiko has found "a new Nanako" in Yamashita to care for.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: "One Missed Call" premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on November 3, 2003. Its English title was listed as You've Got a Call at the festival. It was later released theatrically in Japan on January 17, 2004, where it was distributed by Toho. In the Philippines, it was released by Buena Vista International on December 8, 2004. It was released by Media Blasters in the United States with English subtitles on April 22, 2005.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: In February 2020, Arrow Films released "One Missed Call" on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reports a score of 44%, with an average rating of 5.23 out of 10, based on 27 reviews from critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" said the film "has a few interesting ideas and benefits from director Takashi Miike's eye, but is ultimately too unoriginal to recommend."


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, ""One Missed Call" is so unoriginal that the movie could almost be a parody of J-horror tropes", yet "Miike, for a while at least, stages it with a dread-soaked visual flair that allows you to enjoy being manipulated." Dana Stevens of "The New York Times" mentions that "[the film] staggers under the weight of its director's taste for baroque excess".


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: According to Nick Schager of "Slant Magazine", the film is "[a] mainstream J-horror flick that dutifully regurgitates the apparitions, aesthetic, and themes of its genre predecessors".


title: One Missed Call (2003 film)

text: The film was followed up with the sequel "One Missed Call 2" which was released in 2005. "One Missed Call", a ten-episode Japanese television drama was broadcast in 2005. "" was released in Japan on 24 June 2006.


title: Muezzin

text: The muezzin () is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer (ṣalāt) five times a day (Fajr prayer, Zuhr prayer, Asr prayer, Maghrib prayer and Isha prayer) at a mosque. The muezzin plays an important role in ensuring an accurate prayer schedule for the Muslim community.


title: Muezzin

text: The English word "muezzin" is derived from the , , simplified "mu'azzin". The word means "one by the ear", since the word stems from the word for "ear" in Arabic is "ʾudhun" (أُذُن). As the "muʾadh·dhin" will place both hands on his ears to recite the call to prayer.


title: Muezzin

text: The professional muezzin is chosen for his good character, voice and skills to serve at the mosque. However, the muezzin is not considered a cleric, but in a position comparable to a Christian verger. He is responsible for keeping the mosque clean, for rolling the carpets, for cleaning the toilets and the place where people wash their hands, face and feet when they perform the Wuḍu' (Arabic: "wuḍū’" وُضُوء, the "purification" of ablution) before offering the prayer. When calling to prayer, the muezzin faces the qiblah, the direction of the Ka'bah in Makkah, while reciting the "adhan".


title: Muezzin

text: From the fourteenth history, initially in Mamluk Egypt but then spread into other parts of the Islamic world, major mosques might employ a related officer, the "muwaqqit", who determined the prayer times using mathematical astronomy. Unlike the muezzin who were typically chosen for their piety and beautiful voice, the qualification of the muwaqqit required special knowledge in astronomy. Historian Sonja Brentjes speculates that the muwaqqit might have evolved from a specialised muezzin, and that there might not have been a clear delineation between the two offices. Some celebrated muwaqqits, including Shams al-Din al-Khalili and ibn al-Shatir, were known to have once been muezzins, and many individuals held both offices simultaneously. Today, with the production of electronic devices and authoritative timetables, a muezzin in a mosque can broadcast the call to prayer by consulting a table or a clock without requiring the specialised skill of a "muwaqqit".


title: Muezzin

text: The call of the muezzin is considered an art form, reflected in the melodious chanting of the adhan. In Turkey there is an annual competition to find the country's best muezzin.


title: Muezzin

text: Historically, a muezzin would have recited the call to prayer atop the minarets in order to be heard by those around the mosque. Now, mosques often have loudspeakers mounted on the top of the minaret and the muezzin will use a microphone, or a recording is played, allowing the call to prayer to be heard at great distances without climbing the minaret.


title: Muezzin

text: The institution of the muezzin has existed since the time of Muhammad. The first muezzin was a former slave Bilal ibn Rabah, one of the most trusted and loyal "sahabah" (companions) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was born in Mecca and is considered to have been the first mu'azzin, chosen by Muhammad himself.


title: Muezzin

text: Although many of the customs associated with the muezzin remained undecided at the time of Muhammad's death, including which direction one should choose for the calling, where it should be performed, and the use of trumpets, flags or lamps, all of these are elements of the muezzin's role during the adhan.


title: Muezzin

text: After minarets became customary at mosques, the office of muezzin in cities was sometimes given to a blind man, who could not see down into the inner courtyards of the citizens' houses and thus could not violate privacy.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Gloria Maria Aspillera Diaz (; born 10 March 1951) is a Filipino actress of film and television, model and beauty queen who rose to fame after being crowned Miss Universe 1969, becoming the first Filipino to hold the Miss Universe title.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Often cited as being part of the Díaz clan, she is one of twelve children (ten girls and two boys). Her sister, Rio Díaz, was also an actress and beauty titlist.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: While studying in college, Díaz was scouted by a pageant aficionado and was convinced to join the sixth edition of Binibining Pilipinas. Her looks and, more importantly, her wit captivated the audience and she was crowned Binibining Pilipinas-Universe 1969 at 18 years old.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Díaz was then sent to Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. to compete in Miss Universe 1969. Arriving at the pageant as an early favorite, Díaz did not disappoint and sailed throughout all the pageant's events that led up to the finals at the Miami Beach Auditorium. Making it to the Top 5, she participated in the final question round and her answer to the question regarding "men in the moon" charmed the audience and the judges. She was crowned as Miss Universe on July 19, 1969, and became the very first Filipina to win the Miss Universe crown. News of her victory (and her measurements) were communicated to the Apollo 11 crew members during their space mission.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: During her reign, Díaz travelled through several countries to promote the advocacies supported by the Miss Universe Organization as well as appeared in many public and television events in the United States.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Shortly after her reign as Miss Universe ended, she pursued an acting career in the Philippines, and in 1975, she was cast in her breakthrough performance as Isabel in the critically acclaimed "Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa". Her performance in the film was met with praise by film critics and was considered one of the most promising breakthroughs of any actress in Philippine cinema. Later that year, she was nominated for a FAMAS Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Díaz continued acting in film for many years before trying out starring in television. It was in 1996 when she first appeared in the drama series "Anna Karenina". She garnered popularity after appearing in the sitcom "Kool Ka Lang" on GMA Network in 1998. That same year, she appeared in the biopic film "Jose Rizal" where she played Rizal's mother Dona Teodora Alonso. Her portrayal of Rizal's mother won a Best Supporting Actress award at the 1998 Metro Manila Film Festival.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In 2006, Díaz was cast in the psychological thriller "Nasaan Ka Man" alongside award-winning actress Hilda Koronel, Claudine Barretto, Diether Ocampo and Jericho Rosales. For her role as Lilia, a woman trying to suppress her distraught as she tries to keep her family together, Díaz was once again nominated and eventually awarded as FAMAS Best Supporting Actress.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In 2009, she once again won a FAMAS Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the highly acclaimed film "Sagrada Familia".


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In 2010, she starred in two GMA projects, "Beauty Queen" and "Diva". She returned to GMA for "Mistaken Identity" after a brief stint in "100 Days to Heaven".


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In 2011, she played a supporting stint in her first TV5 project, "Glamorosa", as Dra. Claudia Montesilva-Herrera.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: From 2012 to 2018, Díaz has appeared in several ABS-CBN television dramas including "Kung Ako'y Iiwan Mo", "May Isang Pangarap", "Mirabella", "Dream Dad" and roles in "MMK" and an appearance in "Ipaglaban Mo". She returned to GMA again in 2018 to play an evil mother role on "Pamilya Roces". She also participated in the blockbuster comedy films "Sisterakas" and "Kung Fu Divas".


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In 2019, Díaz returned to ABS-CBN and was recently cast in the afternoon drama series "Los Bastardos" where she portrayed the role of Soledad Cardinal, the long-lost wife of Don Roman Cardinal (Ronaldo Valdez), and Consuelo Cuevas, the mother of Lorenzo Cuevas (Joseph Marco). She also appeared as a fictional version of herself in the second season of the Netflix series "Insatiable" with Dallas Roberts and Debby Ryan.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: Díaz obtained her high school diploma from the basic education department of St. Scholastica's College Manila.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: She is separated from businessman Gabriel "Bong" Daza III, with whom she has two daughters, Isabelle and Ava, and one son, Raphael.


title: Gloria Diaz

text: In a "TV Patrol" interview shortly after the Miss Universe 2010 pageant on August 23, Díaz commented on Binibining Pilipinas contestant Venus Raj becoming 4th runner-up. She suggested in the interview that perhaps Raj and other Filipinas would benefit from answering pageant questions via the use of an interpreter rather than in English. Díaz further said that: "Because when you think about a Cebuana can hardly speak English and of course Tagalog. Maybe she should answer in Bisaya." Her remark sparked outrage amongst many Cebuanos, who felt that Díaz insulted their English proficiency. Cebuano politicians such as Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Congresswoman Rachel del Mar called on her to apologise. In response to the controversy, Díaz saw no need to apologize and instead clarified her remarks:


title: Gloria Diaz

text: On 1 September 2010, the Vice Mayors' League of the Philippines-Cebu passed a resolution declaring Díaz a "persona non grata" within Cebu City.


title: Flying Wild Hog

text: Flying Wild Hog Sp. z o.o. is a Polish video game developer based in Warsaw and founded in 2009. The company is best known for the 2013 reboot of "Shadow Warrior", and its 2016 sequel, "Shadow Warrior 2".


title: Flying Wild Hog

text: Flying Wild Hog was established in 2009. The studio worked on their own Road Hog Engine, a video game engine, which resulted in their first title "Hard Reset" released in September 2011. In April 2012, Flying Wild Hog released "Hard Reset: Exile", a free DLC for "Hard Reset". In September 2013, they released "Shadow Warrior", which was published by Devolver Digital, with the sequel, "Shadow Warrior 2" having been announced in 2015 for a 2016 release. On 7 December 2015, Flying Wild Hog opened a new division in Kraków, led by Michał Kuk.


title: Flying Wild Hog

text: Flying Wild Hog was acquired in March 2019 by Supernova Capital, an investment firm started by the former CEO of Splash Damage, Paul Wedgwood, and other members from Splash Damage. The acquisition provides financial security for Flying Wild Hog to focus more on its game development. As of November 2019, Flying Wild Hog is working on three unannounced video games: "Shadow Warrior 3" with Devolver Digital, "Evil West", which would be published by Focus Home Interactive, and an unannounced game with Jagex. "Trek to Yomi", which would be published by Devolver Digital. The team also retired the Road Hog Engine in favor of Unreal Engine.


title: Flying Wild Hog

text: In November 2020, Embracer Group announced that they acquired the company through Koch Media, which will be the parent company.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Quanta Computer Incorporated () () is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers and other electronic hardware. Its customers include Apple Inc., Dell, Hewlett-Packard Inc., Acer Inc., Alienware, Amazon.com, Cisco, Fujitsu, Gericom, Lenovo, LG, Maxdata, Microsoft, MPC, BlackBerry Ltd, Sharp Corporation, Siemens AG, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, Valve, Verizon Wireless, and Vizio.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Quanta has extended its businesses into enterprise network systems, home entertainment, mobile communication, automotive electronics, and digital home markets. The company also designs, manufactures and markets GPS systems, including handheld GPS, in-car GPS, Bluetooth GPS and GPS with other positioning technologies.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Quanta Computer was announced as the original design manufacturer (ODM) for the XO-1 by the One Laptop per Child project on December 13, 2005, and took an order for one million laptops as of February 16, 2007. In October 2008, it was announced that Acer would phase out Quanta from the production chain, and instead outsource manufacturing of 15 million Aspire One netbooks to Compal Electronics.


title: Quanta Computer

text: It was estimated that Quanta had a 31% worldwide market share of notebook computers in the first quarter of 2008.


title: Quanta Computer

text: The firm was founded in 1988 by Barry Lam, a Shanghai-born businessman who grew up in Hong Kong and received his education in Taiwan, with a starting capital of less than $900,000. A first notebook prototype was completed in November 1988, with factory production beginning in 1990.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Throughout the 1990s, Quanta established contracts with Apple Computers and Gateway, among others, opening an after-sales office in California in 1991 and another one in Augsburg, Germany in 1994. In 1996, Quanta signed a contract with Dell, making the firm Quanta's largest customer at the time.


title: Quanta Computer

text: In 2014, Quanta ranked 409th on Fortune's Global 500 list. 2016 is the strongest period with it being in 326. In 2020, Quanta dropped to rank 377.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Techman Robot Inc. is a cobot manufacturer founded by Quanta in 2016. It is based in Taoyuan's Hwa Ya Technology Park. It is the world's second-largest manufacturer of robots after Universal Robots.


title: Quanta Computer

text: This was the first mainland China plant built by Quanta Computer in December 2000 to focus on OEM and ODM production and currently employs nearly 30,000 people. Huangjian Tang, Quanta's Chairman for China, manages seven major plants, F1 to F7, two large warehouses, H1 and H2, and the Q-BUS Research and Development facility.


title: Quanta Computer

text: Constructed in April 2010. Quanta Computer invested and built a plant in Chongqing, China, the third plant built by Quanta Computer in China.


title: Quanta Computer

text: In 2008, LG Electronics sued Quanta Computer company for patent infringement, when Quanta used Intel components with non-Intel components. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that LG, who had a patent sharing deal with Intel did not have the right to sue, because Quanta, being a consumer, did not need to abide by patent agreements with Intel and LG.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: The Thirteenth Year is a 1999 comedy-drama Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) directed by Duwayne Dunham and starring Chez Starbuck and Courtnee Draper. It premiered on Disney Channel on May 15, 1999.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: Cody Griffin is an adopted teenager; his birth mother is a mermaid who left him on Whit and Sharon Griffin's boat when he was a baby to avoid being captured. As she left, she lured a fisherman, Big John Wheatley, away and he became obsessed with finding mermaids since. Years later, Cody establishes himself as a quick swimmer on his school's swim team, and he has a girlfriend named Samantha. He is under a lot of pressure from a big swim meet coming up and because he is failing biology, he is partnered with Jess Wheatley, the class geek (and Big John's son) who is a marine biology expert.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: On his 13th birthday, Cody drinks a lot of water and he later jolts Samantha with an electric shock when he kisses her. Since that day, he begins to feel strange. As he wakes up in the morning, he turns off his alarm clock and zaps it. Ignoring it, Cody drinks from a milk container, which he notices it stuck to his hand. Jess notices scales forming on Cody's hand and says he has only seen that kind of thing on frogs and lizards. As the symptoms are getting worse, Cody goes to Jess for help, who agrees to figure out what is going on with him as long as Cody teaches him to swim in return. Jess runs various tests, learning Cody can generate electricity, hold his breath underwater for a long period of time, climb walls, talk to fish, swim extremely fast, and when wet, scales appear on his hands, arms and feet. Jess concludes that Cody is turning into a merman.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: Once his adoptive parents find out about Cody's changes, they advise that he should avoid water at all costs. That includes participating in the swim meet. Cody decides to swim in the sea a day later and finds out he had grown jagged fins along his arms, which he manages to hide from Samantha by placing his arms in the sand. Despite the risks, he attends the swim meet anyway and not only wins and beats his teammate Sean, but breaks the state speed record. Cody's scales and arm fins have reappeared, however, and he causes a power surge to flee, breaking the scoreboard. Sean sees the scales and surmises Cody cheated, following the fleeing Cody into the locker room. Cody avoids him by sticking to the ceiling, but Sean claims he is determined to find out how Cody cheated. Cody safely makes it out of the school and goes home with his parents after they find out he was not in his room. Back home, they all try to turn Cody back to normal by drying him but the scales are lasting longer now.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: Cody tries calming his parents by claiming nobody saw his scales, but Jess shows up and tells them he saw everything and that people are talking about Cody winning the race and running off. Samantha arrives soon afterward but faints at the sight of Cody's scales. When she awakens, she is freaked out. Cody tells her he is turning into a merman but he is still the same guy and she should not be afraid. While sworn to secrecy for Cody's safety, Samantha is disturbed by the discovery and leaves. The following night Cody takes a swim, and meets his mermaid mother; however, Big John, the obsessed fisherman, spots them and breaks up the reunion, forcing the two to retreat in opposite directions.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: The next day, Cody meets Samantha at the beach. She apologizes and they kiss. Cody then walks into the water with her, saying there's something he wants to show her. With Samantha in hand, Cody's mermaid mother soon appears; however, Cody suddenly gasps in pain and stumbles back to the shore. Writhing on the ground, he tells Samantha to get his parents. After she leaves, Cody is in shock as he watches his left foot morph into a flipper and scales grow on his leg. Thinking Samantha came back, Cody is surprised when someone else is there and throws a blanket over him.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: Jess comes down to where Cody was but sees he is gone. He then sees his father's boat and panics because his father had seen Cody's arms at the swim meet. On the deck of the boat, Cody is drying out and scratching his scales, begging to get into the water, but Big John throws sea water over him instead. His plan is to use Cody to lure in his mother to prove he is not crazy for believing in mermaids. His plan works when he spots Cody's mother following the boat. Jess comes on board the boat and removes the blanket, revealing Cody's legs, which have both transformed into fins. Cody asks him for help into the water. Despite trying to warn the mermaid away, Cody and Jess are unable to stop a fishing net from trapping her. Cody asks Jess to help his mother, so he takes a knife and jumps into the water to cut the net. He frees the mermaid, but his leg gets caught in the net, pulling him under. Jess passes out, but Cody jumps in and brings him to the dock where Jess's father, Cody's parents, and Samantha are. Samantha performs CPR, but is unsuccessful. Cody decides to zap Jess' heart, which successfully makes Jess regain consciousness.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: Cody's mermaid mother shows up again and watches him and his family from afar. Cody explains she wants him to go with her because she is the only one who can help him with his changes. Sharon does not want him to leave, but he points out that he is her son, but he's more than that, showing his fins, that he's almost become a full merman. The mermaid telepathically promises to send Cody back before school starts and Cody's parents let him leave. Jess asks Cody to tell him and his dad about the aquatic life he sees, and Samantha makes Cody promise not to betray her by falling for mermaids. After saying their goodbyes, Cody and his mother reunite and Cody fully transforms into a merman. They swim off into a life below the surface.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: "The Thirteenth Year" was the film debut of lead actor Chez Starbuck, who had previously only acted in a few commercials, and had served as an anchor of a local children's news program for KLAS-TV in his hometown of Las Vegas. The film was shot over a six-week period in southern California. Starbuck was advised by an acting coach for each day of filming. The ocean scenes were primarily shot in the Newport Beach communities of the Balboa Peninsula and Corona del Mar. Cody's house was filmed at Point Fermin Light in San Pedro, California.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: "The Thirteenth Year" premiered on Disney Channel on May 15, 1999. It was Disney Channel's second highest-rated film up to that point. A promotional tour for the film took place across a dozen cities during summer 1999. The film was released on VHS on January 23, 2001. The film is currently available for viewing on Disney+.


title: The Thirteenth Year

text: "The Post-Standard" stated that while the film was not as entertaining as the 1984 mermaid film "Splash", it "has a good pace and a few laughs," although it was noted that Starbuck's "stiff" performance "dampens some of the movie's charm." In June 2011, Stephan Lee of "Entertainment Weekly" called the film a "heartwarming and somewhat creepy tale of growing up, leaving the nest, and of course, being yourself". In 2012, "Complex" ranked the film at number 17 on the magazine's list of the 25 best Disney Channel Original Movies. In May 2016, Aubrey Page of Collider ranked each DCOM released up to that point, placing "The Thirteenth Year" at number 16 and calling it an "indisputable DCOM classic". That month, "Entertainment Weekly" ranked it at number 7 on a list of the top 30 DCOMs.


title: Butter tea

text: Butter tea, also known as "po cha" (, "Tibetan tea"), "cha süma" (, "churned tea"), Mandarin Chinese: "sūyóu chá" (酥油茶) or "gur gur cha" in the Ladakhi language, is a drink of the people in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Bhutan, India (particularly in Ladakh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh), Pakistan especially in Gilgit-Baltistan, Tibet and Western regions of modern-day China and the Caribbean. Traditionally, it is made from tea leaves (usually Pu’er tea leaves), yak butter, water, and salt, although butter made from cow's milk is increasingly used, given its wider availability and lower cost.


title: Butter tea

text: Butter tea likely originated in the Himalayan region between Greater Tibet and the Indian subcontinent.


title: Butter tea

text: The history of tea in Tibet dates back to the 7th century during the Tang dynasty. However, butter tea did not become popular in Tibet until about the 13th century, the time of the Phagmodrupa dynasty.


title: Butter tea

text: According to legend, a Chinese princess married a king of Tibet which later helped establish trade routes between China and Tibet. These trade routes brought tea into Tibet from China. Later, butter was added to the tea that was brought from China as butter is and was a staple in Tibetan cuisine.


title: Butter tea

text: By the 8th century, it was common to drink tea in Tibet. In the 13th century, tea was then used in Tibetan religious ceremonies.


title: Butter tea

text: Today, butter tea is still prevalent in Tibet, as citizens drink up to 60 small cups of the tea per day.


title: Butter tea

text: The highest quality of butter tea is made by boiling pu-erh tea leaves in water for half a day, achieving a dark brown color. It is then skimmed, and poured into a cylinder with fresh yak butter and salt which is then shaken. The result is a liquid that is about the thickness of a stew or thick oil. It is then poured into teapots or jars.


title: Butter tea

text: Another method is to boil water and add handfuls of the tea into the water, which is allowed to steep until it turns almost black. Salt is then added, along with a little soda if wanted. The tea is then strained through a horse-hair or reed colander into a wooden butter churn, and a large lump of butter is added. This is then churned until the tea reaches the proper consistency and transferred to copper pots that sit on a brazier to keep them warm. When a churn is not available, a wooden bowl and rapid stirring will suffice.


title: Butter tea

text: Each teapot and cup symbolize the standard of living of each family. A ceramic pot is the most widely used, while those made from copper or bronze may be used by families with a higher standard of living.


title: Butter tea

text: In the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, they prepare food for around 2,500 monks. During this, they prepare this traditional tea in large cauldrons and kettles. Each night, they boil the water, and the tea itself contains around sixteen bricks of the tea and hundreds of kilograms of butter. Each step comes with its own prayer. Once the tea is ready, one monk sounds the gong to let others know the tea is ready.


title: Butter tea

text: Nowadays, when tea leaves, yak butter, and wooden butter churns are not available, people often make butter tea using tea bags, different types of butter available in the market, and a blender to churn.


title: Butter tea

text: Drinking butter tea is a regular part of Tibetan life. Before work, a Tibetan will typically enjoy several bowlfuls of this beverage, and it is always served to guests. Since butter is the main ingredient, butter tea provides plenty of caloric energy and is particularly suited to high altitudes. The butter may also help prevent chapped lips.


title: Butter tea

text: According to the Tibetan custom, butter tea is drunk in separate sips, and after each sip, the host refills the bowl to the brim. Thus, the guest never drains his bowl; it is constantly topped up. If the visitor does not wish to drink, the best thing to do is leave the tea untouched until the time comes to leave and then drain the bowl. In this way, etiquette is observed and the host will not be offended.


title: Butter tea

text: Another custom recognized by Tibetans is celebrating the birth of their children a few days after the child's birth to dissolve the bad luck the child brings from its mother's womb. Usually the celebration is attended by the parents' friends and relatives, who bring the child gifts including yak butter tea.


title: Butter tea

text: Tibetan Buddhism is a common practice and due to such beliefs the yak butter used in the tea is held in high regard such as Karma Palmo. The Tibetan monks would consume the butter tea twice a day and on occasion enjoy the beverage with paksuma, a special rice porridge.


title: Butter tea

text: Butter tea is also used for eating tsampa by pouring onto it, or dipping the tsampa into it, and mixing well.


title: Butter tea

text: The concentrate, produced by repeatedly boiling tea leaves, will keep for several days and is commonly used in towns. The tea is then combined with salt and butter in a special tea churn (Tibetan: མདོང་མོ་, Wylie: mdong mo), and churned vigorously before serving hot. Now an electric blender is often used.


title: Butter tea

text: Although there is no formal ceremony for the preparation of the tea, butter tea is drunk at different Tibetan ceremonies. During a proper Sherpa funeral ceremony, it is custom for the deceased's relatives to invite the guests into their house with a cup of butter tea. During the Tibetan New Year, Losar, ceremonies last for three days in the monasteries. Prior to their long prayers in the afternoon, monks start the morning with butter tea and sweet rice.


title: Butter tea

text: Butter tea is used in the title of a book of poems by the exiled Tibetan Ten Phun. He was born in Lhasa, Tibet, although the day of his birth is not available. His book "Sweet Butter Tea: A Book of Poems" contains poems about his childhood. This was his first book of poems that he published in English. Because of this, many of his friends in Dharamsala, India nicknamed him “Sweet Butter Tea". Dharamsala is where he currently resides.


title: Dammu

text: Dammu () is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Boyapati Srinu. Starring Jr. NTR, Trisha and Karthika Nair, the film follows an orphan who agrees to pose as the heir to a rich and powerful family, eventually becoming embroiled in a dispute with the rival family. The film co-stars Nassar, Sampath Raj, Rahul Dev, Kishore, Suman, Brahmanandam, Ali, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Venu Thottempudi.


title: Dammu

text: The film was released theatrically on 27 April 2012, along with a Tamil dubbed version titled "Singamagan". On 15. Mostly negative reviews and became box office failure. The film was unofficially remade in Bengali (Bangladesh) as "Rajababu - The Power" starring Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas and Bobby.


title: Dammu

text: Rama Chandra is an orphan who leads a simple life along with his friend. He falls in love with Sathya, who is a very rich girl. Sathya imposes a condition that Rama Chandra's family history and pedigree are very important. At this very moment, Rama Chandra learns that a rich and powerful royal Suryavamsi family seeks to adopt an heir, and he seizes the chance. Once he goes there, he realizes that things are not as simple as they seem. The family has a violent past and a bitter dispute with another rich and powerful royal Chandravamsi family headed by a Chandravamsi King. He also realizes that thousands of people in the area are now dependent on him for their very survival. He also discovers that he is the real heir to the family. Rama Chandra does not like violence and tries his best to solve the problems peacefully. But the rival gang does not give him a chance. Vexed with the violence, Rama Chandra nearly kills the Chandravamsi King's eldest son and kills King's youngest son. He opens the Chandravamsi King's eyes by placing a sword on his middle son. In the climax, the Chandravamsi King realizes that he was wrong and apologizes to all. Rama Chandra becomes the hero of the village.


title: Dammu

text: "Dammu" has music scored by M. M. Keeravani. Shruti Hassan, who was originally signed to play the female lead, walked out citing date issues. Later the producers approached Kajal Aggarwal who also couldn't accommodate bulk dates for the film. The producers finalised Trisha as the first female lead. According to reports, Bhanupriya, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venu Thottempudi and Subhalekha Sudhakar play supporting roles.


title: Dammu

text: The Telugu and Tamil versions released on 27 April 2012. "Dammu" released on approximately 2550 screens worldwide which was a record in Tollywood. It released in approx of 140+ theatres in Karnataka which is considered to be a record by out of state movie.


title: Dammu

text: "Deccan Chronicle" wrote: ""Dammu" (Valour), as one of the Telugu films that made high on action and low on contents". Sify wrote: "Boyapati uses the same formula of Tollywood action movies with good dialogues, high voltage fight sequences and wraps ups with interesting twist and NTR's charged up performance". Rediff wrote: "Director Boyapati Seenu's new film Dammu has an outdated and clichéd storyline, regressive content, and mindless and excessive violence".


title: Dammu

text: The film completed 50 days in 70 direct centres on 15 June 2012 and it managed to sustain for a long run as expected. and collected a share of 29 crores worldwide. The film completed 100 days on 4 August 2012.


title: Dammu

text: The VCDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the film were released through Bhavani Company into the market on 10 August 2012, six days after completing 100 days of the film.


title: Dammu

text: The soundtrack of the film was released on 29 March 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad. M. M. Keeravani's music label, Vel Records, and Sony Music Entertainment secured the film's audio rights. The lyrics for all the songs were written by Chandrabose.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Underground ( / "Podzemlje"), is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by Emir Kusturica, with a screenplay co-written with Dušan Kovačević. It is also known by the subtitle "Once Upon a Time There Was One Country" (), the title of the five-hour miniseries (the long cut) shown on Serbian RTS television.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: The film uses the epic story of two friends to portray a Yugoslav history from the beginning of World War II until the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars. It is an international co-production with companies from Yugoslavia (Serbia), France, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary. The theatrical version is 163 minutes. Kusturica stated in interviews that his original version ran for over five hours, and that co-producers forced edits.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: "Underground" received critical acclaim, and won the Palme d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. It was Kusturica's second win following "When Father Was Away on Business" (1985). It went on to win other honours.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In the early morning of 6 April 1941 in Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, two roguish "bon vivants" Petar Popara, nicknamed Crni (Blacky) and Marko Dren are heading home. They pass through Kalemegdan and shout salutes to Marko's brother Ivan, an animal keeper in the Belgrade Zoo. Marko lets Blacky's pregnant wife Vera know that they enrolled Blacky in the Communist Party (KPJ).


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Later, the hungover Blacky is eating breakfast while pregnant Vera complains about his supposed affair with a theatre actress. Suddenly, the roar of the planes is heard, and German bombs begin falling on Belgrade. After the air raid is over, Blacky goes out against the wishes of his wife and inspects the devastated city. Encountering building ruins and escaped wild animals from the zoo, he also runs into disconsolate Ivan carrying a baby chimp named Soni. The Royal Yugoslav Army's resistance is quickly broken, and German troops soon occupy and dismember the entire Kingdom. Blacky starts operating clandestinely as a communist activist along with Marko and others. Blacky occasionally visits his mistress Natalija Zovkov who has been assigned to a special actors' labour brigade that is helping the city's rebuilding effort under German occupational control. An acclaimed, pampered, and celebrated actress in the National Theatre, Natalija has caught the eye of a high-ranking German officer named Franz.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Marko has set up a weapons stash in the cellar of his grandfather's house. Following their interception of a large trainload of weapons, Marko and Blacky are identified as dangerous bandits in German radio bulletins. While Blacky is off hiding in the woods as Germans are intensifying door-to-door raids in the city, Marko takes Vera, Ivan and many others into the cellar to hide. Vera is due and gives birth to a baby boy, who she names Jovan before dying.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In 1944, and Blacky is in town to celebrate his son's birthday at a local communist hangout. The two best friends head for the theatre in a jovial mood. They see Natalija performing on stage in front of Franz and other German officers, and Blacky shoots Franz in the chest. With Natalija, Blacky manages to reach the river boat anchored just outside Belgrade. Naturally, Marko is along as well, and all are getting ready for a forced wedding despite Natalija's protestations.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: The party is interrupted by German soldiers surrounding the anchored boat. Suddenly, Franz is seen yelling, demanding Blacky and Marko release Natalija, who runs to Franz. Blacky is captured by Germans and tortured in the city hospital with electric shocks while Franz and Natalija visit her brother Bata at the same hospital. Meanwhile, Marko has found a way to enter the building through an underground sewer passage. Sneaking up on Franz, Marko strangles him to death with a cord in front of Natalija who switches sides once again. Marko then proceeds to free Blacky. They leave with fatigued Blacky hidden in a suitcase, but Blacky is injured by a grenade.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: A few days later on Easter 1944, Marko and Natalija, now a couple, are watching a comatose Blacky. In late October, the Red Army accompanied by Yugoslav Partisans enters Belgrade. Marko gives fiery speeches from the National Theater balcony during the Trieste crisis, socializes with Josip Broz Tito, Ranković and Edvard Kardelj and he stands next to Tito during military parades through downtown Belgrade.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In 1961, Marko is one of Tito's closest associates and advisors. The physically recovered Blacky and company are still in the cellar under the impression that the War is still going on above. Marko and Natalija attend a ceremony to open a cultural center and unveil a statue of Petar Popara Blacky, who everyone thinks died, becoming a People's Hero. With the help of his grandfather who is in on the devious con, Marko oversees the weapons manufacturing and even controls time by removing hours to a day so the people in the cellar think that only 15 years passed since the beginning of World War II instead of 20. They're continuously making weapons, and Marko profits from it enormously.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: The filming of an epic state-sponsored motion picture based on Marko's memoirs titled "Proleće stiže na belom konju" ("Spring Comes On A White Horse") begins above ground. Soon, Blacky's 20-year-old son Jovan will marry Jelena, a girl he grew up with in the cellar. Marko and Natalija are naturally invited for a celebration. Ivan's chimpanzee Soni has wandered into a tank and fires a round blowing a hole in the wall. Soni wanders off, and Ivan follows.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Blacky, with his son Jovan, emerges from underground for the first time in decades. They encounter the set of "Spring Comes On A White Horse" and believing the war is still on, kill two extras and the actor playing Franz. In the manhunt, Jovan drowns but Blacky escapes.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In 1992 at the height of the Yugoslav Wars, Ivan re-emerges with Soni, whom he was recently reunited with. He stumbles upon Marko, who is attempting to broker an arms deal in the middle of a conflict zone. The deal falls through and Ivan catches up with Marko and beats him to unconsciousness, then commits suicide. Natalija arrives and rushes to Marko's side, proclaiming her love for him. They are captured by militants and they are ordered to be executed as arms dealers by militants' commander, Blacky.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Blacky moves his people out to the cellar that he lived years ago, taking Soni with him. He sees an image of Jovan in a well, and inadvertently falls in while reaching for him.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In a dreamlike ending sequence, Blacky, Marko, and others are reunited at an outside dinner party, celebrating Jovan's wedding. Ivan gives a few parting words, ending with "Once upon a time, there was a country."


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: The shooting of the film began in fall 1993 and lasted off-and-on until early spring 1995. The state-owned Radio Television of Serbia had a small role in financing the film, and the film used rented Yugoslav Army (VJ) equipment as props.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: "Underground" has not been widely reviewed by English-language critics, though it has gained generally favorable reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports an 86% approval rating based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Offering an insightful look at Communist Eastern Europe through the microcosm of a long friendship, "Underground" is an exhausting, exhilarating epic."


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: In the "New York Daily News", Dave Kehr lauded the film as "ferociously intelligent and operatically emotional," and Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" called it a "sprawling, rowdy, vital film laced with both outrageous absurdist dark humor and unspeakable pain, suffering and injustice". "Variety"'s Deborah Young reviewed the film after seeing it at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, praising it as "a steamroller circus that leaves the viewer dazed and exhausted, but mightily impressed", and adding that "if Fellini had shot a war movie, it might resemble "Underground"".


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Writing in "Sight & Sound" in November 1996, British author Misha Glenny delivered a stinging attack on critics who view "Underground" or Srđan Dragojević's "Lepa sela lepo gore" through a simplistic, reductionist pro- or anti-Serb critical lens.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Janet Maslin of the "New York Times" wrote that the film's "real heart is its devastating idea of a morning after: the moment when, after being in the grip of a political delusion lasting several decades, a man can emerge from a subterranean hiding place in his native Yugoslavia and be told that there is no Yugoslavia any more". While acknowledging that "the politics of "Underground" have been assailed and dissected by international audiences", she feels that "this debate is largely specious as there's no hidden agenda to this robust and not terribly subtle tale of duplicity with Mr. Kusturica's central idea being a daringly blunt representation of political chicanery that fools an entire society, and of the corruption that lets one man thrive at the expense of his dearest friend".


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Critics saw the characters Marko and Blacky as "Kusturica's idealization of Serbs trapped into desperate acts by history and others' evil while the cowardly characters in the film were Croats and Bosnians, who chose betrayal and collaboration."


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Stanko Cerović, director of the Serbo-Croatian editorial department of Radio France Internationale, strongly denounced the film in June 1995, accusing Kusturica of spreading Serbian propaganda, using historical footage in cases except "the bombardment of Vukovar, or the three-year-long destruction of his native city by the Serbian army". However, in 2012 Cerović said that it was not propaganda and "It's quite possible that "Underground" will age well".


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Throughout the 1990s, Kusturica was frequently attacked by French public intellectuals Bernard-Henri Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut in the French media over his life and career choices. Generally, the two viewed Kusturica as a "traitor who crossed over to the enemy side thus turning his back on his city, his ethnic roots, and his nation". Finkielkraut had not seen the film, but wrote in "Libération" "that offensive and stupid falsification of the traitor taking the palm of martyrdom had to be denounced immediately". Meanwhile, Lévy called Kusturica a "fascist author" while reserving his further judgment upon seeing the film. After watching "Underground", Lévy called Kusturica a "racist genius in the mold of Louis-Ferdinand Céline". Other intellectuals such as André Glucksmann and Peter Handke joined the debate.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: During the September 2008 discussion between the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and Bernard-Henri Lévy on the issues surrounding the historical and social significance of May 1968 in France, Žižek brought up "Underground" and Kusturica to Lévy by saying: ""Underground" I think is one of the most horrible films that I've seen ... What kind of Yugoslav society you see in Kusturica's "Underground"? A society where people all the time fornicate, drink, fight - a kind of eternal orgy." Lévy answered that he considers himself an "enemy of Kusturica, the man", but that "Underground" is "not a bad movie" before going on to commend the film's narrative structure and conclude that "Kusturica is one of the cases, we have some writers like this, where the man is so, so, so more stupid than his work". Bosnian-American novelist Aleksandar Hemon criticized "Underground" in 2005, saying that it downplayed Serbian atrocities by "presenting the Balkan war as a product of collective, innate, savage madness."


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: "Underground" won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, considered the festival's highest honor. It was director Emir Kusturica's second such award after "When Father Was Away on Business". "Underground" was selected as the Serbian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. "Underground" also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 13th Independent Spirit Awards nearly 3 years after the film won Palme d'Or, but lost to "The Sweet Hereafter".


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: On 8 March 2001, Serbian newsmagazine "Vreme" published an op-ed piece by Serbian playwright Biljana Srbljanović under the headline "Hvala lepo" in which she refers to "Underground" in passing as "being financed by Milošević" and accuses Kusturica of being "an immoral profiteer". She goes on to accuse the director of "directly collaborating with the regime via his friend Milorad Vučelić". On 20 March 2001, Kusturica decided to sue Srbljanović for libel.


title: Underground (1995 film)

text: Before the first court date in September 2001, "Vreme" magazine organized a mediation attempt between the two parties, with Kusturica and Srbljanović meeting face to face in the magazine's offices. At the meeting Kusturica expressed willingness to drop the charges if Srbljanović issued a public apology, which Srbljanović refused. The next day at the first court date Srbljanović once again rejected the offer of a public apology. The court case thus continued with Kusturica's lawyer Branislav Tapušković presenting details of the film's financing sources, most of which were French production companies. On 11 December 2003, the municipal court ruled in Kusturica's favour, ordering Srbljanović to pay damages as well as to cover the court costs.


title: Jay Garner

text: Jay Montgomery Garner (born April 15, 1938) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who in 2003 was appointed as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, making him the immediate replacement of Saddam Hussein as the top authority in Iraq. Garner was soon replaced by Ambassador Paul Bremer and the ambassador's successor organization to ORHA, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).


title: Jay Garner

text: Born in Arcadia, Florida, Garner served an enlistment in the United States Marine Corps before attending the Florida State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1962. He also holds a master's in public administration from Shippensburg State University.


title: Jay Garner

text: Commissioned as an army second lieutenant in 1962, Garner served two tours in Vietnam, and later led two air defense units in Germany. He also served as deputy commanding general at Fort Bliss, Texas. Garner helped to develop the Patriot missile system and commanded missile batteries during the Gulf War. After the war he was put in charge of securing Kurdish areas in Iraq. He was later named commander of the United States Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (working primarily on President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative missile shield program), and concluded his army career as Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, retiring in 1997 at the rank of lieutenant general.


title: Jay Garner

text: After leaving the army, Garner became president of SYColeman, a defense contractor which designs missile communications and targeting systems used in the Patriot and Arrow missile systems. (He has been on unpaid leave from the company since January 2003). Garner served on a presidential panel, chaired by Donald Rumsfeld, which specializes in space and missile threats. He has also worked closely with the Israel Defense Forces.


title: Jay Garner

text: In 2003 Garner was selected to lead the post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq, along with three deputies, including British Major-General Tim Cross. Garner was regarded as a natural choice by the Bush administration given his earlier similar role in the north. General Garner was to develop and implement plans to assist the Iraqis in developing governance and reconstructing the country once Saddam Hussein was deposed.


title: Jay Garner

text: Following the defeat of the Saddam Hussein regime in Baghdad, there was widespread looting, rampaging, and general chaos throughout Iraq. Some of the most important monuments, such as the national museum, were under attack. Furthermore, the infrastructure of the country was in ruins, ministries were broken into, and government records were destroyed. The situation in Iraq became chaotic and anarchic. The only ministry which was protected by the occupying forces was the oil ministry. In addition, many exiled leaders from Iran and some from the West returned to Iraq. The Bush Administration selected Lieutenant General Jay Garner to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority (an intermediary government) in an attempt to rid Iraq of the chaos and anarchy that consumed the area. Garner's plan was to choose government officials from the former Iraqi regime to help lead the country.


title: Jay Garner

text: Garner began reconstruction efforts in March 2003 with plans aiming for Iraqis to hold elections within 90 days and for the U.S. to quickly pull troops out of the cities to a desert base. Jalal Talabani, a member of Jay Garner's staff in Kuwait before the war, was consulted on several occasions to help the U.S. select a liberal Iraqi government; this would be the first liberal government to exist in Iraq. In an interview with Time magazine, Garner stated that "as in any totalitarian regime, there were many people who needed to join the Baath Party in order to get ahead in their careers. We don't have a problem with most of them. But we do have a problem with those who were part of the thug mechanism under Saddam. Once the U.S. identifies those in the second group, we will get rid of them." On April 15, 2003, General Garner called a conference in the city of Nasiriyah, where Garner, along with 100 Iraqis, discussed the future of Iraq. Garner called a follow-up meeting on April 28, 2003. 250 Iraqis attended this meeting, and five of these Iraqis were selected by Garner's administration as the core leaders of the new Iraqi government: Masood Barzani was appointed as head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Talabani as head of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim was appointed as the leader of the Supreme Assembly for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi was chosen to represent the Iraqi National Congress and Iyad Allawi was appointed as the leader of the Iraqi National Accord. Garner's selection caused quite a stir amongst many Iraqis. Although many Iraqis were open to the change that Garner and the U.S. were bringing to Iraq, others were resentful. Iraqis with a Shi'a background felt underrepresented in Garner's selection for government. Three of the five officials appointed as key members in Iraq's new government were of Sunni background, one official was from a mixed Sunni–Shi'a background, and only one of the officials was of pure Shi'a background. The Shi'a felt left out and underrepresented, considering they comprise over 60% of the Iraqi population. Furthermore, many Iraqis felt this new government was not selected in a democratic manner, as the U.S. had promised.