#Belfast No.1 Branch

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1887 – Birth of trade unionist and revolutionary, Winifred Carney, in Bangor, Co Down.

Close to the entrance of Milltown Cemetery is a limestone monument which marks the grave of a remarkable woman – Maria Winifred Carney. Winnie was born in Bangor, Co Down, but moved to the Falls Road in Belfast at an early age. She was born into a fairly comfortable family, and was one of seven children. Her mother and father Alfred and Sarah, were estranged, therefore, Sarah, was left to rear…

[todaysdocument]

Evidence of the Right Honorable Montgomery Alexander Carlisle

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United StatesSeries: Admiralty Case FilesFile Unit: In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC

[[Dark blue background as first page to ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY CARLISLE. The page's text is underlined and all capital letters]]

Friday, 3rd April, 1914.

IN RE THE OCEANIC STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

Evidence of 

THE RT: HON: ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY CARLISLE.

Friday

3rd April 1914

The Right Hon. ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY CARLISLE, being duly Sworn, [??] 

Examined by Mr. SCANLAN.

Q You are a Member of the Privy Council, and your title and name are The Right Hon. Alexander Montgomery Carlisle?

A Yes.

Q Where do you live?

A No. 12, Hyde Park Place, London, W.

Q You were for some time General Manager and Chairman of the Managing Directors of the shipbuilding firm of Harland & Wolff?

A Yes.

Q You retired from that position in the firm on the 30th June, 1910?

A Yes.

Q I think you had been in that firm altogether for nearly forty years?

A Yes.

Q You joined the firm, I think, in 1870?

A Yes.

Q While you occupied the position of General Manger and Chairman of the Managing Directors, were the "Olympic" and "Titanic" in course of construction by the firm of Harland & Wolff in their shipbuilding yard at Belfast?

A Yes.

Q In the course of your forty years in this shipbuilding firm, you had, I take it, practical acquaintance with shipbuilding in all its branches and details?

A Yes.

Q Before you left the firm in June, 1910, had the work of construction, including the designing of those ships, been practically completed?

A Yes.

Q Who was the designer of those ships?

1.

A    Lord Pirrie. 

Q    What did the designing by him comprehend and include?

A    The designing by the head of a firm is taking up with 

the owners what kind of ship they want, and arranging 

the length, breadth, depth, speed, and other general 

particulars. 

Q    Which of you had to do with the working plans and 

drawings and the details of construction? 

A    I had the majority of them. 

Q    Did all the working plans and drawings pass under your

supervision? 

A    Yes. 

Q    Had you control of all the minute work of the building 

of those ships in your time there? 

A    Yes. 

Q    You are aware that the ships were constructed for and 

to order of the petitioning Company, the Oceanic 

to the order of the petitioning Company, the Oceanic

Steam Navigation Company, Limited?

A    Yes.

Q    Had there been conferences between the heads of the

shipbuilding firm and the heads of the Oceanic Company

at various times in reference to the plans? 

A    Yes; that occurs in all ships: in that case the same

as others. 

Q    Had the conferences between the heads of the shipbuilding

firm of Harland & Wolff and the heads of the Oceanic

Company had been with reference to construction of the ships

and their plans and structure, decoration, fittings and 

equipment ?  Were all those things considered? 

A    Yes; that is the same in all cases. 

Q    Was the work of construction as carried out, subject to 

the orders of the Oceanic Company? 

A    I do not think that can be answered by the word "Yes" or 

                          2.

[foxes-that-run]

That timeline makes me wonder where HS fit into it all or if he even did during those years outside of writing songs about each other.

I don't think they seemed that close in the 2021 and 2023 grammys. To me, the interaction looked like they hadn't talked in a long time but that's just the feeling I got from it.

I also remember when he wore the midnights coded outfit I think the same night she wore the midnights dress during the 2022 VMA's afterparty. Not sure if that was a coincidence or if they had gotten in contact around that time.

The most confusing thing was what happened once her breakup became public. He was single then and instead she got with MH? With them both being available for the first time in years, you would've thought they would've jumped at the opportunity based on all the songs written throughout the years.

Hi Anon

That timeline is about her break up with Joe, Harry stuff is in this timeline. I don't think she left Joe for Harry, or that they even dated in 2021.

My pure speculation is that 'The 1' and 'Late Night Talking' did happen while they were both in LA in the pandemic. She didn't want to break up with Joe, so H went back to Europe. In California Harry refers to a 'Summer's death left to breath'. Love of my Life is about letting her go, it was written early 2021.

He approached her, in public, at the 2021 Grammys, (which is unlike him) it was maybe an olive branch and it was the first time they spoke in public since 2012 - who could blame them for being tense.

In May 2021 they were both at the Brits, no photos together, Joe was in Belfast. Seems like nothing - were it not for for Glitch.

By October 2021 he made heart eyes high in the crowd in Nashville, changed that setlist to include TBSL. It was the day after one of their anniversaries. She was in Nashville. While there, he wrote Satellite at Cave Studio - the song says 'I can see you're lonely, don't you know that I am right here'. Then matching outfits for re-records started.

Then 'You're losing me' written in December. HH came out in March 2022, Joe interacts stopped. I also assume she was at the NY ONO show, she was in NY. H touring and dating OW until October 2022. Midnights has songs on it that imply they had spent time together.

The 2023 Grammys was even more public because it was a full audience, she came over to him, knowing it would be on the internet. They touched, fist bumped, hugged, held eye contact. He touched the bare skin on her back. Which.... he 'should think about the consequence of touching her hand in a darkened room'.

That timeline has Matt Healy on it too. .... Taylor and Tree would have had the Joever announcement well planned, Invisible String on the setlist and all, and considered who she publicly dates first after. People were really invested in Joe, that announcement was for the fans, not Taylor.

Again speculation, but I think they think of each other as End Game and maybe aren't ready for that. But if they were, she wouldn't go public with a very famous, very divisive relationship lightly, quickly or as the first after Joe. Although I do think think in 1989 vaults and media have given them an updated fan temperature on it.

[londonlingo]

Cockney rhyming slang

Have you heard of this phenomenon? Originating in the east end of London in the 19th century, this practice sees people use a pair of words as slang for another term (which rhymes).

Key examples:

Apples and pears refers to stairs

Bees and honey refers to money

Dog and bone refers to telephone

Over time some of this word pairs were shorten to just the first word. For example:

Rabbit and pork (which means talks) became just rabbit

OR

Boat race (which means face) became just boat

OR

Ruby Murray* (which means curry) became just Ruby

*popular singer in the 1950s born in Belfast

Rhyming slang is not that often used nowadays. That said, remnants remain in pop culture but it’s mainly used in caricaturistic portrayals of Londoners. Sometimes people will refer to the degree classifications (i.e. grades) of a 2:1 as an Attila the Hun and a 2:2 as a Desmond Tutu.

Personally, the example that springs to mind is that of Sweeney Todd (which refers to Flying Squad, a branch of the London metropolitan police,) because I grew up watching my dad watch the TV show ‘the Sweeney’.

Sources:

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/guide-to-cockney-rhyming-slang

[crimsonscloud]

OLD LORE VERSION: please read the new version of brad's lore here!

large images + long post under the cut.

on the 12th hour of the first day of october 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. this was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day began. sir reginald hargreeves, eccentric asshole billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. brad barrett was not one of them. (and, in brad's opinion, that was probably for the best.)

name: bradley barrett

nicknames: brad (preferred), walking glowstick (by five and lila), sparkler, starboy (by lila)

gender: male

date of birth: october 1, 1989

place of birth: belfast, northern ireland

faceclaim: pascal langdale

affiliation: the umbrella academy (unofficially)

relatives: erin barrett (mother, deceased)

biography:

as a young woman living in belfast during "the troubles", erin barrett was not at all in the position to be raising a child. especially not one that she hadn't had the time to plan for. but there was just something that rubbed her the wrong way about the strange man called hargreeves who came to her doorstep asking after her son. when he asked how much she wanted for him, she slammed the door in his face. she was pretty damn sure he was stalking her, perhaps waiting for the right moment to swoop in and steal her baby from her.

but hargreeves did not pursue her. she'd come around eventually, he supposed. and if not, there would be others.

(in the end, he would only get seven.)

brad grew up unaware of the existence of the academy or of the significance of his birthdate. he had an aptitude for business that was noticed early, and in adulthood he found success as the manager of a branch of hotels that catered near exclusively to the wealthy and famous. he was also known for his tendency to throw extravagant parties to keep guests entertained.

it was at one such party that he met allison hargreeves.

while making small talk, they learned that they shared the same birthday. when the conversation turned to their childhoods, brad learned that allison also had powers, and that there were others just like them. when she described hargreeves, he recognized him as the strange man his mother had mentioned but chose not to tell her. he wasn't interested in meeting the man that tried to buy him from his mother, especially not after learning he had done the same to seven others. despite this, he and allison became friends, almost like siblings, and could often be found in each other's company.

however, the two drifted apart after allison lost custody of claire. it wasn't until hargreeves died that she reached out to him again, asking for emotional support; it was the first time she would be reconnecting with her adopted siblings, and she wanted to apologize for being distant and hopefully rekindle their friendship. he agreed, and took what he thought would be a short trip to the city to see her.

thanks to a pair of assassins, a time-traveling senior citizen in a child's body, and an impending apocalypse, his trip is anything but short.

powers and abilities:

plasma manipulation: brad can absorb ambient energy from his surroundings and convert it into superheated plasma. he can shape it into constructs or release it as concussive force blasts from his hands or, if charged enough, his entire body.

dagger creation: brad can generate daggers made of solidified plasma. once generated, he can telekinetically guide them to seek specific targets. if he gets stabbed by his own daggers, they just reabsorb back into his body. he can also spin them around himself to deflect smaller projectiles.

heat and light generation: brad can release stored energy as bright light and intense heat, hot enough to melt objects or leave burns with his touch. he's also unaffected by extreme heat and high temperatures.

healing touch: brad can heal wounds on others by channeling energy into them to speed up their natural healing process. it works better on minor injuries, anything immediately life threatening he can slow bleeding / help it close faster but it takes a lot out of him. he also can't fully heal illnesses.

self healing: brad can also heal himself and heals faster in the presence of a light source he can draw energy from, usually sunlight. this is also how he recharges his powers after using them.

flight: when everyone winds up in the sixties, brad learns how to project his energy in a way that lets him fly in sustained bursts. it takes him a few tries before he figures out how to control his landings, since he tends to be a little.... destructive with them.

superhuman sight: brad can see over greater distances and with better clarity than most, and to an extent in total darkness. in season three as the counterpart to viktor practicing his hearing, brad learns how to see a person's life force / aura.

weaknesses:

darkness: brad's powers aren't infinite. spending too much time in dark areas with no access to light renders him powerless until he can recharge.

drugs: more a psychological weakness than physical since he can self-heal, but large amounts of drugs / alcohol / etc can still affect his powers.

emotions: being supercharged or using a lot of power for an extended period tends to make brad more aggressive. strong emotions are also a general trigger for his powers.

energy depletion: if brad released all of his stored energy at once, he'd pass out afterwards. using his healing touch too many times also leaves him super drained.

limitations: there is an (as-yet undefined) upper limit to how much energy brad can absorb at once. if he went above this limit, his body would overheat and potentially explode.

other random facts:

his eyes, which are normally blue, turn gold when he uses his powers. the intensity depends on how much energy he's using.

lights also tend to flicker around him when his powers are active. if he uses enough energy he can make them burn out or shatter.

besides being fluent in english and irish he can also speak conversationally in spanish / understands some phrases in latin. (i like making my characters multilingual what about it)

when they meet the sparrows marcus assumes brad must be two if viktor is one, since they seem to be the more powerful ones. sparrow!ben is very confused as to why brad hasn't backstabbed viktor yet. no one corrects anyone on this until luther gets captured and asked about it.

sparrow!ben calls him "pretty boy" during the academy fight. brad thanks him and they continue fighting.

brad's parties were wild and involved a lot of drinking and drug use, but that part wasn't public knowledge.

he gets subject to quite a few "drunk irishman" jokes. jokes on everyone else, his powers make it harder for him to actually get drunk.... hence the excessive drinking. ironic.

doesn't bother to use a lighter when he smokes unless he's in public and has to hide his powers. he also tends to smoke more when he's stressed, but stops after the creation of the sparrow timeline. (not me paralleling him with s3!allison here...)

yes, he is named after the character from the listener. i just gave him a backstory and powers and stuck him into tua for funsies so he's mine now. don't ask why, all i did was watch the episode he was in and then my brain took off.

also a note about his fc: i'm aware pascal is older now but i specifically use pictures, gifs, etc. of him in the listener or earlier as references for brad's appearance.

he hates cold weather because it saps his energy faster.

he's bisexual and was already comfortably out by the time he met allison. klaus figures this out about him immediately upon meeting him.

after the events of season two he starts to see the umbrellas as like his family. they only find this out when he tells it to the sparrows once they learn he's not actually part of the academy.

i made the poster using this template, and i was inspired to make an items board by @evienovo's tua oc post!

the fonts i used for the items board label are josef pro bold ultra (first name) and parkson (last name).

[cloverpatchwork]

After reading this I had to know more definitely which US state has the most “capital” cities. I checked and if we’re only counting exact matches including accent marks then Ohio is the winner. If accent marks don’t matter Illinois and Ohio are tied. If we count partial matches like “New Paris” Ohio wins by a lot. Full results below.

Alabama

Exact Matches: 6

Athens

Berlin

Cardiff

Douglas

Hamilton

Madrid

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Arizona

Exact Matches: 1

Douglas

Close Matches: 1

San Jose

Partial Matches: 2

La Paz Valley

Washington Park

Arkansas

Exact Matches: 10

Damascus

Georgetown

Havana

Jerusalem

Kingston

London

Manila

Paris

Victoria

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

Lake Hamilton

California

Exact Matches: 9

Dublin

Georgetown

Jamestown

London

Manila

Monrovia

Plymouth

San Marino

Washington

Close Matches: 1

San Jose

Partial Matches: 10

Douglas City

Fort Washington

Hamilton Branch

Hamilton City

North San Juan

San Bernardino

San Juan Bautista

San Juan Capistrano

South Monrovia Island

West Athens

Colorado

Exact Matches: 3

Georgetown

Jamestown

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

North Washington

Romeo

Connecticut

Exact Matches: 1

Georgetown

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

New London

Delaware

Exact Matches: 1

Georgetown

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

District of Columbia

Exact Matches: 1

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Florida

Exact Matches: 4

Havana

Lisbon

Panama City

Wellington

Close Matches: 1

Valparaiso

Partial Matches: 5

Lake Hamilton

Mount Plymouth

Nassau Village-Ratliff

Panama City Beach

Washington Park

Georgia

Exact Matches: 12

Athens

Berlin

Cairo

Damascus

Douglas

Dublin

Georgetown

Hamilton

Kingston

Rome

Vienna

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

Douglasville

East Dublin

Idaho

Exact Matches: 4

Georgetown

Moscow

Paris

Stanley

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

New Plymouth

Illinois

Exact Matches: 20

Athens

Berlin

Brussels

Cairo

Georgetown

Hamilton

Havana

Kingston

Kingston

Lima

Lisbon

Ottawa

Paris

Plymouth

Rome

Victoria

Vienna

Warsaw

Washington

Wellington

Close Matches: 1

San Jose

Partial Matches: 8

Kingston Mines

Kingston Mines

London Mills

New Athens

New Berlin

New Douglas

Romeoville

Washington Park

Indiana

Exact Matches: 11

Dublin

Edinburgh

Freetown

Georgetown

Hamilton

Jamestown

La Paz

Monrovia

Plymouth

Warsaw

Washington

Close Matches: 1

Valparaiso

Partial Matches: 6

Berne

New Amsterdam

New Paris

New Washington

Rome City

St. Bernice

Iowa

Exact Matches: 10

Hamilton

Kingston

Lisbon

Madrid

Moscow

Plymouth

Rome

Stanley

Tripoli

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 5

Bernard

Muscatine

New London

New Vienna

North Washington

Kansas

Exact Matches: 9

Bern

Hamilton

Havana

Jamestown

Moscow

Ottawa

Victoria

Washington

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

Douglass

Kentucky

Exact Matches: 7

Georgetown

Jamestown

London

Paris

Stanley

Warsaw

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 3

Douglass Hills

East Bernstadt

Mount Washington

Louisiana

Exact Matches: 7

Athens

Georgetown

Jamestown

Lisbon

Stanley

Vienna

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 3

Bernice

Romeville

Vienna Bend

Maine

Exact Matches: 2

Belfast

Lisbon

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

Lisbon Falls

South Paris

Maryland

Exact Matches: 9

Adamstown

Berlin

Damascus

Georgetown

Kingstown

Lisbon

Monrovia

Moscow

Vienna

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

Fort Washington

Washington Grove

Massachusetts

Exact Matches: 0

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

East Douglas

North Plymouth

Michigan

Exact Matches: 6

Athens

Douglas

Gibraltar

Kingston

Paris

Plymouth

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

Lake Victoria

Romeo

Minnesota

Exact Matches: 10

Belgrade

Georgetown

Kingston

Montevideo

Nassau

Oslo

Plymouth

Roseau

Victoria

Warsaw

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

New London

New Prague

Mississippi

Exact Matches: 6

Bridgetown

Dublin

Georgetown

Hamilton

Paris

Victoria

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

New Hamilton

Missouri

Exact Matches: 10

Amsterdam

Cairo

Hamilton

Jamestown

Kingston

Paris

Vienna

Warsaw

Washington

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 5

Bernie

Moscow Mills

New London

New Madrid

Old Jamestown

Montana

Exact Matches: 6

Amsterdam

Belgrade

Hamilton

Lima

Philipsburg

St. Pierre

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Nebraska

Exact Matches: 7

Belgrade

Cairo

Douglas

Madrid

Plymouth

Prague

Washington

Close Matches: 1

Valparaiso

Partial Matches: 0

Nevada

Exact Matches: 1

Kingston

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

New Hampshire

Exact Matches: 1

Berlin

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

New Jersey

Exact Matches: 4

Berlin

Kingston

Vienna

Washington

Close Matches: 1

Bogota

Partial Matches: 6

Bernardsville

Hamilton Square

Kingston Estates

Kingston Estates

Washington Crossing

West Berlin

New Mexico

Exact Matches: 4

Jamestown

Kingston

Madrid

Stanley

Close Matches: 1

San Jose

Partial Matches: 2

Bernalillo

Santo Domingo Pueblo

New York

Exact Matches: 5

Amsterdam

Copenhagen

Jamestown

Kingston

Rome

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 13

East Kingston

East Kingston

East Nassau

Hamilton College

Jamestown West

Nassau Lake

Port Washington

Port Washington North

South Cairo

South Lima

Washington Heights

Washington Mills

Washingtonville

North Carolina

Exact Matches: 8

Dublin

Hamilton

Jamestown

Kingstown

Plymouth

Stanley

Warsaw

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 4

McAdenville

New Bern

New London

Washington Park

North Dakota

Exact Matches: 7

Berlin

Douglas

Hamilton

Havana

Jamestown

Lisbon

Stanley

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Ohio

Exact Matches: 21

Amsterdam

Athens

Berlin

Bridgetown

Cairo

Damascus

Dublin

Georgetown

Hamilton

Jamestown

Jerusalem

Kingston

Lima

Lisbon

London

Moscow

Ottawa

Plymouth

Rome

Warsaw

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 18

Adena

Berlin Heights

Limaville

New Athens

New London

New Paris

New Vienna

New Washington

North Lima

Old Washington

Ottawa Hills

Port Washington

South Vienna

St. Bernard

St. Paris

Vienna Center

Washington Court House

Washingtonville

Oklahoma

Exact Matches: 5

Douglas

Kingston

Lima

Prague

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 1

Bernice

Oregon

Exact Matches: 1

Damascus

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Pennsylvania

Exact Matches: 16

Adamstown

Athens

Dublin

Georgetown

Georgetown

Georgetown

Gibraltar

Jamestown

Kingston

Lima

Moscow

Paris

Philipsburg

Plymouth

Rome

Washington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 18

Bernville

Douglassville

East Berlin

East Washington

Fort Washington

New Berlin

New Berlinville

New Jerusalem

New Kingstown

New Paris

New Tripoli

New Washington

Newton Hamilton

North Philipsburg

Plymouth Meeting

South Philipsburg

Washington Boro

Washingtonville

Puerto Rico

Exact Matches: 3

San José

San Juan

Santo Domingo

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 2

Hacienda San José

Punta Santiago

Rhode Island

Exact Matches: 1

Kingston

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

South Carolina

Exact Matches: 2

Georgetown

Jamestown

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

South Dakota

Exact Matches: 2

Stockholm

Vienna

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 0

Tennessee

Exact Matches: 5

Athens

Jamestown

Kingston

Moscow

Paris

Close Matches: 1

Bogota

Partial Matches: 2

Kingston Springs

Kingston Springs

Texas

Exact Matches: 10

Athens

Dublin

Georgetown

Hamilton

Havana

Paris

San Juan

Tunis

Victoria

Wellington

Close Matches: 0

Partial Matches: 7

Douglassville

East Bernard

La Victoria

Nassau Bay

New Berlin

New London

Victoria Vera

Utah

Exact Matches: 6

Kingston

Manila

Moroni

Plymouth

Washington

Wellington

The United States has 3 times as many Jerusalems as Israel

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2024/01/post-office-paid-fujitsu-95m-to-extend-horizon

Post Office paid Fujitsu £95m to extend Horizon

Reuters

By Ben King

Business reporter, BBC News

The Post Office has paid Fujitsu over £95m to extend the troubled Horizon IT system for two years after a plan to move to Amazon had to be abandoned.

A serving postmaster told the BBC the software is still unreliable, and causes money to disappear.

Costs and delays are still dogging the Horizon project more than two decades after the contracts were first signed.

The Post Office said it plans to start trialling a new system in branches this year.

When Fujitsu won the contract to install computer terminals in over 17,000 Post Office branches around the UK, it called it “the biggest non-military IT project in Europe”, designed to automate and simplify everything from selling stamps to paying pensions.

Nearly 28 years later, it is still in use throughout the country, still plagued with difficulties, and the Post Office is struggling to replace it.

It led to what has been called one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in British history. Thousands of sub-postmasters who used Horizon to manage their businesses were held accountable for losses which were not their fault, with 983 receiving criminal convictions.

Their plight received new public attention this year when ITV broadcast a drama series about their fight for justice.

Horizon is still in use in UK Post Offices to this day. One postmaster, who runs two Post Offices in the South East of England and spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said the system is still unreliable.

“You still get shortfalls. You can’t trust it. You can’t rely on it.” However, since the sub-postmasters won their court case in 2019, the Post Office is more likely to resolve significant disputes in the sub-postmaster’s favour, he said.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “As you would expect, we have made significant changes in the way we work with Postmasters.”

Abandoning the cloud

Horizon is currently housed in two Fujitsu-owned data centres in Belfast. In December 2022, the Post Office abandoned a plan to move it onto the vast network of data centres run by Amazon – a more up-to-date, flexible and robust system used by thousands of other online services known as ‘the cloud’.

“Everything seems to be ‘in the cloud’ these days,” a Post Office announcement breezily noted in 2022. “You may well use the cloud to store photos and music on your devices, for example.”

But later that year, the plan proved too difficult, and was abandoned.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “The age of Horizon and the complexity involved meant that particular programme proved too technically challenging and costly. A decision was taken in November 2022 to discontinue this particular programme and resulted in a need to extend support services for our current data centres.”

The cost of abandoning this plan was £31m, according to the the Post Office’s latest accounts, published in December and first reported by The Stack news website.

The Horizon contract was meant to expire in 2023 but the challenges of replacing it have been so great that it has been extended twice – for £42.5m in 2021, and again last year in two contracts worth £16.5m and £36.6m.

These take the contract up to 1 April 2025, at a total cost of £95.6m.

The Post Office justified the £16m contract extension because a “program to transfer the services to a new cloud provider created fundamental technical challenges that POL [Post Office Limited] could not economically and technically overcome.”

The Post Office is still working on a replacement for Horizon, dubbed “New Branch IT”. The first installations were meant to happen last year, but it is behind schedule.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are still working to come off Horizon. We’ve been testing basic mails transactions live on this new system in two pilot branches. Next, we are adding and testing more mails and back-office functionality. After evaluation, this will be the version that we plan to install in pilot branches later in 2024.”

In 2022 the Post Office awarded Accenture a £27m contract to assist with moving their IT systems onto the cloud, and a separate contract to work on the user interface for the new system.

The Post Office’s accounts also note that: “A further impairment review at the cash generating unit (“CGU”) level was performed during the year resulting in an additional impairment of capitalised software costs of £115 million.”

In accounting terms, an impairment usually means that an asset which was once considered valuable has become less valuable, creating a loss for the business. The Post Office has not given the BBC more detail about how this loss had come about.

Fujitsu and Accenture declined to comment.

Ben King is on X (formerly Twitter)

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Related Topics

Post Office Inquiry

Post Office Ltd

More on this story

Fujitsu should pay compensation, says postmaster

16 hours ago

Dozens more seek legal help after Post Office drama

5 days ago

Post Office victims promised faster justice

1 day ago

[jimi-rawlings]

HSBC - Wikipedia

Sir Thomas Jackson, 1st Baronet, (Chinese: 昃臣; 1841 – 1915) was the third Chief Manager of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. He was responsible for financing the development of Colonial Hong Kong under the first large scale bank. Sir Thomas Jackson was born on 4 June 1841 in CARRIGALLEN, COUNTY LEITRIM, IRELAND, the second of six sons of David and Elizabeth Jackson. He spend his childhood in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, and, in 1860, joined the Belfast Branch of the Bank of Ireland. Jackson travelled to Hong Kong in 1864 to join the Agra and Masterbank.

Sir Thomas Sutherland, GCMG (Chinese: 蘇石蘭 16 August 1834 – 1 January 1922) was a SCOTTISH banker and politician, initially elected to represent the Liberal Party and then as a Liberal Unionist. He founded The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation which was the founder member of HSBC Group and directed the P&O Company.

HSBC Holdings has been deemed the seventh-largest bank globally and the largest in Europe in holding total assets. Although it was founded in Hong Kong in March 1865, it currently has its headquarters in the financial capital of the United Kingdom, London, and is the LARGEST BANK in the United Kingdom. It has a wide range of services from commercial banking, global banking, and global private banking, retail banking, wealth management, etc. The bank’s name, HSBC, comes from the name used when it was founded in Hong Kong, namely, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Scotland and Ireland are the Top 2 Banking Countries in the United Kingdom. As I said before, Africa is the only country to use British Monetary Policy.

Adrian Blake-Trotman

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.20

AD 69 – Antonius Primus enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor for Nero's former general Vespasian. 1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade. 1334 – Cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, is elected Pope Benedict XII. 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans. 1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins. 1832 – HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands. 1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States. 1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli. 1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded. 1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison. 1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers", in Kunming, China. 1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India. 1946 – An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills at least one thousand people and destroys 36,000 homes. 1948 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia. 1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs. 1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87 of the 115 people on board. 1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom. 1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight. 1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 249 kilometres per hour (155 mph) on their New York Division, also present-day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. 1973 – Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco. 1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines. 1984 – Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head." 1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day. 1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official). 1989 – The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega. 1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina. 1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia. 1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board. 1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal. 2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history. 2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days. 2007 – The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. Both will be recovered a few weeks later. 2019 – The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

[kristenswig]

Picture

The Power of the Dog

Belfast

West Side Story

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

Coda

Don't Look Up

Tick Tick Boom

The Tragedy of Macbeth I think the international contingent makes up enough of the directors branch to make a nomination happen there but not in the academy at large - Drive My Car not feeling the energy not feeling the passion - Being the Ricardos 1 nomination or 8 - Nightmare Alley Probably needed PGA - House of Gucci I tried - The Lost Daughter

Director

Jane Campion - The Power of the Dog

Denis Villeneuve - Dune

Paul Thomas Anderson - Licorice Pizza

Ryusuke Hamaguchi - Drive My Car

Steven Spielberg - West Side Story There's really no flavor to this - Kenneth Branagh - Belfast HoW dO YoU nOmInAtE a MoViE fOr BeSt PiCtUrE bUt NoT bEsT dIrEcTor?- Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth, Guillermo del Toro - Nightmare Alley, Adam McKay - Don't Look Up, Sian Heder - Coda, Lin Manuel Miranda - Tick Tick Boom, Reinaldo Marcus Green - King Richard

Actress

Lady Gaga - House of Gucci

Nicole Kidman - Being the Ricardos

Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter

Alana Haim - Licorice Pizza

Kristen Stewart - Spencer This is the only category I'm allowing myself to be delusional about - Jessica Chastain - The Eyes of Tammy Faye don't make me watch this 2.5 hour movie - Jennifer Hudson - Respect This is one of those things that you have to release so people can see it- Renate Reinsve - The Worst Person in the World ""surging"" - Penelope Cruz - Parallel Mothers These women having a mid-off - Rachel Zegler - West Side Story, Emilia Jones - Coda

Actor

Will Smith - King Richard

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog

Andrew Garfield - Tick Tick Boom

Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth

Leonardo DiCaprio - Don't Look Up Coin toss but I think Leo was top 2 at BAFTA - Javier Bardem - Being the Ricardos Fake movie - Peter Dinklage - Cyrano REAL movie - Mahershala Ali - Swan Song

Supporting Actress

Ariana DeBose - West Side Story

Caitriona Balfe - Belfast

Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog

Aunjanue Ellis - King Richard

Ruth Negga - Passing Former alleged frontrunners - Ann Dowd - Mass, Marlee Matlin - Coda Let's go let's go let's go! - Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter Someone lied to her several times - Rita Moreno - West Side Story She done already done had herses - Cate Blanchett - Nightmare Alley

Supporting Actor

Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog

Troy Kotsur - Coda

Ciaran Hinds - Belfast

Jared Leto - House of Gucci

Bradley Cooper - Licorice Pizza Another coin toss but LP is overperforming - Ben Affleck - The Tender Bar The time has come for you to lip sync for your life - Jamie Dornan - Belfast, Mike Faist - West Side Story Pump up that nomination tally! - Jesse Plemons - The Power of the Dog

Adapted Screenplay

The Power of the Dog

Coda

The Lost Daughter

West Side Story

Dune See above re: Best Picture - Drive My Car Writing! - Tick Tick Boom They're just gonna think it was a copy paste situation - The Tragedy of Macbeth When you do circus clownery - Nightmare Alley Let's do it baby I know the law - Passing

I Don't Want to Talk About This Category

Belfast

Licorice Pizza

Don't Look Up

Being the Ricardos

King Richard don't want to talk about this either - The French Dispatch We can't afford good movies this year - C'mon C'mon, A Hero, The Worst Person in the World These people nominated 1917 over Pain and Glory - Parallel Mothers Good luck with that independent spirit you speak of - Mass

Cinematography

Dune

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Belfast

West Side Story ????? - Nightmare Alley That's all but here's some more just for fun - Passing, The Green Knight, Spencer, Licorice Pizza

Costume Design

Cruella

Dune

House of Gucci

Nightmare Alley

West Side Story You can absolutely get nominated in this category if you show them the trailer enough times - Cyrano SandraBullockWell.jpg - Spencer Old maiden type of shoes - The French Dispatch They are wont to choose chaos - Coming 2 America I KNOW they watched it - The Green Knight Bitch get up - The Power of the Dog

Film Editing

Dune

The Power of the Dog

Licorice Pizza

Don't Look Up

Belfast uhhh - West Side Story uhhhhhh - Tick Tick Boom This category got out of hand very quickly - No Time to Die

Makeup & Hairstyling

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

House of Gucci

Coming 2 America

Cruella

Dune Not falling for this again - The Suicide Squad That sizzle reel! - Cyrano Why is everyone predicting this what am I missing - West Side Story Nightmare- Alley Who’s after Peppermint - No Time to Die

Production Design

Dune

Nightmare Alley

West Side Story

The French Dispatch

The Tragedy of Macbeth They do tend to avoid Disneyfication in this category - Cruella Guild nominee? - Licorice Pizza Just give me one thing - The Green Knight THIS is the western they're choosing to ignore? - The Power of the Dog Enough - Cyrano They literally admitted that they didn't finish the soundstage - Belfast

Score

Dune

The Power of the Dog

The French Dispatch

Don't Look Up

Being the Ricardos They don't really do Disney musicals here anymore do they - Encanto RIP ily - Spencer Alberto fuckin up those strings! - Parallel Mothers Please be quiet I'm praying - The Green Knight

Song

No Time to Die

Encanto

Don't Look Up

King Richard

Annette (from the people who brought you Eurovision's nomination) Delete the entire category - Belfast, Respect, The Harder they Fall Obligatory Documentary Song - Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road Not Diane Warren thinking Glenn Close would be her good luck charm - Four Good Days

Sound

Dune

No Time to Die

West Side Story

A Quiet Place Part II

The Power of the Dog They don't usually do superheroes here - Spiderman Can somebody turn that down - Belfast Shut up - Tick Tick Boom Spoiler? - The Matrix SHUT UP - Last Night in Soho

Visual Effects

Dune

The Matrix

Godzilla vs. Kong

Shang-Chi

Spiderman I don't understand why this would be the movie they start nominating this series for - No Time to Die We’ve been in touch with the doctor - Free Guy That's enough Marvel for one day - Eternals Annual bullshit - Ghostbusters GO TO SLEEP - Black Widow

Animated Feature

Encanto

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Flee

Raya and the Last Dragon

Belle Congrats on those Disney+ streams! - Luca Everywhere for some reason - Sing 2

Documentary

Attica

Ascension

The Rescue

Flee (if any of the three specialty categories doesn't nominate it it's this one)

Summer of Soul (is this the frontrunner snub) Sometimes they go arthouse - Procession, Faya Dayi Throwing darts blindfolded here - The Velvet Underground, In the Same Breath, The First Wave These bitches need to give it a rest - Julia

International

Drive My Car

The Worst Person in the World

The Hand of God (don't do this)

A Hero (don't not do this)

Flee Oh that's right divas! - Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom Snatch those wigs! - Compartment No.6 Cause it's getting hunty up in here! - Prayers for the Stolen Fierce! - I'm Your Man Werk! - Great Freedom Hunty! - The Good Boss

Stages of Grief

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1887 – Birth of trade unionist and revolutionary, Winifred Carney, in Bangor, Co Down.

#OTD in 1887 – Birth of trade unionist and revolutionary, Winifred Carney, in Bangor, Co Down.

Close to the entrance of Milltown Cemetery is a limestone monument which marks the grave of a remarkable woman – Maria Winifred Carney. Winnie was born in Bangor, Co Down, but moved to the Falls Road in Belfast at an early age. She was born into a fairly comfortable family, and was one of seven children. Her mother and father Alfred and Sarah, were estranged, therefore, Sarah, was left to rear…

[brian-in-finance]

Casting Society of America 2022 Artios Awards nominations: ‘Belfast,’ ‘CODA,’ ‘Power of the Dog’

Apple+ TV; Rob Youngson/Focus Features; Kristy Griffin/Netflix

The casting branch of the academy is only eight years old and doesn’t have an Oscar category of its own. However, the Casting Society of America has been handing out the Artios Awards for 37 years (“Artios” is from the ancient Greek meaning “perfectly fitted.”).

Nominees for feature films were announced on February 1 (the last day of Oscar nominations voting). Many of the leading Academy Awards contenders reaped bids across the various categories according to production cost. Winners will be revealed a virtual ceremony on March 17, which is the first day of final Oscar voting.

Last year’s big budget winners were the comedy “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and the drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7 ” while “The Forty-Year-Old Version” and “One Night in Miami” took the equivalent prizes in the independent division. “Minari” won the low budget and “The Surrogate” the micro budget prizes while “Soul” claimed the animation award

Big Budget – Comedy

“Cruella”

Mary Vernieu, Lucy Bevan, Bret Howe (Associate), Emily Brockmann (Associate), Olivia Grant (Associate)

“Don’t Look Up”

Francine Maisler, Kathy Driscoll-Mohler (Additional Casting), Carolyn Pickman (Location Casting), Matt Bouldry (Location Casting), Kyle Crand (Location Casting), Molly Rose (Associate)

“The French Dispatchh”

Douglas Aibel, Matthew Glasner (Associate)

“In the Heights”

Bernard Telsey, Tiffany Little Canfield, Kristian Charbonier (Associate)

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings”

Sarah Halley Finn, Amanda Mitchell (Location Casting), PoPing AuYeung (Location Casting), Molly Doyle (Associate)

Big Budget – Drama

“The House of Gucci”

Kate Rhodes-James

“King Richard”

Rich Delia, Avy Kaufman, Adam Richards (Associate), Scotty Anderson (Associate)

“The Power of the Dog”

Nikki Barrett, Carmen Cuba, Nina Gold, Martin Ware (Associate)

“tick, tick … BOOM!”

Debra Zane, Bernard Telsey, Kristian Charbonier AuYeung (Chinese Casting Consultant), Dylan Jury (Associate)

“West Side Story”

Cindy Tolan, Nicholas Petrovich (Associate)

Studio or Independent – Comedy

“Best Sellers”

Pam Dixon, Andrea Kenyon, Randi Wells

“The Tender Bar”

Rachel Tenner, Bess Fifer (Location Casting), Carolyn Pickman (Location Casting), Rick Messina (Associate)

“This Game’s Called Murder”

Meg Morman, Sunday Boling

“Zola”

Kim Taylor-Coleman

Studio or Independent – Drama

“Belfast”

Lucy Bevan, Emily Brockmann, Carla Stronge (Location Casting)

“CODA”

Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood, Lisa Zagoria, Angela Peri (Location Casting), Lisa Lobel (Location Casting), Melissa Morris (Associate)

“The Lost Daughter”

Kahleen Crawford

“Passing”

Laura Rosenthal, Kimberly Ostroy

“The Hand of God”

Annamaria Sambucco

Low Budget – Comedy or Drama

“Blue Bayou”

Marisol Roncali, Chelsea Ellis Bloch, Matthew Morgan (Location Casting)

“The Humans”

Ellen Chenoweth, Susanne Scheel (Associate)

“The Novice”

Matthew Lessell, Nicole Hilliard-Forde

“Together Together”

Richard Hicks, Leslie Wasserman

Violet”

Orly Sitowitz, Stacey Pianko

“We Broke Up”

Amanda Lenker Doyle, Chrissy Fiorilli-Ellington

Micro Budget – Comedy or Drama

“Dramarama”

Meg Morman, Sunday Boling

“The Outside Story”

Stephanie Holbrook

“Shiva Baby”

Kate Geller

“The Subject”

Destiny Lilly

“Swan Song”

Eve Battaglia, Lina Todd, Angela Boehm (Location Casting)

Animation

“Encanto

Jamie Sparer Roberts, Grace C. Kim (Associate)

“Luca”

Kevin Reher, Natalie Lyon, Kate Hansen-Birnbaum (Associate)

“The Mitchells vs. the Machines:

Tamara Hunter

“Raya and the Last Dragon”

Jamie Sparer Roberts, Grace C. Kim (Associate)

“Vivo”

Tamara Hunter

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2022/casting-society-of-america-2022-artios-awards-nominations/

Remember… the Casting Society of America has been handing out the Artios Awards for 37 years (“Artios” is from the ancient Greek meaning “perfectly fitted.”). — Gold Derby

[pop-punklouis]

hi hope! i saw that you’re really big into film and tv. do you have any tv shows you could rec? i need something new to watch.

hiya grey! and of course. i always have tv shows on hand to rec

• Dark (3 Seasons)

When two children go missing in a small German town, its sinful past is exposed along with the double lives and fractured relationships that exist among four families as they search for the kids. The mystery-drama series introduces an intricate puzzle filled with twists that includes a web of curious characters, all of whom have a connection to the town's troubled history -- whether they know it or not. The story includes supernatural elements that tie back to the same town in 1986.

• Portlandia (8 Seasons)

this absurdist series set in Portland, Ore., that gently pokes fun at the laid-back Pacific Northwest city and the many eccentric characters that call it home. Among the many recurring guest stars on the series are Ed Begley Jr., Jeff Goldblum, Natasha Lyonne, Kumail Nanjiani and Kyle MacLachlan, who plays Portlandia's mayor.

• Parfum (limited series)

When a woman is found murdered with scent glands excised from her body, a detective probes a group of friends who attended boarding school with her.

• Trinkets (2 Seasons)

A grieving teenager finds an unexpected connection with two classmates at her new high school when they all land in the same Shoplifters Anonymous group.

• Fleabag (2 Seasons)

A dry-witted woman, known only as Fleabag, has no filter as she navigates life and love in London while trying to cope with tragedy. The angry, grief-riddled woman tries to heal while rejecting anyone who tries to help her, but Fleabag continues to keep up her bravado through it all.

• I Know This Much is True (limited series)

Middle-aged Dominick Birdsey recounts his troubled relationship with Thomas, his paranoid schizophrenic twin brother, and his efforts to get him released from an asylum. (Mark Ruffalo’s best performance to date)

��� The Vow (limited series)

Following the experiences of people deeply involved in the self-improvement group NXIVM, an organization under siege with charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy brought against its highest members and founder Keith Raniere

• The Outsider (limited series)

Based on Stephen King's best-selling novel of the same name, "The Outsider" begins by following an investigation which at first seems like it will be simple and straightforward but things change as it leads into the gruesome murder of a young boy by a seasoned cop. When an insidious supernatural force edges its way into the case, it leads the investigators to question everything they believe in.

• Peaky Blinders (5 Seasons)

Britain is a mixture of despair and hedonism in 1919 in the aftermath of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly minted revolutions and criminal gangs are fighting for survival in a nation rocked by economic upheaval. One of the most powerful gangs of the time is the Peaky Blinders, run by returning war hero Thomas Shelby and his family. But Thomas has bigger ambitions than just running the streets. When a crate of guns goes missing, he recognizes an opportunity to advance in the world because crime may pay but legitimate business pays better. Trying to rid Britain of its crime is Inspector Chester Campbell, who arrives from Belfast to try to achieve that goal.

• Schitts Creek (6 Seasons)

a wealthy couple -- video store magnate Johnny and his soap opera star wife Moira -- suddenly find themselves completely broke. With only one remaining asset, a small town called Schitt's Creek, which the Roses bought years earlier as a joke, this once-wealthy couple must give up life as they know it. With their two spoiled children in tow and their pampered lives behind them, the Rose family is forced to face their newfound poverty head-on and come together as a family to survive.

• Mindhunter (2 Seasons)

Catching a criminal often requires the authorities to get inside the villain's mind to figure out how he thinks. That's the job of FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench. They attempt to understand and catch serial killers by studying their damaged psyches. Along the way, the agents pioneer the development of modern serial-killer profiling.

• Mr. Robot (4 Seasons)

Young, anti-social computer programmer Elliot works as a cybersecurity engineer during the day, but at night he is a vigilante hacker. He is recruited by the mysterious leader of an underground group of hackers to join their organization. Elliot's task? Help bring down corporate America, including the company he is paid to protect, which presents him with a moral dilemma. Although he works for a corporation, his personal beliefs make it hard to resist the urge to take down the heads of multinational companies that he believes are running -- and ruining -- the world.

• Dark Tourist (1 Season)

Journalist David Farrier focuses on that area of travel, known as dark tourism, in this docuseries. In each episode, Farrier travels to a different locale to visit destinations and have experiences that wouldn't be on most vacationers' bucket lists. He embeds himself in a death-worshipping cult in Mexico, sees tourists soaking up radiation left behind in Fukushima, meets vampires in New Orleans, and travels to the most-nuked place on Earth for atomic swimming and fishing.

• Maniac (Limited Series)

Annie Landsberg and Owen Milgrim are two strangers who are drawn to the late stages of a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. Each has a different reason for participating in the experiment -- she is disaffected and aimless, fixated on broken relationships with her mother and sister, while he has struggled throughout his life with a disputed diagnosis of schizophrenia. The radical treatment, using pills that the inventor claims can repair anything about the mind, draws Annie, Owen and 10 other subjects into a three-day drug trial that they're told will permanently solve all of their problems, with no complications or side effects. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned.

• The Witcher (2 Seasons)

The witcher Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

• Living with Yourself (Limited Series)

A man who's burned out on life and love undergoes a mysterious treatment, only to find that he's been replaced by a better version of himself.

• The Society (cancelled after one season unfortunately)

The Society follows a group of teenagers who are mysteriously transported to a facsimile of their wealthy New England town, left without any trace of their parents. As they struggle to figure out what has happened to them and how to get home, they must establish order and form alliances if they want to survive. The series is a modern take on Lord of the Flies.

• I Am Not Okay With This (1 Season)

I Am Not Okay With This is an irreverent origin story that follows a teenage girl who's navigating the trials and tribulations of high school, all while dealing with the complexities of her family, her budding sexuality, and mysterious superpowers just beginning to awaken deep within her.

• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (1 Season)

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance returns to the world of Thra with an all new adventure. When three Gelfling discover the horrifying secret behind the Skeksis' power, they set out on an epic journey to ignite the fires of rebellion and save their world.

• Grace and Frankie (6 Seasons)

Two nemeses become bonded jilted wives after their husbands reveal they have been having an affair with each other since the 1990s and now plan to get married.

• Special (1 Season)

A young gay man with cerebral palsy branches out from his insular existence in hopes of finally going after the life he wants.

• Russian Doll (1 Season)

Russian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City.

• American Vandal (2 Seasons)

American Vandal is a half-hour true-crime satire that explores the aftermath of a costly high school prank that left twenty-seven faculty cars vandalized with phallic images. Over the course of the eight-episode season, an aspiring sophomore documentarian investigates the controversial and potentially unjust expulsion of troubled senior (and known dick-drawer) Dylan Maxwell. Not unlike its now iconic true-crime predecessors, the addictive American Vandal will leave one question on everyone's minds until the very end: Who drew the dicks?

• Immigration Nation (1 Season)

A rare and expansive look into the consequences of unfettered power, Immigration Nation is a powerful, harrowing indictment of the current state of American immigration.

[paralleljulieverse]

LILI IN LONDON: Darling Lili Makes Her European Bow

Fifty years ago this week, Darling Lili had its official European Premiere at the Plaza Cinema in London on 1 October, 1970. It wasn’t the film’s first international release -- that honour fell to Japan, where Darling Lili opened at the Cinerama Theatre Tokyo on 4 July, barely two weeks after the film’s US opening. However, the London premiere was a significant occasion in the film’s wider global rollout. It was, after all, Julie Andrews’ hometown and there was considerable hope local audiences would give the film a warmer reception than had been the case in North America. 

Accordingly, the UK branch of Paramount Pictures afforded Darling Lili a high profile release. They exhibited the film as a full roadshow attraction, complete with widescreen 70mm print, overture and exit music, and a 24-page souvenir programme (Klar 1970). In keeping with the era’s norms of variegated international film marketing, completely new promotional artwork was commissioned for the UK release. Featuring a central image of Julie/Lili bursting into song with her arms outstretched -- a clear nod to The Sound of Music -- with a cloudburst of narrative scenes from the film fanning across the bottom of her billowing skirt, it was an arresting design that served as a ready-made marketing logo for the campaign that could be emblazoned across the full range of advertising and merchandising (Paramount 1970).

The gala premiere took place on Thursday, 1 October -- Julie’s 35th birthday, incidentally — at the Plaza Cinema in Lower Regent Street, just off Piccadilly Circus. Popularly dubbed the “Home of Paramount Pictures”, the Plaza had long been the London venue of choice for the studio’s biggest film premieres (Eyles, 26-28). Though not an official Royal Performance, the European Premiere of Darling Lili was a major society charity event with proceeds going to the Printer’s Pension Corporation, one of the oldest royally-sponsored occupational charities in the UK. Tickets were available from £1 to £5 in the stalls and £10 to £20 in the Circle with the event raising over £6000 for the charity (”Darling Lili Aids”, 12).

Official patrons of the Printer’s Pension Corporation, Lord and Lady Hartwell presided over the evening, welcoming a line of society notables and assorted local celebrities including Sue Lloyd, Judy Geeson, Clodagh Rogers and Julie Ege (“Darling Lili Has”, 32).  Neither Julie nor Blake was able to make the premiere, though Julie’s parents were in attendance as honorary guests. Representing the cast, Lance Percival, who plays the comic support role of T.C. Carstairs in the film, “arrived at the Plaza in a vintage white Rolls Royce driven by a female chauffeur” (ibid.). Press reports noted that the “premiere drew large numbers of films fans to the theatre” and “the capacity audience...repeatedly applauded during the presentation of the film” (ibid.)

Following the premiere, Darling Lili opened the next day on 2 October to the general public. In a way that paralleled the experience at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the decision to stage the film as a special event prestige picture worked well. Lili ran in roadshow release at the Plaza for over three months till 6 January 1971. It then continued to play in general release at various venues throughout London such as the ABC Cinema-Edgeware Rd well into late-1971. 

Critical responses to Darling Lili in the London press ran the gamut. The film garnered several positive notices. Patrick Gibbs of the Daily Telegraph rated it “a very amiable and romantic comedy-thriller” (P14). The film “offers many pleasures,” declared the Daily Mail, with “Miss Andrews singing, dancing, delighting...with some very pretty songs...and amusing performances” (Cable, 9). The critic for the Evening Post opined:

“It is fashionable to sneer at Julie Andrews’ films as being sickly-sweet and 20 years out of date--but I can only say I enjoyed this one...Darling Lili  is an enjoyable, emotional, light-hearted love story with a strong comedy element” (Watson, 7).

Other reviewers were less enthusiastic. The critic for the Daily Mirror was unsure “what kind of film Darling Lili was supposed to be”:

“Taken as a spy send-up, it’s harmless enough and drags only occasionally, but the comedy doesn’t always blend with the drama. The ending...is a cloyingly sentimental cop-out and a shade nauseating” (Richards, 19).

More than a few UK commentators baulked at the film’s irreverent treatment of World War 1--perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous significance of the “Great War” to British history and national mythology. The critic for The Tablet, for example, called the film “a monstrous betrayal of the period.” Its “trivialisation of the issues is outrageous...I have no doubt it will be popular, but it shouldn’t be.” Still, he conceded, the film’s “photography...is very pretty and Miss Andrews’s voice is as pure as ever” (Burke, 959). 

Critical concessions to “our Julie” were a notable feature of many London reviews. The all-important Times review declared:

“I wish I could like Darling Lili more. I love musicals and remain unrepentantly devoted to Julie Andrews, but this lavish new vehicle for her talents is the most upsetting sort of misfire--the sort which could so easily have been put right, with a little more thought (or a little less worry), a little more confidence in hitting the right tone and sticking to it...a disappointing waste of all the talent and money so evidently lavished on it” (Taylor, 13)

It was a sentiment echoed in The Illustrated London News:

“Miss Andrews sings well, acts decently, and even does a strip number that reveals a new side to her talent as well as a gorgeous, long-concealed, pair of legs. But, alas, not even she can save this ponderous film with its strange blend of old-and-new songs, its heavyweight prankishness, and its inordinate length” (Billington, 31).

Or again the review in The People:

“Julie has charm, grace, plus a good singing voice and Henry Mancini’s music is haunting. But the character she portrays...is hardly endearing. The story...is improbable too, even for a musical. But there are some smashing flying sequences and I like Julie’s style--so I wish it well” (Nunn, 7).

While Darling Lili opened with a splash and did decent enough business in London, it faced very different prospects elsewhere in the UK where the film became something of an inadvertent hostage in an ongoing industrial dispute. At issue was an attempt by US distributors to loosen the stranglehold and perceived old-fashioned exhibition practices of the two big regional UK chains: ABC and Odeon (“Elvin Raps”, 196; “Compromise Ends”, 24). Unable to agree on new terms, the distributors withheld several big features, including Lili, from release to these chains. As a result, Lili’s broader UK rollout was held up for months and, in some cases, years. The film didn’t get a Midlands release, for example, till April 1971 when it opened for a fixed season at the Regal Cinema in Leamington, “an independent theatre whose booking agents were able to come to terms with the distributors” (“Regal Breaks,” 2). The film then popped up intermittently at other independent theatres across the UK: Margate in September, Liverpool in October, and Belfast in January 1972. 

Many major provincial markets missed out on the film completely. In a disgruntled letter to the local newspaper in early-1972, one Birmingham fan wondered if “there is a particular antipathy to musicals in our city. We have yet to see Darling Lili (Julie Andrews) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Barbra Streisand), both of which have been shown in London” (Krober, 6). In a similar vein, a Reading filmgoer complained that his local ABC cinema was screening endless reissues while many new films “have yet to play in Reading..that are certainly worth a showing” such as “Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson in Darling Lili” (Suter, 10). 

The UK distribution dispute was eventually resolved and Darling Lili managed to make its way out to a broader range of provincial centres including Birmingham, where it opened at the Odeon in April 1973. But by this stage the film was hardly new and whatever marketing impetus was there from the London campaign had well and truly evaporated. It was an unfortunate fizzling out for what could have otherwise been an effective national release for the film. Still, UK filmgoers who missed Darling Lili in theatres didn’t have to wait too long to catch it on the small screen. It made its British television debut as the ‘Film of the Week’ on BBC-1 on 2 April 1976 (“Film of the Week”, 22).

Sources:

Billington, Michael. “Cinema: An Ode to Lost Innocence.” The Illustrated London News. 3 October 1970: 31.

Burke, J.A.V. “Darling Lili.” The Tablet. 3 October 1970: 959.

Cable, Michael. “The Sweet English Rose is Among the Guns.” Daily Mail. 30 September 1970: 9.

“Compromise Ends US Majors’ Fight Vs. UK Circuits Over Sunday Rentals.” Variety, 13 October 1971: 24.

“‘Darling Lili’ Aids Printers’ Charity.” The Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: 12.

“‘Darling Lili’ Has Glittering London Bow.” The Calgary-Herald. 10 October 1970: 32.

“Elvin Raps ‘Oldfashioned Methods’ of UK Pic Biz, Hits Chains’ Bookings.” Variety. 29 April 1970: 196.

Eyles, Allen. London's West End Cinemas. Swindon : English Heritage, 2014.

“Film of the Week: ‘Darling Lili’.” Radio Times, 1 April 1976: 22.

Gibbs, Patrick. “Films: Spying With a Song.” Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: P14.

Harmsworth, Madeleine. “New Film.” Sunday Mirror. 4 October 1970: 29.

Klar, Arthur. Darling Lili [Souvenir Book], London: National Publishers, Inc, 1970.

Krober, Kenneth S. “Letters to the Editor: Antipathy To Musicals.” Birmingham Daily Post, 7 February 1972: 6.

Mallett, Richard. “Cinema.” Punch. No. 6787, 7 October 1970: 510.

Nunn, Ray. “But Will Lili Keep ‘Em Singing?” The People. 4 October 1970: 7.

Paramount Pictures (UK). Your Promotion Guide: Darling Lili [Advertising Campaign Manual], Chiswick, 1970.

“Picture.” Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: P17.

“Regal Breaks Stranglehold.” Birmingham Daily Post. 27 April 1971: 2.

Richards, Dick. “I Spy a Send-Up.” Daily Mirror. 1 October 1970: 19.

Suter, Les. “Letters to the Editor: Old Films.” Reading Evening Post. 15 June 1972: 10.

Taylor, John Russell. “Purple Passages in Paris.” The Times. 2 October 1970: 13.

Watson, Albert. “At the Cinema: Yes, I Enjoyed Julie Andrews!” Evening Post. 10 October 1970: 7.

Copyright © Brett Farmer 2020

[lumberpond47]

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54) things you always meant to say but never got the chance

Meme: Things PromptStatus: Open

Two months. Two months since she’d been kindly asked to leave the new life she’d grown so attached to behind. Arrived at the Belfast airport. She’d lasted all of a week milling about her aunt’s spare room, before moving back to the Greenbriar Estate. There wasn’t anything for her in Belfast anymore. Nothing but haunting memories and family that had for the most part found it more convenient to pretend she didn’t exist. So she’d gone back to the first place that had felt…not heavy. Not as though she were the black sheep. Back to where she’d first tried to start over. Though her duties were not the same. No instead of tending to Her Grace, Caity cares for the creatures cherished most by her.

Days were filled with things to keep her busy. Up before dawn, breakfast and free time spent to pasture. Groomed and glossed and given saddle time. And in the evenings? Those are kept for herself. Save the ones Her Grace asked for her company. But tonight isn’t one of those nights. And Caity Buckley, finds herself perched along one of the fence posts. The fog rolling in over the moors, as the sun sunk beneath the blanketed horizon. It’s beautiful. In ways maybe only to her. As if some in bygone day she had known it differently. Known it better. But the thought drifts away in the quiet sunlight and her attention turns back to the journal in her lap. The pen removed from the front as she flips through the ink covered pages, to find the first available blank one.

1 August

It’s been two months now since I left you and the boys. And everyday where it should become easier, I find it isn’t. I still wake with my mind buzzing to remember what the boys schedule is. If you had asked something more of me. But of course a moment later I am reminded neither is of any concern to me anymore.

I feel weathered these days. Like the old oak that stands in your grandmother’s garden. Weary but still sound somehow. I suppose that’s silly. Me thinking I have much in common with a tree. But in an odd way I have found myself beneath more often than not in the evening hours this summer. Wondering if you were ever scolded for climbing into its branches. If you ever scaled to the top and felt like the king of the world for how high it must reach. I have thought to ask her Grace but I haven’t. It’s not really my place.

A pause that leaves an idle mark upon the paper. Green casting itself over the landscape again. A breath taken in and released, that is neither steady nor sound as she begins again.

I miss you. And I suppose that’s to be expected. Sharing the day to day as we did. I miss the way your children love you. I miss the way no matter how bad their day, you could bring their smiles out with not but a few words or sometimes just a look. I miss your voice. The way it carried through the house. Even the times its cause was because the children had once again robbed your shoes of every lace, in order to make a net for that troublesome small army of wee green men they had to stop from invading their castle. I miss your smile. Rare thing that it was. And I miss the way you used to look at me when you thought I couldn’t see.

I should have told you the truth that day at the airport. I should have said yes when you offered to marry me so I didn’t have to leave. But I was afraid. Afraid that you were offering for all the reasons other than the one I really wanted. Afraid because I wanted it. Afraid that I wasn’t afraid of you in the same way I have been of everyone else for so long. I should have told you that. I should have come clean. But I didn’t. And now this is what I am left with. Writing letters to you everyday. Ones I’ll never send. A tragedy all its own really.

She stops again. A hand that lifts to wipe away pooled tears.

I love you, Lugh Sweeney. I should have told you that every day from the moment I knew. I love you, because of who you. I love you because underneath that thick shell of yours you are sweet, and kind and all things anyone would be lucky to find in a lover. I love you, because while Her Grace rescued me, you saved me. You and your children. I just wish I could have returned the favor, instead of mucking everything up.

In Confidence,

Caity Buckley