#years active 1925-38

[dd20century]

A.M. Cassandre: Master of the Twentieth Century Poster

“Designing a poster means solving a technical and commercial problem….in a language that can be understood by the common man”. --

Before A.M. Cassandre

A.M. Cassandre was one of Twentieth Century Europe’s most influential graphic designers and illustrators. Born on January 24, 1901, as Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron to French parents living at the time in Kharkov, Ukraine. (1) “He spent his childhood years living and roaming between Russia and France, before he finally moved to Paris with his parents in 1915” (2) due to the political unrest in Ukraine at the time. (3) As a young man in Paris Cassandre studied at  École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian. (1)

Portrait of A. M. Cassandre (c. 1930). Photographer unknown. Image source.

Cassandre’s Early Career

In Paris during the 1910s, advertising posters were extraordinarily popular, and Cassandre had no trouble finding employment with a poster printer. While the designer took his inspiration from Cubism and Surrealism which were the predominant artistic movements of the period, he was a leader in the Art Deco movement, which is “characterized by the use of angular, symmetrical geometric forms’ and adulation of the modern machine. It was during the early 1920s that the designer began signing his posters as “Cassandre”. (2)

Cassandre’s posters were so successful that he was able to open his own design house in 1922, but the poster that made him famous was created several years later in 1925. The “Au Bucheron” poster created for a cabinet maker won first prize at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes and was widely reprinted. (2)

A. M. Cassandre, Au Bucheron (1925). Image source.

Cassandre’s Design Philosophy

In the late 1920s Cassandre “set up his own advertising agency called Alliance Graphique, serving a wide variety of clients” (1). Best known of those are Dubonnet and  Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. (1) Cassandre designed his posters so that they could be easily seen and understood from moving vehicles, using only capital letters in his posters as he believed them to be easier read from a distance. (3) “He … [initiated] the concept of the Serial Poster – a group of posters that conveys a whole interesting idea through rapid succession” (2).

A. M. Cassandre, poster for Dubonnet, (1932). Image source.

Cassandre as Type Designer and Innovator

He was also an innovator and master in the use of airbrush techniques.  Cassandre developed several famous typefaces: Acer Noir in 1935, and “Peignot, which was successfully exhibited at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris” (2). For Cassandre, “type does not exist on its own, but is integrated with the image to create the unified concept of the design”(3). The Peignot typeface experienced a revival during the 1970s, when it was used for titles on several popular movies and television programs including “The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and its production company, MTM Enterprises)” (4). 

A. M. Cassandre, Peignot font ,(1937). Image source.

Cassandre’s Interests Beyond Poster Design

During the 1930s Cassandre not only “taught graphic design at the École des Arts Décoratifs and then at the École d'Art Graphique” (1) but became active in designing theatre sets and costumes. (2) In 1936, his works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. (1) The attention from the exhibition garnered Cassandre’s firm work designing covers for Harper's Bazaar in New York City. (2)

A. M. Cassandre, Cover for Harper's Bazaar (October, 1939). Image Source.

Cassandre’s Life During World War II

World War II had a dramatic effect on Cassandre’s life and a disastrous effect on his career. Just before the war he divorced his wife whom he married in 1924. At the age of 38, he joined the French Army and served until the fall of France after which he was demobilized. He lost his business and never again achieved the success he had prior to the war. (1)

Cassandre in the late 1940s and 1950s

After the war, Cassandre found work designing for the theater. During the remainder of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s, he worked with several Parisian fashion houses of his career most notably Hermès and Yves Saint Laurent. Cassandre designed scarves for Hermès and advertisements and posters for Yves Saint Laurent. (1,3) In addition, he was responsible for the iconic Yves Saint Laurent logo that is still in use today. (3)

In the late 1950s Cassandre turned down an offer to become “director of the French Arts Academy at the Villa Medici in Rome” (3). He left his home in Paris and moved to the French countryside where he had hoped to design and build his own home and establish “a world-class art institute” (3). Unfortunately, those ambitions were never realized as Cassandre continued to battle depression. After two years in the country, he returned to Paris. (2)

A. M. Cassandre, Logo for designer Yves Saint Laurent (c. 1958). Image source.

Cassandre’s Tragic End

In 1967 Cassandre’s depression caused him to attempt suicide. Sadly, his second attempt on June 17, 1968 was successful; Cassandre took his own life in his apartment. (2)

A. M. Cassandre’s Work in Books and Museums

A book on Cassandre’s work, The Poster Art of A. M. Cassandre was published in 1979, and Cassandre’s son, Henri Mouron published a study of his father's work in 1985.  In 2012, A.M. Cassandre’s work appeared in the “Shaping Modernity: Design 1880–1980" exhibition at MoMA. (2)

 In 2024 Cassandre’s posters were included in a show "Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde”  at Poster House in New York City. (1) In addition to the collections at MoMa is work can be found in Paris at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum; and in Japan at the Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art.

Cassandre’s Legacy

A. M. Cassandre will be remembered for his iconic Art Deco posters, which celebrated luxury transport and modern machine technology of his time. He’ll also be remembered for helping to establish graphic design as a distinct professional discipline (3) and for the “belief that design should effectively communicate ideas, laid the groundwork for modern graphic design principles” (5).

References

Wikipedia. com, (22 May, 2024). Cassandre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandre

Retrographik.com, (n.d). A.M Cassandre, The Legendary Art Deco Poster Artist. https://retrographik.com/a-m-cassandre-art-deco-poster-artist/

Artyfactory.com, (n.d.). A. M. Cassandre (1901-1968). https://www.artyfactory.com/graphic_design/graphic_designers/cassandre.htm

Wikipedia. com, (31 March, 2024). Peignot (typeface)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peignot_(typeface)

Scottishschools.info, (n.d.). Graphic Designer A.M Cassandre Facts. http://www.scottishschools.info/Websites/SchSecWhitehill/UserFiles/file/Higher%20Art%20Homework/Graphic%20designer%20AM%20Cassandre%20facts.pdf

[clarabowlover]

Happy Birthday To Stunning American Silent Actress Louise Brooks

(Born 14th November 1906)

[snowdice]

Folds in Paper (Chapter 2: Green Light)[Folds in Time Universe]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus/Patton, Remus & Roman, eventual Logan/Virgil (maybe more)

Characters:

Main: Janus, Patton, Remus

Appear: Remy, Emile, Virgil, Logan, Roman

Summary: Janus, a disillusioned senior agent working for the Time Preservation Initiative, struggles to find meaning in a world where time travel could change everything about your life’s history in less than a moment. When time distortions start popping up, threatening the timeline and the fabric of reality as he knows it, it becomes a race against the clock to fix the damage before everything unravels. And the problem with time travel… you never how long you have before the clock strikes 12 and your time is up.

With a partner who has more mysteries in his past than Janus had anticipated and an enigmatic free agent time traveler mucking about time always with a clever pun or a time appropriate pet name on his lips, Janus will need to figure out what went wrong with time, and more importantly, how to fix it.

Notes: Time travel AU, mystery, enemies to lovers, alcohol

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to-morrow we will run farther, stretch out our arms farther…” (F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gastby)

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

Part 1

The morning was just as torturous as Janus had expected it would be. He chewed through another pop-tart, this time bothering to actually check and see that it was a cinnamon-sugar one and drank three cups of caffeinated orange juice. Then, he waved his hand through the air and selected the first saved location on his device. He popped up directly behind his desk where he’d been standing the night morning before.

Someone, probably Remus, had shut his integrator down. He swiped a finger across the power button, and it flickered back on, scrolling through its morning start up routine.

The machine scanned through all of the data in the three main system it was connected to and sorted all information into things that concerned him, could concern him, and did not before then sorting the first two categories into order of importance. As it did, he set up his screen reader so he would hopefully not start the day with more of a migraine than he already had. It took about 3 seconds for everything to turn on and settle.

Sitting down in his desk, he dismissed the notification that Remus had finished and submitted the report from their mission the day before, before looking through the next things on his list. A mission had been scheduled for him today, and the details were in his inbox. A piece of time travel technology had been accidently dropped by an archology student in the 1890s during a trip. It was an earlier model of emergency time travel given to time travelers that would dump them back into the Registration Office in the year they originated. It wasn’t extremely dangerous, but could pose some problems, especially if someone who didn’t know what it was activated it.

Surveillance agents had tracked it down and found that it had been picked up by a local and sold. Though no one from that time had known what it was, they had identified that it was made out of a precious metal and it had been crafted into an expensive necklace. Janus and Remus were supposed to retrieve it today. It had been pinpointed that the most opportune time for the extraction was 1923 during a masquerade ball held by those who had bought the necklace. It was a fairly low stakes mission.

He wasn’t set to leave for another couple of hours, so he clicked through the rest of the important notifications and then set off to meet his missions coordinator, Rhi, in her office.

Rhi and Janus got along fairly well. She was a well put together woman who took her job incredibly seriously. It was fair as her job was to organize all information and materials from every other department and make sure the agents she was assigned to got and understood all of it. A mistake from her could lead to an agent’s death or something far worse.

This, of course, made her relationship with Remus… interesting to say the least. Janus could never place whether they were nemesis, frenemies, or mortal enemies, and he doubted he would ever know.

“Okay, but it’s the 1920s America,” Remus was already in her office arguing when Janus arrived. “There were so many gangsters! I could be a gangster. I would make a fantastic gangster! Just give me a gun, a snazzy suit with a white hat, and a buttload of alcohol. I will be running Chicago with Al Capone in five minutes.”

“Al Capone didn’t become a crime boss until 1925 and you are going to 1923,” Rhi said, sounding bored, “you aren’t going to Chicago, and as I have already stated, your cover is already decided.”

“But-”

“It is nonnegotiable, Agent Clockson,” she said firmly. Remus pouted, but seemingly accepted his fate.

“May I come in?” Janus asked.

“Please do,” Rhi said. “You have been to the 1920s before, correct?” she asked Janus.

“Yes ma’am.”

She tapped the screen on her desk in response. “In the last two years?”

“About two months ago,” he responded. She tapped something else.

“Any blacks, reds, or yellows?” she asked.

“All green.”

“Great. Do you need a refresher course on basic cultural or linguistic procedures?”

“No.”

She pushed one more thing and then swiped the check-in document over to him. He glanced at the report stating he’d had no incidents of any level the last time he visited the 1920s and had opted out of the optional refresher course, and then pressed his finger against the screen to sign it with his fingerprint.

The document returned to her side of the desk automatically. “Okay,” she said swiping another document from her left over to be in front of her. She twisted her wrist to copy it and slid copies to Janus and Remus. “Here are exact details on the time, place, and event you are going to, as well as details about your cover.” Janus scrolled through his quickly. It wasn’t as detailed as some he’d had considering this was a brief in-and-out mission, but he still took care to memorize everything on the page.

As he and Remus read through their things, Rhi got to her feet and turned to the storage compartments behind her desk.

She grabbed out two packages and when they’d both signed that they’d read and understood the paperwork, she slid them across the desk to them. “These have everything you need,” she said. “Clothes, money, and an invitation to the party you’re off to attend. You are to get changed now, have a last check in with costuming to make sure everything is in order, and then report to decontamination in 23 minutes. You’re set to leave in 38 minutes. Any questions?”

“How much-?” Remus started.

“None, agent,” Rhi said.

“But-”

“No alcohol,” Rhi said. “It is the prohibition era in the United States anyway.”

“Like there’s not going to be alcohol at the rich people party,” Remus said sullenly.

She pressed her lips together. “It is an in-and-out mission,” she said to both of them, and then turned to glare at Remus. “Do not get arrested.”

“I don’t know,” Remus said joyfully. “I think I still have room for a 1920s mug shot on my wall.”

“Behave,” she said, “or I’ll report you for the cat you smuggled in from the 1800s.”

“You’d never,” Remus said. “You enjoy the cute pictures of Diesel Fuel I send you every day too much, and you know it!”

“Just… don’t get arrested.” She turned to Janus. “Don’t let him get arrested.”

“I’ll do my best,” Janus promised, standing. “Now come on, Remus, we need to get changed.”

“You just want to see me naked,” Remus replied with a wink, but he did stand.

“If I see you naked one more time in my life Remus, my eyeballs will fall out of their sockets,” Janus said, waving to Rhi as he pulled Remus out of the door.

“Kinky.”

Janus’s eyeballs almost did fall out right then and there with how hard he rolled them.

They got changed quickly, Remus complaining and saying if he couldn’t dress like a gangster, he should at least be allowed to wear a flapper dress. Janus had long ago learned to ignore his ramblings. He did seem enthused about the included mask for the masquerade. It was a silver fox shaped mask with green accents that reminded Janus of the Egyptian God Anubis.

Janus’s own mask, on the other hand, was only designed to take up the left half of his face. It was mostly golden with a black swirled design. Attached to the side, there was a plume of golden tipped white feathers. He had to give it to the costuming department, they did have good taste.

Once they were both dressed, they were poked and prodded by one of the costumers to make sure everything was accurate, fit right, and had been put on correctly.

After that, they went to the decontamination area to have themselves and everything they were taking with them sterilized so they didn’t accidently take any pathogens to the 1920s. They also received an oral vaccination to be sure they didn’t pick up anything from the 1920s and bring it back.

Then they were ready to go. The correct time-space coordinates had already been sent to their timepieces. With a push of a button, they were off.

Want to read more? Click below!

AO3 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

[meinkampfortzone]

Third Reich Biographies: SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Waldemar Hoven (Part One)

One of the concentration camp doctors that fascinated me was Waldemar Hoven. He was one of the doctors at KZ Buchenwald along with Erwin Ding-Schuler and Joachim Mrugowsky. Hoven was convicted at the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial and hanged at Landsberg Prison in 1947. 

Waldemar Hoven was born in 1903 in Freiburg am Breisgau to Peter J.M. Hoven and Carola Hoven. His father had been a professional soldier and he left the army in 1902 with the rank of deputy sergeant to become a postal secretary. In 1910 Hoven’s parents built a luxury sanatorium in a district that became known as the Villa Hoven.

In 1917 (so when he was about 14 years old) Hoven attended a boarding school in the Black Forest area in Germany that was also attended by a lot of foreign students. It was probably this that inspired him in 1919 to leave school and leave Germany to live in Sweden and Denmark. He even lived for a time with a German family on a farm in Minnesota, USA, where he worked as a farmer. He also worked as a movie extra in Hollywood during his time in the USA as well. 

In 1925 Hoven returned to Freiburg, where he worked in his parents’ sanatorium doing office work. He remained in Germany until 1930, during which he married Emmy Brunner, the daughter of a merchant named Josef Brunner. Emmy had been engaged to another man at the time, and broke her engagement to be with Hoven. In 1928, she gave birth to the first of their three children. In 1930, Hoven’s father died, and his mother continued to run the sanatorium with the help of her other two sons, Erwin and Hans Hoven, who were both accomplished doctors. Waldemar, however, left for Paris, where he worked as a company reporter “publishing news about social life” (so probably tabloids) for a rich baron called Baron de Meyer. According to the evidence collected by SS Judge Konrad Morgen in the 1944 Buchenwald corruption trial, it was around this time that Hoven had an affair with an American woman in Paris, who gifted him a gold cigarette box decorated with precious stones worth 25,000 RM (about $62,500 USD). 

After he returned to Germany, Hoven tried his hand at film production. According to the Handelsregister Berlin HRB Nr. 47334, he founded a film company, for which Baron de Meyer was involved as an artistic adviser. According to entries in Film-Journal", Nr. 37 und 38, Jg. 1932, he produced two works: “The Beggar of Paris” and “King Ludwig II of Bavaria”, neither of which made it into theaters. In 1933, Hoven’s brother Hans died, and Waldemar was called back to help out at the sanatorium in Freiburg.  

Hoven later passed his Abitur in 1935 and began to study medicine at the University of Freiburg. His license to practice medicine was given to him as a war emergency license in 1939 after he was drafted into the Waffen-SS. Waldemar Hoven had already joined the SS in 1933, one year after he began to study medicine. According to a later statement made by his mother Carola Hoven, his brother Erwin had joined the NSDAP in 1932, and the SS the following year. As of 1938, Erwin Hoven had held the rank of Untersturmfuhrer and in 1942 the rank of Obersturmfuhrer. As a result of Erwin Hoven being the authorized signatory and managing director in the family business, the Hoven family was supporting National Socialist groups with hefty donations even before 1933. Additionally, Erwin’s wife Erika was one of the few wives of Freiburg SS members who was an actively sponsoring member of the SS.  

In 1939 before the outbreak of war, Waldemar Hoven held the rank of SS-Scharfuhrer. His superior, Hauptsturmfuhrer Albert Mutz, deemed him “satisfactory in terms of official and military performance”, but added that Hoven was “a staunch National Socialist.” 

In September 1939 Hoven was drafted into the Waffen-SS after a short time doing infantry training. It was during this time that his war emergency medical license was given to him, and he was transferred as a medical officer to the SS hospital in KZ Buchenwald....

To Be Continued In Part Two....

Sources: 

1- “ Wie ein Freiburger Arzt im KZ Buchenwald zum Mörder wurde” (Wolfgang Proske)

2- Wikipedia DE: Waldemar Hoven

3- Die Hexe von Buchenwald: Der Fall Ilse Koch 

4- SS Proceedings Against Karl-Otto Koch

[maxwell-grant]

On the topic of Fantomas and the Shadow, I imagine that the difference in their time periods is the key to understand how that story goes. We know that the Fantomas was active for a while, until he wasn't. And we know that the Shadow came afterwards. As you say, if those two confronted each other, one of them isn't walking away. So that's exactly what happens

Could work. One of the concepts I want to explore in my writings for The Shadow is the idea that he had dispatched Fu Manchu prior to settling in America as The Shadow, because I think Fu Manchu shouldn’t exist in a world centered around The Shadow unless as part of some bigger crossover, and because I wanted it to be part of the circumstances leading to Shiwan Khan’s rise. So maybe there is something to the idea of the still young and inexperienced Kent Allard somehow crossing paths with Fantomas during that 1910-1912 period, long before he is truly able to transform into a weird creature of the night himself. 

But there’s a weird discrepancy to this in the Fantomas chronology that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sort out without getting my hands on the texts themselves. The bulk of the Fantomas novels takes place from 1911 to 1913, and the first book has to take place close to the year it was released since it refers to an execution in 1909 as a past event. It also states Fantomas has been active for years, enough to be publicly known. 

Fantômas is a being against whom it is idle to use ordinary weapons; because he has been able to hide his identity and elude all pursuit for years

The Wrath of Fantomas comic places his first public appearence as 1895 which seems like a reasonable estimate for him to establish himself as Lord of Terror by 1911. By 1892, Fantomas was operating as an Archduke and had a son, and there’s a passage in the first novel that also describes him in a guise as looking forty-ish, which has led to the theory he must have been born circa 1867. Which is all fine, but the thing is, Fantomas’s novels continued long past 1913. 

Marcel Allain put out a new series in 1925, and then additional stories in newspapers throughout 1933-38, and there are additional stories I cannot find any trace of other than they were published in the 1940s, the last one being Fantômas Mène le Bal in 1963, 5 years before Allain’s death (the 60s being, coincidentally, the same period where the Mexican Fantomas made his debut). And although we can easily theorize that Fantomas found a way to extend his life to the point of still being active in the 40s or 60s, none of the supporting cast aged either, as far as I can gleam from the 1925 novels they all just stayed pretty much the same, not having aged or changed a bit.

The how or why for this is a mystery, and of course mysteries are always a good starting point for stories. Was the 1925 Fantomas a new one, or did Fantomas survive the sinking of the Titanic? If so, how did Juve survive the same sinking? How come Helene never grew old? Are the stories pure fabrication? How much of truth there is to them? If so, what led to Fantomas and his supporting cast somehow becoming immortal? Are they ghosts, relics, trapped in a play that never ends? Will Paris ever be free of Fantomas? What is it gonna take to put him down permanently?

Maybe The Shadow knows a thing or two about living long past one’s time.

[silent-era-of-cinema]

Madge Kennedy (April 19, 1891 – June 9, 1987) was a stage, film and TV actress whose career began as a stage actress in 1912 and flourished in motion pictures during the silent film era. In 1921, journalist Heywood Broun described her as "the best farce actress in New York".

Kennedy was born in Chicago. Her father was a judge in a criminal court. After she and her family lived in California, she moved to New York City with her mother to paint. She studied two years at the Art Students League, planning to be an illustrator. Luis Mora saw her art work and recommended that she go to Siasconset (in Nantucket, Massachusetts) for a summer.

The Siasconset colony was evenly divided among actors and artists, and painters often gave theatrical performances.

Kennedy appeared in a skit written by Kenneth and Roy Webb[5] and impressed professional Harry Woodruff, who commented, "She could act rings around anybody."[citation needed] As a result, she was offered the lead opposite Woodruff in The Genius. Soon she was in Cleveland, Ohio, where Robert McLaughlin gave her work with his stock company.

Kennedy first appeared on Broadway in Little Miss Brown (1912), a farce in three acts presented at the 48th Street Theater. Critics found Kennedy's performance most pleasing, writing, "Miss Kennedy's youth, good looks, and marked sense of fun helped her to make a decidedly favorable impression last night." That same year she appeared in The Point of View.

1914 saw her in the popular Twin Beds, and in 1915 she scored a sensational hit at the Eltinge Theater as Blanny Wheeler opposite John Cumberland in Avery Hopwood's classic farce, Fair and Warmer, which ran 377 performances. Critic Louis Vincent DeFoe wrote, "Madge Kennedy proves anew that consummate art is involved even in farcical acting."[citation needed] In the late Teens she would leave the stage for three years to appear in moving pictures for Samuel Goldwyn (see "Films" below).

Kennedy returned to the New York stage in November 1920, playing in Cornered, staged at the Astor Theatre. Produced by Henry Savage, the play, taken from the writing of Dodson Mitchell, offered Kennedy a dual role.

In 1923 she starred opposite W.C. Fields in Poppy, where she enjoyed top billing. In the comedy, Beware of Widows (1925), which was produced at Maxine Elliott Theatre, a reviewer for The New York Times noted, once again, Kennedy's physical beauty as well as her skill as a comedian.

Later, she starred in Philip Barry's Paris Bound (1927) and in Noël Coward's Private Lives (1931), having succeeded Gertrude Lawrence.

After an absence of 33 years, she returned to Broadway in August 1965, appearing with her good friend Ruth Gordon in Gordon and Kanin's A Very Rich Woman.

In 1917, Sam Goldwyn of Goldwyn Pictures signed Kennedy to a film contract. She starred in 21 five-reel films,[2] such as Baby Mine (1917), Nearly Married (1917), Our Little Wife (1918), The Service Star (1918) and Dollars and Sense (1920).

Kennedy told a reporter in 1916, "I have discovered that one of the best ways to act is to make your mind as vacant as possible."[citation needed] In 1918, Our Little Wife premiered with Kennedy playing the role of Dodo Warren. The story is about a woman whose marriage is both humorous and sad. The screenplay was adapted from a comedy by Avery Hopwood.

A Perfect Lady (1918) was released in December and was taken from a stage play by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf. Kennedy co-starred with James Montgomery. In 1923, she starred in The Purple Highway. The screenplay is an adaptation of the stage play Dear Me, written by Luther Reed and Hale Hamilton.

The 1920s were a productive period for Kennedy. Following The Purple Highway, she had prominent roles in Three Miles Out (1924), Scandal Sheet (1925), Bad Company (1925), Lying Wives (1925), Oh, Baby! (1926), and Walls Tell Tales (1928).

She was out of motion pictures until she resumed her career in The Marrying Kind (1952)[2] and Main Street to Broadway (1953).

In the late 1950s, she combined TV work with roles in movies like The Rains of Ranchipur (1955), The Catered Affair (1956), Lust for Life (1956),[2] Houseboat (1958), A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed (1958), Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959), and North by Northwest (1959). She has an uncredited part as a secretary in the Marilyn Monroe film Let's Make Love (1960).

Her film career endured into the 1970s with roles in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), The Baby Maker (1970), The Day of the Locust (1975), and Marathon Man (1976).

As a guest on the Red Davis series (1934) over NBC Radio and WJZ (WABC-AM) network, Kennedy worked with Burgess Meredith who had the title role. She was written into the full script by the program's creator, Elaine Sterne Carrington.

Kennedy was prolific in terms of her television appearances beginning with an episode of the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1954). Her additional performances in television series are Studio 57 (1954), General Electric Theater (1954), Science Fiction Theater (1955), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1960), The Best of the Post (1961), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1961), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), and CBS Playhouse (1967). She also had a semi-recurring role as Theodore Cleaver's Aunt Martha on the hit family sitcom Leave it to Beaver (1957–63). She played June Cleaver's aunt and the Beaver's great-aunt. Ms. Kennedy also appeared as Mimi (the wife of Albert, Felix's grandfather played by Tony Randall) in The Odd Couple (1972).

Kennedy and her husband, Harold Bolster (who had been an executive with Goldwyn), formed Kenma Corporation, a film production company. Kenma made The Purple Highway (1923) and Three Miles Out (1924), both of which starred Kennedy but had little success.

Kennedy's contract with Goldwyn ended in 1921.[2] She decided to return to the stage so that she could be close to her husband, broker Harold Bolster, in New York. Bolster died on August 3, 1927 from an illness he contracted months before during a business trip to South America. He was a member of the New York banking firm of Bennett, Bolster & Coghill. Bolster was 38 and a veteran of World War I. Kennedy inherited more than $500,000 when he died.

She wed William B. Hanley Jr., in Kingman, Arizona, on August 13, 1934. Hanley was an actor and radio personality. The couple resided in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy retired temporarily after her marriage before returning to work in entertainment. The couple would remain married until Hanley's death in 1959.

She enjoyed outdoor activities such as playing golf, horseback riding and driving cars. She owned a Willys-Knight Great Six which she drove avidly at the time she was touring in 1929 in the play, Lulu. In August 1929, she was sued in a Norwich, Connecticut court for damages she caused in a car accident on the Boston Post Road near Groton, Connecticut, in June 1928. The plaintiffs asked for $13,000.

Madge Kennedy died of respiratory failure at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, in 1987. She was 96.

Kennedy has a star at 1600 Vine Street in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated on February 8, 1960.

[rabbitcruiser]

5th Avenue (No. 5)

The Fred F. French Building is a 38-story skyscraper on the northeast corner of 45th Street at 551 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. 

It was erected in 1927 with a striking art deco facade contributing significantly to the international reputation of Fifth Avenue. The building measures approximately 430,000 rentable square feet and is currently owned by The Feil Organization. It is used primarily as an office building and also houses classrooms of Pace University. The building is one of the better known projects of the real estate developer Frederick Fillmore French. The lead architects were H. Douglas Ives and Sloan & Robertson. The tallest building on Fifth Avenue when completed, by the 1990s underwent a complete restoration, subsequently earning the Building Owners and Managers Association 1994/1995 Historic Building of the Year Award. The National Register of Historic Places listed the building in January 2004.

Past tenants have included The Cattleman restaurant and Raymond Abrahams, an award-winning diamond jeweler. 

Fred F. French was a real estate developer, who believed in spending money in the design and decoration of his buildings. And he would use different styles in different buildings. No building is a better example of his aims than the office building he erected on Fifth Avenue, New York, naming it after himself and locating his offices there. The building was constructed in 1925–27.

The decorations and designs French ordered for his building are influenced by art of Mesopotamia, Assyrian, Babylonia, Chaldea—that is Near Eastern (Syria and Iraq) cultures in time period roughly 1700 to 500 B.C. Excavations done in the early 1900s produced illustrations of these cultures available to the Western world and artists. King Tut's tomb was found in 1920 and led to some Egyptian influence in the décor.

The term "Art Deco" is often applied to the decorations of this building. Overall the Landmark Preservation Commission concluded that the French building "remains one of the finest examples of the stylistic compromise between lingering historicism and vanguard modernism."

The decorations on the four sides of the rectangular tower on top of the building were described by one of its architects, H. Douglas Ives, as symbols used to connote commerce and "character and activities" of the French companies. The material used is faience—glazed ceramic ware.

Facing north and south are rising suns—signifying progress, Ives said. At the sides of the sun are griffins, winged horses features in Mesopotamian art. Ives said that all this symbolized integrity and watchfulness. Further at the sides, beehives with golden bees, symbols of thrift and industry. Facing east and west one sees the heads of Mercury. Ives said that these were "spreading the message of the French plan"—a concept explained below. 

Ives discussed the evolution of the architecture for the building. Although Gothic and Romanesque was first considered, they settled on the Eastern design, in large part due to a new zoning requirement for skyscrapers, which called for setbacks, which allowed more light to reach the streets. This suggested to the architects that they follow the Assyrian ziggurat style.  If one studies the setbacks, they do appear to be like ziggurats. Ives also stated that colorful terracotta bricks were used, because the designs were more two dimensional than Greek sculpture. 

Per the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission report of 1986: "On the portal over the entrances both on Fifth Avenue and Forty Fifth Street are two triangular niches. On the left Mercury (denoted by the winged shoes), holding a column in his right hand and a compass and two T-squares in the left—symbolizing architecture and building, one can safely assume. In the right niche is a woman holding a beehive, the symbol of industry, as we have noted. Above the name is a band of griffins. And above them are bronze frieze metopes, with five winged Assyrian beasts. On the frieze and everywhere in the building one finds plants and flowers of the Egyptian era: lotus, papyrus, and anthemion—both stems and the flower."

Source: Wikipedia

[macgyvermedical]

Top 10 Public Health Triumphs of the 20th Century (in the USA)

Have you ever gotten stuck in an elevator with me? Because let me tell you, it would be a good time. We would talk about all kinds of fun stuff, like this top 10 list of awesome public health things.

A lot of people think of “Public Health” as a new field, but its been around for a long while, and it actually has a lot of power when it comes to law and people’s behaviors. This list was compiled by UC Berkley based on information from the CDC and Johns Hopkins, and is pretty interesting. I even put pictures in to keep it lively!

Promise.

1. Vaccine (and Vaccine Mandates)

Even if you personally have never been vaccinated, there’s a good chance a vaccine has saved your life. There are currently 17 vaccine-preventable diseases that are targeted by US vaccination policy. Studies say that every year, 42,000 people are born (annual cohort) who won’t die of vaccine-preventable illness. And that’s not even looking at the 20 million cases of illness that straight up won’t occur in that same annual birth cohort because of vaccines. Check out this handy before-and-after chart from the Association for Ohio Health Commissioners:

For those of you more monetarily-minded, the use of vaccines saves each annual cohort $14 billion in direct healthcare costs, and $69 billion in lost work and other societal costs.

2. Motor Vehicle Safety

Cars and other motor vehicles have been a massive technological advancement in the last century. Unfortunately, crashing those motor vehicles into each other also causes a lot of death.

But don’t fret! Even though we travel more than 10 times the number of total miles yearly in motor vehicles that our 1920′s counterparts did, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in death rate. In 1925, for example, 18 people would die per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In 1997, that number was down to 1.7 people per 100 mil VMT.

How did we do this? Those fuddy-duddies over at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figured out they could use epidemiology to track causes of traffic death, and came up with some cool interventions. These included things we take for granted today, including speed limits, road improvements (reflectors, breakaway signs, etc..), DUI laws, and vehicle improvements (seatbelts, airbags, head rests, etc...).

3. Workplace Safety

In 1913, 67 workers out of 100,000 died in workplace accidents. By 1997, that had dropped to only 4 per 100,000. While some of this is simply that people moved to less dangerous work (heart disease from sitting at a desk for 30 years is not counted), some really does have to do with increased safety measures on the job site. Some workplaces are inherently dangerous- Loggers, fisherpeople, and aircraft pilots among the most likely to die today as a result of their work. Even the most dangerous industry today, logging, with about 135.9 worker deaths per 100,000, doesn’t even touch one of the most dangerous jobs of 1911- mining, at 329 deaths per 100,000.

This decrease in workplace deaths comes from a variety of interventions. In the later part of the century, organizations like OSHA, NIOSH, MSHA, and USBM began to study workplace practices, publish standards, and inspect workplaces for compliance. They required the use of safer equipment (better ventilation systems), safer workplace practices (like dust suppression and wearing hard hats and other PPE), safety training for employees (OSHA certification, first aid training), and specialized training for healthcare professionals who might see occupational injuries.

4. Sanitation and Hygiene (and Health Department Police Power)

Do you like food? Water? Do you like not getting sick because you consumed it? Do you like flushing a toilet? Do you like not worrying about whether people with known cases of active TB are running around in public? Me too!

I want to be very clear that these weren’t always things you could count on. In fact, about 33% of deaths (of which, 40% were children under 5) in the US in the early 1900s could be traced to poor sanitation and lack of outbreak investigation and control. Today, that number is down to less than 4.5% (and that’s including HIV as an ongoing pandemic).

You may not be aware of this, but your local health department has a staggering amount of both legislative and judicial “police power.” For one thing, they are a separate entity from local government (under the health commissioner), and can therefore make their own decisions, even if the mayor orders otherwise.

They can...

Decide which restaurants, schools, businesses, and childcare centers are meeting health safety standards and therefore can stay open

Decide what the vaccination requirements for entrance to the schools and certain other public places are (and why you might have to wear a mask at work during flu season if you’re a medical professional who hasn’t gotten a flu shot)

Mandate the construction of public health infrastructure like sewer lines

Enter private property for reasonable suspicion (of a potential threat to public health)

Subpoena medical records

Issue mandatory quarantine, isolation, and vaccination orders

Detain people under police guard in a home or hospital if they have a significant communicable disease like active TB, meningitis, or ebola and are trying to escape (called a Code Brown in my area... thats a terrible name tho).

This is a really good thing. It allows the health department to do things that decrease the number of deaths from spoiled food and poor food handling procedures, as well as chlorinate your drinking water so you don’t get cholera, and make sure other people making poor choices aren’t going to be a threat to you personally.

5. Reduction in Heart Disease and Stroke (recognition of the role of risk factor management in disease)

You might recall from the Vaccine part of this post that Heart Disease and Stroke are leading causes of death today, so the idea that we somehow significantly reduced these deaths may not immediately compute. That’s because of 2 main things. One, just a staggering number of people were dying from infectious disease back then. Like, unless your name is literally Steven Grant Rodgers you have no freaking clue how many people were just... dying. All the time. From stuff you just straight up don’t see today because of vaccines and sanitation. And two, the peak for heart disease and stroke deaths came in the 50′s (307.4 deaths out of 100,000 due to heart disease in 1950), long after those initial measurements were taken, and have since decreased by about 56% (134.6 deaths out of 100,000 in 1996).

This decrease came, mostly, from a recognition of risk factors as a way to manage and prevent disease. The idea that there were certain things that you could do or not do that would make you more or less likely to end up sick or dead was unheard of before this. Studies done by a man named Ancel Keys of populations’ dietary habits throughout the US and the famed Framingham Heart Study determined that high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, and dietary factors played roles in the development of heart disease. This list was later expanded to include socioeconomic status, obesity, and physical inactivity.

The recognition that modifying risk factors (like changing one’s diet, increasing physical activity level, and quitting smoking) could prevent morbidity and mortality, and that screening for blood pressure and cholesterol could allow disease to be managed early before it resulted in a heart attack, is credited with saving those lives.

6. Food Safety and Nutrition

Can you imagine a time before we knew what a vitamin was? Or even, that food was made up of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates? Or a time before we were well aware that poorly handled or packaged foods caused illnesses like typhoid fever, botulism, TB, and scarlet fever?

Well, there was one, and it was only the early part of last century. In 1940, 16% of the population had trichinosis, a disease of the muscles caused by eating under-cooked, infected pork. By 1996, only 38 cases were reported yearly. Similarly, typhoid fever occurred at a rate of about 100 per 100,000 in 1900, only to drop to a mere 1.7 per 100,000 by 1950. There are many, many more of these statistics, but I didn’t want to type them out.

Basically, we made food safer and healthier in many ways, including but not limited to:

Pasteurization of milk and other products

Use of prompt refrigeration

Hand washing before food prep/processing

Application of pesticides and insecticides

Control of application of pesticides and insecticides to prevent harm to humans and the environment

Improved animal husbandry and processing systems

Introduction of preservatives

Better antimicrobial solutions to sanitize food prep areas

Fortifying staple foods with vitamins and minerals to prevent nutritional deficiencies like rickets, beri-beri, and scurvy

Improved surveillance of food-borne disease outbreak

7. Maternal and Infant Mortality

Listen, the US hasn’t totally got this figured out compared to other countries, but we’ve gotten better over the last century.

Overall, in 1900, 100 children out of 1,000 live births died before their first birthday (that’s not a typo, folks, that’s 1 in 10) and the mothers of 8-9 out of 1,000 live births died in childbirth or infection afterward. At the same time in many US cities, up to 30% of infants would die before their first birthday, mostly due to infections. By 1996, that number had been reduced to less than 0.1 death out of 1,000.

Along with the decline of infectious and foodborne disease through improved sanitation, the introduction of vaccination schedules, antibiotics, oral rehydration therapies, and pasteurization greatly decreased both maternal and infant mortality.

A lot of the problems for the mothers had to do with poor hygiene in those attending the birth (resulting in sepsis before the invention of antibiotics), excessive use of medical intervention (including operations and induction of labor) in labor, and bleeding. The invention of cleaner and safer operative deliveries, safer induction medications, and safer blood transfusions improved this considerably.

Its also worth mentioning that the availability of safer, legal abortion starting in the 1960s reduced mortality from sepsis after illegal abortions by 89%.

8. Family Planning

Following right along, family planning- the ability to literally plan how many children you want to have and when you want to have them, is also a major public health triumph.

In 1900, not a lot was known about conception and family planning, and what was known was actively suppressed. By 1912, through the work of Margaret Sanger and others, it became legal for healthcare providers to discuss contraception and family planning methods with married couples, including use of condoms, diaphragms, douches, and withdrawal methods. The rhythm method was introduced in 1928 with the understanding of the menstrual cycle and fertile period, and by 1933, the average family size had decreased from 3.5 to 2.3 children.

The number of children increased in the post-WW2 era to 3.7, but in 1960, two major breakthroughs- hormonal birth control and the IUD- further granted women the freedom to more effectively plan their childrearing. In 1965, it finally became (federally) legal for married couples to use birth control (again, not a typo, it really took that long).

By 1994, a combined effort of hospitals, Planned Parenthood clinics, and health departments were preventing an estimated 534,000 unintended births, 632,000 abortions, and 165,000 miscarriages annually through the use and education of contraception.

9. Fluoridation of Drinking Water, Toothpaste, and Other Products

This is another controversial one (why are interventions that save lives, decrease disability, and improve health so controversial in the US? Nothing is perfect, but we have the research to show this stuff works. Do you at least see how frustrating this is to healthcare and public health peeps by now? Your entire life has been saved and improved by these measures in some way or another. Stop it.)

No one likes going to the dentist. And whether you like it or not, if you drink tap water from many places in the US, you’re passively avoiding doing so! Yes, I’m talking about the fluoride in your water.

How did that fluoride get there? Well, its a much longer story than this, but, turns out, many water sources in the US already had fluoride in them- ranging from less than 1ppm to about 12ppm. A dentist named Frederick McKay noticed that people in Colorado Springs had an odd discoloration to their teeth. McKay found that there were other places in the US that had similar discolorations and hypothesized that there might be a connection to something in their drinking water. He had the water tested, and found that what these areas had in common were high levels of fluoride in their water. Another thing they had in common were lower rates of tooth decay. This sparked the possibility of controlling the amount of fluoride in drinking water to 1ppm- high enough to prevent cavities, but low enough so as not to cause the discoloration.

In communities where fluoride is added to drinking water, there are about 18% fewer cavities. This may not seem like a lot, but it results in a savings of up to $53 dollars per person per year in dental care, which is heavily skewed towards savings in lower-income communities. Compare this with an average cost of between $0.31 and $2.12 per person, per year to fluoridate the water, and you see significant savings. At least partially because of this (as well as increased access to dental care and the addition of fluoride to other things, like toothpaste), baby boomers are the first generation expected to reach their 60s with the majority of their teeth intact!

10. Recognition of Tobacco as a Health Hazard

Okay, folks, almost done! No one is happier than I, who has spent over 8 hours straight researching and writing this tumblr post. But I committed to it despite having (ironically public health) homework to do, and finished it shall be! Onward, Public Health!

I don’t think many people would be surprised when presented with the fact that inhaling smoke is bad for humans. I think the CDC said it best when they typed “Smoking- once a socially accepted behavior- is the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States.”

I sh*t you not, in the US in 1963, the average PER CAPITA consumption of cigarettes was 4,345. That’s the equivalent slightly more than of half the total US population being pack-a-day smokers that year. It is now (in 2015 at least) about a quarter of that, at 1,078.

Tobacco use contributes to many cancers, heart disease, COPD, low birth weight, asthma and many other diseases, either because of how damaging it is to lungs and blood vessels when smoked (smoke particles less than 2.5 microns enter the blood stream and damage the vasculature, and therefore all tissues with blood vessels in them), or because of the effects of nicotine and other toxic substances on blood pressure, intrauterine growth retardation, and substance dependency.  Death by lung cancer was 4.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 1930 vs 75.6 per 100,000 in 1990.

By recognizing tobacco as a health hazard, public health and healthcare professionals were able to initiate widespread anti-tobacco education in schools, which has drastically reduced teen and young adult smoking rates. They could also restrict advertising of tobacco products, increase taxes on those products, and introduce counter-advertising campaigns. It also allows physicians and other healthcare workers to be a part of the smoking cessation process (if you smoke, you’ll be offered cessation resources at every doctors appointment and hospital visit). This from only 60 years ago when doctors actively encouraged smoking and were used in advertising.

Fortunately, with these campaigns and reduction in overall tobacco use, we are seeing a decrease in death rates from tobacco-related illnesses listed above. Indoor air quality laws and the prohibition of smoking on many college campuses have reduced public exposure to second-hand smoke, and also helped decrease smoking as a norm.

The jury’s still out on newer nicotine-containing products like vapes and juuls. They’re probably better for you than inhaling smoke, and nicotine by itself is not known to be cancer-causing, but they can contain other substances humans also probably shouldn’t be breathing. Like everything, we’ll know in about 50 years.

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[tcm]

Jane Hall and THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS (’39) by Raquel Stecher

Hollywood screenwriters of the 1930s were predominately male but there were quite a few women behind the scenes writing original stories, adapting screenplays and contributing dialogue. Women screenwriters of the era included Adela Rogers St. Johns, Anita Loos, Frances Marion, Lois Weber, June Mathis and many others. About these writers, film historian Cari Beauchamp said, “women had always found a sanctuary in writing; it was accomplished in private and provided a creative vent when little was expected or accepted of a woman…” Female writers brought a different sensibility to scripts and a fresh perspective to both male and female characters. One writer in particular, whose biggest contribution to Hollywood, THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS (‘39), was inspired by her own observations and criticisms on society, never became a household name but is one who deserves a spotlight nonetheless.

Jane Hall was born in 1915 in Phoenix, Arizona to Daysie Sutton Hall and Dick Wick Hall. Her father was a humorist, one of the founders of Salome, Arizona and the editor of the Salome Sun. He even signed a contract with Universal Studios as a screenwriter, however he died in 1926 before he could start his Hollywood career. Hall’s father was a major influence on her writing career. At a very young age, she began to write poems, short stories, novels, articles and essays and even considered journalism as a career. According to Hall’s daughter Robin Cutler, Hall’s first published piece was for the Los Angeles Times in 1925 when she was only 10 years old. An auspicious start to a lengthy writing career, Hall took over where her father left off.

Tragedy struck again when Hall’s mother Daysie passed away leaving Hall and her brother orphans. Much like Dick, Daysie was a strong role model in Hall’s life. The siblings moved to Manhattan to live with their aunt and uncle and were thrust into the upper echelon of New York City society. As an outsider—a girl from a small mining town during the Great Depression, suddenly thrust into the glamorous world of Manhattan’s social life— according to Cutler, “[Jane] used what she learned to portray and parody this privileged world in her fiction and screenplays.” By the late 1930s, Hall had become a socialite, hob-knobbing with the Hollywood elite and writing stories for magazines such as Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan.

It was for the latter that she published her story These Glamour Girls. It wasn’t long before producer Sam Zimablist and MGM snapped up the rights to the story. Louis B. Mayer hired Hall as a staff writer, and with the help of fellow writer Marion Parsonnet, she adapted her story to the screen.

Released in 1939, THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS was a showcase for MGM’s rising stars, including Lew Ayres, Lana Turner, Tom Brown, Richard Carlson, Jane Bryan, Marsha Hunt, Anita Louise and Ann Rutherford. On the surface, the film is a collegiate comedy with a slightly dark edge. Dig deeper and you'll find a cutting social satire that rips apart its subject to both examine and judge. This is exactly what a woman writer could bring to the table: a story that could appeal to female audience members while delivering a powerful social message.

THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS is a critique on the politics of high society. It explores the monotony of upper-class life as well as the struggle of the lower class. Climbing the social ladder, a key element to the American dream, is what drives these characters’ actions. Jane Hall’s story shines a spotlight on the disastrous effects of strict sexual mores and gendered double standards. With Marsha Hunt’s character Betty in particular, we see social pressure and bullying can have tragic effects. It poses the question: Are wealth and social rank really the keys to happiness?

According to Hall’s daughter, the period between 1935 and 1942 was when Hall was at her most productive. She went back to the well of her experiences as a glamour girl in Manhattan for many of her stories. Hall even graced the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine in October 1939, with a glamorous portrait illustrated by Bradshaw Crandell. In addition to THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS, Hall adapted HOLD THAT KISS (’38) and NANCY GOES TO RIO (’50) for MGM and IT’S A DATE (’40) and PATRICK THE GREAT (’45) for Universal. Hall passed away in 1987 and her daughter keeps her mother’s legacy alive with a book written about her life, Such Mad Fun and an active blog with reflections on her mother’s career and archival findings.

[inexpensiveprogress]

My Pictures for Schools - Hertfordshire

In Hertfordshire the County Council’s collection of pictures for schools was started in 1949 as part of the School Loan Collection, a post-war initiative by Sir John Newsom, the Hertfordshire Chief Education Officer at the time. The aims of Pictures for Schools were to provide education for children, show children contemporary art rather than reproductions of masters and to liven up classrooms that in post-war Britain would have needed modernisation.  

Many of the pieces were purchased from reputable dealers, artists and the ‘Pictures for Schools’ exhibitions which took place from the 1950s and 1960s. I thought I would show some of the pictures I now own and put the biographies of the artists. 

 Vera Cunningham - 'Stooks',

Born in Hertfordshire of Scottish parentage, Vera studied painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She began exhibiting with the London Group in 1922. With Matthew Smith, she exhibited in Paris at the Amis de Montparnasse and the Salon des Indépendants in 1922. Her first one-man show was held at the Bloomsbury Gallery in 1929. She produced a number of theatre designs at the end of the 1930s, but returned to easel painting. During WWII she was involved in the Civil Defence Artists' shows at the Cooling Galleries. After the war her Paris dealer, Raymond Creuze, mounted three exhibitions in 1948, 1951 and 1954. She lived in London. The Barbican Art Gallery held a retrospective exhibition in 1985. Her work is held in the Manchester City Art Gallery; the Guildhall Gallery, London and at Palant House, Chichester.

Cuningham modeled for and had relationships with fellow artists Bernard Meninsky and Matthew Smith.

 Vera Cunningham - 'Garden Scene',  

 Thomas William Ward  - 'Charmouth Manor'

Thomas William Ward, was born at Sheffield. Studied part-time with Eric Jones (Harold Jones's twin brother) at Sheffield 1937-1939. After service during the Second World War, Bill continued his studies at the Royal College of Art 1946-1950, winning a silver medal in 1949. He married at Kensington, London in 1949, sculptor Joan Palmer Ward. He taught at Harrow College of High Education 1950-1980, finally as principal lecturer, retiring to Suffolk in 1980. Elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers in 1953 and the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1957. This painting was bought from Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 1957.

 Alistair Grant - 'The Weight-lifter'

Although best known as a printmaker, Alistair Grant also painted throughout his career and in the 1980s he adopted an expressionist style using vibrant colours. He was born in London and studied at Birmingham College of Art (1941-43). After serving during the war, Grant returned to art school and the Royal College of Art, where he was taught by Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear. Grant was to work in the printmaking department of the Royal College for 35 years (1955-90), ending his career as Emeritus Professor of Printmaking at the RA.

The Weight-lifter was bought from the Whitechapel Art Gallery at their Pictures for Schools exhibition: 8 October – 29 October 1949. It is likely ‘Eva’s House’ came from a similar exhibition. 

 Alistair Grant - 'Eva's House', 1955

 Vincent Lines - 'Old Hereford Wagon', 

Vincent Lines was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1928. The principal, William Rothenstein described him as ‘one of the best students of the painting school’. While only in his twenties, he was appointed principal of Horsham School of Art and later became principal of Hasting School of Art. Lines was a prolific and talented topographical watercolourist, with an intimate knowledge of the countryside, which he recorded on the spot, in the open air. 

He was chosen as an artist for the Recording Britain project, to which he contributed twenty watercolours. He was a close friend of Thomas Hennell and the pair often painted together in the countryside around Hennell’s home at Ridley, near Meopham in Kent.

Lines survived the war and went on to become Vice-president of the Royal Watercolour Society. He wrote the biography of Mark Fisher and Margaret Fisher Prout, illustrated Rex Waites ‘The English Windmill’

The war years brought deepened friendships in particular with Mildred Eldidge and Thomas Hennell, both fellow watercolourists of the R .W .S . Through contact with Hennell he became fascinated by country crafts and together they hunted out the potter and the cooper, wheelwright and blacksmith, hurdlemaker and charcoal burner.

During 1943-4 he painted a series of eight watercolours recording the avenues of elms in Windsor Park, before the trees were felled. The pictures are now in the Royal collection. A further commission for Vincent during these years was the contribution to Arnold Palmer’s four-volumed Recording Britain, published in association with the Pilgrim Trust.

Due to Thomas Hennell’s death in 1945 the illustration of Rex Wailes’s book The English Windmill, which would certainly have been done by him, passed instead to Vincent Lines. Wailes’s definitive survey presents English windmills in their history, construction and mode of working.  Resurgence Magazine Issue 141, Jul 1990.

 Molly Field - 'Farm Implements'

Molly Field was born in Keighley, Yorkshire. She originally worked under the name Molly Clapham but then married the artist Dick Field. Attended Leeds College of Art (1932-33) then the Royal College of Art (1934-38), with Ernest Tristram. Showed at the Royal Academy, Women’s International Art Club and the Wakefield. Also known under Mary Field.  

 M Murphy - 'Geranium'

This is a mystery as it is one of the best paintings in the collection but there is no detail in the archives about who it is by.

 Berard Gay - 'Ivy Plant'

Bernard left school at the age of 14 and after various jobs, just before the Second World War joined the merchant navy. In 1947 that he returned to education, studying textile part-time at the Willesden School of Art (1947-52) and changed course to fine-art under Maurice de Sausmarez and Eric Taylor. He began drawing classes at St Martins School of Art and quickly established himself as a painter. It may have been in the Pictures for Schools exhibition 23 January – 14 February 1954.

 David Koster - 'Cat and Lilies'

Koster studied at the Slade School of Art (1944-47). Taught drawing and print-making at Medway College of Design. One-man shows at Everyman Foyer Gallery (1958, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70); Glasgow Citizen's Theatre (1965); Stable Theatre Gallery, Hastings (1967). Taken several illustration commissions including work for the RSPB and a front cover for their 'Birds' Magazine.

David Koster was born in London and attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1944 to 1947. He was a founder Member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 1964. 

 Raymond Croxon - 'View in the Lake District', 

Raymond Coxon enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, and the Royal College of Art. While he was there, between 1919 and 1921, he not only met his future wife but also became friends with a fellow student, Henry Moore. In 1922 Moore and Coxon visited France and met a number of artists there, including Pierre Bonnard and Aristide Maillol. Coxon continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Art between 1921 and 1925 under Sir William Rothenstein.  Coxon took a teaching post at the Richmond School of Art in 1925 and in 1926 he married Edna Ginesi, with Moore acting as his best-man. Coxon would later perform the same service for Moore when he married Irina Radetsky in July 1929. He became a member of the London Group in 1931 and of the Chiswick Group in 1938.

During the WW2 he became a war artist and was commissioned to produce some paintings of Army subjects in Britain. Then working for the Royal Navy as a war artist. The painting of this print is in the collection of Palant House. The lithograph made for the Contemporary Lithographs Ltd. Other artists in the series were Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Vanessa Bell, Barnett Freedman and so on.

 Julia Ball - 'East Coast Storm'

Julia Ball is a Cambridge artist and this woodcut came up for sale with the Cambridge collection of Pictures for Schools but due to a cataloguing error on the auctioneers I didn’t win it as they had labeled it as a different lot. For years I smoldered about that. But when the Hertfordshire sale came up, I had to have it. Made in the 1960s this woodcut is of a storm over the east coast. Her painting are mostly abstract and works can be found in Kettles Yard and in the New Hall art collection. This picture was bought from the Royal Academy Diploma Galleries, 1967.

 Joseph Winkelman - 'Winter Morning'

Joseph Winkelman has specialised in intaglio printmaking since 1975 after completing the Oxford University Certificate course in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing. As an active member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), he served as President from 1989 to 1995 and was recently artist in residence at St John's College, Oxford.

 John Sturgess - 'Black and White Leaf'

A student at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s. He would have been taught by Julian Trevelyan, Edwin La Dell, Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden. He worked with John Brunsdon as a printer, printing other artists work, rather than going into teaching. They set up a press in Digswell Art Centre and that is likely how his work ended up in the Hertfordshire Collection. This work of a leaf looks more like foil, it is rather beautiful and a lithograph on stone. Though I haven’t photographed it the frame is a John Jones frame made of aluminium and is as beautiful as the print.

 John O'Conner - 'Boy and the Heron'

John O'Connor A.R.C.A. R.W.S, is today best known for his woodcuts, but during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a watercolourist. In 1930 he enrolled at Leicester College of Art before moving on to the Royal College of Art in 1933. His teachers at this time were Eric Ravilious, John Nash and Robert Austin. He graduated in 1937.

On a visit to Eric Ravilious’s home at Bank House, Castle Hedingham in Essex, O'Connor was captivated both by the directness of the wood-engraving technique, and by the simple domestic scene in which Ravilious engraved by a lamp in one corner of the room while his wife Tirzah played with their small son by the fire in another. It was due to Ravilious that O'Connor got his first commission of work aged 23, illustrating Here’s Flowers by Joan Rutter for the Golden Cockerel Press in 1937.

He taught at Birmingham and Bristol before serving in the Royal Air Force form 41-45. On being demobbed he illustrated two books for the Golden Cockerel Press and taught in Hastings for two years before moving to Colchester to become the head of the School of Art in 1948. He was affectionately known as ‘Joc’ to his students, using his initials. His colleagues included Richard Chopping, who designed dust jackets for the James Bond novels, his own former teacher John Nash, and Edward Bawden, one of the finest British printmakers.

He saw his favourite painting places in Suffolk - the ponds, willows, briars and honeysuckle - disappear beneath the bulldozer and combine harvester. In 1964 O'Connor retired from teaching full time at Colchester, to concentrate on painting and engraving. He wrote various 'How to’ books and taught part time at St Martin’s School of Art. In 1975 he and his wife, Jeannie, went to live by Loch Ken in Kirkcudbrightshire, where his love of light and water inspired his many watercolours and oil paintings. He took up a post teaching at Glasgow School of Art from 1977 to 1984.

In the 1950s and 60s, O'Connor exhibited at the Zwemmer Gallery, in London, and had many exhibitions throughout Britain. His work was purchased by the Arts Council, the Tate Gallery, the British Museum and the Contemporary Art Society, as well as by several local education authorities; it can also be found in the Oslo Museum, the Zurich Museum and at New York central library. He was elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1947, and, in 1974, to the Royal Watercolour Society. He was an honorary member of the Society of Wood Engravers.

 June Berry - 'High Meadow'

June Berry studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She has had nineteen solo exhibitions including a retrospective at the Bankside Gallery, London in 2002. Her paintings have been exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London since 1952. Berry was Vice-President of the Royal Watercolour Society from 2001 to 2004.

Her work is included in the collections of HM the Queen, the British Government Art Collection, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the National Museum of Wales, the Royal West of England Permanent Collection, the Graphothek, Berlin, Germany and the All Union Society of Bibliophiles, Moscow, Russia. Her work has also been purchased by many private collectors in the UK, USA, Germany and Russia. She is a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, the New English Art Club and is a Royal West of England Academician.

 Madeleine Holtom - 'Orchids'

Madeleine Elizabeth Anderson was born in Belvedere, Kent. She studied art at the Kingston School of Art where Reginald Brill was principal with other teaching from Anthony Betts, William Ware and John Platt. In 1932 she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, there she won the painting prize in 1934. She painted in oils and watercolours under William Rothenstein and Gilbert Spencer.

Leaving the RCA she became a professional artist and also worked making advertisements. She married and divorced G. H. Holtom and they had two sons and two daughters, they moved to Northwood near Watford, North-West London. She also exhibited with the New English Art Club.

Her work is represented in the collections of: Friendship House, Moscow. Queen’s College, Oxford. The Cuming Museum. Cheltenham’s Art Gallery. The Government Art Collection, British High Commission, Accra, Ghana.

 Frank Freeman - 'Flower Piece', 

Frank Freeman is a bit of a mystery to me at the moment. I can find mention of him in a few places but sadly due to the blitz and poor archiving many are the lost. What is known is he was supported for a while by Lucy Carrington Wertheim and he was based in the Manchester area. One flower painting is mentioned in her book Adventure in Art. 

Visitors who came to see me about this time. Among these were Frances Hodgkins, who stayed for months at a time at my flat, Henry Moore and his lovely Russian wife, John Skeaping, Barbara Hepworth, Cedric Morris, Lett Haines, John Alford, William Plomer, Leon Underwood, John Gould Fletcher, Pavel Tchelitchew, Komisarieysy, David Fincham and his wife Sybil, Jim Ede and Frank Freeman.  Lucy Carrington Wertheim - Adventure in Art, 1947 p10-11

 John Wynne-Morgan - 'Christmas Roses'

John Wynne-Morgan was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire and enrolled at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London in 1945.

In a 1962 London catalogue foreword, Wynne-Morgan is described as ‘primarily a portrait painter’ (though the show contained scenes of Paris, Ibiza, Venice and London, and he also painted many Bonnard-ish nudes). His studio was in Hampstead and he was the author of three books for aspiring artists. In Oil Painting as a Pastime: A Complete Course for Beginners (Souvenir Press, London, 1959), he evokes how hard it is to embark on a portrait:

 Edna Rodney - 'Parrot Tulips'

Of all the artists I bought Edna Rodney eludes me, I can not find her anywhere and it might be she was an art student who gave up art for a family or she might have been one of Hertfordshire’s pupils that ended up in the collection as sometimes happened. It is rare to find nothing however. 

 Chloë Cheese - 'Lucky Fish', 

Chloëʼs childhood was spent in the Essex village of Great Bardfield observing the printmaking of her mother Sheila Robinson and she remembers in particular often visiting the studios of fellow printmakers Edward Bawden and Michael Rothenstein.

She has contributed to a recent book Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield published by the V&A. Chloë studied at Cambridge Art School from 1969 and the RCA from 1973 to 1976.

She has lived in South London since the 70s, investigating her home and surroundings first through drawing which is then used as a basis for the creation of monoprints, lithographs and etchings. Her engagement with still life subjects has widened to include figures against the palimpsest of an urban life.

Chloë has exhibited widely and her work is held in various public collections including The V and A Museum London and The Arts Council of Great Britain. Bio via St Judes.

 Chloë Cheese - 'Pink Carnations',

 Michael Rothenstein - 'Coronation Cockerel'

Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist, Sir William Rothenstein and his wife Alice Knewstub. He studied at Chelsea Polytechnic and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Affected by lingering depression, Rothenstein did little art making during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Despite this, he had his first one-man show at the Warren Gallery, London in 1931.

During the late 1930s the artist's output was mainly Neo-Romantic landscapes and in 1940, like Vincent Lines, he was commissioned to paint topographical watercolours of endangered sites for the Recording Britain project organised by the Pilgrim Trust. In the early 1940s he moved to Ethel House, in the north Essex village of Great Bardfield. 

At Great Bardfield there was a small resident art community that included John Aldridge, Edward Bawden and Kenneth Rowntree. In the early 1950s several more artists (including George Chapman, Stanley Clifford-Smith, Audrey Cruddas and Marianne Straub) moved to the village making it one of the most artistically creative spots in Britain. Rothenstein took an important role in organising the Great Bardfield Artists exhibitions during the 1950s. Thanks to his contacts in the art world (his older brother, Sir John Rothenstein, was the current head of the Tate Gallery) these exhibitions became nationally known and attracted thousands of visitors.

From the mid-1950s Rothenstein almost abandoned painting in preference to printmaking which included linocut as well as etchings. Like his fellow Bardfield artists his work was figurative but became near abstract in the 1960s.

Although little known as a painter, Rothenstein became one of the most experimental printmakers in Britain during the 1950s and '60s. 

Rothenstein was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1977 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1984. Near the end of his life there was a retrospective of his work at the Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery (1989) and important shows followed at the Fry Art Gallery, Essex.

The print I have (The Cockerel) was made for the Festival of Britain series of prints in 1951 and is signed under the mount. Likely bought from Redfern Galleries. 

My blog of some of my pictures from the Cambridgeshire Collection of Pictures from Schools is here.

For areas of research I am indebted to Catherine Davis and Natalie Bradbury.

[nazaninlankarani]

Looking for ‘Wrist Power’? It’s All in a Distinctive Watch

The Oil Pump watch, from Jacob & Co., features a crystal reservoir filled with what Jacob’s marketing described as a “crude oil-imitation liquid.” © Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Wearing a luxury watch has long been an indicator of status and buying power. But today, when one social media photo can put your wrist before millions, there is even more emphasis on the choice of a distinctive timepiece.

“I make watch contact before I make eye contact,” said Misha Daud, the woman behind the Instagram feed Watch Fashionista. “‘Wrist power’ is a big thing in today’s watch world.”

“There are lots of ways of saying who you are without saying it too loudly,” said Ms. Daud, who was wearing a limited edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Skeleton in rose gold on this particular day. “With a power watch, any watch fiend in the room will hear you loud and clear.”

One such maker is the New York City-based Jacob & Co., whose complex and bejeweled watches speak rather loudly. For example, its new Astronomia Casino has a functioning roulette wheel on the dial — made specifically for high-end gamblers.

Jacob Arabo, founder and chief executive of Jacob & Co.© Yana Paskova for The New York Times

“I am not a gambler myself, but I don’t mind playing for fun,” Jacob Arabo, the company’s founder and chief executive, said in a phone interview. “This watch is not for clients to tell the time, but to let them engage in their hobby. It is a toy on the wrist.”

When the wearer presses a pusher at the dial’s 8:00 position, the roulette wheel, in green, red and black enamel with mahogany inlays, begins to spin, a mechanism that also winds the watch. And a small ball is released to, eventually, land on a random color and number, just like a real roulette turn. (An interior sapphire glass stops the ball from bouncing into the movement.)

Produced in an 18-piece limited series, the Astronomia Casino is priced at $620,000.

“It was a gamble making this gambler’s watch, after two years in research and development,” Mr. Arabo said. “I don’t know how many will sell, but I have a good feeling about it.”

In a video posted recently on Instagram, Anish Blatt, the watch influencer known as Watchanish, described the Astronomia Casino as “one of the most eye-catching watches of the year.”

The Astronomia Casino watch, with a functioning roulette wheel, “is not for clients to tell the time, but to let them engage in their hobby,” Mr. Arabo said. “It is a toy on the wrist.”

A similarly unusual watch is the Oil Pump, which features a crystal reservoir filled with what Jacob’s marketing described as a “crude oil-imitation liquid.” When the wearer presses a pusher at the 2:00 position, two miniature derricks on the dial begin pumping the liquid through a closed pipe system. “A lot of my clients are actively involved in the oil industry and have found success in that business,” Mr. Arabo said. “If they love watches, they would love this one.”

The components for 88 models, priced at $380,000 each, have been produced, Mr. Arabo said, but each watch will be assembled only after an order is placed. “It will take a few years to assemble and sell all 88,” he said.

Other watchmakers have targeted high net-worth clients with similar tastes. Christophe Claret made a two-sided blackjack and roulette watch in 2014, and a Gaming Watches series that replicated card games like poker, baccarat and blackjack on the dials; each was priced at about $200,000. In 2013, Louis Moinet produced the $280,000 Derrick Tourbillon and in 2015, Ulysse Nardin made the Hourstriker Oil Pump watch, priced around $129,000.

In Design China and Hong Kong are listed as separate markets by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, which tracks Swiss exports — but, together, those markets received 22 percent of all Swiss watch exports in 2018. So it is not surprising that Graff’s watch division has produced special métiers d’art timepieces with Chinese themes, a decision reminiscent of the 19th-century period when watch manufacturers like Ilbery of London, Bovet and Vaucher created lavishly decorated custom-made pocket watches for members of the imperial court.

GyroGraff models presented at Baselworld this year included one with a scene of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, rendered in yellow gold and rows of baguette-cut diamonds.

GyroGraff models that were presented at Baselworld this year had scenes of the Great Wall of China, with 38 emerald-cut diamonds, and Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, rendered in yellow gold and rows of baguette-cut diamonds. Each of the one-of-a-kind timepieces was priced at $850,000.

“One can get lost gazing at the temple and the landscape around the wall,” said François Graff, the company’s chief executive. “Every element is executed with rare finesse and delicacy, with each dial taking nearly 100 hours of work by our team of artisans.”

The independent Dutch watchmaker Kees Engelbarts, who specializes in the Japanese metalworking technique of mokume-gane, said the visibility of his social media images — and the distinctiveness of his work — had drawn the attention of collectors beyond his usual circle of Asian clients.

“I don’t have the budget to advertise, and I was surprised when an Oman-based collector who follows me on Instagram recently asked for a handmade watch with mokume-gane engravings,” Mr. Engelbarts said in an interview. “I made him a unique timepiece that was a fusion of Japanese techniques with Arabic influences, created especially for his taste.”

A GyroGraff model also has scenes of the Great Wall of China, with 38 emerald-cut diamonds.

Exclusivity Still, special watches made for singular clients are seldom visible to a wide audience, according to Sabine Kegel, senior watch specialist at Christie’s in Geneva, in part because they rarely come to auction. “Consignors usually don’t want to take the risk of the watch not selling,” she said.

As singular clients go, watchmaking history’s most illustrious example probably is Henry Graves Jr., the American banker who in 1925 commissioned Patek Philippe to make the world’s most complicated timepiece. (A few brands now claim the “most complicated” title — with the uncertainty revolving around the varying definitions of a complication.)

And when the Henry Graves Supercomplication, as the pocket watch is known, came up for auction in 2014 at Sotheby’s in Geneva, it sold for $24 million, besting its pre-sale estimate of around $16.8 million.

Although the Instagram account of the master watchmaker François-Paul Journe tops 62,400 followers, he said the rise of social media actually turned him off bespoke watchmaking.

“Up until 1999, when I started my ‘prêt-à-porter’ collection, making watches for special clients was my métier,” Mr. Journe said in an interview, referring to the jeweled pocket watches he sold to Asprey in London, which, in turn, were sold to the sultan of Oman. “Today, it is too complicated to make a special piece, because as soon as a photo is posted on Instagram, other clients want the same thing.”

Last year, when Mr. Journe announced that he would end the 20-year run of his hallmark model, the Tourbillon Souverain, he said he would make an ultimate special edition run with a ruby-set dial, a nod to his early bespoke jewelry pieces. But he is making only 20 of the Tourbillon Souverain Coeur de Rubis, slowly, allocating each completed watch to someone on his waiting list.

“Today, if I do a truly special piece, it is only for a handpicked client, but mostly for the pleasure it gives me,” Mr. Journe said. And, from a watchmaker’s perspective, that is true “wrist power.”

{Source]

[near-lawrence-county-tn-blog]

Near Lawrence County TN

Tornadoes

Every year, tornadoes kill around 70 people in the United States and its damage in properties costs around $400 million. Even though Tennessee is not located directly on the "tornado alley", its geographical location makes for a high frequency of tornado occurrence. In Summertown, historical tornado activity is slightly above Tennessee state average which is 108% greater than the overall U.S. average. Two of the worst tornadoes that occur in this county happened on May 18, 1995, and on April 16, 1998. The first is an F-4 tornado which caused up to $5 million in damages, and the second is an F-5 tornado which injured 36 people and caused $13 million in damages.

McBrides Concrete

McBrides Concrete pours concrete for new homes throughout the Columbia, Lawrence, and Giles Counties. The company can do foundations, driveways, sidewalks, patios, and concrete pool decks. The entrance to your home is very important that is why having a driveway that will provide safety and ease is necessary. McBrides Concrete can make your driveway safe and even have a pleasing aesthetics that will match the exterior of your home. A relaxing, beautiful, and easy to maintain patio is also one of the services the company can offer its customers. Nowadays, concrete is the most popular patio material in the country and the company can provide you with the high-quality concrete pour you desire.

Boys Hoops Nominees Named

Gryson Penrod, Agathos Classical junior. At the low-post position, Penrod averaged a double-double — 15 points, 12 rebounds — including a 23-rebound performance. He shot 47 percent from the floor and averaged nearly three steals per game. Read more here

The Daily Herald's 2019 Southern Tennessee All-Star Prep Awards for boy's basketball have recently received its nominations. The nominees are as follows: Greyson Penrod, Carson Cary, Dontavius Brown, Kelton Pilkinton, Hunter Jones, Zyshon Alderson, Daniel Nicholson, Malachi Young, Brady Brown, and Briggs Rutter. The winners will be announced at the fourth annual Southern Tennessee All-Star Prep Awards banquet, which will be held at Columbia Central High School on June 6. The event will recognize nearly 150 area high school athletes in more than 20 sports. The Daily Herald will also honor the area's top athlete based on their performance in each sport. An all-academic award will be presented in each sport as well.

Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee

Considered as the longest-running radio broadcast in the history of the United States, the Grand Ole Opry is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded by George Hay on November 28, 1925 and is currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment. Every week, it attracts thousands of visitors from around the world to listen to its famous singers and contemporary chart-topper performances, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. In addition to its radio programs, performances have been televised over the years. It has even penetrated the internet.

Link to map

Driving Direction

1 h 26 min (80.9 miles)

via I-65 S and US-43 S

Fastest route, the usual traffic

Grand Ole Opry

2804 Opryland Dr, Nashville, TN 37214, USA

Get on TN-155 S

4 min (1.2 mi)

Continue on TN-155 S. Take I-65 S and TN-396 W to US-31 S in Maury County. Take the U.S. 31 S exit from TN-396 W

38 min (41.6 mi)

Continue on US-31 S. Take US-43 S to Buffalo Rd in Lawrence County

44 min (38.2 mi)

McBrides Concrete

3601 Buffalo Rd

Summertown, TN 38483

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

99 Science Facts

1. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.

2. It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.

3. In October 1999 the 6 billionth person was born.

4. 10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

5. The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph.

6. Every year over one million earthquakes shake the Earth.

7. The largest ever hailstone weighed over 1 kg and fell in Bangladesh in 1986.

8. Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.

9. Every year lightning kills 1000 people.

10. In October 1999 an Iceberg the size of London broke free from the Antarctic ice shelf.

11. If you could drive your car straight up you would arrive in space in just over an hour.

12. All the hydrogen atoms in our bodies were created 12 billion years ago in the Big Bang.

13. The Earth is 4.56 billion years old…the same age as the Moon and the Sun.

14. The dinosaurs became extinct before the Rockies or the Alps were formed.

15. Female black widow spiders eat their males after mating.

16. When a flea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launch.

17. The earliest wine makers lived in Egypt around 2300 BC.

18. If our Sun were just inch in diameter, the nearest star would be 445 miles away.

19. The Australian billy goat plum contains 100 times more vitamin C than an orange.

20. Astronauts cannot belch - there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

21. The air at the summit of Mount Everest, 29,029 feet is only a third as thick as the air at sea level.

22. One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a …pea.

23. DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Swiss Friedrich Mieschler.

24. The molecular structure of DNA was first determined by Watson and Crick in 1953.

25. The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo.

26. Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250.

27. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866.

28. Wilhelm Rontgen won the first Nobel Prize for physics for discovering X-rays in 1895.

29. The tallest tree ever was an Australian eucalyptus - In 1872 it was measured at 435 feet tall.

30. Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967 - the patient lived for 18 days.

31. The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight.

32. An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.

33. Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m.

34. Chimps can understand 300 different signs.

35. The Ebola virus kills 4 out of every 5 humans it infects.

36. In 5 billion years the Sun will run out of fuel and turn into a Red Giant.

37. Without its lining of mucus your stomach would digest itself.

38. Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14 and crayfish have 200.

39. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

40. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

41. On the day that Alexander Graham Bell was buried the entire US telephone system was shut down for 1 minute in tribute.

42. The low frequency call of the humpback whale is the loudest noise made by a living creature.

43. The call of the humpback whale is louder than Concorde and can be heard from 500 miles away.

44. A quarter of the world’s plants are threatened with extinction by the year 2010.

45. Each person sheds 40lbs of skin in his or her lifetime.

46. At 15 inches the eyes of giant squids are the largest on the planet.

47. The largest galaxies contain a million, million stars.

48. The Universe contains over 100 billion galaxies.

49. Wounds infested with maggots heal quickly and without spread of gangrene or other infection.

50. More germs are transferred shaking hands than kissing.

51. The longest glacier in Antarctica, the Almbert glacier, is 250 miles long and 40 miles wide.

52. The fastest speed a falling raindrop can hit you is 18mph.

53. A salmon-rich, low cholesterol diet means that Inuits rarely suffer from heart disease.

54. Inbreeding causes 3 out of every 10 Dalmation dogs to suffer from hearing disability.

55. The world’s smallest winged insect, the Tanzanian parasitic wasp, is smaller than the eye of a housefly.

56.  If the Sun were the size of a beach ball then Jupiter would be the size  of a golf ball and the Earth would be as small as a pea.

57. It would take over an hour for a heavy object to sink 6.7 miles down to the deepest part of the ocean.

58. There are more living organisms on the skin of each human than there are humans on the surface of the earth.

59. The grey whale migrates 12,500 miles from the Artic to Mexico and back every year.

60. Quasars emit more energy than 100 giant galaxies.

61. Quasars are the most distant objects in the Universe.

62. The Saturn V rocket which carried man to the Moon develops power equivalent to fifty 747 jumbo jets.

63. Koalas sleep an average of 22 hours a day, two hours more than the sloth.

64. Light would take .13 seconds to travel around the Earth.

65. Neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoonful would weigh more than all the people on Earth.

66. One in every 2000 babies is born with a tooth.

67. Every hour the Universe expands by a billion miles in all directions.

68. Somewhere in the flicker of a badly tuned TV set is the background radiation from the Big Bang.

69. The temperature in Antarctica plummets as low as -35 degrees Celsius.

70. Space debris travels through space at over 18,000 mph.

71. The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field.

72. Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.

73. Tuberculosis is the biggest global killer of women.

74. Hummingbirds consume half of their body weight in food every day.

75. Some species of bamboo grow at a rate of 3ft per day.

76. Saturn would float if you could find an ocean big enough.

77. The highest recorded train speed is 320.2 mph by the TGV train in France.

78. The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 166.94 mph by Fred Rompelburg.

79. The research spacecraft Helios B came within a record 27 million miles of the Sun.

80. 65 million years ago the impact of an asteroid is estimated to have had the power of 10 million H-Bombs.

81. The temperature at the centre of the Earth is estimated to be 5500 degrees Celsius.

82. Argentia in Newfoundland has an average 206 days of fog each year.

83. Mount Waiale’ale in Hawaii is the rainiest place in the world and has 335 rainy days a year.

84. 68% of all UFO sightings are by men.

85. 15% of the world’s fresh water flows down the Amazon.

86. A cat has 32 sets of muscles in each ear.

87. Over two-thirds of people admit to urinating while in public swimming pools.

88. More people die of heart attacks on Monday than on any other day of the week.

89.  Beetles are the strongest animals on Earth relative to their size. A   rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight in its back.

90. In 1961 the Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in Space.

91. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

92. In 1885 Karl Benz built the first car powered by an internal combustion engine.

93. Scotsman John Baird invented the Baird televisor (now the television) in 1925.

94. Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, is the most volcanically active place in the Solar System.

95. The Walkman was launched in Japan by Sony in 1979.

96. Traffic lights with red and green gas lights were first  introduced in London in 1868. Unfortunately, they exploded and killed a  policeman. The first successful system was installed in Cleveland, Ohio  in 1914.

97. Ticks are second only to the mosquito as the most dangerous parasites to humans.

98. 3 billion of the world’s 6 billion population are under the age of 25.

99. Infant mortality in 1900 was 142 in 1000 births. By 2000 it had reduced to just 6 in every 1000.

[snowdice]

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 10]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and what I have of Chapter 5 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

It’s going to be stop and go for most of the night because a lot of things will interrupt me, but I hope to do a good amount of this today.

Chapter 2

The morning was just as torturous as Janus had expected it would be. He chewed through another pop-tart, this time bothering to actually check and see that it was a cinnamon-sugar one and drank three cups of caffeinated orange juice. Then, he waved his hand through the air and selected the 1st saved location on his device. He popped up directly behind his desk where he’d been standing the night morning before.

Someone, probably Remus, had shut his integrator down. He swiped a finger across the power button, and it flickered back on, scrolling through its morning start up routine.

 The machine scanned through all of the data in the three main system it was connected to and sorted all information into things that concerned him, could concern him, and did not before then sorting the first two categories into order of importance. As it did, he set up his screen reader so he would hopefully not start the day with more of a migraine than he already had. It took about 3 seconds for everything to turn on and settle.

Sitting down in his desk, he dismissed the notification that Remus had finished and submitted the report from their mission the day before.

 A mission had been scheduled for him today, and the details were in his inbox. A piece time travel technology had been accidently dropped by an archology student in the 1890s during a trip. It was an earlier model of emergency time travel given to time travels that would dump them back into the Registration Office in the year they originated. It wasn’t extremely dangerous, but could pose some problems, especially if someone who didn’t know what it was activated it.

Surveillance agents had tracked it down and found that it had been picked up by a local and sold. Though no one from that time had known what it was, they had identified that it was made out of a precious metal and it had been crafted into an expensive necklace. Janus and Remus were supposed to retrieve it today. It had been pinpointed that the most opportune time for the extraction was 1923 during a masquerade ball held by those who had bought the necklace.

 It was a fairly low stakes mission. He wasn’t set to leave for another couple of hours, so he clicked through the rest of the important notifications and then set off to meet his missions coordinator, Rhi, in her office.

Rhi and Janus got along fairly well. She was a well put together woman who took her job incredibly seriously. It was fair as her job was to organize all information and materials from every other department and make sure the agents she was assigned to got and understood all of it. A mistake from her could lead to an agent’s death or something far worse.

 This, of course, made her relationship with Remus… interesting to say the least. Janus could never place whether they were nemesis, frenemies, or mortal enemies, and he doubted he would ever know.

“Okay, but it’s the 1920s America,” Remus was already in her office arguing when Janus arrived. “There were so many gangsters! I could be a gangster. I would make a fantastic gangster! Just give me a gun, a snazzy suit with a white hat, and a buttload of alcohol. I will be running Chicago with Al Capone in five minutes.”

“Al Capone didn’t become a crime boss until 1925 and you are going to 1923,” Rhi said, sounding bored, “you aren’t going to Chicago, and as I have already stated, your cover is already decided.”

 “But-”

“It is nonnegotiable, Agent Clockson,” she said firmly. Remus pouted, but seemingly accepted his fate.

“May I come in?” Janus asked.

“Please do,” Rhi said. “You have been to the 1920s before, correct?” she asked Janus.

“Yes ma’am.”

She tapped the screen on her desk in response. “In the last two years?”

“About two months ago,” he responded. She tapped something else.

“Any blacks, reds, or yellows?” she asked.

“All green.”

“Great. Do you need a refresher course on basic cultural or linguistic procedures?”

“No.”

She pushed one more thing and then swiped the check-in document over to him. He glanced at the report stating he’d had no incidents of any level the last time he visited the 1920s and had opted out of the optional refresher course, and then pressed his finger against the screen to sign it with his fingerprint.

 The document returned to her side of the desk automatically. “Okay,” she said swiping another document from her left over to be in front of her. She twisted her wrist to copy it and slide copies to Janus and Remus. “Here are exact details on the time, place, and event you are going to, as well as details about your cover.” Janus scrolled through his quickly. It wasn’t as detailed as some he’d had considering this was a brief in-and-out missing, but he still took care to memorize everything on the page.

As he and Remus read through their things, Rhi got to her feet and turned to the storage compartments behind her desk.

 She grabbed out two packages and when they’d both signed that they’d read and understood the paperwork, she slid them across the desk to them. “These have everything you need,” she said. “Clothes, money, and an invitation to the party you’re off to attend. You are to get changed now, have a last check in with costuming to make sure everything is in order, and then report to decontamination in 23 minutes. Your set to leave in 38 minutes. Any questions?”

“How much-?” Remus started.

“None, agent,” Rhi said.

“But-”

“No alcohol,” Rhi said. “It is the prohibition era in the United States anyway.”

“Like there’s not going to be alcohol at the rich people party,” Remus said sullenly.

She pressed her lips together. “It is an in-and-out mission,” she said to both of them, and then turned to glare at Remus. “Do not get arrested.”

 “I don’t know,” Remus said joyfully. “I think I still have room for a 1920s mug shot on my wall.”

“Behave,” she said, “or I’ll report you for the cat you smuggled in from the 1800s.”

“You’d never,” Remus said. “You enjoy the cute pictures of Diesel Fuel I send you every day too much, and you know it!”

“Just… don’t get arrested.” She turned to Janus. “Don’t let him get arrested.”

“I’ll do my best,” Janus promised, standing. “Now come on, Remus, we need to get changed.”

“You just want to see me naked,” Remus replied with a wink, but he did stand.

 “If I see you naked one more time in my life Remus, my eyeballs will fall out of their sockets,” Janus said, waving to Rhi as he pulled Remus out of the door.

“Kinky.”

Janus’s eyeballs almost did fall out right then and there with how hard he rolled them.

They got changed quickly, Remus complaining and saying if he couldn’t dress like a gangster, he should at least be allowed to wear a flapper dress. Janus had long ago learned to ignore his ramblings. He did seem enthused about the included mask for the masquerade. It was a silver fox shaped mask with green accents that reminded Janus of the Egyptian God Anubis.

 Janus’s own mask on the other hand, was only designed to take up the left half of his face. It was mostly golden with a black swirled design. Attached to the side there was a plume of golden tipped white feathers. He had to give it to the costuming department, they did have good taste.

Once they were both dressed, they were poked and prodded by one of the costumers to make sure everything was accurate, fit right, and had been put on correctly.

After that, they went to the decontamination area to have themselves and everything they were taking with them sterilized so they didn’t accidently take any pathogens to the 1920s. They also received an oral vaccination to be sure they didn’t pick up anything from the 1920s and bring it back.

Then they were ready to go. The correct time-space coordinates had already been sent to their timepieces. With a push of a button, they were off.

  Inciting Incident

Chapter 3

Janus and Remus both appeared at the same moment a couple of feet apart in what looked like the inside of a garden shed. There was already a man waiting for them a few feet away. “Sup babes,” Remy said, just like he always did. The T-Agent looked their costumes up and down and whistled. “Now that,” he said, “almost makes me want to be one of you time jockeys.”

“They wouldn’t let me have a gun or a canister of moonshine,” Remus pouted.

Remy snorted. “Sorry, babes, but that makes my job a lot easier. If I’ve gotta fish you outta the 1920s criminal justice system, I’d rather it not be because you shot someone on accident ‘cause you don’t know how to use the safety.”

 Remus groaned dramatically. “Everyone is lame.”

Remy just shook his head. “Meet back here when you’ve got the necklace,” he said. “Don’t make a move until after 11:05pm and before 11:17. That’s your window.”

“We know,” Janus said. “See you then.”

“Have fun at the party boys,” Remy said and then lowered his shades to look at Remus, “but not too much fun.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Remus, already towing Janus out of the garden shed. The way had been specifically cleared for them, so they met no other people before they’d rounded the house the party was taking place and had gotten onto the driveway in front of the house.

 Without missing a beat, they strolled up to the front of the house, just as a car pulled into the end of the driveway. Janus rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, a man who was clearly the butler answered the door. They handed over their invitation, and the man immediately let them in.

The party had already started when they slipped into the medium sized ballroom that had been decked out in streamers and other decorations. Janus’s nose immediately wanted to scrunch as the smell of sweat from all the dancing already going on as well as the too strong perfume meant to cover that stench wafted over him. It was by far not the worst smelling time period, but he was pretty sure some people still weren’t aware deodorant had been recently invented.

 He checked his time piece which had been disguised as a fancy wristwatch for this trip. “Okay,” he said. “We have about two hours before we need to make our move. We should…”

Remus’s attention was already being dragged away by a young man who seemed to be providing guests with food. “I’m going to go ‘mingle’,” he said, winking.

“No!” Janus hissed. “Re- Richard! No!”

Yet, he was already disappearing into the horde of stinky bodies, likely to go scandalize a bunch of rich folks, and leaving Janus alone. Janus mumbled a curse under his breath that he was sure no one around him would understand even if they could make it out.

 Unsure what to do with himself, he wandered over towards where the live musicians were playing jazz music, being sure to keep out of the way of the dancers. He was edging around the makeshift dancefloor, when one of said dancers must have misstepped and knocked into another one. The second man stumbled right towards Janus, arms pinwheeling. Janus reached out on instinct to catch the man as he fell.

There was a moment where the two of them just stared at each other, surprise evident on the other man’s face. He was wearing a mask that just covered the area around his eyes and the top of his nose, revealing a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that Janus imagined extended to his nose.

 The mask was a light blue velvet with a flower stuck on the side near his right ear, and a trail of curled golden ribbon bobbed down around his chin. The party continued on around them, a blur of movement and sound.

“Are you alright?” Janus asked.

The man blinked up at him and then tilted his head slightly to the side as though confused, before a smile slowly grew on his face. “Oh, I’m fine Dove.”

“Dove?” Janus asked.

He giggled. “You have dove feathers on your mask,” he explained, reaching up a hand to touch one. His finger brushed the tip of Janus’s ear, “and I don’t know what else I am supposed to call you.”

 “My name is Lee,” he automatically lied.

“Is it?” he asked, sounding amused. “Doesn’t seem to fit you well. I like Dove better.”

“Oh?” asked Janus. “And what’s your name so I can not call you that?”

The man chuckled. “Call me Pat.”

“Hello Pat,” Janus said.

“I thought you didn’t want to call me by my name.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Hmmm,” Pat said, finger tracing idly across Janus’s forearm which was when Janus realized with a start that he was still holding the man in his arms. He quickly went to release him, which Pat allowed with clear amusement.

 Yet, instead of completely stepping away, Pat grabbed Janus’s arm. “What are you doing all the way over here by the way?” he asked. “Don’t you want to dance.”

“Oh,” Janus hesitated. “I don’t really dance.” Or at least not in the way the people around him were. He’d had basic training for this style, but it had been a while and he was a bit rusty.

“Everyone dances Dove,” Pat claimed. “At least if they know the steps and have the right partner.”

“But I don’t know the steps,” Janus said with an eyebrow raise.

He hummed. “Well, I know the dance pretty well by this point,” Pat said. “Why don’t I teach you how it goes.”

 He was agreeing with the soft beseeching tone before he even realized it. Pat pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. He seemed to think, bopping his head to the music playing for a moment, before looking back at Janus. “Heard of James Johnson?”

Janus inclined his head.

“Well, have you heard his new song? Because there’s a dance that goes with it.”

He took a few steps away from Janus and started to dance. Despite his claim to know the steps, he wasn’t particularly good, but he made up for any loss of rhythm with pure enthusiasm.

 Janus found himself smiling at the man, and after a few moments, joined in with the dance. Despite his lack of practice, he ended up having a better natural rhythm than Pat. Pat didn’t seem to mind that he was being outperformed, however. On the contrary, he giggled at himself the couple of times he stumbled.

When he fell into Janus’s arms for the second time that night, Janus decided he’d probably had enough dancing for the moment and pulled him off to the side to get something to drink and cool down a bit.

He watched the man take a snack and some punch from one of servers and thank him happily before turning back to Janus. Pat was easily able to keep Janus’s attention as they chatted. He was bubbly and soft, and Janus found himself enchanted as they talked.

 He was explaining the steps of a different dance, a couples one. “Knowing how to perform the tango will entrance any girl you want,” Pat said, something mischievous sparkling in his eyes. “Assuming you’re that type of fella.”

“As opposed to what?” Janus asked.

Pat leaned in a bit closer. Not too much, but enough that he was definitely in Janus’s space. “A different type of fella,” he said simply, before smiling and leaning back.

Janus let out a shaky exhale and took a sip of punch. He glanced over at Pat. “Tell me about yourself, Pat,” he said.

Pat hummed in contemplation. “Well, I went to France recently.”

 “You did?”

“Oui, c'était amusant, mais j'ai eu des ennuis”

“What kind of trouble?” Janus asked curiously.

“Oh, the kind with a pretty boy and crepes that were way too sweet. Anyway,” he continued. “Other than that, I mostly help out my friend. He’s an inventor.”

“And how do you help him.”

He shrugged, “Running errands mostly, and making sure he gets enough sleep, because otherwise he gets distracted and forgets. And you?”

“I’m a banker,” he said, remembering his cover, but felt compelled to add, “but I like to travel as well.”

“You do look the type?”

“And how is that?”

   Pat shrugged. “I can always tell a wandering spirt from the masses, and you are easy to spot.” Pat looked at him then with a secret smile on his face, and Janus felt suddenly known, like the man in front of him had known him for years even though they’d only just met. Looking at him then, he wanted suddenly for that to be fact and not a flight of fancy.

He was brought firmly back to reality in the next moment. “Lee,” a pointed and familiar voice said. Janus’s head snapped up to see Remus, staring at him. He tapped his wrist. Janus glanced at his own wrist: 10:58pm. He just barely managed not to curse.

 “I,” he said looking up at Pat. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“That’s okay,” Pat said easily. “It is getting rather late.”

“Yes,” Janus agreed. “Well… goodbye.”

Pat, titled his head, a half smile on his face. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

Janus nodded, and turned away from him towards Remus. He didn’t look back as they excited the ballroom. They snuck into a small side closet for coats that wasn’t being used as it was summer.

“So,” Remus said when the door closed behind them.

“Don’t,” warned Janus.

“I’m not one to judge,” Remus said.

“Shut up.” He glanced at his watch. It was 11:02. “We’ll go in 5.”

 “I have to give it to you. He was very cute.”

“We’re not talking about it.”

Remus just laughed joyfully, and Janus did his best to halt the blood rushing to his cheeks.

At 11:07, well into their window, they slipped back out of the closet, and towards the stairs as the party raged on.

Despite how Remus usually never shut up, he was able to be quiet when it counted. They snuck to the master bedroom of the home’s owners in silence. The door was already wide open by the time they got there, and Janus didn’t think anything of it. At least, he didn’t until they entered the bedroom, and there was someone already there.

 He turned from the dresser he’d been standing in front of to face them, sending Janus the same smile he had down in the ballroom. Janus and Remus both froze. “Sorry, sweetie,” Pat said. “Were you here for this too?” he held up the necklace they’d been sent for. He closed his fist around the charm made out of time travel tech.

“What?” Janus said.

Pat giggled and winked. “Unfortunately, I need it a bit more than you at the moment. So, I’m gonna have to go.” Janus stepped forward, not really sure what he was intending to do, but Pat just smiled. “See you some other time, my Turtle Dove.” With a snap of his fingers and loud crack, he disappeared. The mask he’d been wearing fluttered to the ground.

  Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

 Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

 “Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

 “Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

 He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

 “I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

 “Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

 “But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

 After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

 He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

 He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

 Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

 “It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

 “I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

 Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

 Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

 Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

 The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

 Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

 “It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

 “My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

 “Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

[blackkudos]

Arturo Schomburg

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, also Arthur Schomburg (January 24, 1874 – June 8, 1938), was a historian, writer, and activist. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent who moved to the United States and researched and raised awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which was purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.

Early years

Schomburg was born in the town of Santurce, Puerto Rico (now part of San Juan), to María Josefa, a freeborn black midwife from St. Croix, and Carlos Federico Schomburg, a German merchant living in Puerto Rico.

While Schomburg was in grade school, one of his teachers claimed that blacks had no history, heroes or accomplishments. Inspired to prove the teacher wrong, Schomburg determined that he would find and document the accomplishments of Africans on their own continent and in the diaspora. Schomburg was educated at San Juan's Instituto Popular, where he learned commercial printing. At St. Thomas College in the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands, he studied Negro Literature.

Puerto Rico independence advocate

Schomburg immigrated to New York City on April 17, 1891, and settled in the Harlem section of Manhattan. He continued his studies to untangle the African thread of history in the fabric of the Americas. After experiencing racial discrimination in the US, he began calling himself "Afroborinqueño" which means "Afro-Puerto Rican". He became a member of the "Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico" and became an active advocate of Puerto Rico's and Cuba's independence from Spain.

Marriage and family

On June 30, 1895, Schomburg married Elizabeth Hatcher of Staunton, Virginia. She had come to New York as part of a wave of migration from the South that would increase in the 20th century and be known as the Great Migration. They had three sons: Maximo Gomez; Arthur Alfonso, Jr. and Kingsley Guarionex Schomburg.

After Elizabeth died in 1900, Schomburg married Elizabeth Morrow Taylor of Williamsburg, a village in Rockingham County, North Carolina. They were married on March 17, 1902, and had two sons: Reginald Stanton and Nathaniel José Schomburg.

Career

In 1896, Schomburg began teaching Spanish in New York. From 1901 to 1906 Schomburg was employed as messenger and clerk in the law firm of Pryor, Mellis and Harris, New York City. In 1906, he began working for the Bankers Trust Company. Later, he became a supervisor of the Caribbean and Latin American Mail Section, and held that until he left in 1929.

While supporting himself and his family, Schomburg began his intellectual work of writing about Caribbean and African-American history. His first known article, "Is Hayti Decadent?", was published in 1904 in The Unique Advertiser. In 1909 he wrote Placido, a Cuban Martyr, a short pamphlet about the poet and independence fighter Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés.

The Negro Society for Historical Research

In 1911, Schomburg co-founded with John Edward Bruce the Negro Society for Historical Research, to create an institute to support scholarly efforts. For the first time it brought together African, West Indian and Afro-American scholars. Schomburg was later to become the President of the American Negro Academy, founded in Washington, DC in 1874, which championed black history and literature.

This was a period of founding of societies to encourage scholarship in African American history. In 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) and began publishing the Journal of Negro History.

Schomburg became involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement, which spread to other African-American communities in the U.S. The concentration of blacks in Harlem from across the US and Caribbean led to a flowering of arts, intellectual and political movements. He was the co-editor of the 1912 edition of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray's Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.

In 1916 Schomburg published what was the first notable bibliography of African-American poetry, A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry.

In March 1925 Schomburg published his essay "The Negro Digs Up His Past" in an issue of Survey Graphic devoted to the intellectual life of Harlem. It had widespread distribution and influence. The autodidact historian John Henrik Clarke told of being so inspired by the essay that at the age of 17 he left home in Columbus, Georgia, to seek out Mr. Schomburg to further his studies in African history. Alain Locke included the essay in his edited collection The New Negro.

The Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art

The NYPL and the librarian of the 135th Street Branch, Ernestine Rose, the NYPL purchased his extensive collection of literature, art and other materials in 1926. They appointed Schomburg curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art, named in his honor, at the 135th Street Branch (Harlem) of the Library. It was later renamed the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Between 1931 and 1932 Schomburg served as Curator of the Negro Collection at the library of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, helping direct their acquisition of materials. During 1932 he traveled to Cuba. While there he met various Cuban artists and writers, and acquired more material for his studies.

He was granted an honorary membership of the Men's Business Club in Yonkers, New York. He also held the position of treasurer for the Loyal Sons of Africa in New York and was elevated being the past master of Prince Hall Lodge Number 38, Free and Accepted Masons (F.A.M.) and Rising Sun Chapter Number 4, R.A.M.

Later years

Following dental surgery, Schomburg became ill and died in Madison Park Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, on June 8, 1938. He is buried in grave 13785 in the Locust Grove section of Cypress Hill Cemetery.

Legacy

By the 1920s Schomburg had amassed a collection which consisted of artworks, manuscripts, rare books, slave narratives and other artifacts of Black history. In 1926 the New York Public Library purchased his collection for $10,000 with the help of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The collection formed the cornerstone of the Library's Division of Negro History at its 135th Street Branch in Harlem. The library appointed Schomburg curator of the collection, which was named in his honor: the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Schomburg used his proceeds from the sale to fund travel to Spain, France, Germany and England, to seek out more pieces of black history to add to the collection. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Schomburg to his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

To honor Schomburg, Hampshire College awards a $30,000 merit-based scholarship in his name for students who "demonstrate promise in the areas of strong academic performance and leadership at Hampshire College and in the community."

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg's work served as an inspiration to Puerto Ricans, Latinos and Afro-American alike. The power of knowing about the great contribution that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-American have made to society, helped continuing work and future generations in the Civil rights movement.

Wikipedia

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The Ultimate Guide To Build Your Own Pool

A pool, swimming shower, swimming pool, rowing pool, or essentially pool is a structure intended to hold water to empower swimming or other relaxation exercises. Pools can be incorporated into the ground (in-ground

pools) or worked over the ground (as an unsupported development or as a component of a structure or other bigger structure), and might be found as an element on board sea liners and voyage ships. Pool kaufen In-ground pools are

most usually developed from materials, for example, solid, regular stone, metal, plastic, or fiberglass, and can be of a custom size and shape or worked to a normalized size, the biggest of which is the Olympic-size pool.

Numerous gyms, wellness focuses, and exclusive hangouts have pools utilized generally for exercise or diversion. It is regular for regions of each size to give pools to public use. Huge numbers of these metropolitan pools are

outside pools however indoor pools can likewise be found in structures, for example, relaxation focuses. Inns may have pools accessible for their visitors to use at their own relaxation. Pools as a component in inns are more

normal in traveler zones or close to assembly halls. Instructive offices, for example, secondary schools and colleges some of the time have pools for actual training classes, recreational exercises, relaxation, and serious sports,

for example, swimming crews. Hot tubs and spas are pools loaded up with water that is warmed and afterward utilized for unwinding or hydrotherapy. Uniquely planned pools are additionally utilized for jumping, water

sports, and exercise based recuperation, just as for the preparation of lifeguards and space explorers. Pools most normally utilize chlorinated water or salt water and might be warmed or unheated.

The "Incomparable Bath" at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in cutting edge Pakistan was in all probability the principal pool, burrowed during the third thousand years BC. This pool is 12 by 7 meters (39 by 23 feet), is fixed

with blocks, and was covered with a tar-based sealant.

Old Greeks and Romans fabricated fake pools for athletic preparing in the palaestras, for nautical games and for military activities. Roman rulers had private pools in which fish were likewise kept, consequently one of the

Latin words for a pool was piscina. The initially warmed pool was worked by Gaius Maecenas in his nurseries on the Esquiline Hill of Rome, likely at some point somewhere in the range of 38 and 8 BC.  Gaius Maecenas

was a well off magnificent counselor to Augustus and considered one of the main supporters of arts.

Old Sinhalese constructed sets of pools called "Kuttam Pokuna" in the realm of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in the fourth century BC. They were embellished with trips of steps, punkalas or pots of plenitude, and parchment

design.

nineteenth century

Pools got mainstream in Britain during the nineteenth century. As right on time as 1837, six indoor pools with plunging loads up existed in London, England. The Maidstone Swimming Club in Maidstone, Kent is accepted

to be the most seasoned enduring swimming club in Britain. It was framed in 1844, in light of worries over drownings in the River Medway, particularly since would-be rescuers would regularly suffocate on the grounds that

they, at the end of the day, couldn't swim to security. The club used to swim in the River Medway, and would hold races, plunging rivalries and water polo matches. The South East Gazette July 1844 announced an

amphibian breakfast party: espresso and bread rolls were served on a skimming pontoon in the waterway. The espresso was kept hot over a fire; club individuals needed to float and drink espresso simultaneously. The last

swimmers figured out how to upset the pontoon, to the delight of 150 spectators.

The Amateur Swimming Association was established in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909. The presence of indoor showers in the cobbled region of Merton Street may have convinced the less solid

of the oceanic detachment to join. Thus, bathers continuously became swimmers, and washing pools became swimming pools.. In 1939, Oxford made its first significant public indoor pool at Temple Cowley.

The advanced Olympic Games began in 1896 and included swimming races, after which the prominence of pools started to spread. In the US, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia clubhouse (1907) brags one the world's first

current over the ground pools. The main pool to go to the ocean on a sea liner was introduced on the White Star Line's Adriatic in 1906. The most seasoned known public pool in America, Underwood Pool, is situated in

Belmont, Massachusetts.

Interest in serious swimming developed after World War I. Guidelines improved and preparing got fundamental. Home pools got famous in the United States after World War II and the exposure given to swimming games

by Hollywood movies, for example, Esther Williams' Million Dollar Mermaid made a home pool an alluring superficial point of interest. Over 50 years after the fact, the home or private pool is a typical sight. Some little

countries appreciate a flourishing pool industry (e.g., New Zealand pop. 4,116,900 [Source NZ Census 7 March 2006] – holds the record in pools per capita with 65,000 home pools and 125,000 spa pools).

A two-story, white solid pool building made out of flat cubic volumes worked in 1959 at the Royal Roads Military College is on the Registry of Historic Places of Canada.

As per the Guinness World Records, the biggest pool on the planet is San Alfonso del Mar Seawater pool in Algarrobo, Chile. It is 1,013 m (3,323 ft) long and has a region of 8 ha (20 sections of land). At its most

profound, it is 3.5 m (11 ft) deep. It was finished in December 2006.

The biggest indoor wave pool in North America is at the West Edmonton Mall and the biggest indoor pool is at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in the Sonny Carter Training Facility at NASA JSC in Houston.

In 2014, the Y-40 pool at the Hotel Terme Millepini in Padua, Italy turned into the most profound indoor pool at 42.15 m (138.3 ft), confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records  The recreational jumping place

Nemo 33 close to Brussels, Belgium recently held the record (34.5 m (113 ft)) from May 2004 until the Y-40 was finished in June 2014.

The Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco was the biggest warmed open air pool in the United States. Opened on 23 April 1925, it estimated 1,000 by 150 ft (300 by 50 m) and was enormous to the point that the lifeguards

required kayaks for watch. It was shut in 1971 because of low patronage.

In Europe, the biggest pool opened in 1934 in Elbląg (Poland), giving a water territory of 33,500 square meters (361,000 sq ft).

One of the biggest pools ever constructed was supposedly made in Moscow after the Palace of Soviets stayed uncompleted. The establishments of the royal residence were changed over into the Moskva Pool outside pool

after the cycle of de-Stalinisation. However, after the fall of socialism, Christ the Savior Cathedral was re-based on the site somewhere in the range of 1995 and 2000; the church building had initially been found there.

The most noteworthy pool is accepted to be in Yangbajain (Tibet, China). This retreat is situated at 4200 m AMSL and has two indoor pools and one outside pool, all loaded up with water from hot springs.