title: Newsies (musical)

text: The next morning, Spot Conlon and the Brooklyn newsies declare their support of the strike and head to the rally ("Brooklyn's Here"). Jack, believing there is no way the newsies can win against Pulitzer's money, power, and connections, shows up to the rally to reluctantly suggest the strike be called off. He accepts the Santa Fe money from one of Pulitzer's men as Davey, Spot, and the other newsies watch in disbelief, calling him a traitor and a scab. Jack flees to his rooftop, only to find that Katherine has beaten him there. She has discovered Jack's drawings of the abuse he suffered at the Refuge among his belongings and realizes that he stole to feed and clothe the other boys. They argue about their respective betrayals and the fate of the strike, but the argument is cut short when she impulsively kisses him. Katherine has a new idea: use Jack's drawings and one of her articles to print their own newspaper, calling for every worker under 21 to strike alongside the newsies. Jack agrees, recalling an abandoned printing press in Pulitzer's cellar, but before getting to work, they share a romantic moment, each stating that the other has given them "something to believe in" ("Something to Believe In").


title: Newsies (musical)

text: The other newsies join Jack and Katherine in printing their own paper, the "Newsies Banner", and distribute copies throughout the city ("Once and for All"). A copy reaches Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who arrives in full support of the newsies' cause. Roosevelt gives Pulitzer an ultimatum, forcing the latter to concede to Jack's demands. Jack proposes that Pulitzer buy back every paper the newsies fail to sell each day. Initially reluctant, Pulitzer agrees when Jack points out he will still ultimately benefit from the increased sales. Jack and Roosevelt inform the newsies that the strike is over and they have won. As the newsies celebrate, Roosevelt informs them that he has shut down the Refuge, citing Jack's drawings as his motivation to do so. Crutchie returns to his friends, and Snyder is arrested. Impressed at the influence Jack's drawings had on the governor, Pulitzer offers him a job as a daily political cartoonist. Jack declines, claiming it is time he leaves for Santa Fe, but Davey, Katherine, and Crutchie remind him that "New York's got us, and we're your family." Ultimately, Jack decides to stay and chooses to remain a newsboy as well as accept the cartoonist job ("Finale").


title: Newsies (musical)

text: Jack Kelly is the amalgamation of several historical leaders in the Newsboys’ Strike of 1899, primarily Kid Blink (who is featured in the film but omitted from the musical), who was known as a charismatic speaker and a leader to the younger boys. Other real strikers included in the show are Racetrack Higgins, Mush Meyers, and Spot Conlon. Although Katherine Plumber is a fictional character, she is named for Pulitzer's daughter Katherine Ethel, who died of pneumonia in 1884 at the age of 2. Many newsgirls participated in the strike as well, a fact largely ignored by both the film and the musical. However, new stage adaptations are rumored to include more "girlsie" roles written in, as well as many characters who have been written as gender-neutral in the script currently available for licensing.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: In the musical, the newspapers raise prices during July in 1899 after pressures to sell more papers after the war. However, the price for the papers was raised from 50 cents to 60 cents, not after, but during the Spanish American War. The cause of the strike was that they did not lower the high price after the war was over. This caused the newsies to revolt because they felt that it was more difficult to sell papers without the exciting news of the war, plus the additional pressures of the price changes. At the height of the strike, on July 24, 1899, the Newsboys Union held a massive rally at the New Irving Theatre, a vaudeville venue on the Bowery (reimagined in the musical as Medda Larkin's theatre). The rally was covered in extensive detail by "The New York Sun" (employer of the fictional Katherine Plumber), and featured speeches from the union's leaders. It is rumored that for a period of time during the strike that Kid Blink secretly began working with Pulitzer and Hearst, which resulted in a massive riot of strikers versus scabbers, similar to Jack's near-betrayal after Pulitzer promises him a full ride to Santa Fe. Unlike in the film, the musical follows the historical ending of the strike, where the World and the Journal agreed to buy back all unsold papers. Historically, the price was kept at 60 cents per 100, but in the musical they strike a deal for 55 cents per 100 papers.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: In addition to the songs from the original movie, "Newsies The Musical" contains several new numbers such as 'Watch What Happens', 'Brooklyn's Here' and 'Something To Believe In'. The songs "My Lovey Dovey Baby" and "High Times Hard Times" were removed and replaced by the singular song "That's Rich", which is performed by the same character, Medda Larkin, while the remaining songs were rewritten to fit the changes in the storyline between the film and the musical. Davey and Les's parents are mentioned only in conversation, omitting a scene from the movie where Jack has dinner in their tenement apartment. The lyrics to Santa Fe are changed to compensate for this change. The characters of Sarah Jacobs (Davey and Les's sister and Jack's original love interest) and the New York Sun reporter Bryan Denton are replaced by the composite character Katherine Plumber, a reporter with whom Jack falls in love. Also omitted was the solo for "Patrick's Mother". A scene with Jack, Davey, and Spot Conlon is absent, as is Spot's involvement in the fight between the newsies and scabbers; Spot doesn't appear until the rally.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: A solo number for Crutchie titled “Letter from the Refuge” was added for national tour, replacing a scene from the movie where Jack visits Crutchie after he is captured by Snyder. “Letter From the Refuge” now appears in the current version of the show that is licensed to theatre companies.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: ^ Mayor sings Bunsen's line in the Broadway Cast Recording but Bunsen sings it in the revised edition which was filmed and is available for licensing


title: Newsies (musical)

text: The Paper Mill production drew critical acclaim. According to "The New York Times": "Newsies" will open in time to qualify for the Tony Award in a season when the Tony for best musical is seen as up for grabs; "Newsies" is already considered a likely contender for a nomination even before the show opens...


title: Newsies (musical)

text: In his review of the Broadway production, Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" wrote: As choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, they keep coming at us in full-speed-ahead phalanxes, fortified by every step in a Broadway-by-the-numbers dance book... Mr. Jordan... is a natural star who has no trouble holding the stage, even without pirouettes... Mr. Feldman’s lyrics are spot-on, while the melody reminds us just how charming a composer Mr. Menken... can be.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: The Broadway cast recording was released by Ghostlight Records on iTunes on April 10, 2012, and the CD was released on May 15. Six songs were added for the stage adaptation, including three newly written for the Broadway production since the Paper Mill Playhouse debut: "The Bottom Line", "That's Rich" and "Something to Believe In" (replacing "Then I See You Again", also written for the stage adaptation).


title: Newsies (musical)

text: In July 2016, it was announced that "Newsies" would be filmed at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles with a limited national release in movie theaters from February 16–18, 2017. Due to high demand, a fourth showing was added for March 4, 2017. Some alumni from the Broadway production reprised their leading roles, notably Jeremy Jordan as Jack, Kara Lindsay as Katherine, Ben Fankhauser as Davey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Crutchie and Tommy Bracco as Spot Conlon. Several ensemble tracks were added to the show to provide roles for swings. A two-day encore presentation of the production was shown in theaters on August 5 and 9, 2017.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: On the 25th anniversary of the original film's theatrical release, April 10, 2017, it was announced the filmed stage production would be released for digital download on May 23, 2017.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: In early 2022, a one-hour adaptation of the musical was released by Music Theatre International to be used in middle school and youth theater productions. The one-act interpretation follows the same plot as the original, but omits the songs "The Bottom Line", "That's Rich", "I Never Planned On You/Don't Come a-Knocking", "Watch What Happens (reprise)", "The Bottom Line (reprise)", and "Something To Believe In", as well as additional reprises and tags featured in the full-length version. A new song titled "Just a Pretty Face" is featured and re-uses music from cut songs "That's Rich" and "Don't Come a-Knocking". Many male characters have been rewritten into female characters, with Finch, Henry, Mush, and Elmer becoming Muriel, Pigtails, Hazel, and Nancy, respectively. The Junior version also features characters Ada, Olive, and Ethel, three performers who work at Medda's theater. Additionally, the settings of the rooftop and Jacobi's Deli are omitted, with the rooftop scenes taking place in an alleyway and the Deli scenes on the streets. As is typical for MTI's Broadway Junior shows, all instances of strong language and sexual innuendos are removed or reworked.


title: Newsies (musical)

text: "Newsies Jr". is the 50th title in Music Theatre National's Broadway Junior lineup and can be licensed for performance on the company's website.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player (, ; ), was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854 it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel. The chess masters who secretly operated it included Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators within the mechanism during Kempelen's original tour remain a mystery.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Kempelen was inspired to build the Turk following his attendance at the court of Maria Theresa of Austria at Schönbrunn Palace, where François Pelletier was performing an illusion act. An exchange afterward resulted in Kempelen promising to return to the Palace with an invention that would top the illusions.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The result of the challenge was the Automaton Chess-player, known in modern times as the Turk. The machine consisted of a life-sized model of a human head and torso, with a black beard and grey eyes, and dressed in Ottoman robes and a turban—"the traditional costume", according to journalist and author Tom Standage, "of an oriental sorcerer". Its left arm held a long Ottoman smoking pipe while at rest, while its right lay on the top of a large cabinet that measured about long, wide, and high. Placed on the top of the cabinet was a chessboard, which measured on each side. The front of the cabinet consisted of three doors, an opening, and a drawer, which could be opened to reveal a red and white ivory chess set.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The interior of the machine was very complicated and designed to mislead those who observed it. When opened on the left, the front doors of the cabinet exposed a number of gears and cogs similar to clockwork. The section was designed so that if the back doors of the cabinet were open at the same time one could see through the machine. The other side of the cabinet did not house machinery; instead it contained a red cushion and some removable parts, as well as brass structures. This area was also designed to provide a clear line of vision through the machine. Underneath the robes of the Ottoman model, two other doors were hidden. These also exposed clockwork machinery and provided a similarly unobstructed view through the machine. The design allowed the presenter of the machine to open every available door to the public, to maintain the illusion.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Neither the clockwork visible to the left side of the machine nor the drawer that housed the chess set extended fully to the rear of the cabinet; they instead went only one third of the way. A sliding seat was also installed, allowing the operator inside to slide from place to place and thus evade observation as the presenter opened various doors. The sliding of the seat caused dummy machinery to slide into its place to further conceal the person inside the cabinet.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The chessboard on the top of the cabinet was thin enough to allow for a magnetic linkage. Each piece in the chess set had a small, strong magnet attached to its base, and when they were placed on the board the pieces would attract a magnet attached to a string under their specific places on the board. This allowed the operator inside the machine to see which pieces moved where on the chess board. The bottom of the chessboard had corresponding numbers, 1–64, allowing the operator to see which places on the board were affected by a player's move. The internal magnets were positioned in a way that outside magnetic forces did not influence them, and Kempelen would often allow a large magnet to sit at the side of the board in an attempt to show that the machine was not influenced by magnetism.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: As a further means of misdirection, the Turk came with a small wooden coffin-like box that the presenter would place on the top of the cabinet. While Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, a later owner of the machine, did not use the box, Kempelen often peered into the box during play, suggesting that the box controlled some aspect of the machine. The box was believed by some to have supernatural power; Karl Gottlieb von Windisch wrote in his 1784 book "Inanimate Reason" that "[o]ne old lady, in particular, who had not forgotten the tales she had been told in her youth ... went and hid herself in a window seat, as distant as she could from the "evil spirit," which she firmly believed possessed the machine."


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The interior also contained a pegboard chess board connected to a pantograph-style series of levers that controlled the model's left arm. The metal pointer on the pantograph moved over the interior chessboard, and would simultaneously move the arm of the Turk over the chessboard on the cabinet. The range of motion allowed the operator to move the Turk's arm up and down, and turning the lever would open and close the Turk's hand, allowing it to grasp the pieces on the board. All of this was made visible to the operator by using a simple candle, which had a ventilation system through the model. Other parts of the machinery allowed for a clockwork-type sound to be played when the Turk made a move, further adding to the machinery illusion, and for the Turk to make various facial expressions. A voice box was added following the Turk's acquisition by Mälzel, allowing the machine to say (French for "check") during matches.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: An operator inside the machine also had tools to assist in communicating with the presenter outside. Two brass discs equipped with numbers were positioned opposite each other on the inside and outside of the cabinet. A rod could rotate the discs to the desired number, which acted as a code between the two.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk made its debut in 1770 at Schönbrunn Palace, about six months after Pelletier's act. Kempelen addressed the court, presenting what he had built, and began the demonstration of the machine and its parts. With every showing of the Turk, Kempelen began by opening the doors and drawers of the cabinet, allowing members of the audience to inspect the machine. Following this display, Kempelen would announce that the machine was ready for a challenger.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Kempelen would inform the player that the Turk would use the white pieces and have the first move. Between moves the Turk kept its left arm on the cushion. The Turk could nod twice if it threatened its opponent's queen, and three times upon placing the king in check. If an opponent made an illegal move, the Turk would shake its head, move the piece back and make its own move, thus forcing a forfeit of its opponent's move. Louis Dutens, a traveller who observed a showing of the Turk, attempted to trick the machine "by giving the Queen the move of a Knight, but my mechanic opponent was not to be so imposed upon; he took up my Queen and replaced her in the square from which I had moved her". Kempelen made it a point to traverse the room during the match, and invited observers to bring magnets, irons, and lodestones to the cabinet to test whether the machine was run by a form of magnetism or weights. The first person to play against the Turk was Count Ludwig von Cobenzl, an Austrian courtier at the palace. Along with other challengers that day, he was quickly defeated, with observers of the match stating that the machine played aggressively, and typically beat its opponents within thirty minutes.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Another part of the machine's exhibition was the completion of the knight's tour, a famed chess puzzle. The puzzle requires the player to move a knight around a chessboard, touching each square once along the way. While most experienced chess players of the time still struggled with the puzzle, the Turk was capable of completing the tour without any difficulty from any starting point via a pegboard used by the operator with a mapping of the puzzle laid out.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk also had the ability to converse with spectators using a letter board. The operator, whose identity during the period when Kempelen presented the machine at Schönbrunn Palace is unknown, was able to do this in English, French, and German. Carl Friedrich Hindenburg, a university mathematician, kept a record of the conversations during the Turk's time in Leipzig and published it in 1789 as (or "On the Chessplayer of Mr. von Kempelen And Its Replica"). Topics of questions put to and answered by the Turk included its age, marital status, and its secret workings.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Following word of its debut, interest in the machine grew across Europe. Kempelen, however, was more interested in his other projects and avoided exhibiting the Turk, often lying about the machine's repair status to prospective challengers. Von Windisch wrote at one point that Kempelen "refused the entreaties of his friends, and a crowd of curious persons from all countries, the satisfaction of seeing this far-famed machine". In the decade following its debut at Schönbrunn Palace the Turk only played one opponent, Sir Robert Murray Keith, a Scottish noble, and Kempelen went as far as dismantling the Turk entirely following the match. Kempelen was quoted as referring to the invention as a "mere bagatelle", as he was not pleased with its popularity and would rather continue work on steam engines and machines that replicated human speech.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In 1781, Kempelen was ordered by Emperor Joseph II to reconstruct the Turk and deliver it to Vienna for a state visit from Grand Duke Paul of Russia and his wife. The appearance was so successful that Grand Duke Paul suggested a tour of Europe for the Turk, a request to which Kempelen reluctantly agreed.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk began its European tour in 1783, beginning with an appearance in France in April. A stop at Versailles beginning on April 17, preceded an exhibition in Paris, where the Turk lost a match to Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, the . Upon arrival in Paris in May 1783, it was displayed to the public and played a variety of opponents, including a lawyer named Mr. Bernard who was a second rank in chess ability. Following the sessions at Versailles, demands increased for a match with François-André Danican Philidor, who was considered the best chess player of his time. Moving to the Café de la Régence, the machine played many of the most skilled players, often losing (e.g. against Bernard and Verdoni), until securing a match with Philidor at the Académie des Sciences. While Philidor won his match with the Turk, Philidor's son noted that his father called it "his most fatiguing game of chess ever!" The Turk's final game in Paris was against Benjamin Franklin, who was serving as ambassador to France from the United States. Franklin reportedly enjoyed the game with the Turk and was interested in the machine for the rest of his life, keeping a copy of Philip Thicknesse's book "The Speaking Figure and the Automaton Chess Player, Exposed and Detected" in his personal library.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Following his tour of Paris, Kempelen moved the Turk to London, where it was exhibited daily for five shillings. Thicknesse, known in his time as a skeptic, sought out the Turk in an attempt to expose the inner workings of the machine. While he respected Kempelen as "a very ingenious man", he asserted that the Turk was an elaborate hoax with a small child inside the machine, describing the machine as "a complicated piece of clockwork ... which is nothing more, than one, of many other ingenious devices, to misguide and delude the observers".


title: Mechanical Turk

text: After a year in London, Kempelen and the Turk travelled to Leipzig, stopping in various European cities along the way. From Leipzig, it went to Dresden, where Joseph Friedrich Freiherr von Racknitz viewed the Turk and published his findings in "", along with illustrations showing his beliefs about how the machine operated. It then moved to Amsterdam, after which Kempelen is said to have accepted an invitation to the Sanssouci palace in Potsdam of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. The story goes that Frederick enjoyed the Turk so much that he paid a large sum of money to Kempelen in exchange for the Turk's secrets. Frederick never gave the secret away, but was reportedly disappointed to learn how the machine worked. This story is almost certainly apocryphal; there is no evidence of the Turk's encounter with Frederick, the first mention of which comes in the early 19th century, by which time the Turk was also incorrectly said to have played against George III of Great Britain. It seems most likely that the machine stayed dormant at Schönbrunn Palace for over two decades, although Kempelen attempted unsuccessfully to sell it in his final years. Kempelen died at the age of 70 on 26 March 1804.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Following the death of Kempelen, the Turk remained unexhibited until 1805 when Kempelen's son decided to sell it to Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, a Bavarian musician with an interest in various machines and devices. Mälzel, whose successes included patenting a form of metronome, had tried to purchase the Turk once previously, before Kempelen's death. The original attempt had failed, owing to Kempelen's asking price of 20,000 francs; Kempelen's son sold the machine to Mälzel for half this sum.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Upon acquiring the Turk, Mälzel had to learn its secrets and make some repairs to get it back in working order. His stated goal was to make explaining the Turk a greater challenge. While the completion of this goal took ten years, the Turk still made appearances, most notably with Napoleon Bonaparte.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In 1809, Napoleon I of France arrived at Schönbrunn Palace to play the Turk. According to an eyewitness report, Mälzel took responsibility for the construction of the machine while preparing the game, and the Turk (Johann Baptist Allgaier) saluted Napoleon before the start of the match. The details of the match have been published over the years in numerous accounts, many of them contradictory. According to Bradley Ewart, it is believed that the Turk sat at its cabinet, and Napoleon sat at a separate chess table. Napoleon's table was in a roped-off area and he was not allowed to cross into the Turk's area, with Mälzel crossing back and forth to make each player's move and allowing a clear view for the spectators. In a surprise move, Napoleon took the first turn instead of allowing the Turk to make the first move, as was usual; but Mälzel allowed the game to continue. Shortly thereafter, Napoleon attempted an illegal move. Upon noticing the move, the Turk returned the piece to its original spot and continued the game. Napoleon attempted the illegal move a second time, and the Turk responded by removing the piece from the board entirely and taking its turn. Napoleon then attempted the move a third time, the Turk responding with a sweep of its arm, knocking all the pieces off the board. Napoleon was reportedly amused, and then played a real game with the machine, completing nineteen moves before tipping over his king in surrender. Alternate versions of the story include Napoleon being unhappy about losing to the machine, playing the machine at a later time, playing one match with a magnet on the board, and playing a match with a shawl around the head and body of the Turk in an attempt to obscure its vision.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In 1811, Mälzel brought the Turk to Milan for a performance with Eugène de Beauharnais, the Prince of Venice and Viceroy of Italy. Beauharnais enjoyed the machine so much that he offered to purchase it from Mälzel. After some serious bargaining, Beauharnais acquired the Turk for 30,000 francs—three times what Mälzel had paid—and kept it for four years. In 1815, Mälzel returned to Beauharnais in Munich and asked to buy the Turk back. There exist two versions of how much he had to pay, eventually working out an agreement. One version appeared in the French periodical . The complete story does not make a lot of sense since Mälzel visited Paris again, and he also could import his "Conflagration of Moscow".


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Following the repurchase, Mälzel brought the Turk back to Paris, where he made acquaintances of many of the leading chess players at Café de la Régence. Mälzel stayed in France with the machine until 1818, when he moved to London and held a number of performances with the Turk and many of his other machines. In London, Mälzel and his act received a large amount of press, and he continued improving the machine, ultimately installing a voice box so the machine could say when placing a player in check.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In 1819, Mälzel took the Turk on a tour of the United Kingdom. There were several new developments in the act, such as allowing the opponent the first move and eliminating the king's bishop's pawn from the Turk's pieces. This pawn handicap created further interest in the Turk, and spawned a book by W. J. Hunneman chronicling the matches played with this handicap. Despite the handicap, the Turk (operated by Mouret at the time) ended up with forty-five victories, three losses, and two stalemates.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The appearances of the Turk were profitable for Mälzel, and he continued by taking it and his other machines to the United States. In 1826, he opened an exhibition in New York City that slowly grew in popularity, giving rise to many newspaper stories and anonymous threats of exposure of the secret. Mälzel's problem was finding a proper operator for the machine, having trained an unknown woman in France before coming to the United States. He ended up recalling a former operator, William Schlumberger, from Alsace in Europe to come to America and work for him again once Mälzel was able to provide the money for Schlumberger's transport.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Upon Schlumberger's arrival, the Turk debuted in Boston, Mälzel spinning a story that the New York chess players could not handle full games and that the Boston players were much better opponents. This was a success for many weeks, and the tour moved to Philadelphia for three months. Following Philadelphia, the Turk moved to Baltimore, where it played for a number of months, including losing a match against Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The exhibition in Baltimore brought news that two brothers had constructed their own machine, the Walker Chess-player. Mälzel viewed the competing machine and attempted to buy it, but the offer was declined and the duplicate machine toured for a number of years, never receiving the fame that Mälzel's machine did and eventually falling into obscurity.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Mälzel continued with exhibitions around the United States until 1828, when he took some time off and visited Europe, returning in 1829. Throughout the 1830s, he continued to tour the United States, exhibiting the machine as far west as the Mississippi River and visiting Canada. In Richmond, Virginia, the Turk was observed by Edgar Allan Poe, who was writing for the "Southern Literary Messenger". Poe's essay "Maelzel's Chess Player" was published in April 1836 and is the most famous essay on the Turk, even though many of Poe's hypotheses were incorrect (such as that a chess-playing machine must always win).


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Mälzel eventually took the Turk on his second tour to Havana, Cuba. In Cuba, Schlumberger died of yellow fever, leaving Mälzel without an operator for his machine. Dejected, Mälzel died at sea in 1838 at the age of 66 during his return trip, leaving his machinery with the ship captain.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: When the ship on which Mälzel died returned, his various machines, including the Turk, fell into the hands of Mälzel's friend, the businessman John Ohl. He attempted to auction off the Turk, but owing to low bidding ultimately bought it himself for $400. Only when John Kearsley Mitchell from Philadelphia, Edgar Allan Poe's personal physician and an admirer of the Turk, approached Ohl did the Turk change hands again. Mitchell formed a restoration club and went about the business of repairing the Turk for public appearances, completing the restoration in 1840.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: As interest in the Turk outgrew its location, Mitchell and his club chose to donate the machine to the Chinese Museum of Charles Willson Peale. While the Turk still occasionally gave performances, it was eventually relegated to the corners of the museum and forgotten about until 5 July 1854, when a fire that started at the National Theater in Philadelphia reached the Museum and destroyed the Turk. Mitchell believed he had heard "through the struggling flames ... the last words of our departed friend, the sternly whispered, oft repeated syllables, 'echec! echec!!


title: Mechanical Turk

text: John Gaughan, an American manufacturer of equipment for magicians based in Los Angeles, spent $120,000 building his own version of Kempelen's machine over a five-year period from 1984. The machine uses the original chessboard, which was stored separately from the original Turk and was not destroyed in the fire. The first public display of Gaughan's Turk was in November 1989 at a history of magic conference. The machine was presented much as Kempelen presented the original, except that the opponent was replaced by a computer running a chess program.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: While many books and articles were written during the Turk's life about how it worked, most were inaccurate, drawing incorrect inferences from external observation.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The first articles on the mechanism were published in a French magazine entitled "Le Magasin pittoresque" in 1834. It was not until Silas Mitchell's series of articles for "The Chess Monthly" that the secret was fully revealed. Mitchell, son of the final private owner of the Turk, wrote that "no secret was ever kept as the Turk's has been. Guessed at, in part, many times, no one of the several explanations ... ever solved this amusing puzzle". As the Turk was lost to fire at the time of this publication, Silas Mitchell felt that there were "no longer any reasons for concealing from the amateurs of chess, the solution to this ancient enigma".


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The most important biographical history about the Chess-player and Mälzel was presented in "The Book of the First American Chess Congress", published by Daniel Willard Fiske in 1857. The account, "The Automaton Chess-Player in America", was written by Professor George Allen of Philadelphia, in the form of a letter to William Lewis, one of the former operators of the chess automaton.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In 1859, a letter published in the "Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch" by William F. Kummer, who worked as an operator under John Mitchell, revealed another piece of the secret: a candle inside the cabinet. A series of tubes led from the lamp to the turban of the Turk for ventilation. The smoke rising from the turban would be disguised by the smoke coming from the other candelabra in the area where the game was played.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Later in 1859, an uncredited article appeared in "Littell's Living Age" that purported to be the story of the Turk from French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. This was rife with errors ranging from dates of events to a story of a Polish officer whose legs were amputated, but ended up being rescued by Kempelen and smuggled back to Russia inside the machine.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: A new article about the Turk did not turn up until 1899, when "The American Chess Magazine" published an account of the Turk's match with Napoleon Bonaparte. The story was basically a review of previous accounts, and a substantive published account would not appear until 1947, when "Chess Review" published articles by Kenneth Harkness and Jack Straley Battell that amounted to a comprehensive history and description of the Turk, complete with new diagrams that synthesized information from previous publications. Another article written in 1960 for "American Heritage" by Ernest Wittenberg provided new diagrams describing how the operator sat inside the cabinet.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: In Henry A. Davidson's 1945 publication "A Short History of Chess", significant weight is given to Poe's essay which erroneously suggested that the player sat inside the Turk figure, rather than on a moving seat inside the cabinet. A similar error would occur in Alex G. Bell's 1978 book "The Machine Plays Chess", which falsely asserted that "the operator was a trained boy (or very small adult) who followed the directions of the chess player who was hidden elsewhere on stage or in the theater..."


title: Mechanical Turk

text: More books were published about the Turk toward the end of the 20th century. Along with Bell's book, Charles Michael Carroll's "The Great Chess Automaton" (1975) focused more on the studies of the Turk. Bradley Ewart's "Chess: Man vs. Machine" (1980) discussed the Turk as well as other purported chess-playing automatons.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: It was not until the creation of Deep Blue, IBM's attempt at a computer that could challenge the world's best players, that interest increased again, and two more books were published: Gerald M. Levitt's "The Turk, Chess Automaton" (2000), and Tom Standage's "The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine", published in 2002. The Turk was used as a personification of Deep Blue in the 2003 documentary "".


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Owing to the Turk's popularity and mystery, its construction inspired a number of inventions and imitations, including Ajeeb, or "The Egyptian", an American imitation built by Charles Hopper that President Grover Cleveland played in 1885, and Mephisto, the self-described "most famous" machine, of which little is known. The first imitation was made while Mälzel was in Baltimore. Created by the Brothers Walker, the "American Chess Player" made its debut in May 1827 in New York. El Ajedrecista was built in 1912 by Leonardo Torres y Quevedo as a chess-playing automaton and made its public debut during the Paris World Fair of 1914. Capable of playing rook and king versus king endgames using electromagnets, it was the first true chess-playing automaton, and a precursor of sorts to Deep Blue.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk was visited in London by Rev. Edmund Cartwright in 1784. He was so intrigued by the Turk that he would later question whether "it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave than one which shall make all the variety of moves required in that complicated game". Cartwright would patent the prototype for a power loom within the year. Sir Charles Wheatstone, an inventor, saw a later appearance of the Turk while it was owned by Mälzel. He also saw some of Mälzel's speaking machines, and Mälzel later presented a demonstration of the speaking machines to the researcher and his teenage son. Alexander Graham Bell obtained a copy of a book by Wolfgang von Kempelen on speaking machines after being inspired by seeing a similar machine built by Wheatstone; Bell went on to file the first successful patent for the telephone.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: A play, "The Automaton Chess Player", was presented in New York City in 1845. The advertising, as well as an article that appeared in "The Illustrated London News", claimed that the play featured Kempelen's Turk, but it was in fact a copy of the Turk created by J. Walker, who had earlier presented the Walker Chess-player.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Raymond Bernard's silent feature film "The Chess Player" (1927) weaves elements from the real story of the Turk into an adventure tale set in the aftermath of the first of the Partitions of Poland in 1772. The film's "Baron von Kempelen" helps a dashing young Polish nationalist on the run from the occupying Russians, who also happens to be an expert chess player, by hiding him inside a chess playing automaton called the Turk, closely based on the real Kempelen model. Just as they are about to escape over the border, the Baron is summoned to Saint Petersburg to present the Turk to the empress Catherine II. In an echo of the Napoleon incident, Catherine attempts to cheat the Turk, who wipes all the pieces from the board in response.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: The Turk has also inspired works of literary fiction. In 1849, just a few years before the Turk was destroyed, Edgar Allan Poe published a tale "Von Kempelen and His Discovery". Ambrose Bierce's short story "Moxon's Master", published in 1909, is a morbid tale about a chess-playing automaton that resembles the Turk. In 1938, John Dickson Carr published "The Crooked Hinge", a locked-room mystery in his line of Dr. Gideon Fell detective novels. Among the puzzles presented included an automaton that operates in a way that is unexplainable to the characters. Gene Wolfe's 1977 science fiction short story "The Marvellous Brass Chessplaying Automaton" also features a device very similar to the Turk. Robert Loehr's 2007 novel "The Chess Machine" (published in the UK as "The Secrets of the Chess Machine") focuses on the man inside the machine. F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's 2007 story "The Clockwork Horror" reconstructs Edgar Allan Poe's original encounter with Mälzel's chess-player, and also establishes (from contemporary advertisements in a Richmond newspaper) precisely when and where this encounter took place. A fictional account of the Turk's tour of Europe is featured in a Season 3 episode of "The Magnus Archives", a horror podcast by Jonathan Sims.


title: Mechanical Turk

text: Walter Benjamin alludes to the Mechanical Turk in the first thesis of his "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (), written in 1940.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: "Lollipop Chainsaw" is a hack-and-slash video game in which players play as Juliet as she fights through hordes of zombies. Juliet can use melee attacks, dodges and high and low attacks with her chainsaw. Zombies can be beaten into a groggy state, during which they can instantly be killed with a chainsaw attack. Gold medals can be earned by defeating zombies, smashing objects, and rescuing classmates. These medals can be spent at Chop2Shop.zom stores found throughout each level where Juliet can purchase new moves and combos, as well as items that can increase her stats. Sparkle Hunting is achieved when Juliet kills three or more zombies simultaneously or in quick succession and rewards platinum medals that can be spent on other goodies such as unlockable costumes, music, and artwork. As the game progresses, Juliet will also receive the Chainsaw Dash, which allows her to charge with her chainsaw and fly off-ramps, and the Chainsaw Blaster, a long-range weapon used for blasting enemies and obstacles. Throughout the game, Juliet can also collect lollipops which allow her to recover health. The maximum number of lollipops Juliet can hold depends on the difficulty setting. Juliet will die if she loses all her health or fails certain scenarios, though, in the case of the former, Juliet may be able to come back to life by winning a roulette spin.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Throughout her journey, Juliet is accompanied by her boyfriend, Nick, who is a disembodied head hanging from her waist. At certain points in the game, Nick's head can be attached to a decapitated zombie's body, during which the player will rhythmically press buttons in order to have him move about and clear the way for Juliet. By obtaining 'Nick Tickets', Juliet can activate the 'Nick Roulette' in which various moves can be performed using Nick's head, such as a bombarding attack or making masses of zombies groggy. By filling up her star meter by defeating zombies, Juliet can activate a special state which powers up her chainsaw for a limited period, allowing her to easily defeat zombies and obtain Sparkle Hunting more easily.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: On Juliet Starling's 18th birthday, she goes to the front park of San Romero High School to meet her boyfriend Nick Carlyle, who is going to meet her family for the first time. Unfortunately, a zombie outbreak has occurred, which leads to Juliet fighting them off on her way to meet Nick. When she arrives, Nick is bitten in her place to protect her from a zombie. To prevent him from turning, Juliet decapitates him.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: When he comes to, Nick discovers he is somehow still alive, despite being a severed head, and so Juliet reveals to him that she and her family are zombie hunters, and that she performed a magical ritual on him to save his humanity. Juliet attaches Nick's head to her belt, and she meets her tutor, Junji Morikawa, who explains that the Universe is divided into three realms: Earth, the Land Beyond Words, a heavenly realm where souls reside, and the Rotten World, an infernal realm where demons and zombies reside, and that somebody has cracked open a portal between the realms to bring forth the zombie outbreak. Juliet and Morikawa encounter the person responsible for the outbreak, an evil goth named Swan, who summons five intelligent zombies called the Dark Purveyors to the world, which are stereotypes of different aspects of music centered on themes of rock and roll. Morikawa attempts to stop Swan but he is mortally wounded.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Swan sends the first Dark Purveyor, Zed (representing punk rock), after Juliet, but she kills him and sends him back to the Rotten World. Zed, however, utters a Latin chant as he dies, which all the other Purveyors do as well upon their deaths. Morikawa tells Juliet to purify the school and kill the four remaining Purveyors to save the world before dying.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Juliet hunts down the Purveyors while being helped by her sisters Cordelia and Rosalind. Juliet encounters Vikke (Viking-styled heavy metal), the second Dark Purveyor, whom she duels on board his airborne longship and sends back to the Rotten World. The longship crashes into a farm, where Juliet is attacked by Mariska (psychedelic rock), the third Dark Purveyor, but Juliet defeats her and sends her back to the Rotten World. Juliet's father Gideon arrives and takes her back to the city, where they infiltrate an amusement arcade to rescue Rosalind, who has been captured by Josey (funk), the fourth Dark Purveyor. Juliet defeats Josey and saves Rosalind.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Finally, with only one Dark Purveyor left, Juliet's family all team up to enter a cathedral in the heart of the city, where the fifth and final Dark Purveyor, Lewis Legend (original rock and roll), lurks. Upon accessing his lair, Juliet fights and kills Lewis. Swan appears and reveals that he allowed Juliet to kill all the Dark Purveyors so the true zombie lord could be returned to this world, and the Latin phrases they chanted when defeated were part of an incantation to summon him. Seeking revenge against the world for the bullying he endured at school and his unrequited love for Juliet, Swan shoots his head off to finish the ritual and is absorbed along with the rest of the undead into a black vortex, which solidifies into the zombie of all zombies: Killabilly.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Juliet battles Killabilly and is contacted by the ghost of Morikawa, who gives her advice. Juliet enters the mouth of Killabilly and lands in the demon's stomach, where, in his heart, she finds Swan's headless corpse. She learns she must put Nick's head on top of Swan's body to destroy Killabilly, and tearfully does so after the couple expresses their love for each other. Killabilly explodes, and in a near-death experience, Nick learns from Morikawa's ghost that it has been decided his selfless sacrifice grants him new life, with a new body. Nick is resurrected in Morikawa's body, but neither he nor Juliet really cares. Together, Nick and the Starling family make their way home in return for Juliet's birthday. Should the player save all available classmates during the course of the game, Juliet's birthday will go swimmingly. If the player allows one or more classmates to die, however, Juliet's mother will be revealed to have been zombified.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: Before its announcement in July 2011, "Lollipop Chainsaw" was first mentioned as an unnamed game featuring "stylish action" in an October 2010 article on "1UP.com" detailing Kadokawa Shoten's partnership with Grasshopper and Prope. Suda described it as featuring "really extreme twists" and being very funny. He declared that he thinks the game will be "a really big title in the worldwide market." Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment published the game outside Japan and filmmaker James Gunn had a hand in developing the game's story and characters. Gunn has said that many of the people he works with in his films and other projects are also working on "Lollipop Chainsaw".


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: For the characters, the illustrator "NekoshowguN" (known for her previous works on music games "GuitarFreaks" and "DrumMania") designed the characters for "Lollipop Chainsaw" and the chainsaw that Juliet Starling uses. On February 1, 2012, it was announced that Jimmy Urine from the electro-punk band Mindless Self Indulgence would compose the music for the boss segments. He also provided the voice for Zed, a punk-rock themed boss. On March 6, 2012, it was announced that one of the DLC available for the game will consist of different costumes for Juliet based on five different characters from four anime series: Rei Miyamoto and Saeko Busujima from "Highschool of the Dead", Shiro from "Deadman Wonderland", Manyū Chifusa from "Manyū Hiken-chō" and Haruna from "Is This a Zombie?". These costumes can also be bought in the in-game shop.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: A special "Lollipop Chainsaw Valentine Edition" was released for Valentine's Day on February 14, 2013 in Japan. The re-release features additional content, including a "perfect unlock code", limited edition sleeve, and two bonus DVDs. The Happy Valentine Disc has PC items such as a desktop clock, wallpapers and a library of trailers; the Premium Movie Disc contains in-game movies and a Valentine's Day comic.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: In Japan, the game received generally positive reviews upon release. "Famitsu" gave the game scores of 9 out of 10 from four reviewers, adding up to a total aggregate score of 36 out of 40. "Dengeki PlayStation" magazine had four reviewers giving the game scores of 75, 90, 90, and 80, averaging out to 83.75 out of 100.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: In the Western world, the game received "average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: "IGN" praised the look and feel of the game, but criticized its gameplay, calling it "Bland, slow, and unsatisfying." "Game Informer" said, "The premise is exciting and imaginative, but the gameplay execution has too many holes to embrace completely." "GameSpot" praised the game's jokes, gameplay excursions and boss battles, but criticized its crudeness, control and camera quirks and combat. "Destructoid" praised the combat of the Xbox 360 version, calling it "intuitive, solid, and made to raise a smile". Jim Sterling, reviews-editor for "Destructoid" and the reviewer for said console version, named it as one of their favorite games of 2012. "1UP.com" commented that the same console version "feels just as empty and image-focused as the latest Tim Burton production"."GameZone" called the same console version "one of the most unique experiences I've ever got my hands on" and praised its combat, but criticized the camera, commenting that it's "obstructing the action when by a wall, and it would take a few seconds to recover and let me see the action again".


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: "The Daily Telegraph" gave the Xbox 360 version a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "Erratic, smart, puerile, limited but never less than a lot of fun, "Lollipop Chainsaw" is something of an endearing mess. Too often its satirical tone can run into trouble, and Grasshopper's hyperactive approach to game design can infuriate as much as it impresses. But "Lollipop Chainsaw"s quirky edge and strong writing carries it through those shakier moments, leaving a candy-coated video game in possession of a sharp bite." "411Mania" gave the PlayStation 3 version 6.5 out of 10, saying, "It’s a shame that there isn’t a lot of steak to go along with the tremendous sizzle of "Lollipop Chainsaw". The opening cutscene is fantastic, doing a great job of introducing you to the world of "Lollipop Chainsaw" and making you laugh. The world is so creative and fun to be in that it’s really unfortunate the gameplay is so mediocre. If you were to rate this game based off the combat alone this game would be rather terrible, but it’s everything else in "Lollipop Chainsaw" that makes it a passable experience and worth checking out." "Digital Spy" gave the Xbox 360 version three stars out of five, calling it "silly, short-lived fun that won't appeal to everybody, but shouldn't fail to leave a lasting impression on players who stick with it to the end." "The Escapist" also gave said console version three stars out of five, saying, "While it's difficult to ignore the surface appeal of an oddball title like Lollipop Chainsaw, what are merely workable mechanics and some overused humor can't keep the experience afloat." However, "The Digital Fix" gave the same console version a score of five out of ten, saying, "While "Lollipop Chainsaw" could be seen as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on American hedonism, it arguably goes well past parody into the realm of uncomfortable skin-fest. Even worse, for all its excess it is just plain boring."


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: "Lollipop Chainsaw" is Grasshopper Manufacture's most successful title to date, selling more than 1 million units worldwide.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: James Gunn later drew influence from "Lollipop Chainsaw" when he directed "The Suicide Squad" (2021). It inspired "Harley-vision" where gory murders are depicted through Harley's "starry-eyed way of looking at life" by mixing "hearts and beautiful little things" with the blood that is coming out of the people Harley is killing.


title: Lollipop Chainsaw

text: In July 2022, Kadokawa Games' successor Dragami Games announced a remake of "Lollipop Chainsaw" set to launch sometime in 2023. Both Gunn and Suda51 have stated, however, that they aren't involved in the project.


title: Brandon T. Jackson

text: Brandon Timothy Jackson (born March 7, 1984) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for his roles in the films "Roll Bounce" (2005), "Tropic Thunder" (2008), "" (2010), "Lottery Ticket" (2010), "" (2011), "" (2013), and Roofie Jackson in "Deadbeat" (2014–2016).


title: Brandon T. Jackson

text: Jackson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Beverly Yvonne, is a pastor. His father, Bishop Wayne Timothy Jackson, is the senior pastor of Great Faith Ministries International, and author of the book "Miracles Do Happen: The Power and Place of Miracles as a Sign to the World". His maternal grandfather, Royal Titus Bozeman, was a Pentecostal child preacher named a "Boy Wonder" by Indiana newspapers.


title: Brandon T. Jackson

text: Jackson attended West Bloomfield High School. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy and started at the Laugh Factory, as well as opened for Wayne Brady and Chris Tucker. His role as Junior in the film "Roll Bounce" won him the 2006 Black Reel Award for Breakthrough Performance. He hosted one episode of the "Brandon T. Jackson Show" on The N channel. In 2006, Jackson hosted the Up Close and Personal Tour, featuring Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Lil Wayne, Juelz Santana and Dem Franchize Boyz.


title: Brandon T. Jackson

text: He was a cast member on the show "Wild 'n Out" with Nick Cannon, and then guest-starred as a celebrity team captain for the sixth season for the show. Jackson starred in the films "Tropic Thunder" as Alpa Chino, "Percy Jackson" as Grover Underwood and " Lottery Ticket" as Benny. He played 17-year-old Trent Pierce in "" (the sequel to "Big Momma's House 2").


title: Brandon T. Jackson

text: He had a cameo in 'The Glee Project' season 2 video 'Here I Go Again' and can be seen when Maxfield gives him a flyer. In 2013, he played Axel Foley's son in an unaired pilot for a "Beverly Hills Cop" TV series.


title: Dewclaw

text: A dewclaw is a digit – vestigial in some animals – on the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles (including some extinct orders, like certain theropods). It commonly grows higher on the leg than the rest of the foot, such that in digitigrade or unguligrade species it does not make contact with the ground when the animal is standing. The name refers to the dewclaw's alleged tendency to brush dew away from the grass.<ref name="Danziger/McCrum">Danziger, D., & McCrum, M. (2008). "The Thingummy: A book about those everyday objects you just can't name". London: Doubleday.</ref> On dogs and cats the dewclaws are on the inside of the front legs, similarly to a human's thumb, which shares evolutionary homology. Although many animals have dewclaws, other similar species do not, such as horses, giraffes and the African wild dog.


title: Dewclaw

text: Dogs almost always have dewclaws on the inside of the front legs and occasionally also on the hind legs. Unlike front dewclaws, rear dewclaws tend to have little bone or muscle structure in most breeds. It is normal, although not biologically necessary, that certain breeds will have more than one dewclaw on the same paw. At least one of these dewclaws will be poorly connected to the leg, and in this case it is often surgically removed. When a dog has extra dewclaws in addition to the usual one on each front leg, the dog is said to be double dewclawed. For certain dog breeds, a dewclaw is considered a necessity, e.g. a Beauceron for sheep herding and for navigating snowy terrain. As such, there is some debate about whether a dewclaw helps dogs to gain traction when they run because in some dogs, the dewclaw makes contact when they are running and the nail on the dewclaw often wears down in the same way that the nails on their other toes do, from contact with the ground. In many dogs, the dewclaws never contact the ground. In this case, the dewclaw's nail never wears away, and it is often trimmed to maintain it at a safe length.


title: Dewclaw

text: The dewclaws are not dead appendages. They can be used to lightly grip bones and other items that dogs hold with the paws. In some dogs, these claws may not appear to be connected to the leg at all except by a flap of skin; in such dogs, the claws do not have a use for gripping as the claw can easily fold or turn.


title: Dewclaw

text: Canids have four claws on the rear feet, although some domestic dog breeds or individuals have an additional claw, or more rarely two, as is the case with the beauceron. A more technical term for these additional digits on the rear legs is "hind-limb-specific preaxial polydactyly". Several genetic mechanisms can cause rear dewclaws; they involve the LMBR1 gene and related parts of the genome. Rear dewclaws often have no phalanx bones and are attached by skin only.


title: Dewclaw

text: There is some debate as to whether dewclaws should be surgically removed. The argument for removal states that dewclaws are a weak digit, barely attached to the leg, and thus they can rip partway off or easily catch on something and break, which can be painful and prone to infection. Dewclaw removal is most easily performed when the dog is young, around 2–5 days of age. It can also be performed on older dogs if necessary though the surgery may be more difficult then. The surgery is fairly straightforward and may be done with local anesthetics if the digit is not well connected to the leg. Many dogs cannot resist licking the surgery site in the weeks following the procedure, so an Elizabethan collar or bitterant may be used to curtail this behavior, thus preventing infection.


title: Dewclaw

text: Some pups are commonly sold by breeders "dew-clawed", that is with the dewclaws removed (as by a veterinarian) for perceived health and safety reasons. A few breed standards, such as that for Portuguese Water Dogs, also call for it.


title: Dewclaw

text: Based on stop-action photographs, veterinarian M. Christine Zink of Johns Hopkins University believes that the entire front foot, including the dewclaws, contacts the ground while running. During running, the dewclaw digs into the ground preventing twisting or torque on the rest of the leg. Several tendons connect the front dewclaw to muscles in the lower leg, further demonstrating the front dewclaws' functionality. There are indications that dogs without dewclaws have more foot injuries and are more prone to arthritis. Zink recommends "for working dogs it is best for the dewclaws not to be amputated. If the dewclaw does suffer a traumatic injury, the problem can be dealt with at that time, including amputation if needed."


title: Dewclaw

text: Members of the cat family – including domestic cats and wild cats like the lion – have dewclaws. Generally a dewclaw grows on the inside of each front leg but not on either hind leg.


title: Dewclaw

text: The dewclaw on cats is not vestigial. Wild felids use the dewclaw in hunting, where it provides an additional claw with which to catch and hold prey.


title: Dewclaw

text: Hoofed animals walk on the tips of special toes, the hoofs. Cloven-hoofed animals walk on a central pair of hoofs, but many also have an outer pair of dewclaws on each foot. These are somewhat farther up the leg than the main hoofs, and similar in structure to them. In some species (such as cattle) the dewclaws are much smaller than the hoofs and never touch the ground. In others (such as pigs and many deer), they are only a little smaller than the hoofs, and may reach the ground in soft conditions or when jumping. Some hoofed animals (such as giraffes and modern horses) have no dewclaws. Video evidence suggests some animals use dewclaws in grooming or scratching themselves or to have better grasp during mating.


title: Lysosome

text: A lysosome () is a membrane-bound organelle found in many animal cells. They are spherical vesicles that contain hydrolytic enzymes that can break down many kinds of biomolecules. A lysosome has a specific composition, of both its membrane proteins, and its lumenal proteins. The lumen's pH (~4.5–5.0) is optimal for the enzymes involved in hydrolysis, analogous to the activity of the stomach. Besides degradation of polymers, the lysosome is involved in various cell processes, including secretion, plasma membrane repair, apoptosis, cell signaling, and energy metabolism.


title: Lysosome

text: Lysosomes act as the waste disposal system of the cell by digesting used materials in the cytoplasm, from both inside and outside the cell. Material from outside the cell is taken up through endocytosis, while material from the inside of the cell is digested through autophagy. The sizes of the organelles vary greatly—the larger ones can be more than 10 times the size of the smaller ones. They were discovered and named by Belgian biologist Christian de Duve, who eventually received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974.


title: Lysosome

text: Lysosomes are known to contain more than 60 different enzymes, and have more than 50 membrane proteins. Enzymes of the lysosomes are synthesized in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and exported to the Golgi apparatus upon recruitment by a complex composed of CLN6 and CLN8 proteins. The enzymes are trafficked from the Golgi apparatus to lysosomes in small vesicles, which fuse with larger acidic vesicles. Enzymes destined for a lysosome are specifically tagged with the molecule mannose 6-phosphate, so that they are properly sorted into acidified vesicles.


title: Lysosome

text: In 2009, Marco Sardiello and co-workers discovered that the synthesis of most lysosomal enzymes and membrane proteins is controlled by transcription factor EB (TFEB), which promotes the transcription of nuclear genes. Mutations in the genes for these enzymes are responsible for more than 50 different human genetic disorders, which are collectively known as lysosomal storage diseases. These diseases result from an accumulation of specific substrates, due to the inability to break them down. These genetic defects are related to several neurodegenerative disorders, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and aging-related diseases.


title: Lysosome

text: The word "lysosome" (, ) is New Latin that uses the combining forms "lyso-" (referring to lysis and derived from the Latin "lysis", meaning "to loosen", via Ancient Greek λύσις [lúsis]), and "-some", from "soma", "body", yielding "body that lyses" or "lytic body". The adjectival form is "lysosomal". The forms "*lyosome" and "*lyosomal" are much rarer; they use the "lyo-" form of the prefix but are often treated by readers and editors as mere unthinking replications of typos, which has no doubt been true as often as not.


title: Lysosome

text: In 1955 , discovered by “ Christian de Duve,” the chairman of the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, had been studying the mechanism of action of a pancreatic hormone insulin in liver cells. By 1949, he and his team had focused on the enzyme called glucose 6-phosphatase, which is the first crucial enzyme in sugar metabolism and the target of insulin. They already suspected that this enzyme played a key role in regulating blood sugar levels. However, even after a series of experiments, they failed to purify and isolate the enzyme from the cellular extracts. Therefore, they tried a more arduous procedure of cell fractionation, by which cellular components are separated based on their sizes using centrifugation.


title: Lysosome

text: They succeeded in detecting the enzyme activity from the microsomal fraction. This was the crucial step in the serendipitous discovery of lysosomes. To estimate this enzyme activity, they used that of the standardized enzyme acid phosphatase and found that the activity was only 10% of the expected value. One day, the enzyme activity of purified cell fractions which had been refrigerated for five days was measured. Surprisingly, the enzyme activity was increased to normal of that of the fresh sample. The result was the same no matter how many times they repeated the estimation, and led to the conclusion that a membrane-like barrier limited the accessibility of the enzyme to its substrate, and that the enzymes were able to diffuse after a few days (and react with their substrate). They described this membrane-like barrier as a "saclike structure surrounded by a membrane and containing acid phosphatase."


title: Lysosome

text: It became clear that this enzyme from the cell fraction came from membranous fractions, which were definitely cell organelles, and in 1955 De Duve named them "lysosomes" to reflect their digestive properties. The same year, Alex B. Novikoff from the University of Vermont visited de Duve's laboratory, and successfully obtained the first electron micrographs of the new organelle. Using a staining method for acid phosphatase, de Duve and Novikoff confirmed the location of the hydrolytic enzymes of lysosomes using light and electron microscopic studies. de Duve won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 for this discovery.


title: Lysosome

text: Originally, De Duve had termed the organelles the "suicide bags" or "suicide sacs" of the cells, for their hypothesized role in apoptosis. However, it has since been concluded that they only play a minor role in cell death.


title: Lysosome

text: Lysosomes contain a variety of enzymes, enabling the cell to break down various biomolecules it engulfs, including peptides, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids (lysosomal lipase). The enzymes responsible for this hydrolysis require an acidic environment for optimal activity.


title: Lysosome

text: In addition to being able to break down polymers, lysosomes are capable of fusing with other organelles & digesting large structures or cellular debris; through cooperation with phagosomes, they are able to conduct autophagy, clearing out damaged structures. Similarly, they are able to break down virus particles or bacteria in phagocytosis of macrophages.


title: Lysosome

text: The size of lysosomes varies from 0.1 μm to 1.2 μm. With a pH ranging from ~4.5–5.0, the interior of the lysosomes is acidic compared to the slightly basic cytosol (pH 7.2). The lysosomal membrane protects the cytosol, and therefore the rest of the cell, from the degradative enzymes within the lysosome. The cell is additionally protected from any lysosomal acid hydrolases that drain into the cytosol, as these enzymes are pH-sensitive and do not function well or at all in the alkaline environment of the cytosol. This ensures that cytosolic molecules and organelles are not destroyed in case there is leakage of the hydrolytic enzymes from the lysosome.


title: Lysosome

text: The lysosome maintains its pH differential by pumping in protons (H ions) from the cytosol across the membrane via proton pumps and chloride ion channels. Vacuolar-ATPases are responsible for transport of protons, while the counter transport of chloride ions is performed by ClC-7 Cl/H antiporter. In this way a steady acidic environment is maintained.


title: Lysosome

text: It sources its versatile capacity for degradation by import of enzymes with specificity for different substrates; cathepsins are the major class of hydrolytic enzymes, while lysosomal alpha-glucosidase is responsible for carbohydrates, and lysosomal acid phosphatase is necessary to release phosphate groups of phospholipids.


title: Lysosome

text: Many components of animal cells are recycled by transferring them inside or embedded in sections of membrane. For instance, in endocytosis (more specifically, macropinocytosis), a portion of the cell's plasma membrane pinches off to form vesicles that will eventually fuse with an organelle within the cell. Without active replenishment, the plasma membrane would continuously decrease in size. It is thought that lysosomes participate in this dynamic membrane exchange system and are formed by a gradual maturation process from endosomes.


title: Lysosome

text: The production of lysosomal proteins suggests one method of lysosome sustainment. Lysosomal protein genes are transcribed in the nucleus in a process that is controlled by transcription factor EB (TFEB). mRNA transcripts exit the nucleus into the cytosol, where they are translated by ribosomes. The nascent peptide chains are translocated into the rough endoplasmic reticulum, where they are modified. Lysosomal soluble proteins exit the endoplasmic reticulum via COPII-coated vesicles after recruitment by the EGRESS complex (ER-to-Golgi relaying of enzymes of the lysosomal system), which is composed of CLN6 and CLN8 proteins. COPII vesicles then deliver lysosomal enzymes to the Golgi apparatus, where a specific lysosomal tag, mannose 6-phosphate, is added to the peptides. The presence of these tags allow for binding to mannose 6-phosphate receptors in the Golgi apparatus, a phenomenon that is crucial for proper packaging into vesicles destined for the lysosomal system.


title: Lysosome

text: Upon leaving the Golgi apparatus, the lysosomal enzyme-filled vesicle fuses with a late endosome, a relatively acidic organelle with an approximate pH of 5.5. This acidic environment causes dissociation of the lysosomal enzymes from the mannose 6-phosphate receptors. The enzymes are packed into vesicles for further transport to established lysosomes. The late endosome itself can eventually grow into a mature lysosome, as evidenced by the transport of endosomal membrane components from the lysosomes back to the endosomes.


title: Lysosome

text: As the endpoint of endocytosis, the lysosome also acts as a safeguard in preventing pathogens from being able to reach the cytoplasm before being degraded. Pathogens often hijack endocytotic pathways such as pinocytosis in order to gain entry into the cell. The lysosome prevents easy entry into the cell by hydrolyzing the biomolecules of pathogens necessary for their replication strategies; reduced Lysosomal activity results in an increase in viral infectivity, including HIV. In addition, AB toxins such as cholera hijack the endosomal pathway while evading lysosomal degradation.


title: Lysosome

text: Lysosomes are involved in a group of genetically inherited deficiencies, or mutations called lysosomal storage diseases (LSD), inborn errors of metabolism caused by a dysfunction of one of the enzymes. The rate of incidence is estimated to be 1 in 5,000 births, and the true figure expected to be higher as many cases are likely to be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The primary cause is deficiency of an acid hydrolase. Other conditions are due to defects in lysosomal membrane proteins that fail to transport the enzyme, non-enzymatic soluble lysosomal proteins. The initial effect of such disorders is accumulation of specific macromolecules or monomeric compounds inside the endosomal–autophagic–lysosomal system. This results in abnormal signaling pathways, calcium homeostasis, lipid biosynthesis and degradation and intracellular trafficking, ultimately leading to pathogenetic disorders. The organs most affected are brain, viscera, bone and cartilage.


title: Lysosome

text: There is no direct medical treatment to cure LSDs. The most common LSD is Gaucher's disease, which is due to deficiency of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Consequently, the enzyme substrate, the fatty acid glucosylceramide accumulates, particularly in white blood cells, which in turn affects spleen, liver, kidneys, lungs, brain and bone marrow. The disease is characterized by bruises, fatigue, anaemia, low blood platelets, osteoporosis, and enlargement of the liver and spleen. As of 2017, enzyme replacement therapy is available for treating 8 of the 50-60 known LDs.


title: Lysosome

text: Metachromatic leukodystrophy is another lysosomal storage disease that also affects sphingolipid metabolism.


title: Lysosome

text: Dysfunctional lysosome activity is also heavily implicated in the biology of aging, and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cardiovascular disease.


title: Lysosome

text: Weak bases with lipophilic properties accumulate in acidic intracellular compartments like lysosomes. While the plasma and lysosomal membranes are permeable for neutral and uncharged species of weak bases, the charged protonated species of weak bases do not permeate biomembranes and accumulate within lysosomes. The concentration within lysosomes may reach levels 100 to 1000 fold higher than extracellular concentrations. This phenomenon is called lysosomotropism, "acid trapping" or "proton pump" effect. The amount of accumulation of lysosomotropic compounds may be estimated using a cell-based mathematical model.


title: Lysosome

text: A significant part of the clinically approved drugs are lipophilic weak bases with lysosomotropic properties. This explains a number of pharmacological properties of these drugs, such as high tissue-to-blood concentration gradients or long tissue elimination half-lives; these properties have been found for drugs such as haloperidol, levomepromazine, and amantadine. However, high tissue concentrations and long elimination half-lives are explained also by lipophilicity and absorption of drugs to fatty tissue structures. Important lysosomal enzymes, such as acid sphingomyelinase, may be inhibited by lysosomally accumulated drugs. Such compounds are termed FIASMAs (functional inhibitor of acid sphingomyelinase) and include for example fluoxetine, sertraline, or amitriptyline.


title: Lysosome

text: Ambroxol is a lysosomotropic drug of clinical use to treat conditions of productive cough for its mucolytic action. Ambroxol triggers the exocytosis of lysosomes via neutralization of lysosomal pH and calcium release from acidic calcium stores. Presumably for this reason, Ambroxol was also found to improve cellular function in some disease of lysosomal origin such as Parkinson's or lysosomal storage disease.


title: Lysosome

text: Impaired lysosome function is prominent in systemic lupus erythematosus preventing macrophages and monocytes from degrading neutrophil extracellular traps and immune complexes. The failure to degrade internalized immune complexes stems from chronic mTORC2 activity, which impairs lysosome acidification. As a result, immune complexes in the lysosome recycle to the surface of macrophages causing an accumulation of nuclear antigens upstream of multiple lupus-associated pathologies.


title: Lysosome

text: By scientific convention, the term lysosome is applied to these vesicular organelles only in animals, and the term vacuole is applied to those in plants, fungi and algae (some animal cells also have vacuoles). Discoveries in plant cells since the 1970s started to challenge this definition. Plant vacuoles are found to be much more diverse in structure and function than previously thought. Some vacuoles contain their own hydrolytic enzymes and perform the classic lysosomal activity, which is autophagy. These vacuoles are therefore seen as fulfilling the role of the animal lysosome. Based on de Duve's description that "only when considered as part of a system involved directly or indirectly in intracellular digestion does the term lysosome describe a physiological unit", some botanists strongly argued that these vacuoles are lysosomes. However, this is not universally accepted as the vacuoles are strictly not similar to lysosomes, such as in their specific enzymes and lack of phagocytic functions. Vacuoles do not have catabolic activity and do not undergo exocytosis as lysosomes do.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Vicente Fox Quesada (; born 2 July 1942) is a Mexican businessman and politician who served as the 62nd president of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006. After campaigning as a right-wing populist, Fox was elected president on the National Action Party (PAN) ticket in the 2000 election. He became the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929, and the first elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. Fox won the election with 42 percent of the vote.


title: Vicente Fox

text: As president, he continued the neoliberal economic policies that his predecessors from the PRI had adopted since the 1980s. The first half of his administration saw a further shift of the federal government to the right, strong relations with the United States and George W. Bush, unsuccessful attempts to introduce a value-added tax to medicines and to build an airport in Texcoco, and a diplomatic conflict with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The murder of human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa in 2001 called into question the Fox administration's commitment to breaking with the authoritarian past of the PRI era.


title: Vicente Fox

text: The second half of his administration was marked by his conflict with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mayor of Mexico City. The PAN and the Fox administration unsuccessfully attempted to remove López Obrador from office and to prevent him from participating in the 2006 presidential elections. The Fox administration also became embroiled with diplomatic conflicts with Venezuela and Bolivia after supporting the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which was opposed by those two countries. His last year in office oversaw the controversial 2006 elections, where the PAN candidate Felipe Calderón was declared winner by a narrow margin over López Obrador, who claimed the elections had been fraudulent and refused to recognize the results, calling for protests across the country. In the same year, civil unrest in Oaxaca, where a teacher's strike culminated into protests and violent clashes asking for the resignation of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and in the State of Mexico during the San Salvador Atenco riots, where the State and Federal governments were later found guilty by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of human rights violations during the violent repression. On the other hand, Fox was credited with maintaining economic growth during his administration, and reducing the poverty rate from 43.7% in 2000 to 35.6% in 2006.


title: Vicente Fox

text: After his presidency, Fox returned to his home state of Guanajuato. He has been involved in public speaking and the development of the Vicente Fox Center of Studies, Library and Museum. He is currently the co-president of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of centre-right political parties. Fox was expelled from the PAN in 2013, after having endorsed the PRI presidential candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, in the 2012 elections. In the 2018 election Fox endorsed the PRI candidate, José Antonio Meade.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Vicente Fox was born on 2 July 1942 in Mexico City, the second of nine children. His father, José Luis Fox Pont, was a native-born Mexican. His mother, Mercedes Quesada Etxaide, was a Basque immigrant from San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, in Spain.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Fox spent his childhood and adolescence at the family ranch in San Francisco del Rincón in Guanajuato. Fox has polydactyly, having six toes on each foot.


title: Vicente Fox

text: He spent a year at Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin where he learned English. Upon reaching college age, Fox moved to Mexico City to attend the Universidad Iberoamericana and received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1964. Then in 1974, Fox received a certificate in management skills from Harvard Business School.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 1964, Fox was hired by the Coca-Cola Company as a route supervisor and drove a delivery truck. After nine years, he had risen to the top, serving as the President and Chief Executive of Coca-Cola Mexico; after six years in this role, he was invited to lead all of Coca-Cola's operations in Latin America, but Fox declined and later resigned from Coca-Cola in 1979. It was during the Fox's leadership of Coca-Cola Mexico that Coke became Mexico's top-selling soft drink, increasing Coca-Cola's sales by almost 50%.


title: Vicente Fox

text: After retiring from Coca-Cola, Fox began to participate in various public activities in Guanajuato, where he created the "Patronato de la Casa Cuna Amigo Daniel", an orphanage. He was also the president of the Patronato Loyola, a sponsor of the León campus of the Universidad Iberoamericana and of the Lux Institute.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 1969, Fox married Lilian de la Concha, a receptionist at Coca-Cola. They had four children, Ana Cristina, Vicente, Paulina and Rodrigo. In 1990, after 20 years of marriage, Lilian filed for and was granted a divorce.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Fox remarried on 2 July 2001, while serving as President of Mexico, to Marta María Sahagún Jiménez (until then his spokesperson). The wedding date was the first anniversary of his presidential election and his 59th birthday. For both Fox and Sahagún Jiménez, it was their second marriage.


title: Vicente Fox

text: With the support of Manuel Clouthier, Vicente Fox joined the Partido Acción Nacional on 1 March 1988. That same year, he was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies, representing the Third Federal District in León, Guanajuato.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 1991, after serving in the Chamber of Deputies, Fox sought the governorship in Guanajuato, but lost the election to Ramón Aguirre Velázquez of the PRI. Following the election, local discontent was so great that the state congress appointed Carlos Medina Plascencia of the PAN as interim governor. Four years later, Fox ran again, this time winning by a vote of 2 to 1. As governor, Fox promoted government efficiency and transparency. He was one of the first state governors of Mexico to give a clear, public and timely account of the finances of his state.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Fox also pushed for the consolidation of small firms, promoted the overseas sales of goods manufactured in Guanajuato, and created an extensive system of small loans to allow the poor to open a "changarro" (a small shop) and buy a car and a television. Under Fox, Guanajuato became the fifth most important Mexican state economy.


title: Vicente Fox

text: On 7 July 1997, after the opposition parties first won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, Vicente Fox decided to run for President of Mexico. In spite of opposition within his political party, Fox secured his candidacy representing the Alliance for Change, a political coalition formed by the National Action Party and the Green Ecological Party of Mexico on 14 November 1999.


title: Vicente Fox

text: During the course of his campaign, a presidential debate was organized, but the three main contenders (Fox, Francisco Labastida of the PRI, and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the PRD) disagreed on the details. One notable disagreement, which was broadcast on national television, was whether the presidential debate should be held that same day or on the following Friday.


title: Vicente Fox

text: During the nationally televised presidential debate, Fox's main opponent, Francisco Labastida, claimed that Fox had repeatedly called him a "sissy" and a "cross-dresser" ("la vestida", a pun on his last name). Fox's campaign slogans were "¡Ya!" ("Right now!"), "Ya ganamos" ("We've already won"), and "Vota Alianza por el Cambio" ("Vote for Alliance for Change").


title: Vicente Fox

text: In addition to some debate controversies, Fox also faced some controversy due to "Amigos de Fox" (Friends of Fox), a nonprofit fundraising group established by Denise Montaño. The group was instrumental in getting Vicente Fox elected President of Mexico, and the phrase ""Amigos de Fox"" was used as a campaign slogan referring to the millions of people supporting Fox in the 2000 presidential election.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 2003, money-laundering charges were lodged against "Amigos de Fox", but were dropped shortly before the July 2003 midterm elections.


title: Vicente Fox

text: On 2 July 2000, his 58th birthday, Fox won the presidential election with 43% (15,989,636 votes) of the popular vote, followed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Francisco Labastida with 36% (13,579,718 votes), and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with 17% (6,256,780 votes). Fox declared victory that same night, a victory that was ratified by then-President Zedillo. After the final results were announced, President-elect Fox addressed thousands of supporters and celebrated his victory with them at the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City. His opponents conceded the election later that night.


title: Vicente Fox

text: After securing the election, Fox received substantial media coverage, as well as numerous congratulatory messages and phone calls from world leaders, including then-President of the United States Bill Clinton. He took office on 1 December 2000, the first time since 1917 that an opposition candidate had taken power from the long-reigning Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)


title: Vicente Fox

text: During his campaign for president, Vicente Fox became well known for his cowboy style and quirkiness. As a speaker, Fox usually attracted big crowds in the early years of his presidency. At , Fox easily stood out in most crowds, and is believed to be one of the tallest presidents in Mexico's history. After his inauguration, President Fox usually wore suits for formal occasions, but opted to wear his signature boots and jeans during his many visits around Mexico.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Fox spread his image as one of peace and welcomed many to his own ranch in Guanajuato, Mexico. When Fox welcomed U.S. President George W. Bush to the ranch, both presidents were wearing Fox's signature black cowboy boots, prompting "The Wall Street Journal" to call it "The Boot Summit".


title: Vicente Fox

text: When Fox took office on 1 December 2000, his approval rating neared 80%. During the rest of his presidency, his average approval rating was of 53%, while his average disapproval rating was of 40%.


title: Vicente Fox

text: As seen in the graphic, after taking office the particularly high points of his approval ratings were:


title: Vicente Fox

text: Although Fox's victory in the 2000 election and the end of seven decades of PRI rule raised great expectations of change among the Mexican people, his administration was criticized for failing to fulfill those expectations, as little progress was made in fighting corruption, crime, poverty, unemployment and inequality. Few key reforms were implemented during the Fox administration, which became characterised by a growing sense of power vacuum as Fox was increasingly perceived by Mexican society and political actors as a "lame duck" incapable of pushing the ambitious reform agenda that swept him into power in 2000. Alejandro Cacho points out that "Fox incarnated the hope of alternancy [...] and he managed to kick the PRI out of Los Pinos, but his government was a disappointment. Corruption persisted; in fact, his sons-in-law (the Bribiesca-Sahagún brothers) became rich quickly and without explanation. The economy wasn't much better than it had been under Ernesto Zedillo, the wages didn't increase significantly, neither did jobs. His "super cabinet" ["gabinetazo", as Fox himself referred to it] created more controversy than it did good results. His wife, Marta Sahagún, had a big influence in the presidential decisions".


title: Vicente Fox

text: Having assumed office with an approval rating of 80%, by the time he left office in 2006 his public image had become exhausted by the controversial presidential elections of that year and the few reforms implemented.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In terms of the significance of Fox's presidency, historian Philip Russell asserts that, "Marketed on television, Fox made a far better candidate than he did president.


title: Vicente Fox

text: He failed to take charge and provide cabinet leadership, failed to set priorities, and turned a blind eye to alliance building." Fox himself asserted in 2001 (one year into his administration) that he much preferred his experience as candidate than actually being president.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Russell also pointed to 2006 comments by political scientist Soledad Loaeza, who noted, "The eager candidate became a reluctant president who avoided tough choices and appeared hesitant and unable to hide the weariness caused by the responsibilities and constraints of the office." Russell also asserted that Fox "had little success in fighting crime. Even though he maintained the macroeconomic stability inherited from his predecessor, economic growth barely exceeded the rate of population increase. Similarly, the lack of fiscal reform left tax collection at a rate similar to that of Haiti . . . ." Finally, Russell noted that "during Fox's administration, only 1.4 million formal-sector jobs were created, leading to massive immigration to the United States and an explosive increase in informal employment." Ultimately, however, Russell concluded that Fox will be viewed by history as a transitional figure who was able to defeat one of Mexico's long-entrenched political parties.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In a national survey conducted in 2012 by BGC-Excelsior regarding former presidents, 32% of the respondents considered that the Fox administration was "very good" or "good", 25% responded that it was an "average" administration, and 42% responded that it was a "very bad" or "bad" administration.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Since leaving office in December 2006, Fox has maintained himself in the public eye by speaking in countries such as Nigeria, Ireland, Canada, and the United States about topics such as the controversial 2006 election and the Iraq War. In Mexico, Fox has been criticized by some for his busy post-presidency since former Mexican presidents are traditionally expected to stay out of the political spotlight. In response, Fox has stated, "There is no reason to hold to the anti-democratic rules of those who still live in the authoritarian past . . . now that Mexico is a democracy, every citizen has the right to express himself, even a former president."


title: Vicente Fox

text: Vicente Fox joined four other Latin American presidents at the One Young World Summit 2014 in Dublin, Ireland, to discuss the Telefónica Millennial Survey. He told those in the audience that eradicating corruption "has to start with education" and that his focus is now on promoting leadership.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Vicente Fox is a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that offers, discreetly and confidentially, a range of experienced advisors to political leaders facing difficult situations.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 2013, Fox discussed why the West has pursued a moral crusade against drugs at HowTheLightGetsIn festival in Hay-on-Wye. with Chris Bryant and John Ralston Saul. The three debated whether it is hypocritical to ban certain drugs while continuing to export others such as alcohol and tobacco, and whether to follow the lead of Washington and Colorado states in the U.S. and allow the free trading of drugs.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Vicente Fox gave a video interview in July 2013 to "High Times", in which he discussed the failure of drug prohibition, and cited Portugal's decriminalization policies as "working splendid(ly)." He said he supports drug legalization despite not being a user himself, just as he said he also "fully respects" same-sex marriage although he does not personally agree with it.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In February 2014, Fox wrote an opinion piece that was published in Toronto's "The Globe and Mail" in which he stated that, "Legalization of not just marijuana, but all drugs, is the right thing to do." He also said that "we must be given the very freedom to decide our own behaviour and to act responsibly, as long as we do not detrimentally affect the rights of others".


title: Vicente Fox

text: In July 2017, Fox was an international observer to the unofficial Venezuelan referendum held by the opposition. During the trip, Fox gave a speech that compared the referendum to the 2000 Mexican elections. He said that "this battle has been won" and "step by step, vote by vote, the dictator will leave." He was subsequently declared a persona non grata by the Venezuelan government. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said that Fox had taken advantage of the country's hospitality and "was paid to come to Venezuela to promote violence and the intervention of foreign powers." Moncado said the ban came from Maduro and criticized Fox and the other former Latin American leaders invited as observers (Andrés Pastrana, Jorge Quiroga, Laura Chinchilla and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez) as "political sicarios," "clowns" and "mercenaries" that "sell themselves to the highest bidder to go to various destinations and repeat what they are told." Fox said he was not surprised by the ban and that the vote would weaken Maduro.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In 2018, Fox joined the "High Times" board of directors. He left the board in 2020 over concerns surrounding the company's stock offering.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Fox has been an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, beginning with Trump's bid for the Republican candidacy in the 2016 presidential election.


title: Vicente Fox

text: In an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos in February 2016, Fox responded to then-candidate Trump's proposal to build a wall at the border between the United States and Mexico at Mexico's expense, declaring in English, "I am not going to pay for that fucking wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money." Fox went on to call Trump a "crazy guy" and a "false prophet," and questioned the claim that Trump received 44% of the Hispanic vote in the Republican caucus in Nevada. Trump took to Twitter in response, demanding that Fox apologize for using "the F word while discussing the wall." Fox eventually apologized for the remark, while also asking for Trump to apologize for his remarks about Mexicans and inviting Trump to visit Mexico.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Despite his apology, Fox continued to criticize Trump to the international media and troll Trump on Twitter, stating, "I'm committed to be Donald Trump's shadow until he is done with politics." Fox would later go on to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and his victory in the 2020 United States presidential election, defeating Trump. When Trump visited Mexico on 31 August 2016 upon President Enrique Peña Nieto's invitation, Fox slammed the visit, calling it a "desperate move" on the part of Peña Nieto and stating, "He is not welcome in Mexico. We don't like him. We don't want him. We reject his visit." Trump responded by pointing out Fox's previous invitation, to which Fox clarified that he invited Trump to Mexico on the condition that he used the visit to apologize to the Mexican people. He directly addressed the American people the next day on CNN, where he described Trump as a "false prophet" who is "absolutely crazy" and warned that they need to "wake up" and realize the harm that Trump's immigration and economic policies would inflict on the United States.


title: Vicente Fox

text: Later in September 2016, "The Washington Post" reported that Fox had received multiple emails from Trump's campaign soliciting donations throughout the month. Fox received the first email on 9 September, which he posted on Twitter and responded, "Donald Trump, I won't pay for that fucking wall! Also, campaigning in Mexico? Running out of money and friends?" Fox received two additional emails on 24 and 27 September, both of which he also posted on Twitter and mocked as being "desperate" and "begging." The revelation of the emails has raised concern, as accepting campaign donations from foreign nationals is illegal in the United States.


title: Vicente Fox

text: During a September 2016 appearance on the radio show "El Show de Piolín", Fox smashed a Trump piñata hanging on the streets of Los Angeles while loudly singing the traditional Piñata song. Upon breaking it open, Fox noted its lack of contents and remarked, "Empty. Totally Empty. He doesn't have any brains." Discussing the event during a subsequent interview with "GQ", Fox expanded, "I had such a joy in my heart by doing that, because in Mexico, piñatas are very meaningful. Piñatas are a celebration. Piñatas let you send messages. And the message is: Trump is empty inside. He's empty in his head. That's why I put my hand into his head. There was no brain there. That's what he is, an empty person."


title: Vicente Fox

text: The day after Trump won the election, Fox wrote an editorial on the "International Business Times" website where he lamented Trump's victory and explored what Mexico could do in response. "Even though Trump is not the prettiest person in the room, we still have to dance with him. Now, we ought to look out for ourselves and find a way to work with the most powerful economy in the world, which is now led by an authoritarian racist[...]Donald Trump's promises have an expiration date. When the time comes to truly deliver to the American people, his "billion dollar show" will finally crumble beneath his feet," Fox wrote, concluding his editorial with, "I find quite sad that America, formerly the most open and cutting edge nation, has chosen to lock itself down inside concrete walls. It's tragic that fear, anger and wrath took over and pierced the hearts of their people. It will be hard to recover from this wound; but we better start working to heal as quickly as possible – and bring down the walls that blinded us in the beginning."