title: Li Hongzhi

text: By April 2001, Li Hongzhi had received over 340 awards and proclamations from Australia, Canada, China (before crackdown), Japan, Russia, and the U.S. in recognition of the contributions to people's spiritual and physical health, and to freedom of belief in the world. These include certificates of recognition from several governmental bodies in the United States—including Honorary Citizenship awarded by The State of Georgia and city of Atlanta. On 14 March 2001, The Freedom House bestowed Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong with an International Religious Freedom Award for the advancement of religious and spiritual freedom at a ceremony in the United States Senate. He was nominated for the 2001 Sakharov Prize by over 25 members of European Parliament, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 and 2001, and in 2013 was ranked by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the 500 most powerful people in the world.


title: Li Hongzhi

text: Performance arts group Shen Yun, the media organization "The Epoch Times", and a variety of other organizations such as New Tang Dynasty Television operate as extensions of Falun Gong. These extensions promote Falun Gong and Hongzhi's teachings, and, in the case of "The Epoch Times", promote conspiracy theories and far-right politics in both the United States and Europe. According to a 2020 report by "Los Angeles Magazine":


title: Li Hongzhi

text: The exact financial and structural connections between Falun Gong, Shen Yun, and "The Epoch Times" remains unclear. According to NBC News:


title: Li Hongzhi

text: Reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian speculates that Li Hongzhi's anti-miscegenation beliefs, based on the argument that multiracial heritage has no place in a supposedly race-segregated heaven, could have influenced "The Epoch Times" support of German far-right nativism.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Tiffany Valentine (also known as "The Bride of Chucky") is a murderous doll and a character in the "Child's Play" horror film series. She is portrayed by Jennifer Tilly in both live-action and voice over in "Bride of Chucky", "Seed of Chucky", "Curse of Chucky", "Cult of Chucky", and "Chucky".


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: As a human, Tiffany has bleached blonde hair and brown eyes, a gothic fashion style, and has a chest tattoo of a stabbed heart with Chucky written above it. After becoming a doll, Tiffany redoes her hair and makeup to resemble her human self, and wears a golden necklace that says "Tiff". Her physical appearance as a human and as a doll change throughout the franchise. Tiffany, like her love interest, Chucky, wants to transfer her soul to the human protagonist. She eventually transfers her soul to the body of a fictional version of Jennifer Tilly in "Seed of Chucky". She later appears in "Curse of Chucky" and "Cult of Chucky", the latter of which reveals that she has both a human form and a doll form.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Tiffany has many different personalities which can be a little skeptical. She dresses in a gothic fashion and can be described as a hopeless romantic. She has a "bimbo" hairstyle, but is sweet, creative, inventive, and somewhat feminist. Unlike Chucky, she possesses a genuinely kind and compassionate side, although she can be quite short-tempered. Also, she is more than capable of remorse. It is shown, in "Bride of Chucky", that she loves deeply, believing "love would set her free". She is easily disappointed, terribly violent, psychotic and unforgiving when angered. She attempts to reform in "Seed of Chucky", to "break her addiction" to killing. However, Tiffany's urge to maim is strong, and she continues to murder especially if it means helping Chucky.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Tiffany sets up and murders a police officer in order to steal Chucky's remains from an evidence vault. Stitching and patching the remains together with new doll parts, she re-enacts the voodoo ritual which puts his soul inside the doll. When an argument reveals that Chucky has no intention of marrying her, an outraged and hurt Tiffany confines him in a playpen and taunts him with a Wedding Belle doll. Chucky soon breaks out of the pen and electrocutes Tiffany in her bath, leaving her lifeless. He repeats the chant which transfers her soul into the doll. Stuck in the same circumstances, they need the Heart of Damballa (a voodoo amulet) buried with Chucky's human remains in Hackensack, New Jersey. To escape their doll bodies, Tiffany phones and tricks a neighbor, Jesse, into transporting these "dolls" for $1000.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Several people are gruesomely killed during the road trip. Tiffany's particularly creative murder of a con-artist couple in a bridal suite moves Chucky to proclaim his love and propose to Tiffany; she accepts and they have sex. Jesse and Jade become wanted for the murders as all evidence links back to them; Chucky and Tiffany reveal they are alive and take the couple hostage, needing new wheels they steal a Campervan. The hostages instigate a fight between Chucky and Tiffany, Distracted, Jade kicks her into the oven and Jesse throws Chucky out the window, Jesse spins out which ends with their stolen Campervan crashing. Chucky forces Jade to his gravesite to retrieve the amulet when Jesse arrives to trade Tiffany for Jade. Chucky does so but quickly recaptures the couple and prepares to transfer Tiffany's soul into Jade. However, touched by Jade and Jesse's love, Tiffany stabs Chucky in order to stop his evil plan and they fight. Tiffany is stabbed in the heart by Chucky and avenged by Jade who shoots Chucky to death. As she lies dying, Tiffany gives birth to a bloody baby doll that attacks the crime investigator.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Chucky and Tiffany are brought back to life by their child when he reads the inscription on the Heart of Damballa. When they see he has no genitals, Tiffany sees it as proof the child is a girl and names it Glenda (feminizing the name, Glen, which Chucky had given to him previously). Now going by "Tiffany Ray", Tiffany plans to transport her soul into the body of Jennifer Tilly. They also plan to impregnate her and put Glen/Glenda's soul in the baby's body. Their plan is successful, as Jennifer swiftly gives birth to two babies, a boy and a girl. This works out perfectly as Glen/Glenda has a split personality: a sweet and caring boy, and a homicidal girl. However, Chucky decides to remain a doll, seeing that being human is not so great. Disturbed by this, Tiffany leaves Chucky, taking Glen/Glenda with her, causing Chucky to get angry.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Tiffany and Glen/Glenda go to Jennifer's hospital. Chucky follows them and hits her in the head with an axe for leaving him, thus killing her. However, at the very last minute, she successfully passes her soul into Jennifer before dying. Five years later, she is happily living in Hollywood while inhabiting Jennifer's body, and is raising the twins on her own. On the twins' birthday, one of the maids tries to quit her job because she is afraid of "troubled child" Glenda. Tiffany tells her she can go, but then beats her to death with her doll body. Her eyes then turn green while she evilly laughs. In the extended version, she then hides the body and tells Glenda to keep a secret.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Six years after the events of "Seed of Chucky", Tiffany's soul still possesses actress Jennifer Tilly's body. She does not appear on-screen until it is revealed that she was the one responsible for mailing Chucky out to Nica's home, facilitating his murder spree on the family he blames for his human death. She pays a police officer to get Chucky from evidence after Nica's trial and once he is in his car she jumps up from the back and slits his throat with a nail file. The status of their twins is never stated. Six months later, Tiffany mails Chucky to the home of Nica's niece, Alice, and he suffocates her paternal grandmother. Chucky attempts to transfer his soul into Alice and it is shown that the grandmother is still alive. Alice's fate is clearly unknown.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Four years after Nica Pierce was falsely imprisoned, Tiffany visits her in a mental institution after she was framed by Chucky for the murders of her family which Tiffany helped orchestrate. She is revealed to be the legal guardian of Nica's niece Alice and came to tell Nica that Alice had died, supposedly of a "broken heart". She leaves Chucky as a gift for Nica, saying that it was a gift from Alice. She later calls Andy Barclay and delivers a taunting message about Chucky's growing "Cult".


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Tiffany later kills a security guard outside the Asylum, slitting his throat with a nail file. At the end of the film, Tiffany is reunited with Chucky (now possessing the body of Nica) and the two reaffirm their relationship with a kiss. Tiffany expresses some remorse at Alice's apparent death and says it was nice having her around. Chucky/Nica replies by saying "fuck that kid" and then they both begin laughing maniacally, along with the Tiffany doll sitting in the back of the car, which is revealed to hold part of Tiffany's soul before they drive off into the night.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: After leaving the Harrogate mental institution, Tiffany and Nica/Chucky drive back to Hackensack and stay in the local hotel. They have kidnapped two men, having already killed one of them and forcing the other man to watch them make out while he is bound and gagged. Laughing, Tiffany comments how they're putting on a nice show for him, but all he does is moan and complain. She gets up off the bed and asks the man what he wants, before mentioning that she herself is hungry and wants a snack, preferably Swedish meatballs. This angers Chucky, and the two get into an argument about how much Tiffany likes to eat. She storms out of the room, and later returns to find Chucky knocked down on the ground, unaware that moments before Nica briefly regained control of her body.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Sometime after, Tiffany is struggling to pack one of the men's bodies into a large suitcase. They have a brief fight about cutting the body into smaller pieces, so Tiffany uses a cleaver to cut one of the man's hands off. The resulting blood splatters on Chucky's face, causing Nica to regain control again. Later on, the two women play poker while Nica tries to keep up the façade that she is Chucky. Suspicious of "Chucky", Tiffany attempts to have him recall the details of their honeymoon at Niagara Falls. After Nica gives a generic answer to try to bluff her, Tiffany reveals that she knows Nica has regained control of her body. And to prove her theory, she stabbed Nica in the thigh 10 minutes ago which she has still not felt or noticed. Scared, Nica asks what she plans on doing with her. Tiffany then divulges that she has developed feelings for Nica over the years, and prefers spending time with her over Chucky. As an added surprise, she tells Nica that she bought the two of them a house in Hackensack, which in reality is Charles Lee Ray's childhood home. She comments that her only problem is figuring out how to keep Nica in control instead of "that rat Chucky", and then knocks Nica unconscious with a pan to the head.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Stuffing Nica in the trunk of her Pontiac, Tiffany drives to her newly purchased home to meet with realtor Gladys. Under the guise of Jennifer Tilly, she tells the realtor she and her fiancé will be moving in immediately and that it was her fiancé's childhood home. Before driving away, Gladys gives Tiffany a package that she had already received in the mail. She then gets Nica out of the trunk and takes her into the house, keeping her bound and gagged before leaving her alone inside.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: With Jake no longer willing to help Chucky, he and Tiffany set their sights on his cousin, Junior. While at the funeral for Junior's mother, Tiffany arrives uninvited and approaches his father Logan. Kissing him in front of everyone, she quickly turns around and leaves without saying another word. Later that night, Tiffany drives to the Wheeler house, and honks her horn for Junior to come out. Giving him some Swedish meatballs, she says that it is a gift and claims that their Logan's favourite. She then asks if Jake is home, but Junior changes the subject and questions what she was doing with Logan at the funeral. She acts surprised that Logan never told him about them, and tells him not to tell anyone that she was there, before quickly leaving in her car.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: She arrives back at Charles' childhood home and finds Nica lying on the ground, unaware that Chucky is in control. While Tiffany prepares to drug Nica, Chucky takes the opportunity to sweep her leg and knock her down. Holding a knife over her head, Chucky prepares to stab her, but stops when she reminds him that he needs her or their plan won't work. He ignores her and again goes to stab her, but halts when Junior and his Chucky doll enter the house, reminding Nica/Chucky that they do in fact need Tiffany. She excitedly picks up the Chucky doll, happy to finally be reunited with him, and they all go downstairs where an army of 72 possessed Good Guy dolls are waiting for them. The dolls are placed into Good Guy boxes and packed into a truck, and Tiffany leaves the home to pay the driver to drop the dolls off at the theatre tomorrow. Returning inside, she finds Chucky and Nica/Chucky are engaged in a conversation. She tries to get the doll's attention, but when she is ignored, she angrily remarks that he is the most self-involved man she's ever met, and a real man would know how to treat a lady. When Nica/Chucky makes a snide comment back, Tiffany slaps him so hard that he falls to the ground, causing Nica to regain control. The Chucky doll apologizes to her, and as he mentions that "getting over himself" takes real sacrifice, he demands that Tiffany kill Nica. Distraught, she cannot overcome her feelings for Nica and cannot bring herself to kill her. When Chucky commands Junior to kill Nica, Tiffany finally snaps and proceeds to decapitate the doll with her nail file. Junior attempts to help Chucky, but Tiffany reminds him that he needs her help to get out of Hackensack after the police find his father's corpse. Picking up the head, she tells Chucky that she is done with him for good before dropping him on the ground. She drugs Nica and has Junior tie her arms together, while she sets up a bomb to leave for Andy Barclay. With the bomb in place at the front door, she puts Nica in the backseat of her car and hops into the front with Junior before they drive away.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: The next day, Tiffany poses as celebrity guest Jennifer Tilly at a special movie screening benefitting children's hospitals, held by Mayor Cross. The mayor announces that as part of the benefit, 72 children's hospitals across the country will be receiving a priceless gift from Jennifer's personal collection of vintage Good Guy dolls, which will ship immediately after the movie screening. The mayor's daughter Caroline wants the Chucky doll Tiffany is holding, so she allows Caroline to take it into the movie theatre with her. After the movie is finished that evening, Tiffany meets with the truck driver to ensure the dolls are delivered to the airport before the plane leaves at midnight. She walks back to her car but finds that it doesn't start, and she watches helplessly as Andy Barclay drives the truck away with the dolls inside. However, as Andy is on the road, the Tiffany doll breaks through the glass and holds him at gunpoint, demanding he keep driving.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: Meanwhile, Tiffany returns to a secret location where she is keeping Nica, who is finally waking up from being drugged. She tells Nica that she really likes her, but she couldn't run the risk that Chucky would regain control. Therefore, she amputated Nica's arms and legs to prevent her from fighting back.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: A year later, Tiffany still has Nica held captive, but unbeknown to her, Nica has been plotting with Chucky and her children, Glen and Glenda, to escape. Waking up one morning to find the head of the Tiffany doll in her bed, Tiffany cuts her hand open to summon Chucky, who tells her that it is a warning he is coming and intends to kill her for betraying him.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: An officer, who is searching for Nica, eventually shows up and states Nica has been spotted at the house and Tiffany kills him, by slitting his throat, to prevent him from taking Nica. Before being able to clean up the blood, Glen and Glenda arrive at the house for their birthday. They try to confront their mother about Nica, to which Tiffany acts like she doesn't know what they are talking about. Soon after it is revealed that Glen and Glenda had invited Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Sutton Stracke and Jennifer Tilly's real life sister, Meg Tilly (who they all believe her to be Jennifer Tilly) for a surprise party. When the hired butler named Jeeves ends up dead and Nica goes missing, Tiffany pretends she's hosting a murder mystery party and begins searching for Nica and questioning her guest about who killed Jeeves. It is eventually revealed that Glen and Glenda had discovered Nica three months prior and Glen was going to help Nica escape, while Nica/Chucky had convinced Glenda to help him kill Tiffany. This fails however and Nica regains control and leaves with Glenda and Kyle. Glen stays behind with their mother, with Glenda urging them to ask their mother, who they believe is Jennifer Tilly, who Tiffany Valentine is.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: After this, Tiffany is distraught with grief at the loss of Nica and Glen confronts Tiffany about Nica's captivity, but Tiffany refuses to divulge any information unless Glen reveals Nica's whereabouts. When a suspicious Meg decides to stay at Tiffany's house, a captive Jennifer - trapped inside a Tiffany doll - feeds Tiffany false information, and Meg and Glen walk in on the two arguing. When Jennifer begs Meg for help, Tiffany murders Meg and reveals her true identity to Glen, bequeathing them the original Glen/Glenda doll. Tiffany and Glen burn down the house and leave with the doll and a tied-up Jennifer to find Glenda.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: On the way to get Glenda and Nica, they stop at a truck stop to get food where Tiffany learns Jennifer Tilly is wanted for murder and panics when she starts getting recognized by the cashier and a customer. Rushing back to her car where Glen and Jennifer are waiting she begins to device a plan to switch bodies with Jennifer Tilly as she can only transfer her soul into a Wedding Belle doll due to the rules of Dumballa where one’s soul can only be transferred into a similar host. Trying to take off the car fails to start and while being repaired Jennifer Tilly escapes only to be killed by an oncoming truck, making Tiffany incapable of transferring her soul. Her and Glen then head off to the school where Lexy, Devon and Jack are and once there, Nica tries to murder Tiffany for her captivity and removal of her arms and legs only for Glen to jump in the way of the bullet, accidentally being hit instead. Tiffany and Glenda together lift Glen up and take off to get Glen help.


title: Tiffany Valentine

text: On the special features of the "Seed of Chucky" DVD, Tiffany sits alongside Chucky and Glen on a sofa in their family home, where they watch a slideshow of their holiday to various places. Nearly all of these places have evidence of Chucky having killed someone; this upsets Tiffany and makes Glen feel uncomfortable. Also on the special features of "Seed of Chucky" DVD, Chucky and Tiffany are interviewed by the Fuzion interviewer to promote the film.


title: Cinnamomum verum

text: Cinnamomum verum, called true cinnamon tree or Ceylon cinnamon tree, is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka. The inner bark of several other "Cinnamomum" species are also used to make cinnamon, but "C. verum" has a more subtle flavor.


title: Cinnamomum verum

text: "Cinnamomum verum" trees are 10–15 metres (30–50 feet) tall. The leaves are ovate-oblong in shape and 7–18 cm (3–7 inches) long. The flowers, which are arranged in panicles, have a greenish color and a distinct odour. The fruit is a purple 1cm drupe containing a single seed.


title: Cinnamomum verum

text: The old botanical synonym for the tree, "Cinnamomum zeylanicum", is derived from Sri Lanka's former name, Ceylon. Sri Lanka still produces 80–90% of the world's supply of "C. verum", which is also cultivated on a commercial scale in the Seychelles, Madagascar and Tanzania.


title: Cinnamomum verum

text: Cinnamon has a long history of use in traditional medicine as a digestive aid, however, contemporary studies are unable to find evidence of any significant medicinal or therapeutic effect.


title: Cinnamomum verum

text: The trees grow as leafy bushes, usually reaching a maximum of in height. They are first harvested at 3 years old, and continue producing well for 40–50 years. Small side branches (1.5–5 cm in diameter) are removed from the trees. The outer bark is removed, and made into mulch. Twigs, leaves and berries (seeds) are crushed and make cinnamon oil, a less valuable byproduct. The inner bark of the branches are loosened by being rubbed with a brass rod. Then the bark is split with a brass or stainless steel knife and peeled off as intact as possible. Long, full 'quills' of cinnamon are more valuable than broken pieces. These quills are then dried over several days in the shade, then in darkness. All this work is done by hand by experienced workers; this is the most expensive part of producing cinnamon spice. Finally, the dried bark is cut into sticks or ground into powder for sale to consumers.


title: Discovery (Electric Light Orchestra album)

text: Discovery is the eighth studio album by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was released on 1 June 1979 in the United Kingdom by Jet Records, where it topped record charts, and on 8 June in the United States on Jet through Columbia Records distribution. A music video album featuring all the songs being played by the band was then released on VHS in 1979, then re-released as part of the "" DVD and VHS in 1998.


text: "Discovery" was the band's first number 1 album in the UK, entering the chart at that position and staying there for five weeks. The album contained five hit songs in "Shine a Little Love", "Don't Bring Me Down", "Last Train to London", "Confusion" and "The Diary of Horace Wimp", many of which were heavily influenced by disco (in fact, Richard Tandy nicknamed the album, "Disco Very"). "Don't Bring Me Down" would become one of their only two top three hits in the UK throughout their career ("Xanadu" would be number one in 1980), and also their highest-charting US single at number 4. "The Diary of Horace Wimp" was also a hit single in the UK, not patterned after the disco sound; instead it was closer in its Beatlesque style to the band's earlier hit "Mr. Blue Sky". The album itself was the first ever to generate four top-ten singles (one of which was a Double A-side) from a single LP in the UK and was eventually certified 2× platinum by the RIAA in 1997.


text: "Discovery" is notable in that it was the first ELO album not to feature their resident string trio of Mik Kaminski, Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale, although they did make an appearance on the "Discovery" music videos.


text: In one of his earliest jobs, comedian/actor Brad Garrett, dressed in Middle Eastern clothes and turban, appears on the back cover as the menacing palace guard who is drawing his scimitar.


text: "Discovery" was remastered as part of the Epic/Legacy remaster series in 2001; among the included bonus tracks was a cover of a Del Shannon classic, "Little Town Flirt", which was started during sessions for the album but never finished until the year the album was reissued.


text: All tracks composed by Jeff Lynne, except "Little Town Flirt" written by Maron McKenzie and Del Shannon.


title: Mai (TV series)

text: Mai: A Mother's Rage or simply known as Mai is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language family thriller drama streaming television series on Netflix created by Atul Mongia, directed by Anshai Lal and produced by Anushka Sharma with her elder brother Karnesh Ssharma under the banner of Clean Slate Filmz. The series stars Sakshi Tanwar, Wamiqa Gabbi, Prashant Narayanan, Raima Sen, Anant Vidhat Sharma and Vaibhav Raj Gupta in lead roles. It follows a story of a grieving mother who discovers the criminals behind her daughter's tragic death, and transforms from meek to merciless to get the real cause behind death. The series premiered on 15 April 2022 on Netflix.


title: Mai (TV series)

text: Sheel Chaudhary, a middle-class mother and a nurse working at Geeta Bhawan, an old age home, witnesses the death of her daughter, Supriya, by a speeding truck. During the post-funeral ceremonies, she stumbles upon the fact that her daughter's death was not an accident, but a case of pre-planned murder. The tragedy pushes the mourning mother to uncover the truth about the death of her daughter.


title: Mai (TV series)

text: The series was earlier announced by Netflix India to release in 2021 but was delayed due to its pending post production work. It was finally released on 15 April 2022.


title: Mai (TV series)

text: Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express gave a positive review to the series stating, "Despite the elements that stretch our credulity, Sakshi Tanwar manages to hold our attention." Nandini Ramnath from Scroll.in wrote, "This netflix crime series is a boilerplate thriller ladled out on elegant dishes."


title: We Belong Together

text: "We Belong Together" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her 10th studio album, "The Emancipation of Mimi" (2005). The song was released on March 15, 2005, through Island Records, as the second single from the album. "We Belong Together" was written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin, and produced by the former three. Since the song interpolates lyrics from Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and the Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987), the songwriters of those respective songs are credited. "We Belong Together" is built on a simple piano arrangement with an understated backbeat. The lyrics chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return.


title: We Belong Together

text: Following a relatively unsuccessful period between 2001 and 2004, critics dubbed the song her musical comeback, as many had considered her career over. "We Belong Together" earned her several music industry awards and nominations throughout 2005 and 2006. The song broke chart records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth topper on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. After staying at number one for fourteen nonconsecutive weeks, it joined four other songs in a tie as the third longest running number one song in US chart history, behind Carey's own 1995 collaboration with Boyz II Men titled "One Sweet Day". "Billboard" listed it as the "song of the decade" and the fifteenth most popular song of all time. Additionally, it broke several airplay records, gathering both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history. "We Belong Together" also topped the charts in Australia; and reached the top-five in more than ten countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.


title: We Belong Together

text: The song's music video was filmed as a two-part story with "It's Like That", which featured Carey at her bachelorette party. The video for "We Belong Together" is a continuation focusing on Carey's wedding to an older and powerful man and ends with the singer eloping with her ex-lover. Rumors arose of the video's connection to her 1993 marriage to Tommy Mottola. Carey performed the song on several award shows and television appearances around the world, namely MTV Movie Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Macy's Fourth of July Parade, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and the 48th Grammy Awards. In Europe the song was performed at the Live 8 charity concert, the Fashion Rocks in Monaco, and the German Bambi Awards. Carey performed the song while on The Adventures of Mimi Tour and the song has been on every tour set list since then.


title: We Belong Together

text: Carey had produced back-to-back commercially and critically unsuccessful albums, "Glitter" (2001) and "Charmbracelet" (2002). Though fueled by strong media attention regarding Carey's return to music, as well as her new deal with Island Records, the albums failed to deliver the type of success she had been accustomed to throughout the 1990s, and only managed sales of 3 million copies globally. After the album's release, and its succeeding tour, Carey began conceptualizing and working on a new project, eventually titled "The Emancipation of Mimi", her tenth studio effort. "We Belong Together" became a song that critics considered Carey's "return to form" and "the return of The Voice", after several questioned her vocal abilities following the release of "Charmbracelet".


title: We Belong Together

text: By November 2004, Carey had already recorded several songs for "The Emancipation of Mimi". Island Records chairman L.A. Reid suggested Carey that she compose a few more strong singles to ensure the project's commercial success. Believing that she had written some of her best work with Jermaine Dupri, Reid recommended her to meet with Dupri for a brief studio session. Carey headed to Atlanta to collaborate with Dupri where the duo wrote and produced "Shake It Off" and "Get Your Number", which were eventually released as the album's third and fourth singles. Following this recording session, "Shake It Off" was briefly selected as the album's lead single, replacing the originally planned "Say Somethin'". Carey returned to Atlanta for a second meeting with Dupri; during this trip, Carey and Dupri penned the last two songs to be included on the album, "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That". In an interview with "Billboard", Carey described her sentiments regarding the song during the production stage:


title: We Belong Together

text: I had the chills. I had a great feeling about it when we finished writing the song, and I was flying back from Atlanta at some crazy hour of the morning... But we were listening to it on the plane ride on the way home, and even from the demo version, I really felt something very special.


title: We Belong Together

text: Carey and her management then decided to release "It's Like That", which Carey called "the right fire-starter", as the album's lead single. She later reminisced about her experience with Dupri: "I am so grateful I went to Atlanta," she said. "And I have to say, we wrote some of my favorite songs on the album. I'm so proud of Jermaine – he's so focused, and he knew what had to be done."


title: We Belong Together

text: "We Belong Together" is an R&B ballad. "Rolling Stone" called it "soulful." The song is propelled by a programmed Roland TR-808-styled kick and hi-hat, which is prominently utilized in hip hop music. Reviewer Jennifer Vineyard from MTV News commented that Carey's spare and understated singing approach gave the song more power, which would not have been achieved if she had belted. The song also incorporates 1980s retro-soul music by "cleverly" referencing Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and the Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987), with Babyface. In the second verse of "We Belong Together", Carey sings: "Bobby Womack's on the radio / Singing to me, 'If you think you're lonely now'." She then flips across a radio dial: "So I turn the dial, tryin’ to catch a break / And then I hear Babyface / 'I only think of you...'." The line "If you think you're lonely now" is from the song of the same name and "I only think of you" is from the chorus of "Two Occasions." In the remix she also says "I only think of you / On two occasions / That's day and night..." Due to the inclusion of the lyrics from both songs, the songwriters were given co-writing credits on the song. "We Belong Together" follows the common verse-chorus form and is structured into three distinct sections, with each section presenting the protagonist in different emotions. The first section chronicles the break-up of the couple, and a sorrowful tone is established as she laments her former mistakes. In the second section, the narrative switches to the present, and the protagonist becomes increasingly agitated and feels "all out of her element" when she attempts to distract herself by listening to the radio, but fails. "We Belong Together" does not have a bridge; instead, Carey transitions into the third section by raising the pitch an octave, which emphasizes the sheer frustration and desperation of the protagonist. "Metro Times" writer Johnny Loftus described the song's production, lyrics and vocals in detail:


title: We Belong Together

text: It’s straightforward, heartfelt and classy. Mariah pleads with her departed lover – 'When you left I lost a part of me / It’s still so hard to believe' – and the song’s gentle R&B roll is perfectly understated, built from a few piano chords and a slowed-down So So Def rhythm. It has a homebody quality, almost like an autumn song would – you can imagine a split-up couple singing it quietly, separately, as the world goes on around them. She’s on a porch with tea; he’s stuck in traffic when he finds Mariah on the radio. It even cleverly references that feel, with Mariah finding the Bobby Womack and Babyface songs on her radio just too tough to hear. There’s no tired 'I tried to 2-way you' retorts, no trash-technology love affair 'I was at the grocery store and this guy had the same ring tone as you, and I cried.' No, there’s a classic sensibility to the lyrics and sound of 'We Belong Together' that makes for perfect – and perfectly universal – pop/R&B songwriting. In other words, it’s the jam. And there’s probably a happy ending, too: Mariah’s triumphant octave shift finale makes the song’s title an emphatic.


title: We Belong Together

text: "We Belong Together" is a simple, understated musical arrangement set in C major and composed in 4/4 time. Similarly, within the song, Carey's voice spans from G to the high note of A. Carey's vocal range is demonstrated with a greater emphasis in the ending chorus, where the chorus is raised an octave higher, lying from G to A. As such, Carey ends with an anticipated coda, completing both the chorus and the song with a potent, belted note of C for approximately four semibreves (around 17 seconds). It follows the common verse-chorus form and is structured into three sections that portray the protagonist in a range of emotions; from doleful and resigned in the first section, to desperate and agitated in the second. In the last section the song climaxes with an octave raise, which not only emphasizes the protagonist's heightened desperation, but her determination to be with her lover. The song is written in the key of C major with a slow tempo of 70 beats per minute. Carey's vocals span from G to A, and the song follows a chord progression of Am–G–Em–F.


title: We Belong Together

text: "We Belong Together" became a "career re-defining" song for Carey, at a point when many critics had considered her career over. Unlike most of Carey's recent singles at that time, "We Belong Together" received generally positive reviews from critics, most of whom hailed the song as her "return to form", following reviews for "Charmbracelet" (2002), that suggested Carey had lost her signature vocal range and power. Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" wrote "the... diva [keeps] cool with breathy, rapid-fire verses until the final full strong-voiced climax that... proves that 'The Voice' has indeed returned." Additionally, he said that "The song is as 'innovative' as Mariah has been in years." Other critics commended Carey on her novel singing style which, according to Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times", gave the song its propulsion, writing "This style is part of the reason why she has been able to turn a ballad into a summer smash. 'We Belong Together' doesn't have a guest rapper, or a hard-hitting beat, but Ms. Carey's tricky vocal lines give the song more propulsion than you'd expect, with tightly coiled counter-rhythms that tug against the beat." Johnny Loftus from "Metro Times" called it a "summer hit" and wrote "We all know it’s the intangibles that make a summer single anyway, those untraceable currents that grab the heart and feet, and despite not being an anthem, 'We Belong Together' is that rousing."


title: We Belong Together

text: Writing for "Vibe", Michael Ehrlich claimed the song would "cut across generations", while Cinquemani felt it would revive "faith in Mariah the balladeer". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic chose "We Belong Together" as a "top Pick" from the album, while Todd Burns from Stylus Magazine described it as "beautifully cadenced". Echoing Cinquemani's comments about the song and Carey's past as a balladeer, Jozen Cummings from PopMatters wrote "Carey makes the song her own, reminding fans of her 'Hero' days with full, throaty vocals and a crashing climax at the end. The dichotomy between 'The Emancipation of Mimi's' first two tracks is the album’s bread and butter." Since first hearing the song on the radio, Sherri Winston from "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" claimed she "knew it would be a smash", complimenting its understated beat and Carey's vocals. "Billboard"'s Michael Paoletta described "We Belong Together" as one of the album's strongest cuts, claiming that it highlighted the strongest focal point on the song: Carey's voice. Slant Magazine ranked it 2nd on their best songs of 2005 list.


title: We Belong Together

text: Between 2001 and 2004, Carey's popularity had substantially declined and many had considered her career as over. "We Belong Together" proved to be both Carey's comeback single and a massive commercial success. The song spent fourteen nonconsecutive weeks at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100—after making its debut at number 81—and fourteen consecutive weeks at number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It had major cross-over success, becoming the first song to simultaneously occupy the number one position on nine "Billboard" charts on the week ending August 6, 2005: the Hot 100, "Billboard" Hot 100 Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Pop 100 Airplay, Top 40 Mainstream, Rhythmic Airplay Chart, Hot Dance Club Songs, and the Hot Ringtones charts. Spending fourteen weeks atop the Hot 100, "We Belong Together" became the one of the third longest running number one songs in US chart history, behind only Carey's 1995 collaboration with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day", which spent sixteen weeks at number one. Aside from its chart success, the song broke several airplay records, and according to Mediabase and Nielsen BDS, gathered both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in BDS history, reaching 32.8 million and 223 million impressions respectively. This record was held until it was broken by Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" in 2013, with 234.65 million listeners on July 28.


title: We Belong Together

text: During the week of September 25, 2005, Carey set another record, becoming the first female to occupy the first two spots atop the Hot 100, as "We Belong Together" remained at number one, and her next single, "Shake It Off", held the number two spot. Additionally, the song held the top position on the official Hot 100 Airplay chart for sixteen weeks, tying for the second all time spot with No Doubt's "Don't Speak" (1996). "We Belong Together" was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of 4 million copies throughout the United States. On the "Billboard" Hot 100 Year-end Chart of 2005, the song was declared the number one song, a career first for Carey. "Billboard" listed "We Belong Together" ninth on The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and second on Top Billboard Hot 100 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. On the Hot 100, "We Belong Together" spent 23 consecutive weeks in the top ten and 43 weeks total on the chart, making it Carey's longest running top-ten song and her longest charting hit at the time. The song was also declared the most popular song of the 2000s decade by "Billboard", which makes Carey the first artist to have more than one song being the most popular of a decade, as "One Sweet Day" was the most popular song of the 1990s.


title: We Belong Together

text: Besides its success in the United States, "We Belong Together" achieved strong charting throughout Europe and Australia. On the ARIA Charts, the song debuted atop the singles chart in Australia during the week dated July 3, 2005. The following week, it held the number one spot for a second week, and stayed on the chart for a total of eleven weeks. To date, "We Belong Together" was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of 70,000 units. The song finished at number seventeen on the 2005 Australian Year-End Chart. In both Flemish and Wallonian territories in Belgium, "We Belong Together" peaked at numbers twelve and twenty-four, spending a total of fifteen and fourteen weeks fluctuating in the singles chart, respectively. The song finished at number forty-seven on the Flemish Year-End Chart of 2005. "We Belong Together" made its debut at number fifteen on the Danish Tracklisten chart during the week of August 7, 2005, eventually peaking at number three. In France, the song peaked at number twelve, and spent nineteen weeks fluctuating within the French singles chart. On the Dutch Top 40 chart, "We Belong Together" reached number one in its fourth week, and spent a total of sixteen weeks in the chart, four of which were at the number two position. The song finished at number forty-one on the Dutch Year-End Chart of 2005. In New Zealand, the song spend three weeks at number two on the singles chart, and a total of twelve before making its exit on October 3, 2005. At the end of 2005, "We Belong Together" finished at number thirty-six, and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). In both Norway and Spain, the song peaked at number nine and three, and spent nine and seven weeks within the charts. In Switzerland, the song peaked at number four on the official singles chart, and charted for thirteen weeks. During mid-week predictions in the United Kingdom, "We Belong Together" was positioned to become Carey's third UK number one single. However, it wound up debuting at number two on the UK Singles Chart. In its second week, the song dropped to number three, before re-surfacing to number two in its third week, this time blocked by James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". The song spent a total of eighteen weeks within the singles chart, and has estimated sales of over 240,000 units in the United Kingdom.


title: We Belong Together

text: "We Belong Together" was awarded several prestigious music industry awards throughout 2005 and 2006. At the 2005 Billboard Music Awards ceremony, Carey won five awards, with the song receiving awards in the "Rhythmic Top 40 Title of the Year", "Hot 100 song of the Year" and "Hot 100 Airplay of the Year" categories. On November 6, 2005, Carey earned two awards for "We Belong Together" at the Radio Music Awards ceremony, in the "Song of the Year/Mainstream Hit Radio" and "Song of the Year/Urban and Rhythmic Radio" categories. Similarly, "We Belong Together" won the "Best R&B/Soul Single" and "Best R&B/Soul Single, Female" awards at the 20th annual Soul Train Music Awards, "Choice Love Song" at the Teen Choice Awards, "Best R&B Song" at the Vibe Awards, and "World's Most-Played Single" at the 2005 World Music Awards.


title: We Belong Together

text: At the 48th annual Grammy Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium on February 8, 2006, Carey was nominated for eight awards, the most she had received in one night throughout her career. "We Belong Together" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year; however, it won two awards: "Best R&B Song" and "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance". The song was named "Song of the Year" at the ASCAP Awards, and "Song of the Year", "Most Performed Song" and "Number-one Billboard Song" at the BMI Awards. Towards the summer of 2006, Carey took home "Song of the Year", "Best Pop Female Song Performance" and "Best R&B/Soul Female Song Performance" at the GrooveVolt Music & Fashion Awards.


title: We Belong Together

text: Carey recorded an official remix version for "We Belong Together", which she produced with DJ Clue. The remix features vocals from rappers Jadakiss and Styles P, two-thirds of the hip-hop trio the LOX. The remix is fundamentally different from the original, described as having "a faster, springier backbeat" by Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times". Lyrically, the song is similar to the album version of the song, in which both rappers' verses contemplate on past memories. Styles P raps "Past is the past, just let it be bygones / Matter of fact I know a fly song that we could vibe on", which Sanneh writes "Cheerfully out of place, he sounds like a man who has wandered into the wrong summertime party, but so what? He figures he might as well stick around and enjoy it." In two separate reviews of "The Emancipation of Mimi", Sanneh referred to the song as both "great" and "excellent", in regards to the remix.


title: We Belong Together

text: Aside from the album version's main remix, several others were commissioned and released, although none contained new vocals from Carey. Peter Rauhofer created the "Reconstruction Mix/Atlantic Soul Vocal Mix" and "Atlantic Soul Vocal Mix", which both feature a synthetic bass line, a piano and guitar line, and distinctive hi-hats that produce a more up-tempo, hard-hitting beat.


title: We Belong Together

text: On February 17, 2021, Carey released a new version of the song, titled the "Mimi's Late Night Valentine's Mix", in which four days prior to the release, she performed this version live on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" on EP format along with a seven-minute extended version of the song.


title: We Belong Together

text: The song's music video premiered worldwide on April 11, 2005, although MSN offered an exclusive look at the music video on April 9. Carey's "We Belong Together" is Yahoo! Music's most watched video of 2005 with 7.5 million streamed performances. The video was shot by film director Brett Ratner in Los Angeles alongside the video for Carey's previous single, "It's Like That". Carey had collaborated with Ratner several times in the past, having worked on the video for "Heartbreaker", which became one of the most expensive of all time, costing an estimated $2.5 million. The video was filmed through February 9 to 10, 2005, in conjunction with "It's Like That" and serves as the second half to the two-part story. The music video for "It's Like That" features Carey at her bachelorette party set to wed an older and powerful man, played by Eric Roberts. Towards the end of the video, her ex-lover, played by Wentworth Miller, arrives at the event, and the video concludes with them staring into each other's eyes as Carey's soon-to-be husband watches from a balcony. The video for "We Belong Together" finishes their tale of love, and features Carey on her wedding day. For the scenes of Carey's wedding to the older man, she wore her Vera Wang gown she originally wore during her nuptials to Tommy Mottola in 1993. In an interview with MSNBC, when asked if there was a connection to the use of the dress in the video and reality, Carey responded:


title: We Belong Together

text: The wedding dress was a Vera Wang original dress from a while ago that I actually wore on a certain occasion and had it in storage and when we came up with the concept for the video that had the element of a wedding in it, I said, ‘well, I do have my old wedding dress,’. 'It’s still worth [sic] for me ’cause I can’t believe I was ever married but whatever, end of story. And I knew that we wouldn’t be able to get a fabulous dress like in two days so I just took that dress out of the storage – it has a 27-foot train and it was just all hand-beaded and stuff and so I figured we might as well get a use out of it.'


title: We Belong Together

text: The video features Carey readying for her wedding, and follows her to the altar, as well as her escape from the reception. Many of the actors featured in Carey's "It's Like That" video were in that of "We Belong Together", which was shot as a continuation from the "It's Like That" video. It begins with a scene of a large mansion, apparently owned by the older man who she is to marry. Carey is seen walking barefoot in a room, shedding a black sheer robe and laying down on a bed draped with white linens. Dressed in lingerie, Carey's face is shown close-up, as scenes of her tossing in the bed are shown. As the song begins, Carey is seen sitting in front of a large mirror, preparing for her wedding by putting on earrings and shoes, and staring at the ring on her finger. Additional scenes of Carey sitting on a small blue sofa, wearing a purple dress, and Carey staring at the camera during a shower moment are interspersed. The wedding is then shown, with Miller approaching the reception through a stairwell in the back. Small children as seen throwing flowers on the white carpet, followed by Roberts and Carey walking down the aisle.


title: We Belong Together

text: As Carey, now dry and clothed, is shown in another scenario following the dressing scene, a still of Carey and Miller in the video for "It's like That" is shown, during the lyrics "I can't sleep at night / When you are on my mind". After several other scenes of Carey dressed in the purple gown and white shirt are interspersed, the altar is displayed, where before being ordained by the minister, Carey looks into her ex-lover's eyes once more. She turns to Roberts, and begins running towards Miller, leaving the reception. As the song's climax is reached, Carey and Miller are shown running from the reception, as the guests stand up in awe, and watch the pair leave. Carey, dressed in the white shirt, is shown with growing anticipation, crying to the camera and moving her hands and hair. Back at the wedding scene, Carey and her lover get into his vehicle, and drive away as her 27-foot train hangs behind the car. The video was nominated for "Best R&B Video" and "Best Female Video" at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. On January 1, 2022, the music video reached 500 million views on YouTube.


title: We Belong Together

text: Due to its continued chart success, Carey performed "We Belong Together" on several live televised performances and included it on the set-lists of all of her tours after its release. In the United Kingdom, Carey filmed a two-part appearance on the British music program "Top of the Pops", performing "It's Like That", "We Belong Together", and "Shake It Off". Additional European and Asian appearances included an interview on the French talk show "Le Grand Journal", and a performance of "We Belong Together" on both "Music Station" and "Riponggi Hills" in Japan. After returning to the United States for a string of televised performances, Carey launched the release of the album on "Good Morning America", in the form of a five-piece outdoor concert. The concert, taking place in Times Square and featuring the largest crowd in the plaza since the 2004 New Year's Eve celebration, featured the first three singles from the album, as well as "Fly Like a Bird" and "Make It Happen" (1991). The following week, she performed "We Belong Together" at the 2005 BET Awards, with an additional appearance at the annual VH1 Save the Music special, filmed live on April 17 from the Beacon Theatre. Throughout May, Carey appeared on several US television programs, performing "We Belong Together" on the "Late Show with David Letterman" (May 5), "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (May 11), and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (May 13), which included a performance of "It's Like That". As June approached, Carey made an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (May 24), featuring a live rendition of "We Belong Together". She appeared on stage wearing a long blue evening gown, and featured a four piece band, as well as three background vocalists. Eleven days later on June 4, she performed at the annual Macy's Fourth of July Parade, singing "America the Beautiful" and "We Belong Together".


title: We Belong Together

text: The following week, Carey made a live appearance at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. The recital aired on television in black and white format, with Carey wearing a red Armani Privé and sporting a retro curled hairstyle, appearing in color. She performed "We Belong Together" on a white runway-styled stage with four male and female dancers. Following the stateside promotion of the album, Carey traveled to the United Kingdom on July 2, 2005, for a benefit concert held in Hyde Park, London titled Live 8. The televised event was watched by over 9.6 million British citizens and held a live audience of over 200,000. Carey performed a three song set-list, opening with "Make It Happen" and "Hero", which featured a live choir of African children, and followed by "We Belong Together". On August 3, "USA Today" announced that Carey would be added to the roster of performers at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, held on the 28th of the month. The ceremony was held at the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami Beach Florida, with Carey's performance taking place at the National Hotel in South Beach. Apart from the Killers, she was the only performer to tape their appearance from an undisclosed location in Miami. After being introduced by Eva Longoria, Carey appeared on a long stage in the hotel's courtyard, with Dupri opening the song in a nearby cabana. After performing "Shake It Off" and the official remix version of "We Belong Together", Carey made her way into the shallow pool, followed by Dupri and the back-up dancers. Following the awards ceremony, Carey once again took to Europe, being featured as a head-lining performer at the 2005 Fashion Rocks, held in Monaco. Following her introduction by Donatella Versace, Carey performed the Peter Rauhofer Remix for "We Belong Together" on a suspended rafter, while wearing a metallic Versace gown. Carey played a similarly-choreographed performance of the song's Peter Rauhofer Remix at the German Bambi Awards, held in October 2005. Two months later, she celebrated the new year on television, placing as the featured performer at the Times Square Ball drop on New Year's Eve in New York. The special, titled Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, aired on ABC at 10 pm on December 31, and featured Carey on stage wearing a short sparkling dress, and performing a selection of the album's singles.


title: We Belong Together

text: At the 48th Grammy Awards, held on February 8, 2006, Carey was nominated for eight awards—the most she had ever received in one night. That night, Carey returned to the Grammy stage for the first time since 1996. Her performance opened with a pre-taped video in which she discussed the importance of God and religion in her life. Carey then came to the stage, dressed in a white Chanel gown, and sang a shortened version of "We Belong Together". Next, Carey's pastor Clarence Keaton read a Bible passage to open Carey's performance of "Fly Like a Bird", as he did in the studio recording of the song. Midway through the song, a black temporary wall was removed, revealing a large choir who joined Carey for the song's gospel climax. The performance earned the night's only standing ovation, prompting Teri Hatcher, who was presenting the next award, to exclaim, "It's like we've all just been saved!" Carey's performance earned rave reviews from critics. Gary Susman from "Entertainment Weekly" called Carey the "comeback queen", noting that her voice "soar[ed] into the rafters like only Carey's can." Carey included "We Belong Together" on both succeeding tours following its release, the Adventures of Mimi and Angels Advocate Tours. On the former, the song was featured as the encore number, with Carey re-entering the arenas in a form fitting beige evening gown. Backed by three background vocalists, Trey Lorenz, Sherry Tatum, and MaryAnn Tatum, Carey began the song as confetti dropped the arena rafters. According to Jennifer Vineyard from MTV News, the performance was "a major accomplishment", and the highlight of the show, and found Carey re-connect with the audience in ways that she was unable throughout most of the show. Similarly, during her Angel's Advocate Tour, the song was placed as one of the final numbers on the set-list. Dressed in a black Herve Leger gown, Carey introduced the song as the "Billboard"s "song of the decade", and thanked the audience for making it her 16th number-one single in the United States. Following the song's completion, Carey exited the arena for a few moments, before returning to perform "Hero" as the encore.


title: We Belong Together

text: On February 12, 2021, Carey performed the song live on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" ahead of Valentine's Day with a new live mix entitled the "Mimi's Late Night Valentine’s Mix".


title: Lionel Stander

text: Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series "Hart to Hart".


title: Lionel Stander

text: Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York City, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, the eldest of three children.


title: Lionel Stander

text: During his one year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he appeared in the student productions "The Muse of the Unpublished Writer", and "The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village".


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander's acting career began in 1928, as Cop and First Fairy in "Him" by E. E. Cummings, at the Provincetown Playhouse. He claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps, which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him. He appeared in a series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including "The House Beautiful", which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy".


title: Lionel Stander

text: In 1932, Stander landed his first credited film role in the Warner-Vitaphone short feature "In the Dough" (1932), with Fatty Arbuckle and Shemp Howard. He made several other shorts, the last being "The Old Grey Mayor" (1935) with Bob Hope in 1935. That same year, he was cast in a feature, Ben Hecht's "The Scoundrel" (1935), with Noël Coward. He moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra's "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936) with Gary Cooper, "Meet Nero Wolfe" (1936) playing Archie Goodwin, "The League of Frightened Men" (1937), and "A Star Is Born" (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander's distinctive rumbling voice, tough-guy demeanor, and talent with accents made him a popular radio actor. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was on "The Eddie Cantor Show", Bing Crosby's KMH show, the "Lux Radio Theater" production of "A Star Is Born", "The Fred Allen Show", the "Mayor of the Town" series with Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead, "Kraft Music Hall" on NBC, "Stage Door Canteen" on CBS, the "Lincoln Highway Radio Show" on NBC, and "The Jack Paar Show", among others.


title: Lionel Stander

text: In 1941, he starred in a short-lived radio show called "The Life of Riley" on CBS (no relation to the radio, film, and television character later made famous by William Bendix). Stander played the role of Spider Schultz in both Harold Lloyd's film "The Milky Way" (1936) and its remake ten years later, "The Kid from Brooklyn" (1946), starring Danny Kaye. He was a regular on Danny Kaye's zany comedy-variety radio show on CBS (1946–1947), playing himself as "just the elevator operator" amidst the antics of Kaye, future "Our Miss Brooks" star Eve Arden, and bandleader Harry James.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Also during the 1940s, he played several characters on "The Woody Woodpecker" and "Andy Panda" animated theatrical shorts, produced by Walter Lantz Productions. For "Woody Woodpecker", he provided the voice of Buzz Buzzard, but was blacklisted from the Lantz studio in 1951 and was replaced by Dal McKennon.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander espoused a variety of social and political causes, and was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. At a SAG meeting held during a 1937 studio technicians' strike, he told the assemblage of 2000 members: "With the eyes of the whole world on this meeting, will it not give the Guild a black eye if its members continue to cross picket lines?" (The "NY Times" reported: "Cheers mingled with boos greeted the question.") Stander also supported the Conference of Studio Unions in its fight against the Mob-influenced International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Also in 1937, Ivan F. Cox, a deposed officer of the San Francisco longshoremen's union, sued Stander and a host of others, including union leader Harry Bridges, actors Fredric March, Franchot Tone, Mary Astor, James Cagney, Jean Muir, and director William Dieterle. The charge, according to "Time" magazine, was "conspiring to propagate Communism on the Pacific Coast, causing Mr. Cox to lose his job".


title: Lionel Stander

text: In 1938, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn allegedly called Stander "a Red son of a bitch" and threatened a US$100,000 fine against any studio that renewed his contract. Despite critical acclaim for his performances, Stander's film work dropped off drastically. After appearing in 15 films in 1935 and 1936, he was in only six in 1937 and 1938. This was followed by just six films from 1939 through 1943, none made by major studios, the most notable being "Guadalcanal Diary" (1943).


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander was among the first group of Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1940 for supposed Communist activities. At a grand jury hearing in Los Angeles in August 1940—the transcript of which was shortly released to the press—John R. Leech, the self-described former "chief functionary" of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, named Stander as a CP member, along with more than 15 other Hollywood notables, including Franchot Tone, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Clifford Odets and Budd Schulberg. Stander subsequently forced himself into the grand jury hearing, and the district attorney cleared him of the allegations.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander appeared in few films in 1944 and 1945. Then, with HUAC's attentions focused elsewhere due to World War II, he played in a number of mostly second-rate pictures from independent studios through the late 1940s. These include Ben Hecht's "Specter of the Rose" (1946); the Preston Sturges comedy "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (1947) with Harold Lloyd; and "Trouble Makers" (1948) with The Bowery Boys. One classic emerged from this period of his career, the Preston Sturges comedy "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) with Rex Harrison.


title: Lionel Stander

text: In 1947, HUAC turned its attention once again to Hollywood. That October, Howard Rushmore, who had belonged to the CPUSA in the 1930s and written film reviews for the "Daily Worker", testified that writer John Howard Lawson, whom he named as a Communist, had "referred to Lionel Stander as a perfect example of how a Communist should not act in Hollywood." Stander was again blacklisted from films, though he played on TV, radio, and in the theater.


title: Lionel Stander

text: In March 1951, actor Larry Parks, after pleading with HUAC investigators not to force him to "crawl through the mud" as an informer, named several people as Communists in a "closed-door session", which made the newspapers two days later. He testified that he knew Stander, but did not recall attending any CP meetings with him.


title: Lionel Stander

text: At a HUAC hearing in April 1951, actor Marc Lawrence named Stander as a member of his Hollywood Communist "cell", along with screenwriter Lester Cole and screenwriter Gordon Kahn. Lawrence testified that Stander "was the guy who introduced me to the party line", and that Stander said that by joining the CP, he would "get to know the dames more" — which Lawrence, who did not enjoy film-star looks, thought a good idea. Upon hearing of this, Stander shot off a telegram to HUAC chair John S. Wood, calling Lawrence's testimony that he was a Communist "ridiculous" and asking to appear before the Committee, so he could swear to that under oath. The telegram concluded: "I respectfully request an opportunity to appear before you at your earliest possible convenience. Be assured of my cooperation." Two days later, Stander sued Lawrence for $500,000 for slander. Lawrence left the country ("fled", according to Stander) for Europe.


title: Lionel Stander

text: After that, Stander was blacklisted from TV and radio. He continued to act in theater roles, and played Ludlow Lowell in the 1952-53 revival of "Pal Joey" on Broadway and on tour.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Two years passed before Stander was issued the requested subpoena. Finally, in May 1953, he testified at a HUAC hearing in New York, where he made front-page headlines nationwide by being uproariously uncooperative, memorialized in the Eric Bentley play, "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been". The "New York Times" headline was "Stander Lectures House Red Inquiry." In a dig at bandleader Artie Shaw, who had tearfully claimed in a Committee hearing that he had been "duped" by the Communist Party, Stander testified,


title: Lionel Stander

text: "I am not a dupe, or a dope, or a moe, or a schmoe... I was absolutely conscious of what I was doing, and I am not ashamed of anything I said in public or private."


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander also denied having been a Communist "now or yesterday." But when asked if he had ever been a party member, he refused to answer, calling it "a trick question."


title: Lionel Stander

text: After that, Stander's acting career went into a free fall. He worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street, a journeyman stage actor, a corporate spokesman—even a New Orleans Mardi Gras king. He didn't return to Broadway until 1961 (and then only briefly in a flop) and to film in 1963, in the low-budget "The Moving Finger" (although he did provide, uncredited, the voice-over narration for the 1961 film noir "Blast of Silence".)


title: Lionel Stander

text: Life improved for Stander when he moved to London in 1964 to act in Bertolt Brecht's "Saint Joan of the Stockyards", directed by Tony Richardson, for whom he'd acted on Broadway, along with Christopher Plummer, in a 1963 production of Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui". In 1965, he was featured in the film "Promise Her Anything". That same year Richardson cast him in the black comedy about the funeral industry, "The Loved One", based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, with an all-star cast including Jonathan Winters, Robert Morse, Liberace, Rod Steiger, Paul Williams and many others. In 1966, Roman Polanski cast Stander in his only starring role, as the thug Dickie in "Cul-de-sac", opposite Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasence.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander stayed in Europe and eventually settled in Rome, where he appeared in many spaghetti Westerns, most notably playing a bartender named Max in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West." He played the role of the villainous mob boss in Fernando Di Leo's 1972 poliziottescho thriller "Caliber 9". In Rome he connected with Robert Wagner, who cast him in an episode of "It Takes a Thief" that was shot there. Stander's few English-language films in the 1970s include "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" with Robert De Niro and Jerry Orbach, Steven Spielberg's "1941", and Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York", which also starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander played a supporting role in the TV film "Revenge Is My Destiny" with Chris Robinson. He played a lounge comic modeled after the real-life Las Vegas comic Joe E. Lewis, who used to begin his act by announcing "Post Time" as he sipped his ever-present drink.


title: Lionel Stander

text: After 15 years abroad, Stander moved back to the U.S. for the role he is now most famous for: Max, the loyal butler, cook, and chauffeur to the wealthy, amateur detectives Jonathan and Jennifer Hart played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers on the 1979–1984 television series "Hart to Hart" (and a subsequent series of "Hart to Hart" made-for-television films). In 1982, Stander won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.


title: Lionel Stander

text: In 1986, he became the voice of Kup in "". In 1991 he was a guest star in the television series "Dream On", playing Uncle Pat in the episode "Toby or Not Toby". His final theatrical film role was as a dying hospital patient in "The Last Good Time" (1994), with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Olivia d'Abo, directed by Bob Balaban.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander was married six times; Lucy Dietz (1928–1936), Alice Twitchell (1938–1942), Vehanne Monteagle (1945–1950), Diana Radbec (1953–1963), Maria Penn (1963–1967) and Stephanie Van Hennick (1971–1994). All ended in divorce except the last marriage, which ended with his death. He fathered six daughters.


title: Lionel Stander

text: Stander died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1994 at age 86. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.


title: Liebherr

text: Liebherr is a German-Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany.


title: Liebherr

text: Liebherr consists of over 130 companies organized into 11 divisions: earthmoving, mining, mobile cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology, maritime cranes, aerospace and transportation systems, machine tools and automation systems, domestic appliances, and components. It has a worldwide workforce over 42,000, with nine billion euros in revenue for 2017. By 2007, it was the world's largest crane company.


title: Liebherr

text: Established in 1949 by Hans Liebherr in Kirchdorf an der Iller, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the business is still entirely owned by the Liebherr family. Isolde and Willi Liebherr, Hans' daughter and son, respectively, are the chief executive and chairman of the Bulle, Switzerland–based Liebherr-International AG, and several other family members are actively involved in corporate management. In 2005, "Forbes" magazine listed them as billionaires. In 1974, the Franklin Institute awarded Hans Liebherr the Frank P. Brown Medal.


title: Liebherr

text: Hans Liebherr was drafted for military service in World War II. During the war, Liebherr served with the Ulm Pioneer Battalion 101, which was subordinate to the 101st Light Infantry Division and fought under Army Group South in the German-Soviet War. After the war, he started by building affordable tower cranes; Liebherr expanded into making aircraft parts—it is a significant supplier to European Airbus airplane manufacturer—and commercial chiller displays and freezers, as well as domestic refrigerators. The group also produces some of the world's biggest mining and digging machinery, including loaders, excavators, and extreme-sized dump trucks. The T 282 B is the world's second-largest truck (after BelAZ 75710). The group's nine-axle mobile crane, the LTM 11200–9.1—with a telescopic boom—in 2007 received the heavy-lifting industry's Development of the Year award for being the world's most powerful example of such a machine.


title: Liebherr

text: Over the years, the family business has grown into a group of varied companies, and has locations in many countries, including Germany, Australia, Britain, Ireland, Turkey, and the United States. Since 1958, its Irish factory in Killarney, County Kerry, has built container cranes, exporting them worldwide through the port of Fenit. In Australia, the group in 2013 commenced an AU$65 million expansion of their local headquarters in Adelaide. The development includes adding a new three-storey office, workshops, warehouse, component plant, and distribution centre to the Para Hills facility. In the U.S., the group in 2012 started spending US$45.4 million (about €34.1 million) on a three-year renovation and expansion of its Newport News, Virginia, factory, offices, and warehouse. The company sought to increase its production there beyond 100 mining trucks a year. On 19 February 2013, representatives from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the cities of Newport News and Hampton announced that they would make grants and incentives available for transport improvement, training, and property investment. In addition, the Liebherr Group owns six hotels in Ireland, Austria and Germany.


title: Liebherr

text: By 2017, Liebherr had expanded its workforce to 43,869 employees. That same year, the company announced it had achieved the highest turnover in the Group's history, with sales of €9,845 million. In 2018, Liebherr generated a turnover of €10,551 million, breaking through the €10 billion barrier for the first time in the company's history.


title: Liebherr

text: In March 2020, Liebherr launched their first APAC HQ in Singapore, alongside their bespoke $35,000 SGD Bespoke Luxe Refrigerator with the help of PR & Communication specialist Stanley Kan & his team.


title: Liebherr

text: Liebherr has the world's most powerful and tallest crawler crane in its LR 13000. It is capable of lifting and has a maximum pulley height of . This is achieved with the attachment of an additional lattice jib to the main boom. The height of the crawler chassis is an additional , which gives the lattice structure a total height of . The maximum hoisting height is and the total ballast used is , including of derrick ballast.


title: French Union

text: The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the "French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subjects in colonial areas.


title: French Union

text: The French Union was established by the French constitution of 27 October 1946 (Fourth Republic). Under it, it was said that there were no French colonies, but that metropolitan France, the overseas departments, and the overseas territories combined to create a single French Union, or just one France.


title: French Union

text: The goal of this union was "assimilation of the overseas territories into a greater France, inhabited by French citizens, and blessed by French culture". Whereas the British colonial system had local colonial governments which would eventually evolve into separate national governments; France wanted to create a single government under a single French state.


title: French Union

text: This French Union had a President, a High Council and an Assembly. The President was the President of the Republic. The Assembly of the Union had membership from the Council of the Republic, from the National Assembly and from regional assemblies of the overseas territories and departments but ultimately had no power. The High Council ultimately met only three times, first in 1951. The Assembly was the only actually functioning institution that could manage legislation within the overseas territories.


title: French Union

text: In reality, the colonial areas had representation but all power remained in the French Parliament and thus was centralized. The colonies had local assemblies but these had only limited local power. Instead, various natives of the overseas territories in metropolitan France grew into a group of elites, known as .


title: French Union

text: On 31 January 1956, in response to the Algerian War, the system changed, abandoning assimilation in favor of autonomy, allowing territories to develop their own local government and to eventually gain their independence. This would not succeed however and in 1958 the French Union was replaced by the French Community by Charles de Gaulle's Fifth Republic wherein France was now a federation of states with their own self-government.


title: French Union

text: The limited democratic reforms and increased investment in the French colonies brought about by the formation of the French Union did receive some support from African leaders at the time. For instance, Félix Houphouet-Boigny, at the time a member of the French National Assembly, was very supportive of France’s investment in Cote d’Ivoire through the Central Fund for France Overseas, which disbursed over 600Bn Francs to French colonies. He was also supportive of the greater democratic freedoms that were granted to Africans within the Union, such as new elected territorial assemblies.


title: French Union

text: Leopold Senghor was similarly supportive of the French Union, and after visiting Cote d’Ivoire in 1952, believed that cooperation between France and its colony was mutually beneficial and that such French assistance should be “extended…to all the territories of the Federation”.


title: French Union

text: Yet more support for the French Union came from French Togoland, now Togo, where in June 1955 the locally elected Territorial Assembly voted unanimously on a motion to remain within France’s sphere of influence.


title: French Union

text: On the other hand, there did exist popular resistance to the French Union. According to Louisa Rice, the increase in the number of African students being educated in France following the Union’s formation resulted in a realisation among them of the contradiction between the colonial narrative of equality and reality, thus heightening resistance to its supposedly egalitarian institutions. A concrete example of this resistance occurred on Bastille Day 1952, when a group of West African students returning home by ship were excluded from celebrations due to them travelling in third class. The students argued that they were discriminated against because of their race, yet the ship’s captain viewed these allegations with surprise, thinking that their exclusion was merely due to the ship’s “interior order which had nothing to do with racist theories”. This example is a microcosm of differing contemporary opinions of the French Union. On the one hand there is a view that all citizens of the Union, be they French or African, are equal and are treated as such. On the other, that it was institutionally exclusionary towards Africans, and that despite ostensible changes, the French Union was merely a continuation of colonialism under a new guise.


title: French Union

text: Furthermore, there was a view among French officials that the French Union constituted an important part of a wider European economic and political project, that is, the European Economic Community (EEC). Indeed, according to Peo Hansen and Stefan Jonsson, at the genesis of the EEC, the integration of Africa into the economic bloc was an important strategic goal for its architects and supporters.


title: French Union

text: One of these supporters, French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, said in 1957 that the continued development of Africa by Europe would turn the continent into “an essential factor in world politics”, and the alleviation of poverty would help to ward off communist influence. Here we can see that the French Union was viewed by the French government as a useful tool to both consolidate European economic integration and fight the Cold War.


title: French Union

text: The model of the EEC was also used by African leaders to justify their countries’ continued membership of the French Union. For instance, Houphouet-Boigny wrote in 1957 that by “relinquish[ing] a part of their sovereignty”, European countries would bring about “a more fully elaborated form of civilization which is more advantageous for their peoples” that goes beyond backward nationalism. Senghor echoes this view, arguing that “it would be pointless to cultivate particularism in Africa”, and that instead there should be a goal to remove borders entirely, forming a large economic/political bloc. Here we can see a view that greater integration into economic and political blocs, such as the French Union and the EEC, was viewed by both French officials and some African leaders as progressive, forward thinking, and within their interests to do so.


title: French Union

text: The Youth Council of the French Union (, abbreviated CJUF) was a coordinating body of youth organizations in the French Union. CJUF was founded in 1950. The organization had its headquarters in Paris and held annual congresses.


title: French Union

text: In 1958, the French Fourth Republic was replaced by a new Fifth Republic, characterised by a stronger presidential system, led by President Charles De Gaulle. A constitutional referendum was held on 28 September 1958 , in order to replace the French Union, as part of a wider referendum across the French Union (and France itself) on whether to adopt the new French Constitution; if accepted, colonies would become part of the new French Community; if rejected, the territory would be granted independence.


title: French Union

text: All major political parties in each respective country apart from two in Guinea and Niger, supported a yes vote in the 1958 constitutional referendum, seeking a looser form of autonomy rather than the system of close relations dominated by French influence.


title: French Union

text: The referendum proposal was overwhelmingly approved by upward of 90% of the population in most but not all of the territories. Even in Niger, where the main organised political force opposed the replacing of the French Union with the French Community, the new constitution was supported by a clear majority. However in Guinea, where the leading political activists preferred immediate and complete independence, the results showed that more than 95% of voters voted against the constitution, with a turnout of 85.5%.


title: French Union

text: In response to the result in Guinea, French officials destroyed furniture, lightbulbs and windows. Any crockery, medical equipment or documents that could not be carried were also destroyed and over 3,000 French civil servants and army health officials left the country. This only reinforced anti colonial sentiment inside of Guinea, and Toure would continue to urge other African nations to declare independence.


title: French Union

text: The former west and central African colonies after the passage of the referendum formed a short-lived organisation in 1959 called the Union of Central African Republics, replacing the bloc of French Equatorial Africa that existed as a subsection of the French Union and became part of the new French Community.


title: French Union

text: Within metropolitan France itself, most political parties supported the proposed changes to the constitution, most significantly those of ascendant Charles De Gaulle as well as the majority of the SFIO. Notable opposing forces were the French Communist Party as well as a smaller section of socialists that included the future President of France, Francois Mitterrand. Opposition to the changes were split between those who wanted complete independence for the African former colonies, mainly those on the French left and then those who opposed any change to the existing system of the French union at all, mostly positioned on the right.


title: French Union

text: De Gaulle successfully argued that his position on creating a French Community as opposed to the continuance of the French Union, as a sensible and moderate compromise. However, the new French Community did not last long, with most African states leaving the organisation by 1962, preferring complete independence.  The French Constitution was changed to remove any mention of the French Community in the 1990s. The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie is based on promotion of the French language, and includes states and parts of states which were not part of the French Union in 1946 or 1958, or in some cases never French colonies or protectorates.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house).


title: Seanad Éireann

text: It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members senators ("seanadóirí" in Irish, singular: "seanadóir"). Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by various methods. Its powers are much weaker than those of the Dáil and it can only delay laws with which it disagrees, rather than veto them outright. It can introduce new legislation. It has been located, since its establishment, in Leinster House.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The general election for the Seanad must occur not later than 90 days after the dissolution of Dáil Éireann. The election occurs under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (in the panel constituencies each vote counts as 1000, allowing fractions of votes to be more easily transferred). Membership is open to all Irish citizens over 21, but a senator cannot also be a member of Dáil Éireann. However, as stated above, nomination to vocational panel seats is restricted; nomination in the university constituencies requires signatures of 10 graduates.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: In the case of vacancies in the vocational panels, the electorate in the by-election consists of Oireachtas members only. Vacancies to the university seats are filled by the full electorate in that constituency.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The powers of Seanad Éireann are modelled loosely on those of the British House of Lords. It is intended to play an advisory and revising role rather than to be an equal of the popularly elected Dáil. While notionally every Act of the Oireachtas must receive assent of both chambers, the Seanad can only delay rather than veto decisions of the Dáil. In practice, however, the Seanad has an in-built government majority due to the Taoiseach's nominees. The constitution imposes the following specific limitations on the powers of the Seanad:


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The Constitution does, however, grant to the Seanad certain means by which it may defend its prerogatives against an overly zealous Dáil:


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Seanad Éireann adopts its own standing orders and appoints its president, known as the Cathaoirleach ("Chair"). The Taoiseach appoints a senator to be Leader of the House and direct government business there. The Seanad establishes its own standing committees and select committee; senators also participate, along with TDs (members of the Dáil) in joint committees of the Oireachtas. A maximum of two senators may be ministers in the Government.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The first parliamentary upper house in Ireland was the House of Lords of the Parliament of Ireland. Like its British counterpart, this house consisted of hereditary nobles and bishops. After the abolition of the Irish Parliament under the Act of Union of 1800 no parliament existed in Ireland until the twentieth century.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: In 1919 Irish nationalists established a legislature called "Dáil Éireann" but this body was unicameral and so had no upper house. In 1920 the Parliament of Southern Ireland was established by British law with an upper house called the Senate. The Senate of Southern Ireland consisted of a mixture of Irish peers and government appointees. The Senate convened in 1921 but was boycotted by Irish nationalists and so never became fully operational. It was formally abolished with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 but a number of its members were soon appointed to the new Free State senate.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The name "Seanad Éireann" was first used as the title of the upper house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. The first Seanad consisted of a mixture of members appointed by the President of the Executive Council and members indirectly elected by the Dáil, and W. T. Cosgrave agreed to use his appointments to grant extra representation to the state's Protestant minority. The procedures for election of senators were amended before the first Seanad election by the Constitution (Amendment No. 1) Act 1925. It was intended that eventually the entire membership of the Seanad would be directly elected by the public but after only one election, in 1925, this system was abandoned in favour of a form of indirect election. Initially casual vacancies in the Seanad were filled by vote of the remaining members. However this system was replaced under the Constitution (Amendment No. 11) Act 1929 by filling of vacancies by vote of both Dáil and Seanad, the system that continues today for panel members. The Free State Seanad was abolished entirely in 1936 after it delayed some Government proposals for constitutional changes.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The modern Seanad Éireann was established by the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and first sat on 25 January 1939. When this document was adopted it was decided to preserve the titles of "Oireachtas", for the two houses of the legislature, in conjunction with the President, "Dáil Éireann" for the lower house, and "Seanad Éireann" for the upper house, the latter having been used during the Irish Free State. This new Seanad was considered to be the direct successor of the Free State Seanad and so the first Seanad convened under the new constitution was referred to as the "Second Seanad".


title: Seanad Éireann

text: The new system of vocational panels used to nominate candidates for the Seanad was inspired by the corporatist Roman Catholic social teaching of the 1930s, and in particular the 1931 papal encyclical "Quadragesimo anno". In this document Pope Pius XI argued that the Marxist concept of class conflict should be replaced with a vision of social order based on the co-operation and interdependence of society's various vocational groups.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Since 1928, twelve separate official reports have been published on reform of the Seanad. In the past the Progressive Democrats called for its abolition; however, in government, members of the party were nominated to the Seanad by the Taoiseach. The post-1937 body has been criticised on a number of grounds, including claims that it is weak and dominated by the Government of the day. There are also allegations of patronage in the selection of its members, with senators often being close allies of the Taoiseach or candidates who have failed to be elected to the Dáil. Many senators have subsequently been elected as TDs.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Irish universities have a long tradition of electing independent candidates. Some, like the pressure group Graduate Equality, argue that the franchise for electing university senators should be extended to the graduates of all third level institutions. Others believe that this does not go far enough and that at least some portion of the Seanad should be directly elected by all adult citizens. Calls have also been made for the Seanad to be used to represent Irish emigrants or the people of Northern Ireland. In 1999 the Reform Movement called for some of the Taoiseach's nominations to be reserved for members of the Irish-British minority, and other minorities such as members of the Travelling Community and recently arrived immigrants. The Seventh Amendment in 1979 altered the provisions of Article 18.4 to allow for a redistribution of the university seats to any other institutes of higher education in the state, although no change has in fact taken place since then.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: In 2019, a University of Limerick graduate issued a High Court challenge to the limitation of voting rights to graduates of National University of Ireland, University of Dublin, and Oireachtas and local authority members. The case was heard by a three-judge division of the High Court in 2021. The challenge was rejected by the court later that year however the plaintiff in the case confirmed he would appeal the High Court's ruling. In June 2022, the Supreme Court confirmed it would hear the appeal directly rather than the appeal first going to the Court of Appeal.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: In October 2009, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny stated his intention that a Fine Gael government would abolish the Seanad, and along with reducing the number of TDs by 20, it would "save an estimated €150m over the term of a Dáil." During the 2011 election campaign, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party also supported abolition of the Seanad, while Fianna Fáil supported a referendum on the issue. The programme of the Fine Gael–Labour coalition, which came to power at the election, sought to abolish the Seanad as part of a broader programme of constitutional reform, but lost a referendum on the matter in October 2013 by 51.7% to 48.3%.


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Taoisigh have often included people from Northern Ireland among their eleven nominees, such as John Robb (served 1982–89), Seamus Mallon (1982–83) of the SDLP, Bríd Rodgers (1983–87) also of the SDLP, peace campaigner Gordon Wilson (1993–97), businessman Edward Haughey (1994–2002), Maurice Hayes (1997–2002), and Emer Currie (2020–present).


title: Seanad Éireann

text: Sam McAughtry was elected to the Industrial and Commercial Panel in a by-election in February 1996. Niall Ó Donnghaile was elected in April 2016 as a Sinn Féin senator for the Administrative Panel while serving on Belfast City Council. Ian Marshall, a farmer and activist from a Unionist background, was elected to the Agricultural Panel in a by-election in April 2018.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) is a skunk of the genus "Mephitis" that occurs across much of North America, including southern Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. It is currently listed as least concern by the IUCN on account of its wide range and ability to adapt to human-modified environments.


title: Striped skunk

text: Striped skunks are polygamous omnivores with few natural predators, save for birds of prey. Like all skunks, they possess highly developed musk-filled scent glands to ward off predators. They have a long history of association with humans, having been trapped and captively bred for their fur and kept as pets. The striped skunk is one of the most recognizable of North America's animals, and is a popular figure in cartoons and children's books.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk was first formally named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber as "Viverra mephitis". The type locality is in eastern Canada.


title: Striped skunk

text: The earliest fossil finds attributable to "Mephitis" were found in the Broadwater site in Nebraska, dating back to the early Pleistocene less than 1.8 million years ago. By the late Pleistocene (70,000–14,500 years ago), the striped skunk was widely distributed throughout the southern United States, and it expanded northwards and westwards by the Holocene (10,000–4,500 years ago) following the retreat of the Wisconsin glacier.


title: Striped skunk

text: Phylogenetic analyses of the species' cytochrome b gene and microsatellite data in 2012 indicated that there are four phylogroups of striped skunk. The first emerged from the Texas-Mexico region during the Rancholabrean before the Illinoian glaciation and colonized the southeastern United States. The second, still originating in the Texas-Mexico region, expanded westwards to the Rocky Mountains during the Illinoian glacial period. Two subsequent subclades were formed during the Sangamonian interglacial on either side of the Sierra Nevada. The subclade that colonized the Great Basin later expanded eastwards across the northern Rocky Mountains during the Holocene, recolonising the Great Plains and making contact with the southern phylogroup. A similar, but less significant, secondary contact occurred when the same subclade intermingled with members of the eastern phylogroup east of the Mississippi river.


title: Striped skunk

text: The English word "skunk" has two root words of Algonquian and Iroquoian origin, specifically "seganku" (Abenaki) and "scangaresse" (Huron). The Cree and Ojibwe word "shee-gawk" is the root word for Chicago, which means 'skunk-land'. Alternative English names for the striped skunk include common skunk, Hudsonian skunk, northern skunk, black-tailed skunk and prairie polecat. The latter name was originally used by English settlers, who noted the animal's similarity to the European polecat. This association likely resulted in the striped skunk's subsequent unfavorable reputation as a poultry thief, despite it being a much less destructive animal than the true polecat. The name "Alaska sable" was employed by furriers during the late 19th century.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is a stoutly-built, short-limbed animal with a small, conical head and a long, heavily furred tail. Adult males are 10% larger than females, with both sexes measuring between 52 and 77 cm in total body length and usually weighing , though some may weigh . The feet are plantigrade with bare soles, and are not as broad or flat as those of hog-nosed skunks. The forefeet are armed with five long, curved claws adapted for digging, while those on the hind feet are shorter and straighter.


title: Striped skunk

text: The color patterns of the fur vary greatly, but generally consist of a black base with a white stripe extending from the head which divides along the shoulders, continuing along the flanks to the rump and tail. Some specimens have a white patch on the chest, while others bear white stripes on the outer surface of the front limbs. Brown or cream-colored mutations occasionally occur.