title: Michael Smerconish

text: In 1980, Smerconish founded Lehigh University Youth for Reagan/Bush. While a full-time student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he ran for the Pennsylvania state legislature, losing the Republican Primary by 419 votes. After losing his primary, Smerconish continued at Penn Law, while working nearly full-time running political campaigns. In 1986, he was responsible for the City of Philadelphia in Senator Arlen Specter's re-election win, and in 1987, Smerconish served as Rizzo's Political Director in Rizzo's losing (Republican) bid to re-take City Hall. After graduating from Penn Law, he opened up a title insurance agency with his brother Wally, before being appointed, at age 29, by the administration of President George H.W. Bush to serve as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Regional Administrator for Philadelphia Region III (consisting of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) under Secretary Jack Kemp.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: After supporting only Republican presidential candidates for three decades, Smerconish publicly broke with the GOP and endorsed Barack Obama for president on October 19, 2008. In a 2,000-word essay for "Salon" titled "Why this lifelong Republican may vote for Obama," citing the Republican Party's failure to capture Osama bin Laden after seven years of war, he wrote, "All of this drives me bat-shit, and it just might drive me into the Obama camp. That'd be quite a departure."


title: Michael Smerconish

text: He has urged the Republican Party to pursue "moderation on social issues in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP." Writing a 2010 op-ed for "The Washington Post" titled "On cable TV and talk radio, a push toward polarization," Smerconish said, "Buying gas or groceries or attending back-to-school nights, I speak to people for whom the issues are a mixed bag; they are liberal on some, conservative on others, middle of the road on the rest. But politicians don't take their cues from those people. No, politicians emulate the world of punditry."


title: Michael Smerconish

text: On February 21, 2010, he announced in a newspaper column that he had left the Republican Party. Discussing Smerconish's move to the middle, Manuel Roig-Franzia of "The Washington Post" wrote, "It may be conventional wisdom that the only way to truly succeed in the world of talk is to occupy one of the poles. But Smerconish is betting his career that there's a great untapped center."


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Smerconish voted for neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Smerconish's tenure at HUD came to a close after George H.W. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton in the 1992 election. In 1993, Smerconish began what would become a decade practicing law with legendary trial attorney James E. Beasley, who would become the benefactor and eponym of the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Smerconish became acquainted with Beasley while at HUD when he sought the latter's legal opinion for a possible defamation action against Steve Lopez, then a columnist with "The Philadelphia Inquirer". Beasley was noted for his record-breaking defamation wins against the newspaper. (No lawsuit was filed by Smerconish against Lopez.) Working closely with Beasley for a decade, Smerconish specialized in complex tort litigation. At a 2015 legal seminar sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Smerconish wrote an essay summarizing some of his lessons learned working for Beasley.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Smerconish's legal work spanned various subject areas, including contracts, medical malpractice, and products liability. His clients included: the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (in an action against Dead Kennedys for publishing an FOP photograph on an album cover that advocated the murder of police); the City of Rome, Italy (in a contract dispute against the Barnes Foundation); and Orlin Norris, a professional boxer who through Smerconish sued promoter Don King for a shot at the heavyweight title. In a medical malpractice action, Smerconish successfully sued abortion provider Kermit Gosnell. While in active practice, Smerconish served one term as a member of the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Trial Lawyer's Association. Today, Smerconish's law license hangs in the office of the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Specter.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: His media work grew out of his unique political experiences at an early age (working for Vice President Bush, running unsuccessfully for the state legislature, running campaigns for Arlen Specter and Frank Rizzo and ultimately being appointed to a sub-cabinet-level position by President George H.W. Bush). In the spring of 1990, Smerconish made his first radio appearance as a guest of a guest-host, Brian Tierney, who was then a substitute host on Philadelphia talk station 96.5 FM WWDB. During the 1991 Philadelphia mayoral election, Smerconish worked at WWDB as a political analyst. He then transitioned from a guest to a guest-host. By 1993, he had his own program Sunday nights from 8 p.m. until midnight, during which time his day job was the practice of law. In 1996, after the death of longtime broadcaster Dominic Quinn, Smerconish moved to Saturday and Sunday mornings, the latter of which allowed him to be the lead-in of Sid Mark's "Sunday with Sinatra". WWDB was then sold by broadcast entrepreneurs Chuck and Susan Schwartz and a new owner began selling informercials masked as programming which Smerconish refused to honor. That led to his 1997 move to CBS affiliate WPHT (formerly known as WCAU AM). By the following year, he was moved to afternoon drive, all the while maintaining his practice of law. Only when in September 2003, after the firing of Don Imus, whose morning drive slot he took, did Smerconish become a talk show host who was a lawyer instead of a lawyer who was a talk show host.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: He has received many accolades for his work as a broadcaster including "Talkers Magazine" consistently naming him one of America's most important talk show hosts, and "Radio & Records" naming him the nation's 2006 Local Personality of the Year. In 2003, he was named to "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75 List" of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics. The National Association of Broadcasters selected him as a 2011 Marconi Award finalist in the category of Best Network/Syndicated Host. He has often been the recipient of several Philadelphia Achievement in Radio awards, including Best Talk Show Host and Best Evening Program. Philadelphia Magazine named him the City's best talk show host in 2004, as well as one of the City's most powerful citizens.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: In February 2009, Smerconish's program was placed into national syndication by Dial Global. On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first talk radio host to interview President Barack Obama live from the White House, one of seven radio conversations he's had with Obama. The interview was held in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt conducted fireside chats. The President took questions from Smerconish and his listeners on a variety of subjects including the recent debates on the then-pending Affordable Care Act. He has also interviewed Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as Vice Presidents Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden. He has often said that he has spoken with everyone who interested him with the exception of the elusive creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: As a result of his increasing radio prominence, Smerconish was increasingly invited to appear on television, first locally and then nationally. In Philadelphia, he was first asked to appear by his friend and eventual mentor, Larry Kane, on WCAU Channel 10 providing election night analysis. He then became a regular on the local ABC affiliate (WPVI) program "Inside Story", hosted by Marc Howard. And he often appeared as the guest of Lynn Doyle, host of Comcast's "It's Your Call" on CN8. CNN soon tapped Smerconish as a guest (and guest host) of Arthel Neville on the program TalkBack Live. CNN engaged Smerconish as a legal analyst and also utilized him as the substitute for Glenn Beck on CNN's "Headline News". CNN briefly aired a program called "Attorneys at Law" featuring Smerconish, Jeffrey Toobin, and Lisa Bloom. When CNN switched to wall-to-wall coverage of the Iraq Invasion, the program was interrupted and never returned. Smerconish then moved to MSNBC as a contributor at the invitation of Phil Griffin, the future head of MSNBC, where he began guest hosting Scarborough Country in the absence of former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough. When in 2007, MSNBC fired Don Imus for a racial slur, it was Smerconish who was invited by the network to guest host Imus' time slot during the week of April 23–27 as a replacement on a trial basis. In-studio guests included Jon Anderson of Yes and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. MSNBC eventually hired Scarborough for the slot formerly held by Imus and rebranded the program as Morning Joe (where Smerconish has never been a guest). At MSNBC, Smerconish's role then became one of appearing daily with Tamron Hall, host of "News Nation", and as a guest host of "Hardball" in the absence of Chris Matthews, a position he filled for five years. At the same time—despite the polarized media climate and differences between MSNBC and Fox News—he guest hosted The Radio Factor for Bill O'Reilly.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: In 2013, Smerconish decided to give up his terrestrial radio platform then consisting of 80 radio stations across the country to move to the POTUS Channel 124 on Sirius XM Radio. He said at the time that this reflected his desire to be "nonpartisan" in discussing issues; having left the Republican party in 2010, adding that satellite radio would give him more freedom to talk politics without a party label.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Then, in early 2014, Smerconish left MSNBC after Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, invited him to host his own program there. Said Smerconish at the time, "The type of program I do on radio is far more in keeping with what CNN does on TV than it is with FOX or MSNBC." "Smerconish" broadcasts on CNN Saturdays at 9:00 am ET. The show also broadcast around the world by CNN International.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Smerconish has appeared on virtually every television program where politics is a staple, from "Larry King Live" to "The View", from "Real Time with Bill Maher" to "The Today Show", from "The Colbert Report" to "The O'Reilly Factor".


title: Michael Smerconish

text: He also writes a Sunday column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and his work has been reprinted in newspapers nationwide, including "The Washington Post", "The Dallas Morning News", "The Denver Post", "Miami Herald", "Boston Herald", "Sacramento Bee", and "Detroit News".


title: Michael Smerconish

text: On June 5, 2020, rapper Meek Mill released his song "Otherside of America". "Rolling Stone" writes that Mill "paints a vivid picture of life on 'the other side of America.'" In the song's final seconds, Mill includes audio from a December 2018 interview with Smerconish during which the two discussed the need for criminal justice reform.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: To mark his 30 years in talk radio, Smerconish aired an autobiographical film "Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking" on Saturday, July 11, 2020 on CNN. In the film, Smerconish walks through his transition from a reliably Republican voter to a registered independent, illustrated by interview excerpts and anecdotes throughout his time in talk radio and television as a political commentator. He ultimately argues that the Republican party today does not resemble the one he joined in 1980, largely due to politicians taking cues from the media. The film was acquired by Virgil Films in October 2020 and aired on virtual cinemas on December 8, 2020. On June 15, 2021, the film debuted on Hulu.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: Smerconish's work as a radio broadcaster was consumed by the events of 9/11 for years following 2001. While paying close attention to the hearings of the 9/11 Commission, Smerconish picked up on a question put to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Commissioner John Lehman which suggested that political correctness played a role in airport security before and after 9/11. Smerconish subsequently interviewed Lehman whereupon Lehman shared the fact that testimony in front of the Commission suggested there was a limit on the number of Arab males who could be pulled out of line at any one time for secondary screening. Smerconish wrote about Lehman's account for his (then) column in the Philadelphia Daily News and stayed on the subject, eventually testifying before a Senate subcommittee at the invitation of Senator Arlen Specter. Ultimately, Smerconish wrote his first book, "Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11" (2004), about his investigation, and donated all proceeds to the Garden of Reflection, a 9/11 tribute garden in his native Bucks County, Pennsylvania.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: His second book, a "New York Times" best-seller, was "Muzzled: From T-Ball to Terrorism – True Stories That Should Be Fiction" (2007), which sought to link the restraint of fighting the war on terror to domestic political correctness.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: His third book, another "New York Times" best-seller, "Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice" (2007) (co-written by Maureen Faulkner) told the story of slain Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, in what was arguably the highest profile death penalty case in the world. Despite being convicted and sentenced to death by a Philadelphia jury for the murder of Faulkner, Mumia Abu-Jamal became a "cause célèbre" for death penalty opponents around the world. In print, Smerconish told Faulkner's story, and donated the $200,000 he was paid to write the book to a charitable fund established in the slain officer's name.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: His fourth book, "Morning Drive: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking" (2009) detailed his evolving political positions against the backdrop of his talk radio career. Morning Drive's chapters were evenly split between issue-oriented essays and back-of-the-house media tales.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: He then returned to the subject of 9/11 for his fifth book, "Instinct: The Man Who Stopped the 20th Hijacker" (2009), which tells the true story of Jose Melendez-Perez, a Customs and Border Protection Inspector at Orlando International Airport, who thwarted the entry of Mohammed al Qahtani, the 20th hijacker, one month before 9/11. Once again, Smerconish gave all author profits to charity, this time, the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Smerconish subsequently sought to credit Melendez-Perez with playing a role in the killing of Osama bin Laden because he denied al Qahtani's entry and Qahtani, as a prisoner of war in Guantanamo Bay, was one of the detainees who identified bin Laden's courier, leading to the successful raid of SEAL Team Six.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: "Talk: A Novel" (2014) is Smerconish's sixth book and first fictional work, about the life of conservative talk show host Stan Powers. Powers, a former slacker and stoner with no political knowledge, is nevertheless able to quickly ascend the talk radio world by his entertainment skills and recitation of red-meat talking points (which conflict with his own opinions). The more Stan Powers says on fictionalized radio station WRGT with which he personally disagrees, the higher he sees his star rising. With a Republican convention coming to his hometown of Tampa, Florida, will Powers continue to spout the lines that pay for his beach front condominium, or will he take the professional risk of being true to himself? Warner Horizon Television has optioned the rights to the novel.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: "Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right" (2018) is Smerconish's seventh book, a compilation of 100 of Smerconish's more memorable newspaper columns in "The Philadelphia Inquirer" and "Philadelphia Daily News", each with a new Afterword, drawn from the 1,047 he published between 2001 and 2016. As characterized by Foreword Reviews: "Michael Smerconish's collection is compelling and entertaining—not as a filtering of daily news through a predictable ideological lens, but as a group of insightful entries into conversations about current events and issues….This sampling of Smerconish's columns exemplifies the kind of discourse, based on reason and evidence, that makes a newspaper, in print or online, indispensable to citizens of democracy." As characterized by The Daily Beast, "[The columns] make for enjoyable reading and remind us that journalism properly practiced requires a good deal of nerve, honesty, and insight, along with openness to dialogue and the determination not to live in a bubble." All author proceeds are being donated to the Children's Crisis Treatment Center, which provides social services to children in Philadelphia who are the victims of trauma.


title: Michael Smerconish

text: After the release of "Clowns", Smerconish composed a one-man show in which he draws on columns reprinted in the book and weaves them together with his explanation of the political divide. He has since toured the country in support of what he calls "American Life in Columns", appearing at the Paley Center in Los Angeles, Hobby Center in Houston, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, Sellersville Theatre outside of Philadelphia, the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, Michigan, and at City Wineries located in Boston, Chicago, New York City, Atlanta and Nashville.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Kwai Chang Caine () is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ABC 1972–1975 action-adventure western television series "Kung Fu". He has been portrayed by David Carradine as an adult, Keith Carradine as a younger Caine, Radames Pera as the child Caine, and Stephen Manley as the youngest Caine.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: In the late 19th century China, Kwai Chang Caine was the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman. He was raised in a Shaolin Monastery in Hunan Province, and was trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master. "Kung Fu" follows his adventures as he travels to the American Old West (armed only with his skill in martial arts) as he seeks his half-brother, Danny Caine. Although it was his intention to find his brother Danny in a way which would escape notice, the demands of his training as a priest in addition to the sense of social responsibility, which was instilled within him during his childhood, forced Caine to repeatedly come into the open to fight for justice. He would then leave his new surroundings in a further search for anonymity and security.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: In the Shaolin arts, monks live in temples and most stay their entire life. Once they become masters and leave the temple, they are referred to as Priests. In real-world Shaolin, both monks and priests shave their heads and some remain celibate. However, Caine grew his hair long and occasionally had intimate relations with women in the series.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Regarding the origins of the character and the series concept, see "Kung Fu": Bruce Lee's involvement


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: A May 1973 interview by Black Belt Magazine to John Furia Jr., the series story editor, expresses his view of the character: “Essentially, the story is one of contrast. It is about a man of peace and love placed in a violent time and place – the 1870s of the American West. It is parallel to today’s atmosphere. We emphasize love and peace, yet we are experiencing violent times.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: “The point of view of the series is enormously appealing to all people. Caine avoids violence as much as he can. When he does occasionally get involved, it is not glamorized. On the contrary, it is depicted as sad and unglamorous.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: “The story also deals with inner serenity which comes from a person being in touch and in communion with his own senses and his own self and, hopefully, in touch with his entire universe; or, putting it simply, one with the universe, one with nature. It is tremendously contemporary.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: “People today are attempting to live in communes. They want to get away from the clutter, pressure and brutality of contemporary society. They feel they are depersonalized. There is tremendous similarity between Caine and them.”


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Orphaned after his maternal grandfather's death, Caine eventually found himself outside the local Shaolin temple along with other hopeful candidates. After waiting patiently for several days, Caine and the few other remaining candidates were taken inside the temple where only Caine passed a subtle test in manners. Although taking a student of mixed parentage into the order was unprecedented, the head monk Master Kan (Philip Ahn) sagely noted, "There is a first for everything," and welcomed Caine.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Following his induction into the order, Caine then lived in the temple until adulthood, mastering many of the fighting forms and lessons taught by the Shaolin monks (Crane, Snake, Praying Mantis, Tiger, and Dragon). At one point during his training he was shown the various forms and Master Kan explained that it may take half a lifetime to master one of the forms. Later, while in the US, when asked by a student which forms he teaches, Caine's response was, "All of them" (a tribute to Master Kan, who had answered young Caine similarly when asked the same question).


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: One of his first instructors was the blind master named Po (Keye Luke). Po considered Caine his favorite pupil and behaved more like an elderly grandfather. Caine was given the nickname "Grasshopper" by Master Po; the reference was from an exchange where the still ignorant young Caine asked the old blind master how he could function without seeing. Po asked Caine to close his eyes and describe what he could hear. Caine explained that he could hear the water flowing in a nearby fountain and birds in a nearby cage. Po then asked if Caine could hear his own heartbeat or the grasshopper at his feet (Caine hadn't noticed the insect until that moment). Incredulous, Caine asked Po, "Old man – how is it that you hear these things?" Po's reply was, "Young man, how is it that you do not?" From that point on, Po affectionately called Caine "Grasshopper".


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Years after his graduation, Caine traveled to the Forbidden City to meet Po, whose lifelong ambition had been to travel to a festival at the Temple of Heaven on that date, the full moon of May - the 13th day of the 5th month in the Year of the Dog (May 13, 1874). While they were talking together in the street, the Emperor's nephew and his entourage came along and an altercation ensued when a guard tried to push Po aside and was sent sprawling by the blind Shaolin. While defending himself from the other guards, Master Po was shot by the Emperor's nephew. Before the nephew could reload his pistol, the enraged Caine seized a guard's fallen spear and killed the Imperial nephew. With his dying words, Po gave Caine his pouch containing his few worldly possessions and instructed Caine to flee from China as there would be both no place to hide and a price on his head. Before he fled China, Caine returned to the temple to confess his deed to Master Kan. Later, Imperial guards attacked and stormed the temple, only to find it deserted (the monks having fled before the army's arrival); in retaliation, they burned the temple to the ground.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: At first, Caine tried to flee to Tibet but was unsuccessful. He then escaped to the American Old West and in the first-season episode "Dark Angel" discovered from his grandfather Henry Caine (Dean Jagger) that he had a half-brother named Daniel. While he searched for Danny, he was on the run from a steady stream of bounty hunters and Chinese agents, some of whom were also Shaolin priests like himself, searching for him. In the pilot episode when another priest arrived to take him into custody, telling Caine that he had been searching for him for many weeks and that it had long been known he had fled to the US, Caine said to him, "For money? A Shaolin monk does not sell himself for a handful of rice." The monk's reply was, "You are more than a handful of rice" (the price placed on Caine's head by the Imperial government being $10,000 alive, $5,000 dead). Caine's hanfu was seen as gold with a red belt and the symbol of an open hand on the back (indicating that he is a master of all five forms), while his opponent's was black with a maroon belt and the symbol of a snake on the back. In the ensuing fight, Caine killed the monk.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: The conflict between a desire for anonymity and a sense of social responsibility is conveyed through the frequent use of flashbacks. In these flashbacks, the adult Caine (Carradine) recalls a particular lesson during his training in the monastery, taught to him by Master Po and Master Kan.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: During the concluding four episodes of the third and final season, Caine found not only his brother Daniel, but his nephew Zeke as well.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Caine's training involved both armed and unarmed combat. He was also tutored in eastern philosophy and herbal medicine. Upon graduation he attained the rank of Shaolin Master. Caine exited the school via a special corridor designed as a last test. Barring the exit was a hot iron cauldron with the figures of a dragon on one side and a tiger on the other. By lifting the cauldron with his forearms, the graduate branded himself with the figures. The newly initiated master thus bore an imprint on the inside of each of his forearms, signifying his new status. On several occasions these scars identified him as a Shaolin monk to those familiar with Chinese culture.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Caine is humble, intelligent, inquisitive, and usually very soft-spoken. His only known pastimes are the playing of a bamboo flute and meditation. Caine is fluent in both Cantonese and English. He is also skilled in herbalism and healing.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: As Caine explained to his brother in the fourth-to-last episode of the series, "Full Circle", the Shaolin life "is not one of restriction". Caine frequently had romantic relationships with women and even contemplated marriage on at least two occasions.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: In the first episode, "King of the Mountain", Lara Parker plays a widowed ranch owner with whom Caine finds employment. She offers him money for his labors, but he refuses saying that all he needs is food and place to sleep. She presses him and insists there must be more he needs (i.e., sex). It is subtly implied that she eventually supplies what he needs. It is also implied that she is attracted by the "tattoos" on his forearms.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: In the episode "The Tide", Caine falls in love with Su Yen, played by Tina Chen, the daughter of a philosopher and author with whom Caine is familiar. The town Sheriff recognizes Kwai Chang from the Wanted Poster. While in custody, Kwai Chang is wounded. He escapes, and Su Yen hides him in a cave at the beach. There are scenes of passionate kissing, after which Su Yen is shown waking on the sleeping mat and reaching out for Kwai Chang, only to find that he is not there. The scenes strongly indicate that Kwai Chang and Su Yen had made love. It turns out that Su Yen, however, seeks to trade Caine to the Emperor in exchange for her father who is imprisoned in China.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: The two-part second-season episode, "Cenotaph", relates an episode from Caine‘s past, when the Emperor's favorite concubine, Mayli Ho (played by Nancy Kwan) takes Caine's virginity. Caine falls in love with her, even contemplating marriage. It is because she truly loves him that Mayli ultimately rejects a devastated Caine, knowing her lifestyle and ways would eventually destroy him and all that he stands for. The third season episode, "The Forbidden Kingdom", depicts Caine's first days on the run after killing the Emperor's nephew. In his efforts to flee China and escape the Emperor's men, Caine meets Po Li, played by Adele Yoshioka. At first, Po Li betrays Caine in order to save her brother who is the Emperor's prisoner. Eventually, she redeems herself and aids in Caine's escape, telling him, "I will have much to remember". Caine will not learn until many years later that this brief, one-time union resulted in the conception of a son, Chung Wang, played by Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son) in the 1986 made for TV movie, "Kung Fu: The Movie".


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: In the waning days of her relationship with David Carradine, Barbara Hershey appeared in a season three two-part episode, "Besieged". She played the role of Nan Chi, a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian woman who wanted to become a disciple of the Shaolin. She and Kwai Chang clearly fall in love, but the relationship is never consummated as Kwai Chang, still a disciple in this flashback episode, did not lose his virginity until after he had left the monastery, as previously depicted in the second season. Nan Chi is mortally wounded while saving Kwai Chang's life. As she lies dying, she asks Caine to pretend with her that they are married and have a child. He says, "Only live, Nan Chi, and it will be true."


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Caine takes employment from Ellie, a widowed ranch owner who does not feel that food and a place to sleep is enough compensation for all that Caine has done for her. Thus, Caine has sexual relations with her. In this third-season episode, "A Small Beheading", Ellie is played by Rosemary Forsyth.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: The character was called Kwai Chang Caine in the Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander's original feature movie script, and it was written that way in Caine's wanted poster that appeared in the series from the pilot onwards and until "".


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: However, in s3e04 episode "A Small Beheading", Captain Brandywine Gage (played by William Shatner) presents Caine with a scroll written in Chinese. As the camera pans down the scroll, the Chinese characters for Caine's name appear for the first time in the series:


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: The Zhangzhou accented Amoy pronunciation of the characters most closely matches the English spelling of Caine's name. However, in the series, Caine attended the Shaolin Temple in Henan province, where the priests likely spoke Mandarin.


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: This discrepancy, caused by the series prop department, adds to the mistakes the series writers made regarding Chinese names in general and Caine's in particular. In episode s2e20 "Arrogant Dragon", Caine talks with a man called Wu Chang:<br>


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: Suggesting that "Chang" was a sort of maternal family name, which is not a concept in Chinese surnames. On the other hand, in episode s3e20 "The Brothers Caine", the first time Caine meets his brother Danny and this one has him at gunpoint, Caine explains:<br>


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: ""If you cannot believe me, please listen. Our father was Thomas Henry Caine. Our grandfather was Henry Raphael Caine, a maker of stone images. Your mother was Elizabeth Chambers. My mother was Kwai Lin, a Chinese woman our father met on his travels in the East.""


title: Kwai Chang Caine

text: This time it is "Kwai" which appears as a maternal surname, contradicting both the other episode and Chinese usage. At any rate, both "Kwai" and "Chang" are Chinese names, and both have a presence as surnames.


title: Comparison of browser engines

text: Some of these engines have shared origins. For example, the WebKit engine was created by forking the KHTML engine in 2001. Then, in 2013, a modified version of WebKit was officially forked as the Blink engine.


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: "Land of a Thousand Dances" (or "Land of 1000 Dances") is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A version by Thee Midniters reached #27 in Canada on March 22, 1965.


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: The song references a number of dance styles/moves including the Twist, the Alligator, the Mashed Potato, the Watusi and the Pony.


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: The original Chris Kenner recording, which peaked at No. 77 on the "Billboard" chart in 1963, mentions 16 dances: the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand Jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish, and the Popeye. Kenner's original recording included a brief, gospel-influenced, a capella introduction with the words: "Children, go where I send you / (Where will you send me?) / I'm gon' send you to that land / the land of a thousand dances." This 18 seconds was left off the single release to facilitate radio airplay, and the phrase "Land of 1000 Dances" never appeared in any subsequent recording.


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: The song is famous for its "na na na na na" hook, which Cannibal & the Headhunters added in their 1965 version, which reached number 30 on the "Billboard" chart. The hook gave the song further notoriety. The "na na na na na" hook happened by accident when Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia, lead singer of Cannibal and the Headhunters, forgot the lyrics. The melody to this section was also created spontaneously, as it is not in Chris Kenner's original track. The "na na na na na" hook was later borrowed in the 1994 song "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Jamaican artist Ini Kamoze.


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: The song's best-known version was by Wilson Pickett, who recorded the song during his first set of sessions at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns. (He had previously recorded in Memphis.) His recording was released as a single and appeared on his album, "The Exciting Wilson Pickett". The single became his third Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1 hit and his biggest ever pop hit, peaking at No. 6. In 1988 a re-recorded version by Pickett was featured in a concert during the movie "The Great Outdoors", while the original recording is featured at the end credits of the movie. In 1989, the earlier Pickett version was ranked number 152 on Dave Marsh's list of "The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made".


title: Land of a Thousand Dances

text: Pickett's version appears in a 2017 TV commercial for Hulu, the first episode of Season 3 of "Sex Education", and a 2022 in American television commercial for the Samsung Galaxy.


title: Lethal dose

text: In toxicology, the lethal dose (LD) is an indication of the lethal toxicity of a given substance or type of radiation. Because resistance varies from one individual to another, the "lethal dose" represents a dose (usually recorded as dose per kilogram of subject body weight) at which a given "percentage" of subjects will die. The lethal concentration is a lethal dose measurement used for gases or particulates. The LD may be based on the standard person concept, a theoretical individual that has perfectly "normal" characteristics, and thus not apply to all sub-populations.


title: Lethal dose

text: The median lethal dose, LD (abbreviation for "lethal dose, 50%"), LC (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt (lethal concentration and time) of a toxin, radiation, or pathogen is the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration. LD figures are frequently used as a general indicator of a substance's acute toxicity. A lower LD is indicative of increased toxicity.


title: Lethal dose

text: The test was created by J.W. Trevan in 1927. The term "semilethal dose" is occasionally used with the same meaning, in particular in translations from non-English-language texts, but can also refer to a "sub"lethal dose; because of this ambiguity, it is usually avoided. LD is usually determined by tests on animals such as laboratory mice. In 2011 the US Food and Drug Administration approved alternative methods to LD for testing the cosmetic drug Botox without animal tests.


title: Lethal dose

text: The LD is usually expressed as the mass of substance administered per unit mass of test subject, typically as milligrams of substance per kilogram of body mass, but stated as nanograms (suitable for botulinum), micrograms, milligrams, or grams (suitable for paracetamol) per kilogram. Stating it this way allows the relative toxicity of different substances to be compared, and normalizes for the variation in the size of the animals exposed, although toxicity does not always scale simply with body mass.


title: Lethal dose

text: The choice of 50% lethality as a benchmark avoids the potential for ambiguity of making measurements in the extremes and reduces the amount of testing required. However, this also means that LD is "not" the lethal dose for all subjects; some may be killed by much less, while others survive doses far higher than the LD. Measures such as "LD" and "LD" (dosage required to kill 1% or 99%, respectively, of the test population) are occasionally used for specific purposes.


title: Lethal dose

text: Lethal dosage often varies depending on the method of administration; for instance, many substances are less toxic when administered orally than when intravenously administered. For this reason, LD figures are often qualified with the mode of administration, e.g., "LD i.v."


title: Lethal dose

text: The related quantities LD/30 or LD/60 are used to refer to a dose that without treatment will be lethal to 50% of the population within (respectively) 30 or 60 days. These measures are used more commonly with radiation, as survival beyond 60 days usually results in recovery.


title: Lethal dose

text: LD values for humans are best estimated by extrapolating results from human cell cultures. One form of measuring LD is to use model organisms, particularly animals like mice or rats, converting to dosage per kilogram of biomass, and extrapolating to human norms. The degree of error from animal-extrapolated LD values is large. The biology of test animals differs in important aspects to that of humans. For instance, mouse tissue is approximately fifty times less responsive than human tissue to the venom of the Sydney funnel-web spider. The square–cube law also complicates the scaling relationships involved. Researchers are shifting away from animal-based LD measurements in some instances. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun to approve more non-animal methods in response to animal welfare concerns.


title: Lethal dose

text: The median infective dose (ID) is the number of organisms received by a person or test animal qualified by the route of administration (e.g., 1,200 org/man per oral). Because of the difficulties in counting actual organisms in a dose, infective doses may be expressed in terms of biological assay, such as the number of LD's to some test animal. In biological warfare infective dosage is the number of infective doses per minute for a cubic meter (e.g., ICt is 100 medium doses - min/m).)


title: Lethal dose

text: The lowest lethal dose (LD) is the least amount of drug that can produce death in a given animal species under controlled conditions. The dosage is given per unit of bodyweight (typically stated in milligrams per kilogram) of a substance known to have resulted in fatality in a particular species. When quoting an LD, the particular species and method of administration ("e.g." ingested, inhaled, intravenous) are typically stated.


title: Lethal dose

text: For gases and aerosols, lethal concentration (given in mg/m or ppm, parts per million) is the analogous concept, although this also depends on the duration of exposure, which has to be included in the definition. The term incipient lethal level is used to describe a LC value that is independent of time.


title: Lethal dose

text: A comparable measurement is LCt, which relates to lethal dosage from exposure, where C is concentration and t is time. It is often expressed in terms of mg-min/m LCt is the dose that will cause incapacitation rather than death. These measures are commonly used to indicate the comparative efficacy of chemical warfare agents, and dosages are typically qualified by rates of breathing (e.g., resting = 10 L/min) for inhalation, or degree of clothing for skin penetration. The concept of Ct was first proposed by Fritz Haber and is sometimes referred to as Haber's law, which assumes that exposure to 1 minute of 100 mg/m is equivalent to 10 minutes of 10 mg/m (1 × 100 = 100, as does 10 × 10 = 100).


title: Lethal dose

text: Some chemicals, such as hydrogen cyanide, are rapidly detoxified by the human body, and do not follow Haber's Law. So, in these cases, the lethal concentration may be given simply as LC and qualified by a duration of exposure (e.g., 10 minutes). The material safety data sheets for toxic substances frequently use this form of the term even if the substance does follow Haber's Law.


title: Lethal dose

text: The LC is the lowest concentration of a chemical, given over a period of time, that results in the fatality of an individual animal. LC is typically for an acute (<24 hour) exposure. It is related to the LC, the median lethal concentration. The LC is used for gases and aerosolized material.


title: Lethal dose

text: As a measure of toxicity, lethal dose is somewhat unreliable and results may vary greatly between testing facilities due to factors such as the genetic characteristics of the sample population, animal species tested, environmental factors and mode of administration.


title: Lethal dose

text: There can be wide variability between species as well; what is relatively safe for rats may very well be extremely toxic for humans ("cf." paracetamol toxicity), and vice versa. For example, chocolate, comparatively harmless to humans, is known to be toxic to many animals. When used to test venom from venomous creatures, such as snakes, LD results may be misleading due to the physiological differences between mice, rats, and humans. Many venomous snakes are specialized predators of mice, and their venom may be adapted specifically to incapacitate mice; and mongooses may be exceptionally resistant. While most mammals have a very similar physiology, LD results may or may not have equal bearing upon every mammal species, including humans.


title: Lethal dose

text: Animal-rights and animal-welfare groups, such as Animal Rights International, have campaigned against LD testing on animals in particular as, in the case of some substances, causing the animals to die slow, painful deaths. Several countries, including the UK, have taken steps to ban the oral LD, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) abolished the requirement for the oral test in 2001.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first home secretary in 1782 and then prime minister from 1782 to 1783 during the final months of the American War of Independence. He succeeded in securing peace with America and this feat remains his most notable legacy.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Lord Shelburne was born in Dublin and spent his formative years in Ireland. After attending Oxford University he served in the British Army during the Seven Years' War. As a reward for his conduct at the Battle of Kloster Kampen, Shelburne was appointed an aide-de-camp to George III. He became involved in politics, becoming a member of parliament in 1760. After his father's death in 1761, he inherited his title and entered the House of Lords.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: In 1766, Shelburne was appointed as Southern Secretary, a position which he held for two years. He departed office during the Corsican Crisis and joined the Opposition. Following the fall of the North government, Shelburne joined its replacement under Lord Rockingham. Shelburne was made Prime Minister in 1782 following Rockingham's death, with the American War still being fought.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: He lost his authority and influence after being driven out of office at the age of 45 in 1783. Shelburne lamented that his career had been a failure, despite the many high offices he held over 17 years, and his undoubted abilities as a debater. He blamed his poor education—although it was as good as that of most peers—and said the real problem was that "it has been my fate through life to fall in with clever but unpopular connections".


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: The future Marquess of Lansdowne was born William Fitzmaurice in Dublin, the first son of John Fitzmaurice, who was the second surviving son of the 1st Earl of Kerry. Lord Kerry had married Anne Petty, the daughter of Sir William Petty, Surveyor General of Ireland, whose elder son had been created Baron Shelburne in 1688 and (on the elder son's death) whose younger son had been created Baron Shelburne in 1699 and Earl of Shelburne in 1719.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: On the younger son's death, the Petty estates passed to the aforementioned John Fitzmaurice, who changed his branch of the family's surname to "Petty" in place of "Fitzmaurice", and was created Viscount Fitzmaurice later in 1751 and Earl of Shelburne in 1753 (after which his elder son John was styled Viscount Fitzmaurice). His grandfather, Lord Kerry, died when he was four, but Fitzmaurice grew up with other people's grim memories of the old man as a "tyrant", whose family and servants lived in permanent fear of him.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Fitzmaurice spent his childhood "in the remotest parts of the south of Ireland," and, according to his own account, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1755, he had "both everything to learn and everything to unlearn".


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: From a tutor whom he describes as "narrow-minded" he received advantageous guidance in his studies, but he attributes his improvement in manners and in knowledge of the world chiefly to the fact that, as was his "fate through life", he fell in "with clever but unpopular connexions".


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shortly after leaving the university, he served in 20th Foot regiment commanded by James Wolfe during the Seven Years' War. He became friends with one of his fellow officers Charles Grey whose career he later assisted. In 1757 he took part in the amphibious Raid on Rochefort which withdrew without making any serious attempt on the town. The following year he was sent to serve in Germany and distinguished himself at Minden and Kloster-Kampen. For his services he was appointed aide-de-camp to the new King, George III, with the rank of colonel.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: This brought protests from several members of the cabinet as it meant he was promoted ahead of much more senior officers. In response to the appointment the Duke of Richmond resigned a post in the royal household. Though he had no active military career after this, his early promotion as colonel meant that he would be further promoted through seniority to major-general in 1765, lieutenant-general in 1772 and general in 1783.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: On 2 June 1760, while still abroad, Fitzmaurice had been returned to the British House of Commons as a member for Wycombe. He was re-elected unopposed at the general election of 1761, and was also elected to the Irish House of Commons for County Kerry.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: However, on 14 May 1761, before either Parliament met, he succeeded on his father's death as the second Earl of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland and the second Baron Wycombe in the Peerage of Great Britain. As a result, he lost his seat in both Houses of Commons and moved up to the House of Lords, though he would not take his seat in the Irish House of Lords until April 1764. He was succeeded in Wycombe by one of his supporters Colonel Isaac Barré who had a distinguished war record after serving with James Wolfe in Canada.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shelburne, who was a descendant of the father of laissez faire economics, William Petty, displayed a serious interest in economic reform, and was a proselytizer for free trade. He consulted with numerous English, Scottish, French and American economists and experts. He was on good terms with Benjamin Franklin and David Hume. He met in Paris with leading French economists and intellectuals. By the 1770s Shelburne had become the most prominent British statesmen to advocate free trade. Shelburne said his conversion from mercantilism to free trade ultimately derived from long conversations in 1761 with Adam Smith. In 1795 he described this to Dugald Stewart:


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Ritcheson is dubious on whether the journey with Smith actually happened, but provides no evidence to the contrary. There is proof that Shelburne did consult with Smith on at least one occasion, and Smith was close to Shelburne's father and his brother.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shelburne's new military role close to the King brought him into communication with Lord Bute, who was the King's closest advisor and a senior minister in the government. In 1761 Shelburne was employed by Bute to negotiate for the support of Henry Fox. Fox held the lucrative but unimportant post of Paymaster of the Forces, but commanded large support in the House of Commons and could boost Bute's power base. Shelburne was opposed to Pitt, who had resigned from the government in 1761. Under instructions from Shelburne, Barré made a vehement attack on Pitt in the House of Commons.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: In 1762 negotiations for a peace agreement went on in London and Paris. Eventually, a deal was agreed but it was heavily criticised for the perceived leniency of its terms as it handed back a number of captured territories to France and Spain. Defending it in the House of Lords, Shelburne observed "the security of the British colonies in North America was the first cause of the war" asserting that security "has been wisely attended to in the negotiations for peace". Led by Fox, the government was able to push the peace treaty through parliament despite opposition led by Pitt. Shortly afterwards, Bute chose to resign as Prime Minister and retire from politics and was replaced by George Grenville.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shelburne joined the Grenville ministry in 1763 as First Lord of Trade. By this stage, Shelburne had changed his opinion of Pitt and become an admirer of him. After failing to secure Pitt's inclusion in the Cabinet he resigned office after only a few months. Having moreover on account of his support of Pitt on the question of John Wilkes's expulsion from the House of Commons incurred the displeasure of the King, he retired for a time to his estate.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: After Pitt's return to power in 1766, he became Southern Secretary, but during Pitt's illness his conciliatory policy towards America was completely thwarted by his colleagues and the King, and in 1768 he was dismissed from office. During the Corsican Crisis, sparked by the French invasion of Corsica, Shelburne was the major voice in the cabinet who favoured assisting the Corsican Republic. Although secret aid was given to the Corsicans it was decided not to intervene militarily and provoke a war with France, a decision made easier by the departure of the hard-line Shelburne from the cabinet.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: In June 1768 the General Court incorporated the district of Shelburne, Massachusetts from the area formerly known as "Deerfield Northeast" and in 1786 the district became a town. The town was named in honour of Lord Shelburne, who, in return sent a church bell, which never reached the town.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shelburne went into Opposition where he continued to associate with William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. They were both critical of the policies of the North government in the years leading up to the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. As the war progressed Shelburne cooperated with the Rockingham Whigs to attack the government of Lord North. After a British army was compelled to surrender at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, Shelburne joined other leaders of the Opposition to call for a total withdrawal of British troops.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: In March 1782 following the downfall of the North Government Shelburne agreed to take office under Lord Rockingham on condition that the King would recognise the United States. Following the sudden and unexpected death of Lord Rockingham on 1 July 1782 Shelburne succeeded him as Prime Minister. Shelburne's appointment by the King provoked Charles James Fox and his supporters, including Edmund Burke, to resign their posts on 4 July 1782. Burke scathingly compared Shelburne to his predecessor Rockingham. One of the figures brought in as a replacement was the 23-year-old William Pitt, son of Shelburne's former political ally, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer. That year, Shelburne was appointed to the Order of the Garter as its 599th Knight.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Shelburne's government continued to negotiate for peace in Paris using Richard Oswald as the chief negotiator. Shelburne entertained a French peace envoy Joseph Matthias Gérard de Rayneval at his country estate in Wiltshire, and they discreetly agreed on a number of points which formed a basis for peace. Shelburne's own envoys negotiated a separate peace with American commissioners which eventually led to an agreement on American independence and the borders of the newly created United States. Shelburne agreed to generous borders in the Illinois Country, but rejected demands by Benjamin Franklin for the cession of Canada and other territories. Historians have often commented that the treaty was very generous to the United States in terms of greatly enlarged boundaries. Historians such as Alvord, Harlow and Ritcheson have emphasized that British generosity was based on Shelburne's statesmanlike vision of close economic ties between Britain and the United States. The concession of the vast trans-Appalachian areas was designed to facilitate the growth of the American population and create lucrative markets for British merchants, without any military or administrative costs to Britain. The point was the United States would become a major trading partner. As the French foreign minister Vergennes later put it, "The English buy peace rather than make it".


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Fox's departure led to the unexpected creation of a coalition involving Fox and Lord North which dominated the Opposition.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: In April 1783 the Opposition forced Shelburne's resignation. The major achievement of Shelburne's time in office was the agreement of peace terms which formed the basis of the Peace of Paris bringing the American War of Independence to an end.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: His fall was perhaps hastened by his plans for the reform of the public service. He had also in contemplation a Bill to promote free trade between Britain and the United States.


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: When Pitt became Prime Minister in 1784, Shelburne, instead of receiving a place in the Cabinet, was created Marquess of Lansdowne. Though giving general support to the policy of Pitt, he from this time ceased to take an active part in public affairs. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1803. A personal act of 1797 relieved him "from disabilities in consequence of his having sat and voted in the House of Lords without having made the necessary oaths and declarations".


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: First to Lady Sophia Carteret (26 August 17455 January 1771), daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, through whom he obtained the Lansdowne estates near Bath. They had at least one child:


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Secondly, to Lady Louisa FitzPatrick (17557 August 1789), daughter of the 1st Earl of Upper Ossory. They had at least two children:


title: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

text: Lord Lansdowne's brother, The Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice (1742–1793) of Cliveden, was also a Member of Parliament.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany Aching is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's satirical "Discworld" series of fantasy novels. Her name in Nac Mac Feegle is Tir-far-thóinn or "Land Under Wave".


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany is a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the "Discworld" series. She is the main character in "The Wee Free Men", "A Hat Full of Sky", "Wintersmith", "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "The Shepherd's Crown". Tiffany grows up over the course of the series, from nine years old in "The Wee Free Men" to being in her late teens in "The Shepherd's Crown".


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Pratchett has said Tiffany Aching "started with a girl lying down by a river, on the first page of "The Wee Free Men"". In his youth, Pratchett was "fascinated" by a nearby chalk pit, and like Tiffany knew how to read words before being able to pronounce them. "The Wee Free Men" features "a lot of [his] past" in its descriptions. A lot of Tiffany's understanding of the world is based on Pratchett's own experiences.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: With Tiffany, Pratchett wanted to "restate" the purpose of magic on the Discworld and the relationship between wizards, witches and others. He included ideas of responsibility and "guarding your society" as he felt it drew closer to the reality of a witch – that is, "the village herbalist, the midwife, the person who knew things"; like a designated driver, a witch is her community's 'designated sensible person'. Pratchett found a young protagonist useful, because when one is young "you have to learn". The name "Tiffany" was chosen deliberately, to be poorly evocative of a witch.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: A young witch (9 during "The Wee Free Men", 11 in "A Hat Full of Sky", 12 and 13 in "Wintersmith", almost 16 in "I Shall Wear Midnight", and in her late teens in "The Shepherd's Crown"), Tiffany hails from the Chalk, a Barony and a region of Downland Rimward of the Ramtops. Her family the Achings are the tenants of the Home Farm of the local Barony, the de Chumsfanleigh (pronounced "de Chuffley"). Her late grandmother, Sarah 'Granny' Aching (who died 2 years prior to the events in "The Wee Free Men"), was a shepherdess, and by Ramtop standards she was also a witch, although witchcraft was frowned upon on the Chalk until Tiffany openly practised it. Granny Aching was a friend of the Chalk's Clan of Nac Mac Feegles (an army of tiny, tattoed in blue colour, rowdy, drunken and vaguely Scottish 'pictsies'), and they have befriended Tiffany as the new "hag o' the hills". As Tiffany filled in as their Kelda (Queen) for a short time, the Nac Mac Feegle continue to see her as their responsibility, and there is no time in Tiffany's life since then which when they have not (in)discreetly watched her.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany begins her witching career at nine, upon being scouted out by the "witch finder" Miss Tick, after things from Fairyland begin making an entrance. She later leads the Feegles on a journey into Fairyland to rescue Wentworth, her toddler-age brother, as well as Roland, the young son of the local Baron, from the Queen of the Elves. For this she earns the respect of Granny Weatherwax, a significant achievement in itself. Although Tiffany is too young at the time to be an official witch, Granny gives her an imaginary invisible hat to boost her confidence. Such is the power of belief on the Disc that this hat keeps off the rain.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Two years later, Tiffany travels up to Lancre to be formally apprenticed to a witch, Miss Level. During her time with Miss Level, Tiffany uses the words "see me" to exit her body and see herself, believing it to be a harmless trick. Her body becomes vulnerable to infestation by a "hiver," (a gestalt entity of minds from the dawn of time) which uses her power to harm and cause chaos, using Tiffany's suppressed thoughts and desires as a basis. She eventually manages to overcome the hiver by giving it what it truly wants: the ability to die.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: At the age of thirteen, while studying under Miss Treason, Tiffany accidentally attracts the romantic interests of the Wintersmith after unwittingly playing the role of the Summer Lady at the Autumn Morris Dance (the so-called Dark Morris). She is at first ambivalent towards the Wintersmith, unnerved by the attention, but also somewhat flattered that she has caught the eye of a godlike being. The Wintersmith continues its advances, even attempting to create a human body out of snow and miscellaneous elements using a recipe from a children's song.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany, after some advice from Nanny Ogg about the power a young woman has over a suitor, manages to control the Wintersmith for a time. However, eventually he gains the upper hand and brings a record-breaking snow and cold to the Chalk in what should be early spring, threatening the new lambs. Tiffany melts him using a trick taught by Granny Weatherwax, fulfilling her temporary role as the Summer Lady and allowing the real one, brought from the Underworld by Roland, to resume her role. After Miss Treason's death, she is briefly apprenticed to Nanny Ogg before returning to the Chalk and taking up the job of witch to the Chalk.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: When Tiffany is in her late teens, Granny Weatherwax dies, leaving a note recommending that Tiffany take over her steading. Though at first she splits her time between there and the chalk, she eventually leaves the steading to the care of Geoffrey, a man she had been training to become a witch. She builds for herself her own shepherd's carding hut by hand, so as to live up on the chalk, re-using the iron wheels which remained after Granny Aching's hut was burned.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: As a witch, Tiffany possesses First Sight, the ability to see 'what is really there' (as opposed to second sight, which shows people what they think ought to be there). She also possesses Second Thoughts, which are defined as 'the thoughts you think about the way you think'. Whilst other witches are said to have this trait as well, Tiffany also recognizes some of her thoughts as Third Thoughts (the thoughts you think about the way you think about the way you think), and Fourth Thoughts (the thoughts you think about the way you think about the way you think about the way you think). All these thoughts sometimes cause Tiffany to walk into door frames.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Like her grandmother, she appears to have a symbiotic, spiritual link with the hill lands on which she lives, and as such has shown herself to be strongly protective of the region and all its inhabitants. On several occasions, Tiffany has induced in herself a state of total mental clarity, becoming completely aware of every sensation, life-form and object around her, including the land itself. It is also hinted at that the Chalk itself can, likewise, 'Borrow' the witch it 'Chose', having once temporarily spoken through Tiffany, telling her childhood friend, Roland, that she would marry him (and later performing an ancient marriage ceremony on Roland and his fiancée, Letitia).


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany has shown skill in many of the same areas of magic as Granny Weatherwax (though generally to a lesser degree): she has precociously mastered the art of Borrowing (the art of stepping outside one's own self), though Tiffany did not recognise it at the time, and merely used it as a means of viewing herself when without a mirror. The resulting vacancy of her body was what attracted the hiver to possess her in "A Hat Full of Sky". In "Wintersmith" she demonstrates a high level of skill in the art of magical self-concealment, and also learns how to absorb heat from any available source (including the sun) and channel it out into the world, without being touched by it herself. She generally precedes the use of the latter art with a sort of mantra, in which she states that she willingly chooses to undertake the dangerous action, and is prepared to accept full responsibility for all its consequences. Also like Granny, she has great difficulty in constructing the magical devices known as 'shambles', though unlike Granny, she later overcomes this obstacle. Tiffany has also demonstrated an affinity for using fire, which she considers a friend (most Witches do not consider fire to have good associations for them in view of its history).


title: Tiffany Aching

text: In "I Shall Wear Midnight" it is revealed that in the future, Tiffany is able to exert a limited influences over events throughout the timeline with the help of Eskarina Smith, the main character of "Equal Rites".


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany is very skilled at making cheese; and owns one particular Blue Lancre, named Horace, which habitually eats mice. She has read the entire dictionary, although she sometimes has difficulty with pronunciation. Tiffany also has a talent with languages, a side effect of the encounter with the Hiver. The occupation of her mind by the creature that collected minds has left her with shadows of those memories, including a deceased, didactic wizard named Sensibility Bustle, who translates any foreign word inside her head upon hearing or seeing it. Tiffany is also able to hear "Spill Words", the words almost spoken but left unsaid, a skill she learnt from Mrs. Proust. This skill is often mistaken for the ability to read minds.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: At the climax of events in "I Shall Wear Midnight", it is revealed that Tiffany, as the Witch of the Chalk, also has powers and authority not unlike a Justice of the peace; she is able to perform binding marriage ceremonies, and judge and deal out punishment(s) onto the deserving.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany is the seventh of the Aching children, and the second youngest, the youngest child being her only brother, Wentworth. Both her parents are alive, but she attracts little attention around the house, because she does her job well, which means nobody ever has to come and fuss over her, which in turn means nobody ever pays a lot of attention to her. While she doesn't particularly like her brother, she sets out to rescue him because he is "her" brother.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: She is friends with several of the Nac Mac Feegle, including Rob Anybody (originally, but accidentally, her betrothed), Daft Wullie (somewhat clueless), William the Gonnagle, Hamish, and Not-as-big-as-Medium-sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: While training in Lancre, she attended a coven of young witches 'led' by Annagramma Hawkin. Tiffany and fellow coven members Lucy Warbeck and Petulia Gristle eventually acquit themselves well as witches; Annagramma, however, finds that her training, under the tutelage of Letice Earwig, had not been enough to prepare her for the reality of witching life, and her onetime coven subordinates agree to help her get on her feet.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Roland comes to have great affection for Tiffany and takes the role of the mythic hero, attempting to rescue her from the Underworld and from the romantic attentions of the Wintersmith. Tiffany herself denies having any affection for Roland, but there are many signs that she does have feelings for him, even though she does not admit it until pressured to by Nanny Ogg. However, both eventually recognise that their both being different from everybody else did not mean they had anything in common, and Roland eventually married a local noblewoman (and latent witch) Letitia Keepsake.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: During the fourth book, "I Shall Wear Midnight", it is revealed near the end that she has entered into a romantic relationship with an intelligent young guard, named Preston, who aspires to study medicine at the "Lady Sybil Free Hospital" down in the city of Ankh-Morpork, under Dr. John Lawn, and further wishes to start a medical practice of his own up in the Chalk.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: In "The Shepherd's Crown", Tiffany is still romantically attached to Preston, who has become a surgeon, though, given their devotion to their jobs, they rarely have time to see each other. She visits him in Ankh-Morpork, and they write letters.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tiffany is mentored by Granny Weatherwax, and is named her successor. Granny Weatherwax, who is notoriously difficult to please, has several times been impressed by her.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Eskarina Smith, the protagonist of "Equal Rites", tells Tiffany in "I Shall Wear Midnight" that they become close friends. Eskarina uses her time travelling abilities to facilitate a meeting between Tiffany and her older self.


title: Tiffany Aching

text: Tim Martin of "The Telegraph" called Tiffany one of Pratchett's ten best "Discworld" characters, criticising "I Shall Wear Midnight" but calling the first three Aching novels "some of the best Discworld stuff in years". On the occasion of Pratchett's death in 2015, the Press Association listed Tiffany as Pratchett's seventh greatest character, highlighting her relationship with the Nac Mac Feegle. According to Pratchett, his portrayal of Tiffany led to him being made an honorary Brownie. Pratchett has called the Tiffany Aching books "very close to my heart", and has said they are the books he would like to be "remembered for".


title: Punch Brothers

text: Punch Brothers is an American band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass). Their style has been described as "bluegrass instrumentation and spontaneity in the strictures of modern classical" as well as "American country-classical chamber music".


title: Punch Brothers

text: The band's 2018 album "All Ashore" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 61st Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019.


title: Punch Brothers

text: Thile formed the band in 2006 to record the album "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground". In an interview with the "Nashville City Paper", Thile described the formation of the band:


title: Punch Brothers

text: The band was initially known as The How to Grow a Band. In 2007, they officially changed their name, first to The Tensions Mountain Boys, before settling on Punch Brothers. The band's name comes from the critical line of an earworm jingle that is the centerpiece of Mark Twain's short story "A Literary Nightmare". The chorus of the jingle consists of two lines, "Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare," which are said to be the mantra of railroad conductors.


title: Punch Brothers

text: What they formed was a type of group that "American Songwriter" magazine calls "A 21st century version of the Bluegrass Boys."


title: Punch Brothers

text: On March 17, 2007, this group debuted the ambitious forty-minute suite, "The Blind Leaving the Blind" at Carnegie Hall. The piece was composed by Thile, who said he wrote it in part to deal with his divorce in 2003.


title: Punch Brothers

text: On February 13, 2008, the band set off on their first national tour as Punch Brothers. On February 26, they released "Punch", their first album, on Nonesuch Records. The album features Thile's suite "The Blind Leaving the Blind", as well as other original songs.


title: Punch Brothers

text: In March 2008, when asked about a follow-up album, Thile said "there will definitely be another album." On November 8, 2008, the band announced on their website that they had parted ways with bass player Greg Garrison. Paul Kowert, who studied under Edgar Meyer at the Curtis Institute of Music, took Garrison's place as bass player.


title: Punch Brothers

text: "Antifogmatic", Punch Brothers' second album, was released on June 15, 2010 and features both traditional bluegrass and newgrass styles on the ten-track listing. Though bassist Kowert had toured extensively with the band in support of "Punch" over the preceding two years, "Antifogmatic" is the first Punch Brothers album on which he appears.


title: Punch Brothers

text: The band is also the focus of the documentary "How to Grow a Band", directed by Mark Meatto. It was filmed over a two-year period and, according to its website, "explores the tensions between individual talents and group identity, art and commerce, youth and wisdom". The film premiered at the 42nd Nashville Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee on April 15, 2011. The film also screened as part of the 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June 2011.


title: Punch Brothers

text: The band released its third album, "Who's Feeling Young Now?", in February 2012. Shortly afterwards, they contributed the song 'Dark Days' to the soundtrack for 2012 blockbuster "The Hunger Games". In November 2012 they released "Ahoy!", the 5-track EP companion to "Who's Feeling Young Now?" The EP consists of five songs that were not featured on the full-length release.


title: Punch Brothers

text: In November 2014, the band released the first single, entitled "I Blew It Off," from their then-untitled fourth album. In December 2014, the band announced that the new album, "The Phosphorescent Blues", would be released on January 27, 2015, along with the immediate release of another new single, "Julep". Julep was nominated for Best American Roots Song at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The album reached the top 10 on the rock, folk, and bluegrass charts. On November 20, 2015, Punch Brothers released a 5-track EP, "The Wireless".


title: Punch Brothers

text: On July 20, 2018, "All Ashore" was released as the band's fifth album. The album was self-produced and released on the Nonesuch Records label. According to Thile, the album is "a meditation on committed relationships in the present day, particularly in light of the current unsettled political climate—certainly the most unsettled one that anyone in the band has ever experienced. We were hoping we could create a thing that would be convincing as a complete thought, sort of a nine-movement or a nine-song thought, even though it's rangy in terms of what it's talking about and in the characters doing the talking."


title: Punch Brothers

text: "All Ashore" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 61st Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019.


title: Punch Brothers

text: On September 28, 2021 Punch Brothers announced that their next studio album would be a re-imagining of Tony Rice's 1983 album "Church Street Blues." The album, titled "Hell on Church Street," released on January 14, 2022.


title: Punch Brothers

text: Rice's "Church Street Blues" was a solo folk reinterpretation of many classic songs, and the Punch Brothers said of their own reinterpretations "No record (or musician) has had a greater impact on us, and we felt compelled to cover it in its entirety, with the objective of interacting with it in the same spirit of respect-fueled adventure that Tony brought to each of its pre-existing songs.” The songs were recorded in November 2020, just weeks before Rice's death at age 69. Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge was a student of Rice's.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: Caribou Coffee Company is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was founded in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. As of May 2015, the company operates 603 locations worldwide. It is headquartered in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: Caribou Coffee founder John Puckett was working as a management consultant for Boston-based firm Bain & Company, helping develop ideas and strategies for other companies, when he decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur. After a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, he and his wife, Kim, decided to raise money and start a coffee company. His wife stayed with a job at General Motors while John moved to Minnesota to find the first site and put together financing.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: The initial concept for Caribou was a five-day-a-week schedule aimed at downtown office workers, mimicking what worked in Boston. Puckett signed a lease for the first location to be in the large Pillsbury Center office building. However, soon afterward the building's landlord decided not to sign the lease, because another of the building's retail tenants had exclusive rights to selling coffee in the building and had threatened to sue them. As a result, the financing for the store fell through because it was dependent on that specific site. Puckett opted to start looking for an available location in the suburbs, and the first Caribou Coffee shop was started in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, in December 1992.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: On September 29, 2005, Caribou launched its IPO listed on NASDAQ under CBOU. CEO Coles recalls: "Two years after I took over, we expanded to 337 stores in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. In less than three years, Caribou went from a company with negative sales growth to a public company listed on NASDAQ."


title: Caribou Coffee

text: In 2006, Arcapita (formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank) was Caribou Coffee's majority shareholder. In 2002, Yusuf al-Qaradawi's involvement with the bank led to a protest of Caribou Coffee. That same year al-Qaradawi stepped down as chairman of the bank's Sharia Board.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: In December 2012, the company was taken private in a $340 million deal by German equity company JAB Holding Company.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: Following the merger, it was stated that Caribou Coffee would continue to be operated as an independent company with its own brand, management team and growth strategy, and that Caribou would continue to be based in Minneapolis.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: In May 2013, Caribou Coffee announced plans to close 80 stores in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois and Eastern Wisconsin, with 88 others in those locations to be converted to Peet's Coffee & Tea during 2013–2014. Caribou locations would remain open in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and ten international markets.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: On August 5, 2021, Caribou announced that it had merged with Panera Bread and Einstein Bros. Bagels to form Panera Brands. After four years in private hands, on November 8, 2021, Panera Brands filed paperwork for an initial public offering of stock.


title: Caribou Coffee

text: On December 20, 2018, the company notified its customers of a potential data breach that they discovered in late November of that year. The breach also affected other companies owned by JAB Holding Company, namely Bruegger's and Einstein Bros. Bagels, and included the release of credit card numbers and CVV codes.


title: Brink's

text: The Brink's Company is an American private security and protection company headquartered outside Richmond, Virginia. Its core business is Brink's Inc.; its sister brand Brink's Home Security company operates separately and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. In 2013, its international network served customers in more than 100 countries and employed approximately 134,000 people. Operations include approximately 1,100 facilities, and 13,300 vehicles. The company emerged from the Pittston Company and changed its name to the Brink's Company in 2003.


title: Brink's

text: Brink's is popularly known for its bullet-resistant armored trucks which carry money and valuable goods (the service once used to transport the Hope Diamond from an auction to the buyer's home). Brink's is a provider of security services to banks, retailers, governments, mints and jewelers. Founded in 1859 by Perry Brink of Chicago, Illinois, Brink's business evolved from local armored transportation services to providing corporate financial logistics and international secure transportation.


title: Brink's

text: In 1962, Brink's was acquired by Pittston, a coal company. Burlington Air Express was acquired in 1982. Brink's Home Security was started in 1983. Pittston sold off its coal assets in the 2000s and renamed the company Brink's. The home security unit was also spun off.


title: Brink's

text: A significant portion of Brink's business is conducted internationally, with 82% of $3.9 billion in revenues earned outside the United States in 2013. The majority of Brink's consolidated revenues in 2013 was earned in operations located in nine countries, each contributing in excess of $100 million of revenues. The 2013 revenues from these countries totaled $3.0 billion or 79% of consolidated revenues. These operations, in declining order of revenues, were the U.S., France, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and the Netherlands.


title: Brink's

text: In January 2012, Brink's acquired Kheops, SAS, a provider of logistics software and related services in France, for approximately $17 million. This acquisition gave the company proprietary control of software used primarily in cash-in-transit and money processing operations in France.


title: Brink's

text: On January 31, 2013, Brink's acquired Brazil-based Rede Transacoes Eletronicas Ltda. ("Redetrel") for approximately $26 million. Redetrel distributes electronic prepaid products, including mobile phone airtime, via a network of approximately 20,000 retail locations across Brazil. Redetrel's strong distribution network supplements Brink's existing payments business, ePago, which has operations in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Panama.


title: Brink's

text: Brink's sold one of its core operations, BAX Global, a shipping company for U.S. $1.1 billion to Deutsche Bahn on January 31, 2006. BAX Global used to be known as Burlington Air Express.


title: Brink's

text: In November 2010, Brink's former cash-in-transit (CIT) operations in Belgium filed for bankruptcy, after local union employees rejected a restructuring plan, and was placed in bankruptcy on February 2, 2011. Brink's deconsolidated the Belgium subsidiary in 2010. However in 2021 returned to Belgium and took over G4S's Cash Solutions division.


title: Brink's

text: In 2012, Brink's agreed to sell its cash-in-transit operations in Germany and Poland, and event security operations in France, and the company completed the divestiture of its guarding operations in Morocco, in December 2012.


title: Brink's

text: In May 2014, Brink's US decided to cease their cash-in-transit operations throughout Australia. Linfox Armaguard made an offer to purchase Brink's Australia's CIT operations, and Brink's is continuing their precious goods logistics business within Australia.


title: Brink's

text: Brink's had a business line in home security named Brink's Home Security which accounted for 15% of Brink's revenue in 2008; it decided that year to spin the business off into a separate publicly traded company in order to focus on its other businesses. The company rebranded as Broadview in 2009 with a massive advertising campaign. Broadview was acquired and merged into The ADT Corporation in 2010.


title: Brink's

text: In 2018, Brink's re-entered the business through a trademark licensing deal, re-creating the Brinks Home Security brand.


title: Brink's

text: The Great Brink's Robbery was an armed robbery of the Brinks Building at the corner of Prince St. and Commercial St. in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, on the night of January 17, 1950. Led by Boston small-time criminal Tony "Fats" Pino, 11 men broke in and stole $1,218,211.29 in cash, and $1,557,183.83 in checks, money orders, and other securities. At the time, it was the largest robbery in the history of the United States. Skillfully executed with only a bare minimum of clues left at the crime scene, the robbery was billed as "the crime of the century".


title: Brink's

text: All 11 members of the gang were later arrested, and all were paroled and released by 1971, except for Joseph "Big Joe" McGinnis, the originator of the heist, who died in prison. Despite ongoing efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local authorities, only $58,000 of the initial $2.7 million stolen was ever recovered.


title: Brink's

text: On October 20, 1981, members of the Weather Underground Organization and Black Liberation Army attempted an armed robbery of a Brink's armored car in Nanuet, New York. The robbery resulted in a shootout that left two police officers, Edward O'Grady and Waverly Brown, and a Brink's security guard, Pete Paige, dead. Paige's partner, Joe Trombino, was severely wounded in the gun battle but survived. He later died in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001.


title: Brink's

text: On November 26, 1983, there was an armed robbery at a warehouse near London's Heathrow Airport, operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between Brink's and the London-based company MAT Transport, which specialized in the transportation of valuable goods. Three tonnes of gold bullion (worth £26 million) was stolen. Most of the gold has never been recovered.


title: Brink's

text: On January 5, 1993, $7.4 million was stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, the fifth largest robbery in US history. Four men, Sam Millar, Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom had ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, were accused.


title: Brink's

text: On September 30, 2008, in Monroe, Washington, a Brink's armored car pulled up to make a delivery to the Bank of America. A landscaper, who was working the grounds and wearing a blue shirt, blue hat, and yellow safety vest, approached the armored car guard, pepper-sprayed him, stole $400,000 in cash, and escaped on an inner tube on the nearby Woods Creek. When police arrived, they found the bank's parking lot was full of men wearing clothing identical to the mysterious robber's. All were "hired" by a phony ad, placed on Craigslist by a culprit the media dubbed "D.B. Tuber" (after famed hijacker, D. B. Cooper), instructing them to show up at the bank at the same time, wearing a blue shirt, blue hat, and yellow safety vest. Months later, the FBI received a tip from a very attentive homeless man who had witnessed a "practice run" weeks prior to the robbery. DNA evidence later convicted former college football player Anthony Curcio of the crime.


title: Brink's

text: On 18 February 2013, eight masked gunmen, in two cars with police markings, stole approximately €38 million worth of diamonds by attacking in a very small time window during which they were being transferred from a Brink's armored van to a Swiss-bound Fokker 100 operated by Helvetic Airways. The Fokker 100 was on the apron at Brussels Airport, Belgium, just before 20:00 CET. The heist was accomplished without a shot being fired.


title: Brink's

text: In May 2014, California resident Joe Cornell found a Brink's bag with $125,000 inside; Cornell saw the bag of cash accidentally fall out of the back of a Brink's transport car as it drove over the railroad tracks in downtown Fresno. Cornell returned the bag of cash claiming, "it was the right thing to do." Brinks thanked the man for his honesty with a $5,000 reward and a $5,000 donation in Cornell's name to the Salvation Army, where he works.


title: Brink's

text: On July 11, 2022 approximately $100M to $150M worth of jewelry, luxury watches, and other valuables were stolen at around 2:00 a.m. from a Brink's truck within a 27-minute window whilst the driver and guard were at a Flying J rest stop on I-5 in Lebec, California; one had absented the vehicle while the other slept. The merchandise, which had been loaded the day before in San Francisco, was en route to a trade show in Pasadena under the aegis of International Gem and Jewelry Show. As is common industry practice such valuables are under-insured, partially because extra insurance is extremely expensive, but mostly due of Brink's reputation for trustworthiness and security. Several exhibitors, "mom-and-pop" operations, effectively lost their livelihoods. The incident remains under investigation by the FBI and the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department's Major Crimes Bureau, and the Brink's crew is co-operating with authorities.


title: Brink's

text: In October 2015, Brink's activist investor Starboard Value LP announced it had raised its stake in the company to around 12.4%. Later that year, Brink's responded to Texas RFI 212P with their perspective on a solution for Texas HB 483, establishing the Texas Bullion Depository.


title: Brink's

text: In April 2017, it was announced that Brinks had chosen the FN Herstal FN 509 9mm to be the new sidearm for their armed guards.


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: Ananias ( ; from Hebrew חנניה, "Hananiah", "favoured of the ") was a disciple of Jesus at Damascus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, which describes how he was sent by Jesus to restore the sight of Saul of Tarsus (who later was called Paul the Apostle) and provide him with additional instruction in the way of the Lord.


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: According to , Ananias was living in Damascus. In Paul's speech in Acts 22, he describes Ananias as "a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews" that dwelt in Damascus (). According to F. F. Bruce, this indicates that he was not one of the refugees from the persecution in Jerusalem described in .


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: During his conversion experience, Jesus had told Paul (who was then called Saul) to go into the city and wait. Jesus later spoke to Ananias in a vision, and told him to go to the "street which is called Straight", and ask "in the house of Judas for "one" called Saul, of Tarsus". () Ananias objected that Saul had been persecuting "thy saints", but the Lord told him that Saul was "a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel". (). When Ananias went in to Saul and laid his hands on him, the "scales" of dead tissue on the surface of his eyes fell off, and he looked up at Ananias. After additional instruction, Saul was baptized ()


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: According to Roderick L. Evans, Ananias was a prophet despite being mentioned as a disciple. In his opinion on New Testament prophets, biblical figures who receive a message from God or reveal future events are considered prophets despite alternative titles such as apostle or disciple.


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: Anglican priest and theologian Edward Carus Selwyn recognized Ananias as a prophet as well as one of the seventy disciples and the apostles allocated with different tasks. F. F. Bruce suggests that Ananias "has an honoured place in sacred history, and a special claim upon the gratitude of all who in one way or another have entered into the blessing that stems from the life and work of the great apostle." Ananias is also listed by Hippolytus of Rome and others as one of the seventy disciples whose mission is recorded in Luke .


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: According to Catholic tradition, Ananias was martyred in Eleutheropolis. A tomb is located below the Zoravor Church in Yerevan, Armenia.


title: Ananias of Damascus

text: In the 2004 edition of "Roman Martyrology", Ananias is listed under 25 January as a saint commemorated on the same day as the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The Harley-Davidson FL is a model designation used on Harley-Davidson motorcycles since 1941. The FL suffix is mostly applied to Harley-Davidson's large-framed bikes, including the current Touring series, and also the Softail series, especially those with traditional styling, 16-inch front wheels, and either Springer forks or large-diameter telescopic front forks.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The FL was introduced to the Harley-Davidson model line in 1941. It used a version of the "Knucklehead" OHV engine that powered the EL in form. The FL shared its frame with the EL and with the U and UL, which used a 74 cubic inch flathead engine. The FL replaced the UH and ULH, which used the same frame with flathead engines.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The FL continued relatively unchanged until 1948, when it and the EL were given redesigned "Panhead" engines of the same capacities as before. These engines had several improvements over the earlier "Knuckleheads", including self-adjusting hydraulic lifters and aluminum cylinder heads to reduce weight and improve cooling. The U and UL flathead twins were discontinued in 1948, leaving the OHV EL and FL models as Harley-Davidson's large-frame motorcycles.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: In 1949, a year after receiving the "Panhead" engine, the FL was given a new front suspension featuring hydraulically damped telescopic forks, replacing the leading link spring suspension of the time. These forks were standard on all big twin models for 1949, including the E, EL, F, and FL. Harley-Davidson offered the spring suspension units on these models and recommended their use on sidecar combinations, because the hydraulic forks did not have enough trail to allow the combination to be stable enough for safe operation.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: During their debut model year of 1949, Harley-Davidson referred to their new suspension systems as the "hydraulic front ends". Harley-Davidson's marketing department promoted the new suspension systems by renaming the big twin models "Hydra Glide" for the 1950 model year. This was Harley-Davidson's first departure from its policy of using alphabetic lettering to identify its models. This name would change twice in the history of the basic large-framed E and F series models, each time signaling an improvement in the bike's technology. In addition, the Glide ending would be used on other models, based on both and FL and FX formats.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: In 1952, the Hydra-Glide's transmission standard hand-shift/foot-clutch was supplemented by the optional foot-shift/hand-clutch. The original format continued to be offered as an option until 1978. 1952 was also the last year of the EL, making the FL the last remaining large-frame model.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: Although the 1903 founding is now the basis for "Anniversary Models", Harley-Davidson's 50th Golden Anniversary was celebrated in 1954 with special paints and badges on the front fender. The first year of production was 1904.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: A more highly tuned engine with high-compression heads, higher-lift cams, and polished ports, was offered with the FLH version of 1955. The FLH designation has continued up to the present.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The FL model was given a new frame in 1958. This frame included a rear swingarm suspended by a pair of coil-over-shock suspension units. In honor of this fully suspended chassis, the FL's model name was changed from Hydra-Glide to Duo-Glide.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: Unlike OHV configuration, aluminum heads, and telescopic-fork front suspension, however, this improvement in technology was applied to the small-frame bikes first, the K-series having received rear suspension in 1952.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The third and final change given to the name of the basic FL model would occur in 1965, the final year of the "Panhead" engines. These last "Panheads" were the first "big-twin" Harley-Davidson engines to be equipped with electric starters, the Servi-Car having received electric start the year before. This innovation for Harley-Davidson was greeted with the new model name of Electra Glide.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: In 1966, the "Panhead" gave way to the "Shovelhead", gaining a ten percent increase in power in the process.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: A fork-mounted fairing became available on Electra Glides in 1969. This became unofficially known as the "batwing" fairing. Although the batwing fairing was an easily removable option on early Electra Glides, it was not removable on later machines, as the instruments were moved from the fuel tank into the fairing.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The FL frame was the basis for the 1971 FX Super Glide. The FX mated the FL frame with the forks of the XL Sportster, with buckhorn handlebars and a large fibreglass tailpiece completing the Super Glide specification.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: A 1977 Harley-Davidson Confederate Edition of the FLH Electra Glide that featured commemorative paint and tank and fender decals was produced. The unit production was in such low volume numbers - only 44 - as to make it one of the rarest of the company's motorcycles.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: An engine was made optional on the Electra Glide in 1978. However, the FL designation was not changed as a result. By 1981, the 80 cubic inch engine was the standard engine; the engine being discontinued.


title: Harley-Davidson FL

text: The low-compression FL engine was discontinued in 1979, as was the option for hand-shift/foot-clutch transmission controls.