Synopsis.

Act 1.

In a delightful garden in which two springs are seen, Medoro escapes from a shipwreck into the arms of his beloved Angelica. Alcina magically helps Medoro and he recounts how he was first captured, then shipwrecked. Orlando is jealous of Medoro, but Angelica lies and says Medoro is her brother.  Alcina is attracted to the knight Ruggiero. She uses her magic to make him forget Bradamante and love her instead. Bradamante discovers Ruggiero's "betrayal." She shows him the ring he gave her therefore breaking Alcina's spell. Ruggiero feels guilty for his actions.

Act 2.

In a grove with green secluded spots, Astolfo reflects how he loves Alcina, but is tormented by her unfaithfulness.  Meanwhile, in a mountainous alpine region with a high, precipitous cliff, Angelica and Medoro swear their love and part ways. To rid herself of Orlando, Angelica sends him to fight a monster who guards —she claims— a vase containing an elixir of youth: the potion by which Medea revived the dying Aeson. In fact, she is just trying to lure him into an enchanted cavern from which Alcina's spell makes escape impossible. Orlando enters defying the monster and is trapped. Realizing Angelica's faithlessness, however, he digs his way out despite the spell.  Angelica and Medoro marry in a countryside at the foot of a hill. They carve their vows on a nearby tree. Orlando finds the tree, and on reading the inscription, becomes so furious that he starts destroying the trees.

Act 3.

The place is at the entrance hall before the temple of Hecate. Astolfo believes Orlando dead. With Ruggiero and Bradamante, he plots revenge against Alcina. The secret of Alcina's power lies in an urn with Merlin's ashes, which is locked in the temple of Hecate. They await Alcina's return.  Inside the temple of Hecate, Bradamante disguises herself as a man. Alcina falls in love with her. Orlando, still raving mad about the marriage of Angelica and Medoro, fights with the temple statues, inadvertently destroying Alcina's power.  In a deserted island. Alcina tries to attack the sleeping Orlando, but is prevented by Ruggiero and Bradamante. Astolfo returns to arrest Alcina. Orlando regains his reason and forgives Angelica and Medoro.

References.

Notes  Sources

Orlando (RV 728), usually known in modern times as (), is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Grazio Braccioli, based on Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem "Orlando Furioso" ("The Frenzy of Orlando"). The first performance of the opera was at the Teatro San Angelo, Venice, in November 1727. It is to be distinguished from an earlier Vivaldi opera of 1714, "Orlando furioso", set to much the same libretto, once thought to be a revival of a 1713 opera by Giovanni Alberto Ristori but now considered by Vivaldian musicologists to be a fully-fledged opera by Vivaldi himself.

Orlando (plus communément connu dans les temps modernes comme Orlando furioso) est un opéra en trois actes d'Antonio Vivaldi avec un livret de Grazio Braccioli, d'après le poème éponyme écrit au par L'Arioste. La première représentation eut lieu au Teatro Sant'Angelo de Venise en 1727. Le numéro du Catalogue Ryom de cette œuvre est le RV 728.


Description.

The rosy maple moth is the smallest of the silk moths; males have a wingspan of 3.2 to 4.4 centimetres (1.25-1.75 in); females of 3.8 to 5 centimetres (1.5–2 in). The species can be identified by their unique, but varying, pink and yellow coloration. They have reddish-to-pink legs and antennae, yellow bodies and hindwings, and pink forewings with a triangular yellow band across the middle.

Geographic range.

The rosy maple moth lives across the eastern United States and adjacent regions of Canada. Their northern-most range includes the southern regions of Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Their range extends south along the Atlantic coast of North America to Dade County, Florida, and extends west from eastern Texas through Minnesota.

Habitat.

The rosy maple moth can be found in temperate deciduous forests and nearby suburban areas and urban landscapes. Their common name derives from the fact that they can primarily be found on maple trees, including red maples ("Acer rubrum"), sugar maples ("Acer saccharum"), silver maples ("Acer saccharinum"), and box elder maples ("Acer negundo"). They can also be found on oak trees, particularly turkey oaks ("Quercus laevis"), especially when they are found dispersed among maple trees.

Home range and territoriality.

Larvae hatch and live on the same tree through their development, then pupate in the soil beneath the same tree. The larvae primarily eat the underside of leaves, therefore preferentially staying in that location of their home tree. The adults do not eat, so they can have a sizeable home range.

Behavior.

Feeding.

The rosy maple moths preferentially lay their eggs on maple trees, and sometimes nearby oak trees. Since the larvae remain on the same tree upon which they hatched, most larvae feed on the underside of maple leaves or oak leaves. In early instars, the larvae feed together in groups, but beginning in the third or fourth instar the caterpillars begin to feed individually. The larvae eat the entire leaf blade and are capable of consuming a few leaves each. Thus, large populations of greenstriped mapleworms are capable of defoliating trees. Luckily, this damage is pretty much harmless and the leaves will grow back. Adult rosy maple moths do not feed.

Parental care.

Oviposition.

Female rosy maple moths lay their eggs one day after fertilization. During those 24 hours, the eggs are protected inside the body of the female. Besides this, rosy maple moths exhibit little parental care, as the female leaves after depositing her eggs. Females typically lay around 150 to 200 eggs in groups of 10 to 40 on the underside of leaves of maple trees and occasionally oak trees. Females typically only reproduce once, but in southern regions they can lay eggs up to three times. Egg laying typically occurs in the warmer months, with a peak in July, although precise timing depends on the region. In northern regions, one brood is laid between May and August. Further south, two broods are laid between April and September. In Florida, between March and October three broods are laid.

Social behavior.

Caterpillars live and feed in groups until the fourth instar when they become solitary. Adult rosy maple moths are mostly solitary besides during mating.

Life cycle.

Individual rosy maple moths typically live for about two to nine months. Between hatching and adulthood, the species undergoes five instars. For moths with longer life spans, much of this time is spent as a pupa over the winter months.

Eggs.

Eggs are laid 24 hours after fertilization. The eggs are ovular and about 1.4 mm in diameter, with a thin smooth yellow shell. Eggs hatch after about ten days to two weeks. After hatching, a transparent egg shell is left behind.

Caterpillar.

Rosy maple moth larvae are known as greenstriped mapleworms, and they undergo five instars prior to adulthood, during which their coloration and eating behavior changes. In early instars, the pupa have relatively large black heads and pale yellow-green bodies with faint green stripes. They have two large dark-green to black tubercles on the second thoracic segment and three rows of smaller spines, or setae, on each side of their body. The larvae undergo their first molt around 6–11 days after hatching, their second molt approximately 12 days after hatching, and their third molt around 19 days post hatching. In the next instars, the black head becomes smaller relative to the diameter of the body and the longitudinal stripes darken and become reddish. In later instars, the head becomes yellow, and in the final instar, becomes bright red. By the final instar, the body is yellow green with longitudinal stripes that range from white to green to black. The two prominent horns on the second thoracic segment are accompanied by two rows of short spines found along both sides of the body. At maturity, the caterpillars reach lengths of about 2 inches. Until the fourth instar, the larvae live and feed together, but in their final two instars they are solitary.

Pupa.

After about a month, full-grown caterpillars crawl to the bottom of the host tree and pupate in shallow underground chambers. The pupae are very dark, elongated, and have small spines. The pupa ends in a small forked point. The pupal stage lasts at least two weeks and up to the whole winter. If the moths pupate over winter, the majority of their lives are spent in the pupal stage. When the imago (adult) ecloses, it has small wings which it has to pump full of fluid in order to expand them and allow for flight.

Adult.

Adult rosy maple moths are distinguishable by their bright pink and yellow color, although exact coloration can vary significantly. Both sexes have a wingspan of 32–55 mm. Their bodies are woolly, and typically yellow on the top and pink on the underside, but can range to cream or white. Their legs and antennae are also pink. The forewings can be yellow to white with varying amounts of pink along the edges. The "alba" subspecies, found in Missouri, is completely white or white with faint pink markings.

Predators.

The predators of the rosy maple moth and larvae mostly consist of birds including blue jays, black-capped chickadees, and tufted titmice. The bright coloration of the wings may serve as a defense mechanism to trick predators into thinking they are poisonous and not tasty.

Mating.

Rosy maple moths exhibit sexual dimorphism, that is males and females have different appearances. In the case of the rosy maple moth, males have narrower and less rounded wings. Additionally, while females have simple antennae, males have bipectinate (comb-like on both sides) antennae to sense females' pheromones during mating. The moths become sexually mature at 2 to 9 months of age. Mating occurs at night, when females release pheromones to attract males. Fertilization occurs internally, and females lay their eggs 24 hours after mating. The moths are polygyandrous: females find a new male to mate with each time during breeding season when multiple broods are laid per season in warmer regions.

Thermoregulation.

Adults become active in the warmer months of the year. In a study that compared "D. rubicunda" with "Actias luna", the prevalence of the rosy maple moth was found to vary with changes in temperature, with highest counts at the highest temperature, perhaps due to the tropical origin of the subfamily Ceratocampinae. Their small size, preventing more effective body temperature control, may also contribute to their preference for warm weather. Adult moths are generally nocturnal, preferentially flying throughout the first third of the night.

Dryocampa rubicunda, the rosy maple moth or the Cosmoth, is a small North American moth in the family Saturniidae, also known as the great silk moths. It was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1793. The species is known for its wooly body and pink and yellow coloration, which varies from cream or white to bright pink or yellow. Males have bushier antennae than females, which allow them to sense female pheromones for mating.

Dryocampa rubicunda est une espèce de lépidoptères (papillons) appartenant à la famille des Saturniidae, à la sous-famille des Ceratocampinae. C'est la seule espèce du genre monotypique Dryocampa.


Plot.

In 1978, narcissistic actress Madeline Ashton performs a poorly received musical of "Sweet Bird of Youth" on Broadway. She invites long-time friend Helen Sharp, an aspiring writer, backstage along with Helen's fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville. Ernest is smitten with Madeline, and breaks off his engagement with Helen to marry her instead. Seven years later, Helen is obese, depressed and committed to a psychiatric hospital where she begins plotting revenge on Madeline.  Another seven years later, Madeline and Ernest live in Beverly Hills, but they are miserable: Madeline's acting career is declining and Ernest is an alcoholic reduced to working as a reconstructive mortician. Receiving an invitation to a party celebrating Helen's new book, Madeline rushes to a spa where she regularly receives facial treatments. Understanding Madeline's desperation, the spa owner gives her the business card of Lisle Von Rhuman, a mysterious, wealthy socialite specialized in youth rejuvenation.  Madeline and Ernest attend the party for Helen's novel, "Forever Young", and discover that somehow, Helen is slim and youthful. Dumbfounded and depressed by Helen's appearance, and upon secretly witnessing Helen tell Ernest that she blames her for his career decline, Madeline visits her young lover, but discovers he is with a woman his age. Dejected, Madeline drives to Lisle's home. Lisle, claiming to be 71, but looking decades younger, reveals the secret of her beauty and youth—an expensive potion that promises eternal life and an everlasting youthful appearance. Madeline purchases and drinks the potion and is rejuvenated, regaining her beauty. As a condition of purchase, Lisle warns Madeline to disappear from the public eye after ten years to keep the existence of the potion secret, and to take good care of her body.  Helen seduces Ernest and convinces him to kill Madeline. When Madeline returns home, she and Ernest argue, during which she falls down the stairs, breaking her neck. Believing Madeline dead, Ernest phones Helen for advice, initially not seeing Madeline stand and approach him with her head twisted backward. At Madeline's request, Ernest drives her to the emergency room. Madeline is told she is technically dead, and faints. She is taken to the morgue due to her body having no pulse and a temperature below 80 °F. After rescuing Madeline, Ernest considers her resurrection a miracle and uses his skills as a mortician to repair her body at home.  Helen demands information about Madeline's situation. Overhearing Helen and Ernest discussing their plot to kill her, Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun. Although the blast creates a hole in her abdomen, Helen survives, revealing that she drank the same potion. The two briefly fight before apologizing and reconciling their friendship. Fed up with the pair, Ernest prepares to leave, but Helen and Madeline convince him to do one last repair on their bodies. They realize they will need regular maintenance and scheme to have Ernest drink the potion to ensure he will always be available.  After bringing Ernest to Lisle, she offers to give him the potion free of charge in exchange for his surgical skills. Ernest refuses to drink it when he realizes the pitfalls of immortality. He pockets the potion and flees, but becomes trapped on the roof. Helen and Madeline implore Ernest to drink the potion to survive an impending fall. Ernest, realizing that they only need him for their own selfish reasons, refuses and drops the potion to the ground, but after falling he lands in Lisle's pool and escapes. Lisle banishes Madeline and Helen from her group, leaving the pair to rely on each other for companionship and maintenance.  Thirty-seven years later, Madeline and Helen attend Ernest's funeral, where he is eulogized as having lived an adventurous and fulfilling life with a large family and friends. The two women are parodies of their former selves, with cracked, peeling paint and putty covering most of their grey and rotting flesh. Helen trips at the top of a staircase. When Madeline hesitates to help her, Helen grabs Madeline and the two tumble down the stairs, breaking to pieces. As their disembodied heads totter down together, Helen sardonically asks Madeline where she parked their car.

Production.

Special effects.

"Death Becomes Her" was a technologically complex movie to make, and represented a major advancement in the use of computer-generated effects, under the pioneering direction of Industrial Light and Magic. For example, it was the first film where computer-generated skin texture was used, in the shot where Madeline resets her neck after her head is smashed with a shovel by Helen. Creating the sequences where Madeline's head is dislocated and facing the wrong way around involved a combination of blue screen technology, an animatronic model created by Amalgamated Dynamics, and prosthetic make-up effects on Meryl Streep to create the look of a twisted neck.  The digital advancements pioneered on "Death Becomes Her" would be incorporated into Industrial Light and Magic's next project, "Jurassic Park", released by Universal only a year later. Both films shared cinematographer Dean Cundey and production designer Rick Carter, in addition to ILM.  The production had a fair number of mishaps. For example, in a scene where Helen Sharp and Madeline Ashton are battling with shovels, Meryl Streep accidentally cut Goldie Hawn's face, leaving a faint scar. Streep admitted that she disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects, saying:

Filming locations.

The film was made entirely in Los Angeles and used several locations also frequently used in film and television, including the Greystone Mansion (Ernest's funeral home) and the Ebell of Los Angeles (Helen's book party). The exterior of Madeline and Ernest's mansion is located at 1125 Oak Grove Avenue in San Marino, but the interior was a set built on a soundstage. The ending scene where Helen and Madeline tumble down a set of stairs outside a chapel was filmed at Mount St. Mary's University (Los Angeles) in Brentwood.

Editing.

The theatrical version of "Death Becomes Her" omitted or shortened many scenes featured in the rough cut of the movie. Robert Zemeckis decided this was needed to accelerate the pace of the film and eliminate extraneous jokes. Most dramatically, the original ending was entirely redone after test audiences reacted negatively to it. The ending featured Ernest, after he has fled Lisle's party, meeting a bartender (Tracey Ullman), who helps him fake his death to evade Madeline and Helen. The two women encounter Ernest and the bartender 27 years later, living happily as a retired couple. Zemeckis thought the ending was too happy and opted for the darker ending featured in the final cut. Ullman was one of five actors with speaking roles in the film to be eliminated. Other scenes that were eliminated included one in which Madeline talks to her agent (Jonathan Silverman) and one in which Ernest removes a frozen Madeline from the kitchen freezer he has stored her in. None of the scenes have been released publicly, but sequences can still be viewed in the original theatrical trailer.

Music.

The score was composed by American film composer Alan Silvestri, who also composed scores of other films directed by Zemeckis.

Release and reception.

The film opened at number one at the box office with $12,110,355 on the same weekend as and ahead of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Bebe's Kids". It went on to earn over $58.4 million domestically and $90.6 million internationally.  The film's release on DVD was called "appallingly bad", "horrible" and "sloppy" due to the quality of its transfer, which has been said to suffer from excessive grain, blur, and muted colors. Many online DVD forum users speculated that the DVD transfer was taken from the Laserdisc edition of the film and called for a restorative release. The film was initially distributed in an open-matte, edition with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in the United States before a widescreen version with its intended ratio (1.85:1) was released and subsequently distributed worldwide. The latter version has also been mistakenly labelled anamorphic. It was later released in North America on Blu-ray from Shout Factory on April 26, 2016.

Critical response.

The film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 52% based on reviews from 48 critics with the consensus: "Hawn and Streep are as fabulous as "Death Becomes Her"s innovative special effects; Zemeckis' satire, on the other hand, is as hollow as the world it mocks." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.  Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film had great special effects, it lacked any real substance or character depth.

Legacy.

"Death Becomes Her" has acquired a significant cult following, especially in the LGBT community. An article in "Vanity Fair" titled "The Gloriously Queer Afterlife of 'Death Becomes Her'" called the film a "gay cult classic" and "a touchstone of the queer community". The movie is screened in bars during Pride Month, while the characters of Madeline and Helen are favorites of drag performers. In this vein, the movie inspired a "Death Becomes Her"-themed runway show on season 7 of "RuPaul's Drag Race". The winner of season 5, Jinkx Monsoon, has cited the movie as an inspiration to become a drag queen. They have participated in "Death Becomes Her"-themed photoshoots, and in 2018 they played Madeline in a drag stage show parody called "Drag Becomes Her".  Tom Campbell, an executive producer of "RuPaul's Drag Race", reflected on the appeal of the movie to gay audiences:  In December 2017, Kristin Chenoweth was announced to be starring in a Broadway musical adaptation of "Death Becomes Her".

Death Becomes Her is a 1992 American black comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by David Koepp and Martin Donovan, and starring Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, and Goldie Hawn. The film focuses on a pair of rivals (Streep and Hawn), who drink a magic potion that promises eternal youth, but experience unpleasant side effects when they physically die, becoming walking, talking corpses in the process.

La mort vous va si bien ("") est une comédie fantastique américaine réalisée par Robert Zemeckis et sortie en 1992.


History.

"On April 14, 1942, William Donovan, as Coordinator of Information (which evolved into the Office of Strategic Services that June), activated Detachment 101 for action behind enemy lines in Burma. The first unit of its kind, the Detachment was charged with gathering intelligence, harassing the Japanese through guerrilla actions, identifying targets for the Army Air Force to bomb, and rescuing downed Allied airmen. Because Detachment 101 was never larger than a few hundred Americans, it relied on support from various tribal groups in Burma. In particular, the vigorously anti-Japanese Kachin people were vital to the unit's success. By the time of its deactivation on July 12, 1945, Detachment 101 had scored impressive results. According to official statistics, with a loss of some 22 Americans, Detachment 101 killed 5,428 Japanese and rescued 574 Allied personnel." 101's efforts opened the way for Stilwell's Chinese forces, Wingate's Raiders, Merrill's Marauders, and the great counter-attack against the Japanese Imperial life-line."  During most of the unit's existence, it funded and coordinated various resistance groups made up of the Kachin people of northern Burma. The best known resistance force was known as the Kachin Rangers and was under the command of Carl F. Eifler, though often the term Kachin Rangers has been used to describe all Kachin Forces raised during the war by the Americans in Northern Burma.  In July 1942, twenty OSS men moved in and set up headquarters at Nazira in the northeastern Indian province of Assam. No operations of any significance occurred until the end of 1942. Starting in 1943, small groups or individuals were parachuted behind Japanese lines to remote Kachin villages, followed by a parachute supply drop. The Americans then began to create independent guerrilla groups of the Kachin people, calling in weapons and equipment drops. In December 1943 Stilwell issued a directive that Detachment 101 increase its strength to 3,000 guerillas. They were recruited from within Burma, many of them "fierce Kachins".  Once established, the groups undertook a variety of unconventional missions. They ambushed Japanese patrols, rescued downed American pilots, and cleared small landing strips in the jungle. They also screened the advances of larger Allied forces, including Merrill's Marauders.  Eifler held the rank of Colonel when he was relieved because of serious head injuries, Lt. Col. William R. Peers taking over command. At the end of the war, each Kachin Ranger received the CMA (Citation for Military Assistance) Award. Actually, the medal was the result of a mistake. An OSS officer, reading a radio message that advised him how to reward heroic Kachin action, misinterpreted the abbreviation for "comma" ("CMA") as signifying some sort of a medal. Reluctant to leave the Kachins empty handed, the OSS quickly created the medal and presented it to them.

Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Services (formed under the Office of the Coordinator of Information just weeks before it evolved into the OSS) operated in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. On 17 January 1946, it was awarded a Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation by Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote: "The courage and fighting spirit displayed by its officers and men in offensive action against overwhelming enemy strength reflect the highest tradition of the armed forces of the United States."

Le Détachement armé 101 était une unité de l’Office of Strategic Services (OSS) des États-Unis déployée en Birmanie et en Chine pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.


Franchise history.

The WHA years (1972–1979).

The NHL had recently expanded to 16 teams, adding franchises in many hockey-hungry cities (only one in Canada), but also in Atlanta, Oakland and Los Angeles. The WHA brought major professional hockey to Ottawa, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and later Calgary. On December 27, 1971, Winnipeg was granted one of the founding franchises in the WHA. The original owner was Ben Hatskin, a local figure who made his wealth in cardboard shipping containers. The team took their name from the Winnipeg Jets of the Western Canada Hockey League.  The Jets' first signing was Norm Beaudin, ("the Original Jet") while the first major signing was Bobby Hull. Hull's acquisition, partially financed by the rest of the WHA's teams, gave the league instant credibility and paved the way for other NHL stars to bolt to the upstart league.  The Jets were further noteworthy in hockey history for being the first North American club seriously to explore Europe as a source of hockey talent. Winnipeg's fortunes were bolstered by acquisitions such as Swedish forwards Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, who starred with Hull on the WHA's most famous and successful forward line (nicknamed "the Hot Line"), and defenceman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, who would serve as the team's captain and win accolades as the WHA's best defenceman. Behind these players and other European stars such as Willy Lindstrom, Kent Nilsson, Veli-Pekka Ketola, leavened by players such as Peter Sullivan, Norm Beaudin and goaltender Joe Daley, the Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA. The team won the Avco World Trophy three times, including in the league's final season against Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. The Jets made the finals in five of the WHA's seven seasons, winning three of them.  Another notable accomplishment was the Jets' 5–3 victory over the Soviet National team on January 5, 1978.  In the WHA's last season, Kent Nilsson had 107 points, while Morris Lukowich had 65 goals, and Peter Sullivan had 46 goals and 86 points. The Jets made it to the Avco Cup and Gary Smith gave up the last goal in WHA history to Dave Semenko in a 7–3 Jets win.

Career leaders (WHA).

The 1976, 1978 and 1979 Avco Cup winning Winnipeg Jets were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in the team category.

The NHL years (1979–1996).

By 1979, the vast majority of the WHA's teams had folded, but the Jets were still going strong. After the season, the Jets were absorbed into the NHL along with the Nordiques, Oilers and Hartford Whalers. Pre-merger inter-league exhibitions had shown that the 1978-79 WHA Jets were the competitive equal of most NHL teams, with the possible exceptions of the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens and the rising New York Islanders.  However, the Jets had to pay a very high price for a berth in the more established league. They had to give up three of their top six scorers – the core of the last WHA champion – in a reclamation draft. They were also forced to draft 18th out of 21 teams. In the draft, they opted to protect defenceman Scott Campbell, who had shown a good deal of promise in the last WHA season. However, Campbell suffered from chronic asthma that was only exacerbated by Winnipeg's frigid weather. The asthma drove him out of the league entirely by 1982.  Upon entering the NHL, the Jets were based in the Smythe Division of the Campbell Conference. However, with a decimated roster, the Jets finished dead last in the league for their first two seasons in the NHL, including a horrendous nine-win season in 1980–81 that still ranks as the worst in Jets/Coyotes history. This stands in marked contrast to the other 1979 Avco Cup finalist, the Oilers, who went on to dominate the league during the second half of the 1980s.  The Jets' first two wretched NHL seasons did net them high draft picks; in the 1980 draft they picked Dave Babych second overall and in 1981 they drafted future Hall of Fame member Dale Hawerchuk first overall. The team developed a solid core of players by the mid-1980s, with Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Paul MacLean, Randy Carlyle, Laurie Boschman, Doug Smail, and David Ellett providing a strong nucleus. Also in 1981, a league-wide realignment placed the Jets with the league's other Central Time Zone teams in the Norris Division, which over the course of the decade would become the weakest division in the league.  Led by Hawerchuk, Steen, Babych and Carlyle, the Jets returned to respectability fairly quickly, and made the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 years. However, regular-season success did not transfer over into the playoffs. This was because after just one season in the Norris, the relocation of the Colorado Rockies to New Jersey compelled Winnipeg to return to the more competitive Smythe Division along with the Oilers and Calgary Flames – by some accounts, the two best teams in the league during the second half of the 1980s. Due to the way the playoffs were structured at the time, whenever the Jets made the playoffs, they faced the near-certainty of having to beat either the Oilers or the Flames (or both) to get to the Campbell Conference Finals. At the time, the top four teams in each division made the playoffs, with the regular-season division winner playing against the fourth-place team and the regular-season runner-up playing the third-place team in the division semifinals. The division semifinal winners advanced to the division finals, and the two division final winners would meet in the conference finals.  For example, in 1984–85, they finished with the fourth-best record in the entire league (behind only Philadelphia, Edmonton and Washington). They also notched 96 points, which would remain the franchise's best as an NHL team until the 2009–10 Coyotes racked up the franchise's second 100-point season (and first as an NHL team). However, they finished second in the Smythe behind the Oilers. While they managed to dispatch the Flames (with the league's fifth-best record) in four games in the best-of-five division semifinal, they were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Oilers in the division final. In fact, Winnipeg and Edmonton played each other in the playoffs six times between 1983 and 1990. The Oilers not only won every series, but held the Jets to only four total victories. Five of those times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990), the Oilers went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Jets would win only one other playoff series, in 1987 (defeating Calgary in the division semifinal before losing to Edmonton in the division final). It was not until the 1993-94 season that further expansion and re-alignment permitted the original Jets to return to the re-branded Central Division (the former Norris Division) of the Western Conference. By this time however, the Central was at least the competitive equal of the re-named Pacific Division and the strict division-based playoff bracket had been abandoned (it would return in a more limited form in 2013 alongside the re-alignment that returned Winnipeg to the Central after its sixteen-year absence from the NHL).

Demise and relocation.

As the NHL expanded in the United States and free agency rules were liberalized, operating costs and salaries grew rapidly. This development hit the league's Canadian teams particularly hard. Moreover, the revised free agency rules gave players the leverage to demand being paid their salaries in U.S. dollars league-wide. Until about the early 1990s, Canadian teams were able to pay most of their players in Canadian dollars, with the only exceptions being contracts acquired in trades from U.S. teams. However, since the Canadian teams still collected most of their revenue in Canadian dollars (and still do today), having to pay players in U.S. dollars proved to be a serious drain on finances given the declining value of the Canadian dollar. By 1996, the exchange rate was $1.40 Canadian for each American dollar. Winnipeg felt the pinch especially hard, as it had always been one of the smallest markets in the league. For most of their NHL tenure, Winnipeg was the league's second-smallest market, and became the smallest market after the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver as the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. Despite a loyal fan following, serious doubts were raised about whether Winnipeg could support an NHL team in this new environment. Additionally, their home arena, Winnipeg Arena, was over 40 years old, had no luxury suites, and numerous obstructed-view seats.  Attempts to find a local buyer were unsuccessful, with league commissioner Gary Bettman saying, "there doesn't seem to be anybody, in a serious fashion, who wants to own the franchise." After an 11th-hour effort by a team of local businessmen, dubbed the Spirit of Manitoba, fell through, team owner Barry Shenkarow sold the team to American businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke. Burke and Gluckstern originally planned to move the team to Minnesota (which had lost the North Stars to Dallas in 1993), but when negotiations for a lease agreement with the landlords of the Target Center fell through, the new owners eventually reached an agreement with Phoenix businessman Jerry Colangelo that saw the team move to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes. The Winnipeg Jets played their last-ever game on April 28, 1996, a home playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 4–1. Norm Maciver scored the last goal in Jets history.  Winnipeg was not without hockey for long, however; the International Hockey League's Minnesota Moose moved to Winnipeg as the Manitoba Moose a few months after it was announced that the Jets were leaving town. The team later joined the American Hockey League as the affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks when the IHL collapsed.  During their history, the Jets retired two numbers: Bobby Hull's #9 and Thomas Steen's #25. Both numbers hang in the Coyotes' current home, Gila River Arena, in the Jets' old blue-red-white colour scheme. Dale Hawerchuk's No. 10 was added in 2006, in the Coyotes' current sand-red-black scheme. Hull's No. 9 jersey was temporarily unretired with the acquisition of his son Brett by the Coyotes. Brett wore his father's famous jersey until his own retirement on October 15, 2005, subsequent to which the number was re-retired. Another tradition that was retained when the franchise moved to Phoenix was the "whiteout", in which fans wore all white to home playoff games. The franchise finally won a playoff series in 2012, their first in 25 years, en route to reaching the Conference Finals for the first time where they were defeated by the eventual champions Los Angeles Kings.  In their new market, the Coyotes have continued to struggle both on and off the ice, culminating in a bankruptcy in 2009. The NHL took over the franchise late in the 2008–09 season. In the midst of the league's search for a new Coyotes owner, True North Sports and Entertainment made two bids with the intent of returning the franchise to Winnipeg. True North also considered buying the Nashville Predators, likely to move it to Winnipeg. These bids were turned down only after the league reached an agreement with the municipal government, which agreed to subsidize the Coyotes' losses in order to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix, so True North turned its attention to the financially struggling Atlanta Thrashers, moving it to Winnipeg to become the second incarnation of the Jets (see below).  The Jets/Coyotes franchise finally broke its playoff series drought in 2011–12, a season in which they won their first division title as an NHL team (in Winnipeg or Phoenix) and advanced all the way to the Western Conference Final. The Coyotes have not qualified for the playoffs since then.  Former Coyotes' team captain Shane Doan, who was drafted seventh overall by the Jets in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft prior to their last season in Winnipeg, and played his rookie season in Winnipeg, played his entire career for the Jets/Coyotes franchise. Doan was the last player from the original Jets to still be active in the NHL until his retirement in 2017. The only other former original Jets' player that was active in professional ice hockey was Deron Quint, who last played in the German DEL in Germany until 2017.  The current Winnipeg Jets have acknowledged the original Jets' history on a number of occasions, despite the lack of historical connection between the two incarnations. The original franchise's division and Avco Cup championships currently hang atop the rafters of Bell MTS Place, as are the honoured numbers of the original Jets who were inducted into the current Jets' Hall of Fame. They have also worn throwback uniforms of the original Jets on a few occasions, and even brought back the Whiteout tradition in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  In 2021, the new Seattle NHL team is scheduled to begin play in the Pacific Division. As a result, the Arizona Coyotes will move to the Central to balance the divisions, thus placing them in the same division as the new Winnipeg Jets.

Uniforms.

The Jets debuted in the WHA wearing blue and white uniforms with red trim. White uniforms featured a blue shoulder yoke, blue numbers and blue-white-red-white-blue waist, sock and sleeve stripes. The blue uniforms were the inverse of their white counterparts minus the contrasting yoke and used red numbers. In the franchise's first season, the uniforms featured the futuristic "Jets" wordmark in front along with red or white player nameplates. Starting in 1974, the Jets donned their "classic" look, ditching the contrast-colour nameplates and unveiling their famous roundel logo. In 1977 the Jets added a white shoulder yoke on the blue uniform, and the following season, switched from red to blue pants.  Upon moving to the NHL in 1979, the Jets unveiled new uniforms. Then-general manager John Ferguson Sr. had been derided for changing the classic New York Rangers uniforms during the late 1970s, so he brought most elements of that design to the Jets. Both uniforms featured a thick shoulder stripe that extended through the sleeves, along with another thick stripe on the waist. In addition, the blue uniforms now featured white numbers with red trim and a white inverse of the team's logo in front. In 1987, the Jets added a "Goals for Kids" patch which remained a prominent figure on the uniforms until the relocation.  In 1990, the Jets unveiled their final uniform design, featuring the updated crest in front and contrasting sleeve and waist stripes. They also switched back to red pants.  The current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets employs a different uniform design and logo, although they occasionally use the "old" Jets uniform as an alternate jersey.

Winnipeg Whiteout.

The Winnipeg Whiteout is a hockey tradition that dates back to 1987 when fans were asked to wear white clothing to home playoff games, creating a very intimidating effect and atmosphere. It was created as a response to the "C of Red" created by fans of the Calgary Flames, whom the home-town Jets were facing in the first round of the 1987 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Jets eliminated the Flames in six games, and fans wore white for every home playoff game thereafter. Fans dubbed it the "White Out" which is a prairie term for a winter snow storm. Marketing for the team during the playoff referred to the "charge of the white brigade." In later years, marketing referred to the Whiteout as "White Noise."  Fans of the AHL franchise Manitoba Moose also continued this tradition when the team briefly relocated to St. John's, Newfoundland, as the St. John's IceCaps, as did fans of the "IceCap's White Out" and "Coyotes White Out," respectively. When the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg as the second incarnation of the Jets, they brought back the White Out tradition for the 2015 and 2018 playoffs.

Season-by-season record.

"Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties minutes"

NHL era.

Notes:

Notable players.

Team captains.

"Note: This list includes Jets captains from both the NHL and WHA."

First round draft picks.

"Note: This list includes draft picks from both the NHL and WHA."

Retired numbers.

The Winnipeg Jets retired two numbers in their history. When the Jets relocated to Arizona, the banners of these players also made the move, and these numbers originally remain retired with the Arizona Coyotes, in Jets' colors. Beginning with the 2014–15 season, those numbers were unretired and brought back to circulation; they were still inducted as part of the Arizona Coyotes Ring of Honor. After the move to Arizona, number 10 was inducted in honor of Dale Hawerchuk, number 7 was inducted for Keith Tkachuk, and number 27 was inducted for Teppo Numminen. Shane Doan's number 19 was the only number officially retired by the Coyotes.  The current Winnipeg Jets (formerly Atlanta Thrashers) also honoured both numbers in the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame.  Notes:

Franchise scoring leaders.

These are the top-ten-point-scorers in Winnipeg Jets history, combining NHL and WHA totals. "Legend: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game

The Winnipeg Jets were a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They began play in the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. The club joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1979 after the NHL merged with the WHA. Due to mounting financial troubles, in 1996 the franchise moved to Phoenix, Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes (now the Arizona Coyotes). In 2011, The struggling Atlanta Thrashers franchise relocated to Winnipeg and restored the Jets name, although the prior Jets club history is retained by the Arizona club. (The new Jets do occasionally acknowledge the original Jets franchise on various alternate jerseys).

Les <dfn>Jets de Winnipeg</dfn> sont une ancienne franchise de hockey sur glace qui jouait à Winnipeg au Manitoba au Canada. L'équipe a accompagné l'Association mondiale de hockey tout au long de son existence puisqu'elle est une des équipes fondatrices de l'AMH 1972 et remporte à trois reprises le trophée ultime de la ligue : le Trophée mondial Avco, dont lors de la dernière saison. À la suite de l'arrêt de l'AMH, les Jets rejoignent la Ligue nationale de hockey en compagnie de trois autres équipes. Petit à petit, les finances de l'équipe baissent et les Jets sont finalement relocalisés en 1996 à Phoenix en Arizona aux États-Unis pour prendre le nom de Coyotes de Phoenix.


History.

Early boots consisted of separate leggings, soles, and uppers worn together to provide greater ankle protection than shoes or sandals. Around 1000 BC, these components were more permanently joined to form a single unit that covered the feet and lower leg, often up to the knee. A type of soft leather ankle boots were worn by nomads in eastern Asia and carried to China to India and Russia around AD 1200 to 1500 by Mongol invaders. The Inuit and Aleut natives of Alaska developed traditional winter boots of caribou skin or sealskin featuring decorative touches of seal intestine, dog hair and suchlike. 17th century European boots were influenced by military styles, featuring thick soles and turnover tops that were originally designed to protect horse mounted soldiers. In the 1700s, distinctive, thigh-high boots worn by Hessian soldiers fighting in the American Revolutionary War influenced the development of the iconic heeled cowboy boots worn by cattlemen in the American west.

Types and uses.

Practical uses.

Boots which are designed for walking through snow, shallow water and mud may be made of a single closely stitched design (using leather, rubber, canvas, or similar material) to prevent the entry of water, snow, mud or dirt through gaps between the laces and tongue found in other types of shoes. Waterproof gumboots are made in different lengths of uppers. In extreme cases, thigh-boots called waders, worn by anglers, extend to the hip. Such boots may also be insulated for warmth. With the exception of gum boots, boots sold in general retail stores may be considered "water resistant," as they are not usually fully waterproof, compared to high-end boots for fishers or hikers. Speciality boots have been made to protect steelworkers' feet and calves if they accidentally step in puddles of molten metal, to protect workers from a variety of chemical exposure, to protect workers from construction site hazards and to protect feet from extreme cold (e.g., with insulated or inflatable boots for use in Antarctica). Most work boots are "laceups" made from leather. Formerly they were usually shod with hobnails and heel- and toe-plates, but now can usually be seen with a thick rubber sole, and often with steel toecaps.  Boots are normally worn with socks to prevent chafes and blisters, to absorb sweat, to improve the foot's grip inside the boot, or to insulate the foot from the cold. Before socks became widely available, footwraps were worn instead.  Specialty boots have been designed for many different types of sports, particularly riding, skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, and sporting in wet/damp conditions.

Fashion and fetish use.

Bovver boots, Doc Martens boots and army boots were adopted by skinheads and punks as part of their typical dress and have migrated to more mainstream fashion, including women's wear. As a more rugged alternative to dress shoes, dress boots may be worn (though these can be more formal than shoes). Fashionable boots for women may exhibit all the variations seen in other fashion footwear: tapered or spike heels, platform soles, pointed toes, zipper closures and the like. The popularity of boots as fashion footwear ebbs and flows. Singer Nancy Sinatra popularized the fad of women wearing boots in the late 1960s with her song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". They were popular in the 1960s and 1970s (particularly knee-high boots), but diminished in popularity towards the end of the 20th century. In the 2010s, they are experiencing a resurgence in popularity, especially designs with a long bootleg. Boot bolos, boot bracelets, boot straps, boot chains, and boot harnesses are used to decorate boots. Sandal boots also exist.  Boots have become the object of sexual attraction for some people and they have become a standard accessory in the BDSM scene (where leather, latex and PVC boots are favoured) and a fashion accessory in music videos. Knee- or thigh-high leather boots are worn by some strippers and pornography models and actresses. Boots have even become a sexual fetish for devotees known as boot fetishists and foot fetishists.

As symbols.

In heraldry.

As boots have been used by riders for millennia, they were used by knights. As a consequence, albeit not common, boots came to be used as charges in heraldry.  Because of the origin of heraldry as insignia used by mounted warriors like the medieval knights, when boots are used in heraldry, they are often displayed as riding boots, even if the blazon might not specify it as such. They are sometimes adorned with spurs, which may or may not have another tincture (colour) than the boot and the background field.  Boots were also used in coats of arms of shoemakers' guilds and in shop signs outside their shops.

A boot, plural boots, is a type of specific footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece. Traditionally made of leather or rubber, modern boots are made from a variety of materials. Boots are worn both for their functionality – protecting the foot and leg from water, extreme cold, mud or hazards (e.g., work boots may protect wearers from chemicals or use a steel toe) or providing additional ankle support for strenuous activities with added traction requirements (e.g., hiking), or may have hobnails on their undersides to protect against wear and to get better grip; and for reasons of style and fashion.

La botte est une chaussure unisexe, dont la tige enferme la jambe et le pied jusqu'à une hauteur qui dépend de l'usage auquel elle est destinée : cuisse, genou ou mollet.


Early life.

Barrow was born the only child of Roger Barrow, a tanner in the village of Dragley Beck, in the parish of Ulverston, Lancashire. He was schooled at Town Bank grammar school, Ulverston, but left at age 13 to found a Sunday school for the poor.  Barrow was employed as superintending clerk of an iron foundry at Liverpool. At only 16, he went on a whaling expedition to Greenland. By his twenties, he was teaching mathematics, in which he had always excelled, at a private school in Greenwich.

China.

Barrow taught mathematics to the son of Sir George Leonard Staunton; through Staunton's interest, he was attached on the first British embassy to China from 1792 to 1794 as comptroller of the household to Lord Macartney. He soon acquired a good knowledge of the Chinese language, on which he subsequently contributed articles to the "Quarterly Review"; and the account of the embassy published by Sir George Staunton records many of Barrow's valuable contributions to literature and science connected with China.  Barrow ceased to be officially connected with Chinese affairs after the return of the embassy in 1794, but he always took much interest in them, and on critical occasions was frequently consulted by the British government.  Some historians attribute the'stagnation thesis' to Barrow; that China was an extremely civilized nation that was in a process of decay by the time of European contact.

South Africa.

In 1797, Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney as private secretary in his important and delicate mission to settle the government of the newly acquired colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Barrow was entrusted with the task of reconciling the Boer settlers and the native Black population and of reporting on the country in the interior. In the course of the trip, he visited all parts of the colony; when he returned, he was appointed auditor-general of public accounts. He then decided to settle in South Africa, married, and bought a house in 1800 in Cape Town. However, the surrender of the colony at the peace of Amiens (1802) upset this plan.  During his travels through South Africa, Barrow compiled copious notes and sketches of the countryside that he was traversing. The outcome of his journeys was a map which, despite its numerous errors, was the first published modern map of the southern parts of the Cape Colony. Barrow's descriptions of South Africa greatly influenced Europeans' understanding of South Africa and its peoples. William John Burchell (1781–1863) was particularly scathing: ""As to the miserable thing called a map, which has been prefixed to Mr. Barrow’s quarto, I perfectly agree with Professor Lichtenstein, that it is so defective that it can seldom be found of any use.""

Career in the Admiralty.

Barrow returned to Britain in 1804 and was appointed Second Secretary to the Admiralty by Viscount Melville, a post which he held for forty years – apart from a short period in 1806–1807 when there was a Whig government in power. Lord Grey took office as Prime Minister in 1830, and Barrow was especially requested to remain in his post, starting the principle that senior civil servants stay in office on change of government and serve in a non-partisan manner. Indeed, it was during his occupancy of the post that it was renamed Permanent Secretary. Barrow enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all the eleven chief lords who successively presided at the Admiralty board during that period, and more especially of King William IV while lord high admiral, who honoured him with tokens of his personal regard.  In his position at the Admiralty, Barrow was a great promoter of Arctic voyages of discovery, including those of John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross and John Franklin. The Barrow Strait in the Canadian Arctic as well as Point Barrow and the city of Barrow in Alaska are named after him. He is reputed to have been the initial proposer of Saint Helena as the new place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Barrow was a fellow of the Royal Society and received the degree of LL.D from the University of Edinburgh in 1821. A baronetcy was conferred on him by Sir Robert Peel in 1835. He was also a member of the Raleigh Club, a forerunner of the Royal Geographical Society.

Retirement and legacy.

Barrow retired from public life in 1845 and devoted himself to writing a history of the modern Arctic voyages of discovery (1846), as well as his autobiography, published in 1847. He died suddenly on 23 November 1848. The Sir John Barrow monument was built in his honour on Hoad Hill overlooking his home town of Ulverston in 1850, though locally it is more commonly called Hoad Monument. Mount Barrow and Barrow Island in Australia are believed to have been named after him.  Barrow's legacy has been met with a mixed analysis. Some historians regard Barrow as an instrument of imperialism who portrayed Africa as a resource rich land devoid of any human or civilized elements. Other historians consider Barrow to have promoted humanitarianism and rights for South Africans.

Private life.

Barrow married Anna Maria Truter (1777–1857), a botanical artist from the Cape, in South Africa on 26 August 1799. The couple had four sons and two daughters, one of whom, Johanna, married the artist Robert Batty. His son George succeeded to his title.

Bibliography.

Besides 95 articles in the "Quarterly Review", Barrow published among other works: He was also the author of several valuable contributions to the seventh edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica".

Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1764 – 23 November 1848) was an English civil servant, geographer, linguist and writer.

Sir John Barrow, né le dans le hameau de Dragley Beck, dans la paroisse d’Ulverston dans le Lancashire et mort le, est un explorateur et administrateur britannique.


Biography.

Taddeo di Bartolo was born in Siena. The exact year of Taddeo di Bartolo's birth is unknown, but it’s been suspected to be between 1363-65. Around 1389 he entered the Sienese Guild of artists, where he mastered the art of painting among his Sienese colleagues. In 1389 Taddeo traveled to Collegarli, the San Miniato al Tedesco hills, and Pisa. The painting of "The Virgin and Child Enthroned", signed and dated in 1390 and created the church of San Paolo in Pisa, is one of Taddeo’s first documented works. In 1393, Taddeo traveled to San Gimignano, where he executed the altarpiece of the "Virgin and Child and Saints" (1395) for the Sardi and Campigli Chapel in San Francesco. The "Virgin and Child With Saints" showcases Taddeo’s earlier style. The thin, elegant figures, and flowing lines of the drapery patterns reflect influence from his Sienese predecessors, such as Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.  From 1400-01, Taddeo worked at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena where he created twelve small panels, of which only nine exist today, displayed at the Opera of the Duomo in Siena. These panels give reverence to Taddeo’s craftsmanship in smaller scale work, like many of his contemporaries in the trecento. Around 1401, Taddeo painted the celebrated altarpiece, "Assumption of the Virgin" and scenes from the "Passion", in Montepulciano. The intention of this piece was for religious and devotional functions. Taddeo worked to accommodate the established conventions of altarpiece painting, while simultaneously stylizing the pieces to fit their respective site. In 1403, Taddeo was working in Perugia producing two works, now on display in their public gallery. The "Virgin and Child with two Angels and St Bernard" and "Descent of the Holy Ghost". These two works showcase Taddeo’s superior talents, exhibiting delicate coloring and vast human expression; though, they have been painted over throughout the years.  In 1406, Taddeo was commissioned to destroy all the paintings in the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, and repaint the inside. Many of these paintings represent the Life of the Madonna, including the "Death of the Virgin" in which Jesus descends, takes her hand, and receives her in the form of an infant. In 1422 Taddeo di Bartolo died in Siena.

Works.

Much of his early work was in Pisa, where he was responsible for the frescoes of "Paradise" and "Hell" in the Cathedral, and for paintings in the Palazzo Pubblico and the church of San Francesco.  At the Collegiata di San Gimignano, Taddeo painted a fresco depicting "The Last Judgment". The Museo Civico of San Gimignano, displays a painting by Taddeo depicting "" holding the town in his lap (c. 1391).  A triptych of the "", painted around 1395, is on display at the Szépművészeti Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. A massive triptych, "Assumption of the Virgin", painted in 1401, is displayed in the 16th-century Duomo of Santa Maria dell'Assunta at Montepulciano.  Taddeo's "Madonna with Child, Four Angels and Saint John the Baptist and Saint Andrew" may be seen in the Oratory of the Company of Saint Catherine of the Night at Santa Maria della Scala, Siena. He also painted allegories and figures from Roman history (1413–14), and the "" (1409) at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. His "St Elizabeth of Hungary" is on display in the Perkins Collection of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.  A "Madonna and Child" (c. 1400), painted with tempera and oil on a panel, is located in the Wadsworth Atheneum. Two more "Madonna and Child" paintings are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California, and the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon, France. Another "Madonna and Child" is displayed at Ball State University's Museum of Art in Muncie, Indiana. Taddeo painted a "Saint Germinianus" displayed at the Snite Museum of Art in Notre Dame, Indiana. He painted an "Annunciation" now displayed at the Bergen Art Museum in Bergen, Norway. The Australian Catholic University has an "Annunciation" (1401) in its Melbourne campus chapel Taddeo painted a "Christ Meeting Mother on Way to Calvary" on display in the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Taddeo painted a "Madonna and Child With Angels" on display in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Taddeo painted a "Madonna and Child and Sanits" was on display in Palazzo Blu, Pisa.There is also a painting by Taddeo di Bartolo in the Chicago Art Institute,"The Crucifixion".  Taddeo died at Siena at about age 60.

Taddeo di Bartolo (c. 1363 – 26 August 1422), also known as Taddeo Bartoli, was an Italian painter of the Sienese School during the early Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasari's biographies of artists or "Vite". Vasari claims he is the uncle of Domenico di Bartolo.

Taddeo di Bartolo, ou encore Taddeo Bartolo ou Taddeo Barto (Asciano 1363 - Sienne, 1422), est un peintre italien de la fin du Moyen Âge, se rattachant à l'école siennoise.


Geography.

The Siwa oasis is in a deep depression that reaches below sea level, to about. To the west the Jaghbub oasis lies in a similar depression and to the east the large Qattara Depression also lies below sea level.

Name.

The Ancient Egyptian name of the oasis was "Sekht-am", which meant "palm land". Early Muslim geographers termed it "Santariyyah".  The etymology of the word is unclear. Champollion derives it from ⲥⲟⲟⲩϩ – a corruption of Egyptian word for "oasis", ⲟⲩⲁϩ. The additional evidence of the Egyptian source of Siwa's name is another place name in Kharga Oasis that may share the same etymology – S.t-wȝḥ, modern Deir el-Hagar). Basset links it to a Berber tribal name "swh" attested further west in the early Islamic period, while Ilahiane, following Chafik, links it to the Tašlḥiyt Berber word "asiwan", a type of bird of prey, and hence to Amun-Ra, one of whose symbols was the falcon.

History.

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BCE, the earliest evidence of any connection with Ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. Ancient Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BCE), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek: "Zeus Ammon"), who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" that ran coldest in the noontime heat. During his campaign to conquer the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle, Alexander's court historians alleged, confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt, though Alexander's motives in making the excursion, following his founding of Alexandria, remain to some extent inscrutable and contested. During the Ptolemaic Kingdom, its Ancient Egyptian name was "sḫ.t-ỉm3w", meaning "Field of Trees".  Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is uncertain, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century. A local manuscript mentions only seven families totaling 40 men living at the oasis in 1203.  In the 12th century, Al-Idrisi mentions it as being inhabited mainly by Berbers, with an Arab minority; a century before Al-Bakri stated that only Berbers lived there. The Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi traveled to Siwa in the 15th century and described how the language spoken there 'is similar to the language of the Zenata'.  The first European to visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the Oracle of Amun. Bompiani, in her description of the 19th-century explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, called this site the "Oasis of Jupiter Ammon".  Egyptian sovereignty was confirmed on Siwa by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1819. In the Spring of 1893, German explorer and photographer, Hermann Burchardt, took photographs of the architecture of the town of Siwa, now stored at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.  The Siwans are a Berber people, so demographically and culturally they were more closely related to nearby Libya, which has a large Berber population, than to Egypt, which has a negligible Berber population. Consequently, Arab rule from distant Cairo was at first tenuous and marked by several revolts. Egypt began to assert firmer control after a 1928 visit to the Oasis by King Fuad I, who berated the locals for "a certain vice" and specified punishments to bring Siwan behaviour in line with Egyptian morals (see next section).  Siwa was also the site of some fighting during World War I and World War II. The British Army's Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was based here, but Rommel's Afrika Korps also took possession three times. German soldiers went skinny dipping in the lake of the oracle, contrary to local customs which prohibit public nudity. In 1942 while the Italian 136th Infantry Division Giovani Fascisti occupied the oasis, a tiny Egyptian puppet government-in-exile was set up at Siwa. The oasis makes a brief appearance as a base of the LRDG in the 1958 war film "Ice Cold in Alex".  The ancient fortress of Siwa, known as the Shali Ghadi ("Shali" being the name of the town, and "Ghadi" meaning remote), was built on natural rock (an inselberg) and made of kershif (salt and mud-brick) and palm logs. After it was damaged by three days of heavy rains in 1926 it was abandoned for similar unreinforced construction housing on the plain surrounding it, and in some cases those, in turn, have been replaced by more modern cinder block and sheet metal roof buildings. Only one building in the Shali complex has been repaired and is in use, a mosque. Gradually eroded by infrequent rains and slowly collapsing, the Shali remains a prominent feature, towering five stories above the modern town and lit at night by floodlights. It is most easily approached from its southwest side, south of the end of the paved road which curves around from the north side of the Shali. Several uneven pedestrian streets lead from the southwest end of the Shali into it, the ground rent in places by deep cracks. Many of the unreinforced kershif buildings bordering the streets of the Shali are also split by large cracks, or they are partially collapsed.  Other local historic sites of interest include the remains of the oracle temple; the Gebel al Mawta (the Mountain of the Dead), a Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs; and "Cleopatra's Bath", an antique natural spring. The fragmentary remains of the oracle temple, with some inscriptions dating from the 4th century BCE, lie within the ruins of Aghurmi. The revelations of the oracle fell into disrepute under the Roman occupation of Egypt.

Climate.

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh), as the rest of Egypt.

Culture.

The traditional culture of Siwa shows many features unusual in Egypt, some reflecting its longstanding links with the Maghreb and the fact that the inhabitants are of Berber origin. Until a tarmac road was built to the Mediterranean coast in the 1980s Siwa's only links with the outside world were by arduous camel tracks through the desert. These were used to export dates and olives, bring trade goods, or carry pilgrims on the route which linked the Maghreb to Cairo and hence to Mecca.  As a result of this isolation, the Berber inhabitants of the Oasis developed a unique culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, silverwork and embroidery and in its style of dress. The most visible and celebrated examples of this were the bridal silver and the ensemble of silver ornaments and beads that women wore in abundance to weddings and other ceremonies. These pieces were decorated with symbols which related to Siwa's history and beliefs and attitudes.  The best known of these pieces are a huge silver disc called 'adrim' and a torc, called 'aghraw' from which it hung over the breast. A girl would give up the disc at a special ceremony at the Spring the day she was married. The jewellery, which was made by local silversmiths, comprised silver necklaces, earrings, bangles, hair ornaments, pendants and many rings. For a wealthy woman, the full ensemble could weigh as much as five or six kilos. These pieces are decorated with symbols common to Berber people across North Africa designed to promote good health, fertility and to protect the wearer from misfortune. Some of the same signs and patterns are found on the embroidery which embellishes women's dresses, trousers and shawls.

Art and local customs.

The arrival of the road and of television exposed the oasis to the styles and fashions of the outside world and the traditional silver ornaments were gradually replaced by gold. Evidence of the old styles and traditions are however still in evidence in the women's embroidery and costume.

Festivals.

Like other Muslim Egyptians, Siwis celebrate Eid al-Fitr ("lʕid ahakkik","the Little Eid") and Eid al-Adha ("lʕid azuwwar","the Big Eid"). Unlike other Egyptians, however, on Id al-Adha Siwis cook the skin of the sheep (along with its innards) as a festival delicacy, after removing the hair. They also eat heart of palm ("agroz").  The Siyaha Festival (Eid El Solh - Eid El Hasad), in honour of the town's traditional patron saint Sidi Sulayman, is unique to Siwa. (The name is often misunderstood as a reference to "tourism", but in fact predates tourism.), it is known that there was On this occasion Siwi men meet together on a mountain near the town, Gabal Al - Dakrour, to eat together, sing chants thanking God, and reconcile with one another; all Siwi houses co-operate in preparing and cooking food, in this day Siwian people eat Fattah (Rice, toasted bread and meat), after Dohr prayer (12:00 PM) all Siwian youth gather to set the banquet, nobody is allowed to eat before the caller announces to start eating so they can all eat together, the women stay behind in the village, and celebrate with dancing, singing, and drums. The food for the festival is bought collectively, with funds gathered by the oasis' mosques, celebrations last for 3 Qamari days, and in the early morning of the fourth day, siwian men form a big march, while holding flags and singing spiritual songs, march sarts from Gabal El - Dakrour and ends in Sidi Solayman square - in the center of Siwa - declaring ending of festivals, and beginning of a new year without hatred or grudge, and with love, respect and reconciliation.  Siwi children traditionally also celebrated Ashura by lighting torches, singing, and exchanging sweets. Adults' celebration was limited to the preparation of a large meal.

Relations with other ethnic groups.

Siwans are preferentially endogamous, only rarely marrying non-Siwans. Nonetheless, Bedouin brides command a higher brideprice in Siwa than Siwan ones.  According to older members of the Awlad Ali Bedouins, Arab Bedouin relations with Siwans were traditionally mediated through a system of "friendship", whereby a specific Siwan (and his descendants) would be the friend of a specific Bedouin (and his descendants). The Bedouin would stay at the Siwan's house when he came to Siwa, and would exchange his animal products and grain for the Siwan's dates and olive oil.  The material for the tarfutet, the distinctive all-enveloping shawl worn by Siwan women is still made in the town of Kirdasa near Cairo.  Siwa's Berbers are close to 30,000 in number.  The hot springs are an attraction to visitors.

Siwan homosexual tradition.

Siwa is of special interest to anthropologists and sociologists because of its historical acceptance of male homosexuality and even rituals celebrating same-sex marriage - traditions that the Egyptian authorities have sought to repress, with increasing success, since the early twentieth century. The practice probably arose because from ancient times unmarried men and adolescent boys were required to live and work together outside the town of Shali.  The German egyptologist Georg Steindorff explored the Oasis in 1900 and reported that homosexual relations were common and often extended to a form of marriage: "The feast of marrying a boy was celebrated with great pomp, and the money paid for a boy sometimes amounted to fifteen pounds, while the money paid for a woman was a little over one pound." Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, writing of Siwan customs for the Harvard Peabody Museum in 1917, commented that although Siwan men could take up to four wives, "Siwan customs allow a man but one boy to whom he is bound by a stringent code of obligations."  In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition...Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons...Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys".  In the late 1940s a Siwan merchant told the visiting British novelist Robin Maugham that the Siwan women were "badly neglected", but that Siwan men "will kill each other for boy. Never for a woman", although as Maugham noted, marriage to a boy had become illegal by then. The Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry, who studied Siwa for three decades, observed in 1973 that "While the Siwans were still living inside their walled town, none of these bachelors was allowed to spend the night in the town and had to sleep outside the gates...Under such circumstances it is not surprising that homosexuality was common among them...Up to the year 1928, it was not unusual that some kind of written agreement, which was sometimes called a marriage contract, was made between two males; but since the visit of King Fu'ad to this oasis it has been completely forbidden...However, such agreements continued, but in great secrecy, and without the actual writing, until the end of World War II. Now the practice is not followed."  Despite the multiplicity of sources for these practices, the Egyptian authorities and even the Siwan tribal elders have attempted to repress the historical and anthropological record. When the Siwa-born anthropologist Fathi Malim included reference to Siwan homosexuality (especially a love poem from a man to a youth) in his book "Oasis Siwa" (2001), the tribal council demanded that he blank out the material in the current edition of the book and remove it from future editions, or be expelled from the community. Malim reluctantly agreed and physically deleted the passages in the first edition of his book, and excluded them from the second. A newer book, "Siwa Past and Present" (2005) by A. Dumairy, the Director of Siwa Antiquities, discreetly omits all mention of the famous historical practices of the inhabitants.

Economy.

Agriculture is the main activity of modern Siwa, particularly the cultivation of dates and olives. Handicrafts like basketry are also of regional importance.  Tourism has in recent decades become a vital source of income. Much attention has been given to creating hotels that use local materials and display local styles. One of the main attractions is the Adrère Amellal hotel that does not use any electricity.

Archaeology.

In the mid-20th century, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry worked at Siwa (and elsewhere in the Western Desert).  In 1995, Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi announced that she had identified one alleged tomb in Siwa with that of Alexander the Great. The claim was put in doubt by George Thomas, then general secretary of the Greek Ministry of Culture, who said that it was unclear whether the excavated structure was even a tomb or its style Macedonian, while the fragments of tablets shown did not support any of the translations provided by Souvaltzi.  An extremely old hominid footprint was discovered in 2007 at Siwa Oasis. Egyptian scientists claimed it could be 2–3 million years old, which would make it the oldest fossilized hominid footprint ever found. However, no proof of this conjecture was ever presented.  In late 2013, an announcement was made regarding the apparent Archaeoastronomy discovery of precise spring and fall Equinox sunrise alignments over the Aghurmi mound/Amun Oracle when viewed from Timasirayn temple in the Western Desert, 12 km away across Lake Siwa. The first known recent public viewing of this event occurred on 21 March 2014 during the spring Equinox.

In popular culture.

The fifth mission from the game "Sniper Elite III" takes place on the Siwa Oasis. Siwa is prominently featured in "" and is the birthplace and home of protagonist Bayek. In British author Anthony Horowitz's "Alex Rider" series, the ninth and eleventh instalments "Scorpia Rising" and "Never Say Die" feature Siwa.

The Siwa Oasis (, "Wāḥat Sīwah," ; "Siwah;" ) is an urban oasis in Egypt between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mi) from Cairo. About 80 km (50 mi) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide, Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements with about 33,000 people, mostly Berbers, who developed a unique and isolated desert culture and a distinct dialect and language different than all other dialects called Siwi, they are also fluent in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic which is called "Masry" meaning Egyptian.

Siwa (ou Sioua, Syouah, ou en berbère : ⵉⵙⵉⵡⴰⵏ Isiwan ("Issiouane)" ; en "Waḥa Siwa") est une oasis de l'ouest de l'Égypte, proche de la frontière libyenne et à du Caire. Elle est la plus septentrionale des oasis égyptiennes s’abreuvant sur les nappes souterraines, à des côtes méditerranéennes de Marsa Matrouh. Peuplée de près de, on la sait occupée depuis la haute Antiquité (sans être certain de la continuité de cette occupation). Aujourd'hui, la langue berbère y est parlée sous sa forme Siwi, le "jlan en isiwan" — intégrant un taux d'arabisation linguistique d'environ 40 %.


Biography.

Viger was born in Montreal, the son of Jacques Viger who represented Kent in the 2nd Parliament of Lower Canada, and studied at the Sulpician college of Montreal. On November 17, 1808 he married Marie Marguerite La Corne, daughter of Luc de la Corne, and widow of Major the Hon. John Lennox. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy.  After his studies he went to Quebec, where he worked as an editor of the newspaper Le Canadien from November 1808 to May 1809. Viger served as captain in the Canadian Voltigeurs unit under Charles de Salaberry during the War of 1812. He was elected the first mayor of Montreal in 1833 and worked to improve its sanitary conditions. Although he wrote little, his reputation as an archaeologist was universal, and the greatest contemporary historians of France and the United States have drawn from his collection of manuscripts, based on forty years of research. He compiled a chronicle under the title of "Sabretache" (28 vols.), wherein he gathered plans, maps, portraits, and valuable notes illustrating many contested historical points. He was the founder of the Historical Society of Montreal in 1857, one year before his death. Pope Pius IX honoured him with the knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.  He died December 12, 1858 at age 71 and was buried in the crypt of the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Church on December 15.

Honours.

The Viger Square and Jacques Viger Building in Montreal are named in his honour.

Jacques Viger (May 7, 1787 – December 12, 1858) was an antiquarian, archaeologist, and the first mayor of the Canadian city of Montreal, Quebec.

Jacques Viger, né le et décédé le à Montréal, est le premier maire de Montréal. Il fut aussi antiquaire et archéologue, ainsi que journaliste, auteur, officier de milice, fonctionnaire, propriétaire foncier, collectionneur, etc.