From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

=====

Wide receiver Marvin "Shake" Tiller and running back Billy Clyde Puckett are football buddies who play for a Miami pro team owned by Big Ed Bookman (Preston). Bookman's daughter Barbara Jane is roommates with both men, and the film depicts a subtle love triangle relationship between Barbara Jane and her two friends. She initially has romantic feelings for Shake, who has become more self-confident after taking self-improvement training from seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. The program is called Bismark Energy Action Training, or B.E.A.T. After Shake completes his course, Barbara Jane and he sleep together and start a relationship. Barbara Jane is not a follower of B.E.A.T., and Shake is warned by his leader Bismark that "mixed marriages don't work." Barbara Jane is determined to make it work, so she attends B.E.A.T. in an effort to "get it." At the end of the training session, she is worn out from Bismark's "sadistic abuse, pious drivel, and sheer double talk." Barbara Jane also feels guilty that she did not "get it." Shake is insistent that the training has had proven results for him, noting that he has not dropped a football pass since completing B.E.A.T. Billy Clyde also has feelings for Barbara Jane and enrolls in B.E.A.T. to understand what she is going through. In the training, Billy Clyde is shown coping with the seminar rules forbidding going to the bathroom. For a time, Puckett pretends he underwent a conversion to Bismark's way of thinking. While Barbara Jane and Shake are at the altar about to be married, the minister turns to Bismark and gives him some advice on how he can avoid capital gains tax in his business. Billy Clyde ends up exposing the movement's shallow side, and rescues Barbara Jane from both B.E.A.T. and her impending marriage to Shake. After leaving the wedding together, Barbara Jane and Billy Clyde reveal their feelings for each other. 

=====

In the Prologue, a man quietly gives important papers to a young American woman, as she is more likely to survive the sinking RMS Lusitania in May 1915. In 1919 London, demobilised soldier Tommy Beresford meets war volunteer Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley. They are both out of work and money. They form "The Young Adventurers, Ltd". Mr Whittington follows Tuppence to offer her work. She uses the alias "Jane Finn", which shocks Whittington. He gives her £50 and then disappears. Curious, they advertise for information regarding Jane Finn. The advertisement yields two replies. The first is from Mr Carter, whom Tommy recognises as a British intelligence leader from his war service; he tells them of Jane Finn aboard the Lusitania when it sank. She received a secret treaty to deliver to the American embassy in London. She survived but no trace has since been found of her or the treaty, the publication of which now would compromise the British government. They agree to work for him, despite his warnings of the dangerous Mr Brown. The second reply is from Julius Hersheimmer, an American multimillionaire and first cousin of Jane Finn, staying at the Ritz Hotel. Intent on finding her, he has already contacted Scotland Yard; Inspector Brown took his only photo of Jane, before a real inspector contacted him. They join forces with Julius, too. Whittington mentions the name Rita to Tuppence. Tommy and Tuppence find her among the survivors of Lusitania, Mrs Marguerite Vandemeyer. Whittington and Boris Ivanovitch leave Rita's flat as they reach the building. Tommy and Julius follow them; Tommy follows Boris to a house in Soho, while Julius trails Whittington to Bournemouth. Tommy eavesdrops on a meeting of Bolshevist conspirators, where he is caught. He delays his execution by claiming knowledge of the missing treaty. Tuppence secures the co-operation of Albert, the lift boy at Mrs Vandemeyer's residence, to obtain a job as her maid and hears Rita mention Mr Brown. The next visitor is Sir James Peel Edgerton, K C. On her afternoon off, Tuppence meets Julius at the Ritz. Julius had followed Whittington to a private clinic and seen him meet with a nurse; they both left before Julius could act. Tommy has not returned. Tuppence tells Mr Carter. Tuppence persuades Julius to seek advice from Sir James. Tuppence returns to Rita's flat early, interrupting Rita's preparations to flee. After a tussle, Tuppence forces Rita to admit she knows who Mr Brown is. Julius and Sir James arrive, Mrs Vandemeyer screams, collapses, and murmurs "Mr Brown" to Tuppence just before dying. Julius finds something in Rita's safe. Seeking Mr Whittington, the three contact Dr Hall at the clinic. Neither Whittington nor Jane is there. Tuppence rushes out upon receiving a telegram signed by Tommy. At the house in Soho, a young French woman, Annette, serves meals to Tommy. He is tied up to be killed elsewhere. Annette arranges his escape, but refuses to leave herself. Tommy returns to the Ritz; he and Julius recognise the telegram to Tuppence as a ruse, but fail to find her at the address given. Sir James discovers Jane Finn, who has recovered her memory after an accident. She tells them where she hid the treaty, but they find instead a message from Mr Brown. In London, Tommy alerts Mr Carter and learns that Tuppence has drowned. Returning to the Ritz, he and Julius argue; Julius leaves the hotel. While searching for writing paper in Julius's drawer, Tommy finds a photograph of Annette. Tommy concludes that the Jane Finn they met was a plant to stop their investigation. He gets an original copy of the telegram sent to Tuppence, and sees that her destination was altered on the copy he read. Tommy and Albert proceed to the correct destination. Tommy discovers the house where Tuppence and Annette are being held. Tuppence throws a note from her window. Albert throws back a reply naming the inn where they are staying; later Tommy receives a message from "Twopence" and realises who Mr Brown is. Julius kidnaps Mr Kramenin, one of the conspirators, forcing him to get Tuppence and Annette released, whereupon all of them drive off in Julius's car, with Tommy riding on the back. It becomes clear that Annette is Jane Finn. Tommy snatches Julius's weapon, and sends Tuppence and Jane by train to Sir James in London. At Sir James's residence, Jane tells her story: after receiving the packet, she became suspicious of Mrs Vandemeyer. Jane placed blank sheets in the original packet, sealing the treaty inside magazine pages. Travelling from Ireland, she was mugged and taken to the house in Soho. Perceiving the intent of her captors, Jane faked amnesia, conversing only in French. She hid the treaty in a picture frame in her room. She maintained her role in the intervening years. Tuppence suspects that Julius is Mr Brown. Sir James agrees, adding that the real Julius was killed in America and that his imposter killed Mrs Vandemeyer. They rush to Soho, recovering the treaty at the house. Sir James identifies himself as the true Mr Brown, and announces his plan to kill them, wound himself, and then blame it on the elusive Mr Brown. Julius and Tommy, who are hiding in the room, overwhelm Sir James. He commits suicide using poison concealed in his ring, the compelling evidence to persuade Mr Carter of his old friend's guilt. Julius gives a party in honour of Jane. All those concerned in the case meet, including Tuppence's father and Tommy's rich uncle, who makes him his heir. The novel ends with Julius and Jane, and Tommy and Tuppence engaged to marry. 

=====

The story begins in New Zealand on 8 December 1915, the fourth birthday of Meghann "Meggie" Cleary who is the only daughter of Padriac ("Paddy"), an Irish farm labourer, and Fiona ("Fee"), his wife. Meggie is a beautiful child with curly red-gold hair but receives little coddling and must struggle to hold her own in the family, which includes five older brothers at the time. Her favourite brother is the eldest, Frank, a rebellious young man who is unwillingly preparing himself for the blacksmith's trade. He is much shorter than his other brothers, but very strong. Unlike the other Clearys, he has black hair and eyes, believed to be inherited from his Maori great-great- grandmother. Paddy has a wealthy sister, Mary Carson, a widow who lives in New South Wales, Australia, on Drogheda, an enormous sheep station. One day, Paddy receives an offer from Mary of a job on her estate, and so, in 1921, the whole Cleary family moves from New Zealand to Australia. In Drogheda, the family meets Ralph de Bricassart, a young, capable, and ambitious priest. As punishment for insulting a bishop, he has been relegated to a remote parish in the town of Gillanbone, near Drogheda. Ralph has befriended Mary Carson, hoping a hefty bequest from her to the Catholic Church might liberate him from his exile. Ralph is "a beautiful man", and Mary goes to great lengths to tempt him to break his vows. Ralph shrugs off her attentions and ploys, and continues his visits. He cares for all of the Clearys and particularly cherishes forlorn little Meggie. Frank's relationship with his father, Paddy, has never been peaceful. The two vie for Fee's attention. Frank resents the many pregnancies Paddy has caused her to endure. Fee, now in her forties, reveals she is again pregnant; the two men quarrel violently, and Paddy tells Frank he is not his biological son. It is revealed that Fee, the daughter of a prominent New Zealand citizen, had an affair with a married politician. The result, Frank, was already eighteen months old when Fee married Paddy. Because he resembles her lost love, Frank has always been Fee's favourite child. After the argument with Paddy, Frank runs away to become a prizefighter. Fee gives birth to twin boys, James and Patrick (Jims and Patsy), but shows little interest in them. Shortly afterward, Meggie's beloved little brother, Hal, dies. With Frank gone and Hal dead, Meggie clings to Ralph de Bricassart, who has been her constant mentor and friend. As she grows into womanhood, some begin to question their close relationship, including Ralph and Meggie themselves. Mary Carson, motivated by jealousy mingled with Machiavellian cruelty, devises a plan to separate Ralph from Meggie by tempting him with a high place in the Church hierarchy. Although her will of record leaves the bulk of her estate to Paddy, she quietly writes a new one, making the Roman Catholic Church the main beneficiary and Ralph the executor. In the new will, the true magnitude of Mary's wealth is finally revealed. Drogheda is not the centre of her fortune as Ralph and Paddy have long believed but is merely a hobby, a diversion from her true financial interests. Mary's wealth is derived from a vast multi-national financial empire worth over thirteen million pounds (about A$200 million in modern terms). The sheer size of Mary's bequest will guarantee Ralph's rapid rise in the church. She also makes sure that after she dies only Ralph, at first, will know of the new will - forcing him to choose between Meggie and his own ambition. She also provides for her disinherited brother, promising him and all his grandchildren a home on Drogheda as long as any of them live. At Mary's seventy-fifth birthday party, Ralph goes to great lengths to avoid Meggie, now seventeen and dressed in a beautiful rose-pink evening gown. Later, he explains to Meggie that others might not see his attention as innocent. Mary dies later that night, and Ralph learns of the new will. He sees at once the subtle genius of Mary's plan and, although he weeps and calls her "a disgusting old spider" he takes the new will to her lawyer without delay. The lawyer, scandalised, urges Ralph to destroy the will, but to no avail. The bequest of thirteen million pounds works its expected magic and Ralph soon leaves for Sydney to begin his rapid advance in the Church. Before he leaves, Meggie confesses her love for him and they share a passionate kiss, but Ralph pulls away because of his duties as a priest and begs Meggie to find a suitable partner. The Clearys learn that Frank has been convicted of murder after killing someone in a fight. Frank spends three decades in prison. More tragedy follows: Paddy dies in a lightning fire, and son Stu is killed by a wild boar shortly after finding his father's body. Meanwhile, Ralph, unaware of Paddy's and Stu's deaths, is on his way back to Drogheda after hearing of the fire. He suffers minor injuries when his plane bogs in the mud. As Meggie tends his wounds, their passion is reignited, but again Ralph rebuffs Meggie, and he remains at Drogheda only long enough to conduct the funerals. Three years later, a new farm worker named Luke O'Neill begins to court Meggie. Although his motives are more mercenary than romantic, she marries him because he looks a little bit like Ralph, and also because Luke is not Catholic and she wants little to do with religion – her own way of getting back at Ralph. She soon realises her mistake. After a brief honeymoon, Luke, a skinflint who regards women as sex objects and prefers the company of men, finds Meggie a live-in job with a kindly couple, the Muellers, and leaves to join a gang of itinerant sugar cane cutters in North Queensland. Before he leaves, he appropriates all Meggie's savings and arranges to have her wages paid directly to him. He tells her he is saving money to buy a homestead; however, he quickly becomes obsessed with the competitive toil of cutting cane and has no real intention of giving it up. Hoping to change Luke's ambition and settle him down, Meggie deliberately thwarts his usual contraception and bears Luke a red-haired daughter, Justine. The new baby, however, makes little impression on Luke. Father Ralph visits Meggie during her difficult labour. He has come to say goodbye, as he is leaving Australia for Rome. He sees Meggie's unhappiness and pities her. Justine proves to be a fractious baby, so the Muellers send Meggie to an isolated island resort for a rest. Father Ralph returns to Australia, learns of Meggie's whereabouts from Anne Mueller, and joins her for several days. There, at last, the lovers consummate their passion, and Ralph realises that despite his ambition to be the perfect priest, his desire for Meggie makes him a man like other men. He returns to the Church, and Meggie, now pregnant with Ralph's child, decides to separate from Luke. She sleeps one last time with Luke to ensure that her child's paternity will not be questioned, then tells Luke what she really thinks of him and returns to Drogheda, leaving him to his cane-cutting. Back home, she gives birth to a beautiful boy whom she names Dane. Fee, who has had experience in such matters, notices Dane's resemblance to Ralph as soon as he is born. The relationship between Meggie and Fee takes a turn for the better. Justine grows into an independent, keenly intelligent girl who loves her brother dearly; however, she has little use for anyone else and calmly rebuffs Meggie's overtures of motherly affection. None of Meggie's other surviving brothers ever marry, and Drogheda gradually becomes a place filled with old people. Ralph visits Drogheda after a long absence and meets Dane for the first time; and although he finds himself strangely drawn to the boy, he fails to recognize that they are father and son. Dane grows up and decides, to Meggie's dismay, to become a priest. Fee tells Meggie that what she stole from God she must now give back. Justine, meanwhile, decides to become an actress and leaves Australia to seek her career in England. Ralph, now a cardinal, becomes a mentor to Dane, but is still blind to the fact that the young man is his own son. Dane is also unaware of their true relationship. Ralph takes great care of him, and because of their resemblance, people mistake them for uncle and nephew. Ralph and Dane encourage the rumour. Justine and her brother remain close, although he is often shocked at her sexual adventures and free- wheeling lifestyle. She befriends Rainer Hartheim, a German politician who is a great friend of both Dane and Ralph and who falls deeply in love with her. Their friendship becomes the most important in her life and is on the verge of becoming something more when tragedy strikes. Dane, who has just become a priest, is vacationing in Greece. While there, he goes swimming one day and dies while rescuing two women from a dangerous current. Meggie reveals before Dane's funeral that Dane is Ralph's son. Ralph dies in Meggie's arms after the funeral. Justine breaks off all communications with Rainer and falls into a depressed, hum-drum existence. Eventually, they renew their acquaintance on strictly platonic terms, until Rainer visits Drogheda alone in order to urge Meggie to help him pursue Justine's hand in marriage. Justine, now the sole surviving grandchild of Fee and Paddy Cleary, finally accepts her true feelings for Rainer, and they marry. 

=====

Distraught but skillful bounty hunter Lewis Gates, accompanied by his horse and faithful companion Zip, an Australian cattle dog, tracks three armed escaped convicts into Montana's Oxbow Quadrangle, at the persistence of his unforgiving father-in-law, who blames Gates for his daughter's tragic death. Gates sees the convicts but hears shots. Investigating the scene, all Gates finds is a bloody scrap of cloth, "enough blood to paint the sheriff's office," a bloody shotgun shell, and an old-fashioned Indian arrow. Gates takes the arrow to archaeologist Lillian Sloan, who identifies it as a replica of the arrows used by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. Gates doesn't think it's a replica and, after some library research, develops a long list of people who have disappeared into the Oxbow. He also finds a story of a "wild child" captured in the woods in the early 20th century. Now, he's convinced that the fugitives were killed by a tribe of Dog Soldiers, a hardy band of Native Americans who somehow escaped the 1864 Sand Creek massacre and survived for 128 years, secluded in the Montana Wilderness, killing anyone who threatened to find and expose them. Gates convinces Sloan to join him in a search for the band. The two enter the Oxbow and begin to search. They survive many mishaps and bond throughout their journey, eventually venturing deeper into the wilderness than Gates has ever gone before, around 50 miles in. After a week and nearing the end of their supplies, Sloan suggests heading back. As the two are packing their gear, they are suddenly attacked by Cheyenne Indians. Sloan, speaking the Cheyenne language, deescalates the situation, and the two are taken captive by Yellow Wolf. They are taken to the Cheyenne encampment in a valley accessed through a tunnel behind a waterfall, where the duo meet the village leader Spotted Elk. He tells them of the escape and salvation of the Cheyenne 128 years ago, as well as his own run-in with the "white people" when he was a child. Gates and Sloan slowly become friendly with the Cheyenne. However, Yellow Wolf's son is sick, wounded after the gunfight with the convicts. Despite the elder's concerns, Sloan convinces Yellow Wolf to allow Gates to ride into town to obtain medicine. In town, Gates robs the pharmacy and is chased by local law enforcement, including Sheriff Deegan, his father-in-law. After escaping, Gates meets Yellow Wolf in the wilderness, and they return to the Cheyenne camp. By this time, the sheriff has gathered a posse and sets out to hunt down Gates both for robbing the store and to find Gates' female companion, whom the sheriff believes Gates has hiding in the Oxbow. Gates and Sloan continue to grow closer to the Cheyenne, and Sloan discloses that they are indeed the last of their kind. However, Yellow Wolf shows Gates that the sheriff is following his trail and is slowly getting closer to the encampment. Knowing that if discovered, the Cheyenne will fight and die, Gates proposes a solution; using some leftover TNT the Cheyenne had taken from explorers many years earlier, he'll create a distraction and allow the Cheyenne to flee deeper inside the Oxbow and live in peace, far away from civilization. Sloan decides to stay with the Cheyenne, which Gates reluctantly agrees to. The two share a passionate kiss, and Gates begins to set up his plan. Gates gives himself up to the sheriff and pleads with him to leave the wilderness. However, the sheriff discovers the hidden tunnel and prepares to enter it. Escaping, Gates attempts to light the TNT with a rifle, but the sheriff stops him and threatens him with a gun to his head. Yellow Wolf appears, surprising the sheriff, and fires an arrow at the TNT, setting it off. Gates and the sheriff are propelled out of the tunnel into the waterfall. Gates saves the sheriff, who is badly wounded. The deputy tells everyone to clear out, and they all head back to town to treat the wounded sheriff and Gates. In Gates' holding cell, the sheriff confronts him about what Gates saw. Gates relents and says some things don't need an explanation; they deserve to remain undiscovered. This seemingly helps smooth over Gates' and the sheriff's relationship. Sloan and the Cheyenne are shown to have successfully escaped. An indeterminate time later, Gates has begun searching for them. Using hints provided by Sloan, he is able to find them. The film ends with a passionate embrace between Sloan and Gates. 

=====

In 1892, a delayed monsoon has rendered the farmers of Champaner unable to grow any crops. They pay a visit to local King Puran Singh to ask for exemption from the annual tax (lagaan), which has been doubled this year. The king, a nominal figure under the protection of the British Raj, is at the Cantonment where a cricket match is underway between British army officers. At the game, a young farmer named Bhuvan gets into a scuffle with one of the officers and ends up mocking the game in front of the commanding officer, Captain Andrew Russell. Enraged, the short-tempered Captain challenges Bhuvan to a match of cricket in exchange for cancelling lagaan. He raises the stakes by offering exemption from lagaan for the next three years should the farmers win, but also asking for a triple payment should the farmers lose. Bhuvan wittingly accepts the challenge. Informing his fellow villagers of the challenge, Bhuvan is met with incredulity; no one believes they will stand any chance of winning and they are terrified that the heavy tax burden will destroy their lives. Assembling a team proves to be difficult, as the only people to support Bhuvan are his mother and Gauri, the daughter of the village medic. The next day, Bhuvan puts up a public display of cricket in the village square and gains two supporters—Bagha, a strong drummer and Guran, an eccentric astrologer. To learn the rules of the game, they start secretly going to the cantonment to observe the playing officers. Unexpected help comes in the form of Captain Russell's sister, Elizabeth, a young woman who wants to give the farmers a fair chance by teaching them the game. With the help of an Indian translator, she starts meeting Bhuvan and his team at a ground outside their village. Soon, other villagers join the team. With a few weeks to go until the day of the match, Bhuvan is still missing one player and spots a hidden talent in Kachra, a cripple living on the fringes of the village. Kachra, bowling from his injured hand, can naturally spin the ball without difficulty. The other team members threaten a walkout because Kachra is also an untouchable, but Bhuvan reminds them of the high stakes of the match and expresses belief that Kachra will prove to be their team's strongest weapon. The day of the match arrives and the British army team elects to bat. The match has taken on a new dimension for Captain Russell, because he has been commanded by his superiors to pay the exempted lagaan from his own pocket should his team lose the match. The British team lose early wickets thanks to the unconventional bowling style of the farmers; however, they recover and end the day's play positively with Captain Russell leading the scoring. Kachra's bowling has been completely ineffective the whole day. At night, Elizabeth spies Lakha, a member of Bhuvan's team, talking to her brother in a conspiratorial manner. Lakha had been playing particularly poorly that day, and she informs Bhuvan of his betrayal. Angered, the villagers chase after Lakha to kill him but Bhuvan decides to give him another chance when Lakha confesses to being jealous of Gauri’s love for Bhuvan. The next day, Lakha redeems himself on the field and plays with great spirit. Kachra regains his ability to spin the ball, now that the ball has lost some of its hardness. He takes a hat-trick and some further quick wickets, and the British innings is over. The villagers' run chase starts promisingly, but soon the main batters, apart from Bhuvan, all lose their wickets before the end of the second day. The next day, steady and careful batting by Bhuvan and Ismail, an injured but capable player, gets them out of trouble. With victory now in sight, Ismail is run out, leaving Bhuvan to make the required runs with the last man, Kachra. With only one over left to play, Bhuvan loses strike and Kachra is forced to bat for the victory. With a boundary needed on the last ball, he only manages a single. However, the unbiased British umpire calls a no-ball (illegal delivery), putting Bhuvan on strike for the replayed delivery. He swings mightily, connects, and clears the boundary, thus winning the match for his team. In the coming weeks, with the villagers celebrating the end of lagaan, the British cantonment is disbanded, and the villagers watch as the British caravan departs from Champaner, seemingly forever. Elizabeth, who had fallen in love with Bhuvan, steps out to bid him a tearful farewell. She returns to England and never marries, while Gauri and Bhuvan get married with great fanfare in the village. 

=====

At the top of Mount Munch lives a group of people known as the Hyups. One of their numbers, a Munchkin named Bini Aru, discovered a method of transforming people and objects by merely saying the word "Pyrzqxgl". After Princess Ozma decreed that no one could practice magic in Oz except for Glinda the Good Witch and the Wizard of Oz, Bini wrote down the directions for pronouncing "Pyrzqxgl" and hid them in his magical laboratory. When Bini and his wife are at a fair one day, their son Kiki Aru, who thirsts for adventure, finds the directions and afterward transforms himself into a hawk and visits various countries outside the land of Oz. When he alights in the land of Ev, Kiki Aru learns that he needs money to pay for a night's lodging (versus Oz, where the money is not used at all) and changes himself into a magpie to steal a gold piece from an old man. A sparrow confronts the then-human Kiki Aru with knowledge of the theft, and Kiki says that he did not know what it was like to be wicked before, he is glad that he is now. This conversation is overheard by Ruggedo, the Nome who was exiled to the Earth's surface in Tik-Tok of Oz, and he sees through Kiki Aru's power a chance to get revenge on the people of Oz. Kiki changes himself and Ruggedo into birds and they fly over the Deadly Desert into the Land of Oz. They enter Oz as animals to escape detection by Glinda and to recruit an army of conquest from the country's wild animal population. When they first appear in the Forest of Gugu in the Gillikin Country, Kiki changes himself and Ruggedo into Li-Mon-Eags (fictional creatures with the heads of lions, the bodies of monkeys, and the wings of eagles as well as having the tails of donkeys) and lies that they've seen the people of the Emerald City plan to enslave the animal inhabitants of the Forest. Ruggedo claims that the Li-Mon-Eags will transform the animals into humans and march on the Emerald City and transform its inhabitants into animals, driving them into the forest. Ruggedo proves their power (for Kiki's the only one who knows "Pyrzqxgl") by having Kiki transform one of the leopard king Gugu's advisors, Loo the unicorn, into a man and back again. Gugu offers to meet with the leaders of the other animal tribes to decide on this matter of invasion. Dorothy and the Wizard arrive with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger in the Forest of Gugu during this council of war with a request for monkeys to train in time for Ozma's upcoming birthday party. Ruggedo recognizes his old enemies and inspires Kiki to begin transforming people and animals left and right -- including Ruggedo, whom Kiki turns against by transforming him into a goose, a transformation that the Nome most fears because as a goose he might lay an egg. (In Baum's universe, all eggs are a deadly poison to nomes.) The Wizard, whom Kiki transformed into a fox, follows the Li-Mon-Eag with his magic bag, the transformed Kiki, deep into the forest where he begins transforming monkeys into giant human soldiers. However, Kiki makes them so big that they cannot move through the trees. The Wizard, however, heard how to correctly pronounce "Pyrzqxgl" and first stops Kiki and Ruggedo by transforming them into a walnut and a hickory nut. Then the Wizard resumes his rightful form and changes Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, and Gugu back to their forms, and he agrees to change the soldiers back into monkeys. The Wizard recruits several of the grateful monkeys and shrinks them down to bring back to the Emerald City and train. On arriving there, Dorothy and the Wizard are dispatched to a magic island where Cap'n Bill and Trot went to get a magic flower for Ozma's birthday. However, the island itself causes anything living that touches it to take root there, and that is how the sailor and his friend are found when Dorothy and the Wizard arrive. The Wizard uses "Pyrzqxgl" to change Cap'n Bill and Trot into honeybees which narrowly avoid being eaten by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. When they are human again, Cap'n Bill retrieves the flower by strapping a wood plank onto his good leg, walks with that and his wooden leg onto the island, and retrieves the flower. Back at the Emerald City, Ozma and her friends celebrate her birthday (though without quite the pomp and fanfare from The Road to Oz) and then decide how to deal with the evil magicians transformed into nuts. The Wizard uses "Pyrzqxgl" to change them back to Kiki Aru and Ruggedo and make them thirsty enough to drink the Water of Oblivion, which will make them forget all that they have ever known. The now-blank slate Kiki Aru and Ruggedo will live in the Emerald City and learn to be good and kind. 

=====

The story picks up where the previous book left off, with Charlie and family aboard the flying Great Glass Elevator. The Elevator accidentally goes into orbit, and Mr. Wonka docks them at the Space Hotel USA. Their interception of the hotel is mistaken by approaching astronauts and hotel staff in a Commuter Capsule and listeners on Earth (including the President of the United States) as an act of space piracy and they are variously accused of being enemy agents, spies and aliens. Shortly after their arrival, they discover that the hotel has been overrun by dangerous, shape-changing alien monsters known as The Vermicious Knids. The Knids cannot resist showing off and reveal themselves by using the five hotel elevators (with one Knid in each of them) and spell out the word "SCRAM", giving the group time to evacuate. As the group leaves, a Knid follows the Great Glass Elevator and tries to break it open, but to no avail, which results in the Knid receiving a bruise on its backside and hungering for payback. Meanwhile, with the Great Glass Elevator's passengers gone, the President allows the Commuter Capsule to dock with the Space Hotel. Upon entry by the astronauts and the Space Hotel staff, the Knids attack by eating fourteen of the staff, prompting an immediate evacuation by the rest of the group. The Great Glass Elevator comes back just in time to see the entire Knid infestation coming in on the attack, bashing the Commuter Capsule to the point where the retrorockets can't be fired to initiate immediate reentry and the communication antenna can't keep the astronauts in communication with the President. Charlie suggests towing the Commuter Capsule back to Earth, and, despite a last attempt by the Knids to tow the two craft away to their home planet Vermes, in the process the Knids are incinerated in Earth's atmosphere. Mr. Wonka releases the Commuter Capsule, while the Elevator crashes down through the roof of the chocolate factory. Back in the chocolate factory, three of Charlie's grandparents refuse to leave their bed. Mr. Wonka gives them a rejuvenation formula called "Wonka-Vite". They take much more than they need, subtracting 80 years. Two become babies, but 78-year-old Grandma Georgina vanishes, having become "−2". Charlie and Mr. Wonka journey to "Minusland", where they track down Grandma Georgina's spirit. As she has no physical presence, Mr. Wonka sprays her with the opposite of "Wonka-Vite" - "Vita-Wonk" - in order to age her again. Mr. Wonka admits that it is not an accurate way to age a person, but the spray is the only way to dose "minuses". Upon leaving Minusland, they discover that Grandma Georgina is now 358 years old. Using cautious doses of Wonka-Vite and Vita-Wonk, the three grandparents are restored to their original ages. Finally, the President of the United States invites the family and Mr. Wonka to the White House to thank them for their space rescue. The family and Wonka accepts the invitation (including the grandparents who finally agree to get out of their beds) and prepare to leave. 

=====

Randall Peltzer, a struggling inventor, visits a Chinatown antique store in the hope of finding a Christmas present for his son Billy. In the store, Randall encounters a small, furry creature called a mogwai (Cantonese: 魔怪, "devil"). The owner, Mr. Wing, refuses to sell the creature to Randall. However, his grandson secretly sells the mogwai to Randall, warning him to remember three important rules that must never be broken: do not expose the mogwai to light, especially sunlight, which will kill it, do not let it come in contact with water, and above all, never feed it after midnight. Randall returns home to Kingston Falls where he gives the mogwai to Billy as a pet. Billy works in the local bank, where he fears his dog Barney will be captured and killed by the elderly miser Mrs. Deagle. Randall names the mogwai "Gizmo" and Billy makes sure to treat him well. When Billy's friend Pete accidentally spills water over Gizmo, five more mogwai spawn from his back, a more troublemaking sort led by their aggressive ringleader, Stripe (distinguishable from the other mogwai by the patch of white fur on his head). Billy shows one of the mogwai to his former science teacher, Mr. Hanson, spawning another mogwai, on whom Hanson experiments. Back at home, Stripe's gang tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight by severing the power cord to his bedside clock. They form cocoons, as does Hanson's mogwai. Shortly after, the cocoons hatch and they emerge as mischievous, reptilian monsters referred to as 'gremlins', who then torture Gizmo and try to murder Billy's mother, while Hanson is killed by his gremlin. All of the gremlins are killed except Stripe, who escapes the house to a local YMCA and jumps into a swimming pool, spawning a new army of gremlins who wreak chaos around Kingston Falls. Billy tries to warn the police, but they don't believe him. Many people are injured or outright killed by the gremlins' rampage, including Mrs. Deagle, who is launched out of her house on a stair lift that has been sabotaged by the creatures. At the local bar, the gremlins have fun until the barmaid Kate Beringer, Billy's girlfriend, flashes them with a camera and escapes into the bank with Billy and Gizmo. While hiding, Kate reveals her father died in a chimney while dressed as Santa Claus, which made her hate Christmas since. Billy and Kate discover the town has fallen silent and the gremlins are watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the local theater. They set off an explosion, killing all the gremlins except Stripe, who left the theater to get more candy at a Montgomery Ward store across the street. As morning approaches, Billy chases Stripe into the store, where Stripe attempts to use a water fountain to spawn more gremlins. Gizmo arrives in a toy car and opens a skylight, exposing Stripe to sunlight and melting him to his death. In the aftermath of the rampage, Mr. Wing arrives to collect Gizmo. He scolds the Peltzers for their carelessness, and states that Western society is not ready for the responsibility of caring for mogwai, but comments that Billy might some day be ready to care for Gizmo properly. Gizmo likewise believes so, having become attached to Billy, and says "Bye Billy" just before Mr. Wing departs with him. 

=====

A wealthy San Francisco socialite, Gloria Saunders (Chambers), is taken against her will to an elite North Beach sex club and loved "as she's never been loved before". There she engages in lesbian sex with a group of six women, all dressed in black, after being brought out wearing a white dress on stage through the green door. The silent, largely masked audience become increasingly aroused as her white dress is removed and she is stroked, kissed and given cunnilingus by the women. Her first heterosexual sex is with the African-American boxer Johnnie Keyes, accompanied by a funk soundtrack.Williams, p. 300 Over 45 minutes, he gives her more cunnilingus and then they have sexual intercourse, while Gloria continues to be stroked by the other women. When she has an orgasm, the sex stops and he is not shown to ejaculate. Gloria then mounts a trapeze contraption suspended from the ceiling and then engages in vaginal intercourse with one man as she performs oral sex on another and masturbates two others.Williams, p. 173 The audience become further aroused and begin having sex with each other in what becomes an orgy. In a psychedelic key sequence, an ejaculation is shown with semen flying through the air for almost seven minutes. The film features several multicolored, optically printed, slow-motion close-ups of money shots. This is the only ejaculation sequence in the film. The narrator then runs from the audience onto the stage and carries Gloria off through the green door. The film ends with him and Gloria making love alone. 

=====

Justine Jones, a lonely and depressed spinster, decides that suicide is the only way out of her routinely dull existence.1973 Original Edition DVD product page at VCX She slits her wrists with a shaving blade while bathing, and dies.Spelvin, p. 228 The angel Abaca (John Clemens) informs Jones that although she has lived a "pure" life, her suicide has disqualified her from entering Heaven, and she must spend eternity in Limbo. Angered that her sole indiscretion has left her with only the options of Limbo or Hell, Jones begs Abaca to let her "earn" her place in Hell by being allowed to return to Earth and become the embodiment of Lust. After an intense session of pain and pleasure with a menacing man who goes only by the title of "The Teacher" (Harry Reems),Spelvin, p. 94 Justine has several bizarre and sexually deviant encounters, the last of which is a graphic threesome. Just as Jones is enjoying her new life of lust, the time she was given to fulfill herself runs out, and she is faced with eternity in Hell. Though she is at first horrified at the pain she will be forced to endure, Abaca dispels the common human myth of Hell, and promises Jones that she will be "quite comfortable." Now a sex addict, Jones finds herself confined to a small room with an impotent man who is more interested in catching flies than her. She desperately begs the man for sex, but he merely asks her to be quiet while he listens for the buzzing of the insects. 

=====

Given the general closed- loop denominator rational polynomial : 1 + G(s)H(s) = 1 + K \frac{b_m s^m + \ldots + b_1 s + b_0}{s^n + a_{n-1}s^{n-1} + \ldots + a_1 s + a_0}, the characteristic equation can be simplified to : s^n + a_{n-1}s^{n-1} + \ldots + (a_m + K b_m)s^m + \ldots + (a_1 + K b_1)s + (a_0 + K b_0) = 0. The solutions of s to this equation are the root loci of the closed-loop transfer function. 

=====

The inheritors are a breed of cold materialists, calling themselves Fourth Dimensionists, whose task is to occupy the earth. Arthur, an unsuccessful English writer, meets a fascinating woman by chance, who seems to talk in metaphors. She claims to be from the Fourth Dimension and a major player in a plan to "inherit the earth". They go their separate ways with her pledge they will meet again and again. At their next meeting, the woman freely reveals her "identity" and two others in their circle, one a cabinet minister (Charles Gurnard) and Fox, the editor of a new paper – all of them competing with each other. She has taken on his name and pretends to be his sister, invading firstly his down-on-their-luck aristocratic family by financing improvements to their estate, until she moves with his aunt, to Paris. Each time she turns up, she is in greater connection with prominent political people and appears more dazzlingly beautiful and more desirable to Arthur. 

=====

Fifteen followed the students of fictional Hillside School and dealt with a variety of issues including dating, divorce, alcohol abuse, infidelity and friendship. The show played heavily into stereotypes, including two characters named Dylan and Chris, who wore leather jackets to show off their toughness, but which could not completely disguise their inner selves. At one point, they play a gig with their band Teenagers in Love at local eatery and hangout spot The Avalon.http://www.fakebands.com/wiki/index.php?title=Teenagers_in_Love 

=====

When an anonymous benefactor invites a party of celebrities and business magnates to a New Year's celebration aboard the Orient Express, it is the guests' greed which brings them all together. Apart from an enjoyable free trip on the luxury train, the businessmen among the passengers also expect to make a lucrative deal. However, just outside Paris the whole train is taken over by terrorists—without anybody noticing. Jack Chase (Richard Grieco), a young American actor who has also been invited, realizes that one of the waiters is missing but does not know that he has been killed together with all his colleagues. Very soon the passengers sense that something is wrong. For example, a powerful jamming station on board the train ensures that they cannot contact the outside world via their mobile phones. Then, before dinner, they get to know their host: It is Tarik (Christoph Waltz), a well-known, internationally wanted Arab terrorist, who communicates with them via interactive television. Tarik announces the "Fundamentalist Revolution", the "victory of faith over corruption", and demands one tenth of each of his hostages' fortunes. Tarik himself is in fact on the train disguised as a cook, but no one has so far found out. The captives also learn that the terrorists have rigged the train with explosives: If the train slows, stops or passes the midnight hour the bombs are rigged to blow. Predictably, the passengers try to do something about their predicament. While the businessmen ponder the question of whether to pay up or not, it is the women who take an active part in fighting the terrorists, most notably Nadia (Joanna Bukovska), a young Russian dancer who has fallen in love with Chase and who even saves his life when he is attacked by one of the thugs. The couple secretly climb on the roof of the train and succeed in finding some of the explosives. In the end, shortly before their arrival in Istanbul, the locomotive, with Tarik in it, is uncoupled from the rest of the train and blown to pieces by the bombs planted by the terrorist himself. Although the film was released long before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the character of Tarik is a thinly disguised Osama bin Laden. There are also some minor but obvious parallels to the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express, which is based on an Agatha Christie novel. These parallels almost exclusively concern the setting and the constellation of characters: There are no similarities whatsoever regarding the plot. 

=====

The alchemists of the Discworld have invented moving pictures. Many hopefuls are drawn by the siren call of Holy Wood, home of the fledgling "clicks" industry – among them Victor Tugelbend, a dropout from Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University and Theda "Ginger" Withel, a girl "from a little town you never ever heard of", and the Discworld's most infamous salesman, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, who introduces commerce to the equation and becomes a successful producer. The business of making movies grows rapidly, and eventually Victor and Ginger become real stars, thanks to the help of Gaspode the sentient dog (who also develops a relationship with Laddie, that everybody considers to be the real Wonder Dog, although in fact has a very simple mind). Holy Wood for a while becomes an effervescent place full of humans, dwarfs, alchemists, demons (which essentially constitute the main technological device to make movies), and trolls (among whom is Detritus) all living in harmony. Meanwhile, it gradually becomes clear that the production of movies is having a deleterious effect on the structure of reality. Ginger is possessed by an unspecified entity and she and Victor find an ancient, hidden cinema, complete with portal to the Dungeon Dimensions. Back in Ankh-Morpork, during the first screening of Blown Away (a parody of Gone with the Wind) which the senior wizards of the Unseen University are also attending, a creature from the Dungeon Dimensions breaks through. Victor fights it (in what eventually becomes a parody of the movie King Kong also featuring the Librarian of the Unseen University), having found out that when a camera points at him he's capable of doing scenes from films in real life. However, after the creature is defeated, Victor and the Librarian realise that the creatures will still try to get through from the Dungeon Dimensions and that Ginger in her possessed state was not trying to summon them but trying to keep them from coming through. Returning to the ancient cinema at Holy Wood, Victor and Ginger witness a golden statue of a warrior (reminiscent of an Oscar) come to life and travel through the screen to defeat the creatures. In the end most things return to normal (also because the Patrician and the wizards make it clear that they won't allow any more movies to be produced ever again), although dwarfs find themselves inexplicably singing "Hihohiho" while mining. Victor and Ginger have a last dialogue over the meaning of Holy Wood and being famous, and Gaspode and the other animals under the influence of Holy Wood lose their ability to reason and speak. The ending lines depict a poetic scene about the fragility of Holy Wood dreams. 

=====

Dave Garver is a KRML radio disc jockey who broadcasts nightly from a studio in Carmel-by-the- Sea, California, often incorporating poetry into his program. After work at his favorite bar, playing a nonsensical game involving corks and bottle caps with the barman as a device, he deliberately attracts the attention of a woman named Evelyn Draper. Dave drives her home, where she reveals that her presence in the bar was not accidental; it was she in fact who sought him out after hearing the bar mentioned on his radio show. He guesses correctly that she is the recurring caller who always requests the jazz standard "Misty." The two have sex. A casual relationship begins between Dave and Evelyn. But before long, Evelyn begins to display obsessive behavior. She shows up at Dave's house uninvited, follows him to work, and calls to demand that he not leave her alone for a single minute. The final straw comes when Evelyn disrupts a business meeting, mistaking Dave's lunch companion for his date. His efforts to gently sever ties with Evelyn lead her to attempt suicide in his home by slashing her wrists. After Dave rejects her again, Evelyn breaks into his home and his housekeeper finds her vandalizing his possessions. Evelyn stabs the housekeeper (who survives but is taken to the hospital) and is subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital. During Evelyn's incarceration, Dave rekindles a relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Tobie Williams. A few months later, Evelyn again calls the studio to request "Misty." She tells Dave that she has been released from the mental hospital and is moving to Hawaii for a fresh start in life. She then quotes an Edgar Allan Poe poem, "Annabel Lee." That night, while Dave is asleep, she sneaks into his house and tries to kill him with a large knife. He wakes up to see her standing over him wielding the knife, and as she screams and stabs downward, he rolls away from the descending knife (which plunges into his pillow) and he falls onto the floor; Evelyn flees, and he contacts the police. Dave tells Tobie about Evelyn and cautions her to stay away from him until the woman is caught. For her safety, she goes home. There, she meets with a girl who answered her ad for a roommate: Evelyn, using the alias Annabel. Tobie eventually realizes that Annabel is Evelyn when she sees the fresh scars on Evelyn's wrists, but before Tobie can escape, Evelyn takes her hostage. Evelyn also kills McCallum, a police detective who had come to check on Tobie. Dave makes the connection between Tobie's roommate and the quote from "Annabel Lee." When he calls Tobie to warn her, Evelyn answers and says she and Tobie are waiting for him. Dave switches from a live show to taped music and rushes to the house, where he finds Tobie bound and gagged. Evelyn attacks him with the butcher knife, slashing Dave multiple times. He punches Evelyn, knocking her through the window, over a railing, down onto the rocky shore below, killing her. He and Tobie leave the house as his voice on the radio show leads into the song "Misty." 

=====

As Jean Grey and Sabretooth returned from Earth-616, they meet the human coalition. It is also revealed that Jean had ordered much to Magneto's horror, the creation of clones of the Scarlet Witch, so they could use the spell Jean saw previously on Wolverine's mind that de-powered 99% of mutantkind. However Weapon X and his Black Legion attack the last human city where Weapon X himself slays both Magneto and Rogue, leaving Jean Grey and Sabretooth the last two X-Men alive (Sunfire had given his life to stop Archangel's plans on Earth-616, and Nightcrawler decided to stay on that reality to hunt down Dark Beast, Blob, Iceman and Sugar Man). Jean telepathically nudges clones of the Scarlet Witch to recreate the Decimation and remove all mutants' powers across the globe. However, this was only successful within a radius of 12 feet, so Jean Grey and Sabretooth are both left de-powered while Weapon X and his forces remained powered. The human coalition distracts Weapon X with a bomb long enough for the group to escape as the city explodes behind them.Uncanny X-Force #19.1 As the human coalition (X-Terminated Team, now including Jean Grey) continues to fight the forces of Weapon X, now renamed Weapon Omega, they find Harper Simmons, a human journalist from Earth-616 who was forced to come to the Age of Apocalypse while investigating the prison break of Sugar Man by Dark Beast on Earth-616. He creates a pamphlet that incites human and mutant riots against Weapon Omega, who is now bringing back deceased mutants like Emplate, Scott Summers and Alex Summers using energies siphoned from the celestial life seed. Harper Simons joins with the X-Terminated. Others who work with the X-Terminated are Doctor Moreau and Bolivar Trask.Age of Apocalypse #1 After discovering the resurrected Penance, he ordered his servants Azazel, Cyclops and Colossus to bring her into the fold. She initially refused and undid Colossus' brainwashing causing him to abandon Weapon Omega and serve Penance. A fight broke out but Azazel agreed to leave. He returned with Weapon Omega who demanded that Penance kneel before him which she did. Unbeknownst to Weapon Omega however Penance was also making deals with the Human Resistance.Age of Apocalypse #4 It was since been revealed that when the Celestials had come to Earth, they tried to resurrect Apocalypse by rewrite his genetic code to form a new body. After a small team of X-Men went investigate the ship they discovered that Apocalypse was already in the form of a child which Weapon X effectively kills despite Jean's pleas. With the death of the child, Weapon X took on the role of the Evolutionary Caretaker in an effort to spare his world from the Celestials wrath. Thus, he restarted the campaigns of extermination perpetrated by Apocalypse against the human race after being corrupted by the Seed.Age of Apocalypse #5 The X-Terminated later travel to Latveria so they could get the information they need to defeat Weapon Omega, as Doom had apparently managed to create a device capable of storing the Death Seed's powers which they aptly referred to as the "Apocalypse Force" from its host body and empowering it within a new user, however they are approached by the Queen, actually Doom's wife and former member of the Human High Council, Emma Frost, who had her telepathic powers returned to her and was now in league with Weapon Omega. The X-Terminated eventually gained the information they needed by killing Doom and removed the intel literally from his head. With the information they gained, the X-Terminated build the device, however, Weapon Omega after being alerted that Jean Grey was hiding out in the city, resolved to hunt his wife down himself, and vowed that if her humanity could not be cured, he would kill her himself. Jean Grey was ultimately responsible for removing the power of the Death Seed within her former lover and were absorbed by Jean as the next host. Thanks to her history with the Phoenix Force, though, Jean was strong enough to reject the power of the Death Seed and displaced it. After everything died down, Weapon Omega emerged from the rubble as Logan once again, his mind now clear of the corrupting force of the Death Seed. Unknown to him or Jean, however, the energies of the seed had in fact been contained by Bolivar Trask in a giant machine under the Nevada Desert. 

=====

The setting of the play is a Long Island mansion. The household consists of a pious, God-fearing tycoon named Joe Benjamin and his family: a long-suffering wife, Rose, a prodigal son, David, a pair of kooky twins, Ben and Sarah, and the maid and butler, Mady and Morris. One night a messenger from God, Sidney Lipton (with a big G on his sweatshirt) arrives, and, as in the biblical story, goes through all manner of temptations to get Joe Benjamin to renounce God. When he refuses, he is visited by all the afflictions imaginable. He stands firm and the messenger has to admit defeat. 

=====

Victorian adventurer and sexologist Sir Richard Francis Burton (John Robinson), following an "unfortunate encounter" with the Fountain of Youth in 1892, is 170 years old and living in Toronto, Canada. Burton, now living and working as the chief taxidermist at a museum of natural history, is searching for a centerpiece display for an exhibit in his Hall of Contagion. He comes up with the idea of featuring AIDS and the Patient Zero hypothesis. Accepting the popular belief that Zero introduced the virus to North America, Burton sets out to collect video footage from those who knew Zero to support the hypothesis. When Zero's doctor (Brenda Kamino), mother (Charlotte Boisjoli) and former airline colleague Mary (Dianne Heatherington), who is now with ACT UP, all refuse to demonize Zero, Burton manipulates the footage to make it appear as if they do and includes doctored photographs of Zero showing signs of Kaposi's sarcoma. He presents this preliminary version to the press. The ghost of Zero (Normand Fauteux) materializes at a local gay bathhouse. No one can see or hear him, until Zero runs into Burton while Burton is spying on Zero's friend George. Zero realizes that Burton can see him, although Zero does not show up on Burton's video camera. The two strike a deal; Zero agrees to help Burton with his Patient Zero exhibit if Burton finds a way to make Zero appear. The two return to the museum where Burton makes a ridiculous attempt to seduce Zero to ensure his participation. Rejecting his advances, Zero examines some of the other exhibits (including displays on Typhoid Mary and the Tuskegee syphilis study) before finding an African green monkey, another suspected early AIDS vector. The monkey (Marla Lukofsky) angrily denounces Zero for scapegoating her just as he has been scapegoated. Zero turns to Burton and they make love. Under pressure from his director and the exhibit's drug manufacturer sponsor, Burton steals Zero's medical records in hopes of discovering new information. Zero and Burton examine an old blood sample of Zero's under a microscope and discover Miss HIV (Michael Callen), who points out that the original study that was used to label Patient Zero as the first person to bring HIV to North America did not prove any such thing, but instead helped prove that HIV was sexually transmitted, leading to the development of safer sex practices. Under this interpretation, Zero could be lauded as a hero for his candor in participating in that original study. As Burton ponders this, an unknown fluid squirts from the eye pieces of the microscope, drenching Zero and making him appear on video. He joyously declares his innocence on tape but the effect only lasts five minutes before he fades away again. Zero angrily accuses Burton of not caring for him at all and only wanting to use him for the exhibit, then storms out. Burton fails to complete the revised Patient Zero exhibit before its scheduled opening date. The museum curator substitutes the original presentation instead over Burton's protests, leading to a renewed rush of press scapegoating Zero. The night after the exhibit opens, Mary and other ACT UP members break into the Hall of Contagion and trash the exhibit. Zero returns and Burton explains that he tried to stop the exhibit. Zero forgives Burton but says he wants to disappear again completely. Zero merges with his disfigured video image and, smoking a cigarette inside the video, sets off the fire alarm. The sprinklers destroy the video player and Zero vanishes. A major subplot involves George (Richardo Keens-Douglas), a French teacher and former intimate of Zero's. George is losing his sight to cytomegalovirus and is taking a drug that is manufactured by a company that, as a member of ACT UP, George is protesting. George struggles through the film to resolve his conflicted feelings over this, his guilt over abandoning Zero during the final days of his illness and his fear that the same thing will happen to him. 

=====

Princess Ozma and Dorothy travel to an obscure corner of the Land of Oz, in order to prevent a war between two local powers, the Skeezers and the Flatheads. The leaders of the two tribes prove obstinate, and are determined to fight in spite of Ozma and Dorothy. Unable to prevent the war, Dorothy and Ozma find themselves imprisoned on the Skeezers' glass- covered island, which has been magically submerged to the bottom of its lake. Their situation worsens when the warlike queen Coo-ee-oh, who is holding them captive and who alone knows how to raise the island back to the surface of the lake, loses her battle and gets transformed into a swan, forgetting all her magic in the process, and leaving the inhabitants of the island, with Ozma and Dorothy, trapped at the bottom of the lake. Ozma and Dorothy summon Glinda, who, with help from several magicians and magical assistants, must find a way to raise the island to the surface of the lake again, and liberate its inhabitants. 

=====

An unnamed narrator is visited by a tall Scots Bible-seller, who presents him with a very old cloth-bound book that he bought in India from an Untouchable. The book is emblazoned with the title "Holy Writ," below which title is emblazoned "Bombay," but is said to be called "The Book of Sand"..."because neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end." Upon opening it, he is startled to discover that the book, which is written in an unknown language and occasionally punctuated by illustrations, is, in fact, infinite: as one turns the pages, more pages seem to grow out of the front and back covers. He trades a month of his pension and a prized "Wiclif Bible" for the book and hides it on a bookshelf behind his copy of One Thousand and One Nights. Over the summer, the narrator obsesses over the book, poring over it, cataloging its illustrations and refusing to go outside for fear of its theft. In the end, realizing that the book is monstrous, he briefly considers burning it before fearing the possibility of the endless supply of smoke suffocating the world. Instead, he goes to the National Library where he once worked (like Borges) to leave the book among the basement bookshelves, reasoning that "the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest." 

=====

The novel is narrated by a 13-year-old girl named Salamanca (Sal). Sal's mother has recently left Sal's father, and Sal's grandparents are taking her on a cross- country car trip to Lewiston, Idaho to see her mother. Sal loves nature and was very close to her mother before she left. On the trip, Sal entertains her grandparents by telling a story about her friend in Euclid, Ohio, Phoebe Winterbottom, whose mother suddenly disappeared and left their family too, and about Ben Finney with whom Sal begins a tight relationship. Throughout the book, as Sal's story unfolds and their car travels west, she reveals more details about Phoebe, and why her story reminds Salamanca of her own. The more she tells her grandparents of Phoebe's story, the more she feels like her story is connected to Phoebe's story. 

=====

As Timon and Pumbaa watch the original film in a theater, Timon decides to fast- forward to their scenes. Pumbaa's protest over this eventually prompts Timon to share his backstory, going back to before the beginning of the movie. Timon is a social outcast in his meerkat colony on the outskirts of the Pride Lands due to frequently messing things up by accident. Though he is unconditionally supported by his mother, Timon dreams for more in life than his colony's bleak existence hiding from predators. One day, he is assigned as a sentry, but his daydreaming nearly leads to the death of his Uncle Max by Scar's hyena minions Shenzi, Banzai and Ed. Convinced that he will never fit in with the other meerkats, Timon decides to leave to find a better life. He meets the mandrill Rafiki, who teaches him about "Hakuna Matata" and advises him to "look beyond what you see". Timon takes the advice literally and observes Pride Rock in the distance. Believing Pride Rock to be his paradise home, Timon ventures there and encounters Pumbaa on his way. The two quickly form a bond and Pumbaa accompanies Timon. The pair arrive at Pride Rock during the presentation of Simba to the Pride Lands' animals. As they make their way through the crowd of onlookers, Pumbaa explosively passes gas due to his fear of crowds, causing nearby animals to faint, but prompting animals further away to bow to Simba. Following this, Timon and Pumbaa make multiple attempts to set up homes throughout the Pride Lands, but wind up being forced away every time after witnessing several events from the original film, such as Simba singing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", Mufasa's fight with the hyenas, and Scar's conspiring with the hyenas. Eventually, the pair are caught in the wildebeest stampede that killed Mufasa, and are thrown off a waterfall in their attempt to escape. Exhausted, Timon decides to give up, until Pumbaa discovers a luxurious green jungle he tried to tell Timon about earlier. They finally settle there with the philosophy of Hakuna Matata. Eventually, Timon and Pumbaa encounter Simba in a nearby desert, nearly dead. They rescue him and decide to raise him under their philosophy. Years later, Nala appears and reunites with Simba after chasing and mistaking Pumbaa for food. Believing Hakuna Matata to be in jeopardy, Timon and Pumbaa attempt to sabotage their dates, but fail every time. After they witness Simba and Nala's argument, Simba disappears. Nala explains that he had run off to challenge Scar and reclaim Pride Rock, so that they need their help. Upset that Simba left them, Timon unsuccessfully tries to persuade Pumbaa to stay, but Pumbaa follows Simba and Nala. Timon indulges in the jungle's luxuries by himself, but loneliness starts to overcome him. Rafiki appears again and indirectly helps Timon realize that his true Hakuna Matata is with the ones he loves, prompting Timon to take off after Pumbaa, Simba and Nala. Timon catches up and reconciles with Pumbaa, before they journey onward to Pride Rock. After helping Simba and Nala distract the hyenas, Timon and Pumbaa run into Ma and Uncle Max, who came looking for Timon, who introduces Pumbaa to them. Timon proposes that they all help Simba by getting rid of Scar and the hyenas. While Simba battles Scar, Ma and Uncle Max are directed to construct a series of tunnels beneath the hyenas, as at the same time, Timon and Pumbaa use various tactics to distract them while the tunnel is being made. When the tunnels are finished, Max knocks down the support beams, breaking the ground under the hyenas. However, the last few get jammed, prompting Timon to dive underground and break them himself. The cave-in commences, and the hyenas are ejected through the tunnels in time to confront Scar and kill him. Simba accepts his place as the rightful king of the Pride Lands, thanking Timon and Pumbaa for his help. Timon takes Pumbaa, Ma, Uncle Max, and the meerkat colony to live in the predator-free jungle to complete his Hakuna Matata, and he is praised as their hero. Once the final scene of the story takes place in the dark theater, Ma, Uncle Max, Simba, Rafiki, and eventually many other Disney characters join Timon and Pumbaa to rewatch the film in the theater in which Pumbaa tells Timon that he 'still doesn't do well in crowds', ending the movie. 

=====

In the winter of 180 AD, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius fights to keep Germanic tribes from invading his northern territories on the Danube frontier (a war which in fact had been ongoing for over a decade, with no end in sight as of 180). His deputies are the Greek ex-slave Timonides, a closet Christian, and the stern and honest general Gaius Livius. Livius has close connections with the imperial family, being the lover of Aurelius' philosopher daughter Lucilla and a friend of her brother Commodus. Nevertheless, he is amazed to hear that Aurelius wants to make him his heir. Despite his military obligations the emperor has egalitarian ideals, dreaming of a day when Rome grants equal rights to men of all nations. He knows that he will not live to achieve this end, and trusts Livius to do so more than his charismatic but brutal son. The discovery that his father has effectively disinherited him hurts Commodus immensely, and damages the almost brotherly relationship he had enjoyed with Livius. Aurelius summons all the governors of the Roman Empire to his headquarters, intending to announce Livius' future accession. Before he can do so he is poisoned by Commodus' cronies, who hope to secure their own political future by putting their friend on the throne. Sure enough, Livius feels that a non-aristocrat such as himself would never be accepted as emperor without Aurelius' explicit backing; he lets his old friend take the position instead. Commodus, who was not part of the murder plot, is left feeling helplessly angry at his deceased father. He dedicates himself to undoing all of Aurelius' policies; this involves blatant favoritism towards Rome and Italy, which are enriched by ferocious taxation of the provinces that were to be their equals. Meanwhile, Livius' army scores an important victory on the frontier, capturing the German chieftain Ballomar and his aides. Timonides wins the Germans' trust by successfully undergoing an ordeal, having his hand thrust in a fire; with his help, Livius decides to put Aurelius' policy into effect despite disapproval from Commodus. Lucilla helps convince Livius to defy the emperor, since she loved her father as much as Commodus hates him. A speech by Timonides persuades the Roman Senate to let the German captives become peaceful farmers on Italian land, thereby encouraging their fellow barbarians to cooperate with Rome instead of fighting it. Outraged, Commodus sends Livius back to the northern frontier and Lucilla to Armenia, with whose king, Sohaemus, she shares a loveless political marriage. Lucilla organizes a revolt in Rome’s eastern provinces, where a famine has been exacerbated by the new taxes. Commodus sends his northern army against the rebels, knowing that Livius will put aside personal feelings and fight to preserve the unity of the Roman Empire. As the opposing Roman armies meet for battle, Sohaemus arrives, uninvited, and attacks Livius with both the Armenian army and cavalry borrowed from Rome's archenemy the Persians. The rebels patriotically decide to fight Persia instead of Rome, joining with Livius and helping him to vanquish Sohaemus. As a reward Commodus declares Livius his co-emperor, but only on condition that the northern army inflicts hideous punishments on the provinces that rebelled. Rejecting this latest piece of brutality, Livius and Lucilla take their army to Rome and order Commodus to abdicate. He responds by bribing away the soldiers' loyalty and massacring Timonides and the population of the German colony (the latter action ensuring centuries of future hostility between Romans and Germans). The fawning Senate declares Commodus a god, and Livius and Lucilla are sentenced to be burned alive as human sacrifices to the new deity. This victory for Commodus is accompanied by a terrible private discovery – he is not of royal blood, being the product of illicit sex between his promiscuous mother Faustina Minor and the gladiator Verulus, who has since served as the emperor's bodyguard. His mind unhinged by this great shame, Commodus makes the bizarre decision of challenging Livius to a duel for the throne. The two fight with javelins in the Roman Forum, and Livius eventually runs Commodus through. The Senate hastily offer to make Livius emperor, but he refuses; the Roman government is now too corrupt for him to fix. He slips away with Lucilla, leaving Commodus' old advisers to bicker about who will take the emperor's place. A voice-over epilogue states that this political infighting continued for the rest of Roman history, leading to the imperial government's eventual collapse. 

=====

The Teutonic Knights invade and conquer the city of Pskov with the help of the traitor Tverdilo and massacre its population. In the face of resistance by the boyars and merchants of Novgorod (urged on by the monk Ananias), Nevsky rallies the common people of Novgorod and in a decisive Battle of the Ice, on the surface of the frozen Lake Chudskoe, they defeat the Teutonic knights. The story ends in the retaken Pskov, where the ordinary foot-soldiers are set free, the surviving Teutonic knights will be held for ransom, and Tverdilo is swarmed over by the vengeful people (and supposedly torn to pieces). A subplot throughout the film concerns Vasili Buslai and Gavrilo Oleksich, two famous warriors from Novgorod and friends, who become commanders of the Novgorod forces and who engage in a contest of courage and fighting skill throughout the Battle on the Ice in order to decide which of them will win the hand of Olga Danilovna, a Novgorod maiden whom both of them are courting. Vasilisa, the daughter of a boyar of Pskov killed by the Germans, joins the Novgorod forces as a front-line soldier, and she and Vasili fight side by side (which makes a strong impression on Vasili); she also personally slays the traitor Ananias. After both Gavrilo and Vasili have been seriously wounded, Vasili publicly states that neither he nor Gavrilo was the bravest in battle: that honor goes to Vasilisa, and that after her came Gavrilo. Thus Gavrilo and Olga are united, while Vasili chooses Vasilisa as his bride-to-be (with her unspoken consent). 

=====

On a cold winter day in Chicago, Calvin Palmer Jr. (Ice Cube) decides he has had enough of trying to keep open the barbershop his father handed down to him. He cannot borrow, revenues are falling, and he seems more interested in get-rich-quick schemes to bring in easy money. Without telling his employees or the customers, he sells the barbershop to a greedy loan shark, Lester Wallace (Keith David), who secretly plans to turn it into a strip club. After spending a day at work, and realizing just how vital the barbershop is to the surrounding community, Calvin rethinks his decision and tries to get the shop back - only to find out Wallace wants double the $20,000 he paid Calvin to return it, and before 7 pm that day. Right after he admits to the employees that he sold the barber shop, and that it would be closing at the end of the day, the police arrive to arrest one of the barbers, Ricky (Michael Ealy). He is accused of driving his pickup truck into a nearby market to steal an ATM, but it's revealed that Ricky's cousin J.D. (Anthony Anderson) committed the crime after borrowing Ricky's truck. As this would be Ricky's 'third strike', he could be sentenced to life in prison. Calvin uses the $20,000 from Lester to bail Ricky out of jail, but because J.D. was going to let Ricky take the fall without remorse, Ricky is still angry. Calvin reveals that he found a gun in Ricky's locker in the barbershop and shows it to him. They stop the car and Ricky throws the gun into the river, proving that he does not want to get into any more trouble. Then they both go to confront Lester, as well as J.D. and Billy (Lahmard Tate), who took the ATM to Lester's place without his knowledge, still trying to pry it open. Calvin and Ricky demand that Lester give the barbershop back. Angered, Lester orders his bodyguard Monk (Kevin Morrow) to pull out his gun. The police arrive just in time to save Calvin and Ricky and arrest J.D. and Billy. Calvin and Ricky see the ATM, and get a $50,000 reward for returning it to police. They get the money, and the barbershop reopens with even better business than before. In the meantime, Calvin's wife Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis) has given birth to a baby boy. 

=====

Rabbi Avram Belinski (Wilder), newly graduated at the bottom of his class from the yeshiva, arrives in Philadelphia from Poland en route to San Francisco where he will be a congregation's new rabbi. He has with him a Torah scroll for the San Francisco synagogue. Belinski, an innocent, trusting, and inexperienced traveler, falls in with three con men, the brothers Matt and Darryl Diggs and their partner Mr. Jones, who trick him into helping pay for a wagon and supplies to go west, then brutally rob him and leave him and most of his belongings scattered along a deserted road in Pennsylvania. Still determined to make it to San Francisco, Belinski comes upon a colony of Pennsylvania Dutch Amish people, whom at first he takes for Jews. The Amish take care of Belinski and give him money for the train going west. When he reaches the end of the line in Ohio, the rabbi manages to find work on the railroad until he saves up enough money to buy a horse and some supplies. On his way west again, he is befriended and looked after by a stranger named Tommy Lillard (Ford), a bank robber with a soft heart who is moved by Belinski's helplessness and frank personality, despite the trouble it occasionally gives him. For instance, when Lillard robs a bank on a Thursday, he finds that Belinski (an Orthodox Jew) will not ride on the Shabbat even with a hanging posse on his tail. However, they still manage to get away, mainly because with the horses rested from having been walked for a full day, they are fresh and able to ride all night, outdistancing their pursuers. The two also experience American Indian customs and hospitality, disrupt a Trappist monastery's vow of silence with an innocent gesture of gratitude, and learn a little about each other's culture. While stopping in a small town not too far from San Francisco, Belinski encounters the Diggs brothers and Jones again. He gets into a fight with the three of them and, after taking a beating, is rescued by Lillard, who takes back what they had stolen from Belinski and more besides. Seeking revenge, the three bandits follow the pair and ambush them on a California beach where they have stopped to bathe. A firefight ensues; Tommy shoots Jones dead and creases Matt Diggs, who flees the scene. Belinski experiences a crisis of faith when he is forced to kill Darryl Diggs in self-defense after Darryl wounded Tommy. Lillard restores his faith by an eloquent argument with simple language, reminding him that he still is what he is inside, despite what he had to do on the beach. When Matt Diggs, sole survivor of the ambushing trio, prepares to avenge his brother by killing Belinski and Lillard springs to his friend's defense, Belinski, regaining his composure, shows his wisdom and courage in front of the entire community by disarming and exiling Diggs from San Francisco. The film ends with Belinski marrying Rosalie Bender, younger daughter of the head of San Francisco's Jewish community, with Lillard attending the ceremony as his best man. 

=====

Paul Sheldon, the author of the best-selling series of Victorian-era romance novels featuring the character Misery Chastain, has finished the series' final installment, Misery's Child, in which Misery is killed off. After completing the manuscript for his new crime novel, Fast Cars, which he hopes will receive serious literary acclaim and kickstart his post-Misery career, Paul acts on an alcohol-induced impulse to drive to Los Angeles instead of flying back home to New York City. He is caught in a snowstorm in a remote section of Colorado and crashes his car. He awakens to find that he has been rescued by Annie Wilkes, a local former nurse who is a devoted fan of the Misery series. She keeps Paul in her guest bedroom and refuses to take him to the hospital despite his severely broken legs, and nurses him herself using her illicit stash of codeine-based painkillers, to which Paul quickly becomes addicted; Annie withholds pills in order to threaten and manipulate Paul. She begins reading Misery's Child and coerces permission to read the manuscript of Fast Cars, but disapproves of the darker subject matter and profanity. Paul soon assesses that Annie is mentally unstable; she is prone to trailing off into catatonic episodes and has bouts of unreasonable rage. When she learns of Misery's death, she leaves Paul alone in her house for over two days, depriving him of food, water, and painkillers. Upon Annie's return, she forces a weakened Paul to burn the manuscript for Fast Cars in exchange for his painkillers. Annie sets up an office for Paul – consisting of an antique Royal typewriter with a non-functional N-key, writing paper and a wheelchair – for the purpose of writing a new Misery novel that will bring the character back from the dead. Biding his time and likening himself to Sheherezade, Paul begins a new book, Misery's Return, and allows Annie to read the work in progress and fill in the missing Ns. The text includes excerpts of the new book as Paul writes. Paul manages to escape his room using his wheelchair on several occasions, searching for more painkillers and exploring the house. He discovers a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings that reveal Annie to be a serial killer; her victims included a neighboring family, her own father, her college roommate, a hitchhiker with whom she had a brief fling, and, while she worked as a nurse, many elderly or critically injured patients and eleven infants, the last resulting in her standing trial but being acquitted in Denver. Annie reveals that she knows Paul has been leaving his room, then punishes him by cutting off his foot with an axe and cauterizing his ankle with a blowtorch, "hobbling" him. Months pass; after Paul complains that more typewriter keys have broken and refuses to tell Annie how the novel ends before he has written it, she cuts off his thumb with an electric knife. A state trooper arrives at Annie's house in search of Paul. When Paul attempts to alert him, Annie murders the officer by running him over with her riding lawnmower. The disappearance of the state trooper results in attention on Annie from law enforcement and the media. Annie relocates Paul to the basement and it becomes clear that she does not intend to let him live. After Misery's Return is finished, Paul lights a decoy copy of the manuscript on fire, which Annie attempts to save. He engages her in a violent struggle which renders her unconscious. Paul is able to alert the police when they return in search of the dead officer. Annie is found dead from her injuries in the barn, apparently on her way to murder Paul with a chainsaw. After Paul has returned to New York, Misery's Return is set to be published and becomes an international bestseller due to the interest in the circumstances it was written under. Paul resists the suggestion to write a nonfiction account of his own experiences. He is able to walk with a prothesis but suffers nightmares about Annie and continues to have withdrawal from painkillers, copes with alcoholism, and struggles with writer's block. When Paul gains random inspiration to write a new story, he weeps both for his shattered life and in the joy that he is finally able to write again. 

=====

The Monk has two main plotlines. The first concerns the corruption and downfall of the monk Ambrosio, and his interactions with the demon in disguise Matilda and the virtuous maiden Antonia. The subplot follows the romance of Raymond and the nun Agnes. At various points, the novel also includes several extended anecdotes of characters with Gothic backstories who tell their tales. Newly arrived in Madrid, Antonia goes to hear a sermon by Ambrosio, who had been left at the abbey as an infant and is now a famously celebrated monk. She meets Lorenzo, who falls in love with her. Lorenzo visits his sister Agnes, a nun at the nearby abbey. He sees someone delivering a letter for Agnes from Raymond. Later, Ambrosio is visited by nuns, including Agnes, for confession. When Agnes confesses that she is pregnant with Raymond's child, Ambrosio turns her over to the Prioress of her abbey for punishment. Ambrosio's closest friend among the monks reveals that he is a woman named Matilda, who disguised herself to be near Ambrosio. While picking a rose for her, Ambrosio is bitten by a serpent and falls deathly ill. Matilda nurses him. When he recovers, Matilda reveals that she sucked the poison from Ambrosio's wound and is now dying herself. At the point of her death, Matilda begs him to make love to her, and he succumbs to the temptation. Lorenzo confronts Raymond about his relationship with his sister Agnes. Raymond tells their long history. Raymond was travelling in Germany when a carriage accident stranded him at a cottage owned by a bandit who kills and robs travellers. Thanks to a warning from the bandit's wife, Raymond avoided being killed, and escaped with a Baroness who was also staying at the cottage. Visiting the Baroness afterward, Raymond fell in love with her niece Agnes. However, the Baroness was in love with Raymond; when he refused her advances, she made arrangements to send Agnes to a convent. Raymond and Agnes made plans to elope. Agnes planned to dress as the Bleeding Nun, a ghost who haunts the castle and exits its gates at midnight. Raymond accidentally eloped with the real ghost of the real Bleeding Nun. Exorcizing the ghost of the Bleeding Nun required assistance from the Wandering Jew. When he was free, he found Agnes in the convent. There he seduced Agnes. When she discovered that she was pregnant, she begged him to help her escape. When Raymond finishes his story, Lorenzo agrees to help him elope with Agnes. He acquires a papal bull, releasing Agnes from her vows as a nun so that she may marry Raymond. However, when he shows it to the Prioress, she tells Lorenzo that Agnes died several days before. Lorenzo does not believe it, but after two months, there is no other word concerning Agnes. In the meantime, Lorenzo has secured his family's blessing for his marriage with Antonia. After having sex with Ambrosio, Matilda performs a ritual in the cemetery which cures her of the poison. She and Ambrosio continue to be secret lovers, but Ambrosio grows tired of her. Ambrosio meets Antonia and is immediately attracted to her. He begins visiting Antonia's mother Elvira regularly, hoping to seduce Antonia. During a visit, Ambrosio embraces Antonia, but she resists him. Elvira enters, and tells him to stop visiting. Matilda tells Ambrosio she can help him gain Antonia's charms, the same way she was healed of the poison: witchcraft. Ambrosio is horrified. However, when she shows him a magic mirror that shows him Antonia bathing, he agrees. Matilda and Ambrosio return to the cemetery, where Matilda calls up Lucifer, who appears young and handsome. He gives Matilda a magic myrtle bough, which will allow Ambrosio to open any door, as well as satisfy his lust on Antonia without her knowing who is her ravisher. Ambrosio accepts, without, he believes, selling himself to the devil. To try to find Agnes, Raymond's servant disguises himself as a beggar and goes to the convent. As he leaves, Mother St. Ursula gives him a basket of gifts, concealing a note that tells Raymond to have the cardinal arrest both Mother St. Ursula and the Prioress for Agnes's murder. Ambrosio uses the magic bough to enter Antonia's bedroom. He is on the point of raping her when Elvira arrives and confronts him. In panic, Ambrosio murders Elvira and returns to the abbey, unsatisfied in his lust and horrified that he has now become a murderer. Antonia, grief-stricken at the death of her mother, sees her mother's ghost. Terrified, Antonia faints and is found by her landlady, who asks Ambrosio to come help. Matilda helps Ambrosio acquire a concoction that will put Antonia in a deathlike coma. While attending to Antonia, Ambrosio administers the poison, and Antonia appears to die. Lorenzo arrives back in Madrid with a representative of the Inquisition. During a procession honouring Saint Clare, the Prioress is arrested. Mother St. Ursula publicly describes Agnes's death at the hand of the sisters. When the procession crowd hears that the Prioress is a murderer, they turn into a rioting mob. They kill the Prioress, begin attacking other nuns, and set the convent on fire. In the confusion, Lorenzo finds a group of nuns and a young woman named Virginia hiding in the crypt. Lorenzo discovers a passage leading down into a dungeon, where he finds Agnes, alive and holding the dead body of the baby she had given birth to while abandoned in the dungeon. With Virginia's help, Lorenzo rescues Agnes and the other nuns from the crypt. Meanwhile, Antonia awakens from her drugged sleep in the crypt, and Ambrosio rapes her. Afterwards, he is as disgusted with Antonia as he was with Matilda, who comes to warn him about the riot. Ambrosio kills Antonia in her attempt to escape. Virginia visits Lorenzo as he is recovering from his grief and the two become closer. Agnes tells the story of her miserable experience in the dungeon at length. Agnes and Raymond are married, and the couple leaves Madrid for Raymond's castle, accompanied by Lorenzo and Virginia, who are also eventually married. Ambrosio and Matilda are brought before the Inquisition. Matilda confesses her guilt and is sentenced to be burned to death. Before the sentence is carried out she sells her soul to the devil in exchange for her freedom and her life. Ambrosio insists upon his innocence and is tortured. He is visited by Matilda, who tells him to yield his soul to Satan. Ambrosio again proclaims his innocence, but when faced with torture, he admits to his sins of rape, murder and sorcery and is condemned to burn. In despair, Ambrosio asks Lucifer to save his life, who tells him it will be at the cost of his soul. Ambrosio is reluctant to give up the hope of God's forgiveness, but Lucifer tells him that there is none. After much resistance, Ambrosio signs the contract. Lucifer transports him from his cell to the wilderness. Lucifer informs him that Elvira was his mother, making Antonia his sister, adding to his crimes the sin of incest. Lucifer reveals that it has long been his plan to gain Ambrosio's soul, and Matilda was a demon helping him. Lucifer then points out the loophole in the deal Ambrosio struck: Ambrosio only asked to get out of his cell. Lucifer has completed his side of the deal and is now free to kill Ambrosio and claim his soul. He carries Ambrosio into the sky and drops him onto rocks below. Ambrosio suffers for six days before dying alone and damned for eternity. 

=====

José Hernández, author 

=====

Set in the Argentine Pampa, a Gaucho named Martín Fierro, he lives a simple life on his ranch with his family. One of his great talents is singing at the Pulperia. He sings about how the Gauchos are discriminated against and mistreated. One day when he is singing at the Pulperia in a riada was made at the Pulperia, many Gauchos escaped but not Fierro (because he saw no danger). The Judge hates Fierro because Martín never voted, and then he is sent to the border to fight in the border at a small fort. At the fort, he is forced to work hard and fight against the Indians. He escapes during a malón (an Indian raid) on a horse. Afterward he spends a year in poverty and waiting for some money. He is captured and his commander punishes him. He waits for another malón to escape. One night a drunken Gringo shoots Fierro, but Fierro is not hurt. He escapes on a horse and returns to his ranch, but three years have passed. He is now a deserter. His home and family are gone. Furious and sad, he becomes a fugitive. He is persecuted by the law. During a party he offends a black woman and kills her companion. Fierro later kills another gaucho. During a fight with a policemen, he befriends a police officer named Cruz, and at the end they go to live with the Indians. 

=====

The film is a two-person drama featuring Olivier as Mr. Joseph Halpern, an elderly working class British Jewish widower and Gleason as Mr. Ernest Johnson, a dapper American retired accountant. At the funeral of his wife, Florence, Mr. Halpern meets Mr. Johnson, who surprises him with the disclosure that he and Florence had maintained a close friendship for the last 40 years. Six weeks later, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson meet for a drink at a hotel. A long conversation ensues that reveals aspects of himself and one has been in love with the other's wife for 30 years. At the end, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson agree to meet again. There are two locations in the movie: a New York hotel and a New Jersey cemetery. The hotel scene was filmed at the HTV West Studio on Bath Road in Bristol, England and the cemetery scenes were filmed outside Bristol. 

=====

The book is about a young lad, Nils Holgersson, whose "chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief". He takes great delight in hurting the animals in his family farm. Nils captures a tomte in a net while his family are at church and have left him home to memorize chapters from the Bible. The tomte proposes to Nils that if Nils frees him, the tomte will give him a huge gold coin. Nils rejects the offer and the tomte turns Nils into a tomte, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge. While this is happening, wild geese are flying over the farm on one of their migrations, and Martin, the farm's white goose attempts to join the wild ones. In an attempt to salvage something before his family returns, Nils holds on to Martin's neck as he successfully takes off and joins the wild birds. The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually take them on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden observing in passing their natural characteristics and economic resources. At the same time the characters and situations he encounters make him a man: the domestic goose needs to prove his ability to fly like the experienced wild geese, and Nils needs to prove to the geese that he would be a useful companion, despite their initial misgivings. During the trip, Nils learns that if he proves he has changed for the better, the tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size. The book also includes various subplots, concerning people and animals whose lives are touched in one way or another by Nils and the wild geese. For example, one chapter centers on a provincial man who feels lonely and alienated in the capital Stockholm, is befriended by a nice old gentleman who tells him (and the reader) about the city's history - and only later finds that it was none other than the King of Sweden, walking incognito in the park. The book was criticized for the fact that the goose and boy don't make any stop in the province Halland. In chapter 53 they fly over Halland on the way back to Scania, but they aren't impressed by the sight and they don't stop. However, such a chapter has been added to some translations of the book. In depictions Nils is usually wearing a red cap, although this is erroneous as he is described in the original Swedish edition as wearing a white cap.Chapter IX. Karlskrona 

=====

The story begins on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and continues for roughly five years. Ward Littell, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent turned high- powered Mafia lawyer, arrives in Dallas with J. Edgar Hoover's blessing to "manage" the investigation and ensure a consensus: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Pete Bondurant, whom Littell once arrested, but now is an uneasy friend and partner, is a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's war against Fidel Castro and now the point-man for the Mafia's Las Vegas operations. Wayne Tedrow, Jr., a US Army veteran and Las Vegas Police Department officer, is paid six thousand dollars to fly to Dallas and murder Wendell Durfee, a black pimp who has offended the casinos, and is thus thrust into the assassination's aftermath. As the tension over race relations and the Vietnam War builds and explodes throughout the decade, all three become involved in plots to kill Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. 

=====

The series follows Sousuke Sagara, a member of a covert anti- terrorist private military organization known as Mithril, tasked with protecting Kaname Chidori, a spirited Japanese high school girl. He moves to Japan to study at Chidori's school, Jindai High School, with assistance from his comrades Kurz Weber and Melissa Mao. Having never experienced social interactions, Sousuke is seen as a military maniac by his schoolmates as he interprets everyday situations from a combat perspective. He comes to relate with Chidori who realizes that Sousuke is protecting her, but he does not reveal the reasons due to orders as well as the fact that he does not know why Chidori is being targeted by different organizations. 

=====

Over a century ago, wealthy landowner Edward Gracey (Nathaniel Parker) falls in love with Elizabeth Henshaw, a multiracial servant in his grand manor. However, he receives a letter informing him that she spurned him, and that her death by poison was suicide; he hangs himself in despair. In the present, Jim (Eddie Murphy) and Sara Evers (Marsha Thomason) are successful realtors with two children, Megan (Aree Davis) and arachnophobic Michael (Marc John Jefferies). A workaholic with little time for his family, Jim misses his wedding anniversary and tries to make amends by suggesting a vacation to a nearby lake. Sara is contacted by the occupants of Gracey Manor in the Louisiana bayou; Jim, eager to make a deal after learning where the mansion is, takes Sara and the children to the mansion, meeting its owner Edward Gracey, his butler Ramsley (Terence Stamp) and two other servants; maid Emma (Dina Spybey), and footman Ezra (Wallace Shawn). When a rainstorm floods the nearby river, Gracey allows the family to stay the night. Ramsley takes Jim to the library discuss the deal with Gracey, but Jim becomes trapped in a secret passage. Gracey gives Sara a tour of the mansion, discussing his past and his grandfather's death after the suicide of his lover, Elizabeth. Megan and Michael follow a spectral orb to the attic, where they find a portrait of a woman that bears an almost identical resemblance to Sara. Emma and Ezra identify this woman as Elizabeth. Jim, meanwhile, encounters Madame Leota, the ghost of a gypsy whose head is encased in a crystal ball. He runs into Emma, Ezra, and his children, and returns to Leota for answers about Elizabeth's likeness to Sara. It is then revealed that the mansion’s inhabitants are ghosts, cursed a century ago by Gracey and Elizabeth's untimely deaths, and can only enter the afterlife when the lovers are reunited; Gracey, therefore, believes Sara is Elizabeth's reincarnation. Leota then sends the Evers to the mansion's cemetery to find a key that will reveal the truth behind Elizabeth's death. In a crypt beneath a mausoleum, Jim and Megan find the key, but inadvertently disturb its undead residents. However, they escape with help from Michael, who overcomes his arachnophobia in the process. Leota leads them to a trunk in the attic, which Jim unlocks to find a letter from Elizabeth to Gracey, revealing she truly loved him and wanted to marry him, indicating that she was murdered. Ramsley then appears and reveals he killed Elizabeth to prevent Gracey from abandoning his heritage, as he believed their relationship was unacceptable. To hide the truth, Ramsley traps the children in a trunk and literally throws Jim out of the mansion. As Gracey and Sara rendezvous in the ballroom, she is confused when he asks if she recognizes him, and he insists she is his beloved Elizabeth. The room fills with dancing ghosts, and Gracey reveals his ghostly self, but Sara insists she is not Elizabeth. This gives Gracey second thoughts, but Ramsley insists they have found Elizabeth and, in time, she will remember. Ramsley blackmails Sara into marrying Gracey in exchange for her children's safety. Encouraged by Leota, Jim drives his car through the mansion's conservatory, rescues his children, and stops Sara and Gracey's wedding. He gives Elizabeth's letter to Gracey, revealing the truth about her death and Ramsley’s lies. Gracey angrily confronts Ramsley, who rages at his master's apparent selfishness for loving Elizabeth and summons wraiths to attack the group. However, a fiery dragon emerges from the ballroom's fireplace and seizes Ramsley, who attempts to take Jim with him, but Gracey saves Jim as Ramsley is dragged down to Hell to face eternal damnation for his sins. Sara collapses, having been poisoned by Ramsley, but the spectral orb appears and, possessing Sara, is revealed to be Elizabeth's ghost. Elizabeth and Gracey reunite, and Sara is subsequently revived. With the curse finally lifted, Gracey gives the Evers the deed to the mansion and departs to Heaven with Elizabeth, Emma, Ezra, and the mansion's other inhabitants. The Evers drive across the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway for a proper vacation, accompanied by Leota, and four singing busts they encountered while searching for the mausoleum strapped to the back of their car. In a post-credits scene, Leota bids farewell to the audience, inviting them to join the dead using dialogue from the Disneyland attraction. 

=====

The Jiajing Emperor's ruthlessness and lecherous life also led to an internal plot by his concubines and palace maids to assassinate him in October, 1542 by strangling him while he slept. His pursuit of eternal life led him to believe that one of the elixirs of extending his life was to force virgin palace maids to collect menstrual blood for his consumption. These arduous tasks were performed non-stop even when the palace maids were taken ill and any unwilling participants were executed on the Emperor's whim. A group of palace maids who had had enough of the emperor's cruelty decided to band together to murder him in an event known as the Renyin Plot (). The lead palace maid tried to strangle the emperor with ribbons from her hair while the others held down the emperor's arms and legs but made a fatal mistake by tying a knot around the emperor's neck which would not tighten. Meanwhile, some of the young palace maids involved began to panic and one (Zhang Jinlian) ran to the empress. The plot was exposed and on the orders of the empress and some officials, all of the palace maids involved, including the emperor's favourite concubine (Consort Duan) and another concubine (Consort Ning, née Wang), were ordered to be executed by slow slicing and their families were killed.端妃曹氏与嘉靖宫变萬曆野獲編, vol.18 The Jiajing Emperor later determined that Consort Duan had been innocent, and dictated that their daughter, Luzheng, be raised by Imperial Noble Consort Shen. The Jiajing Emperor on his state barge, from a scroll painted in 1538 by unknown court artists A porcelain vase with glazed fish designs, from the Jiajing era. 

=====

All the plots of the installments in the Silent Hill series, except Shattered Memories and The Room, share a common setting: the foggy rural American town of Silent Hill, which is a fictional location set in the northeastern United States: some games specifically reference the town as being located in Maine whereas in the film, the town is set in West Virginia. The town in the first three games was inspired by concepts of a small town in America as depicted by various media from various countries of origin. While some of the development planning is more reminiscent of that of a Japanese village, indirect influence comes from perhaps two factual American towns in particular: Cushing, Maine; and Snoqualmie, Washington. The town from the film series, however, was inspired by Centralia, Pennsylvania. Silent Hill is depicted in Shattered Memories as a heavily snow covered town in the midst of a blizzard, while the events of The Room primarily occur in the fictional neighboring city of South Ashfield, with the player venturing forth to smaller locales around Silent Hill. The series' player characters experience an occasional dark alteration of reality called the "Otherworld". In that reality, physical law often does not apply, with varying forms but most frequently ones whose physical appearance is based on that of Silent Hill, and the series' characters experience delusions and encounter tangible symbols of elements from their unconscious minds, mental states, and innermost thoughts when present in it, manifested into the real world. The origin of these manifestations is a malevolent power native to Silent Hill, which materializes human thoughts; this force was formerly non- evil, but was corrupted by the occurrence of certain events in the area. Recurring monsters include the Nurses who are included in almost every Silent Hill game; Pyramid Head, another recurring monster who became the series mascot; and Robbie the Rabbit, an amusement park mascot. A dog named Mira is also included in many joke endings. Another recurring plot trait in the Silent Hill series is a fictional religious cult known only as The Order. The organization has certain members who act as antagonists in most of the series' installments (such as Dahlia in the first and prequel, Claudia in 3, Walter in The Room, and Judge Holloway in Homecoming), and operates the "Wish House" (also called "Hope House"), an orphanage for poor and homeless children built by a charity organization called the "Silent Hill Smile Support Society". The religion followed by the Order is focused on the worship of a chief deity, who is named Samael but was always called "God". The group's dogma is derived from a myth: the deity set out to create paradise, but ran out of power during the process; she will someday be resurrected, thus becoming able to finally create paradise and save mankind. The town's cult repeatedly participates in illegal acts: ritual human sacrifices whose purpose is the deity's resurrection, illegal drug trade, and kidnapping and confinement of children in a facility to teach them its dogma through brainwashing, while presenting the facility as an orphanage. Also repeatedly featured are various religious items with magical properties, appearing widely in the games of the series. Three thematic elements consistently drive the narratives of Silent Hill games: the theme of a main protagonist who is depicted as an "everyman" (with the exception of Homecoming, where the protagonist is thought to be a soldier and the game's mechanics operate as such), and the everyman's quest, either a search for a missing loved one or a situation where the protagonist wanders into the town apparently by accident but is in fact being "summoned" by a spiritual force in the town. Multiple endings are a staple of the series, with all installments featuring some, the realization of which often depends on in- game actions performed by the player. In all but two of the series' games, one of these endings is a joke ending in which the main protagonist comes in contact with unidentified flying objects: there is no joke ending in Silent Hill 4: The Room, and the only joke ending in Downpour is a surprise party for the player featuring characters from previous installments of the franchise. The installments in the Silent Hill series contain various symbolism. The symbols are images, sounds, objects, creatures, or situations, and represent concepts and facts, as well as feelings, emotions, and mental states of the characters. 

=====

The plot concerns two feminist groups in New York City, each voicing their concerns to the public by pirate radio. One group, led by an outspoken white lesbian, Isabel (Adele Bertei), operates "Radio Ragazza". The other group, led by a soft-spoken African-American, Honey (Honey), operates "Phoenix Radio." The local community is stimulated into action after a world-traveling political activist, Adelaide Norris (Jean Satterfield), is arrested upon arriving at a New York City airport, and suspiciously dies while in police custody. Also, there is a Women's Army led by Hilary Hurst (Hilary Hurst) and advised by Zella (Flo Kennedy) that initially both Honey and Isabel refuse to join. This group, along with Norris and the radio stations, are under investigation by a callous FBI agent (Ron Vawter). Their progress is tracked by three editors (Becky Johnston, Pat Murphy, Kathryn Bigelow) for a socialist newspaper, who go so far they get fired. The story involves several different women coming from different perspectives and attempts to show several examples of how sexism plays out on the street, and how it can be dealt with through direct action. At one point, two men attack a woman on the street, and dozens of women on bicycles with whistles come to chase the men away and comfort the woman. The movie shows women, despite their various differences, organizing in meetings, doing radio shows, creating art, wheatpasting, putting a condom on a penis, wrapping raw chicken at a processing plant, etc. The film portrays a world rife with violence against women, high female unemployment, and government oppression. The women in the film start to come together to make a bigger impact, by means that some would call terrorism. Ultimately, after both radio stations are suspiciously burned down, Honey and Isabel team up and broadcast "Phoenix Ragazza Radio" from stolen U-Haul vans. They also join the Women's Army, which sends a group of terrorists to interrupt a broadcast of the President of the United States proposing that women be paid to do housework, followed by bombing the antenna on top of the World Trade Center to prevent additionally destructive messages from the mainstream. 

=====

Copy of the new cut of the Koh-i-Noor diamond Watson arrives in 221B Baker Street where the page boy Billy shows him a wax effigy of Holmes placed near a curtained window in the sitting room. The effigy produces a shadow on the curtain that, when viewed from outside, is the unmistakable profile of Sherlock Holmes. Using this visual trick, Holmes aims to give a perfect target to a would-be murderer with a rifle. Holmes names his murderer as Count Negretto Sylvius, the diamond thief he has been following in disguise. He gives the criminal's address to Watson, then sends the doctor out the back for the police. As the Count arrives, Holmes has Billy invite him inside, then takes him by surprise when he attempts an assault on the effigy. Holmes then offers the Count and his helper, boxer Sam Merton, freedom if they give up the jewel, or jail if not. He invites them to discuss the deal while he plays violin in the next room. When the Count decides to double-cross Holmes and takes the stone from his secret pocket to show Sam in window light, the detective springs from the chair in place of his replica and grabs the £100K jewel. His bedroom has a gramophone and secret passage to behind the curtain. After the police take away the villains, Lord Cantlemere sweeps in. Unlike the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, he did not want Holmes. When tricked into insisting on arrest for whoever is found possessing the diamond, he finds the jewel in his pocket – where Holmes has placed it – and apologizes. Finally, Holmes can eat. 

=====

Gordon Brittas (played by Chris Barrie) is the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. He trained at the fictional Aldershot Leisure Centre. Completely tactless, totally annoying and forever coming up with 'half-baked' ideas (and oblivious to all of his aforementioned faults), Brittas frequently upsets his staff, public, and his frazzled wife Helen, often bringing confusion and chaos into their lives. Helen Brittas (Pippa Haywood) finds it increasingly difficult to cope with Gordon, and often turns to medication and affairs with other men to maintain her sanity. Helen is often helped by her supportive friend Laura Lancing (Julia St John), Brittas's calm and efficient deputy manager. Laura (though she is fully aware of his incompetence and the annoyance he causes his colleagues and customers) has a grudging admiration for Brittas whom she regards as an honest and decent man. Brittas's other deputy manager is the dim-witted but kind Colin Weatherby (Mike Burns) (credited as Michael Burns in series 1, 2 and 3). Colin has several medical problems including skin allergies, a constantly bandaged infected hand and a sizeable boil on his face. Although he is technically a deputy manager, he works more efficiently as the centre's caretaker. The other core members of the team are Carole (Harriet Thorpe) the unfortunate and often tearful receptionist who keeps her three children in the drawers and cupboards of reception, the gentle-hearted Gavin (Tim Marriott) who becomes Deputy Manager in Series 5, his paranoid and at times manic partner Tim (Russell Porter), lively and principled Linda (Jill Greenacre) and Julie (Judy Flynn) Brittas’s sarcastic secretary who hates her boss and refuses to do any work for him. Outside the core staff is Councillor Jack Drugett (Stephen Churchett), who is unable to sack Brittas despite numerous attempts at doing so. Cast alterations in the series sees character 'Angie' (Andrée Bernard), who appears as a main character in the first series, being replaced by ‘Julie’ from series two onwards. 'Laura' left the show after series five, at the same time as the creators and writers. She is replaced in series six by the character 'Penny' (Anouschka Menzies). 'Penny' did not return in series seven. 

=====

George Newman's uncle Harvey wins the deed to Channel 62, a nearly bankrupt UHF television station, in a poker game, and puts George in charge. George and his friend Bob struggle for ratings with its lineup of reruns. A package is mis-delivered to the station, meant for RJ Fletcher, the CEO of their competitor - VHF station Channel 8. When George delivers the package and introduces himself, RJ attempts to fire George for stealing his mail. On being told George doesn't work there RJ threatens to call the police unless he leaves. Outside, George runs into Stanley, a janitor unfairly fired by RJ and offers him a job at Channel 62. George and Bob create new programs, including "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse"; a live children's show hosted by George. The new shows fail to increase viewership with the station days from bankruptcy, and while fretting over their finances, George forgets his girlfriend Teri's birthday, and she leaves him. George laments about his life on "Uncle Nutzy", then goes to a bar for a drink with Bob, giving Stanley the opportunity to host the show. At the bar they find the patrons enjoying the slapstick antics of Stanley on Channel 62. Inspired by Stanley, George comes up with a range of wacky shows to fill the schedule, headlined by the re-titled "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse". RJ, infuriated that Channel 62's ratings now rival those of Channel 8, discovers Harvey owns the station and owes his bookie Big Louie $75,000 by the end of the week. He offers to pay off Harvey's debt in exchange for the deed to Channel 62. George launches a telethon to sell stock in the station, which would not only save it from RJ but also make it publicly owned. RJ's henchmen kidnap Stanley which stalls the telethon. George and several staff members rescue Stanley. RJ again attempts to stall the telethon with a televised public statement, but engineer Philo hijacks it with footage of RJ disparaging the city's population. The telethon ends $2,000 short of its goal. Harvey concedes victory to RJ who, instead of taking ownership right away, celebrates his triumph with a speech to the crowd about what will become of the station. Meanwhile, George is approached by a hobo whom he had helped earlier. The man wants to buy the rest of the stock with money he got from selling a rare coin that RJ had given him, unaware of its true value. George pays off Big Louie, Harvey signs the ownership transfer, and the station officially becomes publicly owned. RJ learns that due to Channel 8 filing late for renewal of their broadcast license and, moreover, the rant Philo had broadcast, the FCC is revoking their license. George and the Channel 62 staff and their audience celebrate and George and Teri rekindle their romantic relationship. 

=====

The book opens with a "Prologue" in which Thomas articulates the reason he has written this memoir: “I wanna tell ya I’m here — you bunch of mother-jumpers — I’m here, and I want recognition, whatever that mudder-fuckin word means.”Thomas 1997, p.ix Piri introduces himself as a “skinny, dark-face, curly-haired, intense Porty-Ree-can” who is “unsatisfied, hoping, and always reaching.”Thomas 1997, p.x The Prologue also introduces a note of loneliness, bitterness, and hatred that will continue through the book. Harlem: The story proper begins in Harlem where Piri is living with his family. The year is 1941, at the tail end of the Depression, and Thomas's father has a job with the Works Progress Administration, while his mother stays at home with the children, often telling them stories of her homeland, Puerto Rico. After the death of Piri’s baby brother Ricardo, the family moves from Spanish Harlem to the Italian section on 114th Street to leave all the bad memories behind. Piri has various encounters with the local kids in the street, and despite various fights, Piri earns the Italians' respect by not ratting on them. The Thomas family moves back to Spanish Harlem where Piri joins a gang of Puerto Rican kids his age, who become known as the TNT’s. Piri and the TNT’s go to the “faggots’ pad” (Thomas 1997, p.55); Piri clearly does not want to go, but he wants to belong: “ … we wanted to belong, and belonging meant doing whatever had to be done” (Thomas 1997, p.55). Piri opens up about his attitudes towards school; he thinks it’s a waste of time and so he often sneaks out. Piri also starts a lemonade stand; he and his friends steal the ingredients and some of the other kids are caught by the police. While Piri manages to escape, he feels guilty and believes he should have stayed there with his people. Suburbia and Return to Harlem: Piri and his family move to the Long Island suburbs. Piri is apprehensive because he has heard bad things about the area, but upon arriving, Piri seems to do quite well in his new neighbourhood. He plays baseball with classmates and attends a school dance where he flirts with a girl named Marcia; however, Piri is shocked to later hear a group of girls at the dance talking about his skin colour. This, along with Poppa seeing another woman, makes Piri very upset. Three months later, Piri ends up leaving Long Island with the intention of starting anew back in Harlem. Here, however, he finds himself homeless. Desperate for cash, Piri searches for work and goes after a position as a sales representative. Still in Harlem, Piri introduces himself to the girl of his dreams, Trina (Carlito Diaz’s sister), and calls her his “Marine Tiger.” Later on, Piri makes a new friend named Brew, who forces Piri to further question his own identity; Brew tries to convince Piri that if your skin is black, then you are a black man, no matter what your ethnicity is. Piri and Brew discuss heading South so that Piri can discover what it means to be a black man. Racial Anxiety and a Trip South: Brew shares with Piri the ABC lesson; this lesson is about how to forgive white men for things such as racism, and how to remain calm in uncomfortable situations because of their skin colour. Piri argues with his brother José because José does not understand why Piri wants to go South; in his view, Piri is Puerto Rican, not black. Piri becomes angry and upset that his own brother does not understand him, and this further intensifies his desire to head South. Poppa makes an effort to relate to and comfort Piri, but Piri still decides to leave, despite the objections from his family. Piri and Brew check into a hotel in Norfolk, and later talk to a man at the ‘National Maritime Union’ building. The two of them share stories with this man regarding being singled out due to the colour of their skin; however, the man disagrees with Brew’s opinions on identity and explains that every man is free to identify himself with the ethnicity that they choose. Piri and Brew head out on the ship, on which Piri works as a waiter. When they arrive in Texas, Piri goes out with a man and they both want to hire sexual workers; Piri says he wants to hire a white woman. Through his various encounters down South, Piri realizes that every place he goes to, no matter what language you speak or where you come from, if you are black, then you are black. A Life of Crime Shortly after Piri heads back to New York, Momma dies and Piri becomes angry and resentful with Poppa upon remembering that he had another woman. Piri goes back to living on the roofs, streets and apartments of friends in Harlem; he also gets back into drugs and begins to sell everything he can to have money for heroin. Luckily, Waneko and his mother eventually help Piri with the drug detoxification process. To distract him from drugs, Piri participates in robberies with Danny, Billy and Loui; with each and every robbery, Piri becomes less and less concerned with the consequences of his actions and all the people he affects and hurts. While Trina is in Puerto Rico, Piri impregnates a different Puerto Rican woman, Dulcien. Piri takes responsibility and buys tickets for Dulcien to go back to New York with the baby. Piri also convinces Louie to get into business again; they, along with Billy and Danny, carry out a robbery in bar/discotheque in downtown New York. However, the robbery doesn't go according to plan; Piri is shot in the chest, and upon trying to escape back to Harlem, he shoots the police officer who shot him. Piri is then arrested and taken to a hospital. Prison Piri wakes up in the hospital, is questioned by police and is transferred to prison to await trial; he is sentenced to no more than 5-15 years for armed robbery, which he will serves at Sing Sing and then Comstock State Prison. In prison, he studies masonry, works in construction, gets his high school diploma as well as other educational certificates. Above all, Piri describes his encounters he has with other inmates. Among the most significant encounters are with a Nation of Islam study group. Piri also begins to read a lot and becomes interested in psychology, and fascinated by the meaning of God and understanding. Piri’s family visits him together for the first time in three years; they share with Piri the news that Trina has gotten married. At the end of nearly four years in prison, Piri is finally eligible for parole; however, he is told that he will have to wait another two years because his case is very serious.As his second appearance before the parole board approaches, he tries to remain calm and collected; he even stops himself from fighting another inmate. Piri is later told by the parole board that he will in fact be going home. Freedom On the big day, Piri awakes, says his goodbyes, collects his belongings and becomes very emotional. They stop for food and Piri debates escaping, but chooses not to. He is welcomed into his new pad in the Comstock State Prison and the very next morning, he goes to the courthouse and is asked to be held in 5,000 bail on each count. Piri is granted three years' probation; finally a free man, he decides to get a job, but he also immediately breaks one of his parole rules by sleeping with a woman who is not his wife. Yet Piri misses Trina and ends up attending a dinner that she is at; he immediately regrets attending after he realizes she wants nothing to do with him. Piri goes back to visit his old building and claims that the mood hasn’t changed one bit. He runs into Carlito who offers him drugs, but Piri tells him he is clean and the memoir ends as he walks out onto the street. Afterward: Piri claims that writing “Down These Mean Streets” was a “soul searching” experience that forced him to go back in time and out-pour “suppressed hurts and angers.”Thomas 1997, p.333 Piri references the Great Depression of the 1930s and speaks about the hardships that were forced upon life in the ghettos of the barrio parts of town. Piri focuses on exploitation, listening to politicians who break their promises, the barrio living conditions and violence in not only the Americas, but the world in general. He suggests that the same conditions still exist today, and that this book was intended to result in improvements, but unfortunately did not. Piri also draws attention to racism, children of the poor, economic inequality and the importance of high-quality education; he ends with a specific focus on children, confidently classifying them as intelligent individuals that need to be considered the top priority. 

=====

The protagonist Dunstan Ramsay has a passion for hagiology. In addition, he has a guilty connection to Mary Dempster, resulting from a childhood accident for which he feels responsible. These two elements provide most of the impetus and background for this novel. Ramsay struggles with his belief that Mary may be a fool-saint (she is held for years in an insane asylum) and with guilt from childhood. The epistolary novel is conveyed in Ramsay's post-retirement letter to the headmaster of Colborne College. 

=====

Black Boy (American Hunger) is an autobiography following Richard Wright's childhood and young adulthood. It is split into two sections, "Southern Night" (concerning his childhood in the south) and "The Horror and the Glory" (concerning his early adult years in Chicago). 

=====

The novel begins following the British victory of the first Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large natural harbour that both the British government and various trading companies believe will be useful for the import of merchandise to be traded in mainland China, a highly lucrative market. Although the novel features many characters, it is Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock, former shipmates and the owners of two massive (fictional) trading companies who are the main focal points of the story. Their rocky and often abusive relationship as seamen initiated an intense amount of competitive tension. Throughout the novel, both men seek to destroy each other in matters of business and personal affairs. Struan is referred to throughout the novel as the Tai-pan, indicating his position as head of Struan & Company, the greatest private trading company in nineteenth-century Asia. Clavell translates tai-pan as "Supreme Leader" although "Big Shot" might be more accurate. In 1805, at the age of seven, Dirk Struan began his nautical adventures as a powder monkey on a King's ship at the Battle of Trafalgar and he remains bound to the sea for life. By the end of this year, he found service on the East India Company merchant ship Vagrant Star to China. Under the command of Tyler Brock, third mate and future nemesis, Dirk Struan was whipped mercilessly. Dirk Struan vowed to someday destroy Brock. Later, Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock would go on to dominate the opium trade. In 1812 a fateful night in the Malacca Strait, Vagrant Star ran aground on a reef and sank. At the age of fourteen, Struan swam ashore and found his way to Singapore. Later, Dirk Struan discovered that Tyler Brock survived as well. By 1822, Dirk Struan was a captain-owner of his own ship on the opium run. Tyler Brock was his chief rival. Also this year, Dirk Struan married Ronalda in Scotland, but immediately travelled to Macau. In 1824, Culum Struan was born. He was the son of Dirk Struan and Ronalda. Shortly after his birth, Ronalda and Culum were sent to Glasgow. Ronalda would never return to China. Also this year, Gordon Chen was born. He was the illegitimate son of Dirk Struan and his mistress, Chen Kai Sung. In 1826, the British East India Company decided to make an example of Struan and Brock. The Company withdrew their licenses and the two men were financially wiped out. Brock was left with his ship, Struan with nothing. Brock entered a secret agreement with another opium trader. Dirk Struan pilfered a lorcha from pirates in Macau. He became a clandestine opium smuggler for other China traders. He relentlessly confiscated more pirate ships. Using them to make dangerous illicit opium runs up the China coast, he made even greater profits. In 1834, free trade reform advocates succeeded in ending the monopoly of the British East India Company under the Charter Act of 1833. Finally, British trade opened to private entrepreneurs. With the freedom to legally trade, Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock became merchant princes. Their armed fleets expanded and bitter rivalry honed their enmity even keener. In 1837, Jin-qua arranged for May–May, his favourite granddaughter, to become Dirk Struan's mistress. She was secretly assigned the task of teaching "the green-eyed devil" Struan "civilised" (Chinese) ways. By 1838, Dirk Struan was considered the Tai-pan of all tai-pan. Struan & Company was recognised as the Noble House. Business concerns of the Noble House included smuggling opium from India into China, trading spices and sugar from the Philippines, importing Chinese tea and silk into England, handling cargo papers, cargo insurance, renting of dockyard facilities and warehouse space, trade financing, and other numerous lines of business and trade. The company possessed nineteen intercontinental clipper ships. A close rival, Brock & Sons Trading Company, possessed thirteen. Additionally, Struan & Company possessed hundreds of small ships and lorchas for upriver coastal smuggling. By 1839, Gordon Chen grew to become a remarkably intelligent and a very skilled businessman. However, he longed for recognition from his biological father, Dirk Struan. To achieve this, he decided to become indispensable to Dirk Struan and the Noble House. From January to July 1841, events detailed in the novel unfold. The Noble House was on the brink of financial collapse and about to be destroyed by rival Tyler Brock. In desperation and upon prompting by Mary Sinclair, Dirk Struan turned to Jin Qua. In exchange for a series of favours and promises, Dirk Struan received a loan of "4 million" (approximately £1,000,000) in silver bullion from the Jin Qua. The first part of the arrangement, Struan agreed to certain trade concessions. The second part of the arrangement, Struan agreed that a member of the Chen family would forever be comprador of Noble House. The third part of the arrangement, Struan agreed to sell Jin Qua a sizeable plot of land in Hong Kong with the deed to be recorded in the name of Gordon Chen. The fourth part of the arrangement, Struan agreed to the "coin debt". Four bronze coins were split irregularly in half, each coin different from the other three. Four-halves were given to Dirk Struan and the other four-halves were kept by Jin Qua. Anyone who presented a half coin to the Tai-pan of the Noble House must be granted whatever he asked, whether legal or illegal. All future tai-pan of the Noble House must swear to keep this bargain. This served as repayment for the loan of silver. Tess Brock and Culum Struan fell in love and married. The couple condemned their fathers' hatred for each other. Due to the bargain struck between Dirk Struan and Jin Qua, Gordon Chen managed Jin Qua's financial interests in Hong Kong, investing in land and money lending. Gordon Chen seized leadership of the Hong Kong triad. Partly due to assistance from his father and partly due to running protection rackets, Gordon Chen quickly became the wealthiest Chinese man in Hong Kong. Gordon Chen concealed this information from his father. When his status as Dragon Head of the triad was revealed, his position was nearly ruined. Fortunately, facts were dismissed as lies. Although, Dirk Struan was not entirely convinced. As part of his efforts to protect his father, Gordon Chen arranged the assassination of Gorth Brock and sought a cure for May–May's malaria. The first half-coin of Jin Qua was presented to Dirk Struan by the pirate warlord Wu Fang Choi. On 21 July 1841, Dirk Struan was killed in a typhoon before he can fulfil his oath to destroy Brock. Culum Struan became the second tai-pan of the Noble House. Gordon Chen began placing spies on Struan & Company's ships. Gordon Chen raised Duncan and Kate Struan, the children of Dirk Struan and May–May. The enmity between Struan and Brock is a prominent theme in Clavell's Asian Saga. Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock left many children, legitimate and illegitimate, who take up their respective fathers' mantles and continue the battle. Thus begins a vicious cycle which lasts many years. It is passed down through the generations. The last descendant of Tyler Brock, Quillan Gornt, dies in a boating accident over 120 years later. After this accident there is no one from the Brock line left to threaten the Noble House. Other important characters of the novel include: * Culum Struan – Dirk Struan's son and future tai-pan. * Robb Struan – Dirk Struan's half-brother and business partner. * William Longstaff \- first Governor of Hong Kong. * Jeff Cooper – American trader and secret partner to the Noble House. * Wilf Tillman – American trader and partner to Jeff Cooper. Guardian to Shevaun Tillman. Advocate of slavery. * Count Zergyev – Russian diplomat and spy to gauge British influence in Hong Kong. * Gorth Brock – Tyler Brock's boat- captain son. * Jin-qua – Chinese tea and opium trader, lends Dirk Struan "4 million" (approximately 1 million Pounds sterling in silver bullion) to get out of debt to Tyler Brock. He is the originator of the "coin debt" to which Dirk Struan and future tai-pans of the Noble House must swear to uphold (revealed as well in Noble House). * May–May – Dirk Struan's Chinese mistress, granddaughter of Jin-Qua, instructed to teach Dirk "civilized" (Chinese) ways. * Liza Brock – wife of Tyler Brock and Tess' mother. * Aristotle Quance – painter and hedonist, always in debt. The Struan family own several of his paintings. * Shevaun Tillman – ward of Wilf Tillman and hopeful bride to Dirk Struan. * Captain Orlov – "The Hunchback" Finnish opium ship captain under Dirk Struan. Often has visions of precognition of future events. * William Skinner – editor of the island newspaper, privy to secrets handed to him by Dirk Struan to keep his rivals off balance. * Gordon Chen – Dirk Struan's Eurasian son by a Chinese mistress and secret head of the first Hong Kong triad. * Tess Brock – daughter of Tyler Brock and eventual wife of Culum Struan. Also known as Hag Struan in later novels. * Mary Sinclair – secret English prostitute and devotee/spy of Dirk Struan, and sister of Horatio Sinclair. * Captain Glessing – former ship captain of the Royal Navy and harbour master. Has a peninsula named after him. Loses an arm in the typhoon. * Horatio Sinclair – clerk to William Longstaff, church fanatic and harbours incestuous desires for his sister Mary. * Wolfgang Mauss – renegade priest and teacher to Gordon Chen. * Roger Blore – gambler, makes an unheard of record time journey to Hong Kong, later becomes Dirk Struan's horse racing club owner. * Captain Scragger – pirate and negotiator for Wu Fang Choi, the pirate king. Scragger's family line is mentioned several times in succeeding books of the Asian Saga. * Wu Fang Choi – pirate king and secret partner to Jin-Qua, as the bullion for the deal came from him. 

=====