From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Ella Raines and Brian Donlevy in Impact Charles Coburn and Helen Walker The San Francisco- based millionaire industrialist Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) has a young wife, Irene (Helen Walker), who is trying to kill him with the help of her young lover, Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett). After Walter and Irene make plans to drive to Lake Tahoe, Irene feigns illness and asks Walter to instead give Torrence, who is pretending to be Irene's "cousin" from Illinois, a lift to Denver, allowing Torrence a chance to murder Walter en route. The plan falls apart when Williams survives a hit on the head from the would-be killer. Attempting to flee the scene in Williams' Packard convertible, Torrence dies in a fiery head-on collision with a gasoline tanker truck. The body of Torrence is mistakenly identified as Williams. In the meantime, Irene has made reservations at a hotel in Oakland for her and her boyfriend to meet afterward, under the assumed names of "Mr. & Mrs. Jack Burns". The wounded, dazed Williams falls asleep in the back of a moving van and ends up in the small town of Larkspur, Idaho. Using the name "Bill Walker", he gets a job as a service station mechanic and falls in love with Marsha Peters (Ella Raines), a young widow who is the station's owner. Meanwhile, the police arrest Williams' wife for his "murder". Williams eventually tells Marsha the truth, and she persuades him to go back to clear his wife, but when he does he is charged with murdering Torrence. Marsha enlists the help of kindly police detective Quincy (Charles Coburn) to prove Walter's innocence. With the additional evidence of the housekeeper Su Lin (Anna May Wong) the key and hotel registration are found and Walter is freed. His wife is then held for conspiracy to murder. ===== After being unable to shop at the Kwik-E-Mart because it is being held up, Lisa suggests the Simpsons have a vegetarian meal with ingredients purchased from a nearby stall, which they enjoy until Bart, Homer, Marge, and Maggie feel queasy and begin vomiting. Because she is a vegetarian, Lisa is immune to the "vitamins, minerals, and trace amounts of bug feces". Lisa points out that the rest of them are so used to processed foods that their bodies were not prepared for organic foods. As the family sits on the couch, wrapped in blankets, Lisa feeds them dry toast, and gently sings them to sleep with the "Hush, Little Baby" song. The next morning, the family is feeling better, eating fried chicken while watching TV. They see Krusty make an endorsement for his "Li'l Starmaker" competition, a children's American Idol-style competition where the winner shall be animated in an episode of Itchy & Scratchy. Bart convinces Lisa to enter because he believes she has a great voice. At the competition, another child (played by guest star Fantasia Barrino) sings a perfect version of Lisa's planned song, "Hush, Little Baby" which is declared by Bart to sound like "Whitney Houston brought to life". Lisa starts to panic, but Homer comes to her rescue by going to the nearby music store and writing a song for her to sing. She sings the song "I'm Talking Springfield", which praises Springfield (except Ned Flanders), delighting the crowd. Soon, the competition enters its knockout stages. Homer, now Lisa's manager, starts using every means at his disposal to make Lisa feel comfortable. He even gets her the right spotlight by beating up the technician. The competition progresses and contestants are eliminated, leaving just fan favorites Cameron and Lisa in the final to take place the next week. However, Homer's aggressive treatment of staff at the competition makes Lisa mad. As a result, Lisa fires him as her manager, causing him to be upset. Later that night, as the rest of the family eat dinner, Homer enters to announce that he has become Cameron's manager. Lisa is sad that Homer is upset with her. During the competition final, Lisa sings a song that she has written herself, called "Always My Dad", dedicated to Homer. The song expresses how much she loves her dad, and how sorry she is for hurting him. After she finishes, everyone loves it. Cameron, now restyled by Homer as "Johnny Rainbow", then goes up, and sings a rather condescending song called "Privileged Boy" that Homer wrote. The lyrics say how much better he is than the audience. Cameron is booed off the stage, with a few rotten vegetables as an accompaniment. Lisa is thrilled that Homer sabotaged Cameron in order to help her gain the prize. He tells her that he will always be there for her. During the closing credits, Homer teaches Lisa the jazz hands routine, which he taught Cameron earlier, for her next performance. Maggie joins in as well, though does stumble at first before picking up the routine. ===== The book tells the story of how the Doctor returns from the moon. The first half of the book covers the lives of Tommy Stubbins, the Doctor's assistant, the family of animals in England waiting for his return, and how the Doctor escaped from the moon. The second half of the book deals with the quest of the Doctor for peace and quiet, so he can write a book about the moon and his experiences there. But the constant demands of his patients make the project impossible to complete, so the Doctor attempts to have himself put in jail so he will be able to write his book. ===== Marge tries to get the kids hair cuts, but is stopped when Homer takes them to get haircuts at a new barbershop in the mall. The kids' haircuts are done so badly, that they hide with Homer in a movie theater showing the film Left Below. In response to the kids losing their hair, Marge later makes them wigs using the leftover hair trimmings. Homer now fears that the Rapture will soon be coming. Despite being consoled by Marge and Lisa (who think God would not end the world unless he announced it), Homer encounters signs suggestive of the Rapture. He uses numerology to calculate the date and time of the Rapture and concludes that it is only a week away. Homer predicts that "stars will fall from the sky", then a blimp accident at the Krusty Celebrity Salute to Specials makes some celebrities (or "stars") fall to their deaths. His prophecy causes many of Springfield's residents to believe that the world will end and they go with him to the Springfield Mesa to wait for the Rapture. The hour passes without incident, and the people go home. All of them are annoyed at Homer, particularly Moe, who had sold his tavern to be converted to a Japanese sushi bar. Homer goes home and realizes that he has made an error in his calculation, so he returns to the Mesa with no support after getting ostracized by his family. Suddenly, he finds himself naked and ascending into Heaven. Homer arrives in Heaven, where he is greeted by the tour guide who shows him around. He is then shown to his room where he requests to see his family on the big TV screen in his room. Marge and the children are shown being tormented by the devil. He has a talk with God about saving his family. When God refuses to help, due to Jesus' suffering on Earth, Homer becomes angry. He runs around vandalizing Heaven and gets stopped by security. God finally agrees to undo the Rapture by turning back time. Homer later wakes up on the mesa and is reunited with his family, also discovering Moe's Tavern to curiously be back in its normal set up. ===== Stephen Wilson aka "The Eye" (Ewan McGregor) is an intelligence agent whose current assignment is to track down the socialite son of his wealthy boss and find out what trouble he has gotten himself into. This leads him to Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), a serial killer who is in a relationship with the son, whom she murders. Stephen is a witness to the crime. At Penn Station in Pittsburgh, Eris commits yet another murder, enabling Stephen to finally corner her as he prepares to call for backup. Instead of turning her in, Stephen follows her in an effort to save her. He hallucinates constantly that his young daughter — whom he hasn't seen since his ex-wife took custody of her — is with him, and comes to think of Eris as a vulnerable, lost child. Stephen follows her across the country and through several murders. He soon discovers that Eris and her father were homeless and that he had abandoned her, explaining her pathological hatred of men. When Eris helps a rich blind man (Patrick Bergin) in an airport, the two become involved, fall in love and become engaged, and it looks like they might even live a happy life together. Stephen, who has witnessed all of this, cannot bear to let her go, and is willing to do anything to stop her from having a relationship with another man. While the couple is on the way to the chapel for the wedding, Stephen shoots out one of their tires and the car crashes, killing Eris' fiancé. Stephen follows a grief-stricken Eris as she takes off for the desert. A drug addict named Gary (Jason Priestley) picks up Eris when her car dies, and tries to seduce her; when she rebuffs his advances, he beats her unconscious and injects her with heroin so he can rape her while she is unconscious. Stephen arrives just in time to save Eris and gives Gary a thorough beating. Eris loses her unborn baby before fleeing to Alaska, with Stephen on her trail. In Alaska, Stephen gains the courage to ask Eris out, as he is a frequent patron of the diner at which she waitresses. They have a few drinks in the evening, both getting emotional, and Eris mentions where she would like to be buried when she dies. She then says she has nothing to offer and that he should leave her alone. The next day the police, as well as Eris's psychiatrist (Geneviève Bujold), come to the diner to arrest her. Stephen tries to save her, taking her to his trailer. There she is horrified to find out that he has been following her. She shoots him with Stephen's revolver, although she doesn't realize that he had loaded it with blank cartridges. She flees and he follows her on a motorcycle. He catches up to her, but she crashes her car onto an ice-covered lake, breaking through the ice. He then quickly pulls her out of the car, but she is badly injured. Before she dies in his arms, she tells him she knows that he is her "Angel". ===== Dragon Force is set in the world Legendra, which lived in an era of prosperity under the watch of the benevolent goddess Astea, until it came under siege by the evil god Madruk and his armies. The Star dragon Harsgalt and his chosen warriors, the Dragon Force, come to stop him. Personal disputes among the Dragon Force led to their downfall and left Harsgalt to face Madruk in a fight to death. Harsgalt, unable to kill Madruk, sealed him away until eight new chosen warriors could rise to permanently defeat him. 300 years later, the seal imprisoning Madruk has weakened and two of his Dark Apostles, Scythe and Gaul, have begun working towards his release. To ensure none will stop their master, the two of them manipulate the eight nations of Legendra into warring among themselves. Eventually, one of the monarchs successfully ends the war, though the events of how it occurs vary depending on the monarch. Regardless, the monarchs discover that they are the eight members of the Dragon Force, and that the only way they can kill Madruk is by obtaining the Dragon Power left by Harsgalt. Despite attempts to stop them by Scythe and Gaul, whichever monarch the player controls gains the power, and then has to use it to defeat Madruk's final apostle, a robot named Katmondo. Madruk's prison continues to weaken, allowing him to release his army of dragonmen. The Dragon Force fight their way to Madruk's prison and find his three Dark Apostles waiting for them. Whichever monarch has the Dragon power leaves to face Madruk, while the remaining seven fight the Dark Apostles. The monarch with the Dragon Power kills Madruk, finally ending his threat. The monarchs are saved by Astea, who leaves the world to be governed by the mortals, saying it is time for them to stand on their own. Within the game, eight different storylines exist, one for each monarch. The campaigns for Goldark and Reinhart can only be accessed after the game has been completed, as they contain spoilers from the outset. ===== The series involves Laura Dalton (Judy Dench), a single, middle-aged translator who is somewhat socially inept. Her glamorous younger sister Helen (Susan Penhaligon), who is first seen in Janet Reger lingerie, and her husband Phil (Richard Warwick) pair her up with Mike Selway (Michael Williams), a shy landscape gardener. The story follows their awkward romance and insecurities. Bad luck seems to follow them everywhere, from the ferry to Calais to an attempted romantic evening watching television. Laura constantly dwells on her beautiful sister's fairy-tale marriage while still retaining an attitude of a child, locking herself in cupboards when things do not go her way. Although immature and tending to fly off the handle, she assists Mike in organizing his struggling business, volunteering her time to type his correspondence and do the bookkeeping. Phil and Helen often regret ever bringing the two together, because they are nearly always involved in the couple's squabbles. Overall, however, Mike and Laura find they cannot live without one another, though they are not able to put it into words. ===== Though a Star Wars fan as a child, life holds no magic or adventure for Woody Garrison (Joe Urban). Divorced and working two jobs to pay medical bills for his terminally ill son, Star Wars is now just a movie. Only at the request of his son (Scott Heffern II) does he set off with his childhood buddy, Hank (Jim Peterson), on a quest to find filmmaker George Lucas (George Starkey) and convince him to continue making Star Wars movies. Through a series of mishaps, Woody and Hank accidentally kidnap Lucas and allow the script for Episode III to fall into the hands of an unbalanced fan (Scott C. Sendelweck), a murderous producer, and a certain Dark Lord-portraying actor (David Prowse). To his surprise, Woody finds himself in the middle of an adventure with the fate of the Star Wars movie-making empire hanging in the balance. ===== Cartesian coordinates are useful for plotting points in the triangle. Consider an equilateral ternary plot where is placed at and at . Then is , and the triple is :\left(\frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{2b+c}{a+b+c},\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\cdot\frac{c}{a+b+c}\right) \,. ===== SoilTexture_USDA.svg|lang=aa|Plotting Sample 1 (1): Find the 50% clay line SoilTexture_USDA.svg|lang=ba|Plotting Sample 1 (2): Find the 20% silt line SoilTexture_USDA.svg|lang=ca|Plotting Sample 1 (3): The intersect coincides with the 30% sand line, as it is mathematically dependent on the first two SoilTexture_USDA.svg|lang=da|Plotting all the samples ===== Andrew Sterling is a former British SAS soldier working for MI6, who has been captured in the People's Republic of China and jailed in Chang political prison; MI6 destroyed all files on Sterling to prevent an international incident. He is rescued the night before his execution by an old female acquaintance named Kim and a former fellow SAS soldier Daniel Parish. To repay his debt to Parish for saving his life, Andrew agrees to work for his private security agency. Sterling then travels to Egypt to eliminate the leaders of an arms dealing cartel, who possess a missile guidance system called Octopus. He completes his mission, but at the cost of Kim's life. The antagonist is John Grey (voiced by Tom Baker), who as a young man who enlisted in the RAF to defend Britain at the height of World War II. Horrified by nuclear weapons John Grey formed a secret society, "Greywings" inspired by the heroes of the H. G. Wells novel The Shape of Things to Come. Greywings sought out and destroyed nuclear threats but ultimately came to the conclusion that the only way to abolish nuclear warfare would be to create a nuclear winter leaving the survivors afraid of nuclear warfare. Greywings planned on initiating their plan codenamed Operation: Cold Winter by providing world powers with the Octopus guidance systems. It turns out that Grey hired Parish to liquidate the Egyptian arms ring because they stole an Octopus unit which was intended for world superpowers rather than the third world countries its thieves planned on selling it to. Grey soon after betrays his own organization to save the life of his infant granddaughter. Sterling is sent to Greywing's headquarters in the Himalayan mountains where he destroys the facility's power core and escapes in Parish's helicopter. Grey is then seen in the game's last scene on a bench in Prague where his former subordinates murder him. ===== In medieval England, a war has raged between the bats and the squirrels for many years. The bats believe that the Starwife, queen of the squirrels, has stolen their powers of prophecy and insight, given to them as a gift from the moon goddess. With the help of a treacherous squirrel named Morwenna, they launch a devastating attack on the Starwife's realm, Greenreach. The dying Starwife entrusts her magical silver acorn pendant to a peregrine falcon, who bears it away to safety. Meanwhile, in a faraway squirrel realm known as Coll Regalis, the inhabitants are celebrating a holiday called Aldertide. Crown princess Ysabelle, a beautiful black squirrel maiden, is excited to participate in the festivities. But soon an army of bats appears flying overhead. They are in pursuit of the falcon, determined to retrieve the silver acorn at all costs. The bats savagely murder the bird, and its mangled corpse falls to the ground beside the terrified Ysabelle. Then the silver acorn drops into her palm. Though the bats try to attack Ysabelle, the daylight confuses them and they resolve to return at nightfall. Ysabelle shows the amulet to her parents, who know that this is an ill omen, meaning that the Starwife is dead and Greenreach has fallen. Because Ysabelle is the one who caught the acorn pendant, it is decided that she will journey to Greenreach and become the new Starwife. She will be accompanied by all the guards of Coll Regalis, with those left behind to fight an unwinnable battle when the bats come back that night. This they willing do as a distraction while Ysabelle's entourage escapes. On their way through the forest, Ysabelle's guards come across a juvenile bat named Vespertilio. Too young to be a knight, he has run away from home with his late father's armour in hopes of joining the battle at Greenreach. But the armour proved too heavy while he was flying and he tumbled to the ground and broke his wing. Though Ysabelle detests the bat, when her adviser Godfrey suggests that Vespertilio could be used as a guide, she agrees to take him along as a prisoner. In the night, the group is attacked by Hobbers, members of a bloodthirsty cult. Several squirrels are taken to be ritually sacrificed, with the high priest calling for the cult's evil deity, Hobb, to rise up from the Underworld. When Godfrey sees that the high priest has Ysabelle's amulet, he is horrified and tells her that with its tremendous powers, it could indeed bring Hobb into the world. Godfrey hastily comes up with a plan to retrieve the acorn, which is successful but results in his death. Ysabelle escapes into the forest, stopping first to untie Vesper and force him to accompany her as she is now alone with no one else left to show her the way to Greenreach. The high priest appears, but is unable to reach the two as they are within a stream protected by the powers of the benevolent deity known as the Green. Furious, he lays curses on the two of them, proclaiming that when Hobb emerges from the ground he will kill Ysabelle and that Vesper will die surrounded by the sound of bells. Later, Ysabelle and Vespertilio meet a mole and shrew who are on a pilgrimage to Greenreach. The mole, Giraldus, has leprosy and is nearly blind, and the shrew, Tysle Symkyn, is his guide in gratitude for the former having saved his life. As they are bound for the same place, Ysabelle asks to accompany Giraldus and Tysle, telling Vespertilio he is free to go. But he chooses to stay with the group, having secretly developed a growing fondness for Ysabelle. After being chased by Hobbers on a nightmarish journey through the woods, Ysabelle is reunited with Wendel Maculatum, a stoat jester she befriended at the Aldertide celebrations in Coll Regalis. He says he has heard that a group of woodlanders have risen up in resistance to the Hobbers, and that their base is somewhere nearby. Upon reaching it, they meet the warrior mouse Fenlyn Purfote, who is at first suspicious of the group, but when the Ancient, messenger of the moon goddess, has an audience with Ysabelle and Vespertilio, he is convinced they are telling the truth. The Ancient says that the great war has been fought in vain, for it was not the Starwife who stole the bats' power away from them, but their own leader Hrethel. The only way for the Hobbers to be defeated is if the bats and squirrels team up and fight them together. Tysle turns up dead, and it is revealed that Wendel Maculatum, in reality the high priest of Hobb, murdered him. Mad with grief, Giraldus attacks Wendel and the two engage in a fight. Wendel easily gains the upper hand over the disabled mole but Giraldus causes the tunnel they're in to collapse completely, killing the high priest and sacrificing his life in the process. Vespertilio and Ysabelle escape and finally arrive in Greenreach, where Morwenna tricks Ysabelle into following her into a chamber deep beneath the Hallowed Oak. Revealing herself as a Hobber, she steals the silver acorn and leaves Ysabelle to be devoured by toads. Vespertilio rescues Ysabelle and the two emerge to see the bat and squirrel armies engaged in battle. Using special herbs given to him by the Ancient, Vespertilio creates a beacon fire which draws the bats and squirrels. They are shocked when he kisses Ysabelle, and listen in amazement to what he has to tell them. Though the bats are initially appalled that he would accuse Hrethel of treachery, they soon realise that it would explain a lot. As Hobbers surge up the hill, the bats and squirrels finally come together to fight their common enemy. Suddenly, the gigantic horned rat god Hobb emerges from the earth, much to everyone's horror. As Morwenna is the one presently wearing the silver acorn, not Ysabelle, Hobb mistakes her for his intended victim and incinerates her by breathing fire. Upon reclaiming the discarded pendant, Ysabelle performs the ritual that gives her all the powers of the Starwifeship, then confronts Hobb. She casts a spell that imprisons him in an acorn before collapsing from exhaustion. Weeks later, Greenreach is being restored to its former glory for Ysabelle's coronation day. Vespertilio arrives and asks to speak with her. He professes his love and asks her to run away with him, but she declines, telling him that her duty is more important. Left alone, the despondent Vespertilio is offered a drink by a cloaked stranger. He takes it, only to find to his horror that the drink is poison and the stranger is the ghost of Wendel Maculatum, having returned from the dead to ensure his curse was fulfilled. Meanwhile, all through the coronation ceremony, thoughts of the young bat fill Ysabelle's mind. Ultimately she publicly refuses the Starwifeship and races to find Vespertilio. She is heartbroken to find him lying dead, surrounded by bluebell flowers. ===== The novel begins with Riggu Felis, wildcat warlord of Green Isle, and his two sons, Jeefra and Pitru, attempting to kill an osprey, later known to be Pandion Piketalon. Riggu scorns his sons' attempts to kill the osprey and jumps into the fray himself, attempting to scare it into submission. The osprey is not intimidated and sinks his talons into the cat's face, flying into the air with him. The wildcat drops to the ground with half of his face torn off. Because of this incident, the wildcat orders all birds on Green Isle to be slain. Tiria Wildlough is daughter of Banjon Wildlough, the Skipper of Otters at Redwall Abbey. One afternoon, she and a few friends go out into Mossflower Woods to gather some wood, and along the way they run into some trouble in the form of a small but ferocious vermin band terrorizing Pandion. Tiria and her friends manage to fight them off, but the vermin swear revenge. US cover of High Rhulain When Tiria returns to Redwall, she and her father have a discussion, where Tiria learns that otter law allows only male otters to be Skippers. This upsets Tiria greatly, and she is quick to listen when Martin the Warrior and High Queen Rhulain Wildlough appear to her in a dream, telling her the otters of Green Isle need her assistance and leadership. After deciphering and scouring the Abbey for many clues with Old Quelt, Sister Snowdrop, Abbess Lycian, Brinty, Tribsy, and Girry, Tiria learns through another dream that she has to leave on her own, so she heads to Log-a-Log Urfa's encampment along with her father and Brink Greyspoke. Soon after, Brinty is killed when the aforementioned vermin band attacks Redwall, seeking vengeance. At the same time, a rogue otter named Leatho Shellhound leads the free otter clans in various attacks against the ruling wildcats in an attempt to free their enslaved friends. Many famous otter clans take part, including Galedeep (related to Finnbarr Galedeep of The Bellmaker), Streambattle (related to Rab of The Bellmaker), and Wavedog (related to Kroova of Triss). However, Finnbarr and Kroova were sea otters, and Finnbarr had no known living kin. Log-a-Log Urfa takes Tiria to Cuthbert Blanedale Frunk, a Long Patrol hare in the service of Lord Mandoral Highpeak at Salamandastron, where she receives a sling from the Badger Lord made of shark skin and the breastplate of the High Rhulain. Along with the a number of hares of the Long Patrol, Tiria sails to Green Isle in Frunk's ship, the Purloined Petunia, and they meet up with Shellhound and his otter clans. At the abbey, the Redwallers continue to solve riddles from Sister Geminya, finding Corriam Wildlough's lance and the High Rhulain's coronet. Brantalis Skyfurrow, a visiting goose, flies the crown to Tiria at Green Isle. When Tiria reaches Green Isle, she finds the otter clans in a stand-off with Riggu. Leatho Shellhound is trapped in a burning tower, set afire by Riggu's mate, Lady Kaltag, who lost her mind after the loss of her son, Jeefra. The birds Pandion and Brantalis save Leatho, but Riggu shortly after slays Pandion, who had previously ripped off part of his face, forcing him to wear a mask. Tiria, seeing Pandion killed, hurls the barbed star that first injured Pandion at Riggu, and with amazing accuracy, she strikes and kills Riggu Felis. Meanwhile, Riggu's other son Pitru had taken some forces and led them out of the burning fortress. Pitru establishes himself as the new warlord among the wildcats. Knowing the otters will now return to where their families are hiding, Pitru builds a barricade square in the route that the otter clans have to take in order to rejoin their families. With the help of newly freed Leatho Shellhound, Lorgo Galedeep, Kolun Galedeep, and Banya Streamdog, Tiria routes the remaining vermin forces. Sadly, however, Cuthbert dies bringing down a Nessie-type monster Slothunog, and Pitru with him. Recovering from this loss, Tiria is later proclaimed by all as the new High Rhulain of Green Isle. ===== In the film, Eddie (Ben Mendelsohn) returns to his home town on the south coast of New South Wales. Having left for the city without explanation 3 years ago, he tries to pick up the pieces of his life and fit back into the lives of those he left, including his ex-girlfriend Tully (Susie Porter) and brother Pete (Andrew Gilbert). The title of the film comes from Eddie's nickname and from his attempts to make a living poaching mullet. The film succeeds in a very human portrayal of the difficulties in living on the fringe of a close-knit community. The drama of the developing relationships is supported by very dry comedy (archetypical Australian humour) and detailed but understated design. ===== The plot revolves Kumiko Yamaguchi, the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss, Kuroda of the Kuroda Ikka. Her parents died when she was at the age of seven, and her grandfather had no other descendants, so Kumiko is next in line to head the family business with the title of Ojou. However, her lifelong dream has been to become a teacher. While her grandfather approves of her choice, others in the family want her to become the next boss. Kumiko becomes home teacher of class 4-2 in mathematics at an all-boys private high school where she is known as Yankumi. Her class is full of delinquents, but she tries her hardest to teach them not just academicly, but about lessons of life. Though she's forced to keep her family a secret from the public, her Yakuza upbringing gives her the strength and the experience to reach out to her students, while also providing comedic situations. ===== In this story some aliens come to Earth as perfect replicas of a group of astronauts who died during a mission to Mars. The astronauts seem to be utterly convinced they are humans and they do not understand why the FBI chases them after they have 'come back' to Earth. Humans only know that these astronauts are not the same as those who originally left for Mars, and nothing more. The original astronauts could have been saved and/or cloned by the aliens. The disguise could be a way to try to communicate more easily with the earthlings. Still other factors could explain these perfect copies of human beings, but the earthlings have no intention of investigating them. Above all, the possible threat must be eliminated, and only then questions can be asked. At the end of the story, Wilks, an FBI agent, poses the central question raised by the story: After this brief meditation Wilks goes on to kill the last of the six astronauts, but he soon realizes that he did it only because he was afraid of an alien invasion: "That's what we are told... they are plotting against us, are inhuman, and will never be more than that". He also realizes that the cycle will only continue. At the end of Explorers We the beginning is repeated. Another spaceship with the same six astronauts aboard lands on Earth. ===== In 1967, Hong Kong, Ben, Paul, and Frank are childhood friends and members of a gang. They regularly brawl with members of other gangs. Ben becomes engaged to his girlfriend Jane and Frank takes out a loan to pay for the reception. He is attacked by the leader of another gang, Ringo, and they fight over the money. After the wedding Ben and Frank attack Ringo in retaliation and Frank gets carried away and kills him. They meet with Paul and decide to flee Hong Kong to escape the police. They decide to go to Vietnam, as they have heard that there is money to be made as smugglers due to the war. Ben, Paul, and Frank get a load of contraband goods from a Hong Kong smuggler and agree to take them to a Vietnamese gangster named Leong. The three friends leave and reach Saigon by boat, only to have a Vietcong suicide bomber destroy all of their goods in an attempt on an officer of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. They are arrested as suspects in the bombing and beaten, until the real bomber is discovered and executed in front of them. They meet Luke, a hitman working for Leong, who dreams of escaping Vietnam with Sally, a nightclub singer Leong has kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The four men attempt to save her, a plan which goes wrong and culminates in a shootout in the nightclub. During the altercation Paul discovers a box of gold in Leong's office and steals it. They escape the nightclub, but Sally is shot in the back and injured. The next morning, the five of them wait by the river for a boat that is supposed to pick them up. Ben and Frank are concerned with Sally and Paul guards the gold. They are attacked by gangsters and the ARVN as the boat arrives, and Sally dies just as they board it. Luke lets her body drift down the river. As they escape, the boat breaks down, and Paul becomes distressed over losing the gold. The three friends fight over Paul's preoccupation with the gold, and Ben and Frank tell him that the friendship is over. The boat is attacked by gangsters and sunk. Luke, Ben, and Frank escape, but Paul goes back for the gold, almost drowning before Ben and Frank save him and the gold. Ben, Paul, and Frank are captured by the Vietcong and taken to a concentration camp. The Vietcong take the gold, and find intelligence documents in the box that Leong was going to sell to the North Vietnamese. The three friends are brutally interrogated, and Paul claims to work for the CIA to save the others. Frank is forced to kill other prisoners, which distresses him, but Ben asks to join in. When he is told to kill Frank he turns on their captors and they escape, aided by the arrival of a squad of Americans led by Luke. Paul escapes from the Vietcong as well and takes the gold into a field. Frank, who is wounded, follows him and begs for help. They hide from the Vietcong and Paul urges Frank to be quiet, but he continues to scream in pain and fear, and Paul finally shoots him in the back of the head to silence him. Luke rushes to Frank's side, finding him still alive, and loads him into a helicopter. Ben chases Paul, who finds his way to a peaceful river village and steals a boat, massacring the villagers in the process. Ben witnesses this, and when he tries to save a child Paul shoots them both and escapes. Ben is saved by some monks, and eventually makes his way back to Saigon, where a badly disfigured Luke tells him that Frank is still alive, but that his head injury has changed him; he is now addicted to heroin and works as a contract killer. Luke takes Ben to see him, and after a brief altercation, Ben shoots Frank to put him out of his misery. Ben travels back to Hong Kong and is reunited with Jane, who has given birth to a child. Meanwhile, Paul has become a successful businessman. Ben confronts him over his actions, showing him Frank's skull and blaming him for what happened to him. Paul is indifferent and kicks Ben out. Later, Ben attacks Paul on the street and they engage in a car chase. They find themselves on the pier where they played together as children. They crash their cars, and continue to fight. Eventually Ben shoots Paul fatally, then tosses his gun away and limps from the scene. ===== Time travelers from the United States, called tempunauts, are sent only a few days into the future rather than a century as was intended. In this near-future, they learn their return from the future was fatal to them. Addison Doug, one of the tempunauts, believes that they are trapped with the rest of the Earth in a closed time loop, forever doomed to repeat the period between their starting their trip and their fatal return. Having found out the cause of their fatal return journey, they have to decide whether to change or not to change their return journey in order to get out of the loop. Doug decides to sabotage "reentry" unbeknownst to the others - by smuggling a mass of car engine parts into the time machine - to both at the same time (and completely contradictorily) find resolution in death and close the time-loop, freezing all of humanity, and possibly the whole universe, in endless repetition of a single week. ===== Alex Tanner is working on a documentary about her father's run for president in 1988. After her documentary, My Candidate, is met with an underwhelming response at an independent film festival, Robert Redford advises her that her film is lacking and that she should do follow-ups with all the people from the 1988 campaign to see what they are doing now, and get their reflections on their past roles. Alex does just this, interviewing most of the old campaign staffers and her father before going to the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston with her film crew to compare and contrast it with the 1988 Democratic National Convention where her father lost the nomination. Along the way, one of her crew members, Salim (Aasif Mandvi), is repeatedly stopped and frisked by police because of his Arab ethnicity. There she meets up with TJ, her father's old campaign manager, who is now advising John Kerry. While TJ provides assistance to Alex, she also advises Jack that he is being considered for a position in the administration, should Kerry win the election. She says he would need to make sure footage from Alex's documentary of him attacking the Iraq War is removed and destroyed, so as not to potentially embarrass Kerry. Jack asks Alex to remove and destroy the footage, which she considers the best part of her documentary. Alex becomes very upset and disillusioned with her father. (It is also implied that she has had a falling out with him.) She eventually destroys her whole film, looking to move on with her life. ===== Rickie Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if cynical companions, when he receives a visit from two friends, an engaged young woman, Agnes Pembroke, and her elder brother, Herbert. The Pembrokes are Rickie's only friends from home. An orphan who grew up living with cousins, he was sent to a public (boarding) school where he was shunned and bullied because of his lame foot, an inherited weakness, and frail body. Agnes, as it happens, is engaged to Gerald, now in the army, who was one of the sturdy youths who bullied Rickie at school. Rickie is not brilliant at argument, but he is intensely responsive to poetry and art, and is accepted within a circle of philosophical and intellectual fellow-students led by a brilliant but especially cynical aspiring philosopher, Stewart Ansell, who refuses, when he is introduced to her, even to acknowledge that Agnes exists. When visiting the Pembrokes during his vacation, Rickie has an epiphanic vision of the sexual bond between Gerald, who is coarse but handsome and athletic, and Agnes, a bond he cannot imagine for himself. He takes these lovers' side in trying to speed their marriage, offering part of his own inheritance, an offer that insults Gerald. When Gerald is suddenly killed in a football match, Rickie finds a role consoling Agnes—he tells her she should "mind" what has happened, that is, that she should grieve—since her passion for Gerald has been the main event of her life. Rickie becomes Agnes' chief consolation and support, though he is in every way Gerald's opposite, and after a year or two, despite the failure of Rickie's stories to find a publisher, he and Agnes become engaged to marry. The young couple pay a visit to Rickie's Aunt Emily Failing, a wealthy eccentric, the widow of a well-known essayist. On this visit they meet Aunt Emily's ward, Stephen, a quarrelsome and handsome semi-educated 19-year-old. For some reason—perhaps just to make malicious mischief—Aunt Emily wants Rickie and Stephen to get to know each other. The two young men do not take to each other at all, and quarrel. Yet it turns out that they are in fact half-brothers, a long-kept secret that Aunt Emily reveals to Rickie, mostly to shock him. Rickie assumes that Stephen is the illegitimate son of his father—a father he hated—who lived apart from Rickie's mother during Rickie's childhood. Illegitimacy in this period is considered to be a blight on the child, as well as the family, and Agnes, who is essentially conventional, considers Stephen's existence something to be deeply ashamed of and to be kept secret, and Stephen a person who deserves to be shunned. Her brother, Herbert, has received an offer to be the head of a dormitory at Sawston School, and can fill this post only if Agnes and Rickie marry quickly and join him, Agnes to be house mother, and Rickie to be a teacher of classics. Rickie's ambition to be a writer, and his freedom of thought, are suppressed by the dreary regimen of teaching, and his moral sense is suffocated by the influence of his wife and brother-in-law. He becomes a petty tyrant in the classroom, and an insensitive enforcer of school rules, though a part of him still sees and understands what he has lost, both as a writer and a man of refinement and sensitivity, since Cambridge. He is "dead" to his former friend, Stewart Ansell, who refuses to answer Rickie's letters. Ansell finally does pay a visit to Rickie, stopping at the house of another acquaintance, and by coincidence he meets Stephen, who (partly due to Agnes's scheming to get Aunt Emily's inheritance for Rickie and herself) has been expelled from Mrs. Failing's house. Stephen has discovered his identity at last, and now knows that Rickie is his half-brother. He wants to meet him again and see whether they might get on better. Ansell falls under the spell of Stephen's rustic honesty, physical vitality, and impulsiveness. Rickie, Agnes and Herbert assume Stephen has come to blackmail them and Agnes offers him money, but Stephen, who is in fact penniless, now wants nothing to do with them. In a horrifying blowout, in front of all the pupils, Ansell accuses Rickie and Agnes of wanting to deny Stephen's existence. Ansell reveals to Rickie that Stephen is, in fact, his mother's illegitimate child, not his father’s. Rickie faints at this revelation. Rickie’s marriage has become loveless, as Ansell assumed it would, and with his brother's reappearance he realises that he has fallen under his wife's spell and denied his better nature. He leaves to find Stephen, dear to him now because he is the child of the same beloved mother, and he attempts unsuccessfully to assume the role of a brother, for example, to get him to stop drinking. The two of them go to Wiltshire to see his aunt. This brief period when they travel together restores to Rickie the sense of himself that has been lost ever since he fell under his wife's influence, and, as well, restores his sense of joy and playful love of life. Rickie is unable, however, to control his mercurial half-brother, who gets drunk despite his promise not to. Like his mother, and like Gerald, Rickie dies suddenly: his legs are severed when he tries to pull a drunken Stephen off some railway tracks. Stephen survives, marries, and in a brief epilogue stands up to Herbert Pembroke for his right to money that is due him with the publication of his half-brother’s book of stories, now valuable since, after his death, Frederick Elliot has become a noted author. The "longest journey" which is the span of one’s life, or, in another sense, the development into one’s true self, has concluded successfully for Rickie, who has regained his sense of integrity. Though his life is cut short, he receives his vindication by coming to moral clarity at last, rejecting conventional hypocrisy, and acknowledging his bond to his brother. His uniqueness and worth are confirmed as well by his posthumous success as an artist. The phrase "the longest journey" appears in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Epipsychidion: I never was attached to that great sect Whose doctrine is, that each one should select Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend, And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion, though it is in the code Of modern morals, and the beaten road Which those poor souls with weary footsteps tread, Who travel to their home among the dead By the broad highway of the world, and so With one chained friend, perhaps a jealous foe, The dreariest and longest journey go. ===== Archer is hired by a woman to investigate a libellous letter she received. The family lives in the house situated on the line between two Southern Californian towns, one an idyllic, oil-rich town and the other the small, seedy town from which the oil comes, corrupt and destroyed by the industry. It is not long before Archer is more concerned with investigating murder instead of just blackmail. The book was the basis of the 1975 Paul Newman film of the same name but the movie has radical departures from the plot of the novel, including moving the location to Louisiana. ===== Khushwant Singh, one of India's most well-known and widely read authors, commenced writing The Company of Women when he was eighty-three and finished at age eighty-five. The octogenarian writer has declared “as a man gets older, his sex instincts travel from his middle to his head.” This Mohan Kumar as a student in the U.S., Mohan has "lost his virginity" at Princeton University to Jessica Brown, a beautiful black lady. Their relationship looked like a honeymoon without wedding. While still in the US, Ms Yasmeen, a Pakistani, revealed to Mohan Kumar the heady passion of a woman older than her male counterpart. After Mohan gets back to India and settles in married life, his passion for women continues undiminished. He feels highly relieved after being divorced by his "nagging and ill-tempered" wife. But Mohan was an unfaithful husband. His sex escapades, before the divorce and post divorce were unusual and varied, including his repeated relations with his ever-obliging maid, Dhanno, with her practiced charm on the bed. Another woman in Kumar's life was Tamilian Marry Joseph, described by the author as “a dark, plump woman in her thirties.” She worked as a nurse to Kumar's son. She has been described almost inviting Shakti Kumar tacitly with these words, “Saar, one life to live, not to waste it on a drunkard husband. You agree?” Kumar has agreed. The book describes Kumar's rendezvous with madam Sarojini Bhardwaj, a Professor of English. And, when it came to sex, the lady professor proved that she was stronger than many men. Another lady appearing in the sex life of Kumar was Molly Gomes, who was “not only as an incarnation of sensual impulse, but also as a mistress of sexuality.” Likewise, Susanthika, "the small wonderful bird", from Sri Lanka was really active on bed. ===== The action is set in an unnamed American city and is told mainly in flashback, and flashbacks within flashbacks. ===== The book tells the story of a little orphan girl, Basia, sent by train alone after her mother's death. When a piece of paper with an address of Basia's family is destroyed, Basia is taken by an actor who managed to read the address and takes the girl there. But he turns out to be wrong ... ===== When the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn visit the Clutch — a large community of spacecraft that never settle on one planet — Evelyn discovers that the Doctor is held in fear by the Galyari. They know him as "the Sandman", a figure from their mythology, an ancient bogeyman — and the Doctor does not deny being that which they regard with fear. ===== A cargo spaceship, propelled by a photon engine with a large reflective mirror ("sail"), visits the Jupiter system to deliver a cargo to a manned science station on Amalthea. Damaged by meteorites, the spaceship falls into Jupiter, but survives the pressure and floats in the dense atmosphere; the crew manage to work around the damaged mirror and start the main engine to escape Jupiter and finally reach Amalthea. ===== At Louisiana's Seven Doors Hotel in 1927, a lynch mob murders an artist named Schweick, whom they believe to be a warlock. Schweick was in the middle of finishing a grotesque painting, which is seen as part of a seance and evidence of the mob's belief. Since Schweick was killed while the painting was being completed, this counts as a human sacrifice and one of the Seven Doors of Death opens, allowing the dead to cross into the world of the living. In 1981, Liza Merrill, a young woman from New York City, inherits the hotel and plans to re-open it. Her renovation work activates the hell portal, and she contends with increasingly strange incidents. Larry, a painter, falls off his rig after seeing a white-eyed woman and is badly injured, coughing up blood and babbling about her eyes. Dr. John McCabe arrives to take the injured man to the hospital, and offers Liza some sympathy. The bell for room 36 rings, and Liza dismisses it as malfunctioning. A plumber named Joe investigates flooding in the cellar and a demonic hand gouges out his eye. His body and another are later discovered by a hotel maid, Martha. Liza encounters a blind woman named Emily, who warns that reopening the hotel would be a mistake. Joe's wife Mary-Anne and their daughter Jill arrive at the hospital morgue to claim Joe's corpse. After tending to her late husband's corpse, Mary-Anne screams in terror which causes her to fall to the floor; Jill finds her mother lying on the floor unconscious, her face burned by acid that toppled over from the impact. As she tries to flee, Jill encounters a corpse coming back to life. Meanwhile, Liza meets with Dr. McCabe and they exchange their life stories over dinner. Liza admits her multiple failed careers, and how reopening the hotel will fulfill her hopes for success. McCabe talks about his experience as a doctor giving him a better grasp of reality, and led to his atheism. He then receives a phone call informing him of Mary-Anne's death. Later, Liza encounters Emily at the hotel. Emily tells Liza the story of Schweick, and warns her to not enter Room 36. The bell rings again, and Liza notes how terrified Emily becomes afterwards. When Emily examines Schweick's painting, she begins to bleed and flees the hotel. Liza attempts to go after Emily, but notices that her own footsteps are audible, while those of Emily and her guide dog Dicky are not. Liza ignores Emily's advice and investigates Room 36. She discovers an ancient book titled Eibon and sees Schweick's corpse nailed to the bathroom wall. She flees the room in terror, but is stopped by John. She takes him to Room 36, but both the corpse and the book are gone. Liza describes her fearful encounters with Emily, but John insists that Emily is not real. While in town, Liza spots a copy of Eibon in the window of a book store, but when she rushes in to grab it, a different book is in its place. The shop owner says the book has been there for years, prompting Liza to remark to John that perhaps it is all in her head. At the hotel, a worker named Arthur attempts to repair the same leak as Joe, but is killed off-screen by ghouls. Liza's friend Martin Avery visits the public library to find the hotel's blueprints, which reveal a large unknown space in the center. He becomes curious but is struck by a sudden force and falls from a ladder, resulting in paralysis. Spiders appear out of nowhere and swarm over his body, ravaging his face and killing him. Back at the hotel, Martha is cleaning the bathroom in Room 36 when Joe's animated corpse emerges from the bathtub. Joe pushes her head into one of the exposed nails where Schweick's corpse was earlier, killing her and gouging one of her eyes. Later, the walking corpses of Schweik, Joe, Mary-Anne, Martin and Arthur invade Emily's house due to her warning Liza about the impending doom. She orders them to leave her alone, and insists she will not return with Schweick. She commands Dicky to attack the corpses, and they are scared away. Dicky turns on Emily immediately after, tearing out her throat and ripping off her ear. At the hotel, spirits terrorize Liza while John breaks into Emily's house—which appears to have been abandoned for years—and finds Eibon. Liza suffers a mental breakdown when Arthur's corpse tries to kill her, and the bell rings when she tries to escape. John returns to the hotel and patronizes Liza, accusing her of placing the book in the house and making up everything to get to him. His final decision to disregard her fears is when he spitefully reads the book, and learns the hotel is a gateway to Hell. A sudden force roars and bleeds all over them, making them flee. Schweick's painting bleeds, and an unseen force says "And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored". The blood-soaked pair retreat to the hospital, which is empty. John tries to think of some logical answer for the events, but the hospital is suddenly overrun by ghouls. Liza is attacked by Larry's corpse, but John gets a gun out of his desk and they escape, only to become separated. Only Dr. Harris and Jill are found still alive, but Harris is killed by flying shards of glass. Liza, John and Jill try to flee, but are confronted by Schweick's corpse. No matter how many times he is shot by John, he continues his pursuit. Jill attacks Liza and is killed by John. Escaping the ghouls, John and Liza rush down a set of stairs but find themselves back in the basement of the hotel. John notes how impossible the entire ordeal is, but has no choice but to accept them to be real. They move forward through the flooded labyrinth and stumble into a supernatural wasteland—the same landscape in Schweick's painting, which turns out to be Hell itself. No matter which direction they travel, they find themselves back at their starting point. They are ultimately blinded just like Emily, succumb to the darkness, and disappear. ===== The Fifth Doctor, together with Peri and Erimem, becomes involved with political intrigue in the court of King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria in Paris, 1626. ===== The series revolves around the kogal (generally known as gyaru, or "gal") subculture in Japan. The title character, Ran Kotobuki is the self-proclaimed "world's greatest gal." As a teenager in Shibuya, she is determined to live out the gal lifestyle for the rest of her life, and she has gained a reputation as the most respected gal in all of Shibuya. However, she comes from a family of police officers—her grandparents, her parents, and her older brother are all officers, and her younger sister is set on following in their footsteps. Ran has other dreams for her future, but as frequently shown, she has acquired the family's sense of justice and spirit. Her two friends, Miyu and Aya, also have their own problems and circumstances. The sequel manga follows the original manga's ending storyline. Ran, Miyu, Aya, and their friends still hangout in Shibuya after they graduate. Ran is still deciding her career, Miyu is now part of Kotobuki family after she marries Yamato. Miyu decides to search for her missing mother alongside with her friends, Yamato and his family so she can tell her that Miyu will always love her and showing her new life. Aya is now a university student alongside Rei as they attend the same campus. ===== Bob Bibleman is tricked into enrolling in a military college, where his accidental discovery of classified information presents him with a moral quandary. ===== The Admiral Peary travels at between 0.35 and 0.4 c and takes a little over 30 years, instead of 24 (the Race's starship velocities are 0.5 c), to cross the twelve light-years between Earth and Tau Ceti. The ship is named Admiral Peary for its role as a military exploration ship, after Admiral Robert Peary, who did the same in an Arctic exploration. When the Admiral Peary arrives in orbit around Home, the Race's planet in the Tau Ceti system, it causes a crisis in the highest levels of the Race. The Race's Emperor Risson and Fleetlord Atvar, sent back to Home with the dubious distinction of being the only Fleetlord not to conquer a planet, argue the merits and drawbacks of attempting to destroy mankind by massive nuclear strikes. Meanwhile, Researcher Ttomalss investigates reports of a major breakthrough by human scientists back on Earth. The Race inadvertently cause itself a possible ecological disaster similar to what it caused on Earth with the Race's introduced species into the Earth's ecosystems by letting the humans' caged rats loose on Home. The rats were used for food testing for the humans. It comes as a great shock to the Race when a second human starship, the Commodore Perry, arrives in orbit around Home, having traveled the twelve light-years in just five weeks. The faster-than-light drive, which appears to be based on the principle of folding space, allows the crew to return to Earth, which is familiar but still different from how they left it. Another pun is the ship's captain, Nicole Nichols, inspired by Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura but playing off the actress's real name. The ship is named Commodore Perry for its role in opening up the Race's empire to access the US, after Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who did the same with Japan, and the Race fears that other human nations will make their way to Home, especially a recovered Germany. ===== World-famous violinist Ryan Harrison (Leslie Nielsen, who had guest starred in two early episodes of The Fugitive television series in the 1960s) is seen giving a concert. Afterwards, he goes to a party where he meets Hibbing Goodhue (Michael York), a millionaire who sponsors Harrison's performances, as well as Goodhue's seductive wife Lauren (Kelly Le Brock) and his possible mistress Cass Lake (Melinda McGraw). The next evening, he finds a note from Lauren in his car which summons him to the Goodhue residence. When he goes to the Goodhue mansion, he bumps into Sean Laughrea (Aaron Pearl), who has just killed Goodhue (together with an unknown accomplice). A violent fight follows, during which Harrison discovers that Sean is missing an eye, an arm, and a leg, and he overhears the preparations for an operation with the codename "Hylander" before he is knocked out. When he wakes up, Harrison finds himself arrested and convicted for the murder of Goodhue. Desperate to prove his innocence, Harrison escapes from his prison transport following an accident. Lieutenant Fergus Falls (Richard Crenna) arrives on the scene, takes charge, barks out orders and vows to do whatever it takes to capture the fugitive. Harrison returns to the Goodhue mansion where he encounters Cass, who is trying to retrieve something from behind a portrait. She tells him she knows he is innocent and believes Lauren is the killer, but refuses to say anything to the police because Lauren is her sister. She provides him with a place to hide and helps him shake his pursuers, but Harrison's opportunities to rest are short and fleeting: Falls seems to find him wherever he goes, and Cass behaves suspiciously, increasing Harrison's doubts of whom to trust. Harrison gradually begins to piece together the puzzle; he remembers that Sean was present at the party as the bartender and was given a great amount of money by Cass. He also finds that Cass is strangely interested in Sir Robert McKintyre, the secretary-general of the United Nations. Eventually, after investigating Sean's disabilities in a limb replacement clinic, he discovers that Cass, Lauren and Sean are planning an assassination attempt on McKintyre. He manages to follow the group but is caught. Cass shoots Harrison but actually fakes his death, both because she has fallen in love with him and because she wants to stop the assassination, since she has found out that McKintyre is really her father. Goodhue has been murdered by Sean and Lauren because he had come to suspect that his wife was actually a terrorist and had only used him to further her goals. At a Scottish festival, Harrison and Cass just barely manage to save McKintyre's life. They are cornered by Lauren, Sean and accomplices, but Fergus Falls and a SWAT team arrive just in the nick of time, arresting the terrorists. Falls officially tells Harrison that he was "wrongfully accused", clearing his name and acquitting him. In the last scene, Harrison and Cass are riding on the bow of a cruise ship (spoofing Titanic) and end up bumping their heads on a low bridge. ===== In the village of Domrémy, the young Joan is visited by Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who exhort her to fight for her country. Her father Jacques d'Arc, mother Isabelle Romée, and uncle beg her to stay at home, but she leaves them and travels to Vaucouleurs, where she meets with the governor, Captain Robert de Baudricourt. The dissipated Baudricourt initially scorns Joan's ideals, but her zeal eventually wins him over, and he gives her authority to lead French soldiers. Joan and her army lead a triumphal procession into Orléans, followed by a large crowd. Then, in Reims Cathedral, Charles VII is crowned King of France. At the Siege of Compiègne, Joan is taken prisoner while her army attempts to storm the castle. In prison, Joan has another dream in which she sees her visions again. Taken to the interrogation, Joan refuses to sign a retraction, and is condemned as a heretic. In the Rouen marketplace, Joan is burned at the stake. The wood carrier at the execution, bringing in fuel for the burning, dies on the spot from the fumes. In a final apotheosis scene, Joan rises to heaven, where she is greeted by God and the saints. ===== Inspired by the story of the Theban soothsayer Teiresias, the author inverted the myth to produce a provocative interpretation with feminist and pacifist elements. He tells the story of Thérèse, who changes her sex to obtain power among men, with the aim of changing customs, subverting the past, and establishing equality between the sexes. ===== Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot follows the generally harmless misadventures of a lovable, gauche Frenchman, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself), as he joins the "newly emerging holiday-taking classes" for a summer vacation at a modest seaside resort. The film affectionately lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and economic classes, from chubby capitalists and self- important Marxist intellectuals to petty proprietors and drab dilettantes, most of whom find it nearly impossible to free themselves, even temporarily, from their rigid social roles in order to relax and enjoy life. The film also gently mocks the confidence of postwar western society in the optimistic belief in capitalist production, and the value of complex technology over simple pleasures, themes that would resurface in his later films. ===== Five men enter a train carriage in London bound for (the fictional town of) Bradley, and are joined by a sixth, the mysterious Doctor Schreck (Peter Cushing) whose name, he mentions, is German for "terror". During the journey, the doctor opens his pack of Tarot cards (which he calls his "House of Horrors") and proceeds to reveal the destinies of each of the travellers. This provides the framework to tell five horror stories. * Peter Cushing - Dr. Schreck ===== Dark Sector begins with Hayden Tenno infiltrating a gulag compound in Lasria. Hayden makes short work of enemy resistance to find Robert Mezner, the man responsible for ravaging Lasria with the Technocyte virus. Hayden proceeds with planting C4 charges throughout the building, before encountering a humanoid metal figure called Nemesis. Hayden is knocked unconscious after firing a rocket at Nemesis. Waking up hours later, Hayden finds himself face-to-face with Mezner. As Hayden attempts to reach for his gun, Nemesis appears and stabs his right shoulder, transferring the Technocyte virus into Hayden. Hayden detonates the C4 charges set earlier and manages to escape. His right arm now mutated by Technocyte, Hayden arrives at a radio station to contact the A.D., his superior, for further instructions. The A.D. tells Hayden to meet up with their sleeper agent, Yargo Mensik, to obtain boosters for the infection. Shortly after, Hayden is ambushed by soldiers, just as his infected arm produces the Glaive, which he uses to eliminate the hostiles. Hayden moves along the coast, slowly gaining new abilities with the Glaive as the infection progresses; while encountering both haz-mat soldiers and infected civilians. He also hears Mezner taunting him telepathically, saying that "this change is inevitable." Eventually, Hayden finds Yargo, who gives Hayden his updated orders and a booster for the infection. Hayden refuses the medicine, and learns that Mezner wants to recapture the infected with an old transmitter, which emits a signal that attracts Technocyte-infected creatures to its location, within an old church. Hayden also learns that Nadia, a woman Hayden is acquainted with, is also working for Mezner. Hayden moves on towards the church to destroy the transmitter, eliminating both Lasrian soldiers and infected along the way. Eventually, he makes it into the church catacombs and finds the transmitter. Nadia, who has a deep-rooted hatred for Hayden after his last meeting with her, confronts him. She leaves him to fight his way through a swarm of infected and escape before the C4 he set goes off. After making contact with the A.D. again, Hayden learns that Mezner is using a freighter to export the Technocyte virus from Lasria. After getting on the boat and fighting through the crew, he makes it to the cargo hold, accidentally releasing a highly evolved Technocyte monster, which sinks the ship. After Hayden escapes, he learns that Mezner's men have found and captured Yargo. Hayden rushes back to Yargo's post, where he finds a security feed of Nadia torturing Yargo, demanding that he let her into "the Vault", saying that whatever is in there can control the Technocyte virus. Disobeying the A.D.'s orders to stand down and await his arrival, Hayden sets out to rescue Yargo. Fighting through a train station, Hayden finds Yargo, who has lost an eye during interrogation. After a brief moment of Technocyte-induced pain, Hayden attempts to use the booster, but Yargo starts to warn him about it, just before Nemesis appears. While Yargo escapes, Hayden attempts to take Nemesis head-on, but Mezner arrives and offers Hayden a chance to kill him; however, Mezner has grown powerful enough to mentally control Technocyte creatures, and begins to overpower Hayden. With no other choice, Hayden injects himself with the booster, breaking Mezner's control over him while simultaneously preventing further mutations. Before Hayden passes out, Mezner tells him that he had the same "booster", which was really meant to prepare the two for the Technocyte virus. Hayden wakes up later in the Vozro Research Facility, where the Technocyte virus was researched during the Cold War. Yargo, who brought him there, tells him that he laced Hayden's booster with "enferon", a chemical lethal to Technocyte creatures. He claims that he was worried that Hayden would "turn out like Mezner", as they both had the same strain of the virus; however, Hayden has retained his humanity, while Mezner did not. Yargo also tells Hayden that he can get a suit similar to Nemesis' in the facility's subbasement, which can give him a fighting chance against Nemesis. Hayden sends Yargo through the ventilation system, then makes his way down towards the labs where the suit is kept. After killing hordes of Technocyte creatures and bypassing automated security systems, Hayden discovers the suit; but before he puts it on, Nadia arrives outside the door. Hayden pleads with her to leave before things get worse than they already are. She says she's already in too deep, and that she will take Yargo to open the Vault, before leaving. Hayden dons the suit and slaughters his way through infected and non-infected alike, finally finding and killing Nemesis, learning that it was actually Nadia all along. She apologizes for infecting Hayden and tells him Mezner is planning to transmit the Technocyte virus across Earth. Nadia then tells him that she knows he'll "do the right thing this time", gives him the key to the Vault, then dies. Hayden works his way to the entrance of the Vault to rendezvous with the A.D., who says he has made a deal with Mezner and gives Hayden a booster "for the road". Outraged from being used and betrayed, Hayden stabs him in the neck with the booster, telling him that he now feels "better than ever", and kills all of the A.D.'s men before heading for the Vault. Finding Yargo, Hayden gives him the key, telling him to seal the Vault and dispose of the key. Inside the Vault, a stunned Hayden discovers the first known source of the Technocyte virus: an American submarine that surfaced off the coast of Lasria (seen in the prologue of the game). Hayden discovers Mezner with the Technocyte transmitter, a Hydra-like monstrosity. After fighting and defeating Mezner, the monster and several infected, Yargo arrives to tell Hayden that the transmission is still going out. Hayden tries to fry the circuitry with his Glaive; but Mezner, not yet dead, stuns his right arm, telling him: "You are one of us now." With his right hand immobilized, Hayden catches the now-electrified Glaive with his left hand, and impales Mezner's skull with it. With the transmission finally halted, the game ends with Hayden leaving the Vault, catching the Glaive as he steps outside. Yargo, who apparently survives, narrates: "That was how it started, the irony of this disease. That in all the others, it made evil; but for him [Hayden], it had saved his soul." ===== Shadax, the wizard hero of Solstice, has been captured and imprisoned by his treacherous apprentice, the sorceress Sonia, in her Ice Palace. Sonia's army of monsters and demons then overrun the seven kingdoms of the world. It is now up to his young son Glendaal, the only man with the magical powers strong enough to defeat the evil empress, to journey to rescue Shadax from her icy fortress in Death Island and put an end to her reign.Equinox manual at celephais.net. If Glendaal manages to reach and destroy Sonia, he finds his barely alive father in a tiny chamber concealed behind the witch's throne. ===== Ashton Pelham-Martyn (Ash) is the son of a British botanist travelling through India; he is born on the road shortly before the Sepoy uprising of 1857. His mother dies from childbed fever shortly after his birth, and his father dies of cholera a few years later. He is entrusted to his Hindu ayah (nanny) Sita to be brought to his English relatives in the city of Mardan. After discovering that all English feringhis have been killed during the uprising, Sita adopts the dark-skinned Ash and takes him in search of safety. They eventually find refuge in the kingdom of Gulkote where Ashton, now going by the name Ashok, forgets his English parentage and grows up as a native Indian boy. While working as a servant for Lalji, the young yuveraj (crown prince) of Gulkote, Ashton befriends the neglected princess Anjuli, in addition to the master of stables, Koda Dad, and his son Zarin. At the age of 11, Ashton uncovers a murderous conspiracy against Lalji and learns he himself will be killed for interfering with the plot. Promising Anjuli he will return for her one day, he and Sita escape the palace with assistance from friends Sita and Ashok have made within the palace over the years, and flee from Gulkote. The ailing Sita dies en route, but not before revealing to Ash his true parentage and entrusting him with the letters and money his father gave her before his death. Ashok makes his way to the military division Sita instructed him about, and they recognise him; now known by his English name, Ashton is turned over to English authorities and sent to England for a formal education and military training. At age 19, Ashton returns to India as an officer in the Corps of Guides with Zarin on the Northern Frontier. He quickly finds that his sense of place is torn between his newfound status as Ashton, an English "sahib", and Ashok, the native Indian boy he once believed he was. After going AWOL in Afghanistan (to restore the honour of his soldiers, penalized for losing weapons to border raiders) Ash is suspended from The Guides and sent to escort a royal wedding party across India. The party is in fact from the former kingdom of Gulkote, now known as Karidkote after merging with a neighbouring princedom, and Anjuli and her sister Shushila are the princesses to be married. Also in the wedding party is Anjuli's younger brother, the prince Jhoti. After revealing himself as Ashok to Anjuli, Ash falls in love with her, but is unable to act on his feelings as she is not only betrothed to another but belongs to what is now an alien culture, across a divide which they can no longer bridge. Over the months that follow, Ash thwarts a plot to murder Jhoti, and falls into increasing despair over his unrequited love for Anjuli. While caught in a dust storm together, Anjuli reveals her love for Ash, but rebuffs his pleas to run away with him out of duty to her sister as a co-bride in an arranged marriage. Ash is forced to watch Anjuli be married off to the lecherous rana of Bhithor and return to his duties in the military. Two years later, Ash receives distressing news that the rana of Bhithor is dying, and that his wives are to be burned alive in the Hindu ritual of suttee. Racing to Bhithor, Ash and his friends manage to rescue Anjuli and take her to safety; this rescue results in the death of not only Ash's beloved horse but also most of the human members of the party. He insists upon marrying Anjuli, despite the insistence of all other members of his group of acquaintances, including Anjuli, that this is not only unnecessary but against God's Law. Here the book's focus shifts from the relationship between Ash and Anjuli to England's and Russia's political wrangling in the regions north of what were the Indian borders at the time. In England's desire to expand its territory into Afghanistan, Ash is sent into the country as a spy to relay information that will help England establish a permanent foothold in the area. What follows is an account of the first phase of the Second Afghan War, culminating in the September 1879 uprising that killed the English envoy in Kabul. This part of the story is told mostly from the perspective of Ash's best friend Walter "Wally" Hamilton. After the uprising in Kabul, Ash and Anjuli set out in search of a paradise in the Himalayas – "the far pavilions" – free of prejudice where they can live out their lives in peace. ===== The main character in the novel is Freek Groenevelt, a 37-year-old journalist living in Antwerp. From a café, he witnesses four workers breaking up a street and then closing it up again, for no apparent reason. When he decides to write an article about the event, he is contacted by a member of the Antwerp city council, Mr. Keldermans. Mr. Keldermans explains to Groenevelt that things are happening which he does not understand and make him afraid. Groenevelt is sceptical at first, but Keldermans seems honest and Groenevelt leaves in a state of confusion. He then receives a letter from Joachim Stiller, in which Stiller announces that the event he witnessed is a portent. To Groenevelt's confusion, the letter is stamped one and a half years before he was born. Later on, Groenevelt goes to visit the editors of a literary magazine, "Atomium", which has published a very critical article about him. One of the editors, Simone Marijnissen, explains that they have received a letter from, again, Joachim Stiller, asking them not to criticize Groenevelt. They thought that Groenevelt had written the letter himself and saw this as a reason to attack him. Over the next few days, Joachim Stiller continues to manifest himself. He writes another letter to Marijnissen, and Groenevelt finds a 16th- century book, written by a German theologian from Augsburg called Joachim Stiller. Groenevelt and Marijnissen (who are fast falling in love with each other) visit an art historian, who determines that the letter is thirty-eight years old: again, just one year older than Groenevelt. A graphologist determines that Stiller's handwriting is exactly what he would expect from a man "who doesn't exist at all, but could nonetheless write". Marijnissen spends the night in Groenevelt's apartment, and they are awakened by the sounds of a carillon, which nobody else seems to hear. Then, the telephone rings, and an unknown person promises: "One day I will free you from all your fears." Then, as persistent rumours announcing the end of the world start to run around the city, Groenevelt contacts Keldermans, who explains that these rumours have been spread by people unknown. He had detailed some police officers to keep things quiet, but these have disappeared without a trace. Groenevelt, now understandably nervous, visits a psychiatrist, but apart from high blood pressure, nothing seems to be wrong. He does remember an episode from his early youth, when he witnessed a rocket attack in the Second World War. An American soldier was mortally wounded in the attack, and suddenly Groenevelt remembers the GI's name: Major Joachim Stiller, Longwood, Massachusetts. When Groenevelt comes home, Marijnissen tells him she is expecting their child. Furthermore, a letter from Joachim Stiller has arrived, telling them that he will arrive on Friday evening. On Friday evening, Groenevelt and Marijnissen go to the train station, where they meet Keldermans. At half past nine, a man comes out of the station, whom Groenevelt recognises as the American soldier from his youth. The man smiles, and says: "I am Joachim Stiller", but immediately after that he is hit by a truck. Later, at the police station, it proves impossible to identify the man. Three days later, when Groenevelt and Marijnissen try to visit Stiller's body, it has disappeared. Keldermans's connection with Joachim Stiller is also revealed: his daughter has died in the same attack that Groenevelt has witnessed. ===== Malvineous Havershim is an archaeologist studying strange ruins in Madagascar. The ruins were built by an unknown ancient culture known as the 'Blue Builders'. While attempting to translate the glyphs on the walls of one Blue Builder structure, a strange gas is emitted, and Malvineous loses consciousness. Malvineous has a dream-encounter with a talking eagle, who gives him cryptic warnings. He awakes in a strange land, the area in which the game takes place. ===== On the space station Dark Space 8, the Seventh Doctor and Mel arrive at the hosting of the Intergalactic Song Contest when a series of murders threatens the peace of the galaxy. ===== The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn, having followed a weird transmission, arrives in London in 2003, but they quickly notice that the city appears strange and looks unusually dirty and dusty. Before they can properly investigate, the TARDIS suddenly flees in terror and leaves them behind. The Doctor is then suddenly stricken by a weird sense of deja vu, and realizes that he and Evelyn have landed in an alternate timeline. England, now known as the "English Empire", has become the central political power of the world, following the events "The Great Dalek War of 1903", and is ruled by the despotic President Rochester, who holds the sole surviving Dalek in the universe as a captive, and uses it as a part of his propaganda campaign of death. As the Doctor and Evelyn try to restore the original timeline, they discover that they are being worshipped as heroes of the Dalek war, a fact which worries the Doctor, as he suddenly has faint and rather out-of-place memories of having fought in that war, and perhaps even more disturbingly, he can't recall if he ever managed to escape from it. ===== Six years after the death of Mao, the People's Republic of China opens its doors to learn how to integrate into the larger world. The title character, a thirty-six-year-old English teacher in Shanghai, learns a great deal of Chinese culture from interacting with her students in and out of class. The narrator of the novel, twenty-nine-year-old Zebra Wong, is one of the students who eventually helps her adopt a Chinese girl, Little Rabbit. However, the principal of the school Katherine teaches at, Mr. Han, becomes suspicious of Katherine's after-class activities and, with the help of Katherine's student and spurned lover Lion Head, seizes upon her "corrupting Western influence" to call for her dismissal. Katherine appeals to the U.S. consul in Shanghai, but she is returned to America. She maintains contact with Zebra and tries to make arrangements for her and Little Rabbit to come to the United States as well. Category:1995 American novels Category:Novels by Anchee Min Category:Novels set in Shanghai ===== Valerie, a pretty young girl, is asleep when a thief steals her earrings; as she tries to investigate, she is startled by a horrific man, the Constable, who wears a mask. The thief returns her earrings the next day, angering the Constable. Back at her house, Valerie's grandmother, Elsa, tells her that the earrings were left behind by Valerie's mother upon joining a convent. Previously, the earrings belonged to the Constable, who also owned their house. Valerie also learns that a group of missionaries and a company of actors are coming to town. During her neighbor Hedvika's wedding, Valerie sees the Constable watching her in the crowd and her grandmother also seems to recognize him. Valerie receives a letter from the thief, Orlík ("Eaglet"), warning her that the Constable, his uncle, killed Orlík's parents and now wants Valerie's earrings back. Orlík asks Valerie to meet him at the church that evening; when they meet he doesn't hide his attraction to her. Later, Valerie meets the Constable in the street, in disguise; he leads Valerie to a chamber where her grandmother whips herself to win back the love of a past lover, a priest named Gracián. Orlík saves Valerie and tells her that his uncle is in love with her. The Constable meets Elsa, who calls him Richard and was his lover when she was 17. He promises to make her young again if she sells him the house that Valerie will inherit. Meanwhile, Orlík gives Valerie a pearl for protection, then hides her from Richard again. At a picnic, Gracián tells Valerie that Orlík is her brother. That night, Gracián comes into her bedroom and attempts to rape her, but she swallows the pearl to protect herself. Meanwhile, Richard and Elsa sneak into Hedvika's; while Hedvika and her husband consummate their marriage, Elsa bites her on the neck, stealing the blood necessary to become young again. Valerie finds Orlík bound to a waterfall by Richard. Valerie frees Orlík and takes him to her house, avoiding his romantic intentions by blindfolding him, since she now thinks they're siblings. They discover Gracián hanging dead from Valerie's window and take the body to a crypt under Valerie's house; Elsa is there, now a vampire. Disguised as a young woman, Elsa introduces herself as a distant cousin and tells Valerie that her grandmother left suddenly. She tries to bite Valerie, then restrains her while she's asleep and steals the earrings. Elsa imprisons Valerie, who then observes Elsa having sex with a man and then killing him, then attempting to seduce Orlík, who instead steals the earrings again. Orlík frees Valerie, returns her earrings, and confesses his love for her. He tries to explain that he's not her father's son, but Richard's, but Valerie runs away. She has guessed Elsa is actually her grandmother, and started to feel something for Richard, who's dying. Valerie steals a chicken from the market and takes it to Richard, who's just told Elsa that he is Valerie's father, and that Valerie's blood is the key to their survival. When Valerie heals Richard, he reverts to being a monster and attacks her. He plans to transplant Orlík's heart into Valerie to make her immortal, but Elsa wants it for herself. Valerie, pretending to be unconscious, overhears everything. She revives Gracián, who wasn't actually dead, and finds a goodbye letter from Orlík. Valerie meets Hedvika, sick from Elsa's bite and depressed about her marriage. They retreat into Hedvika's bedroom and spend the night together, after which Hedvika is healed. Outside, Gracián tells a crowd that Valerie is a witch who tempted him into sin. He orders her captured and burned at the stake, but Valerie swallows the magic earrings and escapes unharmed. In the crypt, now a brothel, Valerie tricks Richard into drinking one of the earrings, turning him into a polecat. In a progressively more dreamlike sequence, Valerie reunites with Orlík, revealed to be one of the actors; then Elsa, who doesn't recall anything that's happened; then her long-lost parents. In the final scene everyone dances around Valerie in the forest, while the virgins sing for her. Eventually she falls asleep in a bed in the forest, alone. ===== Unlike the prior Unreal Tournament games, the single- player campaign does not follow a plot based around the Tournament Grand Championship, and therefore several of the teams within Unreal Tournament 3 are not Tournament competitors. The five playable factions are: Iron Guard, a team of human mercenaries led by former Tournament champion Malcolm; the Ronin, a band of four survivors of a Skaarj attack on a human colony; Liandri, a series of advanced humanoid robots custom-built or retrofitted for combat; the Krall, a warlike race of aliens formerly under the leadership of the Skaarj, returning from their initial appearance in the original Unreal; and the Necris, warriors who have undergone the process of the same name, making them stronger at the expense of replacing their biological processes with "Nanoblack", effectively turning them into undead soldiers (hence the name, Necris). In the Campaign, players control members of the Ronin, and the Necris serve as the chief antagonists. In the game's story a Necris attack occurs on a colony on unknown planet, releasing armed Krall on the humans. The colony is defenseless, but a group of Ronins arrives on the scene, defending the survivors. Reaper, the group's leader, advises his second-in-command warrior Othello and his sister Jester to destroy the orbital Necris blockade with a fighter, and orders team's sniper expert, Bishop, to provide cover as he swarms to save the colony. Suddenly, he is caught in the explosion of an incoming rocket missile and passes out, but not before seeing an unknown Necris woman shooting a soldier next to him. Reaper is rescued by Othello and Jester and wakes up in the base of the Izanagi, a guerrilla force that fights against Necris and Axon, and he meets with the leader, revealed to be Malcolm, who also leads the Iron Guard as the Izanagi's army. He explains that the Necris attack was masterminded by Liandri, who also turn some of the Krall, into Necris, controlled undead soldiers. The unknown woman who Reaper saw turns out to be Akasha, the Necris operative who destroyed the colony and also leads the Necris forces. Reaper wants to kill her, but Malcolm tells him that he needs to prove himself first. ===== On tenth anniversary of the devastating atomic war on Earth, more Proxima Centaurians arrive to continue the rebuilding of the planet. A war crimes tribunal is looking for names of war criminals and a surviving homeopape of The New York Times seems to provide an answer. Benny Cemoli. ===== For three years, the no-ship Ithaca has been in an alternate universe, hiding from the "great enemy". It carries the clones, or gholas, of Duncan Idaho, famous military commander Miles Teg, the Bene Gesserit Sheeana, the last Bene Tleilax Master Scytale, and seven small melange-producing sandworms, as well as a number of other humans. Scytale has shared the secret of producing melange, also called spice, in tanks, because the sandworms do not produce enough to allow the ship to continue travelling. The mysterious Oracle of Time speaks to Duncan and brings the no-ship back into the 'regular' universe. The ship is discovered by the mysterious Daniel and Marty, first mentioned at the end of Chapterhouse: Dune. They attempt to capture the ship, but it escapes. On Chapterhouse, the only remaining source of spice, Murbella, now the leader of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserits, is attempting to merge the groups into the New Sisterhood and prevent civil war. Desperate for more spice so that their Navigators can travel through space, the Spacing Guild approaches her, but Murbella refuses, threatening to cut them off completely. Unbeknownst to everyone but the Bene Gesserit, the sandworms on Chapterhouse are not producing much melange; the Bene Gesserit are making up the shortfall with their own stockpiles. Though the Honored Matres had destroyed all Bene Tleilax worlds, their descendants (the Lost Tleilaxu) have returned from The Scattering. They use the shape- stealing Face Dancers for espionage, until the Face Dancers kill the Tleilaxu Elder Burah and replace him with a duplicate. It is revealed that they have replaced all the Lost Tleilaxu Elders, as well as countless humans on various planets in the Old Empire. Their leader Khrone sends the scribe Uxtal to serve the rebel Honored Matre leader Hellica, who has proclaimed herself Matre Superior and now rules the conquered Bene Tleilax homeworld, Tleilax. The desperate Spacing Guild goes to Ix seeking an alternative means of space travel. Khrone and his Face Dancers have secretly infiltrated Ix, plotting to dominate the universe. Working with Daniel and Marty, Khrone offers their advanced navigation technology to the Guild as if it were of Ixian design. The Guild agrees to the development of this technology if they have a monopoly on it. Uxtal has been forced to use Tleilaxu axlotl tank technology to produce the adrenaline-enhancing drug used by Honored Matres. Khrone tasks Uxtal to make a ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, which is as sociopathic as the original. Khrone obtains the blood of Paul Atreides and has Uxtal make a ghola of Paul; he intends to use the ghola of the Baron to twist Paul's ghola into a weapon for Daniel and Marty's conquest of the universe. Later, Guild Navigator Edrik comes to Tleilax seeking Uxtal's knowledge of axlotl tanks; the Navigator fears his kind's obsolescence when the Ixian navigation technology becomes available. He seeks a tank-based source of spice to break the Bene Gesserit monopoly, but everyone believes that technology died with the Tleilaxu Masters. Eventually he accesses the genetic material of deceased Master Waff, and creates several Waff gholas, hoping to recover the lost technology. The Tleilaxu sustain their lives indefinitely using gholas; Scytale's current body is dying, and he does not have a replacement. He has only one secret to use as a bargaining tool: a hidden nullentropy capsule containing cells of numerous important historical and legendary figures secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia, as far back as the Butlerian Jihad. The Bene Gesserit have a vicious debate over whether to create gholas of any of these historical figures. A few at a time, the historical gholas are created, and Scytale is given a new body. On Chapterhouse, Murbella creates the Valkyries, an elite New Sisterhood strike force. They successfully attack rebel Honored Matre strongholds on other planets, discovering that some of the Honored Matres are disguised Face Dancers. Murbella accesses the Other Memory from her Honored Matre ancestors and learns their true origins: they were vengeful Tleilaxu females, freed and assimilated by Fish Speakers and Bene Gesserits fleeing in The Scattering. Tleilaxu females had been enslaved for use as axlotl tanks by Tleilaxu males for millennia. These origins have been forgotten; Murbella now understands why the Honored Matres annihilated the Tleilaxu worlds in the Old Empire. Murbella also accesses a memory showing the origins of the mysterious force the Honored Matres call the Enemy. On the no- ship, rebel Bene Gesserits attempt to murder the Leto II ghola, but are foiled when he transforms into a sandworm. The Paul ghola steals and consumes an overdose of spice in an attempt to remember his past, but instead has a vision of being stabbed by an evil version of himself. After being discovered by the Bene Gesserit, he concludes that he has regained prescience. Sheeana has visions that suggest the use of the gholas is dangerous, and halts the program until she knows more. Daniel and Marty tell Khrone to discard the Baron Harkonnen and Paul Atreides gholas, as they have lured the Ithaca into a trap, and will soon capture the ghola of Paul Atreides on board. Working to his own ends, Khrone continues to prepare the gholas, restoring the Baron's memories and instructing him to train the Paul ghola, which he renames Paolo. Paolo does not yet have his memories. Murbella contracts Ix's competitor Richese to provide armaments for a confrontation with the great enemy, but the rebel Honored Matres destroy the planet to cripple the Sisterhood. Murbella and her Valkyries successfully assault Tleilax, the most powerful of the rebel Honored Matre strongholds, and discover that many, including Matre Superior Hellica, were Face Dancers. Uxtal dies trying to escape, but the remaining Waff ghola finds refuge with the Spacing Guild, offering Edrik the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own sandworms. The Ithaca stumbles upon the homeworld of the Handlers. An exploratory party from the no-ship discovers that the Handlers are actually Face Dancers, and barely escape back to the ship. Some Face Dancer ships crash into the Ithaca, and the chaos makes it impossible to know if any passengers have been replaced by Face Dancers. The emergency forces Miles Teg to reveal his hidden power of superhuman speed. Murbella, now in complete control of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, prepares a defense against the forces of the great enemy, now identified by Other Memory to be thinking machines of Omnius, the machine overlord destroyed in the ancient Butlerian Jihad. The Oracle of Time is revealed to be the living consciousness of Norma Cenva, somehow also still in existence millennia after the Jihad. Daniel and Marty are revealed to be Omnius and the independent robot, Erasmus. Before its destruction, the Omnius incarnation on Giedi Prime had launched 5,000 probes capable of constructing new machine colonies on any planets encountered. One of these probes eventually intercepted a signal transmitted by the last remaining Omnius on Corrin before it too was destroyed. Its forces and Synchronized Empire finally reassembled, the new version of the Evermind is on the way back to the Old Empire to destroy all humanity. ===== ===== The film begins in Copenhagen with a low-level drug dealer Frank (Kim Bodnia) going to a heroin deal with his sidekick Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen). The pair only manage to sell some of their product, and then waste time about town. Frank then visits his friend Vic (Laura Drasbæk), a prostitute who holds some of Frank's stash for a fee. Vic wants to have a serious relationship with Frank, but Frank prefers to keep it purely casual. Frank is visited by a former cell mate, a Swede named Hasse (Peter Andersson), and the pair set up a large drug deal. Frank visits his supplier, the Serbian local drug lord Milo (Zlatko Burić), to get the heroin. Already owing Milo some money, Frank cannot cover the cost of the heroin, but Milo allows him to take the drugs provided that he immediately returns with the money. The deal goes bad, however, when police arrive. In the process of evading the police, Frank dumps the heroin in a lake. At the station, police officers convince Frank that Tonny has delivered a confession that implicates Frank, but he still does not admit to anything. When Frank is released after 24 hours he returns to Milo to explain how he lost the money and the drugs. Milo does not believe Frank's story and demands that he pay back even more than he already owes. Frank then immediately seeks Tonny out and savagely beats him with a baseball bat. Milo's henchman Radovan (Slavko Labović) accompanies Frank to help him collect on some of his own debts to use toward his debt with Milo. The pair have a friendly conversation and Radovan shares his secret desire to open a restaurant. Radovan tries to force an addict customer of Frank's to rob a bank to cover his debt, but the addict commits suicide in front of them. As Frank makes other disastrous attempts to earn money, Vic becomes increasingly insistent that they behave as a couple. He takes her to several clubs and makes plans to drive her to the veterinarian to see her sick dog. Frank finally makes a deal, but his drug mule betrays him and switches the heroin for baking soda. Radovan drops his friendly demeanour and begins threatening Frank with serious injury should he fail to pay up soon. Frank goes on a desperate rampage, stealing some money and drugs from the gym of some drug- dealing bodybuilders, but he is soon picked up by Radovan and tortured. Frank manages to escape and makes plans to flee with Vic to Spain. After successfully making his final deal in Copenhagen, Frank receives a call from Milo, who promises to accept a token payment to put an end to their feud. When Frank bluntly informs Vic that their plans to flee are cancelled, she steals his stash of money and runs off. The film ends with Frank grimly catching his breath as his enemies throughout the city prepare to dispose of him. ===== An alien lands on Earth to make first contact in the African desert. Not realizing it is facing lions, it is killed and devoured. Its ship is discovered by the people from Starvin' Marvin's village. The village is occupied by Christian missionaries led by Sister Hollis (voiced by Michael Ann Young), who attempt to convert the community by assuring them that their faith in Christianity will get them food, prompting Marvin to board the ship in search of a place free of missionaries to relocate his people. Meanwhile, two agents with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), having found out about this spaceship and wanting it for themselves, track down the boys and torture them by making scraping noises on a balloon until Cartman suddenly cannot take it anymore and tells them where Starvin' Marvin might have taken it. The two government agents then recruit Sally Struthers, whose character is depicted as looking similar to Jabba the Hutt. She is the leader of an Ethiopian food drive that is nothing more than a front for her to get all the food she wants. They offer her Chocolate Yum Yum bars in exchange. Marvin and the boys team up, and by accidentally pressing a button, they fly via a wormhole to the home planet of the ship's owner: the planet Marklar, whose inhabitants speak a language that is identical to English except for the fact that every noun is replaced with the word "Marklar". The benevolent Marklar agree to allow the Ethiopians to live on their planet. Back on Earth, the boys try to round up the Ethiopians, but the government agents seize the spaceship. The boys are able to take back the spaceship, letting Marvin load his people on while the boys distract the government agents, pretending to be Tom Brokaw. The agents are easily able to see through the disguise. Despite this, they are distracted long enough to load the ship, but Kenny is lost and seized by the government agents when the boys try to make a break for it. The boys try to make it to Marklar, but they are confronted by the missionaries, who have built their own ship and are trying to force Christianity to Marklar. During this time, while broadcasting his show The 600 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Channel, Pat Robertson is shown attempting to raise funds for various absurd weapons and upgrades to aid the missionaries while in space. A space battle ensues, before the boys have to face the government agents. The agents have had Kenny frozen in carbonite and given to Struthers so she can support them. Cartman convinces Struthers that she has influenced the boys that they need to help people more. This touches Struthers, so she lets the boys go and captures the missionary ship instead. Then, the wormhole is opened again, and all ships are taken to Marklar. When they arrive on Marklar, the aliens are very confused by the humans' attempts to explain their motives. Kyle explains the situation in the aliens' own language, and the Marklar are moved. They banish the missionaries and let the Ethiopians stay. The boys promise to visit again (with Cartman sarcastically adding "Yeah, and maybe Jesse Jackson will be President!"). Struthers then takes the boys back to Earth. ===== George Orwell claimed that "The central plot of Shaw's play, Pygmalion, is lifted out of Peregrine Pickle [by Smollett], and I believe that no one has ever pointed this out in print, which suggests that few people have read the book." ("As I Please" TRIBUNE July 7, 1944) ===== Harper's Magazine poster by Edward Penfield for the debut of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (April 1895) ===== The native protagonist, Barlennan, captain of the sailing raft Bree, is on a trading expedition to the equator. Prior to the story's opening, a human scientific probe has become stranded at one of the planet's poles, where the gravity is too strong to effect a rescue. A member of the scientific team, Charles Lackland, is dispatched to the equator where he has met Barlennan by chance. Even machine aided, Lackland is barely able to function in the 3 gee environment, one Barlennan considers incredibly light and a tiny fraction of what his culture is used to. Lackland teaches the Bree crew English and arranges a deal with Barlennan; in exchange for the humans providing warnings of the violent weather which often plagues trips to the pole, Barlennan will retrieve the probe and return it to the equator where it can be picked up. Communication is achieved through an audio- visual radio built to function in a high-gravity environment, which is treated as magical by other intelligences encountered on the planet. Along the way to the pole, the ship encounters and overcomes a variety of obstacles, some of which the humans help with using their superior scientific knowledge, and some of which rely on the cunning of Barlennan and his crew. They are captured by various lifeforms similar to themselves, but who live in the lower-gravity areas and have developed projectile weapons and gliders. Gradually, with human help, they gain an understanding of these and manage to escape. Barlennan has been dissatisfied with the humans' efforts to seemingly avoid explanation of anything scientific, and almost withholds the probe when they finally reach it; but the humans convince them that a scientific background is needed to understand the advanced equipment in the probe, and a deal is reached whereby the humans will educate the Mesklinites. The novel provides an exposition on how the weather, geology and atmosphere of the seas and the pole are affected by the local conditions, and sees the Mesklinites overcoming their fear of gravity as they learn to view it scientifically, eventually harnessing aerodynamics to make the Bree fly at the poles. ===== Finally promoted to teaching fourth graders, Mr. Garrison realizes that getting fired for being homosexual could allow him to sue the school for millions. He decides to perform outrageous sex acts in the classroom, hiring his partner Mr. Slave as his teaching assistant. Although the boys complain about Garrison's inappropriate activities, their parents mistakenly think their boys are intolerant of homosexuality. However, despite their thoughts about that, the adults bring the boys to the Museum of Tolerance to learn about tolerance of minorities or those with different life choices, though they hypocritically attack a nearby smoker with verbal abuse. Garrison, annoyed that no one has complained about his actions, steps up his campaign to get fired by shoving Lemmiwinks, the class gerbil, into Mr. Slave's rectum, an act called gerbilling. The boys mention their discomfort to Chef, who in turn, reports Garrison's actions to Principal Victoria, but ends up being sent to a "tolerance seminar". Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters refuse to attend class, so their parents send them to an Auschwitz-like "tolerance camp" (it is unknown if this is the same camp Chef was sent to). Back at the Museum of Tolerance, Garrison is to receive the "Courageous Teacher Award" for overcoming adversity. Still frustrated at not being fired, Garrison goes all out at the ceremony in an extremely flamboyant and stereotypically gay manner (humming Ferde Grofé's "On the Trail" from the Grand Canyon Suite). Although the parents finally understand what their kids were telling them about and are indeed shocked at Garrison's behavior, they cannot bring themselves to criticize it, as they fear being branded "intolerant". When the people continue to call Garrison and Mr. Slave "courageous" for their actions, Garrison finally breaks down and shouts at them that tolerating something does not mean you have to like it. He goes on to say that tolerating his homosexuality should not mean that he can do things which are obviously inappropriate in front of his students and begs to be fired so that he can collect on a discrimination lawsuit, but Principal Victoria says she has a better idea. The parents hurry to collect their malnourished and emaciated kids from the tolerance camp, but fail to realize that they tried to tell them about Garrison's behavior. Principal Victoria concludes that Garrison and Mr. Slave are "intolerant of their own behavior", and she is sending them to the tolerance camp so that they will accept themselves. As the outside events occur, Lemmiwinks traverses the regions of Mr. Slave's digestive system, receiving advice from three animal spirits – the Frog King, Sparrow Prince and Catatafish. The journey is accompanied by songs that parody those used in the 1977 Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit. As Mr. Slave arrives at the tolerance camp, he coughs up Lemmiwinks. The spirits, now free from Mr. Slave's gut, appear before Lemmiwinks and crown him "The Gerbil King". He exits the scene with the "Ballad of Lemmiwinks" playing over the credits. ===== Benjamin Franklin and four fictional associates of his in their experiences during the American Revolution. Although the series spans 16 years from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, no main characters appear to age much, except for Dr. Franklin. ===== In what is being billed as "The Race of the Ages," the new forty-million-dollar “radio powered” Streamlined Ocean Liner S.S. Gigantic (“America’s Challenge for Crossing Record”) is about to race its rival, the slightly smaller S.S. Colossal across the Atlantic from New York’s Pier 97 to Cherbourg in two-and-a-half days. Gigantic owner T. Frothingill “T.F.” Bellows (W. C. Fields) intends to send his nearly identical younger brother S.B. (also Fields) to sail aboard the Colossal, hoping he will cause trouble and sabotage the rival ship, enabling the Gigantic and his own Bellows Line to win. However S.B., who is held back due to a golf game, ends up flying over the ocean to meet the Colossal en route and mistakenly lands aboard the deck of the Gigantic instead, much to the consternation of Captain Stafford (Russell Hicks). Matters are made worse for the Gigantic when S.B.’s outrageously unlucky daughter Martha (Martha Raye) is brought onboard, being rescued after surviving the shipwreck of the yacht, Hesperus V. Popular OBC radio emcee Buzz Fielding (Bob Hope), who has just been released from “alimony jail” and is broadcasting live from the Gigantic, is trying to juggle his three ex-wives Cleo (Shirley Ross), Grace (Grace Bradley), and Joan (Lorna Gray); his lukewarm girlfriend Dorothy Wyndham (Dorothy Lamour); and his inept microphone assistant Mike (Ben Blue). Buzz does his best throughout the voyage to announce the progress of the race and introduce a series of musical acts for the pleasure of the passengers and OBC’s radio audience. Meanwhile, Dorothy is romanced by First Officer (and inventor of the Gigantic’s enormous radio power plant) Robert Hayes (Leif Erickson), just as Buzz and Cleo get sentimental about their broken marriage. ===== ===== Having killed the evil Dahlia and retrieved the three stolen treasures of Daventry, Sir Graham became the new king of Daventry. The mirror shows him a vision about a beautiful young woman, Valanice, in captivity on the top of an ivory crystal tower. Being charmed by her, King Graham travels to the world of Kolyma to rescue Valanice. There he must travel through sea, air, and even death to gain the keys that unlock the three doors to the enchanted island where the witch Hagatha has imprisoned Valanice. After meeting legendary figures such as Neptune, Little Red Riding Hood and Count Dracula, the latter of whom he kills, Graham rescues Valanice. At the end of the game, they are married in a ceremony attended by many of Graham's friends and several of his former enemies. ===== The game takes place almost entirely in a fictional kingdom called the Land of the Green Isles. The kingdom comprises several islands, and is described as being largely isolated from the outside world. The player can travel between different islands after obtaining a magic map. The center of the kingdom is the Isle of the Crown, which has an Arabian Nights theme. The Isle of Wonder is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and the Isle of the Sacred Mountain is inspired by Classical mythology. The Isle of the Beast, inspired by Beauty And The Beast, is heavily forested and scattered with magical barriers. There also are additional hidden areas. One of these is inhabited by a tribe of druids, while another gives the player the option to confront Death. The game's opening cutscene shows Prince Alexander haunted by his memories of Princess Cassima, whom he met at the end of King's Quest V when they were both rescued from the wizard Mordack. After seeing a vision of Cassima in the magical mirror that his father acquired in the first King's Quest, he sails to find her. At the beginning of the game he is shipwrecked on the shore of the Isle of the Crown, where he learns that the vizier Abdul Alhazred (named after the author of the fictional Necronomicon) has assumed control in Cassima's absence, and plans to force her to marry him. Alexander must explore the Land of the Green Isles in order to find and learn what he needs to rescue Cassima from the vizier. ===== The Greek orator Demosthenes of Athens is advocating war to resist King Philip II of Macedon and his planned invasion and takeover of all the city-states of Greece. While Philip II is leading a campaign to take over Olynthus, he is informed that his spouse Olympias has borne him a son who, she claims, is "a god born of a god." Philip is angry because he suspects that Olympias has committed adultery and that she was not impregnated by a god. However, General Parmenio advises the king to let Alexander grow up and succeed him. While growing up, Alexander receives instruction in history, mathematics, logic and other subjects from Aristotle in Mieza. Alexander is eager to rule and tells his tutor that like Achilles he would rather have a "short life with glory" than a "long life of obscurity." Philip then decides to send Alexander to the Macedonian capital, Pella, as a regent to rule the city while Philip is away fighting wars. This is done to prevent Olympias from spreading rumors about her husband's death. Alexander uses this opportunity to rule in his own right — he becomes neither a pawn of his mother nor his father. Alexander later joins Philip and they go on campaigns of conquest together against cities such as Athens in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. After the battle is won, Alexander demands that no Greek city-state ever bear arms against Pella and that they supply men, arms, and ships for the war against Persia. Philip II divorces Olympias, accusing her of "unfaithfulness", and marries Attalus's niece Eurydice, thereby making her the new queen. This move creates a chasm between Alexander and his father, not only because Alexander's mother has been repudiated but also because his succession hangs in the balance since some men in Philip's court see him as a bastard. Pausanias, a loyal friend of Alexander, assassinates Philip II, whereupon Alexander kills Pausanias then and there. At this juncture, Alexander claims the loyalty of all Macedonians and assumes the titles of his father. He tells the Macedonians that the Treaty of Corinth still stands. Memnon is exiled for not pledging his loyalty to Alexander. Alexander embarks on his mission to conquer the whole of Asia. Memnon, who is now in Darius III's court, advises him to retreat strategically and attack Alexander when his supplies run out. However, the lords of Persia underestimate the "boy" Alexander and resolve to fight him at the river Granicus. After the victory at the Granicus, Alexander goes to Phrygia and solves the challenge of the knot tied by King Gordius by cutting it with his sword. Before the battle in Babylon, Alexander states that the lunar eclipse which some of his men thought was a bad omen means that "the Persian moon will be eclipsed by the Macedonian Sun" with which Aristander the seer agrees. After being defeated, Darius III flees to the Caspian Gates to build a new army, but his dispirited commanders kill him. In his will, Darius tells Alexander, "Take my daughter, Roxane, for your wife...that our worlds may become as one." Alexander then orders Persian lords who had committed regicide to be impaled upon stakes for their betrayal of their king. At a drunken revelry in Babylon, Alexander declares, "I am the son of God" (Zeus) and "the world is my domain....We will march to the end of the world." In Athens, news reaches that Alexander is in India and is conquering there, whereupon Aeschines proclaims, "He has outdone the gods." Alexander takes his status to heart, his arrogance and paranoia increasing to unstable proportions, but the bold young leader's conquests come to an end after he kills his close friend, Cleitus, with his spear following a drunken argument. Grief-stricken and humbled, Alexander returns to Babylon from India, losing many of his men in the process. He marries Roxane at Susa, but falls ill soon after. When asked upon his deathbed to whom he will leave his empire, Alexander whispers, "To the strongest." ===== Garson Poole wakes up after a flying-car-crash to find that he is missing a hand. He then finds out that he is an 'electric ant' an "organic" robot. He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being fed to him from a micro-punched tape in his chest cavity. He experiments on this tape by adding new holes, which adds things to his reality. Convinced that his entire reality is constrained by the tape, he makes a major change to it, with a major effect on his reality. The change affects everyone else he interacts with, which raises the question of whether any of them – or he himself – are "real" at all. Dick said of the story: ===== Mick O'Brien is a 16-year-old Irish-American hoodlum from Chicago. While most of Mick's crimes involve snatching purses, vandalism, and getting into brawls, he aspires to bigger and meaner things, which leads him to attempt ripping off a Puerto Rican rival, Paco Moreno. Everything goes wrong: Mick's partner and best friend Carl is killed, and Mick, while trying to escape the police, accidentally runs over and kills an eight-year-old boy who happens to be Paco's brother. Mick is sent to the Rainford Juvenile Correctional Facility rather than a state prison for adults. Most of the wardens and counselors seem to have lowered themselves to the role of zookeepers. One exception is Ramon Herrera, a former gang member who talks tough to the inmates, but holds out hope for some of them, especially Mick. Mick's cellmate is Barry Horowitz, a small, wiry, brainy Jewish kid who firebombed a bowling alley after some boys there severely beat him for flirting with their girlfriends. Their cell block is dominated by a pair of brawny sadists named "Viking" Lofgren and Warren "Tweety" Jerome, who take an immediate dislike to Mick. Mick puts up with them at first, but after he witnesses Tweety killing a small boy by throwing him off the catwalk (the small boy tried to stab Tweety in retaliation for raping him), he refuses to be intimidated by them. When Tweety and Viking go into Mick's cell to attack him, Mick beats them bloody with a pillowcase full of soda cans. His victory over Viking and Tweety earns him the respect of the block and recognition as the new "barn boss". Meanwhile, to avenge his brother's death, Paco rapes Mick's girlfriend J. C. After hearing of the rape, Mick is desperate to see her, so he and Horowitz escape the double perimeter fences during football practice through the use of a corrosive paste placed on the fences, making the fences weak enough to kick open. Mick escapes, but Horowitz falls on barbed wire and is then caught where a counselor beats him up for calling him names and escaping. Ramon believes that Mick had gone to J. C.'s house, and soon picks him up. He then takes him on a trip to a maximum- security prison to show what's in store for him, should he continue down the path of crime. After Paco's arrest upon the police finding out about the rape on J. C., he is sentenced to the same dormitory at Rainford that Mick is in. The staff are fully aware of this potential danger, but no other reform school has a vacancy. Paco attempts to provoke Mick into a fight, but Mick avoids the confrontation as he has a chance of early release if he stays out of trouble, especially after hearing about the death of recently paroled Tweety in a store stick-up. However, he also loses the respect of many of the inmates, who now want to see Paco put Mick away. Meanwhile, in an attempt to retaliate on behalf of Mick, Horowitz plants fertilizer into a radio that he has placed in Paco and Viking's cell, to create a bomb. When the charge explodes prematurely and only injures Viking, Horowitz is condemned to solitary confinement, a fate he fears more than any other. Paco's transfer is arranged, so he plans his showdown with Mick for the night before. While Herrera was on night patrol, Paco fakes a ruptured appendix so Herrera comes to his aid. Herrera is assaulted, then caged in the office. The door into the cells is then barricaded, and the entire dormitory is aroused by the brawl. Eventually, Mick comes out on top, and the film ends with him very nearly killing Paco while being encouraged by the others to do it. However, resisting at the last second, he does not do it. He then drags a beaten Paco in front of the caged Ramon and other detention officers and heads back to his cell, crying in remorse. ===== Former President of the United States Monroe "Eagle" Cole retires to his vacation home in the town of Mooseport, Maine, to escape from his ex-wife Charlotte. Harold "Handy" Harrison is the town's local hardware store owner and plumber. Harrison's job keeps him so busy that he has neglected his relationship with girlfriend Sally Mannis, who is on the verge of dumping him. Following the death of the town mayor, the town council decides to approach former president Cole about running for the office. Cole agrees because, if he is mayor, his Mooseport house can serve as his office and, therefore, can no longer be divided up or sold off in his divorce settlement. As a surprise to Handy, his name has also been entered into the race. When Harrison finds out Cole is running, he decides to withdraw, until he witnesses Cole make a pass at Sally. Handy believes that, by becoming mayor, he can show Sally he is a mature decision maker and win back her heart. Tempers rise following the arrival of Cole's ex-wife and campaign spoiler Charlotte. Cole's team, led by long-time executive secretary Grace Sutherland and presidential aide Will Bullard, bring in strong support in the form of campaign strategist Bert Langdon, who is looking for excitement since Cole's retirement. As the campaigns progress, Cole and Harrison both become obsessed with winning the race at all costs, although Harrison refuses to resort to cheating. Cole realizes that in all his years of campaigning this may be his toughest as he is taking on a genuinely honest everyman. Eventually, on the night before the election, both candidates urge the voters to vote for the other candidate by saying that neither of them will vote for themselves. Harrison keeps his promise, but Cole votes for himself anyway. Upon the revelation that Cole won by one vote, his conscience gets the better of him and he concedes the match to Harrison. However, Harrison lies that he voted for himself as well, and declines office, making Cole end up as mayor. Harrison later reveals to Sally that he conceded the election because Cole needs the mayorship more than he does and that all he really wanted was to propose marriage to her, which he does. As Handy is proposing to Sally, Monroe also proposes to Grace. The film ends with Bert Langdon telling Handy that he ran an excellent campaign and offers to be his campaign manager for Governor of Maine, which Handy shows some interest in when he realizes a governor has certain authority over mayors. ===== Set in 1958, the coming of age story follows four Brooklyn teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. The Lords chase girls, steal cars, shoot pool and hang out at a local malt shop. Chico attempts to win over hard-to-get Jane while throwing over easier-to-get Annie. Stanley seemingly impregnates his girlfriend Frannie, who pressures him to marry her. Stanley eventually agrees to marry even after finding out before the wedding that Frannie was never pregnant. Butchey Weinstein is highly intelligent but hides his brains behind a clownish front, in order to fit in with the gang. Wimpy Murgalo is a loyal follower in awe of Stanley, eventually becoming best man at his wedding. ===== Eight years ago a nuclear war began between the United States and the Soviet Union. American survivors evacuated to gigantic bunkers miles under ground. Sophisticated, radioactivity-immune robots called "leadys" continue fighting the war on the devastated surface that is too dangerous for humans. The Soviets have similarly evacuated underground, and each side builds powerful weapons and vehicles for the remote-controlled war they only see from film that the robots deliver. The security department asks Taylor, an American war planner, to observe the interrogation of a leady regarding the progress of the war. Although the robot reports that lethal radioactivity and sophisticated new Soviet weapons continue to make the surface dangerous for humans, the observers find that the leady is not radioactive. Taylor learns that this is the second such robot the security department has found; it assigns him to an expedition, wearing lead suits, to investigate the truth about surface conditions. Taylor's group surprises the leadys at the surface and demands to see the outside. Although the robots attempt to delay the humans as long as possible, the group discovers outside the bunker an undamaged valley with forests, animals, and a farm. The leadys reveal that the war ended as soon as the humans evacuated because the robots could not see a rational purpose for it. Analyzing history, they found that groups of humans warred with each other until they matured to overcome conflict. Humanity is almost ready for a single culture, the current worldwide division into American and Soviet sides being the final step. The leadys create counterfeit photographs of the devastated planet to fool humans, while destroying weapons they received and rebuilding the world for their creators' return. The Americans believe that because the Soviets do not know that they were also tricked, the United States can quickly win the war. The robots reveal, however, that during their explanation they sealed all tubes to under ground. Although this prevents the expedition from leaving, the leadys expect that by the time their countrymen dig new tunnels, humanity will be ready for the truth. The robots invite Taylor and the others to join a group of Soviets who were similarly stranded after visiting the surface. "The working out of daily problems of existence", the leadys suggest, "will teach you how to get along in the same world. It will not be easy, but it will be done." ===== Narrated by a young novelist, Vanya (Ivan Petrovich), who has just released his first novel which bears an obvious resemblance to Dostoevsky's own first novel, Poor Folk, it consists of two gradually converging plot lines. One deals with Vanya's close friend and former love object, Natasha, who has left her family to live with her new lover, Alyosha. Alyosha is the saintly but dimwitted son of Prince Valkovsky, who hopes to gain financially by marrying Alyosha off to an heiress, Katya. Valkovsky's cruel machinations to break up Alyosha and Natasha make him one of the most memorable "predatory types" (like Stavrogin in The Possessed) that Dostoevsky created. The other plotline focuses on a thirteen-year-old orphan, Nellie, whom Vanya saves from an abusive household by taking her into his apartment, and whose deceased mother's story in some ways parallels that of Natasha. It's unusual to see a well-developed character as young as Nellie in a Dostoevsky novel, but Nellie may be one of his most moving creations, and she in particular shows the influence of Dickens (Dostoevsky is known to have read Dickens during the Siberian exile; this novel was conceived near the end of this exile. In turn Japanese director Akira Kurosawa adapted Nellie's story in his 1965 film, Red Beard). One of the most important themes throughout Dostoevsky's work is the expiative value of suffering, and The Insulted and Injured, with its tragically moving plot and characters, develops that theme. ===== The film begins with a scene of the 1920 presidential election, in which Harvard educated lawyer, New York assemblyman and assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a rousing speech mentioning his cousin Teddy. Roosevelt is the vice presidential candidate on the ticket with James Cox. They are overwhelmingly defeated by Republican Warren Harding but the seeds are planted for Roosevelt's rise to greatness . In the beginning, he is portrayed as rather arrogant looked upon as a lightweight by opponents (they mock his initials FDR as standing for feather duster). His wife Eleanor discovers evidence of an affair and it is only the intervention of Roosevelt's domineering mother that prevents a divorce, however Eleanor is never able to forgive him and they only have a marriage of convenience. Roosevelt's friend and political advisor Louis Howe is determined to make him the President of the United States. However, Roosevelt is crippled by polio and forced to accept the possibility that he may never walk again. Throughout the ordeal he and Eleanor are able to bond and Roosevelt becomes more compassionate. He goes to Warm Springs for treatment and discovers the joy of being able to stand again in the heated pool. The film ends with Roosevelt attending the nominating convention of Al Smith in 1928. ===== Bart and Milhouse find $20 that Homer lost and order a Super Squishee made entirely of syrup from Apu at the Kwik-E-Mart. With their senses reeling from the high sugar content, they spend the rest of the money on a bender in Springfield. The next morning, Bart wakes up with a hangover and realizes he joined the Junior Campers, an organization like the Boy Scouts, during his revelry. Bart plans to quit the group as soon as possible, but he attends a meeting to avoid a pop quiz at school. When he learns that Junior Campers are issued pocket knives, he keeps attending meetings. Homer mocks him relentlessly for embracing the scouts. When a father-son rafting trip is planned, neither Bart nor Homer wish to go together. They offer invitations to each other thinking they will both refuse them, but inadvertently end up agreeing to attend. Homer is distressed when he learns that he and Bart will share a raft with Ned and his son Rod. When Homer loses the map after folding it into a makeshift hat that blows away, they paddle the wrong way and find themselves lost at sea. Their plan to ration the little food onboard fails when Homer greedily eats most of it. They are stranded with no food or water for several days; the Springfield Police Department refuses to search for them because their rescue boat is out of refreshments. The raft springs a leak after Homer accidentally drops a pocket knife he was intending to gift to Bart. All seems lost, but Homer smells the scent of food from a Krusty Burger on an unmanned offshore oil rig and places a large order. Bart is proud of his father after the rafting party survives their ordeal. Led by Ernest Borgnine, the other Junior Campers take the right route but suffer a worse fate: they become trapped in a dark, tangled swamp while being hunted by mountain men. Borgnine is unable to repel a bear attack because Homer has stolen his Swiss Army knife, so they flee to an abandoned summer camp. They start singing campfire songs, but soon an unseen figure lurking in the woods -- strongly implied to be Jason Voorhees -- attacks them. ===== The episode is a series of shorts ranging in length from under half a minute to over two and a half minutes, each showing daily life in Springfield after Bart wonders if anything interesting happens to the town's citizens. # Bart and Milhouse spit and squirt condiments from a highway overpass onto cars, then go to the Kwik-E- Mart. # Apu closes the Kwik-E-Mart for five minutes to attend a party at Sanjay's house, trapping Moleman in the store. # Bart unknowingly throws gum in Lisa's hair, and Marge tries to remove the gum by putting peanut butter and mayonnaise on her hair. # Lisa's hair attracts a swarm of bees, one of which flies away. # While bike riding with Mr. Burns, Smithers suffers an allergic reaction to the bee's sting and rides to the hospital, but the orderlies admit only Burns. # Dr. Nick is criticized by the hospital board for his unorthodox medical procedures, only to treat Grampa with an electric light socket, saving his career. # Moe gets robbed by Snake after Barney gives him $2,000 to pay for a portion of his $14 billion bar tab. # While hosting Superintendent Chalmers for lunch, Principal Skinner burns his roast and bluffs his way through the meal. # Homer accidentally traps Maggie in a newspaper vending box. # Chief Wiggum, Lou, and Eddie compare McDonald's and Krusty Burger. # Bumblebee Man arrives home after a horrible day at work and his house is destroyed, causing his wife to leave him. # Snake runs Wiggum over, and their ensuing fight ends with Herman capturing them at gunpoint in his store. # Reverend Lovejoy urges his pet Old English Sheepdog to use Ned Flanders's lawn as a toilet. # Various townspeople advise Marge and Lisa how to remove the gum stuck in Lisa's hair. # Cletus offers Brandine some shoes he found on a telephone line. # Milhouse tries to use the bathroom in Comic Book Guy's Android's Dungeon, but is forced to leave the store before he can use it. # Milhouse goes with his father to use the bathroom in Herman's store and accidentally knocks out Herman with a flail, saving his father, Snake, and Wiggum. # Jake the barber cuts the gum out of Lisa's hair, leaving her with a different hairstyle. # Nelson laughs at an extremely tall man in a small car, who then publicly humiliates Nelson to teach him a lesson. # Bart and Milhouse squirt ketchup and mustard onto Nelson from the overpass, and conclude that life is interesting in their town after all. # Professor Frink attempts to tell his story but is cut off by the ending credits. ===== The film tells the story of Boxcar Bertha Thompson and "Big" Bill Shelly, two train robbers and lovers who are caught up in the plight of railroad workers in the American South. When Bertha is implicated in the murder of a wealthy gambler, the pair become fugitives. ===== J.R. is a typical Catholic Italian-American young man on the streets of New York City. Even as an adult, he stays close to home with a core group of friends with whom he drinks and carouses around. He gets involved with a local girl he meets on the Staten Island Ferry, and decides he wants to get married and settle down. As their relationship deepens, he declines her offer to have sex because he thinks she is a virgin and he wants to wait rather than "spoil" her. One day, his girlfriend tells him that she was once raped by a former boyfriend. This crushes J.R., and he rejects her and attempts to return to his old life of drinking with his friends. However, after a particularly wild party with friends, he realizes he still loves her and returns to her apartment one early morning. He awkwardly tells her that he forgives her and says that he will "marry her anyway." Upon hearing this, the girl tells him marriage would never work if her past weighs on him so much. J.R. becomes enraged and calls her a whore, but quickly recants and says he is confused by the whole situation. She tells him to go home, and he returns to the Catholic church, but finds no solace. ===== The physics professor, Dr. Phineas Welch, has gotten himself slightly drunk and begins speaking with Scott Robertson, a young English teacher. Welch announces, "I can bring back the spirits of the illustrious dead." He goes on to explain that, via "temporal transference", he can bring people from the past into the present. At first, Robertson treats Welch's story as an amusing, alcohol-induced fantasy, and he begins to enjoy the conversation. Welch says that he first tried bringing eminent scientists from earlier eras—Archimedes, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei. However, none of the scientists were adaptable enough to handle twentieth-century society; Welch realized that he needed to find an adaptable, universal mind. "So," he continues, "I tried Shakespeare." This startles and incenses Robertson, since it strikes "closer to home". Shakespeare, according to Welch, was flexible enough to understand human beings of every era, and he adjusted to the modern world much more easily. Welch reports that Shakespeare was eager to find what future generations thought of him. When Welch finds him a book of literary criticism, Shakespeare cries in exasperation, "God ha' mercy! What cannot be racked from words in five centuries? One could wring, methinks, a flood from a damp clout!" Eventually, Welch says, he enrolled Shakespeare in a night school class on Shakespeare's plays—taught, as it happens, by Robertson. At this point, Robertson begins to become genuinely worried. He recalls a bald man with an unusual accent, and starts to doubt whether Welch's story was all alcoholic fantasy. Timidly, he asks Welch what happened, and the physicist explodes with anger. Shakespeare had been humiliated, he says, and Welch had to send him back to 1600: "You poor simpleton, you flunked him!" Asimov comments that he wrote the story to get back at English teachers. Additionally he says, that the story is really about himself. Not being able to answer most of the questions he's posed on his works, he realizes he would probably flunk a test on himself. ===== Tsukiko Sagi, a shy character designer who created the immensely popular pink dog Maromi, finds herself under pressure to repeat her success. As she walks home one night, she is attacked by an elementary school boy on inline skates. Two police detectives, Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, are assigned to the case. They suspect that Tsukiko is lying about the attack, until they receive word of a second victim. Soon the attacker, dubbed Lil' Slugger (Shōnen Batto in Japanese, meaning "Bat Boy"), is blamed for a series of street assaults in Tokyo. None of the victims can recall the boy's face and only three distinct details are left in their memories: golden inline skates, a baseball cap, and the weapon: a bent golden baseball bat. Ikari and Maniwa set out to track down the perpetrator and put an end to his crimes. Their hunt is unsuccessful, however, and the investigation eventually leads to both men losing their positions as police detectives. As the attacks continue, it is revealed that they are not random. Instead, Lil' Slugger seems to target people in crisis, and the attacks, though violent, lead to some improvement in the life of the victim. Maniwa becomes convinced that Lil' Slugger is a supernatural force, driven to rescue the desperate from their tragedies through violence. He becomes obsessive, broadcasting his warning about Lil' Slugger via shortwave radio and seeking a way to kill the supernatural assailant. As public fear of Lil' Slugger intensifies, his attacks start to become deadly and the line between truth and fiction becomes blurred. At the same time, public anticipation for the launch of the Maromi television series reaches a fanatical high, almost as if the fear of one is feeding (and feeding off) the anticipation for the other. Things come to an end on the night that the Maromi show is set to air. Ikari, now a private security guard, and Maniwa, now a wandering "knight", attempt to battle Lil' Slugger, now an incredibly powerful force leaving a path of death and destruction throughout Tokyo. The two men confront Tsukiko where it is revealed that Maromi was based on a real puppy that Tsukiko had in childhood, whose leash she had one day accidentally dropped, allowing the puppy to run into traffic where it was killed. Fearing reprisal from her strict father, instead of taking responsibility for the puppy's death, young Tsukiko invented a story about a bat-wielding, skate-wearing puppy killer—Lil' Slugger's first "attack." Ultimately, Lil' Slugger is a paranormal figment of Tsukiko's guilt and fear, brought inexplicably to life when the adult Tsukiko desperately needed to escape her responsibilities and then fed and nurtured by the fear of the populace. This was all further exacerbated by the public using Maromi as a form of escapism to avoid their own fears and anxieties. When Tsukiko finally confesses the truth, and in doing so accepts the guilt for the death of Maromi, Lil' Slugger is defeated. Two years later, with Tokyo fully recovered from Lil' Slugger's rampage and the reconstruction of city complete, a new character has captured the attention of the public. A cryptic warning from a wizened Maniwa implies that a new cycle is about to begin. ===== Violette Bushell is a young woman whose father is English, and whose mother is French, living in London early in the Second World War. She meets French Army officer Etienne Szabo, stationed in the city, and they become engaged to be married. They have a daughter, Tania, but Etienne never sees the child, as he is killed fighting in the North African front; Violette Szabo and her daughter move into her parents' home. Because of her linguistic skills, the widowed Szabo is recruited as a spy by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for operations in France. On her first mission, she is teamed with Captain Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield), a man she had met earlier socially and liked. She arrives by small plane in France, and shares a train compartment to Rouen with curious German soldiers. The French Resistance group Fraser had set up in Rouen has been betrayed. The job of the new arrivals is to contact any survivors and to blow up a major railway viaduct. One Resistance member who Szabo contacts tells her that another survivor, a garage mechanic (André Maranne), is suspect, but Szabo takes the risk of meeting him anyway. He informs her that only three of 98 group members remain. Nonetheless, she persuades him to try to blow up the viaduct. Szabo is picked up and questioned by the Gestapo. She is released, and meets in Paris with Fraser, who congratulates her: The viaduct was destroyed. They return to Britain, and Szabo reluctantly agrees to another mission. Once again, she is under Fraser's command, this time in the Limoges region. She sets out with a guide to contact the various Resistance units to coordinate their actions. She and her guide become involved in a firefight with German soldiers. They are outnumbered and they flee. Szabo injures her ankle, and she insists on remaining behind. She runs out of ammunition and is captured. Though tortured, she defiantly refuses to provide any information. Eventually she is reunited with two fellow women agents she had befriended during their initial training, Lilian Rolfe and Denise Bloch, in a Nazi prison. As Allied forces advance on Paris, the women are placed on a train for Germany. When the train is bombed by Allied aircraft, the women have a chance to attempt to escape, but Szabo instead fetches water for male prisoners. One of them is Fraser. That night, Szabo and Fraser acknowledge their love for each other. The men and women are separated. The three women are taken to a concentration camp, where they are executed. After the war, Tania and her grandparents go to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI gives the child her mother's posthumous George Cross. Afterwards, they meet Fraser. ===== Mr Badii (Homayoun Ershadi), a middle-aged man, drives through Tehran looking for someone to do a job for him, and he offers a large amount of money in return. During his drives with prospective candidates, Badii reveals that he plans to kill himself and has already dug the grave. He needs someone to throw earth on his body, after his death. He does not discuss why he wants to commit suicide. His first recruit is a young, shy Kurdish soldier, who refuses to do the job and flees from Badii's car. His second recruit is an Afghan seminarist, who also declines because he has religious objections to suicide. The third is an Azeri taxidermist. He is willing to help Badii because he needs the money for his sick child, but tries to talk him out of it; he reveals that he too wanted to commit suicide a long time ago but chose to live when he tasted mulberries. The Azeri promises to throw earth on Badii if he finds him dead in the morning. That night, Badii lies in his grave while a thunderstorm begins. After a long blackout, the film ends by breaking the fourth wall with camcorder footage of Kiarostami and the film crew filming Taste of Cherry. ===== The novel takes place in Toronto, briefly in 1995 and chiefly in 2011. Dr. Peter Hobson, a biomedical engineer, has invented many devices in the field of home automation. He has always been haunted by memories of monitoring an EKG during the dissection of a "corpse" for organ donation when he was in graduate school; the donor's heart was still beating and the body exhibited signs of anesthesia awareness. Now, Peter devises what he calls a superEEG in order to determine the exact moment when all electrical energy ceases in the brain; he wants to precisely "determine that someone is dead before they begin carving out his organs." Peter is hurt and angry when his beloved wife, Cathy, admits that she had sex with Hans Larsen, whom neither of them respects. A psychotherapist helps her to understand that she has low self-esteem because of emotional neglect by her critical father Rod. Peter throws himself into his work. This is the emotional set-up that drives events in the following five months. To his shock, when Peter places his superEEG on the head of a willing terminal patient, he afterwards finds in the readouts a small electrical field leaving the brain after death. He shares this discovery with his friend Sarkar Muhammed, who runs his own startup firm doing expert system design. Sarkar declares it a soul, which Peter, a skeptic, is reluctant to believe. To maintain precise scientific language, they call it a soulwave: "The soulwave had a distinctive electrical signature. The frequency was very high, well above that of normal electrochemical brain activity, so, even though the voltage was minuscule, it wasn't washed out in the mass of other signals within the brain." Peter experiments with more terminal patients to verify his finding; he tests pregnant women to discover when the fetus gains a soulwave (at about ten weeks); and he finds that, among animals, at least chimpanzees also have souls. When Peter holds a press conference to announce his breakthrough, human society around the world undergoes a revolution. He is repeatedly asked what life after death is like, though he has no idea. In order to learn about immortality and life after death, Peter and Sarkar create three electronic simulations of Peter's own personality after a comprehensive scan of his mind and memories. From one, they seek "which neural nets are activated exclusively by biological concerns, and then zero those out" (p. 131), so that it is purely intellect; they call it Spirit. From the second, they edit all fears of aging and death, so that it "feels" itself to be immortal; they call this one Ambrotos. The third is a control, with Peter's knowledge up to the point of the brain scan. At first, the three "sims" enjoy exploring all that the Internet has to offer. One sim, however, hires a hit man to kill Hans and then, days later, Cathy's father. Detective Sandra Philo takes the case and, questioning Cathy and her co-workers, realizes at once that Cathy is concealing her relationship with Hans. She also knows Peter is rich enough to afford hiring a professional hit. What she doesn't realize is that the guilty sim is prepared to have her killed, too. Peter and Sarkar race to find a way to "pull the plug" on the sims before Philo and perhaps others die. ===== Carrie Lange (Daphne Zuniga) has just begun her career in social work. She wants to make a difference but must first learn what life is really like for New York City's homeless. She meets an elderly woman named Florabelle (Ball), who makes it known she does not want company or help. Equipped with the precious cart that contains all of her belongings, Flora takes care of herself on the streets of Manhattan. Carrie wins Flora's trust after saving her cart. Flora takes her for a runaway, and Carrie plays along as Flora finds her the best food and warmest places the street have to offer. Flora even divulges painful memories about her past life. They go to Grand Central Terminal for the night, but are separated after the police throw everyone out. Flora looks for Carrie at a shelter and is stunned to find her working there. She feels she has been betrayed. Against her will, Flora is shuttled off to a woman's shelter in Brooklyn, where she is treated poorly, and then must find her way back to Manhattan. Finding compassion difficult to come by even in those within her profession, Carrie decides she can make a difference one person at a time. Finally realizing she cannot go on living the way she does, Flora accepts Carrie's helping hand. Through Carrie's intervention, for the first time in years, Flora has a place to call home. ===== The book describes the construction of an important bridge on the Via Egnatia in Albanian territory from 1377–1378, shortly before the occupation by the Ottoman Empire began. Told by a Catholic monk, Gjon (a name used by Northern Albanians who were mostly catholic prior to Turkish invasions), the story of the bridge, as seen by Gjon is filled with prissy, unhappy bureaucrats, who take the events at face value without ever trying to understand the larger forces at work. Both the river Ujana e Keqe and the bridge itself are major characters in the book, and they undergo significant transformations. One of the startling events of the book is when a "volunteer" is immured inside the bridge in order to make a "sacrifice" to the river. The man's face is captured in the plaster that surrounds him, as unforgettable as it is horrifying. Though clearly a punishment for the crime of sabotage against the bridge, as Gjon recounts this event, it is less an act of vengeance than it is a true sacrifice. But more than that, it becomes a symbol for the ignorance of and squabbling among tiny Albanian principalities and their fight amongst one another, in front of a major threat.www.themodernnovel.org Kadare's Three-Arched Bridge ===== People Will Talk describes an episode in the life of Dr. Noah Praetorius, a physician who teaches in a medical school and founded a clinic dedicated to treating patients humanely and holistically. The plot contains two parallel story lines: a professional- misconduct challenge brought against Praetorius by his more conventional colleague Dr. Rodney Elwell, who dislikes Praetorius's unorthodox but effective methods; and the struggle of a distressed young woman named Deborah Higgins, who falls in love with Praetorius while dealing with an out-of- wedlock pregnancy. The film also highlights Praetorius's close friend and confidant, physics professor Lyonel Barker, who plays double bass in the student/faculty orchestra conducted by Praetorius. ===== Maximus (Claude Rains), "King of the Mind Readers", performs an English music hall mind-reading act with the help of his wife, Rene (Fay Wray), using a secret code. One night, he sees the beautiful Christine Shawn (Jane Baxter) in the audience, and his act becomes reality. He is able to tell what is in a sealed letter without Rene's assistance. Maximus does not think much of it, until he and Christine meet by chance on a train and he foresees an impending crash. He pulls the emergency cord to stop the train, but nobody believes him. He, his family and Christine disembark, and a few minutes later the train crashes. Christine tells her father, who owns a newspaper. He publishes the story, making Maximus famous. Maximus realizes that his power only works when Christine is near. As they spend more time together, Christine falls in love with him and Rene becomes jealous. Maximus' mother (Mary Clare) believes that no good can come of this new gift, but Maximus pays little attention, enjoying his well-paid success. Another of his well-publicized predictions comes true: a 100-to-1 long shot wins The Derby. He chooses to ignore his own prophecy of his mother's death; when it comes true, he is so distraught that he decides to follow her wishes and abandon his ability. He feels compelled to act, however, when he foresees a great mining disaster. He is unable to convince the mining company to evacuate the mine. When the disaster occurs, hundreds are killed and more are missing and presumed dead. He is publicly accused of causing the accident and is brought to trial. The prosecution claims that Maximus himself caused both tragedies, by delaying the train and by panicking the miners into making a mistake. Maximus predicts in the courtroom that the missing miners will be found alive. When this becomes true, he is released. Maximus decides to give up his gift and he and Rene slip away into obscurity. ===== The narrator describes a trip by his family to the fictional seaside town of Torre di Venere, Italy. It becomes unpleasant, partly because he finds the Italian people to be too nationalistic. The family attends a performance by a magician and hypnotist named Cipolla, who uses his mental powers in a fascist way to control his audience. Cipolla represents the mesmerizing power of authoritarian leaders in Europe at the time — he is autocratic, misuses power, and is able to subjugate the crowd, counterbalancing his inferiority complex by artificially boosting his self-confidence. Cipolla's assassination by Mario, a native of Torre di Venere, is not a tragedy but a liberation for the audience. ===== Micro Maniacs is set in a time where the Earth's resources are being depleted and the very planet is at risk. However a scientist named Dr. Minimizer has an idea: using a device he calls "The Minimizer Ray", he will shrink the planet's population to 1/360 of its original size, and so create a world more suitable to our current status. If this is to be successful, the doctor needs to create a supersoldier: somebody who can prepare the planet for us when we are eventually minimized. In order to do this, the doctor enlists the help of 12 volunteers for an experiment. The experiment consists of racetracks that are considered various dangerous environments as to ascertain the suitable skills for the supersoldier. ===== The plot concerns an old man who claims to have travelled back in time from a future in which Earth has lost a devastating war to its own Martian and Venusian colonies. The man turns out to be a synthetic human, designed to trick the Earth people into believing they could never win the war, forcing them to make peace. This type of android is a forerunner of the type appearing in Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its film adaptation. A similar, supposedly time- displaced "war veteran" character appears in Dick's novel The Zap Gun. ===== The book begins with an ancient vampire of Nordic descent awaking after being frozen in a block of ice for hundreds of years. The vampire, Thorne, meets Marius de Romanus and inquires about Marius' past. Marius then provides his life story. As a young Roman patrician, Marius was abducted by druids who were trying to find a replacement for their "god of the grove"—a vampire, kept locked inside a chamber underneath a tree, who took on the role of a god in a druidic religion. Marius does not want to receive the powers of the dying god, but is given them nonetheless. Unable to face a life imprisoned in a tree, Marius escapes from the druids (one of whom is Mael). He embarks on a trip to Egypt, where he learns of Akasha and Enkil, the Mother and Father or Those Who Must Be Kept—the progenitors of all vampire-kind. He takes them back to Rome with him after learning that if they die then every other vampire in the world will suffer the same fate. He falls in love with a mortal woman, Pandora, and turns her into a vampire. They live together happily for a long time, although they argue frequently. One day, their house is attacked by a group of vampires who want to know the secrets of Those Who Must Be Kept. Though they destroy these vampires, the attack leads to an argument between the two and Marius, filled with anger, leaves Pandora. Marius then returns to Rome, where he creates a life for himself as a socialite, fraternizing with mortals and practicing painting. It is here that he meets Mael and Avicus, the latter of which is a former god of the grove—a vampire older than Marius, but who does not seem to know his own power. There is still much enmity between Mael and Marius, and Marius asks them to leave. They do so, but remain in the city of Rome. Marius does not mind this, as they keep the city free from other blood-drinkers who may pry the secrets of Those Who Must Be Kept from his mind. Marius continues to live this way even as the Roman Empire splits, with its capital city moving to Constantinople. Eventually, Marius, Mael, and Avicus leave Rome when it is sacked by barbarians. They travel to Constantinople, taking with them the Mother and Father. There they meet a powerful vampire named Eudoxia, who wants Marius to put Those Who Must Be Kept into her care. After praying to Those Who Must Be Kept for an answer, he relents just far enough to allow Eudoxia to see them. After a series of violent conflicts, Marius angrily drags Eudoxia back down into the shrine and casts her at Akasha, who suddenly awakens to destroy her. Realizing that he cannot live with other vampires due to his custody of the Divine Parents, Marius elects to return to Italy. He becomes disheartened by the horrors of the Black Death and sleeps for hundreds of years. He awakes again during the Renaissance and travels all around Italy, visiting Venice and Florence, admiring the art and culture. In Rome he meets the vampire Santino, who claims that Marius is living in sin by not serving Satan. Marius threatens him and tells Santino to never come near him again. Marius decides to make his home in Venice, and he establishes himself as an amateur painter. His house is set up as a place where young boys can come and improve themselves, preparing to go to university or to become craftsmen. During this time, he also falls in love with the works of Botticelli, whom he briefly considers turning into a vampire. It is in Venice that Marius meets Amadeo (Armand), whom he discovers in a filthy cellar, waiting to become a prostitute in the city's brothels. He purchases the boy from the slave traders and takes him back to his house, where he bathes him and promises him a better life. As the years pass Marius happily continues his life, disappearing occasionally to attend to the Divine Parents. Amadeo grows up, and the two often share a bed. Marius is sorely tempted to give Amadeo the Dark Gift, making him into a vampire, but he stops himself from doing so. When Marius is away looking after the Divine Parents, his house is attacked by the Englishman Lord Harlech who became obsessed with Amadeo after sleeping with him. Amadeo manages to kill Harlech, but sustains several wounds from Harlech's poisoned blade. He slips into a fever. Marius arrives and is told that Amadeo will die as the poison is too strong. Marius turns Amadeo into a vampire in order to prevent the boy from dying. He teaches him to prey only on evildoers in order to save his conscience. Some time after Amadeo becomes a vampire, the house is attacked by a large mob of Satan- worshiping vampires under the leadership of Santino. Marius is burnt and almost killed, but manages to save his own life by jumping into a canal. Nonetheless, he is severely wounded and believes that Amadeo will be killed. He calls a woman named Bianca to his aid. The two have known each other for a number of years and have a close relationship. Marius is too weak to hunt, so he transforms Bianca into a vampire in order to have her help him to recover his strength. The two move to the shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept and live there for over a century, where Marius gradually recovers his strength by drinking from Akasha. After Amadeo had transformed, Marius had met with Raymond Gallant, a man from the Talamasca, a group of scholars who found out information about supernatural things, just for information. He hears from him that Pandora is being kept hostage by another vampire and moved around Europe and Russia; so Marius decides to move to Dresden to try meeting with Pandora, whom he still loves. He does not tell Bianca of this. Marius does indeed find Pandora there, but discovers that she does not want to live with him and Bianca and wants to stay with her traveling companion, who was not holding her hostage after all. Marius offers to leave Bianca for Pandora, but Pandora refuses this offer. When Marius sees Bianca the next day, she declares that she is leaving him because she overheard what he said to Pandora. 50 years later, as he is shifting to America, Marius discovers a letter from Pandora offering to live with him if he comes to collect her at a certain place, but it is too late and she is gone. Marius then shelters a young vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt, who wakes up Akasha when playing a song for her on his violin. She comes to him and they drink each other's blood. Enkil is furious and almost crushes Lestat when a shocked Marius saves him. Marius sends Lestat away, thinking that he can pose a danger, but is sad that it is the fourth time he is losing a love. Years later, Marius brings a television into Those Who Must Be Kept's Chapel, for their entertainment. On this they see news, songs, etc. and also The Vampire Lestat's rock guitar music. This, Marius feels, corrupts their minds, and Akasha awakens from her slumber with the evil idea of taking over the world. She destroys Enkil and buries Marius in the ruins of his house, where he lies, injured. Marius lies there trapped, for weeks, but with the Mind Gift informs Lestat that he is in danger, and also asks for help. He is soon found by Pandora, and Santino—whom he tries to kill, but realises that all force would be needed to stop Akasha from her evil deed of taking over the world, killing all males and having a female-dominated world with her as the leader. A council is formed and the vampires try to convince Akasha, but she does not listen. Finally, Maharet's (who created Thorne) mute sister Mekare fights with Akasha and destroys her. That is the end of Marius's story through time. The story then moves back to the present day, where Marius and Thorne are at a jungle hideaway with other old and powerful vampires—Amadeo (now going by the name Armand), Santino, Maharet, Mekare, and Pandora. Marius wants justice against Santino for taking Armand away from him, but Maharet refuses to let Marius kill Santino, who is weak. Thorne does not want to accept her decision and so kills Santino himself with the Fire Gift. In penance for his deed, he gives over his eyes to Maharet. Category:The Vampire Chronicles novels Category:2001 American novels Category:2001 fantasy novels Category:Alfred A. Knopf books Category:American LGBT novels Category:Novels by Anne Rice Category:Vampire novels Category:LGBT speculative fiction novels ===== The film opens some time after the original film with Tonny serving out his last day of a prison sentence. His cell-mate delivers a monologue advising Tonny to conquer his fear. He then reminds Tonny that he owes him money, but has chosen to give him more time out of respect for Tonny's father, the Duke, a vicious gangster. Upon his release, Tonny visits his father's garage business seeking employment. The Duke has a younger son from a different mother now and receives Tonny coldly, but he ultimately allows Tonny to work for him on a trial basis. Tonny steals a Ferrari in an effort to impress his father, but the car is rejected and the Duke berates Tonny mercilessly for his lack of responsibility. While hanging out with his friend Ø, Tonny is told that he has a child with a local woman Charlotte. Charlotte has raised the child by herself so far and demands that Tonny start paying her child support. Tonny makes empty promises to pay, but soon comes to care for the child. Tonny successfully participates in a car heist for the Duke, but is forced to ride in the trunk of the escape car because there are no seats left. Tonny helps a local pimp and hoodlum, "Kurt the Cunt", make a heroin deal with Milo, the drug lord from the first movie. When one of Milo's thugs arrives late, a spooked Kurt flushes the heroin down the toilet. Kurt now has no money or drugs to sell and cannot pay back the money he borrowed for the deal. Kurt convinces Tonny to help buy him a gun and shoot him in the arm to convince Kurt's backers that he was robbed. While visiting with Charlotte and his son, Tonny learns how to change his son's diaper. Ø watches and reveals that he is about to marry his girlfriend Gry and have a child of his own. At Ø's wedding reception, the Duke delivers a toast telling Ø that he thinks of him as a son, and then chides Tonny. Tonny gets drunk and becomes angry as he watches Charlotte neglecting their child to snort cocaine with Gry in the club's kitchen. He insists that she take the baby home, but she refuses by berating and humiliating Tonny. Enraged, Tonny attacks Charlotte before several men pull him away. Realizing that he has once again made a fool of himself, Tonny leaves the party and meets Kurt, who is lingering outside. Kurt convinces Tonny to help him smash up his apartment to further support their story. In return Kurt promises to put in a good word for Tonny with the Duke. After Kurt attacks a prostitute that emerges from his bedroom, he tells Tonny he is going to finish her off and Tonny, wanting no part of it, leaves. Kurt reveals that his financial backer is the Duke and that he has lied so that Tonny will share in Kurt's debt. Tonny visits his father to find a way to reconcile and pay off his debt. Tonny volunteers to intimidate the Duke's ex- wife Jeanette, who is trying to take custody of his young half-brother, to force her to drop the custody claim. The Duke is hesitant to give the job to Tonny, but his brother Red vouches for Tonny because he did well during the car heist. The Duke insists that Tonny kill Jeanette, and he agrees. Tonny visits Jeanette where she works, at Kurt's brothel, but he cannot go through with the murder. After returning and admitting his failure to his father, the Duke berates him savagely. Tonny snaps and viciously stabs the Duke to death. He flees and goes looking for Ø, but instead finds Gry and Charlotte getting high. They deride Tonny and then leave the baby unattended. Tonny takes the child and gets on a bus, fleeing the city. The film ends with a shot of the tattoo on the back of Tonny's head which reads "Respect". ===== After Homer nearly causes the nuclear plant to go into meltdown by putting a doughnut into the reactor core to enlarge it, he is fired by Mr. Burns. While at home he sees a recruitment advertisement on television for the Naval Reserve and decides to enlist, with Moe, Barney, and Apu deciding to join him. Meanwhile, Bart purchases an earring, which an outraged Homer confiscates. Homer and the others are placed on a nuclear submarine. While participating in a military exercise, Homer unintentionally has the captain fired out of a torpedo tube and pilots the submarine into Russian waters, which is seen by the United States government as an attempt to defect. This event creates a political schism between the USA and Russia, leading to the revelation that the Soviet Union in fact never truly dissolved, complete with the Berlin Wall rising from the ground, Soviet troops and tanks appearing on the streets and Vladimir Lenin rising from his tomb in Moscow. Nuclear war is anticipated until the US Navy drops depth charges on Homer's sub, aiming either to destroy it or force it to surface. The consequent explosion causes a pinhole leak in the submarine's hull, but Homer uses Bart's earring to plug the leak and saves the submarine. The vessel surfaces and Homer is taken to be court-martialed, but because the officers on the review committee have done such awful things, Homer's punishment ends up being a mild dishonorable discharge and he immediately forgives Bart, as the earring saved his life. ===== Death is followed by a period of 'half-life', a short amount of time which can be rationed out over long periods in which the dead can be revived—so that, potentially, they can 'live' on for a long time. When attempts to bring back important businessman Louis Sarapis fail, it's clearly more than mere negligence. Sure enough, Sarapis starts speaking from beyond the grave. From outer space, in fact. Yet no-one seems terribly bothered, other than those directly concerned in the plot mechanics. Eventually entire communications networks (phones, TV, radio) are blocked by Sarapis' broadcasts. The concept of 'half-life' was used again and developed in Dick's 1969 novel Ubik, which even re-uses a page of the novella verbatim. ===== It's 1945. Ensign Sam Drake attends a party on his last night stationed in Hawaii and meets the woman of his dreams. But before the night is out, her best friend is dead in an upstairs room at the party. It appears to be suicide. The next day Sam starts his leave before receiving a new post. He returns to his home town of Detroit, and decides to check into a connection there between the dead woman and a radical group of black activists. Another death quickly follows and Sam finds himself on a cross-country adventure, haunted by dangerous characters everywhere he turns. Trouble Follows Me was reprinted by Lion Paperbacks in 1950 and 1955 under the title of Night Train, with cover art that presented it as a "race novel" to capitalize on the Detroit race riot of 1943. ===== The story is about a pop idol band named Mix Juice that need any kind of gig to make their name famous. At the same time, a young boy genius plans on taking a trip to the moon without using fossil fuels to pollute Earth's atmosphere. Thanks to some clever managing, the girls of Mix Juice and the scientist plan on making their first concert on the moon by any means necessary. ===== The Lonely Doll tells the story of a doll named Edith, who lives by herself until two teddy bears, called Mr. Bear and Little Bear, appear in her life. One day, Mr. Bear goes out for a walk leaving the two alone in the house; He returns to find they have rummaged in a closet for dress-up clothing, smeared themselves with makeup, and written "Mr. Bear is just a silly old thing" in lipstick on the mirror. Mr. Bear proceeds to discipline both Little Bear and Edith, leaving Edith to worry that he will take Little Bear and leave. Mr. Bear assures her that he will never, ever, leave her. ===== Phyllis Nefler is a socialite wife recently separated from her husband Freddy, a wealthy owner of an auto shop chain. In an attempt to maintain the relationship with her daughter Hannah during the contentious divorce, Phyllis becomes the den mother of Hannah's unruly, leaderless local girl scout troop of Wilderness Girls. Their first campout results in the troop getting caught in a rain squall, prompting Phyllis to take the girls to 'camp out' at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Despite her unorthodox ways, Phyllis demonstrates an unwavering commitment to the girls' well-being and ends up becoming a surrogate mother to the rest of the girls in the troop. Although Phyllis lacks the skills found in most troop leaders, due to a lack of interest in anything found in the 'wilderness', she resolves to teach the girls how to survive in "the wilds of Beverly Hills," even customizing new merit badges for her troop. Phyllis's unorthodox methods run afoul of another scout leader, Velda Plendor, a mean-spirited, retired army nurse who runs the Culver City "Red Feathers" in which her own daughter, Cleo, is a member. Because Velda has considerable pull at the regional council level, she declares Phyllis's customized merit badges ineligible and sends her assistant troop leader, Annie Herman, to infiltrate Troop Beverly Hills and sabotage them. She repeatedly tries to get the troop disbanded and Phyllis fired, but her boss, Frances Temple, doesn't go along with it. All Velda and Annie's spying has done is show Frances that Phyllis may be unusual, but she has taken an active interest in these girls and is trying to help them learn to survive their personal environment rather than the wilderness. Troop Beverly Hills can gain recognition from the regional council by passing a series of tests at an upcoming Jamboree. In order to qualify, the troop needs to sell 1,000 boxes of cookies. To prevent this, Velda one-ups Troop Beverly Hills by selling cookies in their own neighborhood. Seeing this, Annie sides with Phyllis and offers her abilities and insider knowledge to the girls. Despite her unusual nature, Phyllis is beginning to learn at this point; for example, when her Hollywood friends ask her if they should solve the problem by buying the cookies, Phyllis points out that them doing that misses the entire point about building community—they may well end up going the glamour route to sell the cookies, but it's still a legitimate attempt to do it meaningfully, at least for Beverly Hills. In fact, their star-studded sales drive sells over 4,000 boxes, more than enough to qualify for the Jamboree. Phyllis invites Velda to a party so that she may receive a check for the earnings. At the party, Velda takes her anger out on Annie and demands that she obey her or go work at Kmart. Annie snaps back, standing up to her superior for the first time. Meanwhile, Phyllis, dressed in a beautiful pink and blue dress, reconnects with her husband Freddy for the first time. They speak to each other while dancing and Freddy tells her he’s proud that she’s accomplished something. A few moments later, Phyllis learns that Freddy wants to proceed with the divorce, including seeking joint custody of Hannah. Phyllis is devastated and falls into a swimming pool spectacularly. The morning after the party, Velda talks Phyllis out of attending the Jamboree, warning that it is 100 miles from the nearest 4-star hotel and that she will be responsible if anyone gets hurt. Phyllis sinks into a deep depression and decides to disband the troop, but Hannah and the other girls talk her out of it, Tessa commenting that she gave them a new sense of self-esteem, which is translated as "That you made us like ourselves." During the Jamboree, the Red Feathers trick Troop Beverly Hills during competition by misdirecting them into a snake-infested swamp. In a stroke of good luck, a skunk scares them into running through a shortcut, making them first in the qualifying event.The next day, Velda cheats again by cutting a rope bridge after her troop crosses and by leading them into a restricted area used only for hunting. In a stroke of bad luck, she breaks her ankle after falling into a hole. The Red Feathers, led now by Velda's daughter Cleo, leave her behind for the sake of winning. Troop Beverly Hills repairs the bridge and finds Velda and diagnoses her with a broken ankle and a severe personality disorder. The girls reluctantly carry her to the finish line after Phyllis reminds them that they have to be considerate to those in need - especially a fellow wilderness explorer. Though the Red Feathers cross the finish line first, they're disqualified because council law stipulates the leader must be with the troop. Troop Beverly Hills is declared the winners of the Jamboree and are validated as Wilderness Girls. Frances Temple, the regional leader, fires Velda for cheating and for putting the Troop Beverly Hills girls in jeopardy. Freddy, intrigued by Phyllis's complete turnaround, is interested in calling off the divorce. After working through their issues with one another, they get back together. The next year, Troop Beverly Hills is the designated Poster Troop, and it is Velda who ends up forced to take the job at Kmart after her actions at the Jamboree made her virtually unemployable. ===== In Egmont, Goethe relates the fight of Count Egmont (1522–1568) in the Eighty Years' War against the despotic Duke of Alba. Egmont is a famous Dutch warrior and the Duke of Alba represents the Spanish invader. Though under threat of arrest, Egmont refuses to run away and give up his ideal of liberty. Imprisoned and abandoned because of the cowardice of his people, and despite the desperate efforts of his mistress Klärchen, he is sentenced to death. Thus, faced with her failure and despair, Klärchen puts an end to her life. The play ends on the hero's last call to fight for independence. His death as a martyr appears as a victory against oppression. Egmont is a political manifesto in which Egmont's craving for justice and national liberty is opposed to the despotic authority of the Duke of Alba. It is also a drama of destiny in which the Flemish nobleman, with fatalism, accepts the dire consequences of his straightforwardness and honesty. ===== Butters expresses excitement about his parents' upcoming anniversary, which they are going to celebrate at Butters' favorite restaurant, Bennigan's. A few days before their anniversary, his mother, Linda, asks Butters to spy on his father, Chris, in order to find out what his gift for her will be so that her own will not fall short. While spying, Butters watches Chris enter first a gay theater and then a gay bathhouse (though Butters is too naive to understand the nature of his father's activity). Upon returning home, Butters reports to his mother about his father's whereabouts, leaving her appalled by her husband's homosexual affairs, becoming visibly distraught and unhinged. Linda then attempts to murder Butters by dumping her car in a river with him inside. Hours later, Chris enters the home to find his wife attempting to hang herself. He rushes to her side and explains that his homoerotic tendencies stem from chatting with other bi-curious and married men on the Internet. He insists he still loves her and does not want to lose his family over his "addiction". Linda then admits to having drowned Butters, to which Chris promises that he will not let her go to jail. The next day, the Stotches confront the press about their son, stating that he was abducted by "some Puerto Rican guy". As the media centers in on the "missing child" case, the pair are inducted into a club of infamous, highly publicized characters whose loved ones have also been "taken from them by Some Puerto Rican Guy", including Gary Condit, O. J. Simpson, and John and Patricia Ramsey. Butters, however, survives his mother's attempt to kill him, and brushes off the incident as an accident. He then sets off home, eager to get back in time to celebrate his parents' anniversary with them. First does some singing and dancing at a seedy 'dance' club, and then heads down a scary road after getting directions from an elderly Mechanic. He returns home to find his parents fighting over all the lies they have told, and shocks them that he is still alive. Upon hearing what the quarrel was about, he scolds them for lying and trying to teach him to lie. Deciding to follow in their son's footsteps, they come clean to the media about the cover- up, revealing many unsettling facts to Butters in the process. Afterwards, Stan, Kyle and Cartman chastise Butters about his unhinged parents. Although he attempts to make light of the situation, Butters admits that he is now probably scarred for life, the boys are gonna really go to town on him, and sometimes lying really can be for the best. ===== In the beginning, Nanako was the subject of a cyborg experiment conducted by Dr. Ogami for one of his most powerful robots. Through rigorous training, Dr. Ogami trained Nanako to withstand the pain. However, he made her too strong, and the plan ultimately failed. However, recent developments between the Pentagon and the Vatican to resurrect Jesus for the Second Coming have landed Nanako as the subject of an operation in which she will give birth to the new Jesus. Throughout the series, we learn that Nanako is, in fact, the third clone in a series of clones cloned from the original Nanako. The original died from a mysterious illness, and an experiment to clone her was successful. However, around the age of 20, each Nanako clone dies of the same mysterious illness that claimed the life of the first Nanako. It has been Dr. Ogami's quest to cure the "Nanako illness" ever since he promised the second clone that he would heal her before she died when he was young. Mia Ortiz anime and manga to of here in 27th ===== Sportswriter Eddie Willis, broke after the newspaper he works for goes under, is hired as a PR man by boxing promoter Nick Benko. Nick has recruited Toro Moreno, a towering Argentinian. Despite Toro's lack of fighting ability, Nick plans to use his size as a gimmick to draw fans to his fights. Unbeknownst to Toro and his manager, Luís Agrandi, all of his fights are fixed to make the public believe that he is a talented boxer. Eddie feels misgivings about the scheme, but the lure of a huge payday is enough to make him ignore the venture's dishonesty. He is able to spin Toro as a legitimate up-and-comer even when his first fight goes so disastrously wrong that the boxing commission threatens to open an investigation. As Benko's entourage crosses the country in a bus bedecked with advertising for the fighter, Toro gradually becomes a ranked contender. Throughout the tour, Eddie handles negotiations with other boxing managers to ensure Toro's fights remain fixed. Toro fights Gus Dundee, whose previous fight with champion Buddy Brannen has left him feeling unwell. After the Toro fight, Dundee collapses and dies. Toro is overcome with guilt, thinking he killed Dundee, and wishes to return to Argentina. In a last-ditch attempt to protect the upcoming bout with Brannen, Eddie tells Toro the truth: that Brannen was responsible for Dundee's condition, that Toro is no fighter, and that all his fights have been fixed. During the Brannen fight, Toro sustains a brutal beating. Afterward, Eddie learns that Benko has sold Toro's contract to another manager. While Eddie gets his promised payout of $26,000, Benko has rigged the accounting so Toro earns only $49.07. Ashamed of his part in the farce and not wanting to see Toro exploited any further, Eddie gives Toro the $26,000 and puts him on a plane to Argentina before Benko's men can stop them. Though Benko threatens to harm Eddie, Eddie begins writing an exposé about the corruption. ===== Successful mystery novelist Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell) and her photographer husband Don Gordon (David Homb) have just purchased a remote mansion off the coast of a small New England island previously owned by a famous 19th-century magician, Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch (Robert Miano), whose five wives all died mysteriously. Adrienne hopes to find an inspiration for her next novel in her new home, but starts having nightmares immediately upon moving in. She is comforted by the loving and supportive Don. Adrienne explores the estate, making mysterious discoveries like strange music, warnings written on her computer, and ominous messages from a fortune-teller automaton. Unbeknownst to the happy couple, Carno had practiced black magic when he lived in the mansion and had summoned an evil demon that possessed him and caused him to murder his wives. During her exploration of the grounds, Adrienne finds a secret chapel hidden behind a bricked off fireplace. After opening a locked box atop an altar, Adrienne unknowingly releases Carno's demon, which possesses Don. Don starts acting menacingly toward Adrienne, and rapes her. Adrienne meets Harriet Hockaday (V. Joy Lee), a superstitious vagrant, and her strong but dim-witted son, Cyrus (Steven W. Bailey), who are secretly living in a barn on the estate. After Adrienne agrees to let them stay, they volunteer to help around the mansion. When a technician named Mike (Carl Neimic) visits the mansion to install the phone, Don screams at him in a jealous rage, warning him to stay away from his wife. After Mike leaves the mansion, unbeknownst to Adrienne, Don bludgeons Mike to death. While the local townspeople believe all Carno's wives died of natural causes or accidentally, Adrienne learns through a series of visions that he murdered them in grotesque ways. Hortencia (Christine Armond), who avoided Zoltan's abuse by secluding herself in her greenhouse, is stabbed with gardening tools and suffocated with mulch. Victoria (Holley Chant), an alcoholic, is killed when Zoltan impales her eye with a wine bottle during an argument. An overly talkative third wife, Leonora (Dana Moody), has her mouth gagged and her neck contorted in a torture device. Finally, the food-loving Regina (Wanda Smith) is force-fed animal entrails through a funnel until she chokes to death. Harriet performs a séance for Adrienne, revealing in the form of a green ectoplasm the spirit of Carno before he had been possessed. He reveals that the previously contained evil spirit has been released, and urges Adrienne to trap it once again. Adrienne visits the nearly 110-year-old Malcolm Wyrmshadow (Douglas Seale), who had been Carno's apprentice as a young boy. Malcolm reveals that Carno met his demise after his last wife, Marie (Traci Clauson), discovered he was a murderer. Marie conspired with her lover, Gaston (Jeff Rector), to kill Carno by sabotaging the equipment for his most dangerous escapology trick, in which Carno donned a burning hood and escaped from bonds on a throne underneath a swinging axe. The sabotage left Carno horribly burned and disfigured, but he survived and attacked Marie and Gaston. After killing Marie by beheading her, Carno was killed by Gaston, who then succumbed to his own wounds. Malcolm tells Adrienne about a ritual that can eradicate the demon. Harriet, fearing for her safety, decides to leave with Cyrus as Don becomes more abusive and erratic. The next day, Adrienne is attacked by Don, who is now completely insane and dressed like Carno. Adrienne scars Don's face with acid from his darkroom and flees, discovering the corpses of Mike, Harriet and Cyrus hidden throughout the mansion. Don captures Adrienne and straps her into the throne, but she distracts him long enough to free herself and trigger the swinging axe, which impales and kills Don. His death unleashes the demon, which pursues Adrienne through the mansion. She escapes long enough to perform a ritual that traps the demon once again. The game ends with Adrienne walking out of the mansion with a vacant stare, almost catatonic. ===== During apartheid in South Africa, the separation of Blacks and Whites grew out of White racism. In the remote village of Ndotsheni, in the Natal province of eastern South Africa, the Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter from a fellow minister summoning him to Johannesburg. He is needed there, the letter says, to help his sister, Gertrude, who the letter says has fallen ill. Kumalo undertakes the difficult and expensive journey to the city in the hopes of aiding Gertrude and of finding his son, Absalom, who traveled to Johannesburg from Ndotsheni and never returned. In Johannesburg, Kumalo is warmly welcomed by Msimangu, the priest who sent him the letter, and given comfortable lodging by Mrs. Lithebe, a Christian woman who feels that helping others is her duty. Kumalo visits Gertrude, who is now a prostitute and liquor seller, and persuades her to come back to Ndotsheni with her young son. A more difficult quest follows, when Kumalo and Msimangu begin searching the labyrinthine metropolis of Johannesburg for Absalom. They visit Kumalo's brother, John, who has become a successful businessman and politician, and he directs them to the factory where his son and Absalom once worked together. One clue leads to another, and as Kumalo travels from place to place, he begins to see the gaping racial and economic divisions that are threatening to split his country. Eventually, Kumalo discovers that his son has spent time in a reformatory and that he has gotten a girl pregnant. Meanwhile, the newspapers announce that Arthur Jarvis, a prominent white crusader for racial justice, has been murdered in his home by a gang of burglars. Kumalo and Msimangu learn that the police are looking for Absalom, and Kumalo's worst suspicions are confirmed when Absalom is arrested for the murder. Absalom confesses to the crime but states that two others, including John's son, Matthew, aided him and that he did not intend to murder Jarvis. With the help of friends, Kumalo obtains a lawyer for Absalom and attempts to understand what his son has become. John, however, makes arrangements for his own son's defense, even though this split will worsen Absalom’s case. When Kumalo tells Absalom's pregnant girlfriend what has happened, she is saddened by the news, but she joyfully agrees to his proposal that she marry his son and return to Ndotsheni as Kumalo's daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, in the hills above Ndotsheni, Arthur Jarvis' father, James Jarvis, tends his bountiful land and hopes for rain. The local police bring him news of his son's death, and he leaves immediately for Johannesburg with his wife. In an attempt to come to terms with what has happened, Jarvis reads his son's articles and speeches on social inequality and begins a radical reconsideration of his own prejudices. He and Kumalo meet for the first time by accident, and after Kumalo has recovered from his shock, he expresses sadness and regret for Jarvis' loss. Both men attend Absalom’s trial, a fairly straightforward process that ends with the death penalty for Absalom and an acquittal for the two other defendants. Kumalo arranges for Absalom to marry the girl who bears his child, and they bid farewell. The morning of his departure, Kumalo rouses his new family to bring them back to Ndotsheni, only to find that Gertrude has disappeared. Kumalo is now deeply aware of how his people have lost the tribal structure that once held them together and returns to his village troubled by the situation. It turns out that James Jarvis has been having similar thoughts. Arthur Jarvis' young son befriends Kumalo. As the young boy and the old man become acquainted, James Jarvis becomes increasingly involved with helping the struggling village. He donates milk at first, and then makes plans for a dam and hires an agricultural expert to demonstrate newer, less devastating farming techniques. When Jarvis’ wife dies, Kumalo and his congregation send a wreath to express their sympathy. Just as the bishop is on the verge of transferring Kumalo, Jarvis sends a note of thanks for the wreath and offers to build the congregation a new church, and Kumalo is permitted to stay in his parish. On the evening before his son's execution, Kumalo goes into the mountains to await the appointed time in solitude. On the way, he encounters Jarvis, and the two men speak of the village, of lost sons, and of Jarvis' bright young grandson, whose innocence and honesty have impressed both men. When Kumalo is alone, he weeps for his son’s death and clasps his hands in prayer as dawn breaks over the valley. ===== The game's plot begins fourteen years after Emergence Day (E-Day), when the Locust Horde overran and killed many COG soldiers and civilians, declaring war against humanity. Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison for abandoning his military post in order to make a vain attempt to save his father, Adam Fenix. Dominic "Dom" Santiago, Marcus' best friend and fellow COG, successfully extracts Fenix from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map "The Hollow", the caverns which the Locust inhabit and later deploy the "Lightmass Bomb", which will destroy the heart of the Locust forces inside the Hollow. Fenix and his allies recover the device, but suffer multiple casualties in the process including Anthony Carmine and Squad leader Kim. Fleeing RAAM's forces, Fenix leads the remaining soldiers through the ruins of Ephyra to claim a "Junker" APC, drive to a mining facility, and finally into the planet's depths. Delta Squad successfully detonates the resonator, but the device fails to map enough of the tunnel network. They discover a larger map of the network that originates from Fenix's old home, specifically his father's laboratory. The group ventures to the Fenix estate at East Barricade Academy, where Fenix originally attempted to rescue his father. When they arrive, Delta encounters heavy Locust resistance. After collecting the data, the group fights their way past Locust forces and boards a train carrying the Lightmass Bomb. Fenix and Santiago battle their way through the train, and are able to defeat General RAAM, before uploading the data. Fully activated, the Lightmass Bomb launches into the Hollow, and eradicates the Locust tunnel networks. In the game's final sequence, Hoffman delivers a victory speech as the tunnels collapse and explode, whereupon the voice of the Locust Queen promises that the Locust will continue to fight onward, despite their losses. ===== Face down on the kitchen table of an underground abortionist, barely conscious and with two large bullet wounds in his back, lies career thief and former Marine Porter. The unlicensed doctor uses the whiskey he is drinking as sterilizing agent and digs out the bullets. Porter spends five months recuperating. Porter begins tracking down his estranged wife Lynn and former partner-in-crime Val Resnick. Porter was betrayed by both following a $140,000 heist from local Chinese Triads. Resnick had manipulated Lynn into complicity with a picture showing Porter with another woman. Lynn then shot Porter and the two left him for dead. Val rejoined a criminal syndicate named "the Outfit", using $130,000 of the heist money to pay off an outstanding debt. Porter is intent on claiming his $70,000 cut, steadily climbing up the criminal hierarchy. He first finds Lynn, now a heroin-addicted prostitute. Taking pity on her disastrous predicament, he confines her to her bedroom, only to discover her dead from a heroin overdose the next day. Lynn's drug delivery guy points Porter towards lowlife drug dealer and gambler named Arthur Stegman. Porter finds Stegman in the company of two corrupt police detectives, Hicks and Leary, who start harassing Porter for a share of his goal. Porter enlists the help of Rosie, a call girl affiliated with the Outfit. He was once her limo driver and eventual lover, and a picture taken during their one-night stand was the one used by Resnick to stoke Lynn's jealousy and facilitate the original betrayal. Rosie tells Porter that Resnick is barred from soliciting Outfit prostitutes because his sadistic tendencies nearly killed one of them, possibly Rosie herself. Resnick is seeing a Triad-connected dominatrix named Pearl when Porter violently re-enters his life. Resnick begs the Outfit for help and explains why Porter demands $70,000, but is told to solve his own problems. He then pins the $140,000 heist solely on Porter in order to have him murdered by Pearl's associates. This attempt fails, and Resnick follows Porter's trail to Rosie's apartment, beats her and recognizes her as a former victim of his extreme sexual deviancy. Porter appears in time to prevent further abuse and shoots Resnick dead, not before obtaining the names of Outfit bosses Fairfax and Carter. He takes Rosie to a secret apartment but finds it rigged with plastic explosives, connected to the telephone by three of Carter's hitmen. Porter kills them and later confronts Carter in his own office, threatening to kill him unless he pays the $70,000. Carter states he is only an underboss, thus unauthorized to make financial decisions. Porter then forces Carter to phone the real boss, named Bronson. When Bronson refuses over the phone, Porter carries out his threat and kills Carter. Porter then frames Hicks and Leary by planting Leary's fingerprints on the gun used to kill Resnick, as well as stealing Hicks's badge and leaving it with the gun in Resnick's hand. With the aid of Rosie, Porter kidnaps Bronson's son Johnny. He then visits and threatens Fairfax; Hicks and Leary, who are waiting outside Fairfax's house, are promptly arrested by Internal Affairs on account of the false evidence left earlier. A shootout ensues involving Porter, Stegman, his driver, Pearl and the Triads; only Porter and Pearl survive. Porter is later captured by Fairfax's men, taken to a warehouse and beaten for hours. Bronson arrives with his own men, shows Porter a bag containing the symbolic $130,000 that he is never meant to have, and supervises a more gruesome torture method to extract his son's location. Porter finally gives an address that turns out to be his own secret apartment. He is locked inside a car trunk and driven by Bronson, Fairfax and their men to the flat which, unbeknownst to them, still contains the unexploded bomb left earlier by Carter's men. Porter then manages to grab the car phone and call his own apartment in time for Bronson to pick the telephone. After his captors meet an explosive demise, Porter goes to pick up Rosie. Leaving Johnny behind, the two take off with the money the mob owed him and drive off to Canada to begin a new life. ===== Blair Maynard is a British-born American journalist who was once in the Navy and who decides to investigate the mystery of why so many boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle of the Caribbean. He takes his estranged son Justin with him to the area on the "vacation" and, while fishing, both are attacked by an unkempt man and forcibly brought to an uncharted island. On the island, Blair discovers that the inhabitants of the island are a centuries-old colony of savage French pirates. The group has been living on the island for centuries, unseen by society, and sustain themselves by raiding pleasure boats. The pirates kill whoever comes to the island; however, Blair and his son are both kept alive due to a false assumption regarding their lineage and a need to offset the negative effects of inbreeding. Blair is used to impregnate a female and act as a scribe for the largely illiterate group, while Justin is brainwashed to become a surrogate heir to Nau, the pirate leader. Blair struggles to escape from the island, but all attempts fail. Blair begins his captivity as a very peaceable and civilized everyman, but he is helpless in the absence of law and the presence of the almost unlimited violence the pirates commit. Subjecting him to constant fear and abuse, the pirates fail to realize how desperate Blair is becoming as his repeated escape attempts continually fail. He eventually arranges for the pirates to come head to head with a US Coast Guard ship, but they manage to wipe out the crew and take over the vessel. Blair sneaks aboard and, while most of the pirates are gathered on the aft deck of the ship, he discovers a deck-mounted M2 Machine Gun hidden underneath a tarp. He opens fire on the pirates, and continues to fire even after they are all dead. He then learns that Nau was not on the deck. The two men then stalk each other through various parts of the decimated vessel. Blair eventually gets the upper hand and kills Nau with a flare gun. Blair and his son, who no longer desires to be a pirate and seems much more respectful of his father, are reunited. ===== Behind the scenes of the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Tokyo, there exist many people who strive to become stronger by competing against each other in street fights. The main protagonist is Maki Aikawa, a 16-year- old high school student. A former gymnast, Maki adapts her skills to a different way of life — street fighting. The only thing that truly makes her feel alive is the rush and pressure experienced while fighting. With amazing power and grace, she fights opponent after opponent, repeatedly demonstrating the gymnastic talent that earns her her street name, "Airmaster". Eventually, Maki is exposed to a fighting league of sorts, known as the Fukamichi Rankings. The Fukamichi Rankings consist of the world's greatest street fighters and martial artists. The Fukamichi Ranking fights are held for various reasons. Firstly, many fighters wish to test themselves, achieving the highest rank possible and stretching themselves to their physical limits. However, there is also a corporate side to the Fukamichi rankings, with many viewers around the world eager to watch the brutal yet awe-inspiring showdowns. Each Fukamichi ranker is paid a respective amount for winning within their fight. Maki, seeking to quench her thirst for that pressure or buzz she experiences only through fighting and to find her place within this world, scales the Fukamichi Rankings, clashing with the world's greatest fighting prodigies. ===== The year is 80 BC, and the dictator Sulla rules Rome. The young lawyer Cicero is defending Sextus Roscius, a man accused of murdering his own father. (The gruesome Roman punishment for patricide is described.) Cicero hires Gordianus the Finder to discover the truth of the matter. We are introduced to Gordianus' slave, Bethesda, the mute boy Eco, and historical persons such as the plutocrat Marcus Licinius Crassus, the powerful freedman Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus and Cicero's scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro. Category:Roma Sub Rosa Category:1991 American novels Category:Historical mystery novels Category:St. Martin's Press books Category:80 BC ===== The episodes combine elements of science fiction and western genres. It is set in the 23rd century on a multi- cultural desert planet called New Texas. As on other Filmation series (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Shazam!, The Secret of Isis, and the animated Ghostbusters), a moral lesson is told at the end of each episode. One notable episode is "The Price", in which a boy buys a drug called "Spin", becomes addicted to it, and dies of an overdose. ===== The film begins in 1933. Students at Kyoto Imperial University protest the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Prominent professor Yagihara (Denjiro Okochi) is relieved of his post because of his views against fascism. The professor's daughter Yukie (Setsuko Hara) is courted by two of her father's students: Ryukichi Noge (Susumu Fujita) and Itokawa (Akitake Kôno). Itokawa is equable and moderate while Noge is fiery and a radical leftist. Although she fights with him vigorously, Yukie is eventually drawn toward Noge. Noge disappears following an anti-militarist student protest, the result of being arrested and spending four years in jail. By the time Itokawa, now a prosecutor for the government, tells Yukie of Noge's whereabouts, he has been out of jail for a year. He warns her that he is a changed man and no longer how Yukie remembered him. Itokawa brings Noge over to the Yagihara residence. During dinner, Professor Yagihara mentions that Noge would not have been released unless the government was convinced that Noge had "converted" from his radical ways. Noge confirms this and says that Itokawa vouched for him and had even found him a job in the army. After realizing that Noge has changed from his days at university, Yukie excuses herself from the dinner table and locks herself in her room. Her mother eventually tells her that the young men are leaving. Yukie is reluctant to see them out, but once her mother tells her that Noge is leaving for China she decides to see Noge one last time to say goodbye. After Noge's departure, Yukie begins to pack for Tokyo and has a deep conversation with her father. For three years in Tokyo, Yukie works in menial jobs to get by. One day she runs into Itokawa and is told that Noge is in the city. She goes to Noge's offices, but is reluctant to reconnect. Yukie is shown outside of the offices several times until eventually Noge notices her. They spend several years together and get married. Yukie discovers that Noge is involved in dangerous and illegal activities, but they agree that she should not know exactly what they are. Noge is arrested the night before his plans are to go into effect. Yukie is interrogated, but she proffers no information. She is treated badly during the interrogations but Itokawa is eventually able to free her. Her parents take the train into Tokyo where Yukie's father meets up with Itokawa, thanks him for what he has done and informs him that he intends to represent Noge in court. Itokawa mournfully responds that Noge died the night before. Yukie is crushed. She brings his ashes to his parents, farmers in the countryside, and tells them she is his wife. Noge's father rejects her, believing that she has come to mock them because their son was convicted of being a spy but Yukie stays and works the rice fields with them. They are scorned and harassed in their village, and Yukie tries to convince them of her sincerity and that their son was a good man. The work in the rice fields is hard on her, but she is determined to prove her mettle, even to the point of working through a severe fever. The night that Yukie and her mother-in-law finally finish planting all of the fields, the neighbors sneak in and destroy their work. When Yukie mourns the vandalism, Noge's father finally accept her and their son is redeemed in their eyes. At the end of the war, Professor Yagihara is reinstated and Noge is honored for his antiwar efforts. Yukie returns to Kyoto to visit her parents. Yukie's mother invites her to stay since it seems her daughter has achieved her goal: Noge's parents are no longer ashamed of their son. However, Yukie now feels more comfortable planting rice than playing the piano, and sees the value in the social work that still must be done in the village so she returns to Noge's parents. ===== The film opens with Gene Watson (Johnny Depp), a mild-mannered, separated accountant, arriving with his daughter Lynn at the Union Station in Los Angeles. As Watson makes a pay phone call informing an unidentified person that his train was late, two mysterious strangers in suits, known only as Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) and Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia), survey the station from a catwalk, discussing a yet-to-be-elaborated scheme. Noticing Watson retaliate against a skater who was harassing his daughter, Smith and Jones set their sights on him and swiftly approach the pair. Showing a badge, the two strangers convince Watson that they are police officers and whisk both father and daughter into a van without justification. Once in the vehicle, Watson begins to notice things are not right and gets nervous, but Smith subsequently pistol whips him in the leg to get his attention. Smith then informs Watson that they will kill his daughter by 1:30 p.m. unless he murders a woman depicted in a photograph. He soon learns that the woman is State Governor Eleanor Grant and realizes that killing her would be a suicide mission. Once at the Bonaventure Hotel, where a number of campaign appearances are being held, Watson makes several attempts to warn people about his situation, but Smith consistently follows him around, taunts and viciously beats him whenever he does not make a move. Watson manages to find a young campaign assistant, Krista Brooks, who believes Watson's story and encourages him to report the matter to the governor's husband, Brendan Grant. Once in his suite, however, Brendan and a campaign lobbyist appear to disbelieve the story, and before anything more can be said, Smith shows up in the room and fatally shoots Krista, causing a tense scuffle between Watson and Smith. Watson awakens after unconsciousness and finds nearly everyone on the campaign, including the governor's staff and husband, are involved in the plot, with an unnamed right- wing lobbyist masterminding it all in revenge for the governor not carrying out her campaign promises to his interests. Watson eventually finds a disabled war veteran named Huey who polishes people's shoes at the hotel. While at first he does not believe Watson's story, Smith talks to Watson about the plot, believing Huey to be completely deaf according to a sign. Huey reluctantly assists Watson to get to Governor Grant's suite and advise her of the conspiracy. Although skeptical at first of Watson's story, she later notices Brendan act suspiciously about Krista's whereabouts and realizes Watson was telling the truth. Being hastened by her husband to make the last speech, the governor greets supporters in a ballroom when Watson takes out the gun, points it at a projector room where Smith is watching him and shoots at the window. This unleashes a panic in the ballroom, causing a stampede and brief shootout between Watson and the security people. Thinking that his wife is dead, Brendan openly gloats about the plot's success, only to find out in horror that she had heard everything, confirming her suspicions about him. In the meantime, Huey stalls the armed Jones, who is in the van with Watson's daughter after she cannot get a signal from Smith. He then annoys her with a squeegee man scheme to the point of a violent confrontation in which she shoots his wooden leg. Lynn quickly tries to get out of the van when Smith opens the door and begins to shoot at her. Right after she hides under the seat, Watson appears and shoots Smith. Ailing from his wounds, Smith congratulates Watson for becoming a killer just before he's finally killed by Watson. Before Jones can get a clear shot at the father and daughter, Huey beats her unconscious with his prosthetic leg and wing tip shoe. The final scene shows the conspiracy mastermind stepping on Watson's broken wristwatch and leaving the hotel in a car. An alternate TV scene (and on some DVD versions) also shows the governor thanking Watson and Huey for saving her life. ===== Charlie Cantilini (Jennifer Lopez) is a temp/dog walker/yoga instructor and aspiring fashion designer from Venice Beach, California, who meets doctor Kevin Fields (Michael Vartan). At first, she thinks he's gay because of a lie his vindictive ex-girlfriend Fiona (Monet Mazur) told her. But then Kevin asks her out and she believes that she has finally found the right man. Things start to sour when Kevin introduces Charlie to his mother, Viola (Jane Fonda), a former newscaster turned talk show host, who has recently been replaced by a younger woman, causing her to have a meltdown and attack a guest on-air. Loathing Charlie immediately, Viola becomes more distraught when Kevin proposes to her; fearing she'll lose her son the same way she lost her career. She sets out to ruin Kevin and Charlie's relationship, enlisting the help of her loyal assistant Ruby (Wanda Sykes). Viola fakes an anxiety attack and moves in with Charlie while Kevin is away for a medical conference, in an attempt to drive her crazy with her antics. Charlie soon catches onto Viola's plan and fights back by destroying her bedroom and tampering with her anti- psychotic medication (which Viola had replaced with Vitamin C tablets). Charlie eventually confronts Viola, forcing her to move out. Finding no way to stop the wedding, Viola tricks Charlie into eating nuts during the rehearsal dinner, causing an extreme allergic reaction which results in Charlie’s face swelling up. However, the swelling subsides by morning. On the day of the wedding, Viola turns up wearing a white dress instead of the peach-coloured one Charlie had specially made for her. This leads to a violent standoff between the two, with Viola refusing to accept Charlie and stating she'll never be good enough for Kevin. Suddenly, Viola's own dreadful mother-in-law, Kevin's grandmother Gertrude (Elaine Stritch), appears and they have an indignant argument with Gertrude holding Viola responsible for the “terminal disappointment”, from which Gertrude claims her son, Kevin’s father, died many years ago. Gertrude's resentment of Viola bears a strong resemblance to Viola's feelings of animosity towards Charlie, who decides to back down as she feels the same thing will happen to them in 30 years. Charlie leaves to tell Kevin that the wedding is off to save his relationship with his mother. But before that can happen, Ruby approaches Viola and tells her that her efforts against Charlie to make Kevin happy are unwarranted. Viola ultimately realizes that she wants Charlie to stay and tells her that she will leave the two of them alone if that means her son is happy. Charlie, however, tells Viola that she wants her to be a part of their lives, with some boundaries and ground rules. Charlie and Kevin get married and, when Charlie throws her wedding bouquet, Viola (now wearing the peach-coloured dress) catches it. As Charlie and Kevin drive away to their honeymoon, the film ends with Viola and Ruby walking out of the celebration to go out drinking. ===== In the summer of 1963, Jeffrey Willis (Matt Dillon) joins some friends for a day of gin rummy at the El Flamingo Club, a private beach resort. There, he meets the girl of his dreams Carla Sampson (Janet Jones). After the gin game and being told of the club's strict policy regarding guests, Jeffrey is upset, but not for long, since he immediately lands a job as a car valet and eventually, cabana steward. Jeffrey is a kid from a middle class Brooklyn family and his father (Elizondo) does not approve of him working at the private club. His hero and mentor at the resort is the reigning gin rummy card game champ, Phil Brody (Crenna), a salesman of exotic sports and luxury cars.Blank, Ed. Traditional values put to the test in an effective 'Flamingo Kid', Pittsburgh Press, December 28, 1984 Jeffrey, a winning gin rummy player himself, and his friends admire Brody and how his wins at the Gin rummy table make him seem "psychic," knowing which cards to give up. Brody also takes a liking to Jeffrey, eventually showing him his car business, and gives him hopes that car sales are where he belongs as a career. Jeffrey gets further immersed in the "easy buck", as evidenced by Phil showing off his success, as opposed to Mr. Willis' manual labor, or the example of Phil's brother, who studied for years to become a lawyer but has had little financial return. During dinner, Jeffrey notably says he "will not be needing college" and plans to pursue being a car salesman instead. Jeffrey and his co- workers at the El Flamingo also venture to Yonkers Raceway together, risking cash on a horse tip but coming up short when the trotter breaks stride. Eventually, Jeffrey leaves home to pursue the sales job. However, Brody, angry that Jeffrey disturbed him during a dance class, reveals to Jeffrey that the job opening at the car dealership is for a stock boy, not as a salesman as Jeffrey had been led to believe was his when he asked for it. Brody lectures Jeffrey in a similar lesson that Mr. Willis had "You can't plant a tree and expect to hang a swing on it the next day", and recommends Jeffrey accept the stock boy job to prove himself and work his way up. Jeffrey becomes shocked at his mentor's actions and reconsiders college. Near summer's end, Jeffrey observes that a regular onlooker, "Big Sid", is feeding signals to Brody, the true cause of Brody's winning ways. When Big Sid and a member of the gin team playing against Brody's team are overcome by the heat, Jeffrey fills in, opposing Brody, and seeking to help win back the unfair profits Brody won from his friends over the course of the summer. Jeffrey and his team eventually win back what was unfairly lost, including a good profit besides. Impressed that Jeffrey defeated him without cheating, Phil says they can "skip this stock boy nonsense" and offers him the salesman job, but Jeffrey declines. Realizing the mistakes he made in rejecting his father's good advice, Jeffrey makes up with his dad in a touching scene at Larry's Fish House ("Any Fish You Wish"), where his family is dining. ===== Arienrhod, the Snow Queen, has secretly implanted several Summer women with clones of herself, in the hopes of extending her rule past her ritual execution at the end of Winter. Moon Dawntreader Summer is the only one of these clones to survive to adolescence. She and her cousin Sparks are lovers. Moon becomes a sibyl, a position of high status among the Summer people. Sibyls are both feared and revered; they possess the ability to answer any question by going into a trance state. Sibyls believe that they receive visions from the Lady, a sea goddess. Sparks is not chosen to become a sibyl. Angry at Moon for joining the sibyls without him and curious about his offworld heritage, he travels to Carbuncle, Tiamat's capital. He is immediately caught up by Arienrhod and eventually becomes the "Starbuck", the Snow Queen's consort and commander of the mer hunts. Moon receives a message, apparently from Sparks, urging her to come to Carbuncle, though sibyls may not legally enter the city. On her way, she becomes entangled with smugglers and is taken offworld. This is normally a one way trip for a Tiamatan citizen. Hegemony law prevents any native Tiamatian from returning after leaving the planet, fearing that travelers would realize how Tiamat is being exploited and use this knowledge to foment rebellion. Arienrhod is crushed; she had planned to draw Moon to Carbuncle and make her the next Summer Queen. Moon was supposed to reject the Summer fear of technology and develop resistance to the Hegemony during the next Summer reign. Arienrhod devises a backup plan; she will unleash a plague at the Change which will kill most Summers and spare most Winters, allowing Tiamat to continue its technological growth before the Hegemony returns. Moon is taken to the capital planet, Kharemough, and discovers that the Winters' prejudice against sibyls is a political tool used by the Hegemony to preserve its control of technology on Tiamat. Sibyls are highly respected throughout the other planets of the Hegemony; only on Tiamat, due to a careful reinforcement of superstitions during the reign of Winter, are they considered dangerous and mentally unstable. The sibyls are actually part of a data network devised by the Old Empire as a way to rebuild society more quickly after the Empire's fall. Sibyls have the ability to communicate with a vast electronic databank, which explains their ability to answer seemingly unknowable questions. Moon learns from another sibyl that Sparks is in danger, and returns to Tiamat illegally. Due to time dilation, five years pass on Tiamat while Moon is only gone for a period of weeks. After a crash landing and short sojourn as a captive of Winter outlaws, Moon returns to Carbuncle and confronts Arienrhod. Arienrhod's plan to unleash the plague is foiled, but Moon is chosen to become the next Summer Queen. She prepares Tiamat to face the Hegemony as a peer when the 150 years of summer end and interstellar travel is again possible through the black hole. ===== Nicole Oakley, the out-of-control daughter of congressman Tom Oakley, meets a working class Mexican-American straight-A student, Carlos Nuñez. Nicole is troubled because her mother committed suicide when she was very young, feeling unwanted by her father, who has another young daughter with his new wife. Carlos, on the other hand, is from a poor background and is working hard towards becoming a Navy pilot. They fall in love, and Carlos spends so much time with her that he stops performing well in school. Carlos is applying to the U.S. Naval Academy and Nicole's father suggests Carlos talk to him about gaining his Congressional sponsorship to the Academy. During their meeting, Nicole's father tells Carlos that he needs to end his relationship with Nicole, or she will destroy his life. Carlos breaks up with her, which leads Nicole into depression and back into wild, drunken partying. One night, Carlos calls her and finds out she is getting drunk at a high school party. He saves Nicole from a boy trying to take advantage of her. Carlos drives her home, but they get stopped by the police. As a result of this incident, Nicole's father and step-mother decide that she needs to go to a boarding school far away from home; Carlos rescues her and they run away together. While they are away, Nicole realizes she is getting in the way of Carlos's dreams, so she decides it is time to stop running away from her problems, feeling she wants to be better for Carlos and have a future with him. They go back home and she makes up with her father. Her father thanks Carlos for not listening to his advice to abandon Nicole. In the end credits, we see that Carlos has become a pilot with the Navy. ===== Following the murder of Diana Floss in a restaurant in Cape Ann, Massachusetts in 1973, her fiancé Joe Nast elects to stay with her parents. Her father, Ben, is a realtor whose business partner has recently left. Ben and Joe go into business as Floss & Son, as this was their plan before Diana's death. Joe goes to the post office to retrieve all the invitations that had been sent out for his and Diana's wedding, and with the help of Bertie Knox he retrieves seventy-four of seventy-five. She finds the last invitation and takes it to his house later that night. He drops her off at a local bar, and returns home, despite her inviting him in for a drink. Joe and Ben attend a local property fair, and Ben pitches the idea of redeveloping a block in the town to developer Mike Mulcahey. Mulcahey agrees, but they need to get all the tenants to agree. Diana's friends come around to look through her possessions, much to the consternation of her mother, Jojo. They then take Joe out for a drink at the same bar Bertie went to the previous night. Joe puts "Moonlight Mile" on the jukebox and Bertie dances with him. Joe convinces Ben to let him talk to the bar's owner to convince them to sell. Feeling trapped at the Floss home, he meets Bertie and tells her about Diana. He confesses to her that he had split up with Diana three days before she was killed. Bertie tells Joe about her boyfriend, the owner of the bar, who is lost in Vietnam. One night Joe sneaks out the window to go see Bertie again. They sleep together, and he leaves the next morning, slipping back into Diana's house through the window. Jojo is sitting in the room, drinking, knowing that he was out seeing another woman, and saddened by the idea that she had always known he would have never ended up with her daughter. She does not want Joe to leave, as they have formed a bond. Joe goes to dinner at the Mulcahey's, where Mike's wife presumes aloud that Joe was not still tied up with thoughts of his fiancee's murder. Joe states that this is not the case, upsetting the mood at the dinner table. Mike calls Ben and ends their deal. Bertie confronts Joe about what happened between them, and they have an argument in which he tells her no one believes her boyfriend is coming home and that she deserved better anyway. She leaves, upset. The family attends the trial of Diana's murderer. However, the murderer's wife elicits sympathy from the jury, and the prosecutor, Mona Camp, asks Joe to testify and help the jury gain sympathy for Diana. While on the witness stand, Joe confesses that he and Diana had broken up prior to her death, and had not told her parents. Ben and Jojo are happy with the confession and gain closure. Joe symbolically writes 75 letters expressing his newfound clarity about what course his life ought to take and his love for Bertie, and places them in mailboxes around town, hoping that one will get to her. Ben closes the shop, Jojo resumes her writing career, Bertie sells the bar, and she and Joe leave town. ===== A history of ecological excesses had led other nations to levy vast sanctions against the US for "stealing" world resources. Author Michael A. Sheyahshe noted in Native Americans in Comic Books – A Critical Study, that "Scout is presented in a respectful and genuine manner with tribally specific cultural ties." ===== ===== Writer Mickey King lives in Rome churning out a string of violent, sexually charged hardboiled pulp fiction novels under an array of lewd pen names like "S. Odomy". King is offered an abnormally large sum to ghostwrite the autobiography of a mystery celebrity. The intrigued King agrees and is transported to a remote island, during which time he will make contact with a representative for the celebrity. King meets a man named Miller, who identifies himself as an English professor. King assumes Miller is the mysterious contact—until discovering Miller dead in his bathtub after a hotel room mix-up. Finally arriving on the island, King meets his subject: Preston Gilbert. A retired movie star, Gilbert is known for portraying gangsters and notorious for hanging out with real-life mobsters off the set. Now suffering from cancer, the pompous, vain Gilbert wants King to immortalize his life story before he dies. Gilbert is planning a fancy birthday celebration. Among the attendees is Princess Betty Cippola, a man-hungry social climber who seems to have a sordid history with Gilbert. However, after the party is underway and Gilbert has staged a practical joke, Miller returns, now dressed as a Catholic priest. Sensing danger, King flees as Miller opens fire, killing Gilbert. The partygoers assume it's another prank, and applaud as Gilbert dies. Gilbert's death leaves King with no conclusion to his tale. Playing detective like the heroes of his stories, King pieces together the mystery. He learns that Gilbert's proposed autobiography has alarmed several of the actor's erstwhile associates, who worry their schemes and crimes might be exposed. ===== Cartman has skipped class, but shows up at the bus stop to meet the boys when they get off the bus, wearing a goatee and acting strangely agreeable. Cartman explains that he missed school that day because he was taking care of the house for his mother, who has the flu. The boys are shocked and confused at this news coming from the normally obnoxious and uncaring Cartman. Later, Stan arrives home, where his mother, Sharon Marsh, tells him that his Aunt Flo has come to visit. Aunt Flo gives Stan's sister Shelly a huge stereo system and gives Stan a goldfish in a bowl. Stan doesn't like the fish and finds it spooky because of the way it stares at him, but Sharon insists that he put it in his room. The next morning at the bus stop, Stan and Kyle expect to meet the new version of Cartman. However, Cartman arrives in his normal obnoxious mood. That night, it is stormy, and the nice version of Cartman appears at Kenny's house to deliver some provisions for the storm. Stan is in bed, trying to sleep despite being repeatedly terrorized by the fish. Despite what Stan says, Sharon remains unconvinced that there is any trouble until Stan finds a dead body on the floor. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny discover that the two personalities of Cartman are in fact two separate people. Chef tells the boys that the kinder version of Cartman is from a parallel universe and that Stan's fish must be from the same world. Stan, Kyle, and the kind Cartman track down the Ancient Indian Burial Ground Pet Store, where they find the portal to the alternate universe. After returning the fish to the owner, the boys leave, just as Stan and Kyle from the evil world arrive to retrieve their Cartman. They align with the regular Cartman, and the trio find the regular Stan and Kyle along with Evil Cartman. The evil Stan and Kyle have a gun that sends things back to the alternate world, which is used on them by regular Stan. Stan and Kyle attempt to send their Cartman to the parallel universe, so they can retain the friendly Cartman, but the regular Cartman tricks them by saying something he wouldn't normally say. ===== John Murdoch awakens in a hotel bathtub, suffering from amnesia. He receives a phone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber, who urges him to flee the hotel to evade a group of men who are after him. In the room, Murdoch discovers the corpse of a ritualistically murdered woman along with a bloody knife. He flees the scene, just as the group of pale men in trenchcoats (later identified as "the Strangers") arrive. Following clues, Murdoch learns his own name and finds out he has a wife named Emma; he is also sought by Police Inspector Frank Bumstead as a suspect in a series of murders committed around the city, though he cannot remember killing anybody. Pursued by the Strangers, Murdoch discovers that he has psychokinesis—the ability to alter reality at will—which the Strangers also possess, and refer to as "tuning". He manages to use these powers to escape from them. Murdoch explores the anachronistic city,Proyas, Alex (Director) (2008). Dark City, Director's Cut: at approximately 1:08, Mr. Hand states that the city is a mix of eras. (Blu-Ray disc) where nobody seems to realize it is always night. At midnight, he watches as everyone except himself falls asleep as the Strangers physically rearrange the city as well as change people's identities and memories. Murdoch learns that he came from a coastal town called Shell Beach: a town familiar to everyone, though nobody knows how to get there, and all of his attempts to do so are unsuccessful for varying reasons. Meanwhile, the Strangers inject one of their men, Mr. Hand, with memories intended for Murdoch in an attempt to predict his movements and track him down. Murdoch is eventually caught by Inspector Bumstead, who acknowledges that Murdoch is most likely innocent, and by then has his own misgivings about the nature of the city. They confront Schreber, who explains that the Strangers are extraterrestrials who use corpses as their hosts. Having a hive mind, the Strangers are experimenting with humans to analyze their individuality in the hopes that some insight might be revealed that will help their own race survive. Schreber reveals that Murdoch is an anomaly who inadvertently awoke when Schreber was in the middle of imprinting his latest identity as a murderer. The three embark to find Shell Beach, but it exists only as a poster on a wall at the edge of the city. Frustrated, Murdoch and Bumstead break through the wall, revealing outer space. The men are confronted by the Strangers, including Mr. Hand, who holds Emma hostage. In the ensuing fight, Bumstead and one of the Strangers fall through the hole into space, revealing the city as a deep space habitat surrounded by a force field. The Strangers bring Murdoch to their home beneath the city and force Schreber to imprint Murdoch with their collective memory, believing Murdoch to be the culmination of their experiments. Schreber betrays them by instead inserting false memories in Murdoch which artificially reestablish his childhood as years spent training and honing his tuning skills and learning about the Strangers and their machines. Murdoch awakens, fully realizing his skills. He frees himself and battles with the Strangers, defeating their leader Mr. Book in a psychokinetic fight high above the city. After learning from Schreber that Emma has been re-imprinted and cannot be restored, Murdoch exercises his new-found powers, amplified by the Strangers' machine, to create an actual Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force field with water and forming mountains and beaches. On his way to Shell Beach, Murdoch encounters a dying Mr. Hand and informs him that they have been searching in the wrong place—the mind—to understand humanity. Murdoch turns the habitat toward the star it had been turned away from, and the city experiences sunlight for the first time. He opens a door leading out of the city, and steps out to view the sunrise. Beyond him is a pier, where he finds the woman he knew as Emma, now with new memories and a new identity as Anna. Murdoch reintroduces himself as they walk to Shell Beach, beginning their relationship anew. ===== Virtua Fighter 2 presents no narrative in-game; there is no story-based intro sequence, no narrative character endings and very little text to supply much of a plot. However, the game was given a story in its supporting material, such as the manual for the Sega Saturn version. Virtua Fighter 2 hinges around a fighting tournament, where the greatest fighters in the world seek to compete for fame and glory. However, the tournament is organised by the sinister "J6" syndicate, who intend to use the information gathered to perfect their fighting cyborg "Dural" (the game's boss, who uses a move-set made up of other character's moves). ===== The story is told by a first-person narrator and well-to-do author, William Ashenden, who, at the beginning of the novel is suddenly and unexpectedly contacted by Alroy Kear, a busybody literary figure in London who has been asked by Amy, the second Mrs Driffield, to write the biography of her deceased husband, Edward Driffield. Driffield, once scorned for his realist representation of late-Victorian working-class characters, had in his later years come to be lionised by scholars of English letters. The second Mrs Driffield, a nurse to the ailing Edward after his first wife left him, is known for her propriety, and her interest in augmenting and cementing her husband's literary reputation. Her only identity is that of caretaker of her husband in life and of his reputation in death. It is well-known, however, that Driffield wrote his best novels while he was married to his first wife and muse, Rosie. Kear, who is trying to prove his own literary worth, jumps at the opportunity to ride the coat-tails of the great Edward Driffield by writing the biography. Knowing that Ashenden had a long acquaintanceship with the Driffields as a young man, Kear contacts him for inside information about Edward's past, including about his first wife, who has been oddly erased from the official narrative of Edward's genius. The story relates Ashenden's recollections of his past associations with the Driffields, especially Rosie. Due to his intimate association with her he hesitates to reveal how much information he will divulge to Driffield's second wife and Kear, who ostensibly wants a "complete" picture of the famous author, but who routinely glosses over the untoward stories that might upset Driffield's surviving wife. Ashenden holds the key to the deep mystery of love, and the act of love, in the life of each character, as he recounts a history of creativity, infidelity and literary memory. ===== In the French countryside near the Pyrenees, a baby donkey is adopted by young children - Jacques and his sisters, who live on a farm. They baptize the donkey (and christen it Balthazar) along with Marie, Jacques' childhood sweetheart, whose father is the teacher at the small school next-door. When one of Jacques' sisters dies, his family vacates the farm, and Marie's family take it over in a loose arrangement. The donkey is given away to local farmhands who work it very hard. Years pass until Balthazar is involved in an accident and runs off, finding its way back to Marie, who is now a teenager. But her father gets involved in legal wrangles over the farm and the donkey is given away to a local bakery for delivery work. Gerard, leader of a young criminal gang, is the delivery boy at the bakery, and so takes charge of the donkey, treating it cruelly. Marie, driving a 2CV one day, sees the donkey at the roadside and stops to greet it. Gerard, who'd been sleeping nearby, gets into her car. They have sex, and then she drives home. Marie later enters into an abusive relationship with him, leaving her parents. Gerard is summoned to the local police station and questioned about a murder, along with Arnold, an alcoholic who is also a suspect. Neither is arrested. Balthazar becomes ill, and Arnold takes the donkey off Gerard's hands. Balthazar recovers and Arnold uses the donkey and another to guide tourists around the Pyrenees. When the season ends, Balthazar escapes and joins a circus. But when the donkey sees Arnold in the audience it goes berserk, and Arnold retrieves it. Arnold's uncle dies and he inherits a fortune. He throws a wild party at a bar, and then is put on Balthazar's back to ride home. However, he is so drunk he falls off, hits his head on the ground and dies. The police send Balthazar to market. A local miller buys the donkey, using it for pumping water and milling. One rainy night, Marie, soaking wet, knocks on the miller's door asking for shelter - she has run away from Gerard. The miller says he'll be her friend and help her to 'escape' - but next morning sees her parents and offers them the donkey, the implication being that Marie will follow. Marie goes back to her parents. Jacques visits, wanting to marry her and also saying his father does not want the money the court ordered Marie's father to pay him. But Marie is not sure she wants to marry Jacques. She says she wants to 'have it out' with Gerard and goes to visit a barn where they used to meet. Gerard is there with his gang, and they strip her, beat her, then lock her in. Marie's father and Jacques find her and break a window to get in. They take her home, pulled in a cart by Balthazar. Later Jacques wants to see Marie, but her mother comes downstairs and says 'she's gone and will never come back'. Marie's father dies shortly after, when visited by a priest. While Marie's mother is grieving, Gerard turns up with his gang and asks if he can borrow Balthazar. Ostensibly it's for a procession, but they use the donkey to carry contraband for smuggling over the border. At night, when Gerard and accomplice are supposed to be meeting their contact, they are instead shot at and they flee. Balthazar runs off and hides in bushes. In the morning, we see Balthazar has a gunshot wound. A shepherd and flock comes. The sheep gather around Balthazar, their bells jangling, as he lays down and dies. ===== A mysterious figure known only as "The Visitor" appears in the lives of a typical bourgeois Italian family. His arrival is heralded at the gates of the family's Milanese estate by an arm-flapping postman. The enigmatic stranger soon engages in sexual affairs with all members of the household: the devoutly religious maid, the sensitive son, the sexually repressed mother, the timid daughter and, finally, the tormented father. The stranger gives unstintingly of himself, asking nothing in return. He stops the passionate maid from committing suicide with a gas hose and tenderly consoles her; he befriends and sleeps with the frightened son, soothing his doubts and anxiety and endowing him with confidence; he becomes emotionally intimate with the overprotected daughter, removing her childish innocence about men; he seduces the bored and dissatisfied mother, giving her sexual joy and fulfillment; he cares for and comforts the despondent and suffering father, who has fallen ill. Then one day the herald returns and announces that the stranger will soon leave the household, just as suddenly and mysteriously as he came. In the subsequent void of the stranger's absence, each family member is forced to confront what was previously concealed by the trappings of bourgeois life. The maid returns to the rural village where she was born and is seen to perform miracles; ultimately, she immolates herself by having her body buried in dirt while shedding ecstatic tears of regeneration. The mother seeks sexual encounters with young men; the son leaves the family home to become an artist; the daughter sinks into a catatonic state; and the father strips himself of all material effects, handing his factory over to its workers, removing his clothes at a railway station and wandering naked into the wilderness (actually the volcanic desert slopes of Mount Etna), where he finally screams in primal rage and despair. ===== McDull is not the brightest kid on the block, but he continually tries to do his best and please his mother. Although it seems that he may not be destined for great things in life as his mother wishes, McDull never gives up. The story focuses on several tales about McDull and his childhood. This is told as a narrative reflection of a now adult McDull. These tales muddle up in imaginative uses of Cantonese and heaps of local Hong Kong culture. From tales about a turkey dinner to dreams of following in Lee Lai-shan's footsteps, McDull faces ebbs and flows with his demanding but devoted mother. There is a significant amount of material in the movie which is culturally relevant to Hong Kong. For example, a large proportion of the humour and appeal of the movie arises from its complex wordplay and subtle hints of Hong Kong's historical legacy and dynamic. The songs featured in the film are bright and beguiling, and are not overbearing as some musical animations are likely to become. The film's animation is trouble-free and colourful changing at times as stories alter, but echoing the fashion of the innovative artwork. It uses a number of contemporary Computer Graphics animations in several scenes to illustrate an urban Hong Kong, but it skillfully shows Hong Kong as the dirty conurbation it is rather than the high-pitched clean cityscape that many travel advertisements like to portray. The genial and timid piglet McDull has cheered up the lives of kids, professors, housewives and CEOs, because he epitomises the uncontainable and happy-go-lucky spirit of Hong Kong. His no-holds-barred porcobiography is a frame-by-frame account of life growing up in the slums of Shamshuipo, set against the colourful campaign of a post-97 Hong Kong trudging along regardless of downturn woes. Pouncing shots of busy Kowloon streets, slimy cafés, plus sights and smells of local flavour fused with animation, live object shooting and 3-D computer graphics define the film. ===== In Canada during the spring of 1968, the cob (the name for an adult male swan) and the pen (the name for an adult female swan), both trumpeter swans, build their summer nest on a small island in a pond. The swans are worried when Sam Beaver, an 11-year-old boy on a camping trip with his father, begins coming to the lake every day to watch them; the cob believes that human boys are dangerous. One day while the pen steps away from her eggs to stretch her legs, a fox slips up behind her. Sam chases the fox away, saving both the female and her eggs. After this incident, the swans begin to trust him. After the hatching of their cygnets, the cob proudly leads his brood to Sam to introduce them. The cygnets each chirp at Sam in greeting, except for the youngest who is named Louis and is unable to chirp but pulls Sam's shoelace instead. The adult swans gradually realize that Louis is mute. The adults grow increasingly concerned about Louis, worrying that he will not be able to find a mate if he cannot trumpet like all the other swans. Louis's father promises to find a way for him to communicate. At the end of summer, the swan family flies to the winter refuge, Red Rock Lakes in Montana. Louis decides he should learn to read and write in order to communicate, and flies away from the refuge to visit Sam Beaver. Sam takes his swan friend to school with him the next morning. Louis turns out to be a natural at reading and writing, and Sam buys him a portable blackboard and chalk so he can communicate. Unfortunately, because the other swans cannot read, Louis is still lonely. When Louis returns to the Red Rock Lakes, he falls in love with a young swan, Serena, but cannot attract her attention. Louis's father is aware that trumpeter swans are named after the human musical instrument and becomes determined to acquire a trumpet as a substitute "voice" for Louis. The cob crashes through the window of a music store in Billings, Montana and steals a brass trumpet on a cord. By the time Louis learns to effectively play the trumpet, Serena has migrated north. Instead of accompanying his family north where he might have to face Serena again, Louis visits Sam on his ranch and explains that he feels guilty about the stolen trumpet. Sam suggests that Louis should get a job so he can pay the store for the trumpet and the damaged window. He helps Louis find a position as camp bugler at Camp Kookooskoos, the boys' camp Sam attends. Louis convinces Sam to split one of his webbed feet with a razor blade, making "fingers" so that he can play more notes. Over the course of the summer, Louis plays taps, reveille, and mess call, and composes a love song for Serena. He also receives a Lifesaving Medal for rescuing a drowning camper. At the end of the summer, he has earned $100, which he carries in a waterproof pouch around his neck along with his slate, chalk, medal, and trumpet. Sam suggests that Louis can get a job with the Swan Boats in Boston. Louis flies across country and becomes an instant success, with a salary of $100 per week and a private suite in the Ritz Hotel. A Philadelphia nightclub offers Louis a higher salary, $500 per week. He leaves Boston and takes up temporary residence at the Philadelphia Zoo. The zookeeper promises that because Louis is only a guest, he will not be pinioned (have a wing tip cut off to prevent escape) like all the other swans at the zoo. One stormy night, Serena, blown off course, falls into the Zoo's Bird Lake. Louis serenades her by playing "Beautiful Dreamer" on his trumpet, and she falls in love with him, impressed by his song and the numerous possessions hanging around his neck. When the zookeepers spot Serena, they try to clip her wings, and Louis attacks them. He convinces the Head Man to postpone the operation for a short while and sends a telegram to Sam, asking for help. Sam goes to Philadelphia and strikes a deal with the Head Man: in every clutch of cygnets, there is always one that needs special care, just as Louis did in his own family. If the Head Man will let Louis and Serena go free, they will donate one of their cygnets to the zoo every year. Louis and Serena fly back to the Red Rock Lakes. Now intending to live the rest of his life among other swans, he no longer needs his slate. Louis writes an apology on the slate and gives it and the money bag to his father, who flies back to the music store in Billings. Afraid that the swan will destroy another window, the storekeeper shoots the cob in the shoulder, but is amazed to find the note and the money, which amounts to several times the cost of both the stolen trumpet and the window. Because the cob is a protected species, he is taken to a wildlife veterinarian, where his injury is treated. When he is recovered, he flies back to the Red Rock Lakes to rejoin his family, including Louis and Serena. Many years later, when Sam is about 20 years old, he is again camping in Canada when he hears the sound of a trumpet playing across the lake and knows it must be Louis. He writes in his journal: "Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan." ===== The player takes the role of Prince Ali, who has discovered a buried gold "armlet" which once belonged to a wizard who waged a long war against the evil wielder of a silver armlet. The silver armlet was used to create chaos and destruction, while the gold armlet had the power to summon four spirits: the water spirit, "Dytto"; the fire spirit, "Efreet"; the shadow spirit, "Shade"; and the plant spirit, "Bow". Ali travels the land of Oasis, gradually acquiring the ability to summon all these spirits, in an attempt to stop the person who has discovered the ancient silver armlet and is once again using it for evil. ===== Veidt portrays a successful violinist, Paul Körner, who falls in love with one of his male students. A sleazy extortionist threatens to expose Körner as a homosexual. Flashbacks show us how Körner became aware of his orientation and tried first to change it, then to understand it. Körner and the extortionist end up in court, where the judge is sympathetic to the violinist, but when the scandal becomes public, Körner's career is ruined and he is driven to suicide. The film opens with Paul Körner (Conrad Veidt), a successful violinist reading the daily newspaper obituaries, which are filled with vaguely worded and seemingly inexplicable suicides. Körner, however, knows that Paragraph 175 is hidden behind them all—that it hangs over German homosexuals "like the Sword of Damocles." After this thesis statement, the main plot begins. Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz) is a fan and admirer of Körner and approaches him in hopes of becoming a student of his. Körner agrees, and they begin lessons together, during which they fall for one another. Both men experience the disapproval of their parents. Neither are out, but Sivers's parents object to the increasingly large amount of attention he focuses on the violin and his unusual infatuation with Körner, and the Körners do not understand why he has shown no interest in finding a wife and starting a family. Körner sends his parents to see his mentor, the Doctor (Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld). The Doctor appears several times in the film, each time to deliver speeches more intended for the audience than the advancement of the plot. In this, his first appearance, he tells Körner's parents: After Körner's coming out, he and Sivers begin seeing each other more openly. While walking together, hand in hand, through the park, they pass a man who recognizes Körner. Later that day, when Körner is alone, this man, Franz Bollek (Reinhold Schünzel) confronts him and demands hush money or else he will expose Sivers. Körner pays him and keeps it a secret from Sivers that he does so. Eventually, however, the blackmailer's demands become too great and Körner refuses to pay (Bollek reads Körner's reply to his demand in a gay bar). Bollek decides instead to break into Körner's house while he and Sivers are performing, but he is discovered by Sivers and Körner on their return and a fight breaks out. In the course of the fight, Bollek reveals to Sivers that he has been blackmailing him. Sivers runs away and faces hardships trying to survive alone. Körner is left dejected and, over a photo of Sivers, remembers his past. His first memory is of boarding school, when he and his boyfriend Max are discovered kissing by their teacher and he is expelled. Next, he remembers University and his solitary and lonely life there, and the growing impossibility of trying to play straight. alt=Thin, intense young man and mustachioed older one, looking at each other He remembers trying an ex-gay hypnotherapist, but finding him only to be a charlatan. Then he first met the Doctor, whose reaction was much different from those he had previously met. Among other things, he told him: Remembering further, he recalled first meeting Bollek at a gay dance hall, and Bollek leading him on before ultimately turning on him and using his homosexuality to blackmail him. Back in the present, Körner takes Else Sivers (Anita Berber), Kurt Sivers' sister, to the Doctor's lecture on alternative sexuality. The Doctor speaks on topics such as homosexuality, lesbianism, gender identity, intersexuality, the perils of stereotypes, and the idea that sexuality is physically determined, rather than a mental condition. Enlightened by the presentation, Else renounces her wish for a relationship with Körner and instead pledges her friendship and support. Körner reports Bollek for blackmail and has him arrested. In retaliation, Bollek exposes Körner. The Doctor gives testimony on Körner's behalf, but both are found guilty of their respective crimes. Bollek is sentenced to three years for extortion. The judge is sympathetic to Körner, and gives him the minimum sentence allowable: one week. Allowed to go home before starting his term, Körner finds himself shunned by friends and strangers alike, and no longer employable. Even his family tells him there is only one honorable way out. He then takes a handful of pills, committing suicide. Sivers rushes to his side as he lies dead. Körner's parents blame Sivers for what has happened, but Else harshly rebukes them. Meanwhile, Sivers attempts to kill himself as well, but the Doctor prevents him and delivers his final speech: The film closes with an open German law book, turned to Paragraph 175, as a hand holding a brush crosses it out. ===== Bart and Milhouse have to remain inside The Simpsons house when an ozone hole moves over Springfield. The two dress up as ladies and jump on the bed, singing "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves". When Homer comes in abruptly, Bart falls off of the bed and lands on one of Homer's bowling balls and breaks his coccyx. Dr. Hibbert informs Homer and Marge that Bart will have to use a wheelchair until the bone has healed. When Bart arrives at Springfield Elementary School the following day, he finds that he cannot enter because the school lacks ramps for the disabled. As Principal Skinner considers a ramp for the school, mafia boss Fat Tony emerges and suggests that his construction company would be a good choice of company to build it. Although the new ramp system almost immediately collapses (due to it being made out of bread sticks), Fat Tony informs Skinner that the construction supposedly cost US$200,000 and that the school will still have to pay. In response, Principal Skinner decides to close Springfield Elementary due to lack of funds (having used them to pay off Fat Tony and thus avoid brutal mob reprisals). All pleas for financial help are in vain, including a private school play performed in front of Mr. Burns at his mansion, until Jim Hope, the president of a company named Kid First Industries, buys the school and privatizes it. The school's staff is replaced, and classes now focus on toys and marketing. Lisa soon discovers that the company that bought Springfield Elementary is a toy company, using students for research to make a new popular toy in time for the Christmas shopping season. She is then frightened by the appearance of a robotic figure. When Bart and Lisa are back at home, watching television, they see an advertisement for a toy named Funzo. It has many features suggested by Springfield Elementary students during a brainstorming session at the school. They visit Jim Hope's office to complain, and he apologetically gives them a free Funzo toy. Bart and Lisa later discover that Funzo is programmed to destroy other toys. On Christmas Eve, with Homer's help, the two steal all the Funzo toys from underneath every Christmas tree in Springfield with the intention of burning them in the town's long-running tire fire. However, Gary Coleman, who is a security guard at Kid First Industries, comes to stop them. The two parties argue all night until the next morning when they settle down into civilized discussion about the commercialization of Christmas. Coleman changes his opinion about the toy company and helps the Simpsons destroy the remaining functioning Funzo toys that were not destroyed in the tire fire. Afterwards, Homer invites Coleman to Christmas dinner at the Simpson family's house, where Mr. Burns shows up after deciding to donate money to Springfield Elementary following an epiphany he had that night and Moe joined in after being renounced from committing suicide via visions of what life would have been like without him. ===== After viewing an advertisement on TV, the family visits the 1950s-themed Greasers Cafe where Homer and Marge win a dancing contest. Their prize is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, awarded by "Wolfguy Jack" just 3 days before the restaurant goes out of business. After Homer learns how to a motorcycle from Bart and enjoys it, he forms an outlaw motorcycle club named the Hell's Satans with Moe, Lenny, Carl, and even Ned Flanders, even though Ned rides a bicycle, Carl rides a Vespa, Lenny rides a lawnmower, and Moe's motorcycle is old. They get in trouble all across Springfield, until Homer is confronted by a Bakersfield outlaw motorcycle club named the Hell's Satans, and forced to eat all his Hell's Satans apparel for using their name. The rival group, led by two men named Meathook and Ramrod, start living at the Simpson house, generally being destructive and intimidating the Simpson family. Fortunately, Marge is able to clean up after the gang and take care of them, which they come to appreciate. One day, the Hell's Satans leave and take Marge with them, later assuring her she is safe because none of them find her sexually attractive, much to her own relief and subsequent sadness. Homer tracks them down to a campsite, where he fights with Meathook and wins back Marge. The two of them say goodbye to the gang, who plan to take advice given to them by Marge and find normal jobs. Homer returns with Marge to a biker bar where he had earlier been repeatedly beaten up, and leaves with a Duff keg. ===== George, Lizzie, and Ralph have been released due to an explosion at a Scumlabs facility. The trio begin to destroy all of Scumlabs' bases scattered throughout the world and kill its employees. In the last levels, Scumlabs CEO Eustace DeMonic turns himself into a monster in an attempt to combat George, Lizzie, and Ralph, but is defeated during a battle on a lunar base. After this, the only surviving Scumlabs employee Dr. Elizabeth Veronica tries to disintegrate the monsters with a ray gun on her spaceship, but it only shrinks them to a miniature size, and they wind up inside her ship. George and Ralph pose on the shelves, while Lizzie bounces atop of Veronica's breasts (though the latter portion is censored on home ports). ===== The family visits Shøp, a store based on Ikea, and decides to go to the food court. There, they meet Apu and Manjula. They say that they would like to have a baby. They eventually do, and Manjula gives birth to octuplets with the help of fertility drugs, given by the Simpsons and Apu. It makes headlines across Springfield, with local companies giving the Nahasapeemapetilons free products. However, their feat is eclipsed when a family in Shelbyville give birth to nine babies. With the discovery, the gifts are revoked. Apu and Manjula swiftly find they are not up to the task of raising eight kids all at once. Later, Apu is met by the sleazy owner of the Springfield Zoo, a man named Larry Kidkill. Kidkill offers to put Apu's children in a nursery. Although Apu is not open to the idea at first, he caves in and reluctantly accepts. The children are the stars of a show at the zoo named "Octopia", but Apu is not impressed and he wants to liberate his children from the zoo's owner, but Kidkill will not let them because they are under contract. Apu and Homer sneak into the zoo at night to rescue the octuplets. Unfortunately, Homer accidentally wakes up the nanny, who sounds the alarm. They quickly rush the octuplets to the Simpson household only for Kidkill to track them there. Homer manages to negotiate that he perform at the zoo through a new contract with a new act. After Kidkill refuses his original act (which was Homer prancing around in a monkey suit), he goes to his second plan; an act where he rides a tricycle with Butch Patrick on his shoulders, both of them dressed as Eddie Munster, on a stage as both are being attacked by cobras (some real, some animatronic snakes packed with venom). Inspired by Homer's example, Apu and Manjula resolve that they can take care of their kids, while Homer is mercilessly attacked by several of the snakes and a mongoose put in to contain them. ===== In a small town in the South, Sheriff Track Bascomb breaks up a crowd of black and white men molesting a black woman. He visits Breck Stancill, a local land owner who is politically liberal. White woman Nancy Poteet is sexually assaulted and beaten by a black man. Sheriff Track Bascomb tries to find the guilty party while Ku Klux Klan members – including Bascomb's deputy, Butt Cutt Cates – take matters into their own hands. Members of the Klan – not wearing their uniform – approach a bar frequented by blacks. They chase after two men, one of whom is Garth. Garth escapes but his associate is captured, castrated and shot by the Klan. Loretta Sykes, a black girl who grew up in the town, returns home. She is approached by members of the civil rights movement. They try to get Breck Stancill involved. Nancy Poteet's husband leaves her and she finds herself an outcast in the town. She is befriended by Stancill. Garth dresses up as a Klansman and kills one of the vigilante gang who killed his friend. At a funeral for the dead man, held by the Klan, Garth shoots another Klansman from a tree. ===== When Marge is cleaning out the attic and looking for old things to send away to charity, Homer and the children refuse to let her, prompting Marge to look at all the junk she is trying to get rid of. She shows Homer several skis he never used since buying them after the Nagano Olympics. To spite Marge, he decides to use them, so the family go on a skiing trip. When they are there, Marge decides that she wants to avoid skiing or snowboarding for fear of injury, which makes her stay at the ski lodge. Ironically, she winds up breaking her leg here when a loose-hanging cuckoo clock falls on it. She is sent to the hospital where she is told that she must stay there until her cast is removed. In the meantime, Lisa offers to take her place, making a structured plan for Homer and Bart to do some of the chores, which Lisa chooses through a chore hat. Unfortunately, Homer and Bart do them in an extremely apathetic, ineffective, sandy-eyed manner. Marge is enjoying her time in the hospital, due to getting a massage, among other things. The lazy lifestyles of Homer and Bart have taken their toll on the house, which is now a disorganized, filthy hovel with trash, and Lisa struggling to make ends meet. She eventually calls Marge and asks if she can return, but Marge, who enjoys the lifestyle of lying all day in bed not working, lies to Lisa saying she is still too injured to come back. Lisa, angered and desperate for answers, sees the ghost of Lucille Ball, who has an idea to get revenge. She suggests that she pull a clever trick on Homer and Bart while they are asleep. She does just that, using green poster paint mixed with oatmeal on the men. The next morning, Homer and Bart are horrified to find what they think are sores all over their bodies. After a Virtual Doctor computer program diagnoses Homer and Bart with leprosy, they panic and decide to visit Ned Flanders in search of a cure. Ned sends Homer and Bart to a leper colony in Hawaii, where they will receive electric needle treatment and sanded. Once Marge's cast has finally come off, she comes home to see Lisa finally finished cleaning the entire house. They decide to seek out Homer and Bart in Hawaii. When they arrive, Lisa admits that she only played a trick on Homer and Bart, though they already know the leprosy is fake because Homer ate one of its sores and found it tasty; however, the whole family wants to stay there on account of it being a "free vacation", despite Homer and Bart suffering through the painful treatments. ===== Homer receives a letter from Springfield University inviting him to an upcoming reunion party, where Dean Bobby Peterson reveals it is actually a fundraiser for the college's football team and forcibly takes all of the attendees' money. As revenge, Homer decides to pull a prank on Dean Peterson with his old nerd friends, Benjamin, Doug, and Gary. He tries to put a bucket filled with glue on the Dean's head, but another fraternity had already hung another bucket full of glue over the door; it falls on Homer's head, and he cannot get it off. He tries to drive with holes cut in the bucket over his eyes, but he drives the family off course -- to a religious revival, hosted by a faith healer named Brother Faith, where Bart pulls the bucket off Homer's head. Brother Faith considers this act a sign that Bart has "the power" of healing. Lisa is skeptical and attempts to use reason to explain that the hot stage lights heated the metal bucket, causing the glue to liquefy and thus loosen, while at the same time expanding the bucket and allowing Bart to pull it off. Undaunted, Bart becomes a faith healer, pulls miracles of his own, and even forms his own church which massively outdraws Reverend Lovejoy's congregation on its first day of operation. There, Bart heals Springfield's residents (when in fact, his demonstrations for the day consist of punching Grandpa in his paining artificial hip, Professor Frink where he had been suffering a cramp in his back, and slapping Patty's cigarette out of her mouth). The church is cut short, however, when Milhouse is run down, though not fatally, after he mistakes an oncoming truck for a dog; Bart had "healed" him of his myopia during his revival meeting by knocking his glasses off his face. Subsequently, Bart decides to end his career as a faith healer. Meanwhile, Homer prepares for Springfield University's homecoming football game by building a float that he has fashioned out of flowers he has stolen from Ned Flanders. At the game, everyone cheers for S.U.'s football team's star player, a kicker named Anton Lubchenko. Homer gets drunk and forgets he has made a float to celebrate SU. He crowd surfs down to the playing field, and runs to his float. Unfortunately, the other floats have left the field and the players have come back on. Homer drives his float over the leg of Lubchenko, horribly wounding him. Fat Tony, who had bet a substantial amount of money on Lubchenko's performance, threatens to kill Homer with an ice pick if Lubchenko does not return to the game. Homer convinces Bart to try to heal the kicker. Bart prays to God to help him heal the kicker. With his team down by two points, Lubchenko returns to the game and kicks the winning field goal, losing his leg in the process. Bart announces at the end of the game that he now knows that he does not have special powers and so is not a healer. Dr. Hibbert tells Bart he is happy with this: "Fine, more money for me." ===== The book is a hard science fiction dystopian novel set in 2154, a time when machines and robots perform most jobs and children go to government schools. Because of this, very few people are employed, with many people living on a social welfare system for support. The unemployed people have nothing to look forward to, except various illicit drugs. Some have formed gangs, some are shown to be agitating for political reform (in chapter 5, there is a reference to leaflets being printed up), and many are involved in organized crime of some form or another. The government, possibly the only government in existence at this point, is shown to have complete control over its citizens by restricting the unemployed to designated areas (DAs), and having similar control over the working class. The working-class people are taught to hate the unemployed citizens, while the unemployed generally want money and employment, in a classic class struggle. The story is told from the perspective of Lisse, a recent graduate of school. ===== Lieutenant Commander Charlie Madison (James Garner), United States Naval Reserve, is a cynical and highly efficient adjutant to Rear Admiral William Jessup (Melvyn Douglas) in London in 1944. Charlie's job as a dog robber is to keep his boss and other high-ranking officers supplied with luxury goods and amiable Englishwomen. He falls in love with a driver from the motor pool, Emily Barham (Julie Andrews), who has lost her husband, brother, and father in the war. Charlie's pleasure-seeking "American" lifestyle amid wartime rationing both fascinates and disgusts Emily, but she does not want to lose another loved one to war and finds the "practising coward" Charlie irresistible. Profoundly despondent since the death of his wife, Jessup obsesses over the US Army and its Air Force overshadowing the Navy in the forthcoming D-Day invasion. The mentally unstable admiral decides that "The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor". A combat film will document the death, and the casualty will be buried in a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor". He orders Charlie to get the film made. Despite his best efforts to avoid the duty, Charlie and his now gung-ho friend, Commander "Bus" Cummings (James Coburn), find themselves and a film crew with the combat engineers, who will be the first sailors ashore. When Charlie tries to retreat from the beach, the manic Cummings shoots him in the leg with a Colt .45 pistol. A German artillery shell lands near the limping-running Charlie, making him the first American casualty on Omaha Beach. Hundreds of newspaper and magazine covers reprint the photograph of Charlie running ashore, alone (in reality trying to escape from Cummings), making him a war hero. Jessup, having recovered from his breakdown, is horrified by his part in Charlie's death. He plans to use the heroic death in support of the Navy when testifying before a Senate committee in Washington, D.C. Losing another man she loves to the war devastates Emily. Then comes unexpected news: Charlie is not dead, but alive at the Allied 6th relocation center in Southampton, England. A relieved Jessup plans to show him off during his Senate testimony as the "first man on Omaha Beach", a sailor. Charlie, limping from his injury and angry about his senseless near-death, uncharacteristically plans to act nobly by telling the world the truth about what happened, even if it means being imprisoned for cowardice. By recounting what he had told her previously, Emily persuades Charlie to choose happiness with her, instead, and to keep quiet and accept his role as a hero. ===== At the annual Springfield Pride Awards hosted by Kent Brockman and Britney Spears, awards are given to prominent Springfield citizens for their achievements. They present the award for the oldest man in Springfield to Cornelius Chapman, who is 108 years old. Chapman comes up to accept his award, but when Spears gives him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek, he dies of a heart attack. The award is therefore given to the now oldest Springfieldian in the crowd, Mr. Burns. After Burns wins, he realizes he is not a young man anymore, so he and his assistant Smithers go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for a check-up. Burns decides to give the Simpson family an opportunity to house sit his private mansion while he is being tested for various diseases. After enjoying life as a billionaire for a few days, Homer decides to throw a party before Burns returns. He heads to Moe's Tavern to buy some beer and invite his friends to the party. However, Moe informs Homer that he can not sell him alcohol on account of it being Sunday before 2:00 PM. After Homer is told the only way he could buy alcohol would be to sail out to international waters where there are no laws, he and his friends (including his son Bart) set sail in Burns' private yacht to throw the party there. Back at the Mayo Clinic, Burns discovers that he not only has all previously discovered diseases, but numerous new diseases the doctors have just discovered in him. However, the sheer number of diseases prevents any one disease from actually doing harm to him. This leads Burns to (incorrectly) conclude that he is indestructible, even though the doctors protest that even a slight breeze could disrupt the balance in his body. Meanwhile, the party continues and the party goers force Burns' monkeys into having a knife fight. The yacht is eventually boarded by Chinese pirates who take the ship hostage. The pirates rob everyone on board and tie them up in a net which they then toss overboard. But to the luck of Homer and some of the other guests who happen to be above ocean surface level, it floats and they avoid drowning while the others who were beneath the net drowned. Eventually Homer and Bart make it back to the mansion where the family returns the house to Burns after Marge and Lisa have scrubbed all the rooms clean. Back at the Simpsons home, everyone is glad to live a normal life again—with the exception of Homer, who is upset that he does not live the lifestyle of rich people. The episode ends with Homer wailing about how rich all the persons in the closing credits are (except Richard K. Chung, whom he dismisses as poor) and threatening to report them to the Internal Revenue Service and telling the Gracie Films woman not to shush him. ===== The prisoner Nemov, apparently the story's hero, is an honest man serving a term of 10 years for violations of Article 58. At the play's start, Nemov is the production chief of his work group and is later replaced by, Prisoner Engineer Khomich. One of the play's clear recurring themes is the idea that Nemov's honesty is worthless in the face of the realities of camp life. All of the characters who prosper in the play can only do so by means of moral compromises. The most accessible and traditional plot element is the romance between the two prisoners Nemov (the "innocent" of the title) and Lyuba (the "love-girl"). Nemov learns that Lyuba is having sex with the camp doctor Mereshchun in exchange for better food and living conditions. When Nemov demands that she stop seeing Mereshchun, Lyuba refuses and a conflict arises. This lovers' conflict does not arise until almost the end of the play, in the final scene of Act III. Their dilemma is apparently resolved in the very brief Act IV, at the end of which an injured and dejected Nemov watches Lyuba enter Mereshchun's office yet again. The title of the play suggests that the romance of Nemov and Lyuba is meant to be the central plot element, but the romance occupies relatively little stage time. Most of the play is spent in developing the characters of Nemov and Lyuba as they live and work in total ignorance of each other, and in exploring the realities of camp life. Much of the play develops characters and situations that have little or nothing at all to do with the specifics of the romance. Category:1969 plays Category:Plays by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Category:Plays set in the Gulag ===== A horrified Stan announces to Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and Butters that Trent Boyett, a notorious bully from their preschool years, is being released from juvenile hall after a five-year sentence. In a flashback set five years previously, the boys play "fireman", a game in which they put out a fire by urinating on it. Wanting to put out an actual fire, they ask Trent to start one. However, the fire soon gets out of control and their teacher, Miss Claridge, is badly burned. Instead of going the easier way by saying that the fire was an accident, explaining how Miss Claridge got injured, and risking getting into trouble, the four boys immediately place the sole blame on Trent. Trent attempts to have Butters defend him, but Butters refuses to say what really happened out of fear of getting in trouble with his parents. Trent is sentenced to juvenile hall. Now that Trent is free, he seeks revenge. For knowing of Trent's innocence, but not defending him, Butters ends up in the hospital after sustaining a number of childhood pranks. The boys know that this is Trent's way of sending a warning to them and ask the sixth- graders for protection from him, which they will give them in exchange for a photo of Stan's mother's breasts (which are actually Cartman's buttocks with nipples drawn on with a black Sharpie, using Madonna’s book SEX as a guide). After Trent dispatches all of the sixth-graders, sending them to the hospital, the boys ask Stan's sister, Shelley, to defend them. She softens her usually- mean stance against them when she sees how truly terrified of Trent her brother is, but she only agrees to help them on the condition that they confess to Miss Claridge what really happened five years ago. The boys meet Miss Claridge, who now must use a futuristic machine to get around and beep a single light on it one time to say yes and two times to say no, and attempt to confess about what happened five years ago, but Trent arrives to confront them before they can. Cartman takes out his mother's taser and fires it at Trent. But the electrodes land on Miss Claridge's electoral chair instead, causing it to crash into a propane shop, creating an explosion that destroys the shop and sets Miss Claridge on fire and crashes into a pet shop. The police arrive and ask Miss Claridge if Trent caused this. She replies "no" with two beeps, but the police misinterpret the two beeps to mean "yes, yes" and arrest Trent. The boys, having learned nothing from the experience, make the same mistake they made five years earlier, claiming that they were not involved with the incident at all. Trent is taken away, with Cartman taunting him with his buttocks. However, the sixth-graders, having been newly released from the hospital, come upon Cartman and see the "breasts" on his buttocks while he is mocking Trent. They mistake his rear end for actual breasts and carry him off to pleasure themselves to the very sight of them, with Cartman interjecting in slight panic. ===== In the first act, Scipio appears with his generals in the Roman camp before Numantia. He explains that this war has been going on for many years and that the Roman Senate has sent him to finish the task. He reprimands his troops, whose martial spirit has begun to be superseded by the pleasures of Venus and Bacchus. The soldiers are re-inspired with courage. Numantian ambassadors enter with proposals for peace, which are rejected. The Greek Chorus, in Cervantes' work is replaced by allegorical figures. Spain appears, and she summons the river Duero, on whose banks Numantia stands. The old river god appears, attended by a retinue of the deities of the smaller rivers of the surrounding country. These allegorical characters consult fate, in the guise of Proteus and discover that Numantia cannot be saved. The lengthy speech dealing with Spanish history has been taken as a moment of praise for the future Spanish empire,Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, Nuevos deslindes cervantinos.Barcelona: Ariel, 1976; Francisco Vivar, "El ideal pro patria mori en La Numancia de Cervantes," Cervantes 20.2 (2000):7-30 and as containing elements that question imperial expansionism.Frederick A. de Armas, Cervantes, Raphael and the Classics.pp. 116-35. In Act Two, the scene is now transferred to Numantia. The senate is assembled to deliberate on the affairs of the city. The senate adopts bold resolutions. The story moves into light redondillas - the loves of a young Numantian, named Marandro for Lira. Although Venus is invoked, Marandro assures his friend Leoncio that true love (as opposed to Roman lust) does not impede his duties as citizen and soldier.Veronica Ryjic, "Mujer, Alegoria e imperio en el drama de Miguel de Cervantes El cerco de Numancia" Anales cervantinos38 (2006):203-19. A solemn sacrifice is prepared; but amidst the ceremony an evil spirit appears, seizes the sacrificial ram, and extinguishes the fire. The confusion in the town increases. A dead man is resuscitated by magic in a dramatic scene reminiscent of the necromantic revivification by the witch Erichto in the Pharsalia. In the third act, all hope for a successful resolution of the dispute between Romans and Numantians has now vanished. While the men would go out and fight the Romans in the field rather than die of hunger in the siege, the women of the play prevent them from doing this. It is they who recommend a mass suicide, for, in this manner, they will not become enslaved to the Romans. It is the women, then, who impel Theagenes to carry out this fatal action, thus playing a key role in the tragic denouement.Veronica Ryjik, "Mujer, Alegoria e imperio en el drama de Miguel de Cervantes El cerco de Numancia, pp 212-15. The city resolves to burn all their valuable property, to put their wives and children to death, and to throw themselves into the flames, lest any of the inhabitants of the town should become the slaves of the Romans. Scenes of domestic misery and of patriotism ensue. Famine rages in Numantia. Marandro, accompanied by his friend, Leoncio, ventures to enter the Roman camp. The tragic denouement ensues in Act Four. Here, Marandro returns with some bread smeared with blood in order to feed Lira, but he falls at her feet mortally wounded, foregrounding the theme of sacrifice.William M. Whitby, "The Sacrifice Theme in Cervantes' Numancia," Hispania, 45.2 (1962): 205-10. Scenes of destruction and mass suicide ensue, as men kill their women and then turn the sword on themselves or duel with each other. The allegorical figures of War, Sickness and Hunger take over the stage in an apocalyptic ambiance.Brian N. Stiegler, "The Coming of the New Jerusalem: Apocalyptic Vision in Cervantes' La Numancia," Neophilologus, 80.4 (1996): 569-81. When Bariato, the last youth left alive, commits suicide by throwing himself from a tower, the Roman general realizes that he cannot go home with slaves and spoil, and that the small city of Numantia has triumphed over the power of the Romans. His lament signals for some critics the final catastrophe and his role as tragic hero. His hubris and desire for domination rather than negotiation has brought him to his knees. The allegorical figure of Fame enters at the end of the piece, and announces the future glory of Spain, a great power that will rise out of the ashes of Numantia like the phoenix. ===== ===== Aliens from the communist planet of Rooskee are invading peaceful, democratic planets and turning their inhabitants into "Communist Mutants." The communist mutant armies are controlled by the Mother Creature, a strange alien who has gone mad due to irradiated vodka. ===== In the future, while Elroy is busy working on a time machine, George Jetson comes to Mr. Spacely's office for a serious discussion. Spacely's rival, Cogswell, has been stealing Spacely's business ideas - putting their jobs in jeopardy. Spacely wrongfully blames George - suspecting that he was spying for Cogswell. Spacely orders George to spy on Cogswell to clear his name to avoid getting fired. George finds out that Cogswell's robot computer, S.A.R.A., has been seducing the Spacely robot computer, R.U.D.I., into leaking Mr. Spacely's secrets. George tries to report this to Spacely, but R.U.D.I. sabotages his efforts. In the Stone Age, Wilma and Betty are trying to convince Fred Flintstone to have their vacation in Honolurock (Honolulu), but Fred ignores their advances. Later, at work, Fred tells Barney Rubble that he plans to take the girls someplace better. He tells Barney that a poker tournament is being held at the Water Buffalo lodge and wants to go, but Mr. Slate shows up and tells them that due to their going on vacation, they must work the late shift because Turk Tarpit, Slate's business rival and nemesis, has been outproducing them. Fred and Barney later disobey Slate's orders and go to the poker tournament. However, after seeing that Slate is playing there too, they disguise themselves. Fred plays against Slate but loses. A spider exposes Barney - and ultimately Fred. Furious that they deceived and disobeyed him, Slate fires Fred and Barney. Back in the future, Elroy completes his time machine. The Jetsons decide to use it to take a trip to the 25th century to relax. Right before Elroy gets the machine working, his dog, Astro, accidentally sets the switch to "Past." With no job, the Flintstones and Rubbles are forced to settle for a camping holiday. As Fred and Barney set up the tent, the Jetsons arrive from the future. Fred and George eventually communicate, and the families become friends. Fred is amazed by George's futuristic gadgets and decides to use them to help Mr. Slate in a competition at the upcoming company picnic. Fred introduces George to Slate - claiming that George is a distant cousin. Slate is reluctant at first to trust George, but since rival businessman Turk Tarpit's cheating has set him back, Slate accepts their help in exchange for giving them their jobs back. George and Fred use future technology to help Slate win several games, but in the last event, Astro's and Dino's actions causes Tarpit to become the winner. In the end, Slate once again fires Fred and Barney. While Mr. Spacely continues to vent over his failing business, Henry Orbit and Rosie the Robot Maid assemble a "time machine retriever" to bring the Jetsons back. But when they turn it on, the time machine returns with the Flintstones instead. Upon seeing they really are cavemen, Spacely introduces them to the press. Stuck in the past, George asks Mr. Slate for a job. Slate initially rejects, but when Tarpit offers George work, Slate immediately makes George his partner, and George soon becomes famous. Using their newfound fame and riches, the Jetsons buy multiple local businesses and are soon overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Mr. Spacely makes Fred the spokesman for his company, but R.U.D.I. leaks this information to S.A.R.A. When Spacely is introducing Fred to some important investors, Cogswell introduces Barney instead - leading to a rift in Fred's and Barney's friendship. Meanwhile, Rosie requests R.U.D.I. to help Henry and her try to fix the time machine to find the Jetsons. S.A.R.A. appears and demands that R.U.D.I. get rid of Rosie before she departs, but R.U.D.I. agrees to do whatever he can to get the Jetsons back and leaves S.A.R.A. for good. They fix the time machine, and Rosie is transported to the Stone Age where she finds her family. Now able to return home, the Jetsons leave, taking Fred's car with them, after Judy says goodbye to a teen idol - Iggy. Mr. Spacely concocts a plan to use Fred's car as a model for futuristic replicas. Cogswell sends his robotic dog, Sentro, to steal this information since S.A.R.A. is no longer useful when she tells him that R.U.D.I. broke up with her and told her off. The two families manage to stop Sentro - destroying the evidence he had collected. Spacely's business of selling Stone Age style cars becomes successful, and he even agrees to sell one to Cogswell - but not without warning Cogswell that if he copies any part of it, Spacely will sue him and take over his business. Fred and Barney repair their friendship, Spacely lets George keep his job, and George offers his partnership with Mr. Slate to Fred and Barney to give them their jobs back. Just as they are about to leave for home, Elroy tells them the time machine is broken and cannot be repaired. Fortunately, they are able to return to the Stone Age because Fred's car absorbed the time machine's "quadrapotents." The Flintstones and the Rubbles then bid a fond farewell to the Jetsons and are sent back to the Stone Age. ===== On his way to Queen Iris's masquerade ball in honor of Trent's accession to the throne one year before, Bink is attacked by a floating sword, which he deflects using his talent of protection against magical harm. At the ball, he is attacked again by an unseen enemy. Finally, Bink confides in King Trent, who decides to remove Bink from harm's way by sending him out on a mission to find the source of magic of Xanth. To help him, King Trent sends Chester the Centaur and the soldier Crombie. Crombie is turned into a griffin by King Trent, whose magical talent is the ability to transform living things. First, the party heads to the Good Magician Humfrey's castle, to ask his advice about their quest. When they tell him they are attempting to discover Xanth's source of magic, Humfrey decides he wants to come as well. They come across Beauregard the Demon who tells them they should abandon their quest, as it could result in the destruction of all magic in Xanth. At this time they also find Grundy the Golem, whose talent is understanding any language. This is particularly useful because Crombie in griffin form can only speak in squawks, which Grundy is able to translate. On their quest, they meet many obstacles, including a Siren, a Gorgon whose face turns men to stone, madness itself, a dragon, tangle trees, and an ogre. Bink narrowly escapes all enemies through a series of seemingly circumstantial events, due to his talent. Eventually they find the source of magic - a demon named X(A/N)th imprisoned deep below the surface. Bink is faced with a moral dilemma, to let it be free and destroy all magic in Xanth and act against the Brain Coral, or to keep it against its will. He eventually lets the magic go by freeing the demon, but is convinced by Cherie Centaur to go back and look for the demon again, hoping to convince it to stay. After some negotiation, the demon agrees under the condition that the magic shield which separated Xanth from Mundania will protect him from foolish intruders. Upon Bink's return home, he discovers his son Dor possesses a magician caliber talent - he can talk to inanimate objects. ===== Dor, son of Bink, is a 12-year-old magician and next in line to inherit the throne of Xanth. To teach him the skills he will need to rule the kingdom, King Trent sends him through the tapestry on a mission 800 years into Xanth's past to find the ancient and mysterious Zombie Master. Dor travels to the past via the magic tapestry of Castle Roogna and inhabits the body of an invading mundane barbarian. While in the past Dor is accompanied by a (not normally) giant spider named Jumper, who had been drawn into the tapestry with him, and meets his current governess Millie the ghost, a short time before her unfortunate demise. Dor must use his magic and every other resource he possesses to help beat back an invading wave of mundanes and find a way to restore Millie's zombie lover to life back in the present. ===== Night Mare centres around Mare Imbrium, one of the night mares charged with delivering bad dreams to the people of Xanth. Imbri carries half a soul, her fee for carrying Chem Centaur out of the void in the previous book. She is unwilling to relinquish her soul, though the conscience that comes with it impedes her ability to deliver bad dreams. The Night Stallion, ruler of the gourd realm, makes Imbri the liaison to the day world and sends her to meet Trent, King of Xanth, with the message, "Beware the Horseman". Imbri leaves the gourd realm and sets out for Castle Roogna with her warning. Along the way she meets a white stallion, which she calls the day horse, with a brass bracelet around one leg, who is scared by her attempt at contact via a brief daydream, and runs away. She also meets an intelligent man wearing a brass bracelet, similar to that of the day horse. He asks her if she has seen the horse and convinces her to allow him to ride her so they can track it. She allows him to insert a bit into her mouth, but dislikes it and asks him to remove it. He refuses and uses spurs on her, capturing her. Imbri asks the man who he is, and he says "I am the Horseman". He then corrals her at his camp and builds a large bonfire to shine light on her and prevent her from turning intangible during the night. As the Horseman and his henchmen sleep, the day horse approaches. She tells him of her plight, and he affirms that he is terrified of the Horseman, but assists her anyway by urinating on the fire and enabling her to escape. Imbri makes her way to Castle Roogna. She arrives in time to witness the elopement of Prince Dor and King Trent's daughter, Princess Irene. Upon becoming acquainted with Chameleon, the wife of Bink and mother of Prince Dor, she is led to find King Trent, only to discover that he has been ensorcelled, staring blankly into space. Prince Dor, next in line to the crown and newly wed to Princess Irene, assumes the throne. He informs Imbri and others that the Nextwave Invasion is occurring; an army of barbarians from the neighbouring, non-magical land of Mundania has just entered Xanth. King Dor orders Imbri and Chameleon to seek advice from the Good Magician Humphrey. Imbri and Chameleon travel to Humphrey's castle and navigate through the standard three challenges, gaining access to the inside. The old man casually repeats the Night Stallion's warning, "Beware the Horseman" and adds another cryptic instruction: "Break the chain." After battling the Mundanes with King Trent's army from A Spell For Chameleon, Dor falls to the same ensorcellement as King Trent. Since the law of Xanth requires that a Magician sit on the throne, the Zombie Master (Jonathon) becomes the new king. Jonathan's magic talent is to reanimate the deceased, and he rallies his zombies to form an army to fight the Punic invasion from Mundania, but falls to the same bewitchment as Trent and Dor. Humphrey assumes the throne, and prepares himself for battle against the Punic horde and its leader Hasbinbad. He informs Imbri, much to the chagrin of the Gorgon, that he is not destined to be the saviour of Xanth, and that he expects to make a tragic mistake in battle. Before departing to the battle, Humphrey identifies his successor: Dor's father Bink, whom everybody assumed had no magic talent. Humphrey reveals to Queen Iris that Bink's talent is immunity from magical harm. It is hoped Bink will be immune from the effects of the Horseman's spell. Imbri is sent north to the border of Mundania, where Bink and the centaur scholar Arnolde are traveling. Imbri brings news to Bink and Arnolde of the invasion, and informs Bink of the situation. Bink agrees to return with Imbri and instructs Arnolde to follow, as he is next in the line of succession. Bink and Imbri travel to the baobab tree and find Humphrey, taken by the power of the enemy. He has a bottle in his hand, and when Bink uncorks it, Humphrey's voice emits from it, with one word: "Horseman". Bink surmises that Humphrey's voice was identifying his assailant, and that they now know who was ensorcelling the kings. Bink and Imbri prepare for battle alone, armed with Humphrey's numerous spells and potions. They set aside a box marked "Pandora". He and Imbri are victorious but are separated in the battle. When Imbri tracks down Bink, she finds that he has killed the Punic leader Hasbinbad, but has been taken with the Horseman's power nonetheless. Imbri returns to Castle Roogna to inform Arnolde the Centaur that he is now King of Xanth. Arnolde begins laying plans for his successor, and he interprets Xanthian law to his advantage. The law states that the king must be a Magician but had no precedence on whether the king had to be human or what sex. Arnolde states that a Sorceress is simply a female Magician, and that the law does not prohibit a woman from becoming king. He selects Queen Iris to be his successor, and he proclaims her daughter Irene to be a full Sorceress, thus establishing who would be the seventh and eights kings after him. Arnolde then instructs Imbri to report to the Night Stallion with an update. King Arnolde, realising that the previous king's condition is similar to that of a person trapped by the hypno gourd, sends Imbri through, to the Night Stallion's dimension, to see if the missing Kings are within. Upon arrival, Imbri is amazed to learn that all five of the bewitched kings are present in the gourd. They surmise that the Horseman's magic talent is to connect a person's line of sight to another object, and that he has used this ability to make them all see into a hypnogourd, trapping their souls inside. Imbri brings this news to Castle Roogna, and eventually brings Princess Irene to the gourd to visit her new husband Dor, taken from her after their nuptials. Shortly after the pair return to Castle Roogna, Arnolde is taken by the Horseman, and Queen Iris becomes King Iris, the first female king. Iris uses her talent of illusion to inflict massive casualties on the Punic horde, who are now marching on Castle Roogna under the command of the Horseman. She briefly forms an image of her own face in front of the Horseman to mock him, whereupon he simply uses his talent to enscroll her. Princess Irene becomes king of Xanth next, and she identifies Chameleon as the next king, stating that, although Chameleon does not have Magician-Caliber talent, she would be the best option for king because she is in her ugly, but extremely intelligent phase. The Horseman expends nearly the rest of his forces in reaching Castle Roogna. Chameleon, realising that the Day Horse and the Horseman are one and the same, lures him into the castle, and once he is inside, Irene uses her talent of accelerated plant growth to wrap the castle in a tight cocoon of plants, trapping him inside. Enraged, he uses his magic to ensnare her, whereupon Chameleon becomes king of Xanth and informs him that he will fail. He takes Chameleon with his power, too, and Xanth is left without a king. Imbri, having been previously named the Tenth King by Chameleon, because she is a creature of the Gourd, and can not enter the world via the peep hole, and therefore can not be forced into it, returns to castle Roogna. Imbri enters Roogna at night, so she is able to slip by the plants, and confronts the Horseman. He is now sitting on the throne, having proclaimed himself the new king of Xanth. As Imbri approaches, he shifts into his alternate form, and Imbri is stricken; she is in season, and he is a male horse. She is unable to act under his dominating power, but when the barbarians break into the castle and call out for their leader, he shifts back to his human form to answer. Imbri attacks and kills him, but the nine catatonic kings do not revive. Imbri realizes that the Horseman's magic talent was shape-shifting, and that the bands he wore around his wrists were magical bands that allowed him to perform his enscrollement. Devastated, and with nothing to lose, she destroys the box marked PANDORA, and is surrounded by a pink smoke, and feels suddenly hopeful. She removes the band but does not destroy it, because that might not accomplish the goal of releasing the kings. She decides to travel to the Void, an area in the Elemental region of Xanth, from which nothing can escape. She takes the band there and throws it in, but is trapped by the gravitational pull of the Void. Terrified, her physical body is destroyed by the Void. The nine kings revive as the magical band is destroyed, and Imbri returns as a day mare, thanks to Humfrey, and is now charged with bringing pleasant daydreams instead of nightmares to the people of Xanth. King Trent and Queen Iris retire, leaving the throne to their new son-in-law, King Dor. ===== The book begins with Lacuna, one of the mischievous Castle Zombie twins, seeking a way to fix her "dull" life. To do so she comes to ask Grey, Ivy's betrothed and pro-tem magician of knowledge, for the answer. However, Grey doesn't want to answer her question because he knows that something terrible will come of it. Lacuna decides to make a deal that even Grey can't refuse, a way to outwit Com- Pewter. Lacuna plans to use her ability to change prints and write new ones to help Grey. Seeing no other choice, Grey decides to help her, but he realizes that he can't fathom what the book of knowledge is trying to say. Therefore, he sends her to the anteroom of hell to talk to Magician Humfrey. When Lacuna arrives in the anteroom, she finds Humfrey sleeping. After waking Humfrey up, she found out that he is waiting to talk to the Demon X(A/N)th to free his wife Rose. Humfrey tells her to write down his life story (and most of Xanth's history in the process), on the walls, so that he can get the demon's attention. It turns out that Humfrey has five wives. Humfrey manages to save his wives from the pits of hell (sort of) and Lacuna changes her life. ===== Mela Merwoman, one of the protagonists of The Color of Her Panties, was introduced in Heaven Cent attempting to trick Prince Dolph into marrying her. Still desperate for a husband, Mela goes to ask the Good Magician Humfrey to find her a suitable mate. On the way, she joins forces with a civilized ogre named Okra and a positive young woman named Ida, who bears a striking resemblance to Princess Ivy. Meanwhile, adolescent Gwenny Goblin, Che Centaur and Jenny Elf are trying to help Gwenny beat out her half-brother Gobble for chiefship of the goblin horde. ===== Hurricane Happy Bottom is causing problems in Mundania and Xanth. The Mundane Baldwin family is blown into Xanth by a Yon Ill Wind. Also, Demon X(A/N)th has made a wager with Demon JU(P/I)ter that he could get one Xanthian to shed a tear. The demons change up by making X(A/N)th into a dragon ass and is only able to talk once explaining to a Xanthian what the quest is. As Nimby, Demon X(A/N)th meets Chlorine and makes her beautiful and talented. Together with the Baldwin family, they must banish Happy Bottom From Xanth. ===== Breanna, a beautiful young newcomer to the enchanted land of Xanth, must deal with a distressing dilemma. She has unwittingly attracted the affections of King Xeth, ruler of Xanth's Zombies, who yearns to make her Queen of the Undead. ===== The play opens in "a corner inside an enormous circus tent". Two vendors, Mr. Zuss (evoking the chief Greek god Zeus) and Nickles (i.e. "Old Nick," a folk name for the Devil) "Old Nick, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 April 2015. begin the play-within-a-play by assuming the roles of God and Satan, respectively. They overhear J.B., a wealthy New York banker, describe his prosperity as a just reward for his faithfulness to God. Scorning him, Nickles wagers that J.B. will curse God if his life is ruined. Nickles and Zuss then watch as J.B.'s children are killed and his property is ruined and the former millionaire is left to the streets. J.B. is then visited by three Comforters: Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar (representing History, Science, and Religion) who each offer a different explanation for his plight. J.B. declines to believe any of them, instead asking God himself to explain. Instead he encounters Zuss and Nickles. Nickles urges him to commit suicide in order to spite God; Zuss offers him his old life back if he will promise to obey God. J.B. rejects them both, and instead finds comfort in the person of his wife Sarah. The play ends with the two building a new life together. ===== At a Los Angeles party, Harold "Harry" Lockhart recounts recent events. Fleeing a botched burglary in New York City, Harry's friend is shot, forcing Harry to evade police by ducking into an audition. Harry unintentionally impresses Dabney Shaw with an outburst of remorse Dabney mistakes for method acting; Dabney takes Harry to Los Angeles to screen test for the role of a private investigator. At a Hollywood party, Harry meets "Gay" Perry van Shrike, an openly gay private investigator, hired to give Harry on-the-job experience for his role. Party host Harlan Dexter is a retired actor who recently resolved a feud over his wife's inheritance with his long-lost daughter, Veronica. Harry also encounters his childhood crush Harmony Lane, but wakes up in bed with her hostile friend. During a stakeout at a Big Bear Lake cabin, Perry and Harry witness a car being dumped in the lake and are spotted by two thugs. Perry realizes there's someone in the trunk and shoots the lock in a rescue attempt, but accidentally hits the female corpse inside. They cannot report the body because it will appear Perry killed her. Harmony contacts Harry, explaining that her sister Jenna came to Los Angeles, used Harmony's credit cards, then supposedly killed herself. Believing Harry is a detective, Harmony asks him to investigate Jenna's death. After Harmony leaves, Harry discovers the lake corpse in his bathroom. Harry and Perry dump the corpse, later identified as Veronica Dexter by police. Harry discovers it was Harmony's credit card that was used to hire Perry to come to the lake, tying Jenna to their case. He goes to see Harmony, who accidentally slams the door on his finger, cutting it off. At a party where Harmony is working, the thugs from the lake (Mr. Frying Pan and Mr. Fire) beat Harry and order him to cease the investigation. While taking Harry to the hospital, Harmony sees the thugs heading to Perry's latest stakeout. Realizing that Perry is heading into a trap, she leaves Harry in her car and runs off to warn Perry, with Frying Pan being killed by an armed food- cart operator. A pink-haired girl, affiliated with the thugs, steals Harmony's car and unwittingly drives an unconscious (on pain-killers) Harry to her house. Mr. Fire arrives and kills her; Harry recovers the gun and kills Mr. Fire. Harmony meets Harry at his hotel where she reveals she had told Jenna, years ago, that Harlan Dexter was her real father, to hopefully diminish the pain of their sexually abusive father. They end up in bed, but just before anything can happen, Harmony reveals she had once slept with Harry's best friend, and he throws her out. After Harmony disappears following a lead, Harry and Perry investigate a private mental hospital owned by Harlan. Perry realizes Veronica was incarcerated there by Harlan so an impostor could end the inheritance feud. Harry unintentionally kills a murderous orderly, but they are captured by Harlan, who reveals that he plans to cremate his daughter's corpse to remove any remaining evidence. Harry calls Harmony, who had not actually disappeared, but had simply gone to work. Harmony steals the van containing the corpse. Harry and Perry escape, but Harmony crashes the van. A shootout ensues, in which Perry and Harry are shot by the same bullet; Harry then manages to kill Dexter and his three thugs. Waking in a hospital, Harry finds that Perry survived and Harmony is fine. Perry reveals that Jenna did commit suicide. Jenna had located Harlan, believing him to be her real father. She accidentally witnessed him having sex with Veronica's impostor, Pink Hair Girl. Believing her new "father" was also incestuous, Jenna commissioned Perry to catch him in the act, then committed suicide. Perry travels back to Harmony's hometown and slaps around her father, who is now bed-ridden and helpless, belittling him for being a "big tough guy" when he abused the equally helpless Jenna. Harry finishes his narration by stating that he is wrapping up the movie, now works for Perry, and thanks the viewers for watching. ===== Springfield Elementary School is holding its medieval festival. All the students are given roles: Lisa is queen, Martin is king, and Bart is the cooper. Bart is mad about his role and is treated terribly by everyone, especially Lisa. Against his will, Groundskeeper Willie is chosen to play the village idiot, and seeking revenge for his cruel treatment, Willie unleashes a pie with hundreds of rats inside. Bart is blamed for this prank and is expelled from school. After looking through other schools, Marge decides to enroll Bart in St. Jerome's Catholic School. There, Bart's hip, rebel attitude is frowned upon. While holding out two dictionaries as a punishment, Bart meets Father Sean (voiced by Liam Neeson), who converted to Catholicism after he was beaten by his father and St. Peter told him to repent. He is sympathetic to Bart and gives him a comic book about the saints, and he is drawn into it. At home, Marge becomes concerned over Bart's interest in the Catholic Church, mainly due to the Catholic ban on birth control. Lisa incorrectly calls Latin 'the language of Plutarch' (who actually wrote in Greek). Homer goes to the school to confront Father Sean, but reconsiders after having a pancake dinner and playing Bingo. After an expansive confession session, and discovering that becoming a Catholic involves more than just bashing Unitarians, Homer decides to convert to Catholicism as well to be absolved of his sins. With Bart and Homer both considering joining the Church, Marge (worried she might be alone in Protestant Heaven while Bart and Homer are in Catholic Heaven and Lisa possibly in nirvana) seeks help from Rev. Lovejoy and Ned Flanders, who agree to get them back. While they are learning about First Communion, Marge, Lovejoy and Ned capture Bart. On the road, Marge, Ned and Lovejoy try to bring Bart back to the "one true faith": The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism. Back at the house, Lisa agrees with Homer and Bart's desire to join a new faith. Even after getting laughed at for being Buddhist by Fr. Sean, she says that Marge is taking Bart to a Protestant Youth Festival. Homer and Fr. Sean then leave in hot pursuit. At the Festival, Marge fails to bribe Bart with the Christian rock of Quiet Riot (Pious Riot after their conversion). However, he agrees after he plays some paintball. Homer and Fr. Sean arrive with a motorcycle, shoot Marge's hair with some paintball bullets and engage in a Mexican standoff with Ned and Lovejoy. Bart says it is stupid that all the different forms of Christianity are feuding, explaining that the few stupid things they disagree on are nothing compared to the many stupid things they agree on. The two groups agree to both fight monogamist gays and stem cells and to take Bart's idea to heart. The episode then jumps 1,000 years into the future, when Bart is believed to be the last Prophet of God. In this age, mankind is waging war over whether Bart's teachings were about love and tolerance, or understanding and peace (and whether he was betrayed by his minion Milhouse and ripped apart by snowmobiles until he died). Unable to come to an agreement, one side cries Bart's catchphrase "Eat my shorts", the other cries "Cowabunga" and both sides engage in a bloody battle. ===== Lisa and the other members of Springfield Elementary's school band enter a music competition together at a state fair, performing James Brown's "Living in America". However, they lose to the Ogdenville Elementary band, which performs John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" and uses red, white, and blue glowsticks to form a flag. Lisa accuses Ogdenville of cheating as the use of visual aids is against the rules of the competition. She later writes a letter to President Clinton, complaining about the situation. At the fair, Homer and Bart see a horse named Duncan that can dive into pools. The Simpsons take Duncan home after his sleazy owner is accused of animal cruelty and flees. However, they find themselves spending $500 a week for Duncan's upkeep. Homer and Bart try to think of a way that Duncan can make money to help offset the costs of keeping him. Bart discovers that Duncan is a fast runner and suggests that he should be a racehorse. Homer enters Duncan at the Springfield Downs race track, with Bart as the jockey. However, a frightened Duncan loses his first race as he refuses to leave the stall until all other horses have finished. Homer and Bart find a strategy for Duncan to win by turning him into a frightening horse named "Furious D", complete with dyed hair and one of Lisa's bracelets for a nose ring. He intimidates the other horses and wins several races. Homer is soon invited by the losing jockeys to have a beer in their lounge, which turns out to be a secret lair. The jockeys reveal themselves to be crazy, arrogant elf-based creatures and threaten to eat Homer's brain unless he makes Duncan lose the upcoming Springfield Derby. Though frightened at first, Homer changes his mind due to his loyalty to his son and his horse as well as his own pride, vowing to deal with those "murderous trolls". Duncan wins the Derby, sending the jockeys into a rage, and they begin chasing after Homer and Bart with swords. However, Marge and Lisa spray the jockeys with water to subdue them, and Homer stuffs them all into a garbage bag and leaves them at the curb to be hauled away with the garbage. Homer and Bart prepare to retire Duncan from racing so he can become a stud. President Clinton then shows up at the Simpsons's house and presents Lisa with a plaque, overruling the state fair judges and declaring Springfield Elementary as the winner of the music competition. ===== On a trip to the bird sanctuary, the Simpson family discovers that an oval racing track built around the sanctuary is opening that day, to Lisa's dismay. The family watches the stock car race from the stand and sees Ned Flanders and his family, who claims to enjoy the high levels of safety the drivers use. Later, a squad of cheerleaders fires free T-shirts from air cannons into the crowd, and Homer rudely demands one. Irritated, Maude leaves to buy hot dogs. The cheerleaders send a full salvo of T-shirts in Homer's direction, but at the last second he spots a bobby pin and bends over to pick it up, just as Maude returns. The T-shirts hit Maude and she falls over the bleachers to the ground, where Dr. Hibbert declares her dead. Everyone offers their condolences to a devastated Ned, and Bart reluctantly plays a Christian video game with Rod and Todd. Homer accompanies Ned back home after the funeral and talks with him later that night when Ned is unable to sleep due to his loneliness and concern over having to raise his sons alone. Feeling bad for his part in Maude's death, Homer secretly makes a videotape of Ned to show to single women across Springfield in order to help him get on with his life. Ned gets to date several women thanks to the tape, including Lindsey Naegle and Edna Krabappel, but none of them are successful. On a Saturday night, Ned prays to God, but becomes angry when he feels he is not getting any response. The next morning, Ned is still angry and tells his sons he will not be going to church, scaring them. Guilt-ridden, he later rushes to church and upon entering, sees a Christian rock band, Kovenant, performing. He is attracted to the singer, Rachel Jordan, who sings about not losing faith in God because He is always there for people. Inspired by the song, Ned later assists Rachel in loading some equipment onto her truck and confides in her of his loss, with which she sympathizes. He and Rachel become acquainted, but she has to leave for the next stop on the band's tour, promising to come back and meet up with him afterward. ===== ===== Alien Planet starts out with an interstellar spacecraft named Von Braun, leaving Earth's orbit. Traveling at 20% the speed of light (37,000 miles/s), it reaches Darwin IV in 42 years. Upon reaching orbit, it deploys the Darwin Reconnaissance Orbiter, which looks for potential landing sites for the probes. The first probe, Balboa, explodes along with its lifting body transport during entry, because one of its wings failed to unfold. Two backup probes, Leonardo da Vinci (nicknamed Leo) and Isaac Newton (nicknamed Ike), successfully land on the planet, and learn much about its bizarre indigenous lifeforms, including an apparently sapient species. The robotic probes sent out to research on Darwin IV are called Horus Probes. Each Horus probe consists of an high, long inflatable, hydrogen-filled balloon, which is covered with solar receptors, a computer 'brain', a 'head' covered with sensors, and several smaller robots that can be sent to places too dangerous for the probes themselves. The probes have a limited degree of artificial intelligence, very similar to the 'processing power' of a 4-year-old. All the real thinking is done by a supercomputer in the orbiting Von Braun. The probes are programmed with different personalities; Ike is more cautious, while Leo is the risk-taker. The two probes are also equipped with a holographic message that will be projected to any sentient life found on Darwin. After the two probes inflate their gas-bags, they encounter a voracious Arrowtongue and watch it pursue a Gyrosprinter. Later that night, the twins find the wreckage of Balboa and are ordered to split up, Ike studying the unique plant life and Leo going after big game. Ike's voyage takes him to one of Darwin IV's pocket forests, where he encounters a flock of Trunk Suckers and their predator, the Daggerwrist. Before his research is finished, a massive hurricane-like storm hits and Ike must take to the sky, launching weather balloons. Leo goes to the mountain ranges and finds a herd of Unths engaged in rutting-like behavior. Afterward, Leo finds a pair of Bladderhorns engaging in combat. It tries to communicate with one, but a sonic ping interrupts the conversation and scares off the animal, and he is knocked out by a mysterious creature. Ike ventures to the meadows and gullies of Darwin IV, encountering massive Grovebacks and a herd of Littoralopes. Flying above, dangerous predators: the Skewers. Leo gets destroyed by a mysterious and evasive creature, and Ike, ordered by the Von Braun to search for Leo's attacker, hopes to find a new sentient species. Ike's route takes him across perilous terrain, and across the Amoebic Sea in its quest for Leo. As it embarks on its journey, one of the Grovebacks seen earlier falls victim to a swarm of Beach Quills. Ike then finds a pack of Prongheads hunting a Gyrosprinter, and crosses the Amoebic Sea (which attempted to attack Ike), encountering a herd of giant Sea Striders. Ike manages to find Leo after a harrowing experience with a Skewer which tries to attack it, but is killed by a spear thrown by the newly discovered floating Eosapien. Shortly afterward, Ike communicates with the Eosapien tribe and discovers that they are truly intelligent. Ike launches a camera disk to record the moment, or perhaps "to assess the threat" due to a third Eosapien appearing; however one of the Eosapiens mistakes it as an attack and destroys the camera disk. Before shutting down, the wrecked camera disk records the Eosapien tribe carrying Ike away. Commentary from notable people discussing the details behind the fictional world of Darwin IV and the likelihood of extraterrestrial life, in general, is interspersed throughout the movie. ===== The bands head north up through San Francisco, Oregon, and Seattle. The film documents Social Distortion and Youth Brigade live shows; it also features Minor Threat at band practice. At one point in the movie, Social Distortion's Mike Ness sits on a porch and writes future underground hit Another State of Mind. The film documents not only the complex and challenging social dynamics of the punk scene, the touring bands and their crew, but also documents the DIY punk touring circuit in its infancy. A final bus break-down in D.C. causes Social Distortion to split up. Liles and Danell abandon the group to stay with friends of Brinson's, where they voice their exhaustion with the tour and the rest of the group. Out of desperation, the others go to the local Kmart to shop for tarps with the members of Minor Threat. Mike Ness ends up being stranded when the rest of Social Distortion heads back to OC where they feel they have a better chance of making money rather than staying on the difficult tour. Ness has really no choice but to grab a flight back to LA himself and try to regroup. Youth Brigade rents a truck and drives back to Los Angeles. Four cast members have died since the making of this film; Dennis Danell (brain aneurysm in 2000) and Brent Liles (traffic accident in 2007) of Social Distortion, and road crew members Louis Dufau (drug overdose in 1988) and Dominic Mastergeorge (died in Middletown, Connecticut in 1995http://www.deathfigures.com/index.php?id=Ma-4421082). Additionally, Marcel, a wheelchair-using punk who is shown in the Montreal scene died in 1984. Manon Brière, another young Montreal punk, is still around and she fronted bands Generatorz and Maninc Manon and the Guest List. In the mid 1980s Mike Brinson went to nuclear engineering school in the Navy. He currently resides in Indiana where he has 2 sons and works in the aerospace industry. Strangely, in the beginning of the documentary, Dennis Danell jokingly says that he's 38 and old. On February 29, 2000, Danell died at the age of 38. ===== Middle-aged Mrs. Samuel Lawrence gives Lew Archer 50 dollars for one day of his time to find her daughter Galatea (a.k.a. Galley) who has been missing since just before Christmas. Archer soon discovers she was married to a small-time mobster named Joe Tarantine. Starting the investigation in the most likely place, with Tarantine's brother, Mario, Lew finds the man in the hospital after a severe beating that has left him almost unrecognizable. And shortly after that, a big-time mobster offers him five thousand to find Tarantine. The investigation quickly gains a body count and Lew is constantly drawn from Los Angeles to Pacific Point (a fictionalized version of La Jolla ), Palm Springs, San Francisco, and back again, trying to tie together details that seem as random as they are violent. As the bodies pile up, so does Archer's confusion, but he remains undeterred by the situation, relying on his well-honed instinct for deviant behavior and the venal intentions of others. Still, the bodies accumulate at an alarming rate, a handsome part-time actor found dead in his apartment, a newlywed husband on the lam, a boat piled on the rocks, fast-talking women, everybody with a handout or hidden agenda. ===== The Simpsons' elderly neighbors, the Winfields, finally relocate because of Homer's antics. Bart and Lisa explore the old house while it is empty and up for sale, but Bart scares Lisa away from the basement. Bart turns around to see his new neighbor, Laura Powers. Surprised, he falls down in shock and is helped back up by her and the two become acquainted. Bart instantly develops a crush on her. After Marge visits Ruth Powers to welcome her to the area, she tells Marge that she has divorced, and both become friends. Meanwhile, after seeing a television advertisement about an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant, Homer forces Marge to come with him, leaving Laura to babysit Bart and Lisa. Homer quickly enrages the Sea Captain, devouring nearly all the food in the buffet, and is eventually banished despite not being satisfied. Much to Marge's embarrassment, Homer sues the restaurant for false advertising. Lionel Hutz is employed to represent him in court and the case is successful after Hutz convinces the mostly overweight jury that a similar buffet mishap could befall them. To avoid further legal trouble, the Sea Captain and Homer eventually agree that Homer shall be displayed in the restaurant as "Bottomless Pete: Nature's Cruelest Mistake" to draw in more customers to the restaurant and offset the cost of his eating. Meanwhile, Bart is delighted at having Laura babysitting him and attempts to impress her. She later asks him to come to his treehouse, as she has important news. She tells him she is dating Jimbo Jones, one of the bullies from his school, which dismays Bart. When Laura invites Jimbo over to the Simpson household, Bart, in an attempt to break them up, prank calls Moe's Tavern, giving his name as "Jimbo Jones", and telling Moe where he lives. Mistakenly believing Jimbo was the one who had been pranking Moe all the time, he rushes into the Simpson house brandishing a large "rusty and dull" kitchen knife and looking for Jimbo, causing Jimbo to burst into tears and beg for his life. Laura breaks up with Jimbo for not being the tough "outlaw" she thought he was. She tells Bart that she would date him if he were older, and the episode ends with the pair laughing after prank-calling Moe again. ===== In 2027, the world is in turmoil, with the United States fractured as a result of a second civil war and a pandemic of the "St. Mary's Virus" ravaging Europe. The United Kingdom is ruled as a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist police state by the Norsefire Party, helmed by all-powerful High Chancellor Adam Sutler. Political opponents, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, atheists, homosexuals, and other "undesirables" are imprisoned and executed. On November 4, a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask, "V", rescues Evey Hammond, an employee of state-run British Television Network, from members of the "Fingermen" secret police. They watch his demolition of the Old Bailey, accompanied by fireworks and the "1812 Overture". Inspector Finch of Scotland Yard investigates V's activities. V hijacks a BTN broadcast to claim responsibility for the destruction, encouraging the people of Britain to rebel against their government and meet him on next year's Guy Fawkes Night outside the Houses of Parliament. The police attempt to capture V. Evey helps him escape but is knocked unconscious. V takes Evey to his home, where she is told she must remain for one year. V kills Lewis Prothero, Norsefire's chief propagandist, and Anthony Lilliman, the Bishop of London. Evey offers to help, but escapes to the home of her boss, talk show host Gordon Deitrich. In return for Evey trusting him, Gordon reveals subversive paintings, an antique Quran, and homoerotic photographs. V confronts Dr. Delia Surridge, who experimented on him and others at Larkhill concentration camp; seeing her remorse, he kills her painlessly. After Gordon satirizes the government on his show, his home is raided and Evey captured. She is tortured for information about V, her only solace being a note written by Valerie Page, a prisoner tortured and killed for being lesbian. Evey is to be executed unless she reveals V's location. When she says she would rather die, she is released, finding herself in V's home. V staged her imprisonment to free her from her fears. The note was real, passed from Valerie to V when he was imprisoned. While Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realizes she is a stronger person. She leaves him, promising to return before November 5. Reading Surridge's journal, Finch learns V is the result of human experimentation and is targeting those who detained him. Finch searches for V's true identity, tracing him to a bioweapons program in Larkhill. Finch meets William Rookwood, who tells him about the program. Fourteen years earlier, Sutler, Secretary of Defence at the time, launched a secret project at Larkhill which resulted in the creation of the St. Mary's virus. Creedy, the current leader of the Norsefire Party, suggested releasing the virus onto the UK. Targeting St. Mary's School, a tube station and a water treatment plant, the virus killed more than 100,000 people. The outbreak was blamed on a terrorist organisation. Norsefire used the fear and chaos to elevate Sutler to the office of High Chancellor, win an overwhelming majority in Parliament, and profit off the cure for the virus. Finch discovers that Rookwood was V in disguise. Though he initially disbelieves the story, his faith in the Norsefire government is shaken. As November 5 nears, V distributes thousands of Guy Fawkes masks. On the eve of November 5, Evey visits V, who shows her a train filled with ANFO explosives in the abandoned London Underground, set to destroy Parliament. He leaves it to Evey to decide whether to use it. V meets Creedy, with whom he made a deal to surrender in exchange for Sutler's execution. After Creedy executes Sutler, V reneges on his deal, killing Creedy and his men. Mortally wounded, V tells Evey he loves her before dying. Despite their earlier quarrels, Evey has grown close to V, and is visibly heartbroken by his death. Finch finds Evey placing V's body aboard the train. Disillusioned by the Party's regime, Finch allows Evey to send the train. Thousands of citizens wearing Guy Fawkes masks march toward the Houses of Parliament. The military receives no orders and allows the crowd to pass. As Parliament is destroyed, Finch asks Evey for V's identity, to which she replies, "He was all of us." ===== The novel features numerous real- life historical figures in its narrative, including a first person description of reality by scientist Albert Einstein and Irish author James Joyce, while the plot involves English author and occultist Aleister Crowley, British nobles, the Loch Ness Monster and mystical experiences. The plot revolves primarily around the description by a young English gentleman, Sir John Babcock, of his initiation into the Argenteum Astrum. Ancestors of Sir John are major characters in The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles. ===== Bradshaw Disposal Services has a nuclear bomb made in Russia to transport, and an employee (named Henry Bradshaw) decides to save money by concealing it on a freight train. This train is also loaded with hazardous and flammable chemicals, including metallic sodium, which spontaneously ignites on contact with water. The train suffers a brake failure and becomes a runaway heading for Denver. John Seger, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator, boards the train and with the assistance of the railwaymen tries various ways to stop the train. Several ideas are tried, such as coupling a following train to the caboose (the coupling mechanism on the caboose breaks, which also results in the death of one of the train's crew members), a derailing attempt (after it is revealed the catastrophe the chemicals would cause if ignited) in which a helicopter narrowly avoids being hit, and finally, an attempt at manually activating the brakes (via hitting a part of the engine mechanism with a wrench). The final attempt works successfully but is short-lived. The following rescue train, unaware of the freight's slowing, speeds forward and crushes the caboose (killing an injured crew member in the process). The force disengages the brakes, this time for good, causing the train to speed up once again. Meanwhile, Denver residents are struggling to collect their families and then leave town, despite rioters, looters, and gridlock. Realizing that there is no way to stop it, John and the engineer (who was initially reluctant) abandon the train by jumping off before it can speed up too much. The train derails and becomes a terrific wreck. Discovering the now highly unstable bomb on board, firefighters struggle to extinguish the fire at the crash site. After realizing that metallic sodium is on the train, the firefighters and NEST teams retreat to evaluate a strategy. In the meantime, all firefighting aircraft are grounded. The misinterpretation of a radio call to a water bombing helicopter leads it to dump its load of water onto the wreck. Water comes into contact with the metallic sodium, which explodes and in turn causes the nuclear bomb to detonate. The blast causes severe damage throughout Denver and releases an electromagnetic pulse. No cars work, electricity is down and anything with a computer is shut down. After the blast, Denver lies in ruins. John (who made it back to town via helicopter) then attempts to get his family out of Denver before nuclear fallout starts. After finding a working car, John eventually reunites with his family at a FEMA refugee camp in Eminence, Kansas. ===== The story begins with Frank and Joe Hardy barely avoiding being hit by a speeding driver, who they notice has bright red hair. Later, this same red-haired driver attempts a ferry boat ticket office robbery and successfully steals a yellow jalopy called Queen from the Hardys' friend, Chet Morton. Due to one witness reporting that the villain had dark hair, the Hardys assume he is using a red wig. It is learned that the thief returned to Chet's home to steal a tire, helping Frank and Joe to find Queen abandoned in a public wooded area. The excitement of finding Queen is quickly gone when it is reported that there has been a robbery of forty thousand dollars in securities and jewels from the Tower Mansion owned by siblings Hurd Applegate and Adelia Applegate. Hurd Applegate is convinced that the Tower's caretaker, Henry Robinson, is the guilty party. The Hardys are especially concerned by this accusation, because Henry's son, Perry, is a friend of theirs who will have to quit school to work since his father can no longer get a job as a result of Applegate's accusation. The only "proof" of Henry Robinson's guilt is that he was suddenly able to pay off a debt and refused to reveal where he got the money to do so. The Hardys suspect that the red-haired man may be involved with the Tower robbery and search the place where The Queen was found, finding the red wig. The Hardys' dad, detective Fenton Hardy, learns that the wig was manufactured in New York City. Fenton Hardy goes to New York and learns of a criminal named John "Red" Jackley who is fond of using disguises. Soon, Jackley is injured in a railroad handcar accident, causing him to be hospitalized. About to die, Jackley confesses that he committed the Tower Mansion robbery and put the loot "in the old tower..." Jackley dies before he is able to explain further. Frank and Joe decide to go to the railroad where Jackley used to work to find more information. While investigating, they see two water towers nearby. Inside the water tower they find the stolen items, but are locked in the tower by a man calling himself Hobo Johnny. Johnny believes that anything in the tower belongs to him. Frank and Joe break out of the water tower and return the missing securities and jewelry, whereupon they receive the $1,000 reward.In the original version of the book Henry admits that a man who owed him money repaid a debt to him, but he was not allowed to tell anyone in case the man's other debtors found out. This was revised in the 1959 version such that Adelia reveals that she loaned Henry Robinson the money to pay off his debt. Following the revelations and with the stolen loot returned, Hurd re-hires Henry with an increase in salary and Hurd builds the greenhouse that Henry has been wanting. ===== A young Army nurse, Lieutenant Ruth McCara (June Allyson), is newly assigned to the 8666th MASH, a mobile field hospital constantly on the move during the Korean War. Ruth's personal mission is to serve suffering humanity. She initially experiences an uncomfortable welcoming by the unit's hard-drinking, no-nonsense chief surgeon, Major Jed Webbe (Humphrey Bogart). Jed engages in a helicopter rescue of army casualties while under fire. He is a much-tried doctor by the continual movement of the outfit due to the changing battle lines. Responsible for the dismantling and re- pitching of the tent hospital is Sergeant Orvil Statt (Keenan Wynn), a former circus roustabout. At first, Ruth is a bumbling addition to the nurse corps, but she attracts the attention of Jed immediately because of the needless risks she takes. Against her resilience, he continues with sequential passes. After seeing that he is beloved by the unit, she agrees to his advances. He later cautions her that he wants a "no strings" relationship. Ruth is warned by the other nurses of his womanizing ways, and that he is probably married. When she asks him if he has someone else back home, he refuses to answer, and they separate. When a young Korean child needs special care, Ruth entreats Jed to perform an open-heart operation, despite the reservations of the unit commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Whalters (Robert Keith). Jed ends up saving the life of the child. Jed is a relentless taskmaster, demanding Captain John Rustford (William Campbell) to fly desperately needed blood supplies at night, even in the teeth of a fierce storm. After the helicopter lands safely, Jed goes on a binge, forcing Whalters to make his chief surgeon either straighten up or ship out. When a now more assured Ruth treats some North Korean prisoners, a frightened prisoner (Philip Ahn) with a concealed grenade is calmly disarmed by her soothing words and manner. After a North Korean advance forces the MASH unit to escape through enemy lines, the lovers are temporarily separated. When the unit's commander is wounded in an attack, Jed has to take command to lead the unit out of danger. Traveling cross- country, he sets out on a perilous journey, attempting to meet up with the nurses who have gone on ahead by rail to a preset rendezvous. Eventually the two caravans safely negotiate the battlefield, and Jed and Ruth are reunited. ===== =====