From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

=====

Haré+Guu opens with a pregnant Weda leaving her home in an unnamed city. It then flashes forward to the present where Haré is a typical boy living in an unnamed village in an unidentified jungle with his lazy mother Weda. On his way back from his errand of fetching bananas, a large dark being overtakes him. Scared, he runs back to the house where his mom has decided to have a new guest, a cute girl named Guu. The next morning, Haré wakes up to find Guu a completely different person who is no longer cute, social, or energetic. No one seems to notice the change. Guu mostly remains quiet and ignorant of things while Haré has to show her around and explain things. Hare notices Guu likes to eat things. She swallows Haré but, instead of dying, he is taken to another world in Guu's stomach. There he meets Seiichi and Tomoyo, a couple who has accepted their fate in Guu's stomach. After Guu spits Haré out, she accompanies him to school where she meets all of Haré's schoolmates (whom she swallows and spits back out) and the village elder (whose chest hair she rips out). The school receives a new doctor named Dr. Clive who came from the city and turns out to be Haré's long-lost dad. Most of the other characters start developing personalities and eccentricities of their own. Guu goes from being silent to being extremely cynical and sarcastic towards Hare and the others. She starts being more antagonistic towards Haré. Guu starts causing shenanigans around the jungle that are meant to keep her amused (like holding a contest for Weda). She adds another resident to her stomach world, Miss Hiroko Yamada, and shows an adult form that she uses to defend Haré. Another person who appears is Dama, a hairdresser from the next village over who obsesses over her long-lost husband with white hair that she mistakes Dr. Clive for. Bel and Asio, two servants who worked for Weda in her past life, visit the jungle. They claim that they are on vacation and wanted to see their old master. They relieve Haré of his chores around the house and Haré enjoys having to do less work. Guu causes more disasters around the jungle such as creating a blizzard and bringing down the wrath of Dama upon Clive. Clive finally dyes his hair black to have Dama leave him alone. Haré finds out from Asio the circumstances behind Weda leaving her past life and why Weda is living in they jungle. Weda eventually forces Bel and Asio to tell the actual reason they came to the jungle: to bring Weda and Haré back to the city since her father had recently died. Weda refuses at first, but relents much to Hare's chagrin. Haré, Weda, Guu, Bel, and Asio make it to the city where they are met by Robert, a personal bodyguard hired to protect Haré and Weda. Robert initially dislikes Weda. When Haré and Guu are held hostage by a bank robber, Weda and Robert team up to proficiently take out the robber, safely returning Haré and Guu. Haré easily adjusts to luxurious life in the mansion while Weda is bored. Clive comes to the city where he finally is able to convey his feelings for Weda, ensuring them to be a couple whenever Weda returns. Guu causes more hijinks by swallowing up all the servants in a game of tag. While Haré is running away, he runs into his long-lost grandmother Sharon. He then plans to have Weda and Sharon make up. Try as he might, all seemed lost as Weda was bored enough to want to return to the jungle much to Bel and Asio's chagrin. Fortunately, Haré manages to knock some sense into her. Just as Weda was about to visit her mom, Sharon rides up and the two make up. Haré, Weda, and Guu are back in the jungle with Clive now living permanently with Haré. Haré meets the new teacher while Lazy-Sensei was sick named Miss Yumi. Her temperament has prevented her from getting a boyfriend. She ends up falling for Haré and harassing him for the next two arcs despite their age difference. Meanwhile, the village elder's chest hair gets so out of control he is swallowed by it enough for him to disappears for the rest of the arc. Weda announces she's pregnant and Clive decides that it is time to marry. After they marry, Haré starts hating the idea of another sibling as he will be the one to take care of the child due to his parents' laziness. Guu takes him back to the past where he inadvertently ran into Weda. It turns out she is lazy due to the advice he gave her to be more honest with herself. He makes up a fake name while meeting Weda which Weda uses in the present to call her second child. The bank robber returns to exact his revenge on Weda for foiling him. When it looked like he was about to win, Dama shows up at the last minute to fight the bank robber. Dama ends up winning and the two eventually get married. Bel misses Weda and sends out a video letter to the jungle. Weda agrees to come back to the city to visit Bel and her mom. She drags Haré and Guu back with her. Haré becomes bored, so Weda enrolls him in school where he meets and instantly falls in love with Rita. Unfortunately, it works against Haré because the school bullies get jealous of the new friendship he has formed with Rita; they bully him. Haré finds out that he is nothing special to Rita because she likes to feel superior by being nice to everyone and not making any enemies. She is only looking out for her own self interests. Eventually, Rita sees Haré for the friend he is and learns to care about others. Weda resolves things at home, which allows Haré and Guu to return to the jungle. The village elder, who is basically a hairball now, is found while Hare gets help with Ame thanks to Adult Guu and the three residents in Guu's stomach. As life seems to go back to normal for Haré (as normal as life with Guu can be), assassins hired by Weda's siblings show up to kill her because of a new discovery that Weda was included in a later version of her father's will, entitling her to a part of the family fortune. Dama returns as one of the assassins hired to kill Weda, but Robert manages to talk her into going back to life with her husband. After seven attempts onher life, Weda resolves to go to the city to bring the fight to her siblings. Weda goes to the city to settle things, and she brings all the kids from the jungle with her. They first run into trouble when two more assassins, Alex and Shirly, cause their plane to crash on an island. The two beg for their lives in front of Robert. On the island, they meet a muscle man named QP who becomes a rival to Robert and a bodyguard for Weda. When they get off the island they return to Weda's family's mansion where everyone makes plans to go to school. At school, Haré reunites with Rita who has matured very much. So has Yohan who still has anger and hatred towards Haré. Toposte takes over his class and becomes almost a god to the other students. He was just being controlled by his chest hair and is saved when Hare removes it. Later, Guu gets a stomachache and Haré goes into her stomach to find the problem. He finds himself back in the RPG world where he discovers Guu has eaten the Baka Couple and Grandma Dama. She also ate Dama's sister Tama who tells them the whole story behind her and her sister. Upon returning, Haré meets his aunt, uncle, and cousin. Weda makes up with her siblings but Haré and his cousin, Alva, still fight. Guu is kidnapped by Haré and Guu — from a half year in the future — who came to find Dama and her sister. Haré, Guu, and their future counterparts find the two, but it is too late. They had already merged and become a giant monster, seeking to destroy the world. Haré and Guu are able to stop the monster, and Dama makes up with her sister. The story arc ends with everyone returning to the jungle. This time, Wigle stays in the city and Alva goes with everyone. Weda returns everyone to the jungle. This time, they are bringing Haré's cousin Alva with them. After some heartfelt goodbyes with their classmates, the kids of the jungle return home except for Wigle who stays to attend college. At first returning, Yumi-sensei is there waiting to have a passionate reunion with Toposte, who hides from her. It gets to the point where Toposte is not safe anywhere, so he fakes an illness to keep her away. But, because Yumi-sensei offered her life for his safety, Toposte realized how she cared for him and accepted and returned her love. Alva isn't used to the jungle so he sometimes gets lost and has to be returned by a very large pokute. Later, Haré and Guu decide to find where pokutes come from, learning that they reside in a dark cave deep in the jungle where they are also able to talk. They learn of the pokutes' relation with humans. Gupta wants to reveal his love for Ravenna but he can't get up the courage, so Guu goes with him for a practice date. This, of course, does not help at all. Then, with the urge to try to get Haré to love her, Mari takes him around to find how love really is, where they learn the true story behind the baka couple. 

=====



=====

Devastated by Rand al'Thor's revelation of their true history, the Shaido Aiel attack Cairhien, with the aid of the Forsaken Sammael. Rand prepares to attack the Shaido but first spends time in the Aiel Waste, learning from the former Forsaken Asmodean and becoming closer to the Aiel Maiden Aviendha. In the same area, Egwene al'Vere continues her studies under the Aiel Wise Ones. Later, Rand leads his Aiel forces to defeat the Shaido, in the Second Battle of Cairhien. Mat Cauthon uses his memories of past generals to act as a commander and win numerous battles, eventually killing the Shaido leader Couladin, whereupon the Shaido Aiel retreat. Following Elaida's coup in the White Tower, she names Alviarin as her keeper and resolves to capture Rand. Meanwhile, the Aes Sedai who oppose her establish themselves in Salidar. Learning this, Min Farshaw, Siuan Sanche, Leane Sharif, and Logain Ablar travel to Salidar. A suspicious Gareth Bryne pursues them, but after learning the situation, he forms a tentative alliance with the Salidar Aes Sedai. Nynaeve al'Meara and Elayne Trakand, along with Thom Merrilin and Juilin Sandar, flee the chaos of Tarabon and also travel towards Salidar. Along the way, they face many dangers such as Whitecloaks, Moghedien, and Masema Dagar, who now calls himself Rand's "prophet". Along the way, the hero Birgitte is expelled from Tel'aran'rhiod and joins the group, and Elayne learns how to create ter'angreal. They eventually reach Salidar with the help of Galad Damodred, who is now a Whitecloak. The Forsaken Rahvin, masquerading as Lord Gaebril, has been mind-controlling Queen Morgase Trakand of Andor. She realizes this and escapes, but she is falsely proclaimed dead and Rahvin replaces her as ruler of Andor. To remove Rahvin from power, Rand prepares a small Aiel strike force to invade Caemlyn. Before he can do so, Lanfear attempts to kill him; but Moiraine Damodred grabs Lanfear and both topple through a ter'angreal, which is then destroyed, and both presumed dead. Thereafter Rand attacks Caemlyn, but his channeling triggers a trap set by Rahvin that kills all of his companions. Rand chases Rahvin into Tel'aran'rhiod. Nynaeve, who is battling Moghedien in Tel'aran'rhiod, is almost defeated, but with the help of Birgitte, traps Moghedien in an a'dam. Nynaeve then uses Moghedien's power to aid Rand in his battle. Rand then destroys him with a tremendous burst of balefire, which revives Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean. However, Asmodean is murdered almost immediately afterwards by an unknown assailant. 

=====

Rand al'Thor has just claimed the crystal sword Callandor to prove himself the Dragon Reborn. He is approached by Lanfear, who tells him of the Forsaken's plans. However, the fortress known as the Stone of Tear is stormed by Trollocs and Fades, sent by another Forsaken (Sammael), while a third, Semirhage, sends her followers into the Stone, to oppose Sammael's forces. In defense, Rand uses Callandor to create a lightning storm killing all the Trollocs and Fades. Rand then decides that he must travel to the Aiel Waste, to be acknowledged as the Aiel's prophecised leader. Before leaving, Rand, Mat Cauthon, and Moiraine Damodred visit a ter'angreal that lets them talk to a mysterious snakelike race called the Aiefinn, who seemingly know the answer to any question. Mat learns from them that he must go to Rhuidean or die and also that he is destined to marry someone called "the Daughter of the Nine Moons". Egwene al'Vere and the Aiel Aviendha are also summoned to the Aiel Waste, Egwene to learn Dreamwalking and Aviendha to become a Wise One. Thus, Rand, Mat, Moiraine, Egwene, and Aviendha all travel to the Aiel Waste. Other characters in the Stone of Tear also learn that they must travel elsewhere. Perrin Aybara hears of trouble in The Two Rivers, his native region, and returns thereto, accompanied by Faile Bashere. Elayne Trakand, Nynaeve al'Meara, and Thom Merrilin depart to Tarabon to hunt the Black Ajah. Finally, Min Farshaw arrives in Tar Valon to report to the Amyrlin Siuan Sanche. Thus, The Shadow Rising follows four groups of characters in four plotlines. 

=====

The novel follows Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler who has recently returned to the United States after more than 30 years in Europe, where he married into minor Napoleonic nobility; he is accompanied by his beautiful, young, widowed daughter Emma, the Princesse d'Agrigente. She immediately becomes the darling of New York high society. Despite his fame and affluent image, Schuyler finds work as a journalist because his wealth has been destroyed by the Panic of 1873 and his daughter's late husband has left her penniless. Schuyler also supports the Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York, because he hopes to secure himself a diplomatic position with the incoming administration, enabling him to return to Europe. The early chapters detail the Schuylers' introduction into New York society and the engagement between Emma and John Day Apgar, a wealthy but rather dull young lawyer and scion of a leading New York family. The later chapters chronicle Schuyler's sojourn in Washington, DC and Emma's growing friendship with the wealthy Denise Sanford and her boorish husband William. Emma and Denise become close friends, but after Denise dies in childbirth, Emma breaks off her engagement to Apgar and marries Sanford instead.Susan Baker & Curtis S. Gibson, Gore Vidal: a critical companion (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1997), p.106 The political backdrop to the story is the 1876 presidential election, a close contest between Tilden and the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden won the popular vote, but there was a dispute over the results in Louisiana, Oregon, South Carolina, and Florida. In Florida, the Republican leaders of the State and the Electoral Commission initially reported a victory for Tilden, before deciding that in fact Hayes had won. Vidal builds up to this historic crisis through the activities of a mixed cast of historical and fictional characters, some of the latter having appeared in Burr or having descended from characters in that novel. 

=====

The story follows the sexual exploits of two Amherst College roommates over a 25-year period, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Sandy (Art Garfunkel) is gentle and passive, while Jonathan Fuerst (Jack Nicholson) is tough and aggressive. Sandy idolizes women, while Jonathan objectifies them. He frequently uses the term "ballbuster" to describe women as emasculating teases whose main pleasure is to deny pleasure to men; he extends this term to mean women who want to get married instead of accepting that men mostly want unattached sex. Since each man's perspective of womanhood is extreme and self-serving, neither is able to sustain a relationship with a woman. The film has three parts. Part I occurs when Sandy and Jonathan are college roommates. Part II follows the men several years after college. In the final part, the men have become middle-aged. In the beginning, Sandy and Jonathan are discussing women, and what kind appeals to each. Sandy wants a woman who is intellectual. Jonathan is more interested in a woman's physical attributes. Sandy shyly meets Susan (Candice Bergen) at an on-campus event and they begin dating. Although they enjoy each other's company, Susan is reluctant to enter into a physical relationship. Unbeknownst to Sandy, she is pursued by Jonathan, who feels a physical attraction for her. They have sex. Jonathan tries to persuade Susan not to have sex with Sandy, but after some delays, Susan is also having sex with Sandy. Part I ends with Susan and Jonathan breaking up. Part II finds Sandy married to Susan, while Jonathan is still searching for his "perfect woman." Jonathan now defines perfection by a woman's bust size and figure. Jonathan begins a relationship with Bobbie (Ann-Margret), a beautiful woman who fulfills all of his physical requirements. However, Jonathan constantly berates Bobbie for being shallow. Jonathan finds that this purely physical relationship is no more satisfying than his previous relationship with Susan. Bobbie leaves her job at Jonathan's suggestion. She then becomes depressed, spending long hours doing nothing but sleeping in the apartment she shares with Jonathan. The relationship deteriorates. Jonathan berates Bobbie for not cleaning up the apartment while he is out working a nine-to-five job all day. He claims that he doesn't understand why breakups always have to end with "poison." Sandy's relationship with Susan is faring no better. Sandy is dissatisfied and bored with the physical part of their relationship, even though he and Susan "do all the right things." He relates how they are "patient with each other" and concludes with a statement that perhaps sex is not "meant to be enjoyable with a person you love." He says that being in bed with Susan as she tells him what to do is like taking orders at a short-order grill. Sandy and Susan end their relationship. He begins dating Cindy (Cynthia O'Neal) next. Sandy, Cindy, Jonathan, and Bobbie find themselves together at Jonathan's apartment, where Jonathan suggests privately to Sandy that they trade partners, to "liven things up a bit." Sandy goes to the bedroom looking for Bobbie. Cindy dances with Jonathan and reprimands him for attempting to bed her with Sandy nearby, but indicates she is open to seeing him on his own, saying he should contact her at a more appropriate time. In the meantime, upset by an earlier fight with Jonathan about her desire to get married, Bobbie has attempted suicide. She is found by Sandy, who calls the hospital to have her taken to intensive care. Part III opens with now-middle-aged Jonathan presenting a slideshow entitled "Ballbusters on Parade" to Sandy (also middle-aged) and his 18-year- old girlfriend, Jennifer (Carol Kane). The slideshow consists of pictures of Jonathan's various loves throughout his life. He skips awkwardly over a slide of Susan, but not before Sandy notices. He also shows an image of Bobbie, saying they are divorced and had one child together, and he is paying her alimony. Jennifer leaves in tears. Sandy idolizes his new lover, explaining that "she knows worlds which I cannot begin to touch yet." Jonathan believes his friend is deluding himself. Time passes. Jonathan remains successful, but is alone. A prostitute (Rita Moreno) is with him, and they go through a ritual dialogue about male/female relationships which is apparently a script written by Jonathan. At the end, the prostitute recites a monologue (again scripted by Jonathan) praising his power and "perfection," which apparently has become the only way Jonathan can now get an erection. 

=====

At the end of the twenty-first century, a teleportation technology called "T-Mat" has replaced all traditional forms of transport, allowing people and objects to travel instantly anywhere on Earth. Manned space exploration has ceased due to the ease of life on Earth. The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Herriot arrive in a museum on Earth run by Professor Daniel Eldred dedicated to the obsolete technology of rockets. However, something goes amiss at the T-Mat vital relay station on the Moon and the system breaks down. With communications out, and no way to reach the Moon without T-Mat, those responsible for the system, Commander Radnor and his assistant Gia Kelly, turn to Professor Eldred to help. He has been privately building a rocket in hopes of re-igniting interest in space travel. The Doctor and his companions volunteer to crew the rocket. The Doctor also comments that the TARDIS is not suitable for short range use after Zoe informs Jamie that the TARDIS would most likely overshoot by a couple of million years. The relay station on the Moon has been invaded by Ice Warriors, a militant Martian race, who plan to use it as a staging point for an invasion of Earth. The technicians attempt to fight the invaders but several are killed, while Phipps goes into hiding and Fewsham is pressed into assisting the invaders. Fewsham repairs the T-Mat link on receive mode and Miss Kelly beams through to start repairing the T-Mat system. When the Doctor and his companions arrive on the Moon they make contact with Phipps, who is hiding in the moonbase. The Doctor accidentally reveals himself to the Ice Warriors and their leader Commander Slaar. The Ice Warriors have a deadly plan: they have seeds, which they send to various parts of Earth using T-mat, of a fungus that will multiply and suck all the oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere, making it more comfortable for the Martians but uninhabitable for humans. Once the full T-Mat relay is repaired, one seed is sent to Earth Control and explodes, killing a technician and alerting Radnor and Eldred of the danger. The seed soon creates foam, which multiplies its effects and imperils more and more people. Other T-Mat terminals across the world receive more seeds. The Ice Warriors also use T-Mat to dispatch a small advance force to seize Earth's weather control systems in London and ensure good conditions for the growth of the fungus. On the Moon Miss Kelly and Phipps work with Zoe and Jamie to stage diversions and attacks against the Ice Warriors. During their main assault to free the Doctor, Phipps is killed. The Ice Warriors have now retreated to their spacecraft to plan the next stage of their invasion, leaving an opportunity for most of the captives to flee. Fewsham, however, remains behind, seemingly fearing an enquiry into his actions if he returns to Earth. In T-Mat control on Earth, the Doctor works out that the seed pods can be defeated using water. This explains where the Ice Warrior beamed to Earth has gone, and the Doctor tracks him down to the weather control system, where the alien has been stationed to prevent any rain fall that would be deadly to the pods. The Doctor and his allies recapture the weather control system and summon rain, destroying the fungus, which is used to the dry conditions on Mars. Fewsham has meanwhile delivered a crushing blow to the Ice Warriors. He dupes Slaar into revealing in a live link with Earth that the main invasion force is following a homing signal to the Moon, for which he is killed. But at least the Doctor now knows the full extent of the Ice Warrior plans. He returns to the moonbase by T-mat to set a new signal for the Martian fleet from there. The Doctor confronts Slaar while substituting the alternative signal. This draws the Martian fleet away and lures it into the Sun. Slaar moves to kill the Doctor in revenge but the arrival of Jamie in a T-Mat cubicle causes chaos, and Slaar is killed in one of the sonic beams of the last of his warriors. Jamie then kills the surviving Martian and the invasion is over. The Doctor and Jamie return to Earth and then make their goodbyes before departing in the TARDIS with Zoe. 

=====

Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) works with her parents (Gina McKee and Rob Brydon) at their family circus, but desires to run away and join real life. At the next performance, after Helena and her mother have a heated argument, Helena's mother collapses and is taken to the hospital. Ten days later, while Helena is staying with her grandmother, she finds that the doctors determine that Helena's mother requires an operation, and Helena can only blame herself for the situation. That night, she wakes up in a dream-like state and leaves her building to find three performers outside. As they try to perform for Helena, a shadow encroaches on the area and two of the performers are consumed by it. The third performer, Valentine (Jason Barry), a juggler, helps to quickly direct Helena to safety through the use of magical flying books. She learns they are in the City of Light which is slowly being consumed by shadows, causing its widely varied citizens to flee. Soon Helena is mistaken for the Princess. She and Valentine are taken to the Prime Minister (Brydon). He explains that the Princess from the Land of Shadow stole a charm from the White City, leaving their Queen of Light (McKee) in a state of unnatural sleep and the City vulnerable to the Shadows. Helena notes the resemblance of the Queen and Minister to her mother and father, and offers to help recover the charm along with Valentine. They are unaware their actions are being watched by the Queen of Shadows (also McKee) who has mistaken Helena for her daughter. Helena and Valentine attempt to stay ahead of the shadows as they follow clues to the charm, learning that it is called the "MirrorMask". Helena discovers that by looking through the windows of the buildings, she can see into her bedroom in the real world, through the drawings of windows that she created and hung on the wall of her room. She discovers that a doppelgänger of herself is living there and behaving radically differently from her. The doppelganger soon becomes aware of her presence in the drawings and begins to destroy them, causing parts of the fantasy world to collapse. Valentine betrays Helena to the Queen of Shadows in exchange for a large reward of jewels. The Queen's servants warp Helena's mind so she will believe she is the Princess of Shadows. Valentine has a change of heart and returns to the Queen's palace, and helps Helena to break the spell on her. They search the Princess' room, and Helena discovers the MirrorMask hidden in the Princess' mirror. They flee the castle with the charm. As they escape to Valentine's flying tower, Helena realizes that her doppelganger in the real world is the Princess of Shadows, who had used the MirrorMask to step through the windows in Helena's drawings. The Princess destroys the rest of the drawings in Helena's room, preventing Helena from returning, and Helena and Valentine disappear in the collapsed world. The Princess takes the drawings to the building's roof to disperse the shreds into the wind, but discovers one more drawing Helena had made on the back of the roof door. Helena successfully returns to the real world, sending the Princess back to her realm. At the same time, the Queen of Light finally awakens and the two Cities are restored to their natural balance. Helena returns to her apartment to learn that her mother's operation was successful; Helena returns to happily help at the circus. Sometime later, Helena becomes fascinated by a young man, strongly resembling Valentine, who wants to be a juggler for the circus. 

=====

The story follows the bird throughout a year during its migration to South America and return to the Canadian Arctic in search of a mate. Although somewhat anthropomorphic in parts, the book paints a realistic and detailed picture of this bird's life and behaviour. The book may have been somewhat premature in that there were confirmed sightings of this bird in 1963 and there were a number of unconfirmed sightings after that date. However, this bird may now be extinct. 

=====

In a village in the Northern Province of Kenya, a human is killed and eaten by a male lion. British senior game warden, George Adamson (Bill Travers) is sent in to kill the menacing lion and also his female, who charges him in defence of her three cubs. George brings the three cubs home to his wife Joy (Virginia McKenna) and raises them. They name the cubs Big One, Lastika and Elsa who is the youngest and the one which Joy and George become especially attached to. When the cubs get too old, the older two are sent to Rotterdam Zoo but the Adamsons choose to keep Elsa. Some years later, Joy and George soon have to travel to Kiunga as George has been told by his boss, John Kendall (Geoffrey Keen) about a lion who is killing goats in a local village. George successfully manages to kill the lion and he and Joy are able to share a special holiday with Elsa, where they introduce her to the Indian Ocean. On returning to the Northern Province, the Adamsons learn that Elsa has caused a massive elephant stampede. Kendall states that the Adamsons can no longer keep Elsa and must find a zoo to take her in. However, Joy instead wishes to teach Elsa how to survive in the wild, which Kendall reluctantly gives her and George three months to do. Joy and George travel to Meru National Park where they aim to release Elsa. Initially, they attempt to introduce Elsa to a male lion, which does not go to plan – they leave her overnight with a fresh zebra kill but return in the morning to find her all by herself. Elsa is constantly taken out to the bush but fails to make a kill, getting attacked by a warthog on one of these outings. Eventually, Joy and George decide to leave Elsa in the bush for at least a week and change the location of their camp so that Elsa can become more independent. However, they find her severely injured (possibly by wild lions). Joy still believes that she can teach Elsa to survive as she opposes sending her to a zoo, where she will have no freedom. This proves to be a good decision as Elsa eventually starts leaving the Adamsons for days at a time and eventually makes several kills. The Adamsons thus take her out for her final test – an attempt to join a wild pride. Elsa manages to fight a wild lioness and is accepted into the pride – Joy and George are overjoyed at their success but promise to see their dear friend again when they return to Kenya. A year later, the Adamsons return to Kenya and are given a week to find Elsa. They are overjoyed to see that Elsa has succeeded as a wild lion and is now the mother of three cubs. However, Joy and George both agree that they will not interact with the cubs, allowing them to survive as wild lions. 

=====

The Auditors of Reality are beings who watch the Discworld to ensure everything obeys The Rules. As Death starts developing a personality the Auditors feel that he does not perform his Duty in the right way. They send him to live like everyone else. Assuming the name "Bill Door", he works as a farm hand for the elderly Miss Flitworth. She is a spinster whose fiance, Rufus, died on a last smuggling expedition many years ago. There are rumours that he'd had second thoughts about their marriage but she does not believe them. While every other species creates a new Death for themselves, humans need more time for their Death to be completed. As a result, the life force of dead humans starts to build up; this results in poltergeist activity, ghosts, and other paranormal phenomena. Most notable is the return of the recently deceased wizard Windle Poons, who was really looking forward to reincarnation. After several misadventures, including being accosted by his oldest friends, he finds himself attending the Fresh Start club, an undead-rights group led by Reg Shoe. The Fresh Start club and the wizards of Unseen University discover that the city of Ankh-Morpork is being invaded by a parasitic lifeform that feeds on cities and hatches from eggs that resemble snow globes. Tracking its middle form, shopping carts, the Fresh Start club and the wizards invade and destroy the third form, a shopping mall. When humankind finally thinks of a New Death, one with a crown and without any humanity or human face, it goes to take Bill Door. Death/Door, having planned for this moment for some time, outwits and destroys it. Having defeated the New Death, Death absorbs the other Deaths back into him, with the exception of the Death of Rats (and ultimately, the Death of Fleas). Death confronts Azrael, the Death of the Universe, and states that the Deaths have to care or they do not exist and there is nothing but Oblivion, which must also end some time. Death asks for and receives some time. He meets up with Miss Flitworth again and offers her unlimited dreams. She asks to go to the local Harvest Dance. They prepare and join the townspeople for a full night of dancing. As the sun is coming up, Miss Flitworth realizes she had died hours before the dance even started. Death escorts her through back history to her old fiancé: as she had believed, he had died in an accident and not been unfaithful. The young couple enter the afterlife together. Returning to the city of Ankh Morpork, Death meets up with Windle Poons, finally taking him to his just reward, whatever it is. At the end there is also a discussion between Death and the Death of Rats over what the Death of Rats should "ride", Death suggests a dog while the Death of Rats suggests a cat. 

=====

Edward d'Eath, an Assassin and son of a down-and-out noble family, becomes convinced that the restoration of the Ankh-Morpork monarchy will solve the social change in the city which he blames for his family's humbling. He researches the history of the royal family and determines that Carrot Ironfoundersson is in fact the rightful heir to the throne. Meanwhile, Captain Samuel Vimes, captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, prepares for his imminent wedding to Sybil Ramkin, the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. He also must deal with a new group of recruits that he has been required to take on for the sake of diversity: Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll), and Angua (a werewolf—but Carrot is unaware of this, and believes she is included because she is female). When a string of seemingly random murders occur among the Guilds of the city, Lord Vetinari forbids Vimes to investigate in a successful ploy to ensure Vimes does investigate. Cuddy and Detritus are forced to work together, resulting in them becoming friends as they overcome their deep-seated racial enmity. Angua works with the talking dog Gaspode, and also forms a romantic connection with Carrot, who loses his virginity to her but handles the discovery that she is a werewolf poorly. It turns out that d'Eath has stolen the gonne, the Disc's first and only handheld firearm, from the Assassins' Guild, with the intention of discrediting Vetinari's government through the murders. Any possessor of the gonne seems to become obsessed with the device. After d'Eath reveals his plan to Dr. Cruces, head of the Assassin's Guild, Cruces murders him and takes up the plan himself. The Watch prevent Cruces from killing Vetinari, but Cuddy and Angua are killed in the process. Vimes and Carrot confront and disarm Cruces, and Carrot helps Vimes resist the gonne's allure. Cruces gives Carrot the evidence that he is the royal heir, upon which Carrot kills Cruces with his sword and has both the evidence and the dismantled gonne buried with Cuddy. Angua gets shot 3 times by Cruces; as a werewolf can only be killed with a silver weapon, Angua is revived upon the moon's rising. Vimes and Ramkin are married. Recent events have raised the Night Watch's profile, bringing a slew of new recruits. Carrot visits Vetinari, who is expecting Carrot to make personal demands as he is now in a strong position to blackmail the Patrician. What Carrot actually brings is a request for Vetinari to implement a plan for reforming the City Watch into an effective, integrated, comprehensive police force with better working conditions. Vetinari accedes, making Carrot Captain of the Watch and elevating Vimes to the recreated position Commander of the Watch, and the rank of Knight. 

=====

The Auditors of Reality, a group of "celestial bureaucrats" attempt to eliminate the Hogfather, a jolly god-like creature who brings children presents on December 32nd, similar to the figures of Santa Claus and Father Christmas in the US and UK. Forbidden to interfere directly by "The Rules", they pay the Assassin's Guild to kill the Hogfather instead. The task is given to Mr. Teatime who has a reputation for ruthlessness and creative solutions. Mr. Teatime enlists the help of some gangsters to find a delivery person working for the Tooth Fairy, using his magic to break into her kingdom and stealing all the collected teeth. With these teeth, he is able to control all the children on the Discworld, commanding them to no longer believe in the Hogfather. Knowing that the Hogfather is also responsible for the sun rising, Death attempts to maintain belief by dressing up as the Hogfather and fulfilling his role. Since he is unable himself to defeat Mr. Teatime, who resides in a realm created by children's belief where death (and thus Death) does not exist, he appears at his granddaughter's place of work dressed as the Hogfather. As he had planned, Susan Sto Helit is unable to resist her curiosity and tries to find the Hogfather. She visits the Hogfather's Castle of Bones, only to find the hung- over Bilious, the "Oh God" of Hangovers. In an attempt to cure Bilious from his hangovers, Susan visits the Unseen University, where it is discovered that several small gods and beings (including Bilious) are being created due to an abundance of excess belief in the world caused by the Hogfather's disappearance. Susan and Bilious travel to the Tooth Fairy's realm and discover Mr. Teatime's plot. Mr. Teatime attacks Susan using Death's sword, but since it does not work in this realm, Susan is able to overpower him and throw him off the tower, causing him to disappear. She then manages to rescue the Hogfather, who has reverted to his former self as a hog, from Auditors who hound him in the form of attack dogs. As Susan is returning to her place of work, Death explains what happened to Susan but she is attacked by Teatime whom she finally manages to kill using the kitchen poker. 

=====

The Auditors hire young clockmaker Jeremy Clockson to build a perfect glass clock, without telling him that this will stop time and thereby eliminate human unpredictability from the universe. Death discovers their plans, but cannot act against them directly, so he instead sends his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit. Meanwhile, Lu-Tze of the History Monks leads gifted young apprentice Lobsang Ludd in a desperate mission. 

=====

Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) is an arrogant but successful Minneapolis defense attorney. After his 30th successful case, he celebrates by going out drinking, but is arrested for drunk driving and sentenced to 500 hours of community service by coaching the local "District 5" Pee-Wee hockey team. Bombay has an unpleasant history with the sport: in 1973, he was the Hawks’ star player but, struggling with the loss of his father, he missed a penalty shot in the championship game, disappointing his hyper- competitive coach, Jack Reilly (Lane Smith). The Hawks went on to lose in overtime, becoming one of their only championship defeats. Bombay meets the District 5 team, and realizes the children have no practice facility, equipment, or ability. Their first game with Bombay at the helm is against the Hawks. Reilly is still the Hawks' head coach and, despite a nearly unbroken championship streak, remains bitter about Gordon's missed penalty shot. District 5 is soundly defeated as Reilly demands the Hawks run up the score. Bombay berates the team for not listening to him, and the players challenge his authority. For the next match, Bombay tries to teach his team how to dive and draw penalties, which results in another loss – this time to the Jets – angering the team further. Specifically one player Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson), who refused to fake an injury like Bombay instructed him to. Bombay visits his old mentor Hans (Joss Ackland), who owns a nearby sporting goods store and was in attendance at the game against the Hawks. While there, Bombay recalls that he quit playing hockey after losing his father four months before the championship game, and because Reilly blamed him for the loss due to the missed penalty shot. Hans encourages him to rekindle his childhood passion for the sport by skating in a frozen pond like he did when he was a kid. Realizing the error of his ways, he apologizes to Charlie and his mother at their home. Bombay approaches his boss, Gerald Ducksworth (Josef Sommer), to sponsor the team, allowing them to purchase professional-grade equipment as opposed to the makeshift equipment they had, and give Bombay time to teach the players fundamentals. Renamed the Ducks – after Ducksworth – the team fights its next game against the Cardinals to a tie. They recruit three new players: Figure skating siblings Tommy (Danny Tamberelli) and Tammy Duncan (Jane Plank), and slap shot specialist and enforcer Fulton Reed (Elden Henson). The potential of Charlie catches Bombay's eye; he takes Charlie under his wing and teaches him some of the tactics he used playing with the Hawks. Bombay learns that, due to redistricting, the Hawks’ star player Adam Banks (Vincent LaRusso) lives in District Five and should be playing for the Ducks, and threatens Reilly into transferring Banks to the Ducks. After overhearing an out-of-context quote about the team, most of the players walk out (except Charlie and Fulton who form a strong friendship), resulting in a loss on forfeit to the Flames. The Ducks lose faith in Bombay and revert to their old habits except Charlie and Fulton. Ducksworth makes a deal with Reilly for the Hawks to keep Banks, which Bombay, although initially tempted, refuses on the principles of fair play, which Ducksworth berated him about when he started his community service. Left with the choice of letting his team down or being fired from his job, he takes the latter. Bombay manages to regain his players’ trust after they win a crucial match against the Huskies in order to qualify for the playoffs, and Banks – who decided to play with the Ducks rather than not play hockey at all – proves to be an asset though Jesse doesn’t trust him. The Ducks march through the playoffs with wins against the Hornets and the Cardinals, reaching the championship game against the Hawks. Reilly orders his team to injure Banks to force him out of the game; in spite of this, the Ducks manage to tie late in the final period, and Charlie is tripped by a Hawks player as time expires. In precisely the same situation Bombay faced at the film’s beginning, Charlie prepares for a game-deciding penalty shot. In stark contrast to Reilly – who told Bombay that if he missed, he was letting everyone down – Bombay tells Charlie to take his best shot and that he will believe in him no matter what. Inspired, Charlie fakes out the goalie with a "triple-deke" Bombay taught him and scores, winning the state championship. The Ducks players and their families race onto the ice in jubilation, where Bombay thanks Hans for his belief in him and Hans tells Bombay he is proud of him. Later, Bombay boards a bus to a minor-league tryout, secured for him by the NHL's Basil McRae of the Minnesota North Stars. Although daunted at the prospect of going up against younger players, he receives the same words of encouragement and advice from the Ducks he had given them, promising to return next season to defend their title. 

=====

About 1,000,000 B.C., an unidentified alien race sent out robotic factories to many worlds in their part of the galaxy to prepare for future settlement. One of those factory ships suffers severe radiation damage from a near-miss by a supernova and goes off course, drifting in space for a hundred thousand years before landing on the Saturnian moon Titan. Due to a malfunction in its database, it begins producing imperfect copies that begin to evolve on their own. (The description of this background is presented in a prologue that proved sufficiently popular among readers that it was later anthologized on its own in a collection of Hogan's short fiction.) The resulting machine ecosystem eventually gives rise to humanoid robots with human-like intellects, who develop a civilization similar to early civilization of Earth. Almost all of them have reverence for their mythical creator, a being they call the "Lifemaker". Early in the 21st century, the North Atlantic Space Organization (combining NASA and NATO) dispatched the Orion with a cover story of terraforming Mars for human habitation. Karl Zambendorf, a con artist who is present on this expedition to verify ESP over interplanetary distances, prematurely learns that the Orion and its crew of researchers is headed for Titan, where the discovery of the Taloids has been kept need-to-know on Earth. When the Orion arrives, the first landing party sets down in a freethinking state where Thirg, a Taloid who was cast out of his home state Kroaxia, has fled. They are mistaken for the Lifemaker because they have come from the sky, which the Taloids cannot see out of due to Titan's atmosphere. But Thirg becomes more discerning as he and the humans begin to understand more of each other's speech. Thirg's brother Groork has come from Kroaxia to apprehend him, but Zambendorf intercepts him and sends him back to Kroaxia as a prophet. Zambendorf learned that NASO plans to exploit Titan's natural resources and use the Taloids to build the factories they need, reducing them to slaves. The NASO business administrators on the Orion are already in agreement with the Kroaxian government to use human (the Taloids call humans "Lumians" because they glow brightly in their infrared vision) weapons to conquer Titan, believing the Kroaxian leadership buttressed by priests will be the easiest to control. Zambendorf, in his unanticipated role as Messenger for the Lifemaker, has given Groork guidelines akin to the Ten Commandments for his people to prevent a war from starting. "All Taloids are brothers" and "No Taloid is to enslave or be a slave" does not sit well with the ruling establishment of Kroaxia, and Groork is saved by the Orion crew not working for NASO. There will be use of Titan's resources, but the partnership between humans and Taloids will be one of equals. 

=====

In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, scientist André Delambre (Al Hedison) is found dead with his head and arm crushed in a hydraulic press. Although his wife Hélène (Patricia Owens) confesses to the crime, she refuses to provide a motive, and begins acting strangely. In particular, she is obsessed with flies, including a supposedly white-headed fly. André's brother, François (Vincent Price), lies and says he caught the white-headed fly; thinking he knows the truth, Hélène explains the circumstances surrounding André's death. In flashback, André, Hélène, and their son Philippe (Charles Herbert) are a happy family. André has been working on a matter transporter device called the disintegrator-integrator. He initially tests it only on small inanimate objects, such as a newspaper, but he then proceeds to living creatures, including the family's pet cat (which fails to reintegrate, but can be heard meowing somewhere) and a guinea pig. After he is satisfied that these tests are succeeding, he builds a man-sized pair of chambers. One day, Hélène, worried because André has not come up from the basement lab for a couple of days, goes down to find André with a black cloth over his head and a strange deformity on his left hand. Communicating with typed notes only, André tells Hélène that he tried to transport himself but that a fly was caught in the chamber with him, which resulted in the mixing of their atoms. Now, he has the head and left arm of a fly; and the fly has his miniature head and left arm, though he keeps his mind. André needs Hélène to capture the fly so he can reverse the process. Although she expends great effort in her search, she cannot find it and André's will begins to fade as the fly's instincts take over his brain. Time is running out, and while André can still think like a human, he smashes the equipment, burns his notes, and leads Hélène to the factory. When they arrive, he sets the hydraulic press, puts his head and arm under, and motions for Hélène to push the button. André's arm falls free as the press descends and, trying not to look, she raises the press, replaces the arm, and activates the machine a second time. Upon hearing this confession, the chief detective on the case, Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall), deems Hélène insane and guilty of murder. As they are about to haul her away, Philippe tells François he's seen the fly trapped in a web in the back garden. François convinces the inspector to come and see for himself. The two men see the fly, with both André's head and arm, trapped in the web as Phillippe told them. It screams "Help me! Help me!" as a large brown spider advances on it. Just as the spider is about to devour the creature, Charas crushes them both with a rock. Knowing that nobody would believe the truth, he and François decide to declare André's death a suicide so that Hélène is not convicted of murder. In the end, Hélène, François, and Philippe resume their daily lives. Sometime later, Philippe and Hélène are playing croquet in the yard. François arrives to take his nephew to the zoo. In reply to his nephew's query about his father's death, François tells Philippe, "He was searching for the truth. He almost found a great truth but for one instant, he was careless. The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous". The film closes with Hélène escorting her son and François out of the yard. 

=====

On 2 May 1945, Squadron Leader Peter Carter, an RAF pilot, is flying a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber over the English Channel, after a mission over Germany. Carter is expecting to die, after ordering his crew to bail out, without revealing to them that his own parachute has been destroyed. The only radio operator receiving him is June, at a USAAF base on the coast of England. For a few minutes Carter converses with June, before jumping from the Lancaster without a parachute. Peter should have died at that point, but Conductor 71, the guide sent to escort him to the Other World, misses him in the thick fog over the English Channel. The airman wakes up on a beach near June's base. At first, he assumes he is in the afterlife but, when a de Havilland Mosquito flies low overhead, discovers to his bewilderment that he is still alive. Peter meets June cycling back to her quarters after her night shift, and they fall in love. Conductor 71 (a French aristocrat guillotined in the Revolution) stops time to explain the situation, urging Peter to accept his death and accompany him to the Other World, but Peter demands an appeal. While Conductor 71 consults his superiors, Peter continues to live. Conductor 71 returns and informs him that he has been granted his appeal and has three days to prepare his case. He can choose a defence counsel from among all the people who have ever died, but he has difficulty picking one. Peter's visions are diagnosed by June's fascinated friend Doctor Reeves as a symptom of a brain injury—chronic adhesive arachnoiditis from a slight concussion two years earlier—and he is scheduled for surgery. Reeves is killed in a motorcycle accident while trying to find the ambulance that is to take Peter to the hospital. Reeves' death allows him to act as Peter's counsel. Reeves argues that, through no fault of his own, his client was given additional time on Earth and that, during that time, he has fallen in love and now has an earthly commitment that should take precedence over the afterlife's claim on him. The matter comes to a head—in parallel with Peter's brain surgery—before a celestial court; the camera zooms out from an amphitheatre to reveal that it is as large as a spiral galaxy. The prosecutor is American Abraham Farlan, who hates the British for making him the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War. Reeves challenges the composition of the jury, which is made up of representatives who are prejudiced against the British. In fairness, the jury is replaced by a multicultural mixture of modern Americans whose origins are as varied as those they replace. Reeves and Farlan both make comparisons with the other's nationality to support their positions. In the end, Reeves has June take the stand (Conductor 71 makes her fall asleep in the real world so she can testify) and prove that she genuinely loves Peter by telling her that the only way to save his life is to take his place, whereupon she steps onto the stairway to the Other World without hesitation and is carried away, leaving Peter behind. The stairway comes to an abrupt halt and June rushes back to Peter's open arms. As Reeves triumphantly explains, "... nothing is stronger than the law in the universe, but on Earth, nothing is stronger than love." The jury rules in Peter's favour. The Judge shows Reeves and Farlan the new lifespan granted to the defendant; Reeves calls it "very generous", and Farlan jokingly complains, then agrees to it. The two then engage in supportive banter with one another, and against the stern Chief Recorder, who protests against the breach of law. The scene then shifts to the operating room, where the surgeon declares the operation a success. 

=====

Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former senator from "some Western state", approaches Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr. Gibson's marriage had been unhappy and he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realised they had nothing in common. He became attracted to Miss Dunbar; since he could not marry her, he had attempted to please her in other ways, such as trying to help people less fortunate than himself. Maria Gibson was found lying in a pool of blood on Thor Bridge with a bullet through the head and note from the governess, agreeing to a meeting at that location, in her hand. A recently discharged revolver with one shot fired is found in Miss Dunbar's wardrobe. Holmes agrees to look at the situation in spite of the damning evidence. From the outset, Holmes observes some rather odd things about the case. How could Miss Dunbar so coolly and rationally have planned and carried out the murder and then carelessly tossed the murder weapon into her wardrobe? What was the strange chip on the underside of the bridge's stone balustrade? Why was Mrs. Gibson clutching the note from Miss Dunbar when she died? If the murder weapon was one of a matched pair of pistols, why couldn't the other one be found in Mr. Gibson's collection? Holmes uses his powers of deduction to solve the crime, and demonstrates, using Watson's revolver, how it was perpetrated: Mrs Gibson, outraged and jealous of Miss Dunbar's relationship with her husband, resolved to end her own life and frame her rival for the crime. After arranging a meeting with Miss Dunbar, requesting her to leave her response in a note, Mrs Gibson tied a rock on a piece of string to the end of a revolver, and shot herself, the rock pulling the revolver over the side of the bridge; the revolver found in Miss Dunbar's wardrobe was the other pistol of the pair, which had been fired off in the woods earlier, and the chip in the bridge was caused by the pistol hitting the stonework as it was pulled off by the rock. Holmes's reconstruction reproduces the damage to the balustrade of the bridge. He asks the police to drag the lake for the revolvers of Watson and Gibson. 

=====



=====

Brian Griffin is a strict high school English teacher at Del Norte High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who never accepts late homework and is demanding of his students. When Mark Kinney, one of the students in his class, plagiarizes a paper, Mr. Griffin makes him beg to be allowed back into the class. However, instead of allowing him back in, Mr. Griffin decides to make him repeat the class next semester. Fellow students in the class he is repeating include David Ruggles, Jeff Garrett and Betsy Cline. Susan McConell is an A+ student on average, but is constantly receiving below average B's in his class. Mark suggests kidnapping Mr. Griffin, and convinces David, Jeff, and Betsy to join in on the plan as a way of scaring him and getting revenge because they feel he has treated them poorly. The group decides to use Susan, who is least willing to participate in the plot, to distract Mr. Griffin by requesting a conference with him after school. Since Susan is one of his better-performing students with a serious approach to her studies, Mr. Griffin willingly does so, allowing her to walk him to his car afterwards. Jeff, David, and Mark forcefully place a bag over Mr. Griffin's head and tie him up, replacing the bag with a blindfold as they take him to a remote spot in the mountains. Betsy, thanks to a speeding ticket, arrives in the parking lot after the boys have left with Mr. Griffin. Susan was supposed to ride with Betsy but does not want any further part in the scheme, and Betsy leaves without her. Mark tells Mr. Griffin to beg, but he refuses, so the students decide to leave him alone there until midnight. Susan and David defy the group and go check on Mr. Griffin. The two find him dead as a result of coronary arrest after being unable to take his medication for angina. Mark convinces the rest of the group to cover up the death. He instructs Susan, who was the last one known to the police to see Mr. Griffin, to tell them Mr. Griffin kept looking at his watch during the conference and left with a pretty woman. Jeff, Mark, and David bury the body in the mountains. Betsy and David also drive Mr. Griffin's car to the airport, but the officer who gave Betsy a ticket sees her there. Worried that the officer might later identify the car as Mr. Griffin's, Jeff and Betsy move the car into Jeff's garage so he can repaint it before they hide it elsewhere. Mark's ex-girlfriend, Lana Turnboldt, has a picnic with her fiancé at the secluded place in the mountains, where they discover Mr. Griffin's medicine bottle. The police investigate, and find Mr. Griffin's body buried nearby. However, police do not find the ring Mr. Griffin was wearing when he died as David had taken it. Irma Ruggles, David's paternal grandmother who lives with him, discovers the ring and refuses to give it back to him, believing the ring to be that of David's father who had left him. David tells Susan he took the ring and his grandmother found it, but they are unsuccessful at retrieving it from her, so Susan tells Mark about the situation because she feels he would know what to do. Irma Ruggles is later murdered, and a neighbor refers to the suspect as a boy in a brown sweater. Susan makes the connection, knowing that Mark has a brown sweater he wears all the time, and that Mark would stop at nothing to get what he needed – in this case, the ring. Susan plans to tell the police all that the group has done. Before she can inform the police, Mark, Jeff, and Betsy tie Susan up, and Jeff and Betsy leave to hide Mr. Griffin's car. Mark sets her curtains on fire, but Susan is saved by Kathy Griffin,In the first edition of the novel her name is spelled Kathy, which is the spelling used here. The 2010 revised edition of the novel () spells her name Cathy. Mr. Griffin's wife, who came over to her house with a detective for an interview. The detective catches Mark as he attempts to leave the house through a window. Several days later, Susan's mother tells her that all of those involved will face varying criminal charges, with her lawyer attempting to get Susan off with no charges in exchange for testimony. Mark will face three trials, one each for the deaths of Mr. Griffin and David's grandmother, and one for the attempted murder of Susan. Mrs. Griffin leaves Susan a note that her husband had written before his death, praising Susan for her work and recognizing her potential. 

=====

On New Year's Eve, bellhop Sam (Marc Lawrence) of the Hotel Mon Signor briefs his replacement, Ted (Tim Roth). The film's animated opening credits, inspired by the cartoons of The Pink Panther Show, feature the scat song "Vertigogo" by Combustible Edison. 

=====



=====

Helen Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage she has built in memory of her late husband, Captain Alving. She reveals to Pastor Manders that her marriage was secretly miserable because her husband was unfaithful. She has built the orphanage to deplete her husband's wealth so that their son Oswald will not inherit anything from him. Pastor Manders once advised her to return to her husband despite his philandering, and she followed his advice in the hope that she could reform him. But her husband continued his affairs until his death, and Mrs. Alving stayed with him to protect her son from the taint of scandal and for fear of being shunned by the community. In the course of the play, she discovers that her son Oswald (whom she had sent away to avoid his being corrupted by his father) is suffering from syphilis that she believes he inherited from his father. She also discovers that Oswald has fallen in love with her maid Regina Engstrand, who is revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of Captain Alving and is therefore Oswald's half-sister. A sub-plot involves a carpenter, Jacob Engstrand, who married Regina's mother when she was already pregnant. He regards Regina as his own daughter. He is unaware, or pretends to be, that Captain Alving was Regina's father. Having recently completed his work building Mrs. Alving's orphanage, Engstrand announces his ambition to open a hostel for seafarers. He tries to persuade Regina to leave Mrs. Alving and help him run the hostel, but she refuses. The night before the orphanage is due to open, Engstrand asks Pastor Manders to hold a prayer- meeting there. Later that night, the orphanage burns down. Earlier, Manders had persuaded Mrs. Alving not to insure the orphanage, as to do so would imply a lack of faith in divine providence. Engstrand says the blaze was caused by Manders' carelessness with a candle and offers to take the blame, which Manders readily accepts. Manders in turn offers to support Engstrand's hostel. When Regina and Oswald's sibling relationship is exposed, Regina departs, leaving Oswald in anguish. He asks his mother to help him avoid the late stages of syphilis with a fatal morphine overdose. She agrees, but only if it becomes necessary. The play concludes with Mrs. Alving having to confront the decision of whether or not to euthanize her son in accordance with his wishes.Ibsen, Henrik, Ghosts. Four Major Plays. Oxford World’s Classic. Oxford University Press. (1981) 

=====

Arne Aas (Brand) and Inger Marie Andersen (Agnes) in a 1968 production of Brand at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen 

=====

Race teams have gathered in Connecticut to start a cross-country car race. One at a time, teams drive up to the starters' stand, punch a time card to indicate their time of departure, then take off. Among the teams: :*JJ McClure (Reynolds) and Victor Prinzi (DeLuise), drive a souped-up, but otherwise authentic, Dodge Tradesman ambulance. (Hal Needham and Brock Yates used the same vehicle in the actual 1979 race.) :*Former open-wheel icon (and Scotch-swilling) Jamie Blake (Dean Martin) and his (gambling-obsessed) teammate Morris Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.), dressed as Catholic priests, drive a red Ferrari 308 GTS 1979. (They are based on an entry in the real 1972 race, in which three men disguised as priests ("The Flying Fathers") drove a Mercedes 280 SEL sedan, which they claimed to be "the Monsignor's car" belonging to an ecumenical council of prelates in California.) :*Jill Rivers (Tara Buckman) and Marcie Thatcher (Adrienne Barbeau), two attractive women who use their looks to their advantage, start the race in a black Lamborghini Countach. :*Jackie Chan and Michael Hui race in a high-tech, computer-laden Subaru GL 4WD hatchback with a rocket booster engine. :*A pair of good ol' boys, played by Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis, drive a street-legal replica of Donnie Allison's Hawaiian Tropic- sponsored NASCAR Winston Cup Series Chevrolet stock car owned by Hoss Ellington. (It starts off as '75–76 Laguna. After they paint it, it somehow becomes a '76–77 Monte Carlo.) :*Roger Moore plays Seymour Goldfarb, Jr., "heir to the Goldfarb Girdles fortune", who perpetually identifies himself as actor Roger Moore and signs into the race under that name. His character behaves similarly to James Bond and only once (by his mother) is called by his real name. He drives a silver Aston Martin DB5. (This film was released around the same time as Moore's next bona fide James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.) :*Jamie Farr portrays an oil-rich Middle-Eastern sheikh, driving a white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. At the starting line, observing from the shadows, is Mr. Arthur J. Foyt (a play on the name of racer A. J. Foyt), a representative of the "Safety Enforcement Unit", who tries to stop the race because of its environmental effects and safety issues. In the car with Foyt (George Furth) is a photographer and tree lover, Pamela Glover (Fawcett). Beyond the starting line, JJ and Victor (driving their ambulance) come across Foyt and Glover, who have been involved in a minor fender-bender. Glover implores JJ and Victor to help, but when they tell Foyt to enter the ambulance through the back door, they kidnap Glover and take off without Foyt. As the race progresses, Victor occasionally turns into his alter ego, superhero "Captain Chaos". The very spooky Dr. Van Helsing (Jack Elam) and his huge hypodermic needle are also in the ambulance to "help" keep Glover quiet during the race. Various teams are shown either evading law enforcement, most of which deal with talking their way out of a possible ticket, or concocting crazy schemes to outmaneuver their opponents. :*Jill and Marcie use sex appeal as their weapon, unzipping their race suits to display copious amounts of cleavage during traffic stops. (However, this fails to work on a busty female traffic officer played in a cameo appearance by actress Valerie Perrine.) :*In New Jersey, the ambulance is pulled over by state troopers; Dr. Van Helsing drugs Glover, and JJ and Victor are able to convince the troopers that they're rushing "the Senator's wife" to UCLA for medical treatment (offering the theory, which to JJ and Victor's happy surprise is Van Helsing's idea, that her condition prevents them from flying, or from even driving through Denver). :*The Subaru team is able to turn off their car's headlights and use infrared sensors for racing at night. :*Seymour Goldfarb is frequently shown evading police by using various James Bond-type gadgets, such as oil slicks, smoke screens, switchable license plates, all installed in his Aston Martin DB5. :*Mr. Compton (Bert Convy) and "Super Chief" Finch (Warren Berlinger) disguise themselves as a newlywed couple on a motorcycle, but Finch's extra weight forces the two to ride cross-country in a continuous wheelie. The primary rivalry is between the ambulance and the Ferrari. In Ohio, Fenderbaum and Blake are able to convince Victor to pull over the ambulance in order to bless the patient on board. While Blake carries out the blessing, Fenderbaum flattens one of the ambulance's rear tires. JJ gets his revenge in Missouri by convincing a nearby police officer that the two men dressed as priests are actually Communists and sex perverts who are responsible for the flashing victim in the ambulance. The leading teams find themselves stopped on a desert highway, waiting for construction workers to clear the road. A biker gang (led by Peter Fonda) shows up and begins harassing Compton and Finch. It quickly gets out of hand and a free-for-all fistfight ensues. "Captain Chaos" re- emerges to fight the bikers. The Subaru team also joins in (Naturally, Jackie Chan puts his martial arts skills to work) and fists and kicks fly. The construction crew announces that the road is open, so the teams sprint back to their cars to resume the race. The ambulance falls behind the pack until Victor once again becomes Captain Chaos. The vehicles all arrive at the final destination at the same time, so it is a foot race to the finish line. JJ hands his team's time card to Victor, then ambushes the remaining racers, leaving only Victor and one of the Lamborghini women, Marcie. Just when it appears Victor will reach the time clock first, a spectator shouts that her "baby" has fallen into the water. Victor, still in his Captain Chaos persona, rushes to save the baby (later revealed to be her dog), allowing Marcie to clock in first and win the race. JJ is furious and never wants to see Captain Chaos again, but Victor replies that he does not care, becoming the persona he really wants to be, Captain USA. JJ laughs and hugs him. Foyt reappears and blames everyone for ruining the American highway. Seymour offers a cigar and tells Foyt to use the lighter in his car, which activates an ejection seat when pushed. Nothing happens at first, but when Seymour presses the button, he (Seymour) goes flying into the water. 

=====

The main cast in 1971 from left: Clarence Williams III, Peggy Lipton and Michael Cole They were The Mod Squad ("One black, one white, one blonde"), described by one critic as "the hippest and first young undercover cops on TV". Each of these characters represented mainstream culture's principal fears regarding youth in the era: long-haired rebel Pete Cochran was evicted from his wealthy parents' Beverly Hills home, then arrested and put on probation after he stole a car; Lincoln Hayes, who came from a family of 13 children, was arrested in the Watts riots, one of the longest and most violent riots in Los Angeles history; flower child Julie Barnes, the "canary with a broken wing," was arrested for vagrancy after running away from her prostitute mother's San Francisco home; and Captain Adam Greer was a tough but sympathetic mentor and father figure who convinced them to form the squad. The concept was to take three rebellious, disaffected young social outcasts and convince them to work as unarmed undercover detectives as an alternative to being incarcerated. Their youthful, hippie personas would enable them to get close to the criminals they investigated. "The times are changing," said Captain Greer. "They can get into places we can't." Examples included infiltrations of a high school to solve a teacher's murder, of an underground newspaper to find a bomber, and of an acting class to look for a strangler who was preying on blonde actresses. More than a year before the release of the film Easy Rider, The Mod Squad was one of the earliest attempts to deal with the counterculture. Groundbreaking in the realm of socially relevant drama, it dealt with issues such as abortion, domestic violence, child abuse, illiteracy, slumlords, the anti-war movement, illegal immigration, police brutality, student protest, soldiers returning from Vietnam and PTSD, racism, euthanasia, and the illegal drug trade. Spelling intended the show to be about the characters' relationships and promised that the Squad "would never arrest kids...or carry a gun or use one." The show was loosely based on creator Bud "Buddy" Ruskin's experiences in the late 1950s as a squad leader for young undercover narcotics cops, though it took almost 10 years after he wrote a script for the idea to be green-lighted by ABC Television Studios. 

=====

Outlaw Star is a space opera/space Western set in the fictional universe. During its past, an asteroid containing a material known as "dragonite" crashed in the fictional Arashon desert of northern China. Scientists found that the dragonite contained properties related to "ether", an energy source that would allow spacecraft to travel faster than the speed of light, and thus traverse large distances of the universe in a short time. As new colonies were formed throughout the vast reaches of outer space, pirates, assassins, and outlaws began to threaten humanity's new frontier. To create order, the Earth Federation established four empires: USSA, Einhorn, Piotr, and Tenpa. However, internal power struggles within the factions and conflicts amongst one another become abundant, leading to inevitable lawlessness. The storyline starts shortly after an infamous outlaw named "Hot Ice" Hilda flees from the Kei Pirates, a branch of the Tin'Pa. Hilda has stolen from them a highly-advanced prototype ship dubbed the XGP15A-II and a suitcase containing a bio-android called Melfina, the only being capable of interfacing with the ship. Outlaw Star opens on the backwater planet Sentinel III, on which the protagonist Gene Starwind and his 11-year-old business associate James "Jim" Hawking run a small jack-of-all-trades business. After the two take a job as bodyguards for a disguised Hilda and engage in a brief skirmish with the Kei Pirates, Gene and Jim find themselves the owners of the XGP15A-II (which they nickname the "Outlaw Star") and the caretakers of Melfina, though Hilda is killed in the process. Hilda reveals that the ship's true purpose is to locate the , a place which popular claims say is a holder of immense treasure, knowledge, and power. Throughout the course of the series, the crew grows to include the kimono-garbed contract killer "Twilight" Suzuka and the Ctarl-Ctarl alien catgirl Aisha Clanclan. The Outlaw Star manga series and animated television series are paced differently. The anime episodes often involve Gene and his comrades taking on various jobs or missions to fund their ship's massive maintenance costs. Throughout their travels, the crew often encounters Ronald MacDougall and Harry MacDougall, a pair of bounty hunters responsible for the death of Gene's father. Ronald acts as a rival to Gene, while Harry wishes to form a bond with Melfina, a bio-android like himself, who instead develops strong feelings for Gene. The crew also contends with others that learn of the Outlaw Star's connection to the Galactic Leyline. They are Nguyen Khan, a scientist wishing to gain omniscience through the Leyline; and Lord Hazanko, the leader of the ruthless assassin organization the Anten Seven that seek the Leyline to gain ultimate power. The series climaxes when all parties meet on the physical plane of the Leyline. In the end, Ron MacDougall retreats, saved by a computer copy of his brother Harry (who is killed trying to protect Melfina from Hazanko), Khan is integrated into the Leyline as data, Gene reveals to Melfina that he is in love with her and frees her from the Leyline by making it their shared wish to be together forever, and Hazanko is eventually defeated by the Outlaw Star crewmembers. Once the conflict comes to a close, Gene and his friends return to Sentinel III and go their separate ways, but ultimately reunite to continue their adventures together. 

=====

Sylvie Cooper is a young girl at a private school for the wealthy. At a local hangout, she first meets Ivy, a street-smart but poor, and trashy girl, and witnesses Ivy mercy-killing a heavily wounded dog. In their second meeting, when Sylvie's father Darryl comes to pick her up, Ivy asks for a ride, and Darryl reluctantly agrees. Ivy makes an excuse to sit in the front with Darryl. She puts her feet on the dashboard and deliberately allows her mini- skirt to fall back onto her hip, revealing her legs, which Darryl notices. A few weeks later, Sylvie invites Ivy to her house. She tells Ivy that Darryl is her adoptive father and that her biological father is African-American. She also says that she once tried to kill herself. They meet Sylvie's sickly mother, Georgie, whom Ivy later wins over by talking about her scholarship and helping her unblock her oxygen tank. Soon after, as both of Sylvie's parents enjoy Ivy's company, they practically allow Ivy to move in. Ivy and Sylvie share clothes and sleep in the same bed. As they have similar figures, Georgie lends Ivy some of her clothes. In an attempt to improve his failing career, Darryl decides to throw a party at his house, and enlists Sylvie to help him. However, Sylvie is needed at work on the night of the party, which is orchestrated by Ivy so that she will be the one to assist Darryl. After the party, she dances with Darryl in the kitchen and they hug. Georgie walks in on them and storms upstairs. Ivy apologizes to Georgie and claims that Darryl was under stress and she was only comforting him. Georgie believes Ivy, accepts a glass of champagne drugged with sleeping pills, and falls asleep. Ivy sits on the bed next to Georgie and begins to massage Darryl with her foot while he kisses her legs. Over the next few days, Ivy continues changing her appearance and wears Georgie's clothing more often. Sylvie becomes increasingly irritated with Ivy for her growing presence in her family, and her anger reaches a breaking point when even her dog chooses Ivy over her, which in fact is because Ivy has some dog treats in her pockets. Sylvie skips school and tries to spend some time alone. Darryl picks Ivy up and they go into the forest, where she gets him drunk and has sex with him. The next morning, Georgie plays a cassette tape that Sylvie made for her and walks out onto her balcony. Ivy walks up behind Georgie, talks to her and without warning, pushes her off the balcony to her death. Because Georgie is known to have a mental illness, and has threatened to commit suicide previously, Ivy is not suspected. A few weeks later, Sylvie talks Ivy into going for a ride in her mother's sports car. When Sylvie becomes suspicious of her involvement in Georgie's death, Ivy crashes the car, then moves the unconscious Sylvie into the driver's seat. In the hospital, Sylvie hallucinates that her mother is sitting in front of her. This inspires her to get back to her house in an attempt to save her father from Ivy. When she gets to her house, there is a raging storm. She runs inside to get out of the rain, experiencing hallucinations all along the way. When she gets inside, she sees Darryl and Ivy having sex, and flees the room. As Darryl runs outside to look for Sylvie, Ivy runs out after him, accidentally revealing that she was behind the wheel; due to scarring on her chest. She lies, claiming that it was to protect him. He drives off to find Sylvie and Ivy goes up to Georgie's old room, plays the tape Sylvie made for Georgie, wears Georgie's robe and walks out the balcony. Sylvie sees Ivy and because of her head injury, believes that it is her mother and makes her way to the balcony. Sylvie tells Georgie that she loves her and Georgie says she loves Sylvie too. When they kiss, Ivy begins to use her tongue, which breaks Sylvie out of her hallucination. Ivy says Georgie wanted to die and now the three of them can be a family. Sylvie pushes Ivy over the balcony, but Ivy holds onto Sylvie's necklace. The chain breaks and Ivy falls to her death. Darryl returns to see Ivy on the ground with Sylvie above. The film ends with Sylvie narrating that she still loves and misses "her", following the parallel between Ivy and Georgie. 

=====

After President Clark declares martial law, General Hague's fleet of ships are attacked by Earth Alliance forces. Only Hague's flagship, the Alexander, survives, and travels to Babylon 5 for repairs. Delenn brings Dr. Franklin to attend to a Minbari Ranger, injured while returning to the station with key information. The Minbari reports that the Shadows have engaged the Non-Aligned Worlds in civil and interplanetary wars, creating chaos. Delenn decides to see the Grey Council to warn about the situation. When the Alexander arrives, Sheridan learns that General Hague was killed in an attack. His second-in-command, Major Ryan, has attempted to continue Hague's resistance. President Clark orders the bombing of the Mars colony, which is resisting the martial law order. Hundreds of civilians are killed. The news network ISN, which has avoided broadcasting material critical of Clark, reports that the Proxima III and Orion VII colonies have seceded from the Earth Alliance. The television station is raided by Earth Alliance forces, terminating their broadcast. Another ship arrives, the Churchill, under Captain Sandra Hiroshi. She warns that the Earth Alliance is aware of the Alexanders presence and ships are en route to seize control of the station. Sheridan enlists G'Kar's Narn to augment his security forces under Garibaldi. Sheridan then announces Babylon 5s secession from the Earth Alliance. Delenn reaches the Grey Council. When they refuse to speak with her, she barges into their chamber and addresses them, warning that all of their prophecies have come to pass. She declares the Council broken and departs, supported by the worker and religious caste council members. The Alliance ships Agrippa and Roanoke arrive, demanding the station's surrender. A firefight breaks out. Garibaldi, his security forces, and the Narn stop a boarding party, incurring many Narn losses. The Churchill is critically damaged and Hiroshi uses the last of its power to ram the Roanoke, destroying both vessels. The combined forces of the station and Alexander destroy the Agrippa. As they assess the damage, more Earth Alliance ships arrive demanding Babylon 5s surrender. Suddenly additional jump points open and Minbari warships arrive. Delenn warns the Earth Alliance ships that Babylon 5 is under Minbari protection. The Earth Alliance ships withdraw. As the station and Alexander complete repairs, Ryan states he will depart, hoping to split the Alliance's attention. Ivanova leads Sheridan to the Zocalo, where the residents applaud Sheridan's decision to have Babylon 5 take a stand against Clark. 

=====

At the Park County Fair, the boys come across a vendor selling "authentic weapons from the Far East" and are interested in purchasing them. Although the vendor says parental permission is required if the hopeful buyer is under 18 years old, Cartman uses this information to pretend that he, Kenny, Kyle and Stan are orphaned brothers that their parents died in a car accident (a ruse the boys have apparently successfully used "like twelve times" in the past) and successfully tricks the vendor into giving them the weapons. Stan purchases a pair of Tonfa, Kyle gets nunchaku, Cartman buys a pair of sai, and Kenny purchases (according to Cartman) the only thing he can afford, a pair of shaken-style shuriken. After showing their weapons off to Craig, they go around town pretending to be ninjas, becoming anime-like characters with their own individual superpowers. The animation style takes on an overall Japanese look and switches to a cinemascope aspect ratio whenever this happens. Butters sees them playing and wants to join but the boys refuse to let him. He goes home and becomes his supervillain alter ego, Professor Chaos, and sets off to get his revenge on the four ninjas. Cartman keeps giving himself powers so Kyle takes them from him right before they encounter Professor Chaos. Not realizing who he actually is, the boys agree to engage in battle with their new enemy. Professor Chaos gains the upper hand by neutralizing Kyle and Stan and Cartman proves no help as he prefers to use his ninja powers, which were returned mid-battle, to turn Kyle into a chicken. Kenny comes to their defense and throws one of his shuriken. The shuriken hits Butters in his eye and becomes lodged in it, which immediately brings an end to the battle and brings the boys back to their senses. Suddenly they all realize that Butters needs medical attention, but taking him to the local hospital would result in their parents finding out about their purchases. Cartman suggests killing Butters and burying him in Kyle's backyard, which the latter agrees to, scared of what is mother would do if she heard. They try to pull the shuriken out of Butters' eye themselves but when that only makes things worse, Stan and Cartman decide that the only way they can take Butters to a doctor is if they go to the local veterinarian and so, they dress Butters up like a dog. Butters after being dressed up as a dog On the way, the boys encounter Craig again and have to hide Butters in an abandoned oven so nobody sees him. Much to their chagrin, Craig has copied them and obtained weapons from the same vendor, enlisting Jimmy, Clyde, and Token as his fellow ninjas. The two ninja groups fight, but in the chaos Butters escapes. The four boys force Craig's group to help them search for Butters, threatening to tell on them if they do not. A weakened Butters makes his way to the hospital but his disguise fools the attending doctor, who sends Butters to the local animal shelter. There, the veterinarian determines that the only thing to do is to put Butters to sleep. Just before he does, though, Butters escapes again and heads for the fair; so he decides to do the same thing to another dog instead. The boys decide to dispose of the evidence and return to the fair to have the vendor refund their money, which he refuses to do. Craig and the others inform them that they have seen Butters wandering around on the other side of the fair towards an auction that all their parents are attending. Cartman decides to use his ninja power of invisibility to walk across the auction stage to get to Butters undetected and takes off his clothes. However, since nobody else knows what the boys have been up to, Cartman inadvertently ends up streaking across the stage and is unable to reach Butters, who collapses on the stage while everyone looks on stunned. The final scene shows the townsfolk protesting at an emergency meeting about the outrage at the auction. The boys are under the impression that the outrage in question is Butters' wound (which has been medically treated by this time), but it soon transpires that the real issue is Cartman's public nudity. Cartman explains that it was a "wardrobe malfunction", and the episode ends with the other three boys addressing the issue that adults are more offended by sex than by violence, allowing them to keep their weapons with Kyle suggesting that Cartman should be punished. The episode ends with a freeze-frame of the boys in Anime style posing and embarking on another adventure as they have more work to do. 

=====

By the most common interpretation of the storyline,Cf. Bondanella 1994, p. 143 and Kezich, p. 203 the film can be divided into a prologue, seven major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and an epilogue (see also Structure, below). If the evenings of each episode were joined with the morning of the respective preceding episode together as a day, they would form seven consecutive days, which may not necessarily be the case. 

=====



=====