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X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula

One, Apocalypse, is a villain that has been plaguing civilization since the time of the Pharaohs. The other, Dracula, is the deadliest vampire to ever walk the earth. The story tells how centuries ago, before his vampire days, Vlad Tepes lost in battle against the ageless mutant, Apocalypse. Now in the days of 19th-century London, Dracula is seeking revenge for his past defeat and is turning members of Apocalypse's clan into vampires. Apocalypse himself is awoken from his slumber to take battle against the Lord of Vampires, and with Abraham Van Helsing at his side.


Joan of Paris
  1. In German-occupied France, five downed RAF fliers make their way to Paris in order to seek help returning to England. Their leader, Paul (Paul Henreid), contacts a former mentor, Father Antoine (Thomas Mitchell), who agrees to hide them in his cathedral. Later, after eluding German agents, Paul enters a café. There, he meets with Joan (Michèle Morgan), introducing himself with a coded message from Father Antoine. As the film progresses, the two become close.

Later, Father Antoine obtains the name of a contact, a schoolteacher (May Robson) who agrees to a secret meeting with Joan, where she promises to arrange for a seaplane to land at night on the Seine River to pick up Paul and the fliers. However, Paul is subsequently arrested by the Gestapo for not carrying identification papers. But his interrogator, Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), apologizes for the inconvenience and releases him. Funk actually wishes to lull Paul into leading his agents to the other fliers. But that night, Paul discovers he is being followed.

Unable to shake the Gestapo agent who tails him, he contacts Joan. He asks her to deliver a map of the rendezvous point to his comrades, still hidden in Father Antoine's cathedral. Later, Paul finally eliminates his Gestapo tracker. But soon after, Joan is confronted by Funk in her flat. He offers her a devil's bargain: Paul's life, if she will lead him to the hiding place of the others. She agrees. Once in the cathedral, however, she double-crosses Funk and his soldiers, leading them on a wild goose chase through the Paris sewers. Thus, Paul and the fliers are allowed enough time to make their escape. In the film's final scene, Joan bravely faces a German firing squad.


Double Birthday

In Pittsburgh, Judge Hammersley runs into Albert, who says it is soon to be his uncle's birthday; the judge says he should come round to his house before, so he can give him some alcohol. Back home, he tells his daughter he has run into him; she goes off to a ball. Meanwhile, the two Alberts are playing classical music and reading decadent literature.

In an analepsis, the reader gets an account of Uncle Albert when he was working as a throat doctor in Allegheny. He once came upon a singer whom he wanted to bring to New York City, since he believed her to be very talented. However, after graduation, she eloped to Chicago, but eventually came back and was fairly successful until she came down with a throat disease, which proved fatal.

Albert goes to Judge Hammersley's to get the alcohol. He is greeted by Margaret, and they talk about the time they spent in Rome when they were younger. Her father gives him two bottles of champagne. Later, Margaret comes to the birthday party and Albert tells her about the last time he saw their former music teacher, Rafael Joseffy, noting that he was sick. Finally, they toast to Lenore, the singer Uncle Albert had brought to success in New York.


Sarah (film)

The story is about a little girl during the beginning of the Second World War. When the German soldiers invade, she and her family are forced to hide in the woods. When her grandmother gets sick, her father goes into town for medicine and disappears. Sarah goes out to pick berries and when she returns, the rest of her family is gone. Sarah is forced to survive alone in the woods with only the animals for company. One day she sees some resistance fighters attempt to destroy a bridge the Nazis use to transport weapons. When their attempt fails, she decides to destroy the bridge herself, hoping that her actions may end the war. Over time she is successful, but afterwards sadly realizes that what she has done will not end the war and walks away into the forest.


Snow Buddies

Air Bud's five Golden Retriever puppies known as the Buddies from the town of Fernfield, Washington are having fun with their new owners before they go to school. The puppies meet up in the park and decide to play hide and seek. Budderball sees an ice cream truck and decides to go in, forcing the others to try and rescue him. However, the Buddies become trapped in a truck heading to Ferntiuktuk, Alaska. Upon arrival, the Buddies meet Shasta, a Siberian Husky puppy whose 11-year-old owner, Adam Bilson, is determined to win the Alaskan sled dog race because of what had happened to his father, due to a tragic accident a year prior. The puppies decide to help Shasta pursue his dreams as well as get to the airport, located at the finish line. Unfortunately, as Shasta's parents are both dead, this puts the puppies in a predicament as there is nobody to teach them how to become snow dogs. Fortunately, Shasta manages to persuade a legendary Alaskan Malamute named Talon, who had taught Shasta's deceased father, into teaching the puppies.

When Shasta introduces Adam to his new sleigh team, the child is delighted at the prospect of his dreams finally coming true and the team pursue vigorous training routines. Adam begins building a new sleigh with his team of hard-working puppies. Talon proudly watches as the team's efforts come to fruition and it seems as though they are cooperating as a team. The older town huskies, however, are not impressed and begin to plan their downfall. Two of the huskies Francois and Philippe, reveal to the Buddies that Shasta's parents were killed during a dog sled race last year when the ice beneath them shattered to dishearten them.

Talon calls the puppies to the mountain lake one night to view the Northern Lights before he goes of telling Shasta that he knows all he needs to know and that he can become the great leader that his father once was; once all the puppies say their goodbyes to him, Talon disappears into the lights. The following morning, the puppies enter the race with Adam. But everyone else laughs at the thought of a little boy and puppies entering a race. The sheriff goes over the rules and sees Adam wrote his own name in the entry list. After being reminded how treacherous the race is by the sheriff, the puppies begin their track while Jean George III, an unscrupulous and arrogant French musher-(who is hated by nearly everyone in town) and last year's champion, cheats his way through every race by sabotaging the other mushers' sleds or pushing them off their sleds. Soon only young Adam and Jean George are left but news of a terrible blizzard arrives and it's too late to call off the race as the racers have already gotten past the midway checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the puppies parents, Buddy and Molly follow the puppies to Alaska, after being tipped by Himalayan cat Miss Mittens, where the Saint Bernard dog Bernie informs them of their participation in the race. Sheriff Ryan gets a message sent by Fernfield's Deputy Dan asking for any information on the Buddies. The Sheriff phones Deputy Dan to inform him that the Buddies are in Alaska. A dangerous blizzard forces Adam and the team to take shelter in an igloo provided by an Inuit until the storm subsides. They come head to head with Jean George, and Adam gets injured.

Adam then recovers while Francois and Philippe, the lead dogs of Jean George's team, get into trouble when the ice beneath them shatters. Jean George continues and abandons his dogs while Adam and the puppies begin a rescue operation despite Shasta's fears of his parents death, revealing that they had died from drowning. The puppies pull Francois and Philippe out of the icy waters and Jean George continues the race without any gratitude and abandons their rescuers. Francois and Philippe realize they owe nothing to their owner for leaving them to die, and everything to Shasta and the Buddies for rescuing them, and so, decide to "go on strike". They stop and refuse to run any further, causing Jean George to lose the race.

Adam is victorious and the Buddies reunite with Buddy and Molly. Jean George scolds his dogs for embarrassing him, and they respond by chasing him around the Arctic. The Buddies sadly say goodbye to their new best friend, Shasta, as well as Adam, and both groups promise that they will stay in touch with each other. All seven Buddies return home via airplane and are greeted by their owners Sam, Bartleby, Billy, Alice, Pete, Henry and Noah; who were waiting for them. Budderball and his owner, Bartleby, are watching the news the next day and Bartleby is completely dumbstruck when he watches the part about the Buddies, Adam, and Shasta winning the race. That night, Buddy and Molly sit on the roof of their house and discuss their puppies accomplishments, while wondering if they will ever outgrow exploring. The film ends with Adam and a now nearly full-grown Shasta hiking through Alaska on a cold, winter night with five new adult huskies, while Talon narrates a reminder for the audience that "life may lead you where you least expect, but have faith, and you'll know exactly where you were meant to be".


Spare a Copper

Formby plays a bumbling War Reserve police officer called George Carter who aspires to become a member of the flying squad. The film is set in Merseyside where the battleship HMS ''Hercules'' is being built. A group of saboteurs are planning to blow it up. George manages to foil them. One of the saboteurs, called "Jake", is played by Bernard Lee. The saboteurs include fellow police officers who plan to shoot Formby in a remote area but he escapes in a motorised toy car. A crazy chase ensues ending in Formby going round and round a wall of death before foiling the plot.


A Fine, Windy Day

The lives of three young working-class male friends are followed in the film. Chun-shik works at a barbershop where he is in love with Miss Yu, a co-worker. Gil-nam, a hotel worker, is in love with Jin-ok, who works at a hair salon. Duk-bae, the most innocent of the trio, works at a Chinese restaurant and is torn between his affections for a factory-worker and Myung-hi, a wealthy girl. Together over drinks, the three young men talk over their lives and their aimless thoughts about the future. At the end of the film they are separated when Chun-shik is arrested for assault, and Gil-nam leaves to begin his military service.


The Man with Three Coffins

The film follows the journey of a widower as he travels to his dead wife's hometown to spread her remains.

Three years after his wife's death, Sun-seok finally takes his wife's ashes out of his closet and travels to his late wife's hometown to spread her remains. On his journey he encounters three different women that look exactly like his wife; the first is a nurse (Ms. Choi) while the second and third women are both prostitutes. During this journey, the scenery and the people that Sun-seok sees and meets along the way brings back his memories of his deceased wife.

On his journey to his wife's hometown, Sun-seok arrives in a small town called Mulchi. At a local inn, he meets a group of hikers who invite him to join them in gambling and indulging time with some prostitutes. After the group of hikers leave the inn, the inn owner approaches Sun-seok for a favor. The inn owner introduces Sun-seok to an ill old man and his nurse. This old man wants to go back to his hometown, Wolsan, one last time before he dies, but due to his illness he lost his ability to talk and was unable to express his last wish to his son. Ms. Choi, the old man's personal nurse, helps him escape the son's house but they needed a man's help them get to his hometown up north from Mulchi. After the son discovers that his dad is missing, the son sends some men to find them and bring the father back to his home. The local inn owner tells Sun-seok that they are willing to pay him 100,000 won if he helps them with the final stretch of their journey. Sun-seok declines the offer.

After declining the offer Sun-seok looks for the group of hikers at their motel. There, a hiker introduces a prostitute that looks like Sun-seok's late wife to him. After sleeping with the prostitute, she suddenly gets a seizure and dies. One of the hiker informs Sun-seok of her death and tells him that he can leave quietly and not get caught up with police affairs. He takes the hiker's offer and leaves quietly. Sun-seok returns to the local inn and asks the inn owner if the nurse and old man still needs help, but he discovers that they already left in a taxi-cab on their own.

Sun-seok continues on his journey and he eventually reaches the next town and stays at another local inn. The inn owner sends a prostitute over to him; this is the second prostitute that also looks like Sun-seok's late wife. After sleeping together, this prostitute also suddenly dies in the morning, leaving Sun-seok in disbelief. After collecting himself he continues his journey to the bus station. He wants to buy a ticket to Wontong to find to the nurse and old man but because of the expecting snow storm buses were not running for the rest of the day. However, a taxi-cab offers to drive him to Wontong for a much higher price. Sun-seok agrees to pay the fair, and on his way to Wontong, he runs into the two men that are looking for the old man and Ms. Choi.

Sun-seok decides to tag along with these two men in order to find Ms. Choi. They find them in a small inn later that day; the two men bring the old man back to his son's home and coerce Ms. Choi to sign a contract saying she would not expose the old man's wishes to return home to the press. After the men leave, Ms. Choi tells Sun-seok that if he had decided to help them sooner then the events would have turned out differently.

Ms. Choi invites Sun-seok to have dinner with her at a local inn, and they chat about their hometown and their next destination. Their meeting seems fateful as Ms. Choi mentions “Auraji River”, a river that Sun-seok's late wife had mention to him before. Ms. Choi also mentions how a fortune teller once told her that at the age of thirty she will meet a man with three coffins behind his back; this man is her husband from a previous life. After a heart-to-heart exchange about their lives, they end up sleeping together.

On the morning he decides to leave for Seoul, he takes the rest of his wife's ashes and sends it off with the winter wind. Ms. Choi walks with Sun-seok to the river with the boat that will take him back to Seoul. On their walk, Ms. Choi explains the old man's situation and his family situation to Sun-seok and tears up the old man's only photo with his family members that still live in his hometown. As they are approaching the pier, Sun-seok proposes to Ms. Choi by suggesting that they work towards buying a house together after she visits her hometown and then they reunite in Seoul.

As they approach the pier, they see shamans perform some sort of ritual. As Sun-seok sets off to Seoul, Ms. Choi suddenly joins the shaman ritual as she dances in the ritual. Sun-seok is in shock looking at the scene. When he looks at the mountainous horizon, he suddenly sees a large hand that appears. The hand comes closer and closer until only the palm of the hand can be seen. Sun-seok screams and the movie ends, cutting to the credits.


Professor Layton

Each series of games and media feature narrative threads connecting the stories together, but only the prequel sequence of ''Last Specter'', ''Eternal Diva'', ''Miracle Mask'' and ''Azran Legacy'' features a plot-important arc. Other games and media do not have any overarching structure, but do follow a chronological order by way of the appearance and development of recurring characters.

Original Trilogy

Prequel Trilogy

New ''Layton'' series

Crossover


Ontamarama

Taking place on a tropical island, the focus of the story are the Ontama spirits. Someone steals the Ontama by hypnotizing the island's people. Beat and Rest, the main characters, are both "Ontamaestros" and they attempt to free the Ontama by battling the islanders in musical fights.

Storyline

Ontama are colorful musical spirits that exist in the world of Ontamarama, a peaceful world of beauty and natural rhythm. Ontama are extremely precious to the people there because their playful nature and soothing music bring happiness to everyone; Ontamaestros devote their lives to study the Ontama and learn how to orchestrate them to make music.

A young boy and girl, Beat and Rest live on a small tropical island in this world. As childhood friends as well as friendly rivals who aspire to become famous Ontamaestros, they compete to see who will be the one to achieve their dream first. One day, on their way back home from the OntaConservatory, where they study to become Ontamaestros, Beat and Rest find a weakened Otama in the middle of the road. This surprises them because Otama rarely appear in these places. It turns out that Blast, a demon seeking power, is capturing all of the Otamas. The player picks to play as either Beat or Rest, and must play against various enemy ontamaestros who use captured Otamas.

Characters

'''Beat''': A high spirited boy who is studying to become an Ontamaestro. He is good at sports and has the ability to communicate with Ontamas.

'''Rest''': A smart girl who thinks before she acts instead of relying on her instincts like Beat does. She is studying to become an Ontamaestro.

'''Coda''': The teacher at the OntaConservatory. She has a friendly face but strict personality. She teaches the player how to conduct music with Ontama in tutorial mode.

'''Alto''': A fairy who, while taking a nap with the Ontamas, was woken up by a terrible noise. She becomes hypnotized by a robot and is forced to capture Ontamas.

'''Aria''': A maid in the village inn who follows a strange woman outside the window at night. It turns out the woman is playing a mysterious melody to capture Ontamas. When the woman discovers that Aria had followed her, she placed a Track Disk into Aria's necklace, causing her to fall unconscious.

'''Gig and Club''': Club and his pet alligator, Gig, grew up together. Although Gig was too wild to be a house pet, Club found a way to calm Gig down using the music of Ontamas. The two of them are in search of an Ontama that will play music by itself without having to be conducted.

'''Elegy''': An infernal robot created by Blast to collect the Ontamas. Elegy cannot speak but is able to fly.

'''Poco''': A boy who lives in the jungle. While investigating the cause of strange phenomena in the jungle, Poco meets a boy who tells Poco that the strangeness is caused by the Ontama. The boy hands a track disk to Poco, tricking him into capturing Ontamas in order to save the jungle.

'''Dia and Tonic''': A boy who was adopted by a wealthy family and led an extravagant, but boring, life. While strolling through the forest hoping to find some excitement, he finds Blast, who convinces Tonic to work with him.

'''Suite''': A fangirl of Blast from the demonic realm. She decides to follow and help Blast when she accidentally sees him go into the human world.

'''Rubato''': A butler who has served and raised many princes in the demonic realm. He follows Blast in order to keep an eye on him.

'''Blast''': A prince of demons who yearns for greater power because he is insecure about his short stature and weaknesses. He escaped to the human world in order to gather Ontama to strengthen his powers.


Forever and a Day (1943 film)

In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret (Kent Smith) is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick), tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.


A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949 film)

Hank Martin (Bing Crosby), an American mechanic, is knocked out and wakes up in the land of King Arthur. Initially captured and sentenced to die, he is freed and claims to be a wizard, awing King Arthur (Cedric Hardwicke), an aged, semi-perpetual, cold-in-the-nose invalid, and his court with the lighting of a match. Arthur rewards him with a blacksmith shop, a squire (the man who first captured Hank) and the title of Sir Boss.

Hank begins introducing modern flourishes such as jazz music, safety pins, firearms and simple machinery as he attempts to romance the absolutely lovely, fair, graceful and beautiful Alisande la Carteloise (Rhonda Fleming) and a friendship with Sir Sagramore (William Bendix).

Hank's actions incur the hatred of both Merlin (Murvyn Vye) and Morgan le Fay (Virginia Field). Sir Lancelot returns early from a quest to confront Hank regarding Alisandre and the men joust, resulting in Hank humiliating Sir Lancelot but losing Alisandre due to perceived dishonor.

A young girl, having heard Hank is a great wizard, implores him to save her ill father. The man dies, but learning from the girl's widowed mother about injustices the family has faced due to medieval laws inspires Hank to persuade King Arthur to tour his kingdom in disguise to see the true, wretched condition of his subjects. While the king is away, Merlin and Morgan plot to usurp his throne- ending up with the disguised Hank, Sir Sagamore and King Arthur being captured and sold as slaves to Merlin. Alisande, having been told of their plight, attempts to help them but is herself captured though in captivity she admits her love for Hank. She is taken by Merlin and the others are sent to be executed.

Prior knowledge of an eclipse allows Hank to strike fear in his captors, resulting in their release. When Hank rushes to save Alisandre from Merlin's clutches, he is shot and returned to his own time.

Heartsick over losing the woman he loves, he goes on a tour of a British castle. Its owner, Lord Pendragon (Hardwicke again), sends him to see his niece, who bears a striking resemblance to Alisande.


Sone Yay

Aung Wai is working in the Construction Department in Yangon. His wife dies and Aung Wai is left with their son and daughter. Aung Wai wife's sister takes care of the children. When the children are old to attend the school, he is moved to Pyay.


Abilene Town

In the years following the Civil War, the state of Kansas is increasingly divided by opposing economic and social forces. Homesteaders are moving into the West, trying to start new lives, and their increasing presence is clashing with the established commercial interests of cattlemen, who had settled in the region before the war. Abilene, a major cattle town, is on the brink of armed conflict between the cattlemen and the homesteaders, and the town marshal, Dan Mitchell, strives to keep the peace between those two groups as well maintain the uneasy coexistence between Abilene's townspeople and the ranchers with their legion of cowboys. For years, the town had been literally divided, with the cattlemen and their supporters occupying one side of the main street and townspeople occupying the other side. Mitchell likes it this way; it makes things easier for him, and prevents dangerous confrontations from arising between the two factions. However, when homesteaders decide to lay stakes on the edge of town that existing balance is upset and leads to a deadly showdown.

The leader of the homesteaders is Henry Dreiser, a reasonable young man with common sense. The county sheriff, "Bravo" Trimble, is a lawman who would rather play cards than get involved in any real or potential unrest in Abilene. Mitchell, however, does strive to prevent the upcoming confrontation while also dealing with a clash in his personal life, which is divided as well between Rita, a flashy showgirl who works on the cattle drovers' side of the street, and Sherry, the modest, churchgoing daughter of a shopkeeper on the other side of the street.


Dar Bae Naw

Friends, Kyaw Zin Thant, Htoo Ye and Lin Win are childhood classmates. After graduating, they joined the same company.

Kyaw Zin Thant has a girlfriend by the name of Thet Mon Myint. Likewise, Htoo Ye also has a girlfriend by the name of Swe Swe Lei. But for Lin Win, being indecisive and fickle minded go out with a lot of girls but still has no steady girlfriend.

Kyaw Zin Thant is always commenting about Htoo Ye favoring Swe Swe Lei most of the time and Lin Win's majority of the time being preoccupied with women chasing. As for him, Kyaw Zin Thant wants his marriage to be a systematically planned life event. And is always boasting to his friends about how he would shape Thet Mon Myint into his ideal wife and not favor her every wishes.

But what Kyaw Zin Thant does not know is that, Thet Mon Myint also has the same ideas as him of molding him into her ideal husband and wants to control him after the marriage. Both having hidden agendas, they both tried to be as nice as possible to each other during their courtship and all was smooth. As planned, Kyaw Zin Thant and Thet Mon Myint tied the knot. As for Htoo Ye and Swe Swe Lei, they had to delay their wedding because of Swe Swe Lei's father's health condition.

As for the newly weds, Kyaw Zin Thant slowly realized that he could no change Thet Mon Myint as he has expected. Thet Mon Myint on the other hand tried to change Kyaw Zin Thant. But the difference is that Kyaw Zin Thant has to give way to Thet Mon most of the time as she is always enticing him to get what she wants.

The first rule of Thet Mon Myint is that Kyaw Zin Thant to give a detail account of his whole day activity every night. Kyaw Zin Thant also agrees to this arrangement, as he could not overthrow the wordy Thet Mon Myint. Along with this arrangement Thet Mon Myint segregates what is wrong and what is right of Kyaw Zin Thant account. As it goes by Thet Mon Myint ordered Kyaw Zin Thant that from the next day onwards, only the spinster Daw Tin Tin Aye can go into his office and no other women are allowed to go in. But still Kyaw Zin Thant is happy as he is loving Thet Mon Myint more than he used to as days goes by.

On the next day the careless spinster Daw Tin Tin Aye accidentally stained her lipstick shade on Kyaw Zin Thant shirt and Thet Mon Myint throw tantrums about it. The boasting Kyaw Zin Thant had to pacify They Mon Myint and give way to her again. But on the next day when he went to the office met Htoo Ye, he advised him not to give way to Swe Swe Lei.

Thet Mon Myint also did not get along well with the helpers at their place. No one could tolerate Thet Mon Myint's fussiness and all left citing many different reasons. The end result was that there were no helpers at their place. But Kyaw Zin Thant could not let his friends Htoo Ye and Lin Win know about this as he have over spoken about how to treat women and always commenting them their soft spot of giving way to women.

But the matter could not be hidden from them in the long term. One day Htoo Ye and Lin Win came to Kyaw Zin Thant place to ask him to go along with them to play golf. At that time Kyaw Zin Thant was washing the dishes and Thet Mon Myint was doing flower arrangement in the living room. Kyaw Zin Thant quickly hid his plight and sternly scold Thet Mon Myint in front of them. But he did not go along with his friend to the golf course. Still Thet Mon Myint showed petulance again and Kyaw Zin Thant had to pacify her after Htoo Ye and Lin Win have left. He explained that he does not want his friends to have the impression that he is afraid of his wife and promised to agree to all her wishes behind the curtains.

Hanging on to this new promise they went to the market to shop and Thet Mon Myint quarreled with the poultry seller because the weight charged was not correct. After that event when Kyaw Zin Thant sadly disclose his plight at the office, the clerk Ya Mone promised to take him to her friend who is an agent for engaging helpers. Kyaw Zin Thant went along with her.

Arriving there they met Thet Mon Myint and Swe Swe Lei who were already there. Thet Mon Myint misunderstood Kyaw Zin Thant with Ya Mone and accused him. The angry Kyaw Zin Thant left the house.

While Kyaw Zin Thant was away, Thet Mon Myint's cousin Aung Myin Thu came for a visit and stayed at their house. Without knowing each other the biggest misunderstanding happens and the elders at the areas called the police. The police mistakenly took Aung Myin Thu away.

Learning of the drift between Kyaw Zin Thant and Thet Mon Myint, their parents came down to Yangon and arrange to patch things up between them. As they are pretending to stand tough at the current position, both parents ordered them to go back together with them to their respective native towns.

Watch the movie and find out how fate will twist the two couples, Kyaw Zin Thant & Thet Mon Myint and Htoo Ye & Swe Swe Lei.


The Bear (1998 film)

A young Polar Bear cub chases a bird and is captured by sea men on a ship after he is spotted. The bear, now grown up in captivity, looks up at a star before lying down to sleep. The next day, a red haired girl named Tilly is on a day trip to the London Zoo, but accidentally drops her teddy bear into the bear pen. The bear wakes up and spots the teddy, paws at it and carries it off to his cave as Tilly looks on shocked.

That night, Tilly cries over her lost bear and her mother attempts to give her a toy rabbit for her to use as a sleeping comfort. Tilly takes the rabbit, but then throws it on the floor and turns to sleep. Later that night, a figure is seen walking towards Tilly's window — it is the polar bear from the zoo with her lost teddy bear, who lifts her window and enters her room. The bear wakes Tilly up and returns her teddy to her. Tilly looks up surprised to see the polar bear looking at her smiling. Then Tilly yawns and falls asleep again. Then the bear sleeps in Tilly's bed.

The following morning, Tilly wakes up and runs downstairs to get some food for the bear. When she runs upstairs, she finds that the bear has excreted on the stairs. Tilly cleans up the waste and empties it outside before walking into the bathroom and nearly slipping over the bear's urine. Crossed, she then mops up the urine and watches on as the bear drinks out of the toilet. Then Tilly moves the bear and runs a bath to wash him. He soaks Tilly in the process of getting into it and already beginning to tire of him, she washes the bear. In the kitchen, Tilly dries and brushes the bear and proceeds to feed him with honey. While eating the honey, the bear makes a mess of the kitchen and gets his nose stuck in the jar (to Tilly's amusement). Then Tilly and the bear go to her parents' bedroom and sleep. Tilly wakes up to the sound of the door of her parents returning from work. She hugs her mother and they later sit down to watch ''The Snowman'' as the bear walks in and heads out. That night, the bear hides under Tilly's bed as she is put to bed by her mother. Tilly falls asleep and moves over as the bear climbs onto the bed with her.

A gush of wind knocks a snowglobe from Tilly's bedside table, attracting the bear's attention who looks at it, seeing the mother bear and cub looking back at him. Tilly follows the bear outside where he looks at the sky. The pair move to a wide open park area where they meet the Star Bear, which is a bear shaped constellation (like The Great Bear) and the trio embark on a tour around London, showing a wide variety of notable landmarks such as Nelson's Column, and bringing a display of Christmas angels to life with a Father Christmas display also coming to life. Then the trio skate on the frozen River Thames (to the refrains of "Somewhere A Star Shines For Everyone") and travel further to the London Docks where a ship cuts through the ice where Tilly is left stranded but is saved by the bear before the moving ship passes.

The Star Bear looks up to the North Star and the bear looks at Tilly. Tearfully they say goodbye and the bear returns to his own family. The Star Bear returns home with Tilly, who has been given a shining star (the size of a small stone). The Tower of London is seen and the bear pen in the London Zoo as Tilly looks on in amazement. The polar bear returns to his natural habitat to find his family waiting for him. As the sun rises the next morning, Tilly wakes up to find the windows open and the Star Bear's constellation fading. As it does, the shining star vanishes from Tilly's hand, and she wonders about the bear from her window.


Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day

The film is the story of a broken-down former baseball player, Charley Benetto (Imperioli), who is now divorced and estranged from his own daughter, on the verge of a suicide who gets to spend one more day with his estranged departed mother (Burstyn), whom he had blamed for leaving his father. Throughout the course of the movie, she takes him to various points in his life and he learns what actually was going on to get a truer picture of his life.


The Lodger (1944 film)

Slade, a serial killer, is a lodger in a 19th-century family's London home. So is a singer, Kitty Langley, who definitely has caught Slade's eye.

Women are being brutally killed in the Whitechapel district. Scotland Yard is investigating, and a detective, John Warwick, begins to cast his suspicions in Slade's direction. Kitty, meanwhile, has also developed an attraction to Slade.

Slade goes to see her perform at a cabaret. He goes backstage afterward, and tries to make her his next victim, but Warwick's men get there just in time. Unwilling to be taken into police custody, Slade flees to the riverbank, and leaps to his death.


Fifth Formers of St. Clare's

Miss Cornwallis is mistress of the fifth form. Hilary Wentworth is a calm and dignified head-girl. Being in the fifth form means quite a lot of changes – for example, the girls have got studies of their own now, instead of common rooms and dormitories, the first – and second-formers have got to work for them. For some reason, Mirabel has been made games captain for the school, and Gladys vice captain. It is not explained why or how Mirabel has developed such good sporting abilities, nor is it explained why she is no longer musical. In her first term at St Clare's she was written as a very musical girl, talented at the piano and the violin.

Two girls use their new power badly - Angela Favorleigh takes advantage of her prettiness and charm and turns the younger girls into willing slaves and so does Mirabel, who is games captain. Some room is made for the second-form - Antoinette, Claudine's little sister, has come to St. Clare's, too, and she proves to be as irrepressible as Claudine.

There are three new girls in the fifth form and all of them are unpopular – Anne-Marie, who fancies herself a poet, Felicity Ray, a musical genius, and Alma, a fat girl who suffers from what nowadays would be called an eating disorder. Felicity's parents are very ambitious and, in spite of Miss Theobald's warnings, push their daughter too hard – she is to take a very difficult musical exam and works herself too hard.

One part of the book describes fat Alma stealing food from a store cupboard that Antoinette keeps midnight feast food in. Alison discovers the cupboard open one day and reports to Claudine (who owns the cupboard) about it, and Claudine then keeps the key to the cupboard safe. Alma is angry, and plays tricks on Alison.

Pat and Isabel are minor characters in this book, but at the end they are made head-girls because Hilary will leave St. Clare's and go to India to live with her parents. Alison, Anne-Marie, Angela, and Mirabel all redeem themselves at the end of the book.


Le Grand Jeu (1934 film)

Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young Parisian businessman, is brought to financial ruin and disgrace through the extravagant lifestyle that he pursues with his lover Florence (Marie Bell). Forced to leave the country, he joins the Foreign Legion, as Pierre Muller, and seeks to submerge his own despair in a new life in North Africa alongside other unhappy refugees such as the Russian Nicolas (Georges Pitoëff). When not on campaign, they lodge in a cheap hotel run by the greedy and lecherous Clément (Charles Vanel) and his sadly stoical wife Blanche (Françoise Rosay), who passes the time by reading the cards to tell her customers their fortunes.

When Pierre encounters Irma (Marie Bell) working in a local bar as a singer and a prostitute, he finds her almost identical to his former lover Florence, except for her voice and the colour of her hair. Irma is vague about her past and Pierre becomes ever more obsessed with the apparent reincarnation of his old love. They live together at the hotel, and when Clément forces himself on Irma, Pierre kills him in a struggle; Blanche makes it appear to be an accident.

When Pierre's term of service finishes, he and Irma plan a new life together back in France where he has now inherited some money. But on the eve of their embarkation in Casablanca, Pierre happens to meet again the real Florence, now mistress to a wealthy Arab, and his feelings for Irma are shattered. Having duped Irma into returning to France alone, he re-enlists in the Legion. Blanche's cards foretell a brave death for him in his next campaign.


Kurosagi (manga)

Six years ago, Kurosaki's family was destroyed when a "shirosagi" (a "white swindler", who focuses on defrauding others) swindled Kurosaki's father of their family's life savings. As a result, his father killed Kurosaki's mother and sister before committing suicide. Since then, Kurosaki has devoted himself to becoming a "kurosagi" ("black swindler"), who swindles other swindlers, as a means of revenge.

As a "kurosagi," Kurosaki's acts have helped innocent victims of swindling schemes get their money back. However, he is frequently met with opposition by a stubborn grad student, who seeks to become a prosecutor.


W. C. Fields and Me

The story begins in 1924 in New York City, where W. C. Fields is a Ziegfeld Follies headliner, and ends with his 1946 death in California at age 66. In between, it dramatizes his life and career with emphasis on the latter part of both, when the "Me" of the title, Carlotta Monti, played a prominent role, with a number of fictionalized events added for dramatic impact.

Having lost his girlfriend Melody to another man and most of his life savings due to careless investments by his broker, Fields heads west to Santa Monica, where he operates a wax museum until he's offered a film role. He quickly becomes a major screen presence and a notorious drinker.

While at a party with his friends John Barrymore, Gene Fowler and restaurant owner Dave Chasen, Fields is introduced to starlet Carlotta Monti, whom he hires as a live-in secretary. In order to stifle her theatrical aspirations, he arranges a screen test. The studio boss Harry Bannerman decides she has some talent, but Fields threatens to quit Paramount Pictures unless she is discouraged from pursuing a career in films. When she learns the truth, Carlotta leaves him and goes to New York.

When Barrymore passes away, she returns to Hollywood to comfort Fields. On the set of ''My Little Chickadee'', she learns why her efforts to get him to marry her have routinely been rebuffed: his first marriage has never been dissolved legally. Although hurt by the revelation, Carlotta resigns herself to a life of unwedded bliss that often crumbles into sorrow and frustration as the relentlessly mean-spirited Fields continues to drink heavily and his health steadily declines. The comic is hospitalized and, after enduring great physical pain, dies on Christmas Day, a holiday he had despised with a passion.


The Brothers Rico

Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) is the happily married owner of a prosperous laundry company in Bayshore, Florida. Later in the film we discover that years ago he had been the accountant for a major crime syndicate. He has given up his ties to the syndicate, and hopes to adopt a child with his wife, Alice (Dianne Foster). When the film opens, Eddie's sleep is interrupted by a call from Phil, a mob operative, who demands Eddie provide employment and a place to lie low for someone who turns out to be a hitman named Wesson (William Phipps). Alice becomes worried that the syndicate will bring Eddie back into a life of crime. Eddie calms her, but then receives a worrisome letter from his mother saying that his two brothers, Johnny (James Darren) and Gino (Paul Picerni), who are both still involved with the mob, have disappeared.

Shortly thereafter, while he is driving, Eddie realizes the vehicle that taps him at a stop light is being driven by his brother, Gino. Off the main street, they both pull over; Gino slides into Eddie's front seat and, in desperation, begs Eddie to help him get out of the country. Gino admits to being the gunman in a gang killing and identifies Johnny as having been his driver. Gino now believes the syndicate is planning to get rid of him; out of the blue they've ordered him to St. Louis. Eddie cannot believe that the syndicate is after him; he has complete faith in the benevolence of Sid Kubik (Larry Gates), the syndicate boss, who Eddie believes thinks of the Ricos as family, just as Eddie thinks of Kubik as a father. Consequently, Eddie tells Gino to go to St. Louis—"Have I ever steered you wrong?"—and gives him some money to do so. When Eddie returns to work, he takes a call from "Uncle" Sid Kubik, who orders him to Miami for a face-to-face conference. Eddie leaves, despite his wife's objections that he will miss an adoption interview.

Eddie meets Kubik in Miami, where Kubik apologizes for the orders given earlier regarding Wesson and congratulates Eddie on his impending adoption. Kubik says the syndicate does not know where Johnny is, but they are concerned. It seems that Johnny's new wife's brother Peter Malaks (Lamont Johnson)—who doesn't at all approve of Johnny or of his having married his sister Norah—has met with prosecutors on a number of occasions. Naturally, the bosses feel that as a result of what Peter tells them, Johnny will be "persuaded" to turn on the syndicate and testify against them in return for clemency. After Eddie insists that he does not believe Johnny would ever rat on them, Kubik tells Eddie that while he believes in Johnny's loyalty, others aren't so sure. In order for Johnny's life to be saved, Kubik says that Eddie must find him and get him to leave the country. After Eddie leaves to do what he has been ordered, Kubik walks down the hall to enter another room where Gino, his face battered from a beating being administered by one of Kubik's henchmen, is seen slumped in a chair with only enough strength to raise his head and say with bitter sarcasm, "Thanks, uncle Sid."

Eddie arrives in New York City and finds Peter Malaks. When Eddie says that Johnny may be in a lot of trouble, Malaks angrily refuses to help find him, calling Johnny a gangster and telling Eddie that maybe Johnny would be better off dead. Eddie then visits his mother (Argentina Brunetti) to ask her where Johnny is, but she proclaims that even though she once took a bullet to protect Kubik's life, she no longer trusts the man, in large part because Gino had told her not to. Indeed, she tells Eddie as he is leaving not to trust anybody. When Eddie tells her that Johnny's life is in danger, she laments, kneeling to pray in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary she has sitting on a shelf, but refuses to tell Eddie anything. Finally, as Eddie is walking out the door, she relents and reveals, with great trepidation, that Johnny last wrote her from El Camino, California.

Eddie has to take two planes to El Camino, where he finds Johnny and his pregnant wife, Norah (Kathryn Grant) hiding out on a friend's farm. Johnny says he's left the syndicate because he wants his son to grow up to be clean and not know a life of crime. Norah, pregnant, is distraught at the prospect of Johnny being dragged back into the syndicate and collapses; she needs a doctor and one is called. Johnny tells Eddie to leave.

Eddie returns to his hotel where Mike Lamotta (Harry Bellaver), a local crime boss, is waiting in Eddie's room. There, Eddie realizes that Kubik has used him to locate Johnny and all along has intended that Johnny be killed. Lamotta orders Eddie to call Johnny and tell him to meet the mobsters waiting outside the house where he's staying. Instead, after Johnny joyously tells Eddie that he's a new father, Eddie urges Johnny to go to the cops; he is immediately knocked out by Lamotta's assistant, Gonzales (Rudy Bond). To save his wife and newborn son, Johnny goes outside, where he is killed.

As Eddie and Gonzales fly back to Florida, Eddie learns that Gino had attempted to flee the country and was also killed. While in a bathroom during their stopover in Phoenix, Eddie knocks Gonzales out. He takes Gonzales' pistol and calls Alice, telling her to leave their house in Florida and meet him in New York at a special place only they know about. Eddie then manages to elude Kubik's minions by hitching a ride to New York in a truck transporting new cars.

He goes to Peter Malaks and informs him that both his brothers have been murdered and that he intends to testify against the syndicate. Malaks, now convinced of Eddie's sincerity, agrees to meet him the next day at a bank where Eddie will give him money to care for his now-widowed sister and their new nephew.

The next day, Eddie goes to the bank (where an informant there recognizes him and rats him out to Kubik via phone), gets a pile of cash from his safe-deposit box, and puts some in three envelopes—one for Malaks, one for Alice so she can get safely out of the country, and one for his mother. He meets Malaks and Alice outside in a cab and gives each their envelopes. He sends the weeping Alice to the airport with Malaks. When Eddie goes to say goodbye to his mother and give her her envelope, Kubik is there and holds him at gunpoint. Eddie pulls out the gun he took from Gonzales in Phoenix and kills both Kubik and his accomplice, but is wounded himself.

In a newspaper headline shot, we discover that Eddie, apparently recovered from his wound, has testified against the syndicate and that it has been successfully prosecuted and destroyed. The final scene shows Eddie driving with Alice up to the children's home where they apparently are meeting with the administrators to finalize the adoption of their new child.


The Battle of the Labyrinth

Percy Jackson attends freshman orientation at Goode High School, where he sees Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through the Mist. She helps him fight two empousai and escape. Percy travels to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns Grover is in trouble with the Council of Cloven Elders for not having found Pan. During a competition organized by the new sword instructor Quintus, Annabeth Chase and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth, which presents a possible invasion route for Luke Castellan. Annabeth is given leadership of a quest to find Daedalus and convince him not to give the Ariadne's string to Luke, which would help him navigate the Labyrinth. She chooses Grover, Percy, and Tyson to accompany her. Before leaving, Percy learns that Nico di Angelo plans to bring back his late sister, Bianca (with help from King Minos) by exchanging her soul for someone who has cheated death – like Percy. In the maze, Percy and his friends face a number of trials, including meeting Briares and Janus, before arriving at the ranch of Geryon and meeting Nico. Nico is not happy to see Percy again, but the spirit of Bianca manages to convince him to trust Percy. So that Nico can be safe, he remains at the ranch whilst Percy and the others return to the labyrinth. They seek out Hephaestus' help. After speaking to him, they part ways; Tyson and Grover search for Pan, while Annabeth and Percy go to the God's forge in the volcano Mount St. Helens.

In the forge, Percy is almost killed by Kronos's smiths, but escapes by causing an earthquake that ejects him from the volcano. When Percy awakens, he finds himself on the island Ogygia with Calypso, a daughter of the Titan Atlas. Calypso tells Percy she is cursed to fall in love with every hero that lands on her island, but the hero can never stay. After Hephaestus tells him of events in the mortal world, Percy realizes that he too must leave. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Annabeth go to Manhattan to find Rachel, who should be able to navigate the Labyrinth. Despite being captured by Luke's minions, they eventually reach Daedalus's workshop and learn that Quintus is actually the ancient inventor, living as an automaton. He informs them that, believing they could not withstand a Titan assault, he has already helped Luke. The group is discovered by Nico, who tells them Minos has been planning to exchange Daedalus's soul for his own. The four teenagers fight to escape while the betrayed Daedalus remains in the maze with his hellhound.

The quartet later discover the Titan fortress at Mount Othrys, and learn that Luke has been somehow possessed by Kronos. They run into Grover and Tyson, and discover the resting place of Pan, who speaks to them and passes part of his fading spirit into each of them. The group, minus Rachel, then heads back to Camp Half-Blood to fight. The Titan army floods out of the Labyrinth and appears to be winning until Daedalus arrives with Mrs. O’Leary and Briares, who kill Kampê. Grover scares off the remaining Titan forces by causing a Panic. After the battle, Nico helps Daedalus pass on and die, hence destroying the Labyrinth. After a memorial service for the dead campers, Percy leaves camp for the school year. On his fifteenth birthday at summer's end, Percy receives a visit from his father Poseidon, who gives him a sand dollar, advising him to "spend it wisely". Nico later appears to tell Percy his plan to defeat Luke once and for all.


Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life

Sixteen dancers (twenty in series 2) from all over Britain compete for a dance contract with Los Angeles-based dance agency BLOC. The couples will stay at the Mountain Lake resort in Virginia. Each week they perform a dance in front of guests from the mountain lake resort and the judges. Each week the dancers pick a partner and perform a dance chosen by the judges. The judges then deliberate and choose that week's best couple and worst couple. The worst couple is then sent home.


The Crows of Pearblossom

This story, written Christmas of 1944, tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Crow, who live in a cotton-wood tree at Pearblossom. Due to the Rattlesnake living at the bottom of the tree, Mrs. Crow's eggs are never able to hatch. After catching the snake eating her 297th egg that year (she does not work on Sundays), Mrs. Crow requests that Mr. Crow go into the hole and kill the snake. Thinking better of it, Mr. Crow confers with his wise friend, Mr. Owl. Mr. Owl bakes mud into two stone eggs and paints them to resemble Mrs. Crow's eggs. These dummy eggs are left in the nest to trick the Rattlesnake, who unknowingly eats them the next day. When the eggs get to his stomach, they cause the Rattlesnake such pain, that he thrashes about, tying himself in knots around the branches. Mrs. Crow goes on to hatch "four families of seventeen children each" and "uses the snake as a clothesline on which to hang the little crows' diapers".


Merlin Book 2: The Seven Songs

Young Merlin has brought new hope to Fincayra, the enchanted isle that lies between earth and sky. Having finally freed it from the terrible Blight, Merlin and the forest girl Rhia set out to heal the land using the magical Flowering Harp. But Fincayra remains in great danger still — and the first victim of the renewed tide of evil is Merlin's own mother.

Merlin's sole hope of saving his mother's life is to master the Seven Songs of Wizardry passed down from the greatest wizard Fincayra has ever known, Merlin's grandfather Tuatha. Only then can he voyage to the Otherworld of the spirits and obtain the precious Elixir of Dagda. Yet to do that he must first succeed where even Tuatha failed — by defeating Balor, the ogre whose merest glance means death. Even more difficult, Merlin must discover the secret of seeing not with his eyes, but with his heart.


The Baby Maker

Tish Gray is a flower child who is hired to have the baby of a middle-class couple, Suzanne and Jay Wilcox. The film exposes the clash of values between Tish, her boyfriend Tad Jacks, and the couple. It also deals with the emotional turmoil all four characters go through.


The Phoenix Requiem

The story begins when Jonas Faulkner is found unconscious with two gunshot wounds in the woods outside the small town of Esk. He is nursed back to health by Anya Katsukova, a doctor-in-training, and the two became friends. Around the same time Jonas arrives, however, a supernatural plague begins to affect the town of Esk, killing several of its inhabitants. In the meantime, Robyn Hart, a former soldier who holds unreciprocated romantic feelings for Anya, begins seeing ghostly apparitions around the town.

During a ride in the forest, Jonas, Anya, Robyn, and their friend Petria encounter a "spirit," one of the beings from the ancient past who have been imprisoned for many centuries before the events of the story take place. Upon returning to the village, they are interrogated by an investigator from another city, Patrick Armand, who has been following Jonas since he was released from a mental hospital. Armand reveals that the plague in Esk had also befallen every other town Jonas had been through.

While working with her superior, Doctor Blythe, to find a cure for the spreading plague, Anya is visited again by a spirit. That night, she encounters a "shade", a monstrous manifestation of a person who has died a traumatic death, and the following morning, the plague has spread to a large number of people. Doctor Blythe sends Anya on an urgent mission to the medical research committee in Aubeny with data they have collected on the plague, to try to find a solution. However, the medical committee in Aubeny is indifferent to her findings, attributing the plague to food contamination instead, based on the reports of the same plague from another town. She is dismissed outright when she mentions the shades.

Meanwhile, back in Esk, Robyn is attacked by a shade one night. He determines to fight back as the plague continues to spread and more shades appear, attacking the priest and threatening to overrun the town. A messenger is sent overnight on horseback to bring help to the escalating situation.


A Heritage and Its History

69-year-old Sir Edwin Challoner lives with his extended family in a grand old house in rural Southern England. Unmarried, he has no direct issue, and the person closest to him is his younger brother Hamish, who is also his business associate. Hamish has a wife, Julia, and two sons, Simon, aged 25, and Walter, three years younger, who has dropped out of Oxford to be a poet.

When Hamish Challoner dies of a heart condition, Simon prepares to become head of the house, as everyone assumes that it will only be a matter of a few years, if not months, before Sir Edwin also dies. However, the lonely old patriarch surprises them by announcing his impending marriage to their neighbour Rhoda Graham, who is more than 40 years his junior. After the newlyweds have returned from their honeymoon, Simon and Rhoda share a moment of unbridled passion in the old house ("Youth and instinct did their work"), and Rhoda becomes pregnant. As Sir Edwin and his wife have not had any sex during their brief marriage, there is no doubt as to who has sired the child. However, Sir Edwin decides to be its legal father, and swears Simon, Rhoda, and Walter to secrecy about the paternity of Rhoda's baby. When a healthy boy is born, he names him Hamish in honour of his deceased brother.

The implications of this arrangement, ostensibly contrived to keep up appearances, are far-reaching. Suddenly Simon finds himself no longer in a position to inherit his uncle's fortune, which has been the only object of his life ever since he was a child, and he only has himself to blame for it. In addition, he feels that the natural order of things has been turned upside down as now his own son is to precede him as heir to the family estate. When, on top of all that, Sir Edwin asks Julia, Walter and Simon to live elsewhere, the latter feels "displaced" as well as "deposed". It occurs to him that, as a sort of recompense, he might marry Fanny Graham, Rhoda's younger sister, and move into the Grahams' large house, almost empty now, which is conveniently close to the family seat. A few weeks after that, the marriage is announced.

Almost two decades later, Simon and Fanny Challoner have five children: Graham, aged 18; Naomi, aged 17; Ralph, 15; and two little ones, three-year-old Claud and two-year-old Emma. They still live in the other house together with Julia and Walter, and Sir Edwin Challoner, now approaching 90, is still alive. Hamish has received a good education and been prepared to inherit both the title and the place from who he believes is his natural father. Simon's line of the family, on the other hand, have been leading rather a modest life, with constant half-serious references to the workhouse as their ultimate dwelling place. Then, another four years later, the past suddenly catches up with the Challoners when Hamish and Naomi announce their intention to get married. It falls to Simon to make a late confession to prevent incest between two of his children. Walter, always the poet, calls his brother "the hero of a tragedy. It is a pity you are the villain as well."

The one person most profoundly shocked by the revelation is Hamish, who, on an impulse, renounces his heritage ("I shall never marry, as I cannot marry Naomi") and goes abroad to escape the familial tension and to acquire new perspectives. When Sir Edwin, now aged 94, feels that he is going to die, he calls for his son, and Hamish arrives home on what turns out to be the eve of his father's death. On his deathbed, the old man makes Hamish promise to take his place as head of the house. It does not take long before the family realise that, as far as the inheritance is concerned, Hamish has actually made two conflicting promises, both under emotional stress, and that he will have to break one of them.

After the funeral, Hamish surprises the Challoners by presenting to them Marcia, the woman he is going to marry. Describing herself as "older and plainer and less poor than I ought to be," Marcia dislikes the old house the moment she sets eyes on it. Said to be easily influenced, especially by his wife, Hamish finally cedes his inheritance to Simon, thus breaking the word he has given his deceased father. Relying on his spouse's financial support, it is now his turn, together with Marcia and his mother, to move out of the house and restore it to Simon, who has always considered it rightfully his. ("A few words sent the history of the house into another channel.") However, despite the fact that they are now occupying the position which was originally intended for them, Simon and his legitimate children are plagued by thoughts of the future now that the title and the place have been separated. On the one hand, Hamish's unborn children might object to their father having given up his heritage. Also, after Simon's death, it might seem more natural for his ''oldest'' son to succeed him, and that would be Hamish again rather than Graham. Ralph sums up these thoughts by remarking that "there may be troubles ahead."

These deliberations are cut short by the arrival of two telegrams from Marcia informing them that Hamish has died after a short illness—of a heart condition, just like his grandfather—, and that she is not pregnant. In the end Rhoda and Marcia, who have decided to keep on living together, return to the neighbourhood of the old house. Hamish has bequeathed almost everything to Simon, with only a small allowance for Marcia. Moreover, the title and the place are united again, and Simon Challoner becomes Sir Simon.


Where Have All the People Gone?

On a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California, Steven Anders and his two teenage children, Deborah and David, are exploring a cave when they experience an earthquake. After emerging, they hear from a ranch-hand who was outside that there was a bright solar flash prior to the earthquake. He soon falls ill and dies, whereupon his body turns to a powdery substance. As the family comes down from the mountain to the nearest town, they discover that everyone has turned to the powdery substance inside their clothing, and there are few survivors.

Owing to fear and anxiety, most people they find are focused only on their own survival, but as the family tries to make their way home to Malibu (where the mother had returned earlier from the camping trip), they find two people that need their help, as well as a man who invites them to be neighbors.

They face dangers ranging from wild dogs, who seem to have been driven mad from the solar flare, to a gunman who steals their car. They rescue a woman, Jenny, and later a young boy whose family was killed by two men who stole their car. Apart from the physical journey, they struggle to overcome the emotional trauma of the events.

They find their way home and discover a note left for them by the mother, who has also died and turned into a powdery substance. They are informed that a virus outbreak that began after the solar flare is responsible for most of the deaths, and that some people have a genetic resistance. Despairing, Jenny tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in the ocean, but she is rescued. At the conclusion, they exude a hopeful outlook by embarking on a trek to northern California.


The Tick (1994 TV series)

The Tick is a superhero who underwent the tryouts at the National Super Institute in Reno, Nevada where superheroes who pass will be assigned to the best cities to protect from crime. Upon passing the tryouts, he is assigned to The City where he befriends a former accountant named Arthur whom he takes on as a sidekick.

With the aid of Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, and other superheroes, the Tick and Arthur protect The City from bad guys like Chairface Chippendale, Breadmaster, El Seed, The Terror, and others who would harm it.


Lake Placid 2

The film begins with two researchers, Frank Mills and Tillman on a rubber tube raft until Tillman is dragged into the water and killed by a crocodile. In Aroostook County, Maine, Frank reports this to sheriff James Riley, showing him Tillman's severed body parts. James, Frank, and wildlife officer Emma Warner venture out onto the lake, where they find more of Tillman's remains. Meanwhile, three friends, Mike, Edie, and Sharon are killed by a crocodile while swimming in the lake. James, Emma and Frank stop at the house of Sadie Bickerman, an elderly hermit who has allegedly been feeding the crocodiles, to interrogate her about her missing sister Delores but she refuses to answer nor let them in the house. A poacher named Jack Struthers and his assistant Ahmad land their plane on the lake, hoping to kill the crocodiles after getting a tip from a local.

The sheriff's son, Scott Riley wanders into the woods, and appears to be stalked by the incoming crocodile. It turns out to be Daisy, the pet dog of Kerri. Scott then meets Kerri and her boyfriend, Thad. Daisy barks at something moving in the lake but Kerri sees nothing. Sadie talks with a photographer at a boat dock before going back to her cabin, and the photographer is killed purposely by a crocodile while taking pictures.

Riding the boat again James suddenly slows down, knocking Frank into the lake, but James and Emma bring him back on board to safety. When a crocodile appears James draws his gun, but the crocodile dives under to knock the three off the boat. The boat is demolished, and all three get to land unharmed. The three meet Struthers and Ahmad, who flew a plane to distract the crocodile.

The next scene shows Rachel and Larry, along with Scott, Kerri, and Thad venturing in the woods to another part of the lake. With the Sheriff's team, Deputy Dale Davis comes in to unload the boat, while the crew sets up a tent for overnight camping. They see a wild boar trapped in a rope net and feed it to the crocodile. The crew neutralizes the crocodile with their guns and Dale ties the mouth with a rope, but the crocodile easily breaks free, severs Dale's arm and devours him. Frank dies from a fall and the others move on.

Meanwhile, Rachel is killed by the crocodile who drags her into the lake, while Larry manages to escape. The other three of the younger group find eggs in the woods. Thad breaks some eggs and is killed by a crocodile. The Sheriff's group feed a boar carcass to one crocodile but a harpoon arrow accidentally damages Struthers' plane. James and Ahmad abandon the boat, and Struthers is thrown off the plane, but Ahmad neutralizes the crocodile. Thunderstorms strike during the night, forcing the crew to their tents. Scott and Kerri are stranded in the woods until they find a horrified Larry. The Sheriff's crew is fast asleep in their tents until the crocodile attacks and kills Ahmad.

The next morning, Scott, Kerri, and Larry climb a tree to avoid a crocodile but Larry falls from the tree and is killed. James finds the two surviving teenagers, and kills the crocodile with a grenade launcher. Sadie lets the teenagers inside her house for safety, until she tricks them into entering the lake and is then devoured by a crocodile herself. The police battles one crocodile, and Emma kills it by puncturing its mouth with a jackknife. Struthers hangs upside down on a tree and he is decapitated by the last crocodile. James kills it with multiple explosive substances that destroys the crocodile's nest.

At the end, Scott and Kerri kiss while James and Emma leave the lake together. It is revealed that Emma took the crocodile's eggs from the nest earlier and sends them to the scientific lab.


The Art of Seduction (film)

Min-jun (Song Il-gook) and Ji-won (Son Ye-jin) are so-called the first-rate "players" who are dating gurus with 100% success rates in any dating pursuits. Following her usual systematic dating rules, Ji-won fakes a schematic car accident to capture Min-jun's attention and successfully approaches him.

However, her smooth-sailing dating life finally encounters turbulence. Why in the world is this guy not succumbing to her alluring charm? Min-jun is also overwhelmed by the understanding that he has met his match. However, like the veteran players that they are, these two shouldn't show any signs of weakness in their dating tactics. Who will emerge victorious and become the last player standing?


Headin' South

As described in a film magazine, a forest ranger known only as Headin' South (Fairbanks) goes forth in search of Spanish Joe (Campeau), a Mexican responsible for most of the treachery and outlawry along the U.S.-Mexican border. Headin' South gains quite a reputation as he goes along and finally believes himself worthy of joining Joe's band. in a whirlwind finish in which Joe is captured, Headin' South meets one of Joe's near victims (MacDonald) and falls in love with her.


Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink

The story revolves around the lives of various girls attending Sakurakai Girls High School and the ups and downs of their love lives. While each chapter is a stand-alone story, characters from other chapters do appear throughout.


Opium Season

Joel Hafvenstein signed up for a year in Afghanistan in the heart of the country's opium trade, running an American-funded aid program to help thousands of opium poppy farmers make a legal living, and to win hearts and minds away from the former Taliban government. The author was soon caught up in the machinations of Helmand's drug trafficking warlords.


The Divine Ryans

The Ryans of St John's, Newfoundland, are an old family steeped in tradition. Donald Ryan edits the local newspaper while his brothers and sisters run the funeral parlour. Early one morning, Donald's son Draper Doyle goes to the newspaper office to surprise his father with a birthday cake, only to witness something traumatic. Two days later, Donald Ryan is dead. In the ensuing weeks, Draper Doyle's sleep is plagued by nightmares, and he realises he has no memories of the time surrounding his father's death. With the help of his uncle Reg, Draper Doyle tries to come to terms with the truth about Donald Ryan, and the key to this may be Donald's lucky hockey puck.


Headrush (film)

Down on his luck Charlie has been kicked off the dole, had his electricity cut off, and been dumped by his girlfriend Vicky. Despite claiming to be an expert on women, his best friend T-Bag has never had a girlfriend and the boys are convinced only money will change their depressing situation. The boys hear through their dealer Blowback that The Uncle is looking for new drug mules, so Charlie conceives an elaborate scam to smuggle a consignment of Cocaine back from Amsterdam. They meet The Uncle's nephew Razor Rupert and convince him that they're up for the job. As they lay their plans, each one egging the other on, each one refusing to admit to any fear, a series of comic coincidences begin to unravel their carefully laid plans.

''Headrush'' is a story about frustration, fear, and friendship. Charlie is a lost soul in a society riddled with corruption, political distrust and a preoccupation with making money. Trying to cope with problems he brings on himself, he seems on an inevitable slide that takes him deeper and deeper into a world with fatal consequences.


Just Cause 2

Four years after ''Just Cause'', Rico Rodriguez is dropped into Panau to find his former handler Tom Sheldon, who is suspected of going rogue and aligning himself with the country's dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay. With the aid of intelligence asset Karl Blaine and a weapons dealer only known as the Sloth Demon, Rico allies with the island's three dominant criminal gangs and factions: the Roaches, an organized crime syndicate; the Reapers, an insurgent socialist militia; and the Ular Boys, an ultranationalist rebel group which espouses traditionalism and opposes foreign influence.

Rico gathers enough information to track down Sheldon, who reveals that he has been the Sloth Demon while he was investigating a greater conspiracy behind Panay's rise to power. Rico determines that Sheldon has not gone rogue, and Sheldon tells him to continue causing chaos on Panau while he explains the situation to the Agency.

Sheldon then tells Rico to hurry to his hideout, where Rico learns that intelligence asset Jade Tan has been captured in Panay's military base and will be tortured and possibly summarily executed. Although Rico rescues her and destroys the base, Jade is bundled into a truck and a fleet of gunmen try to escape along a frozen lake. A nuclear submarine emerges from the ice, but Rico hijacks the truck and they are airlifted to safety by Kane (Sheldon and Rico's mission handler). Jade later explains that the Roaches, Reapers, and Ular Boys are secretly backed by Russia, China, and Japan, respectively, to bring down Baby Panay, but Rico and Sheldon wonder what the small island has which is so attractive to superpowers. They track down and assassinate the foreign intelligence officers liaising with the factions.

Soon afterwards, the island is engulfed in so much chaos that Panay leaves the capital for his fortified military base. Rico assaults the base with the aid of a faction of his choosing. Panay is apparently killed during the assault by Karl Blaine in a murder-suicide, but not before Panay explains that the three nations, along with the United States, have been interested in Panau for its oil reserves, supposedly the largest in the world.

With Panay dead, the situation in Panau becomes a free-for-all as foreign nations scramble to claim the oil. Russia, China and Japan send a fleet of supertankers to Panau, and the U.S. begins scrambling its military forces to defend the island. Rico is tasked with holding off the supertankers until reinforcements arrive, but a nuclear submarine suddenly surfaces. Rico investigates the submarine and finds Panay, alive but injured. Although Panay fires nuclear missiles at Russia, China, Japan and the U.S., his clothing snags on one of the missiles and he goes up with it. In pursuit, Rico grapples onto the missile; the men battle in midair as he disarms each missile.

Finally, Rico pins Panay to the exposed core of the U.S.-bound missile, and reprograms the targeting computer before jumping to safety. The missile changes course and explodes over Panau's oilfields, killing Panay and destroying the island's oil reserves. Rico rejoins Sheldon, Kane and Jade, who are dismayed at the loss of billions of dollars' worth of oil. Rico explains that oil is not worth dying for; with its oil gone, interest in Panau will be lost, the superpowers will not go to war and the island's residents will be spared. Sheldon agrees, assuring Rico that a president friendly to the U.S. will be installed on Panau and the island will be closely monitored; the group raise their glasses, toasting friendship and a job well done.


La Morte Amoureuse

The story opens with the elderly priest Romuald recounting the story of his first love, Clarimonde. On the day of his ordination many years ago, he sees a beautiful young woman in the church. He hears a woman's voice promising to love him and to make him happier than he would be in Paradise. Conflicted between 'love at first sight' and his religious beliefs, he finishes the ceremony despite her entreaties. On his way back to the seminary, a page greets him and gives him a card reading: "Clarimonde, at the Palace Concini".

Romuald is stationed in a quiet location in the country and feels trapped by his priesthood. He continues his studies but is distracted and plagued by the memory of Clarimonde. Father Sérapion senses something is off with Romuald and tells him about the legend of the infamous Clarimonde the courtesan, who has recently died. Romuald asks Sérapion about the palace, and Sérapion answers that it is the Palace Concini, where Clarimonde lives. He informs Romuald that it is a place of great debauchery. Sérapion warns Romuald that it is not the first time Clarimonde has died. One night, a mysterious looking man on horseback arrives to Romuald's parish, and asks for Romuald to come with him. They ride on horseback to a lavish castle in the country. As Romuald dismounts his horse, he is told that it is too late for the woman and that she's dead. He is led to the woman's chamber to perform the rites, only to discover that the woman is Clarimonde. In his grief, he kisses her, temporarily breathing life into her. She says they will shortly be reunited and Romuald faints as he sees her spirit leave.

Romuald believes all that had passed with Clarimonde had been a dream; but a few days later, she appears to him in his room. Clarimonde appears dead, but beautiful, and tells him to prepare for a trip. The two of them travel to Venice and live together. Clarimonde's health wavers and she seems to be dying, but she is restored after she drinks some of Romuald's blood from an accidental finger cut. Romuald realizes that Clarimonde is a vampire, but continues his relationship with her.

Father Sérapion pays a concerned visit to Romuald over his affairs with Clarimonde. Sérapion is adamant that Romuald’s desires for Clarimonde are born from sin and takes Romuald to her tomb. He reveals her body is miraculously preserved thanks to Romuald's blood. Seeing blood on the corner of her lip, Father Sérapion becomes furious and calls her a demon as he pours holy water on her corpse. She crumbles into dust, but returns to Romuald later that night and admonishes him for his betrayal. She then vanishes forever.

Back in the present, Romuald tells his audience that this was the greatest regret of his life and suggests that his listeners never look at a woman lest they meet the same fate, even as he still misses Clarimonde.

File:La Morte amoureuse - C'est une histoire singulière et terrible.jpg| File:La Morte amoureuse - il me sembla voir à travers la charmille une forme de femme.jpg| File:La Morte amoureuse - Nous avions chacun notre gondole et nos barcarolles à livrée.jpg| File:La Morte amoureuse - elle découvrit mon bras et tira une épingle d'or de sa tête.jpg| File:La Morte amoureuse - L'abbé Sérapion se munit d'une pioche, d'un levier et d'une lanterne.jpg| File:La Morte amoureuse - L'abbé Sérapion brise le cercueil de Clarimonde.jpg|


Forbidden Fruit (2000 film)

In a rural village in Zimbabwe, a single woman, Nongoma, and her married neighbour, Tsitsi, fall in love. When their lesbian relationship is discovered, Nongoma flees to the city. When they are reunited by chance two years later, the women decide to move together to a village where nobody knows them.


The Princess and the Pirate

A pirate captain known as the Hook (Victor McLaglen) buries his treasure on an island and kills the map maker so no one else will find it. He and his cut-throat crew go after the ''Mary Ann'', a ship on which Princess Margaret (Virginia Mayo) is running away from her father, the King (Robert Warwick), in order to marry a commoner. The Hook plans to hold her for a large ransom. A cowardly actor, Sylvester the Great (Bob Hope), is in the cabin next door to Margaret. The Hook's ship, ''The Avenger'' attacks the ''Mary Ann'' and after a big fight, the crew are killed or made to walk the plank by the pirates. Sylvester escapes by disguising himself as a gypsy woman and is taken on board ''The Avenger'' with Margaret.

The Ship's aged tattooist, Featherhead (Walter Brennan) has taken a fancy to the gypsy which is all that saves the disguised Sylvester. It turns out that he guessed the gypsy was a man and involves Sylvester in his plot to get the Hook's treasure for himself. He gives him the treasure map and helps Sylvester and Margaret escape in a boat and they are to pass the stolen map to Featherhead's cousin on the pirate island of Casarouge. The couple make it to the island which is extremely bloodthirsty. The couple check in at the ''Boar's Head Inn'' where they are to meet the cousin (who at present is not on the island) and do an act at the ''Bucket of Blood'' to get some money to pay for their stay.

Margaret is kidnapped and Sylvester goes to the Governor (La Roche) (Walter Slezak) to complain only to find out he was the kidnapper. La Roche has recognized Princess Margaret and plans on holding her for a million doubloon ransom. He stops Sylvester from leaving, planning to ransom him for 100,000 doubloons, sure that the King will want to hang him. Sylvester is well looked after and helps Margaret who is on a hunger strike. The Hook is in with La Roche and they threaten nasty things for the possessor of the map. Featherhead turns up under Sylvester's bed and knocks out Sylvester who wants to destroy the map to save his skin. Featherhead tattoos the map on the chest of the unconscious Sylvester and when he recovers, they both eat it.

After a meeting, the Hook guesses Sylvester is the gypsy who stole the map and returns to the Governor's house to kill him. The Governor sees the map on Sylvester's chest as the Hook arrives. The Hook chases him but is stopped from killing Sylvester by Featherhead who shoots him. As he has not returned, Pedro (Marc Lawrence), the Hook's second-in-command leads a raid on the Governor's house to rescue the Hook and after a big fight, inadvertently rescues Sylvester who has disguised himself as the Hook, along with Margaret.

Back on ''The Avenger'', Sylvester as the Hook starts giving orders, not knowing that the real Hook has just been grazed by the bullet and is now also on the ship. Contradictory orders flow from the two different Hooks at different times, till Sylvester is unmasked. In chains and ready to kill themselves, ''The Avenger'' is attacked and they believe it is La Roche. It however turns out to be the King's ship and both are released (La Roche has been captured and has revealed all). The King says he is not going to stand in Margaret's way if she wants to marry a commoner and she rushes forwards. Sylvester is shocked as she passes him and into the arms of another man, Bing Crosby, who is playing a sailor. Indignantly, Sylvester says; "That is the last picture I do for Goldwyn" (which it was).


La Vénus d'Ille

The narrator, an archeologist, is visiting the town of Ille in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. A friend of his recommends him to M. de Peyrehorade, who is familiar with the Roman ruins in the area. When he arrives, he discovers that M. de Peyrehorade's son, Alphonse, is to be married to a certain Mademoiselle de Puygarrig, and the narrator is invited to the wedding. 's ''Vénus d'Ille''

Meanwhile, M. de Peyrehorade shows the narrator his new discovery: a bronze statue of Venus Pudica. The narrator judges the statue to be very old and deciphers the inscription. Both men marvel at her fierce gaze; she is as frightening as she is beautiful. She also seems to be cursed: the man who found her had his leg broken, and another man who threw a stone at her was injured by the stone rebounding and striking him.

Before the wedding, the groom decides to play a game of Paume, and he slips the wedding ring intended for his fiancée onto a finger of the statue. He wins the game, but his opponents swear revenge. He accidentally leaves the ring with the statue; and when he goes back later to retrieve it, he discovers that the statue has closed her fingers around it. The narrator does not believe Alphonse's story, since Alphonse has been drinking heavily at the reception, and he goes to bed.

During the night, the narrator hears heavy footsteps climbing the stairs; but he assumes that it is a drunken Alphonse going to bed. In the morning, after the cock's crow, he hears the same steps retreating down the stairs. Suddenly, there is screaming and commotion. The narrator runs down the hall to find a crowd of people surrounding the dead Alphonse, who looks as though he died in a fiery embrace.

At first, he suspects that it was the rival faction from the game of Paume; but later he hears the story of Alphonse's wife, who others claim has gone crazy. She says that the statue entered the room, embraced her husband, and spent the entire night with him in her arms. In the morning, the statue left him there and returned to her pedestal.

The narrator leaves town to return to Paris. He later hears that M. de Peyrehorade has died, and his wife had the statue melted down and turned into a bell for the local church. The narrator remarks that since the bell has been installed, the crops have been destroyed twice by frost.


The Spiderwick Chronicles (video game)

When Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace move into the Spiderwick estate, they discover the late owner's field guide to fairies. They soon discover a hidden world all around them, populated with creatures such as brownies, goblins and sprites. However, Jared and his family are in grave danger, because Mulgarath, an ogre, wants to steal the book for himself.


The Dream Merchant (novel)

Twelve-year-old Joshua Cope is contacted by a corporation called Gippart International one day late at night. Joshua and his friend, Bhasvar (Baz) Patel go to Gippart and meet Max Herbert, a talent scout. Josh is sent into a dreamworld to sell products. But dreams also come with nightmares...

Umaya, the collective dream of everyone at that point in time, is caught between dreams and reality. Josh, Baz and a fellow associate Teresa cannot get out of the dream-world, where time is running backwards due to a Gippart employee attempting to break into real time rather than dream-time. Along his adventure, Josh meets his dead twin sister Jericho, who has been attempting to get in contact with him for 350 years. But with Jericho comes Lucide, a guardian who makes sure that no one crosses the borders of life and death.

The members of this troop find themselves with powers that they cannot explain. Baz, the first to find his powers, can control dream time by listening to the rhythm and matching it, causing it to slow, stop, or even rewind. Teresa changes Umaya with words, influencing people and surroundings to her will, she is the group storyteller. Josh is a thief and can change the very nature of things just by looking at them. However, they are trapped in umaya, the dream-world.

The four children must find Tembe at the end of time and fulfill Siparti's last promise to Temberi. They learn about each of Siparti's six kids and put together the clues that each of them hold.

After a harrowing ordeal, Josh, Jericho, Baz, Teresa, and Mervin Spratt manage to find their way to the edge of time itself, where the Tembe people live in a crumbling Fortress. The Tembe, descended from Temberi, have been trapped at the edge of time for over 1000 years. Luckily, the Tembe are friendly people, and show the associates how their Fortress is slowly being ripped away into the hurricane whom they have named Satura. Using the powers they gained in the journey, the children manage to find their way through the hurricane back into the real world.

Unfortunately, in the end, Jericho decides to return with Lucide and stay in Umaya.


Psyren

After Ageha Yoshina beats up a bully for 10,000 yen, he heads home anticipating a scolding from his sister for breaking curfew. On his way there, a pay phone nearby starts ringing, and he picks it up only to hear his own echo. Shrugging it off, he places the receiver back only to find a mysterious calling card with the word "Psyren" written on it. Curious about the sudden appearance of the card, he goes to his school's Occult Club and asks about it. It turns about Psyren was an urban myth, and whoever found out what it really was would get a reward of 500 million yen. The same day, he finds his classmate's (Sakurako Amamiya's) wallet, which some other girls hid, and notices she has the same card. After he returns it to her, she runs off and disappears. The last thing he hears is "Save me". The next day she isn't at school and soon she is declared missing. Ageha calls the number on the card in hopes of finding her. After answering a long and detailed quiz on a pay phone, he is asked if he wants to go to Psyren. The next day, while he is being chased by two mysterious people pretending to be police officers; his phone rings. In a panic, he picks up and is suddenly drawn into the world of Psyren, which is a wasteland inhabited by monsters called Taboo. It is later revealed that the Taboo were once humans that were turned into Taboo by an organization known as the W.I.S.E. The voice from the phone, dubbed Nemesis Q, assigns missions which people must complete if they wish to return home.

While in Psyren for the first time, newcomers are informed of the rules, which basically state that if you tell anyone about Psyren you die; when the number on your card hits zero you beat the game and can't come back; never lose your card, you can't go home if you do; and don't go near the towers. The Psyren Drifters (as they come to be called) breathe in the polluted air from this world of Psyren and it alters their brains, allowing them to surpass human limits and use all their brain cells, at the cost of serious damage. This lets them use a power called PSI, which usually lies dormant, and is usually never awakened. PSI consists of three categories, Enhance (use of PSI to enhance their physical abilities), Blast (external usage of PSI to create power blasts or creatures), and Trance (the ability to affect someone's mental state).

Ageha and his companions meet a group of kids who are adopted by Elmore Tenju, the old lady who placed the 500 million prize offer, as the game progresses. Each child has the ability to use PSI, and Tenju has trained them to one day fight W.I.S.E as the hope of the world. Each child has their own distinct and unique abilities and traumatic background. Ageha stays with them for a while and his abilities really start to grow with the help of techniques developed by the children. They train until he gets called back through his phone and goes back to fight in the game.

The game continues until eventually, Ageha, Sakurako, Hiryū Asaga, Oboro Mochizuki, and Kabuto Kirisaki are the only contenders left. They are trained by former Psyren contestant Matsuri Yagumo and the psychic children from the Tenju Roots Orphanage. Miroku Amagi, a psychic from their timeline, and his organization called W.I.S.E. are revealed to be the cause of Japan's destruction. Their actions slowly change the world of Psyren, resulting in the Tenju Root's survival in the Psyren timeline.

In the Psyren timeline, Mithra, a psychic from W.I.S.E, is revealed to have been manipulating Miroku the whole time. She reveals that a meteorite called Promised Tear turned her into a host for Ouroboros, a planet-eating meteor, and she calls the meteor to Earth. Before the Earth is destroyed, Nemesis Q's controller, No.7, transports them back to their own timeline. Ageha and friends intercept the W.I.S.E group before they gain possession of the Promised Tear. Ageha gives Miroku a card from No.7 allowing him to witness events that occur in the future. Together, Ageha and Miroku are able to defeat Mithra but Ageha falls into a coma. No.7 contacts Ageha while he is in the coma, revealing the outcome of the Psyren timeline—Miroku and Grana sacrificed their lives to destroy Ouroboros and Mithra. As Ageha wakes up from his coma, he travels with Sakurako and frees No.7 from her cell.


Wikipedia:Articles for creation/2008-01-04

Four young compulsive gamblers come up with a radical plan to get out of debt with a fixed race.


North Starr

A young African American man living in Houston witnesses his best friend's brutal murder, then flees to the small, racially intolerant, backwater town of Trublin.


Phoebe in Wonderland

9-year-old girl Phoebe Lichten (Elle Fanning) has apparent Tourette syndrome and Obsessive–compulsive disorder. She thrives with her family at home, but struggles in public school, particularly with the seemingly arbitrary rules and social norms. While she deals with being odd and insecure, her mother, Hillary (Felicity Huffman), and father, Peter (Bill Pullman), misinterpret Phoebe and her younger sister, Olivia (Bailee Madison), as child prodigies; Phoebe's mother, an author, pretentiously remarks that her daughters' poetry is reminiscent of E. E. Cummings. Phoebe tries to fit in with her peer group at school, befriending an effeminate boy named Jamie (Ian Coletti) who is frequently bullied, but some teasing on the playground leads to an incident where Phoebe spits at another student's face.

Phoebe's parents initially dismiss the spitting incident after they're called into the principal's office. They take Phoebe and Olivia to watch a live performance of the ballet ''Swan Lake'', where Phoebe notably becomes entranced by the fashion and music. She also takes an interest in her school's new eccentric and mysterious drama teacher, Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson), a peculiar woman who quotes old literature, while the other teachers regard her with disdain. Phoebe seeks a role in Miss Dodger's school play, ''Alice In Wonderland''; Miss Dodger initially dismisses her for her lateness, but becomes more accepting after learning that Phoebe has compulsive hand-washing rituals. Phoebe flourishes on stage, relaxing and feeling normal, but her impulsive speech and behaviour persist off-stage. Convinced that she'll be "fired" if she doesn't get patterns and lines exactly right, Phoebe spends hours at home jumping off the stairs until she bruises her ankles, while using her afternoons to step on every cobblestone in her household garden in the right order. Alarmingly for Hillary, Olivia tries to copy Phoebe's meticulous patterns. Becoming more invested in the play, Phoebe begins to envision imaginary friends, particularly Alice (Tessa Albertson) herself, the play's young female protagonist. Her parents hire a therapist for her, but after he proposes medication, Hillary fires him. She doesn't want to accept that there is anything wrong with Phoebe, believing instead that she's been a bad parent by focusing too much on completing her latest book, which happens to be ''Alice In Wonderland''-themed. When the principal questions if Phoebe behaves oddly outside of the classroom, Hillary denies it even though she has many times witnessed her daughter's self-destructive rituals at home. Phoebe becomes an increasing embarrassment to Olivia, particularly after calling an obese woman a "fat pig" during a trick-or-treating event on Halloween. When Phoebe is taken out of the play due to her classroom behaviour, her dreams are shattered. Hillary, desperate to help her daughter feel normal, works with Miss Dodger to bring Phoebe back on stage.

Phoebe is falsely accused by bullies of murdering the class pet, "Carlita", a gerbil, and she spits at them. Meanwhile, Jamie, who won the female part of the Red Queen, has his costume vandalized with a homophobic slur spray-painted on it ("fagot [ sic ]"), and Phoebe holds his hand in a supportive gesture. Hillary meets Miss Dodger for the first time, and is stunned when the teacher claims that Phoebe exhibits no inappropriate behaviours or patterns during the play rehearsals. At the same time, she feels envious that Phoebe gets along better with a teacher than with her own mother. Seeming to reconcile with Olivia at home, both daughters cheerfully run around the house and play together, failing to notice how stressed Peter is by Phoebe's latent mental problems. The girls repeatedly shout that they "want babies!" (a new younger sibling to play with), and Peter quips that he couldn't handle another child if it turned out like Phoebe, hurting her feelings. Although Phoebe is put back into the play, her challenges continue as she is driven to behaviour she doesn't understand. She talks with Miss Dodger about her behaviour, and Miss Dodger suggests that as she grows older, she'll one day learn to admire herself for who she is rather than who the world wants her to be. After seeing her imaginary friend Alice again, Phoebe breaks her wrist jumping off the catwalk onto the stage, and Miss Dodger is fired when the principal suspects that she may have prompted Phoebe's act. Feeling betrayed by Miss Dodger's absence, Phoebe's fellow actors descend into chaos, smashing the sets they built, but Phoebe alone clings to a sense of purpose. She urges her classmates to continue their rehearsals on their own, and they do, including the students who had bullied Phoebe in the past. Hillary, who has resisted efforts to label Phoebe, tells Phoebe that she has Tourette syndrome, and Phoebe helps her classmates understand her by explaining her condition to them.


Sleep Dealer

''Sleep Dealer'' is set in a future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor, and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, where three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the technology barriers.

Memo Cruz works at a factory, one of several sleep dealers. Here, workers are connected to the network via suspended cables that plug into nodes in their arms and back, allowing them to control the robots that have replaced them as unskilled labor on the other side of the border. The sleep dealers are called so because one may collapse if one works long enough. The story is told as a flashback, as Memo remembers his home in Santa Ana Del Rio, Oaxaca. His father wants him to participate in growing crops on the meager family homestead. Memo's passion, however, is electronics and hacking. The homestead also has dried up because of a dam built nearby and owned by the private corporation Del Rio Water. Memo and his father must trek on foot to buy water by the bag while monitored by security cameras armed with machine guns. The media on American hi-def TV shows glimpses of a technological dystopia, although in a positive light with superficial spin-doctoring. Memo is building an electronic receiver that can tap into communications as a hobby. As he continues to work on it, its range increases to faraway cities.

One summer, a remote-controlled military aerial vehicle operated by the security forces of Del Rio Water catches Memo monitoring a frequency used by the drones. This act warrants a brutal attack. He disconnects in time before the drone can locate him with certainty. On another occasion, he and his brother watch a live TV broadcast about a drone action that is about to destroy a building known to be intercepting drone communication. They quickly realize that the building is their own home, where Memo has his equipment, and run to save their father, whose life is in danger. However, they are too late, and the vehicle launches a rocket at the father, instantly killing him. The drone pilot is a Mexican-American named Rudy Ramirez. Memo boards a bus to the city of Tijuana to find work.

Luz Martínez also boards the same bus. Memo notices that Luz has nodes on the wrist for interfacing with the digital network and asks her where he can get them for free. She tells him that he can find someone, known as a coyotek, to connect him by asking around in a certain alley. Luz has loans and may default. She makes a living by uploading memories to an online memory trading company, TruNode, where viewers pay for content. She uploads her memory of meeting Memo.

Memo is robbed of his money during his first attempt to seek a coyotek. He finds an abandoned shack in which to stay at the edge of the city, where other node workers live. Luz gets a sale for her memory of Memo and a prepaid offer for her next memory of him. Luz finds him and learns he is out of money. She helps him get a node job at a bar that has the equipment. She is the coyotek, having learned from her ex-boyfriend, and she does him a favor.

Luz tries to upload more experiences. TruNode makes her reveal feelings rather than just the story. The person who requested the information is revealed to be Ramirez working for Del Rio Water. Luz and Memo open up to each other and have connected sex. Upon receiving the next upload, Ramirez has his doubts confirmed that his work made him kill a good man.

Memo discovers that Luz has been paid to upload her memories of him, and so he leaves her feeling betrayed. He works overtime at the sleep dealer, risking exhaustion. Luz writes to him and mails him a recording of her memories as a parting gift. In the meantime, Ramirez has crossed the fortified US-Mexican border to meet Memo. As Ramirez explains himself, Memo tries to run, perceiving danger. Ramirez catches up and explains he was under orders and offers to help.

Memo rejoins Luz and recruits her help to connect Ramirez to the network. He accesses the Del Rio Water security network to control one of the company's drones. Upon discovery that Ramirez is not heeding orders, other drones pursue Ramirez. After heated aerial dogfighting, Ramirez manages to blast a hole in the dam, directly where Memo's father had once tossed a pebble in helpless frustration. Memo receives news from his home and neighboring subsistence farms, celebrations of returning ancestral waters, albeit not necessarily a permanent one. Ramirez goes farther south in Mexico as he can no longer return to his family in the US. Memo moves on with his life in Tijuana.


Sugar (2008 film)

Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Perez Soto) spends his weekends at home, passing from the landscaped gardens and manicured fields on one side of the guarded academy gate to the underdeveloped, more chaotic world beyond. In his small village outside San Pedro de Macorís, Miguel enjoys a kind of celebrity status. His neighbors gather to welcome him back for the weekend; the children ask him for extra baseballs or an old glove. To his family, who lost their father years before, Miguel is their hope and shining star. With the small bonus he earned when he signed with the academy some time ago, he has started to build his family a new house—one that has a bigger kitchen for his mom and a separate room for his grandmother.

After learning a devastating knuckle curve, Sugar is invited to spring training by the fictional Kansas City Knights. He is assigned to their Single A affiliate in Iowa, the Swing. He is housed by the Higgins family, who take in Swing players every year. Jorge (Rufino), a veteran player and the only other Dominican on the team, also tries to help Miguel learn the ropes. However, despite the Higgins' welcoming efforts and Jorge's guidance, the challenge of Miguel's acceptance into the community is exposed in small ways every day, from his struggle to communicate in the English language to an accident of casual bigotry at a local bar.

Miguel's domination on the mound masks his underlying sense of isolation, until he injures himself during a routine play at first. While Miguel is on the disabled list, Jorge, his one familiar connection to home in this strange new place, is cut from the team, never fully regaining his ability following an off-season knee surgery. The new vulnerability of Miguel's injury, coupled with the loneliness of losing his closest friend, force Miguel to begin examining the world around him and his place within it.

Pressure mounts when Salvador, a young pitching phenomenon who used to play with Miguel, is brought up from the Dominican Republic to join the team. Miguel's play falters, and the increased isolation begins to take its toll on him. As his dream begins to fall apart, Miguel decides to leave baseball to follow another kind of American Dream. His odyssey finally brings him to New York City, where at first he struggles to find community and make a new home for himself, like so many before him. Miguel ends up playing baseball with rejected players from the minor leagues.


Hercule et Sherlock

When a counterfeiter is captured, two of his thugs have to work with two counterfeit money-sniffing dogs named Hercule and Sherlock in order to find the lost cash.


Transformers Decepticons

Starscream sends his protégé, the "Create-A-Bot", to Earth to help Barricade investigate a faint Decepticon signal they received. After Create-A-Bot undergoes a basic systems check, under Barricade's coordination, they encounter a group of Autobots in the area, including the Create-A-Bot from ''Transformers Autobots'', whom he destroys. He is then called to Tranquility and tasked with helping Barricade find the Autobot Bumblebee, who has information regarding Megatron, and whom they discover has learned from a news article about a frozen "giant metal man" found in the Arctic. The Create-A-Bot then relays this information to Starscream, who encourages him to earn Barricade's trust. While Create-A-Bot distracts the local police, Barricade finds and fights Bumblebee, defeating him and retrieving the information from him. It is revealed that a human military organization called Sector 7 had Megatron imprisoned at a base in the Arctic, but moved him to an unknown location, and that a file called "Project: Ice Man" has information regarding Megatron's current location.

Blackout and Create-A-Bot next head to a SOCCENT Military Base in Qatar, where they rendezvous with Brawl, who helps Create-A-Bot attack the airfield as a distraction, while Blackout cuts off communications and hacks into the humans' network to find the "Project: Ice Man" file. The Autobot Ratchet shows up with reinforcements, but is defeated and flees Create-A-Bot the relays the information they found to Starscream, who informs him that Megatron and the AllSpark are on Earth, Megatron having followed it here years ago. Starscream encourages the Create-A-Bot not to tell anyone about the AllSpark being on Earth, claiming he wants to secure it and avoid having to fight with anyone else over it.

Back in Tranquility, Blackout discovers that Sector 7 has set up automated defenses made from Megatron's technology all over town, whom Create-A-Bot destroys, while Barricade uses the town's power plant to get enough energy to crack the file. After Brawl shields the plant's generators from Sector 7, Optimus Prime arrives on Earth with more Autobots. Create-A-Bot distracts them to give Barricade more time, culminating with him defeating Bumblebee and leaving him to be captured by Sector 7. Barricade then learns that the "ice man" described in the file is Megatron, who is being held at the Hoover Dam. The Decepticons attack the dam, with Brawl destroying several communication satellites and planting bombs as a contingency plan, while Starscream orders the Create-A-Bot to kill Megatron before Barricade can revive him. Troubled by these orders, Create-A-Bot relays them to his fellow Decepticons, who realize that Starscream wants to secure the AllSpark to ensure that no one can challenge him. Meanwhile, Barricade attacks a military base near the dam and finds a way inside after learning that Sector 7 joined forces with the Autobots. With Blackout's help, Barricade infiltrates the dam and finds that Sector 7 has kept Megatron frozen to study his technology, before unfreezing him.

With Megatron alive and leading the Decepticons once again, he vows to kill Starscream for his treachery and gives an inspiring speech to his followers, before Brawl arrives with the news that the Autobots have taken the AllSpark to Tranquility. The Decepticons attack the city, though Megatron is ambushed by Jazz, who disposed of the bombs Brawl planted earlier, and whom Megatron swiftly kills after a brief fight. In Tranquility, the Decepticons kill most of the Autobots, with Brawl taking down Ironhide, and Starscream eliminating Bumblebee. Blackout and Barricade then attempt to arrest Starscream, but he kills them both and escapes, despite Create-A-Bot's attempt to stop him. Elsewhere, Megatron battles and kills Optimus, before Starscream arrives and challenges him for leadership of the Decepticons. Alongside Create-A-Bot, Megatron pursues him to the casino strip where the former landed on Earth. Create-A-Bot attempts to kill Starscream by shoving the AllSpark into his chest, mortally wounding himself in the process, but to no avail. Megatron ultimately kills Starscream on his own, before executing the wounded Create-A-Bot, as he is no longer useful in his current state. With most of his troops dead, Megatron then transforms into a jet and flies off into the night sky, his destination unknown.


Bodyguard (1948 film)

After being put on suspension at the LAPD, Mike Carter punches his lieutenant and quits in disgust. A few days later, at a baseball game, he is approached by Fred Dysen, who wants to hire Carter as a bodyguard for his aunt, Gene Dysen, a widow and head of Continental Meat Packing Corp. Carter refuses. Later, at his apartment, an envelope is slipped under the door with $2000 in it. Carter rushes out, but the person who left it is already gone.

Carson drives to the Dysen mansion in Pasadena, where he pushes his way in and, after meeting the members of the household, finds Mrs. Dysen is uninterested in having a bodyguard. Carter returns the money to Fred, but just as he is leaving, someone shoots at Mrs. Dysen but gets away. After she goes to bed, Fred convinces Carter to stay, just for the night, and Carter takes back the money.

At 3:45 am, Carter catches Mrs. Dysen's secretary, Connie, digging the bullets out of the wall, then sees Mrs. Dysen drive away. He follows her car to the downtown Los Angeles warehouse district, where he is hit on the head, waking up later in his car, with the lieutenant shot dead beside him, on the railroad tracks with a train bearing down. Carter barely gets out in time.

Realizing he is being framed for the lieutenant's murder, he asks his fiancée, Doris, who is the lieutenant's secretary, to find out all she can about the cases the lieutenant was working on. She drives him to the Dysen home; finding Mrs. Dysen not at home he goes to the plant; she is not there either.

In the info on lieutenant Bordon's cases, one stands out, the death of an inspector at the Continental Meat Packing plant. Back at the Dysen mansion, Carter confronts Mrs. Dysen about her movements that morning. After she gives him a plausible explanation, he calls Doris and asks her to bring him more information on the inspector's death. He then talks to the dead man's brother, who recognizes Carter as being wanted by the police. Carter discovers evidence that the inspector's sight was not as faulty as claimed in the accident report.

Narrowly avoiding arrest checking out the testimony of the optometrist at his office, Carter next tries to find information at the glasses manufacturer; it's after hours so he breaks in. Finding the information he needs, he calls the captain and tells him to meet him at the Dysen home. Meanwhile, at the plant, where she went despite Carter telling her not to, Doris spies on Fred and Fenton, the supervisor.

At the mansion, Carter confronts Mrs. Dysen, who reveals that Freddie thinks Fenton has been adding water to the meat to increase its price and pocketing the difference. The inspector was murdered to cover it up. Carter tells her he believes Fred is in with Fenton on the fraud. Discovering Doris is in danger at the plant, Carter steals the police car and heads to the plant.

At the plant, Fred, reveals how he will frame Fenton for the deaths and exonerate himself, with Fenton dead. Carter arrives just as Fred is about to shoot Doris and, after Fred runs out of bullets, fights with and knocks out Fred. The police arrive and take both Carter and Fred into custody. The next scene shows the newlywed Mr. & Mrs. Mike Carter heading off for their honeymoon in a police cruiser.


Bachmann (short story)

The story has an outer narrator who receives the story by Sack, the inner narrator. Sack is the impresario of Bachmann, but he is callous, and does not care for him. The core story deals with the love relationship between Mme. Perov and Bachmann. Bachmann is an awkward and eccentric pianist and composer to whom she is introduced at a party where she (like the reader) first mistakes Sack for Bachmann. Sack speaks disparagingly of B, who has "no brains". Sack has to track him down frequently as he being an alcoholic tends to disappear before his performances. Mme Perov becomes a necessary and enhancing facilitator for the musical genius; he always made sure that she was sitting in the first row when he was performing. One night, when she was sick and absent, Bachmann refused to play and insulted the audience (Sack complained that he was showing them "the fig - instead of the fugue"). Sack dragged her out of her bed to the theatre, but Bachmann had left already. Sack made her look for Bachmann in a cold and rainy night, and when she finally returned to the hotel, she found Bachmann in the room. The outer narrator describes their togetherness: "I think that these two, the deranged musician and the dying woman, that night found words the greatest poets never dreamed of". She died the next day. Bachmann disappeared after the funeral and became insane. Sack saw him later in a deplorable state and avoided him.


X-Kai

During the day, Kaito works as a florist in a rundown flower shop, but he is actually an assassin trying to make enough money to care for his comatose older brother, who was badly burned in an accident. Kaito receives his assignments from a mysterious and beautiful woman named Suguru. However, although Kaito works as an assassin, he is not without compassion. Later on in the series, Kaito takes in a little boy he names Renge, who has been abused by his parents and other adults.

As the story progresses, more is revealed of Kaito's past. He and his older brother spent much of their childhood at an orphanage that trained young boys to be assassins, and Kaito's older brother was one of the people responsible for picking out the boys with the most potential. In the organization he works for, Kaito is considered to be the top assassin, which causes jealousy and resentment among his rivals.


United States of Tara

The show is a representation of a seemingly typical American family who must cope with the daily struggles of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Tara Gregson is a wife and mother of two children in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, who has been diagnosed with DID. Suffering side effects from the medication, she is depressed at her inability to focus, to feel, to be intimate, to create art, and to progress in therapy to discover the painful source of her dissociation. With approval from her therapist, she discontinues the medication, knowing that multiple personalities will reemerge.

When stressed, Tara may transition into one of her alters: wild and flirty teenager T; 1950s style housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. A fourth alter, Gimme, is introduced later in the first season. During the second season, two further personalities are introduced: Shoshana, Tara's therapist of sorts, and Chicken, an infantile representation of Tara when she was five years old. Another alter emerges in Season 3, that of Tara's previously unknown half-brother Bryce. Tara is supported by her husband Max, daughter Kate, and son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is not very supportive of Tara, expressing doubts about the validity of her sister's disorder, though she becomes increasingly more understanding and receptive as the series progresses.


Shootdown (film)

In the film, Nan Moore (Lansbury) loses her son in the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 disaster. She wishes to discover the truth about her son's death.


Danger, Go Slow

Muggsy Mulane, a female crook who masquerades as a boy, jumps a freight train to the country after Jimmy the Eel, the leader of Muggsy's criminal gang, is arrested. Muggsy gets off at Cottonville and a railroad cop chases her away from the station. In the village of Cottonville, she sees a sign that says "Danger - Go Slow" and Muggsy takes it as an omen and decides to settle down in the small country town. Muggsy befriends a woman named Aunt Sarah, whom she later discovers is Jimmy's mother when she sees a photo of him on Sarah's desk. At first, Sarah thinks Muggsy is a boy, but Muggsy reveals her true gender to the friendly old woman.

When Muggsy learns that the greedy Judge Cotton, who holds the mortgage on Aunt Sarah's property, is planning to foreclose, she robs the judge's safe to get Sarah the money she needs, but Aunt Sarah makes her put it back. (The film's poster shows Muggsy, dressed as a boy, robbing the Judge's safe.)

Later, the judge tries to molest Muggsy and she threatens to expose his lecherous behavior to all of the townspeople if he doesn't let Aunt Sarah off the hook. The judge relents out of embarrassment, releasing Aunt Sarah from her financial obligations. Soon after, Muggsy sells a portion of Aunt Sarah's farm property to an oil prospector named Bud (Lon Chaney) for $10,000.00, far more than it is worth. Aunt Sarah uses part of the money to legally pay off her mortgage, since she wants to pay her debts in a proper fashion.

After a year has passed, Muggsy travels back to the big city and greets Jimmy the Eel as he is being released from prison. She convinces Jimmy to come back home to Cottonville and be reunited with his mother. Meanwhile, Bud convinces his oil company to pay Aunt Sarah an additional $40,000.00 for the remainder of her land, making Sarah a wealthy old woman. Muggsy and Jimmy get married and decide to settle down in Cottonville permanently.


Captain Barbell

In every version of the story, major changes in the story plot are applied, but the core story remains the same. Enteng, a poor, wimpy and skinny but kindhearted boy always gets bullied by other people because he is undersized and easy to pick on. He tries to practice weight training and exercise to improve his physique, but his poor status prevents him to do it properly. He ends up buying (or finding in other versions) an old, secondhand and rusty barbell for him to practice on. He later discovers that the Barbell contains hidden powers, when he lifts it in one hand and shouts the name ''"Captain Barbell"'', he transforms to Captain Barbell, a superhero possessing invulnerability, super strength, x-ray vision, incredible speed and the power of flight. With his newfound powers, he fights evil forces and protects the weak and helpless.

In the 2006 TV series, Captain Barbell is shown to have a weakness: Exposure to the element, Askobar.


Huddling Place

The story is lightly plotted, and most of the text is devoted to setting the scene. In the distant future, humans have colonized Mars and live an apparently easy life, supported by efficient and intelligent robots. Intelligent Martians co-exist with the humans on that planet. The trend to suburbanization, first manifest in the mid-20th century, has continued, such that many (most?) humans on Earth live in isolated enclaves. Jerome Webster, the main character, is a human living on Earth with expertise in Martian physiology, especially that of the brain. Like many other human adults, he suffers from progressive agoraphobia, which becomes extreme after his only son departs to spend time on Mars. Jenkins, the most senior family robot, explains to Webster that his father had been similarly afflicted. Webster contemplates writing a monograph on the subject.

Before he can begin this project, he learns that Juwain, a Martian friend and brilliant philosopher, has contracted a terrible disease that only he can cure. This would require traveling to Mars, something his agoraphobia makes nearly impossible. Senior political figures make clear that Juwain's death would be a tragedy for which humankind would suffer for thousands of years, and Webster is pained by the thought of forsaking his friend.

With great effort he packs for the trip, only to discover, in the last lines of the story, that the robot Jenkins, not understanding the stakes, had dismissed the spaceship that had arrived to transport Webster to Mars. The reader is made to understand that Webster probably could not steel himself again for departure, and so Juwain would die.


Men of Timor

The film opens with a map of the Timor Sea area, showing Timor Island, then Japanese occupied Dutch Timor and Portuguese Timor (East Timor), in relation to the coast of the Northern Territory in northern Australia. It briefly explains the circumstances of the Australian troops left behind, who did not surrender but carried on a guerrilla war against the Japanese.

After some very difficult forays behind enemy lines to capture equipment for radio, they manage to contact the Australian military in the city of Darwin across the Timor Sea. Wary of a possible Japanese trick, the military asked the Sparrow Force men what the first name of a wife of a particular sergeant was. When the correct answer, Joan, was returned, the Australian military starts to airlift supplies to the Allied guerrillas and their Timorese allies.


Dark of the Sun

In 1964, mercenary Bruce Curry is publicly hired by Congolese President Ubi to rescue European residents from an isolated mining town about to be attacked by rebel Simbas. However, his real mission is to retrieve $50 million of diamonds from a mine company's vault. Curry's subordinates include his black friend Ruffo and alcoholic Doctor Wreid. He also reluctantly recruits ex-Nazi Henlein because he needs his military expertise and leadership skills.

Ubi gives Curry a steam train and Congolese government soldiers. However, as the mission is in violation of UN accords, the train is attacked and damaged by a United Nations peacekeeping plane. At a burned-out farmhouse, they pick up a traumatised woman named Claire, who watched her husband being hacked to death by Simbas. Meanwhile, Henlein begins to cause trouble because he knows about the diamonds and resents Curry's leadership. He casually kills two children for being possible Simba spies and starts making advances towards Claire. When interrupted by Curry, the German attacks Curry with a swagger stick and a chainsaw. Only Ruffo is able to stop Curry from killing Henlein.

Further complications arise when the mercenaries reach the mining town. First, the diamonds are in a time-locked vault delaying the train's departure. Second, Dr Wreid insists he cannot abandon a pregnant woman at a nearby mission hospital. Reluctantly, Curry agrees to let the doctor stay behind.

As Curry waits anxiously for the vault to open, the Simbas attack the town and the station. The train, loaded with the diamonds and residents, slowly departs under small arms fire. However, a mortar round destroys the coupling between the last two carriages. The last coach - carrying the diamonds and most of the Europeans - rolls back into the Simba-held town as the rest of the train steams away.

Curry and Ruffo set out to retrieve the diamonds during the night. Using a Simba disguise, Ruffo carries Curry's seemingly lifeless body into the town's hotel, where harrowing scenes depict murder, torture and male rape. A diversionary attack by surviving Congolese soldiers enables them to get the diamonds and escape in vehicles. When they run low on fuel, Curry leaves to find more. Henlein takes advantage of his absence to kill Ruffo in the mistaken belief that he has the diamonds. When Curry returns to find his friend dead, he pursues Henlein and kills him after a vicious fight. Back at the convoy, with his job done, Curry reflects on the type of man he is before turning himself in for a court-martial to answer for his actions.


Final Days of Planet Earth

Three years ago, a team of astronaut miners completed a daring space expedition. They embarked on their journey home, but by the time the craft returned to Earth, their commander had gone mad—taking a terrible secret with him to a heavily guarded state asylum for the insane. Today, archeologist Lloyd Walker and entomologist Marianne Winters are among a select group of people who are questioning a possible link between the tragic space mission, the mystery of the commander’s madness, and a series of bizarre disappearances and strange accidents in San Francisco. The answer arrives when they stumble upon an underground colony of insect-like creatures harvesting human bodies for survival.

Liz Quinlan, now an employee of the mayor’s office, knows all too well the secret of the aliens, given that she is their Earth Queen. The city's highest representatives are her consorts. With police and government officials taken over by aliens masquerading as humans, Lloyd and Marianne realize they can trust no one, except William Phillips, the one man who knows the ultimate goal of the aliens. He also holds the mysterious key to their defeat—it's in his blood. He is the commander himself—the sole mission survivor being held as prisoner. Lloyd and Marianne must find him before he becomes a victim of an unearthly experiment.


The Class (2007 film)

Joosep Raak is an Estonian teenager who is being bullied by his entire high school class, the ring leader of them all is Anders, his accomplice Paul, and three other friends: Toomas, Tiit and Olav. Anders encourages the class to continually beat up Joosep, and harass him in other ways as well, such as fully undressing him and then pushing him in the girls' changing room. However classmate Kaspar Kordes decides to go into a matter of loyalty by going against Anders and the others' entertainment of harassing Joosep by defending him, such as giving him a spare pair of shoes when Paul had torn them, which does not sit well with the whole class and so Kaspar becomes separated from the whole group the class had formed. Kaspar's love interest Thea becomes distant to him and this begins to worry him but continues to defend Joosep.

Joosep's tutor Laine becomes aware of Joosep receiving harassment and sends Paul to the headmistresses office and so he frames Kaspar of the whole harassment where they believe in him due to being unaware of his true actions, which leads to the school contacting Joosep's parents. Joosep's Father Margus a militarist fascinated with guns and insists on Joosep being a "real man" encounters him about the accusation of Kaspar bullying him and so Joosep dismissively reveals that is the whole class which angers Margus and tells Joosep to fight the ringleader of the crowd as he believes it is the only way to stop and scare somebody from bullying him. The next day when Anders and his four friends go to attack Joosep, the restrained Kaspar breaks free and attempts to hit Anders with a chair, which Anders manages to dodge. Anders then claims that Kaspar has "gone crazy".

Anders asks Kaspar to meet him in the school playground after class. Upon meeting up with an expected fight, Kaspar tells Anders that he will accept the fact that he will not be a "normal guy", where then Paul, Toomas, Tiit and Olav appear with a restrained Joosep and lock Kaspar in a burned down shed where they force him to watch as they take turns to hit Joosep, to the point where he can't breathe anymore. Before leaving off Anders tells Kaspar that if he continues to defend Joosep then it will only earn Joosep worser beatings. Joosep goes to Kaspar's apartment complex where they meet up and he informs Kaspar that he wishes for him to stop defending him, a concerned Kaspar asks what Joosep will do and suggests that he could shoot them by referencing a God's law, Joosep believes that it will be best if he simply let's it go on until he has completely finished school so he will never see them again and be free.

Thea becomes saddened and angered when the class starts believing that in a homophobic atmosphere Joosep and Kaspar are ridiculed for supposedly having gay feelings for each other and so she is having love interests in Kaspar. Kaspar becomes stressed by this and tries to talk Thea down about it but she starts believing that Kaspar cares more about Joosep then her and leaves him, meanwhile Joosep is being beaten in class.

When returning home, Joosep's Mother Liina discovers heavy bruises on his chest as well as a cut on his chin, she then becomes heavily worried that he had been fighting and demands to know what is happening but he refuses to tell and Margus supports him on the claim. Liina informs the school administration and at last the class as a whole is rightly blamed. When Laine confronts the class about the claim, Joosep runs home fearing the worst and angered, upon entering his home crying only to encounter Margus who learns that Liina called the school, tries to encourage his son to fight back and demonstrates a fighting technique by giving the boy an additional punch.

Out of revenge, the class assembles on a beach, calling both Kaspar and Joosep there by writing emails to them showing each other as fake sender. Once there, they make Thea confess to Kaspar that she is no longer with him in front of the whole crowd which sets him off and beats Anders to the ground only to have a knife pulled on him, they all then force Kaspar to fellate Joosep at knife point and photograph the sexual act without showing the knife. Kaspar throws up afterwards.

The boys decide to avenge themselves. Joosep steals Margus's two pistols, a bolt-action rifle and ammunition from his gun safe whilst asleep, and the two proceed to school the next morning. As they proceed, students and teachers notice the guns in their hands, when a teacher encounters them about it they simply walk past and Joosep tells her to call the police. Before entering the cafeteria to shoot their bullies, Kerli, a gothic girl from the class who also witnessed the incident at the beach, decides to let the two have their revenge and goes past them. They begin the massacre on the students responsible for their torment. Joosep shoots Tiit at close range and then shoots Olav in the head. Joosep then shoots and kills Thea's best friend Riina. To their regret, Kaspar accidentally shoots an eighth grade female student from another class while trying to shoot Anders. Toomas tries to grab the gun from Joosep but ends up getting shot in the abdomen, then Anders and Paul manage to restrain him and take his rifle, however Kaspar saves Joosep by shooting Paul in the head, just before Anders could reach the exit and escape he is shot in the shoulder and is executed by Joosep. Joosep then goes over to finish off Thea but Kaspar stops him and decides to spare her. Finally Joosep and Kaspar, facing one another, each aim a gun at their own head, decide to commit suicide together after counting to three. Joosep pulls the trigger and dies, but the film ends with Kaspar still standing there with his gun aiming at his head.


The Amy Fisher Story

The story begins in 1992, as Amy Fisher lies in a hospital bed with her mother sitting by her bedside. Earlier, she had attempted to commit suicide, but her parents caught her and took her to the hospital. As Amy rests in bed, she thinks back on her life over the last two years and her involvement with Joseph "Joey" Buttafuoco.

In 1991, Amy's parents buy her a brand new car for her sixteenth birthday. Amy loves the car, but her parents don't want her to take advantage by using it whenever she wants. After an argument with her parents, Amy spends her birthday at a friend's house. She had previously gone to a restaurant with them, and her father didn't like the fact that she was wearing such a revealing outfit (to keep the peace, Amy's mother told her outfit was lovely). She also flirted with the waiter, by looking at him with the corner of her eye, with a seductive smile on her face.

Amy gets into an accident, crashing her car. Her father takes her to Joey Buttafuoco's shop to get it fixed. She flirts with Joey lightly, asking him a lot of questions about his personal life. She begins crashing her car on purpose, using it as an excuse to see Joey again. Eventually, the two begin an affair. He is in his mid-thirties while she's in her teens (a minor). Amy becomes increasingly desperate about her relationship with Joey. She has strong feelings for him, and even though she knows he is married to his high school sweetheart Mary Jo Buttafuoco, she constantly wants to spend time with him. When he refuses to leave Mary Jo, Amy decides to hire someone to kill her. All her potential accomplices prove unwilling to get the job done, so Amy eventually decides to kill Mary Jo herself.

Amy goes to the Buttafuoco house and tells Mary Jo that Joey was cheating on her with Amy's younger sister. When Mary Jo expresses disbelief, Amy shows her the T-shirt that Joey gave her, but Mary Jo still doesn't believe Amy, saying that Joey gave that shirt to a lot of his customers. As Mary Jo is about to close the door on Amy, she takes out her gun and shoots Mary Jo in the head. The shot doesn't kill Mary Jo, but leaves her face partially paralyzed for life.

Joey realizes it was Amy who shot his wife. Mary Jo confirms this in a lineup. The reports of the shooting spread through the media and Amy is given the nickname "Long Island Lolita".

Eventually, in late 1992, Amy is sentenced to five to fifteen years in jail. Joey Buttafuoco is convicted of statutory rape in October 1993 and served six months in prison.


Inspector Palmu's Mistake (film)

The film opens with a scene of guests arriving at the crime-themed dinner party of Bruno Rygseck, the rich and decadent heir of the Rykämö concern. The guests are his cousins Airi and Aimo Rykämö, Airi's fiancé Erik Vaara, who works for the concern and strongly dislikes Bruno, and Irma Vanne, the daughter of vuorineuvos Vanne. In order to scare them as they arrive, Bruno has dressed up as the Grim Reaper.

The next morning, inspector Frans J. Palmu and detectives Virta and Kokki are informed that Bruno has drowned in his indoor swimming pool after slipping on a bar of soap. They head to the Rygseck house to conduct a routine investigation. The party guests (with the exception of Vanne), as well as Bruno's aunt Amalia Rygseck and his estranged wife Alli Rygseck, are present at the house, as all of them had had something to discuss with Bruno that morning. As Palmu inspects the bathroom, he begins to suspect that Bruno was in fact murdered. When the policemen are shown around the house by Bruno's manservant, Veijonen, they find Vanne and famous author K.V. Laihonen engrossed in lively conversation in the basement. They are oblivious to the morning's events, as they had entered the house through the back door when coke was delivered in the early morning and have since been in the basement. Although Laihonen does not know Bruno or Vanne from before, he had been invited to the house by her to get back the stolen manuscript of his unpublished novel.

The atmosphere in the house becomes increasingly hostile towards the investigation as Palmu asks more detailed questions about the morning's events. He learns that the previous night, Aimo had stolen Amalia's cat and brought it with him to the dinner party, where Bruno had poisoned it and invited her to view the cadaver for his amusement. Despite Palmu's suspicions, the investigation is closed due to pressure from the powerful Rygsecks and because there is no evidence to prove that the death was not accidental. Laihonen asks the policemen and Vanne to join him at the luxurious Hotel Kämp for a late lunch.

At Kämp, Vanne tells the policemen more about the previous night. They had been playing a game in which each contestant has to commit a crime that the victim cannot report to the police. The winner was to be chosen by Vaara at the party. Her crime had been to steal the manuscript; Aimo's to steal the cat; and Airi's to have ten of Aimo's promissory notes signed by Bruno. She had refused to reveal how she had gotten them, other than that it was blackmail. Bruno had then asked Vaara to come to his bedroom in order to show him his crime in private. Afterwards, Vaara had stormed out of the house in fury, after stating that Bruno had won the contest.

When Palmu and the detectives arrive back at the police station late in the afternoon, they are told that Alli Rygseck has been poisoned with prussic acid mixed in her absinthe. She had been back at the Rygseck house to discuss with the family members who was to inherit from Bruno: she had insisted that she should get the house. Bruno's case is now also re-opened, and the policemen head back to the house. Palmu interrogates Airi about the promissory notes, and she reveals that Aimo had been forging Bruno's signature to pay off his gambling debts. Bruno had told her that he would contact the police about it unless she were to agree to do something, although she refuses to specify exactly what. In Bruno's bedroom, Palmu finds an album of nude photographs he had taken of his female friends, with one page torn off.

That evening, the policemen meet Bruno's uncle Gunnar Rygseck, the head of the Rykämö concern, at his office. He tries to bribe Palmu and claims that Bruno was suicidal and had intended the poisoned absinthe for himself before dying accidentally. Next, Palmu confronts Vaara, whose office is in the same building, about what Bruno showed him. It is revealed to have been a nude photograph of Airi, which Palmu notices is a forgery. He tells Vaara that Aimo killed Bruno and that Airi will be imprisoned as an accomplice as she has tried to protect her brother: this leads Vaara to confess to Bruno's murder. Palmu asks for Airi, who also works for the concern, to come to Vaara's office. She confirms that the photograph is forged, and finds the idea that her brother killed Bruno laughable. Vaara takes back his confession, and Palmu admits that he never truly believed either him or Aimo to be the murderer.

Palmu calls the Rygseck house, where Amalia is moving in, and is told by her that Veijonen has disappeared. Palmu goes to interrogate Vanne again, and she confesses to have in fact secretly stayed in Alli Rygseck's old bedroom on the night of the party. When she walked through the corridor leading to the bathroom the next morning in order to get to the back door, she thought that a stair creaked behind her, as if someone else was there as well. Palmu places her on house arrest at Laihonen's apartment.

In order to get the murderer to act, Palmu sends detective Virta to tell all the suspects that Vanne knows something about the murders. He is also to get Bruno's photo album from the Rygseck house and to go show it to Vanne. At the house, Amalia convinces Virta to give her his gun for protection as she is scared of Veijonen. When Virta returns to the station, he learns that Veijonen has been caught and is cleared of the murders. Soon after, Palmu calls Laihonen and asks to speak to Vanne. He admits that she has gone to help Amalia search the house – he had lied to the gullible Virta earlier that she was asleep. The police rush back to the Rygseck house, and stop Amalia from shooting Vanne. In the struggle, Virta is shot in the shoulder.

In the final scene, it is revealed that Amalia has been mentally ill for some time and that she murdered Bruno as revenge for killing her cat. The murder weapon was her umbrella with a sturdy wooden handle that she always carried with her. As she is elderly and not of sound mind, she is not prosecuted but is left to the care of her brother.


Brigadoon (film)

Americans Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) are on a hunting trip in Scotland and become lost in the woodlands. They happen upon Brigadoon, a miraculously blessed village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day. (This was done so that the village would never be changed or destroyed by the outside world.) Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse), whose younger sister Jean (Virginia Bosler), is about to be married to Charlie Dalrymple (Jimmy Thompson). When Tommy and Jeff happen upon clues about the village and its people that make no sense, Fiona takes them to see Mr. Lundie (Barry Jones), the village schoolmaster, who tells them the story of Brigadoon and the miracle. If any villager ever leaves Brigadoon, the spell will be broken and the village will vanish forever. Furthermore, Lundie tells them, any outsider who wishes to stay must love someone in the village strongly enough to accept the loss of everything he or she knew in the outside world. That evening, Mr. Lundie officiates at the wedding of Jean and Charlie, which Tommy and Fiona attend. Interrupting the wedding, the jealous Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing) announces he is leaving Brigadoon to make everything disappear, since the girl he loves, Jean, is marrying another man. Harry's words cause mass chaos among the townspeople and they all rush to stop him. Harry almost crosses the bridge but is stopped short by Tommy. They scuffle and Tommy is knocked unconscious. With men closing in on him, Harry climbs up a tree to hide but is accidentally gunned down by Jeff, who skipped the wedding to go hunting. Harry falls dead to the ground and is soon found by the men. Fiona frantically searches for and finds Tommy. Confessing their love for each other, they decide to marry, allowing Tommy to stay in Brigadoon for good. But while Fiona goes off to find Mr. Lundie, Tommy tells Jeff about his plan. Jeff, drunk and remorseful of accidentally killing Harry, tells Tommy he can't just leave everything in the real world behind for this girl he's only known a day. Fiona returns with Mr. Lundie, but Tommy confesses that he cannot stay. Fiona says she understands but is heartbroken and they say good-bye before Brigadoon completely disappears. Tommy and Jeff cross the bridge and walk away.

Back in New York City, Tommy can think only of Fiona. Unable even to talk with his fiancée, Tommy ends his relationship with her and calls Jeff, telling him to get the first flight back to Scotland. He and Jeff return to the same spot where they were lost, though Jeff reminds him again the village will not be there. But suddenly Tommy sees lights start to appear through the mist and runs toward them. Brigadoon reappears and Tommy gets to the foot of the bridge to see Mr. Lundie half-awake on the other side saying: "Tommy, lad, you! My, my, you must really love her. You woke me up." Tommy seems stunned that Brigadoon has been brought back, but Mr. Lundie reminds him: "I told ye, if you love someone deeply enough, anything is possible ... even miracles."

Tommy then runs across the bridge and reunites with Fiona as the village fades back into the mist.


This Man Is Mine (1934 film)

Tony and Jim Dunlap are happily married. However, the dull-but-dependable Jim had been in love with Fran Harper, a school friend of Tony's, before he was married to Tony, and Fran has just been divorced. Now Fran is coming their way, bringing her pick-up boyfriend Mort Holmes along, and she intends to steal Jim from Tony.

Tony sees Fran as a reminder of her own mother, who left Tony's father and caused him to drink himself to death. Thus, Tony is determined to avoid meeting Fran. However, they meet at the house of their friends Jud and Bee McCrae, and Fran goes off with Jim after everyone has left. When Tony finds that Jim and Fran have been together, she threatens to divorce him. However, Tony eventually beats Fran at her own game, and wins Jim back.


Five Days in Paris

The story follows two Americans, Peter Haskell, a man with a strong career and family and Olivia Thatcher, two citizens from different backgrounds and cultures who meet in the Ritz in Paris, France on the night of a bomb threat. The latter character is a woman who is unhappily married to a leading senator, and the first being the president of a significant pharmaceutical empire.


Free Agents

Alex Taylor (Mangan) works for CMA, a successful talent agency. Whilst he is grateful for his job, he is currently going through a messy divorce, causing him to become depressed. His boss however, Stephen Cauldwell (Head), is sex-obsessed, cocksure and roguish. Alex later meets Helen Ryan (Horgan), a co-worker who is more successful and herself recovering from a messy relationship, after her boyfriend died months before her wedding.


Consequences (Cather story)

Kier Cavenaugh picks up his neighbour Henry Eastman on his way back to their apartment building in New York City. Back in his flat, Eastman needs a German language dictionary to prepare a case. He goes down to his neighbour's to ask if he can borrow his, and there a man seems to have just left his apartment through the window. Eastman leaves unfazed, too busy with work.

On New Year's Eve Eastman decides to stay in, and Cavenaugh comes along. They talk about suicide, especially bachelors like them who have committed suicide. Cavenaugh explains how he first met the man who is stalking him. His car had broken down and the man was supposed to help him tow him home. The man was delirious but seemed to know everything about him, every single detail even from schooldays, any memory likely to put him down. Eastman suggests moving to Montana for a while - that way the stalker would get bored and leave him alone.

A couple of days later, Cavenaugh tells Eastman he shall follow his counsel. However, the next day he is found to have killed himself in his apartment.


Impulse (Hopkins novel)

From the book jacket:


Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World

Barbie's rock band completes a successful world tour and decides to perform one last concert in space to promote world peace.


Ripley and Scuff

The show focuses Ripley and Scuff along with their sister Strid and their pet barguest Bargie visiting schools across the United Kingdom and wreaking havoc.


The Bookkeeper's Wife

Percy Bixby, a bookkeeper, steals money from his company to pretend he earns $50 a week and seduce Stella Brown. Once, he visits her and they talk about their honeymoon; she seems pleased. She will marry him instead of Charles Gaygreen, who is wealthier.

Later, the new boss at his company notices Percy doesn't take holidays, and shies away from him. Percy ends up admitting he stole money before getting married. Back home, his wife wants to go to the theatre and he explains what has happened. She says she will take up work in Charles Greengay's company and stay with the Burks. Finally, Percy has moved into a boarding house and tells his boss he can pay him less for the debt to be paid back more quickly, as he doesn't need as much money any more.


La Foire de Guibray

Arlequin and Scaramouche come to the Guibray Fair in order to steal things from merchants. When Scaramouche talks about how scared he is of the judge of the town, Arlequin suggests that they disguise themselves as Arab actors to avoid suspicion.

Meanwhile, the judge and Pierrot are walking through the fair, watching the various theatrical and musical acts. An Italian actor offers to entertain the judge, when Arlequin walks up and proposes his own play. The judge suggests a competition between the two. Arlequin will perform ''Arlequin Mahomet'', and the Italian will perform ''Le Tombeau de Nostradamus''.


Charlie Chan in Paris

Chan is on his way back from completing the London case—they always mentioned the previous case—to go on "vacation" to Paris, but this is just a way to make people think that he is innocently there. He is on a case for some London bankers and customers who say that some bonds from the Lamartine Bank in Paris are forged, so they hired Chan to solve the case. Chan is on his way to meet the new ward of the head of the Lamartine Bank, Paul. A blind man named Marcel Xavier comes up to him, and asks him for some change. After a police officer escorts Xavier away, Chan calls his assistant, Nardi, who promises to talk with him later about new information she found out. He meets with Victor Descartes, Mr. Lamartine's ward who is about to own the bank. Chan also meets Victor's friends: Max Corday, an alcoholic painter and his girlfriend, and Yvette Lamartine, the daughter of Mr. Lamartine. Victor tells Chan that Yvette is the special one: the two are engaged.

That night, Chan, Max and his girlfriend, Yvette, and Victor go to a cafe/club, where Nardi works as a dancer. After her performance, she is thrown into a room by her dance partner (part of the routine), where Marcel murders her by throwing a knife at her. Her last words to Chan instruct him to look in her apartment, where he finds a letter hidden in a cuckoo clock which explains that Albert is spending beyond his income.

As Chan leaves Nardi's house, Marcel throws a giant rock down in an attempt to kill him, which fails. He goes home and reveals his secret to Lee, his #1 son. That night, another attempt is made on Chan's life, this time with another thrown knife. However, Chan has outsmarted the culprit by throwing pillows onto his bed. The next morning, he interviews Paul Lamartine. As he is leaving, he sees Xavier making a scene, as he feels that the bank is cheating him out of his money. His escort gets him to leave, but not before he threatens everyone there. Chan instructs Lee to do some spy work around town. Chan is then accosted by his old friend, an inspector. They go and eat together.

Later, Victor drops Yvette off at her house. However, after Victor leaves, she goes to Albert's apartment to get some love letters, which she doesn't want Victor to see. Albert is seen calling a mysterious person, revealing that he is in the forging business. Unbeknownst to him, Marcel is secretly watching him through the window. Albert welcomes Yvette in. As he is about to give her the letters, he is shot by an unseen assailant. The other tenants rush up after Yvette screams. They believe her to be the murderer. She is jailed by the inspector, but Charlie points out an overlooked clue: footprints leading to Albert's room. They release Yvette.

That night, Charlie goes to the bank and asks the bank manager, Latouche, to give him Xavier's address. Afterwards, they catch Corday in the act of leaving town. Lee keeps Corday company while Charlie goes with Victor to Marcel's house. They are followed by Xavier as they make their way to the basement. Inside, they discover printing machines. Xavier comes in and shoots at Chan, but Chan is revealed to have blocked it. They capture Xavier as Lee and the police arrive. Charlie reveals that Xavier is the murderer, but he is not a real person. He has "Xavier" take off his false face. The murderer is revealed to be Latouche, as well as Corday. Chan goes into a summary of how they each became "Marcel" as so not to incriminate one another.


Arlequin Mahomet

Arlequin is being pursued by his debtors, so his friend Boubekir gives him a flying box so that he can flee the country. As he is flying over Persia, he sees a young man about to kill himself because his true love, the Princess of Basra, is to be married to the Kam of the Tartars (played by Pierrot from ''La Foire de Guibray''). Arlequin agrees to help.

He flies to the princess who does not want to marry the Kam and is praying to Mohammed. When she sees Arlequin in his flying machine, she believes that he is Mohammed. Arlequin tells her that she does not have to marry the Kam and presents her with a portrait of her future husband, the Prince of Persia. The Princess tells her father about this revelation, and the King and the Kam go in search of the "false Arlequin." Meanwhile, Arlequin enters the scene and flies over their heads. Arlequin beats them with his stick until the King and the Kam agree that the princess should marry the Prince. Arlequin brings the Prince to the court in his flying machine so he can marry the princess. Arlequin, in turn, marries the princess' servant.


Les Deux Billets

The play opens with Arlequin reading a love letter from the wealthy Argentine. In spite of the fact that Argentine loves him, Arlequin wishes that they were equally rich or poor so that she might be certain that he loves her for herself and not her money. Arlequin regularly plays the lottery, and his rival Scapin arrives with the day's lottery numbers. Arlequin has won. Scapin gives Arlequin false directions to the lottery headquarters and attempts to steal the ticket from Arlequin's pocket; however, instead of grabbing the ticket, he grabs Argentine's love letter.

Trying to profit from the situation, Scapin goes to Argentine and shows her the love letter, saying that Arlequin gave it to another woman. Argentine believes this, and when Arlequin comes back from his unsuccessful trip to the lottery, Argentine is angry and says she will marry the man who is holding her love letter. Scapin produces the love letter, and Arlequin is devastated.

Afterwards, Scapin tells Arlequin that Argentine gave him the love letter. Arlequin, desperate, agrees to trade the lottery ticket for the love letter. Scapin does, assuming that Argentine will not listen to Arlequin. However, when she discovers that Arlequin traded the lottery ticket for her love letter, Argentine realizes the true value of Arlequin's love.

When Scapin returns, Argentine pretends to be jealous and asks him to reveal the note that he has in his pocket. Scapin pulls out the lottery ticket, and Argentine snatches it. Argentine and Arlequin are now together and very wealthy.


Odalisque (novel)

The story begins with a slave driver attempting to sell his latest finds, including a foreign captive known only as Lazar. Hot tempered and confident, Lazar invokes his right to a fight to the death that, if he wins, will grant him his freedom. Zar Joreb, Percheron's leader decides to attend the fight and is so impressed by the demonstrated fighting skills that he offers Lazar the elite position of Spur.


Passengers (2008 film)

Psychotherapist Claire Summers counsels five survivors of a recent plane crash: passengers Dean, Norman, Shannon, Eric, and flight attendant Janice. Eric, however, is unusually euphoric after the tragedy, and he asks that Claire meet with him individually rather than in group sessions with the others. She later talks with Mr. Arkin, an airline official, about the survivors' differing recollections of the crash; Dean is sure there was an explosion before the crash, but the others disagree. Arkin claims pilot error was responsible. Eric expresses his attraction to Claire, but she is suspicious when he seems to know personal information about her, such as her fraught relationship with her sister.

When Dean misses a session and a stranger seems to be stalking the survivors, Norman concludes the airline is targeting the surviving passengers to cover up the airline's history of negligent mechanical failures. While Norman originally remembered nothing odd happening before the crash, he tells Claire that he now remembers an engine exploding. Later, Eric displays strange behavior in response to a dog barking outside, and Claire is conflicted between her role as counselor and her growing personal feelings for him. She asks him to stop coming on to her, but Toni, her kindly neighbor, urges her to take a chance with him.

At the following session, Norman is absent, leaving only Janice and Shannon. Arkin warns Claire against feeding the airline coverup theory to the remaining survivors, but she angrily tells him to stay away and later tells her supervisor Perry that she is worried about her missing patients. Claire then visits Eric, rides on his motorcycle, sails on his boat, swims with him, and finally sleeps with him. She also leaves unanswered voice mail messages for her estranged sister, Emma, indicating that she wants to reconcile. She takes flowers to Emma's house, but no one is home. Arkin confronts her as she departs, telling her that he knows she is sleeping with one of her patients. Claire then encounters Norman's stalker, who turns out to be another crash survivor who remembers an explosion. She takes him to see Arkin at the airport and angrily blames the airline for the crash and a cover-up. As Arkin denies the accusations, the survivor suddenly disappears, leaving Claire shaken and bewildered.

Eric returns to the crash site and experiences frightening memories of an exploding engine. Meanwhile, Shannon is the only one at the next session; just before Claire arrives, Shannon has a vision of her dead parents outside. Eric also arrives, and as Claire takes him and Shannon to her apartment, he tells Claire that he recalls an engine blowing up. Claire counsels Shannon about her feelings for her parents, who were killed when she was a child. Eric sees the same dog outside Claire's apartment and recognizes it as a pet that died when he was young. Convinced that he was killed in the crash, he runs out of the apartment and stands in front of an onrushing train, which has no effect on him, then shouts to Clair that she should stay away from him.

Shannon disappears from Claire's apartment, but her neighbor says she left with a man and woman. Claire goes to her supervisor, who is convinced she has latched onto a conspiracy theory, and she angrily accuses him of helping Arkin cover up the truth. At Emma's house, Arkin suddenly appears and again tells Claire that the pilot was responsible for the crash. Arkin departs but leaves his briefcase behind. Claire becomes hysterical after finding a ledger inside listing all the passengers who died in the crash. Claire's name is on the ledger, and Arkin is listed as the pilot.

The next morning Claire finds Eric on his boat. He explains that he withheld telling her that she and the other passengers died in the crash because everyone had to discover it individually. Deceased people and even pets from their pasts (unrecognized by the recently deceased) helped them to understand and accept death. The people Claire spoke to (including her aunt, who was the kindly neighbor, and a schoolteacher, who she thought was her supervisor) were dead friends or relatives. She and Eric sail from the harbor to cross over into the afterlife. A flashback shows Claire and Eric in adjacent seats on the plane, as well as other passengers and crew. During the flight, Claire and Eric develop an attraction. When the engine catches fire and the plane depressurizes, Eric assures her they will be all right and the screen fades to white. The film ends with a landlord letting Emma and her husband into Claire's apartment. Emma finds a note Claire was planning to send to make peace with her.


The Aware

The Isles of Glory comprise eleven island nations. The main character in the novel, Blaze, has the ability to sense magic and as such is "Aware". This makes her useful to the lesser of the island nations and the novel follows her story as she searches for a mysterious slave woman and fights an evil that threatens all of the island nations.


Le Bon Ménage

Following their adventure in ''Les Deux Billets'', Arlequin and Argentine have married, moved to Bergamo, and had two sons. The play opens with Argentine reading the Bible to her children. Rosalba, her mistress, enters. For the past three months, Argentine has been serving as a go-between for Rosalba and her husband, Lélio, since Rosalba's father forbade the marriage. Lélio has finally arrived in Bergamo, and Rosalba asks Argentine to visit him outside the city to tell him to wait there.

After Rosalba leaves, Arlequin arrives. Argentine tells Arlequin that she needs to run an errand for Rosalba but does not explain herself because she promised Rosalba that she would tell no one, even Arlequin. While Argentine is gone, Mezzetin arrives with a letter from Lélio to Rosalba, but as part of the secret, he has written Argentine's name on the outside. Mezzetin mistakes Arlequin for Argentine's servant and tells him that he thinks Lélio is having an affair with her. Arlequin reads the letter and assumes that Argentine is cheating on him. He confronts her when she returns to the house, but she refuses to tell Arlequin what she was doing and asks him instead to trust her. He leaves to tell Rosalba's father that Argentine was having an affair.

Rosalba comes to Argentine's house, and after hearing what has happened, she runs to her father's house to explain. Arlequin returns, and after again pleading with him to trust her, Argentine successfully convinces Arlequin to wait and see what happens. Rosalba enters to say that she confessed everything to her father, and that her father forgave her.


Ardessa

An uppity woman, Ardessa, walks into the offices of "The Outcry", a weekly magazine. Later, she tells off Becky for her shoddy jobs, although it could be said she is bullying her. Miss Kalski gives her tickets for a show and Ardessa only lets her off because Mr Henderson will agree. Ardessa then goes on holiday and gets Miss Milligan to do her job whilst she is away. However, Marcus finds out Becky could be doing a better job and gets her to do it instead. When Ardessa is back, she is told to move to the business department, where she is humbled by Miss Kalski and Mr Henderson.


Le Bon Père

Several years have passed since Arlequin's adventures in ''Le Bon Ménage''. His wife and two sons have died, and he now lives alone with a daughter in a fine apartment in Paris, having inherited a large sum of money from a certain Count de Valcour.

The play opens with Cléante and Nérine. Cléante is a soldier who fell in love with Arlequin's daughter, Nisida, and was hired on as Arlequin's secretary to be near her. Arlequin betrothes his daughter to the Marquis of Yrville, but she refuses since she is in love with Cléante. Coming from a simple background himself, Arlequin is sympathetic to the young lovers, but he feels that they cannot marry due to the differences in their social status.

Arlequin asks Cléante to leave his household, and Cléante reveals that he is the son of a man of wealth: the Count de Valcour. Arlequin decides to give his fortune over to Cléante, since it is rightfully his. Cléante and Nisida are free to marry, and Cléante accepts Arlequin as father.


Born of Man and Woman

The story is written in the form of an internal "diary" in broken English kept by what the reader presumes is a deformed child (gender unspecified) chained in the basement by its violently abusive parents (the story makes it clear that the man and woman who have imprisoned the child are its biological parents when the child recalls the man commenting about how, in stark contrast to the child, "Mother [is] so pretty and me decent[-looking] enough."). The child-narrator can sometimes pull its chain from the wall and observe the outside world through the basement window. On one occasion it even manages to sneak upstairs, although it has difficulty because its body drips green fluid that causes its feet to stick to the stairs. It eavesdrops on a dinner party but is discovered by its parents, returned to the basement, and violently beaten. On another occasion it climbs to a small window and observes a little girl (possibly its "normal" sister, who is apparently unaware of the chained child's existence), playing with other little girls and boys, whom the narrator, having no concept of ordinary childhood, can only describe as "little mothers" and "little fathers". One of the boys sees the child at the window, and it is again beaten as a result. In a final incident, the girl brings her pet cat (which the chained child can only describe as a creature with "pointy ears") into the basement. The chained child hides from them in a coal bin, but when the cat discovers the child and hisses at it, the child crushes the cat to death.

The story ends with the child-narrator, again being beaten, knocking a stick from its father's hands, which sends the suddenly frightened man fleeing upstairs. The child resolves that if its parents abuse it again, it will turn violent, as it had once before, noting that it ran along the walls and hung down "with all [its] legs", revealing that the child is far more deformed than the reader may have presumed, and in fact an actual "monster".


Mars Is Heaven!

It is 1986 and the third exploratory spaceship from Earth is landing on Mars. The crew is shocked to discover a Rockwellian small town, eerily similar to those they left on Earth. The strangely familiar people in the town believe it is 1926. Crew members soon discover old friends and deceased relatives in the town. Those who had been ordered to stay behind and guard the rocket abandon their posts in order to join the reunions and festivities.

Members of the crew split up to spend the night in the homes of their lost comrades and relatives. The ship's captain remains skeptical, and realizes in the middle of the night that the entire situation may have been contrived by telepathic aliens to lower the Earthmen's guards. Before he can warn the others or reestablish a guard on the spaceship, he is proved right as he and the rest of the crew are killed by aliens masquearding as their family members.


The Hunger Strike

At the headquarters of BET, fictional president Debra Leevil (a parody of BET Holdings CEO Debra L. Lee with a personality resembling Dr. Evil from the ''Austin Powers'' films) presides over a board meeting to discuss the network's strategy for destroying black people. The issue of Huey Freeman is brought up, as he is shown on CNN giving a press conference stating that he is on a hunger strike and that he will not eat until there is a public apology for creating BET, the network is shut down, and all the executive board members commit seppuku.

Huey joins forces with the charismatic Rev. Rollo Goodlove (voiced by rapper/singer Cee-Lo), who adds a flashy image to the fight against BET by lobbying for a boycott of the network. Huey initially believes this to be a good idea, as a concert organized by Goodlove (and featuring his band) draws widespread attention and sparks a widespread boycott. However, Huey gradually discovers that Goodlove is primarily interested in drawing media attention to himself through shameless merchandising, self-promotion, and outrageous behavior. Goodlove justifies his tactics by explaining that in order to reach the black community, he has to present its members with something they can relate to.

Leevil and the BET board eventually see a news broadcast in which Uncle Ruckus expresses his support of BET and its ability to ruin the minds of young black people. Taking inspiration from his words, they offer Goodlove a sitcom on the network; he accepts, betraying Huey and causing the boycott to fall apart. Huey ends his hunger strike and asks Granddad, "What do you do when you can't do nothing, but there's nothing you can do?" "You do what you can," Granddad says.


After Ashley

In 1999, Justin Hammond lives with his mother and father, Ashley and Alden. They endure trials and tribulations of being a dysfunctional family due to Alden's passive-aggressive nature and Justin's desire to want to be able to grow up without having to talk to his mother about topics such as sexual intercourse or drug usage. An argument ensues when Alden informs Ashley that he has hired a homeless man to do some finishing touches on their long postponed yard work. As a result, the homeless man (who is given the name Glen but is not given any stage time) murders Ashley and leaves her body in the basement for Justin to find. Justin immediately makes a call to 911 to inform them of his mother's murder.

Three years later, in 2002, Alden and Justin have been invited to appear on a talk show in Central Florida with TV producer David Gavin to talk about Alden's best selling book, entitled After Ashley. Alden makes certain that everyone knows of the pain he and Justin have endured since losing a wife and mother, but Justin continuously gives unhelpful and insulting answers to all of David's questions, and protests that simply because someone has died, doesn't mean that all their recognition should be directed on only the good qualities of their character, and not only that, but Alden is lying about his wife to make the two of them look good.

That night, Justin sneaks into a bar where he meets Julie, a girl with a gothic image who recognizes him as the "911 Kid". At first, Justin talks about his "love" for Jesus Christ, which he shortly thereafter admits he was only lying to be funny. During this conversation, he attempts to "figure her out" so that she'd be more interested in having sex with him, which as it turns out, is why Julie initiated a conversation at all. So they go to Justin's apartment that night.

The following day, Alden comes in and is surprised by Julie's presence, but decides to tell Justin that he has news: David has decided to produce a new show depicting crimes similar to Ashley's murder and unresolved cases, and he has put a demo of an episode on a VHS tape that they plan to screen the next day. To add on to the problem, David shows up shortly after that and announces that he is opening a homeless shelter entitled "Ashley House", which will open on the same evening. Justin, disgusted by this news, employs the help of a sex cult leader named Roderick Lord to help in any way he can to ruin the premiere. With the aid of Roderick, Justin is able to swap the demo episode for a sex tape that Ashley had made with Roderick when she was still alive, only in exchange for his making a sex tape with Julie. The screening happens the next day, beginning with an introduction from David, a statement read by Alden, and finally an excerpt from a poem read by Justin, and as Ashley's sex tape premieres, Justin lashes out at a painting that was created for the premiere by slashing it. Appalled by this, Alden leaves the screening and cuts off Justin financially.

After the exposure, Justin and Julie sit on the edge of a lake and talk about their relationship, or lack thereof. They resolve that in the end, it would be best for them to be together due to some of the hardships that Justin has had to endure and because his need of a female companion whom he wasn't uncomfortable with, their relationship would be an ideal solution. As this conversation is happening, Ashley's ghost is standing behind them, yet, they are both oblivious to her presence, as she looks at their union disapprovingly.


Charlie Chan in Egypt

Charlie Chan is brought in when an archaeologist disappears while excavating ancient art treasures in Egypt. Charlie must sort out the stories of the archaeological team, deal with the crazed son of the missing scientist, learn why priceless treasures are falling into the hands of private collectors, and battle many seemingly supernatural events.


Fireworks Wednesday

The film portrays the life of a turbulent couple, Mozhdeh and Morteza Samiei, as they prepare for a vacation to Dubai the morning after Chaharshanbe Suri, a festival held on the eve of Wednesday before Nowruz. Morteza hires a new maid Rouhi through an agency, a bride-soon-to-be, to help the couple clean their apartment, though Mozhdeh initially insists that she is not required.

While she is doing her work, Rouhi learns piece by piece what is happening between the two: Mozhdeh suspects that Morteza is seeing their divorced neighbor, Simin, behind her back, after discovering Simin's phone number in the logs. Simin, meanwhile, is working as a beautician, which disturbs the neighborhood due to all the noises, eventually leading to a court order imposed against her to either quit or leave. As Morteza says that he would not come home until 5 PM, Mozhdeh sets Rouhi, who wants her eyebrow trimmed, to ask Simin if she is also unavailable until 5 PM; her fears are confirmed.

Simin, though, has enough time to trim Rouhi's eyebrows; there, Rouhi overhears that Simin knows when the Samiei are due to depart to Dubai. When she goes back to Samiei, she finds her chador taken by Mozhdeh, who wants to spy on Morteza, leaving her to take the Samiei's son, Amirali, home from school. Morteza is enraged upon learning these and publicly beats Mozhdeh. Fed up, Mozhdeh decides to move to her sister and brother-in-law's residence with Amirali, refusing to hear Morteza's apologies. To calm the situation down, Rouhi lies about the reason why Simin knows their departure time.

Morteza offers Rouhi a ride home in exchange for accompanying him and Amirali to see the fireworks. He leaves the two for a while and meets with Simin in private, confirming that the two are indeed having an affair; to his dismay, though, Simin wants them to separate, as she does not want to break up the Samiei. Rouhi later sniffs Simin's perfume scent on the way home (she has previously scented her hand with Simin's perfume) and realizes the truth. However, she ultimately chooses not to tell Mozhdeh.


The Immortal Alamo

The film is a historical drama that depicts General Antonio López de Santa Anna's attack on the Alamo Mission in San Antonio in the Battle of the Alamo. The film was made on location in the Alamo and introduced historical figures such as Davy Crockett and William B. Travis. The film has a romance element where Mexican spy Senor Navarre has affections for Lieutenant Dickenson's wife, Lucy. When the Mexican Army lays siege, Colonel Travis calls upon his men to send word to General Sam Houston and Lieutenant Dickenson volunteers. As soon as he departs, Senor Navarre attempts to charm Lucy Dickenson, but she is repulsed by his advances and is saved from being overpowered by Colonel Travis. Senor Navarre is forced out and proceeds to provide General Santa Anna information on the mission in return for the right to take a survivor to be his bride. After the Alamo falls, only a few women survive, among them is Lucy Dickenson. Senor Navarre holds General Santa Anna to the promise and prepares to marry her the next day. Before the marriage can be performed Lieutenant Dickenson and the reinforcements arrive and capture Senor Navarre. Lieutenant Dickenson avenges his wife's honor by slaying Senor Navarre with his sword. The final scene of the film shows Santa Anna surrendering as a "common soldier".


Pilot (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

The episode begins in 1999 with Sarah Connor and her son John being captured by police outside a public library. A Terminator attacks the police convoy and kills all the cops; John flees but is shot ''dead'' by the machine. With all reason to live gone, Sarah begs the Terminator to destroy her; he agrees to her request explaining that the machines are now taking over. The Terminator proceeds to strangle Sarah as a nuclear explosion is seen in the background. It completely destroys the library and the Terminator down to its endoskeleton, but Sarah was left unscathed still hugging her son’s dead body; unlike how she dreamt it previously. Sarah wakes up with her fiancé, Charley Dixon. The date is August 24, 1999 and Sarah and John are living with Charley in West Fork, Nebraska. When john wakes up, Sarah tells hem that they must leave at once.

After they have fled from the house, Charley assumes that they are missing and reports this to the police. FBI agent James Ellison then tells Charley that Sarah is an escaped mental patient who blew up a building and killed the noted computer genius Miles Dyson because she thought he would create a computer system that will destroy the world. Charley gives Agent Ellison Sarah's new alias, Sarah Reese, which is entered into her database file. A new terminator, who has been monitoring the FBI's database, is now informed of her new name, and begins his search.

Sarah and John move to Red Valley, New Mexico, a "hick" town, where John meets a pretty girl named Cameron Phillips at school. An 800 series Terminator comes to the school masquerading as a substitute teacher. He identifies himself as Cromartie and calls John's name under the pretense of taking attendance. When John answers, Cromartie pulls out a pistol that was hidden within his leg and tries to shoot John, but Cameron shields John from the bullets with her body, taking three hits to the chest. After John flees the school and hides near a parking space but is found by Cromartie. Cromartie prepares to shoot him but is run over by Cameron. Cameron is revealed to be a reprogrammed Terminator from 2027, sent back in time to protect John. She helps John escape and tells him that Skynet was activated on April 19, 2011, and launched a nuclear apocalypse two days later. John convinces Sarah that he will never be ready to lead an army against Skynet, and that she has to try again to stop it from ever being created.

John, Sarah, and Cameron first go to the house of deceased Skynet designer Miles Dyson, in Los Angeles, California, asking his widow, Terissa, about who might have followed her husband's work. Cromartie attacks again, but they escape in the Dysons' car. Cameron takes the Connors to a bank, where she pulls out a gun and forces an employee to lock them up inside the vault. Inside, she uncovers a time displacement transporter, which had been surreptitiously built into the vault by "the engineer" sent back in time to 1963. Meanwhile, a SWAT team is preparing to raid the bank. After Cromartie is supposedly destroyed by an isotope-fueled weapon also built by the engineer, they use the time machine to travel from September 10, 1999 to September 2007. The time machine generates an explosion that destroys the entire bank. Because nothing can come with them, they appear in the middle of a highway naked. They steal clothes and a car from three drunk men. This news gets reported on TV as a college prank, but Charley Dixon sees the report and immediately recognizes Sarah.


Miss Gold Digger

Shin Mi-soo is juggling relationships with four different men, adopting a different persona for each one. But her love life becomes increasingly tangled, and the men show their true colors when they find out how they've been manipulated.


Atsuhime (TV series)

The episodes largely fall into two parts. The first half of the series revolves around Atsuhime's life in Satsuma. The latter half mainly proceeds with the politics around the Tokugawa Shogunate after she moved to Edo to marry Tokugawa Iesada.

Episode 1: Child of Destiny (1/6/2008)

The episode starts off in Satsuma in 1835, 20 years prior to the arrival of the Black Ships led by Matthew C. Perry. People in Satsuma are excited by the arrival of the heir to the domain, Shimazu Nariakira, from Edo. Meanwhile, a long-awaited daughter is born in one of the cadet families of Shimazu clan, the Imaizumi Shimazu family. The father of the girl, Shimazu Tadatake, and the mother, Oyuki, name her "Katsu", wishing the child's happiness. Okatsu grew up as a tomboy, much stronger than her brothers, yet is warm-hearted and full of curiosity.

Before long, the Satsuma Domain picks up its efforts at strict financial reform under the guidance of Karō Zusho Hirosato. Saigō Kichinosuke (Saigō Takamori), witnessing the farmers' harsh life, appeals to Tadatake. Hirosato receives this news and punishes Tadatake for allowing farmers to express their dissent, for it suggests lenient treatment of farmers on Tadatake's part. Okatsu, unable to comprehend Hirosato's action of punishing those who support farmers, recklessly decides to charge over to Hirosato's house with her close friend Kimotsuke Naogorō (Komatsu Tatewaki) to demand a reason.

Episode 2: Vow at Sakurajima (1/13/2008)

By restraining himself and devoting his effort to the domain's financial reform, Tadatake manages to avoid punishment. With Karō Zusho Hirosato's reform steadily gaining results, the domain's debt, which at one point reached 5 million Ryō (Japanese coin), is cleared. Meanwhile, the lives of farmers and samurai become extremely difficult, and their plight fuels animosity among young samurai like Saigō Kichnosuke and Ōkubo Shōsuke (Ōkubo Toshimichi) toward Daimyō Shimazu Narioki, who employed Zusho and his concubine, Oyura. Amid hostilities, Shimazu Nariakira's children have died one after another. What is more, a doll, supposedly used for a curse, is found under the room of these children. The hatred toward Oyura and Zusho peaks within the domain. With this as a backdrop, Okatsu is invited by Zusho to his house. She visits him with Kimotsuki Naogorō. In his house, Zusho tells Okatsu that he wants to share ideas with her before he goes off to Edo. Subsequently, Zusho goes to Edo but is suspected by Rōjū Abe Masahiro of illegal trade. To protect Satsuma from repercussions, he kills himself by taking poison.

Episode 3: Satsuma Divide (1/20/2008)

In Satsuma, Oyura—Narioki's concubine—is trying to make her son heir to the clan and antagonizing the group that stood by Nariakira. Okatsu is curious about the domain's politics, but Tadatake chides her that politics is not something children should be involved in. In connection with the family quarrel, Ōkubo Tadasuke (Toshimichi) is punished by the domain. Okatsu, who heard the news from Naogorō, worries about Tadasuke's family and starts to bring in food to the family from her home. Tadasuke is deeply moved by the kindness of Okatsu, Naogorō, and Saigō. Having seen Tadasuke's sisters busy with their side jobs, Okatsu tries to give her expensive comb and hair ornament to Tadasuke's mother, Fuku. Fuku, however, flatly refuses to accept them. To Okatsu, who is worried if her kindness hurt Fuku, Oyuki explains about the pride of women in Satsuma. Meanwhile, Nariakira, who succeeded as the head of the clan with the help of rōjū Abe, enters Satsuma with huge ambitions.

Episode 4: A Wise Lord Angered (1/27/2008)

In the wake of the family quarrel, the new clan head Nariakira arrives at Satsuma from Edo and takes the lead in the reform of rice prices. The group who sided with Tadayuki (Shimazu Hisamitsu) fears how Nariakira is going to punish its members, but he does not punish anybody. Saigō and other young samurai become frustrated because Ōkubo, who should have been pardoned right away, has not received clemency. Okatsu and Naogorō go over to Komatsu Kiyomichi and Ochika's place and ask about Nariakira's true intention. Kiyomichi, however, says that faith in Nariakira is the only way of loyalty, but this does not convince Okatsu. Meanwhile, Nariakira invites the Imaizumi family to the castle to meet members of branch families. Tadatake subjects Okatsu to practice in a ladylike manner to avoid embarrassment in the meeting. On the day of Okatsu's visit, Okatsu intensely presses Nariakira on why Ōkubo has not been pardoned. Nariakira, who has a different purpose for the meeting, is amused by Okatsu's honest yet serious attitude and comes to have an interest in her.

Episode 5: The Best Man in Japan (2/3/2008)

Japanese history books have been sent to Okatsu's place from Nariakira. Kikumoto tells Okatsu, who were overjoyed and busily reading the books, that the happiness of women lies in marriage. Meanwhile, Shimazu Tadayuki comes with news to Tadatake that his son fell in love at first sight with Okatsu and that he wants to marry her. Fearing the risk that Nariakira might misunderstand the connection between his family and Tadayuki's family, Tadatake, however, could not view the marriage proposal in a positive light.

Naogorō, who heard the story from Tadayuki, is gravely shaken. He asks Okatsu her thoughts on marriage, but she only tells him that she wishes to marry the best man in Japan. In the meantime, John Manjirō, who has just returned from the US, is invited to Satsuma. Naogorō meets him and is inspired by his story that marriage in the US is based on the agreement between the individuals, unlike in Japan, where it is decided by the two families. This gives him courage to openly tell Tadatake about his feelings for Okatsu. But the next day finds Tadatake called up to the castle. Against his fear that the proposal news might have reached Nariakira, he is informed of Nariakira's plan for adopting Okatsu.

Episode 6: Women’s Path (2/10/2008)

Nariakira's plan to adopt Okatsu has stirred Tadatake. Kikumoto, who had raised her since she was little, is overjoyed by this honor. Taken by surprised, Okatsu, however, is hesitant, not knowing what to do. It is only certain that she could not turn down the offer. Naogorō, who has learned the news, grows desperate, for it would be impossible to marry Okatsu once she is adopted. Emotionally charged, he starts to cry at Saigō's home, but Saigō's compassion cheers him up.

In the overjoyed Imaizumi family, Oyuki detects strangeness in Kikumoto's behavior. Okatsu, in the meantime, implores Tadatake for permission to have an audience with Nariakira to plead for explanations. On the morning of Okatsu's visit to the castle, Kikumoto presses on Okatsu saying “A woman’s life is like walking on a long one-way path. It is a dishonor to turn back the path."

In response to Okatsu's straightforward question, Nariakira explains that he wants to adopt her because she reminds him of his mother. Having learned his brimming affection for her, Okatsu finally comes to a decision to become his daughter. When she returns home, however, there is news waiting that Kikumoto has killed herself.

Episode 7: The Father's Tears (2/17/2008)

Okatsu is gravely shaken from Kikumoto's taking her own life. What is more, she starts to hold ill feelings for her father, for he got rid of Kikumoto's body as if treating criminals. That night, Okatsu learns from Oyuki that Kikumoto left a will. In it, she wrote that her choice to kill herself was motivated by her wish to erase the blemish that someone of a low status like herself raised Okatsu, who is now facing a bright future. Okatsu realized Kikumoto's considerations and expectations for her future and learned the true meaning of becoming Nariakira's daughter.

Meanwhile, news from Nagasaki Dejima comes into Edo that an American naval fleet demanding trade with Japan is approaching. Leaders in the Tokugawa shogunate face difficulty in how it should be dealt. Nariaki supports the sweeping expulsion of foreigners from Japan and does not yield. Facing this, Nariakira comes to a realization the urgency of adopting Okatsu to implement his political scheme in this political turmoil.

While the day Okatsu moves to Tsurumaru Castle closes in, Tadatake all of a sudden started to devote himself to constructing batteries for guarding the coastlines, behaving as if he has no interest in the adoption affair. Finally, the day for Okatsu to leave for the castle arrives.

Episode 8: How to be a Princess (2/24/2008)

Okatsu moves into Tsurumaru Castle, but has a hard time fitting into its restrictive customs. She is belittled by Hirokawa and other women serving under her as a girl from a branch family and starts to take a negligent attitude.

Okubo Shōsuke is released from the house arrest of three years, and this makes Naogorō and Saigō feel relieved. Okatsu wants to share the joy but feels lonely when she finds herself at a high, distant social rank which prohibits them to even exchange words with her.

Episode 36: Satsuma or Tokugawa (9/7/2008)

While the Edo group and the Kyōto group inside the Ōoku continue to antagonize to each other, little by little Kazunomiya and Iemochi became closer. Tensho-in was finally feeling relieved.

Then, commanding a force of a few thousand soldiers, Hisamitsu left for Kyōto with the intention of receiving the Emperor's approval for reforming the Tokugawa Shōgunate. Meanwhile, suspicion that Tenshō-in might be involved in the plot mounted in Edo.

The message that the Satsuma force headed to Edo reached Ōoku, and distrust directed to Tenshō-in further deepened. Amid this, even Iemochi, who had been on Tenshō-in's side, came to suspect her. Crushed from everyone's distrust, Tenshō-in started to burn her personal items that she brought with her from Satsuma. Seeing this, Iemochi realized how much she is hurt by his distrust and apologized to her that he would not doubt her from now on.

Episode 37: Parting of Friendship (9/14/2008)

The Satsuma force led by Hisamitsu entered Edo accompanying an Imperial envoy. His aim was to reform the Tokugawa Shogunate. Meanwhile, Tenshō-in was anxious if Tatewaki also came to Edo accompanying Hisamitsu. Against Hisamitsu's wish, the negotiation between the envoy and Rōjū came to a dead end. Hisamitsu became extremely impatient and ordered Ōkubo to threaten the Rōjū side by force. While Tatewaki felt awkward toward such a forceful approach taken by his comrades, Satsuma succeeded in pressing on the reform plan. Tenshō-in, who was upset at Satsuma's cowardly move, sought an audience with Hisamitsu to ascertain his true intentions. With her unsuccessful meeting with Hisamitsu, she failed to exchange words with Tatewaki, who was in the company of Hisamitsu. Regretting this sour reunion with Tatewaki, Tenshō-in asked Iemochi to invite Tatewaki to Ōoku. Playing igo like when they were still in Satsuma, Tenshō-in and Tatewaki engaged in friendly conversation and promised to each other that each would try their best to defend their own people: the Tokugawa clan for Tenshō-in and the people of Satsuma for Tatewaki.

Episode 38: Heart of the Mother-In-Law, Heart of the Wife (9/21/2008)

A letter from Tatewaki recounting what really took place in Namamugi Incident reached Tenshō-in. Having learned the truth, she maintained that the Shogunate, together with Satsuma, needed to apologize to Britain. Meanwhile, in Kyoto, the Chōshū group came to dominate the political scene, defeating the Satsuma group and its leaders Shimazu Hisamitsu and Iwakura Tomomi.

Amid this confusion, an Imperial Envoy came from Kyoto to Edo, demanding Iemochi to visit the capital and to implement a policy that would exclude foreigners. Upon discussing the matter with Tenshō-in, he made up his mind to tell the emperor in person that the implementation of such a policy would be unattainable. Princess Kazu, however, strongly opposed Iemochi's decision.

Sakamoto Ryōma visited Katsu Rintarō. Although he initially intended to kill Lintarō, after discussion, he changed his mind and asked Lintarō to become his mentor. In the meantime in Satsuma, Tatewaki got promoted to the position of Karō.

In Edo castle, where Iemochi's departure was looming close, Tenshō-in and Lintaro argued with each other whether Iemochi should take a land route or a sea route. Meanwhile, Kazunomiya, who learned that Tenshō-in pushed Iemochi to visit the capital, came to harbor strong hostility toward Tenshō-in.

Episode 39: Buring Satsuma (9/28/2008)

The news that Shōgun Iemochi arrived at Kyoto came to Ōoku and lightened her mind. Kazunomiya, on the other hand, worried about Iemochi and became more restless. Her fear became true when radicals led by a Chōshū Domain group supporting the expulsion of foreigners dominated the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Mired in the quandary, Iemochi was forced to promise to the court the enforcement of expelling foreigners.

Tenshōin, who blamed herself for urging Iemochi's visit to Kyoto, asked Kazunomiya to convince his brother, Emperor Kōmei to arrange Iemochi's return to Edo, but Kazunomiya adamantly refused it. Tenshōin sent Katsu Kaishū to Iemochi, who fell ill from the exhaustion from the trip to Kyōto. Through the conversation with Katsu, Iemochi regained his spirits and learned his board perspective on the matter.

In the meantime, Chōshū Domain carried out the expulsion of foreigners, and word reached Satsuma. Hisamitsu and Tatewaki realized that war was imminent.

In Kyōto, Iemochi was permitted to return to Edo with Kazunomiya's plea to the emperor. Tenshōin expressed her gratitude to Kazunomiya. Then, the news came in that the British Royal Navy staying in Yokohama headed to Satsuma. The Anglo-Satsuma War was about to start.

Episode 40: Son Taking the Field (10/05/08)

Saigō, who had been exiled, came back. At the gathering where Saigō and his old friends reunited, Tatewaki met a geisho, Okoto. The Chōshū domain, which is bent on regaining its political leverage in the capital, suddenly attacked the Imperial Palace. This is known as the Kinmon Incident. Tatewaki, who led the Satsuma forces, joined forces with the Shōgunate, along with Yoshinobu, and defeat the enemy forces. In the meantime, in Ōoku, Takiyama advised Tenshōin to let the ''shōgun'' have a concubine who could bear his heir, for she was purely concerned with the future of the Tokugawa clan and desired to consolidate the foundations of the Shugunate's rule. Tenshōin, however, did not want to tear up the intimate relationship between Kazunomiya and Iemochi and flatly rejected the idea.

The Naval School established by Katsu Kaishū was about to be shut down by the shōgunate, suffering the repercussions of the Kinmon Incident. Katsu sent his disciple Sakamoto Ryōma to Tatewaki, who was the karo of the Satsuma domain, to ask him to take care of the students. Meanwhile, in Edo Castle, Kazunomiya showed signs of pregnancy, and the entire Ōoku was delighted with the news. Kangyōin—Kazunomiya's mother—and Tenshōin both shared the excitement of expecting a grandchild. As it turned out, however, Kazunomiya's pregnancy proved false.


Çalıkuşu

The events in the novel take place in the early twentieth century, near the collapse of a war weary Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Turkish republic. Most of the novel is recounted in first-person diary format by Feride. In the first section, Feride describes her childhood, beginning from the beginning and leading to the events that led her to a strange hotel room. The second and largest section consists of diary entries describing her adventures in Anatolia. The third section is the only one written from the third person point of view, describing Feride's visit to her home.

Feride is the orphaned daughter of an army officer. As a teenager, she attends Lycee Notre Dame de Sion in the winter, and stays with one of her late mother's sisters during the summer holidays. She is given the nickname "the Wren" during her time at school for her vivacity and mischief. These two characteristics considered unusual and even a bit inappropriate for Muslim girls at that time.

She gets engaged to her charming cousin, Kamran, whom she leaves the night before their wedding, upon discovering that he has been unfaithful to her. She runs away from home to become a teacher in Anatolia, although she remains desperately in love with Kamran. She is forced to move from town to town several times during her first three years as a teacher, as a result of the incompetence of officials, the malice of colleagues and the unwanted attention she gets from men because of her beauty and her lively manner.

Meanwhile, she adopts a little girl called Munise, finds out that Kamran has married the woman he had cheated on Feride with, and develops a friendship with Hayrullah Bey, an elderly military doctor who treats Feride with fatherly affection. At the end of these three years, Munise dies and Feride is forced to resign from her post and marry the doctor because of the rumors about her "indecent behavior".

A couple of years later, Feride returns to Tekirdag to visit one of her aunts and her cousin Mujgan, where Kamran, now widowed and with a small child, also happens to be. He has never gotten over Feride, painfully regrets having cheated on her, and confesses to have married the other woman only out of pity after he heard false rumors about Feride being in love with another man. The night before her arranged departure, Feride confesses to Mujgan that her marriage to the doctor has never been consummated and he has in fact died recently.

He told Feride to revive her ties to her family as his last wish, and gave her a package to be entrusted to Mujgan. Mujgan takes the package to Kamran, which turns out to be Feride's diary which was hidden and preserved by the doctor. Finding out that Feride is still in love with him, Kamran arranges to be wedded to Feride the next day without her knowledge. The novel ends with their long-awaited reunion, and Kamran's confession that he betrayed her all those years ago because of his insecurity about her love for and loyalty to him, due to her ostensible frivolity and harsh treatment of him.


Her Boss

Paul Wanning, a New York City lawyer, has been told he is terminally ill. His wife tries to belittle the news, and seems more interested in settling their daughters, who take dance lessons. Paul visits his son who lives in Washington Square and tells him he would like to see him get married before he dies. He then visits his friends by Astor Place, who suggest introducing him to their doctors, but they soon lose interest. In his office, he decides to write a letter to an old friend of his, and his copyist Annie Wooley types it for him. She cries upon hearing the content as her own father has passed .

The following Summer, the Wannings all go off on holiday - Roma goes to Genoa to visit her friend Jenny, Harold goes to Cornish, and Mrs Wanning and Florence go to York Harbor, where Mr Wanning is supposed to join them. However, he spends much of the summer in New York City, where he takes up Annie as his personal secretary. This makes his other partners and his stenographer talk, especially when he takes her out to dinner or to the theatre. The girl's father tells him he hopes her daughter is not misbehaving, and he explains she is only bringing him kindness in this distressful time.

In September, Paul dies. Alongside his will comes a letter to his wife, asking her to give $1000 to Miss Wooley. When Harold hears about that, he decides not to tell his mother and instead he fires the girl. Back with her family, they reflect that the rich cannot be battled with, especially when they are lawyers - Annie shall rest for a while.


London Can Take It!

The film opens with shots of the London streets in late afternoon, as people begin their commute home. The narrator reminds the audience that these people are part of the greatest civilian army the world has ever known, and are going to join their respective service before London's "nightly visitor" arrives. Listening posts are stationed as far away as the coastline and the "white fingers" of searchlights touch the sky.

Soon the Luftwaffe bombers arrive and begin their nightly work, bombing churches, places of business and homes, the work of five centuries destroyed in five seconds. But as soon as it is morning the British people go back to work the way they usually do, demonstrating the British 'stiff upper lip' attitude. Joseph Goebbels is quoted as saying that the bombings are having a great effect on British morale. He is right, the narrator says, the British people's morale is higher than ever.


Nightwings (novella)

In a decadent and caste-based future, humanity is divided into guilds, each having a specific job to do. The members of some guilds appear to have undergone genetic engineering, for instance, the Fliers' ability to fly and the Watchers' ability to watch distant stars.

The main character in the novella is a Watcher whose mission is to watch the skies with some sophisticated equipment and to inform the Defenders in the event of an alien invasion. Along with a young Flier girl and a Changeling (who belongs to no guild), he visits the old city of Roum (suspected previously to be called Rome), and becomes entangled in events including the possibility of invasion.

Apart from Roum, a number of other great cities are mentioned including Jorslem (Jerusalem), Stambool (Istanbul), Marsay (Marseilles), Donsk (Gdańsk), Nayrub (Nairobi), Dijon, Palerm (Palermo) and Perris (Paris), but their greatness is relative, as they only have a few thousand inhabitants.


The Tale of Sweeney Todd

Set in 18th Century London, the story focuses on Sweeney Todd (Ben Kingsley), a murderous barber whose business provides him with two profitable sidelines, the sale of his victims' jewelry and the disposal of their bodies to his mistress Mrs. Lovett (Joanna Lumley), who uses them to prepare meat pies for her unsuspecting clientele.

American Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott) arrives in the city to track down wealthy diamond merchant Alfred Mannheim and $50,000 worth of diamonds he had sold to Carlyle's employers but failed to deliver. Mannheim's staff advises Carlyle that their boss disappeared without a trace weeks earlier, and he posts notices offering a reward for information leading to Mannheim's discovery.

Charlie (Sean Flanagan), a mute orphan who works as an assistant to Todd, recognizes Mannheim as a man the barber had shaved just prior to his disappearance. Realizing his dastardly deeds are in danger of being revealed, Todd imprisons the boy in his basement.

Meanwhile, Carlyle is seeking the assistance of the corrupt local police and an amiable serving wench named Alice, who happens to be Todd's ward, with his quest. When his suspicions about the ingredients of Mrs. Lovett's pies are all but confirmed by a chemist, he hides himself in a burlap sack and has himself deposited in her pie shop cellar with a delivery of meat. There he makes a gruesome discovery that spurs him to confront Mrs. Lovett, who tries to kill him but is knocked out and left to hang on a meat rack. Shortly after, she is arrested.

Carlyle then heads over to the barber shop to confront Todd, who overpowers and binds him. As he prepares his instruments to torture Carlyle to death, he explains what led him to a life of murder and cannibalism. Charlie, who has managed to free himself from his shackles, stabs Todd in the back, killing him. He then frees Carlyle, who sets the building on fire before escaping with the boy. Charlie gives Carlyle the keys to the safe.


The Saturn Game

Imaginative roleplaying provides relief for some of the crew on the long, dull trip to Saturn. However, their imaginary world becomes hazardously confused with the real one when a team begins the exploration of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons.


Street Mobster

The protagonist, Isamu Okita, mentions how he has the same birthday, August 15th, and was born the same year, 1945, that Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, which he considers inauspicious. He was born the only son of an alcoholic prostitute-turned street food vender who neglected him until she drowned while walking home drunk. With no education or money, he got into trouble and was sent to reform school twice, before forming a gang as a teenager and getting involved in extortion and kidnapping girls to sell to brothels on the mean streets of Kawasaki. The Takigawa yakuza family demands a cut of their earnings, and when Okita refuses, he gets beaten. Abandoned by his friends, he attacks the gangsters who beat him with a knife, getting sentenced to ten years in prison. There, he meets Taniguchi, a quiet man serving time for domestic violence. After the two are released, Taniguchi turns down Okita's offer to join him after finding his abused wife waiting outside the prison for him.

Okita returns home and spends the last of his money at a sauna, where he gets in a fight with some old associates from his younger days. They recognize him and offer to hire a prostitute, who turns out to be Kimiyo, a girl Okita raped several years ago before selling her. She chases him to the old factory his gang used as a hideout, and after a violent argument, they realize they both have feelings for each other and have sex. Kizaki, a yakuza expelled from his family, approaches Okita with a proposition: by recruiting local street punks, they can put together a new gang and go to war with Boss Takigawa, whom he perceives as weak. The gang makes a series of raids on Takigawa-owned businesses before Okita gets shot and the Takigawa family finds the bar where he and his gang are hiding. Kizaki contacts Takigawa's rival, Boss Yato, and asks to let him and his gang swear loyalty to him. Okita refuses to do so, but eventually gives in.

Forced to reconcile with Takigawa, Okita becomes an officer of the Yato family with Kizaki as his second-in-command, getting his own territory to control and quickly becoming rich by running illegal dice games. He soon becomes bored with having to act as a businessman rather than a fighter, and cheats on Kimiyo with several women before she angrily leaves him. He also angers Boss Yato when he shows disrespect to Chairman Owada of the Saiei Group, an Osaka syndicate planning to form an alliance with Takigawa. Yato is compelled to perform ''yubitsume'' as an apology, and demands Okita do the same. Okita refuses, and he and his men are expelled. Advised to leave town, he instead decides to stay and conduct a guerrilla war against the Saiei Group.

The war leads to most of Okita's gang getting killed, and even Kizaki turns on him and tries to skip town, only to be pursued by Saiei men into oncoming traffic, whereupon he gets struck and killed by a car. Yato has Boss Takigawa and his officers killed in a surprise attack and gives his territory to Owada as a peace offering, promising to get Okita to apologize if they will spare his life. With only two men left, Okita prepares to fight to the death, but relents when his men refuse to back him up any longer. He cuts off his own finger and surrenders, but the Saiei Group goes back on their word and has his men taken away to be executed while Okita himself is about to be permanently scarred with a dagger. Kimiyo (having forgiven him earlier) tries to save him, only to be stabbed to death. Okita loses his mind and attacks Yato, stabbing him in the chest before the Saiei Group guns him down. The yakuza then depart, leaving the two bodies to rot.


Lost Dorsai

A few highly skilled mercenaries, the Dorsai, are stuck defending a powerless ruler whose army has revolted. To make matters worse, one of their members, the military band leader, refuses to kill. He finds a way to save his comrades, using the machismo permeating the culture of the world they are on, though the price is high.


24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai

A widow makes a pilgrimage in Japan to some of the locations of Hokusai's views of Mt. Fuji, ultimately attempting to confront her former husband who had become a nearly all-powerful digital being.


Strange Angels (novel)

Grant, an industrial photographer between jobs, shares an apartment with his art therapist girlfriend Johnna. Directionless and unable to garner any sort of initiative or ambition, Grant is in the midst of an identity crisis and has done nothing for months, paying the rent from his savings while Johnna pays the other bills with her salary.

Perhaps intentionally, Johnna leaves a patient's artwork for Grant to find. He finds the images in the drawings powerful, compelling, transcendent and immediately determines he must meet the artist. Johnna indignantly refuses to cooperate, claiming therapist-patient confidentiality.

Immediately resorting to subterfuge, Grant discovers Robin, 28, the creator of the artwork and a schizophrenic, recently released from the hospital to a halfway house and attending Johnna's weekly therapy sessions. To Johnna's mounting fury and dismay, Grant cultivates a friendship with Robin, and she finally leaves when Robin moves into the apartment with Grant.

The two men have a strange symbiotic friendship, with Robin as a guru-like figure producing his drawings for Grant, who finds they bring a whole new meaning to his life, and Grant taking care of the increasingly vulnerable Robin's emotional and physical needs.

Slow at first, then rapid changes in Robin's metaemotional condition are catalyzed when a mentally ill young woman is introduced into the mix and all the instability culminates when Robin (to Grant's eyes anyway) transcends the physical and becomes a being of light shortly before his body dies of heart failure en route to the emergency room.

The novel ends with Grant vowing to himself to push the envelope in search of altered states to higher awareness.


The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1914 film)

An intensely unhappy woman hatches a plot to switch the babies of a poor family and a rich family. But the nurse hired to pull off this transfer refuses to go through with it, leaving each baby with its proper family. When the babies are grown, the man from the poor family (who has been led to believe that he did come from the rich family) goes to the house of the other and throws him out. The remainder of the film deals with the frustrations of mistaken identity.


The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

Jim Qwilleran, a newspaperman, and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, enjoy his inherited wealth in Moose County, Minnesota, particularly in its county seat, Pickax City. Qwilleran investigates a mysterious accidental death of a newspaper publisher with the help of his cats, who communicate with him by knocking various Shakespeare plays from his shelf.


Sunset in St. Tropez

Diana and Eric Morrison are a couple residing in a Central Park apartment in New York City who celebrate the new year with their friends: Pascale and John Donnally and Anne and Robert Smith. During their new year celebrations, they agree to go on a summer vacation together to St. Tropez. However, shortly after the new year, Robert's wife, Anne, suddenly dies - and Robert hesitates whether to join his friends on the planned summer vacation. After much persuasion, Robert agrees to accompany them, inviting a younger film actress to accompany him as his guest. At first, the actress is not accepted kindly by the women, although the men appear to take a liking to her.

The plot analyzes forgiveness and the ability to move on throughout life, despite some of the circumstances the couples have endured.


My Favorite Blonde

When a British secret agent is murdered in the line of duty, agent Karen Bentley inherits the mission from her partner. The mission is to deliver a flight plan for a hundred American bomber planes to a British agent in Chicago. The plans are hidden in a small medallion of a scorpion that Karen wears.

Karen arrives to New York City from Europe by ship and escapes the clutches of enemy agents by hiding in a variety theatre. To improve her chances of getting away and get a good cover, she charms an actor named Larry Haines, who performs a small act called "Percy" involving his penguin. Larry tells her that he and his penguin are heading west to Hollywood to appear in a film. They have a contract paying $500 a week for Percy and $30 for him as his trainer.

Karen accompanies Larry to the train and plants the medallion on him before he boards the train. Unaware of what he is now carrying, Larry leaves New York, and the German agents, Mme. Stephanie Runick and Dr. Hugo Streger, are also on board the same train, keeping a close eye on Larry. The agents manage to scare up Larry with their odd behavior, and in Albany, Karen boards the train.

Larry meets Karen and finds her a little too odd, since she didn't board the train back in New York with him. When the train stops for three hours in Chicago, Karen manages to steal Larry's suitcase, which now contains the jacket where the medallion is hidden. Larry follows Karen and the suitcase to an address where she is supposed to meet an agent, but Karen finds the agent murdered and has to change her plans. She is instructed to continue to Los Angeles instead.

Since Larry has already seen her and the dead body, Karen reveals her true identity to him and asks his help. When the German agents are watching, they fake a domestic argument between the two of them, where Larry is violent against Karen. The police arrive to the scene and they are both arrested for disturbing the peace. While under arrest, the two of them are transported safely out of the building and past the German agents.

Karen and Larry are released after they make up in the police patrol car. They don't get very far until the police chase them again, because the German agents anonymously tell the police they are responsible for murdering the British agent. The murder is on the news and Larry is named the "love slayer".

During their frantic escape from the police, Karen and Larry fall in love. They find a place to hide at the top of Union Hall for the night, but the morning after they get on a bus headed out of the city on a sightseeing tour. They hijack the bus and then steal a plane to fly to Los Angeles. When the plane is out of fuel they land in the middle of nowhere and are arrested again, this time for stealing food on a farm.

In jail they are recognized as the couple killing the British operative, but they escape and are chased again. They manage to jump a freight train to Los Angeles. The address Karen was supposed to visit turns out to be a funeral parlor, but the Germans have beaten them to it and taken the British agent hostage. Karen and Larry manage not to get caught though and flee the scene to a U.S. Air base nearby, where they take refuge and deliver the secret bomber plans.


Coming, Eden Bower!

Don Hedger, an unknown painter, lives in a Washington Square. A new neighbour, Eden Bower, moves in. She upbraids him for showering his dog in the bath tub. Later he gets to doing some cleaning and finds a hole through the closet, which looks onto her room. He spies on her whilst she is doing yoga. Later he stalks her and she shows an interest in his paintings. They go to a restaurant together and become friends.

One day, he goes to Coney Island to see a model of his, and she joins him. They go up in a balloon and she feels special until he tells her an atrocious story about Aztecs, which puts a damper on the whole day. Back in New York, they both sit on the roof and talk.

Sometime later, she is back from Burton Ives's, a successful painter who has suggested helping him. Don gets angry with her as he deems Burton Ives to be a bad painter. He decides to leave to Long Island for a while, but eventually comes back because he wants to see her again. However, by then she has gone to Europe.

Years later, Eden is back in New York after having great success in Paris. Whilst driving by Washington Square, she remembers her friend of old, and meets with Gaston Jules to ask him if her friend has gone up in the world. Don, she learns, is now a successful painter, even all the way to Paris, although he is considered avant-garde more than anything.


Pretty Polly (film)

Miss Polly Barlow (Hayley Mills) decides to leave England and spend a few months with her wealthy spinster aunt as a traveling companion. While in Singapore, the sudden demise of her aunt (Brenda De Banzie) leaves her alone to pursue her freedom and explore an arms'-length romance with a local Indian Singaporean tour guide, Amaz (Shashi Kapoor).


The Offshore Pirate

The story is about Ardita Farnam, she is on a trip to Florida. Her boat is eventually captured by pirates, she falls in love with their captain. The story had originally ended with the weak explanation that it was all Ardita's dream. Fitzgerald rewrote the conclusion to emphasize the reality of the story: "The last line takes Lorimer [the editor of the Post] at his word. It is one of the best lines I've ever written."


Rudy Habibie

Tuti Marini Puspowardojo and Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie has four children, among them is Bacharuddin Jusuf. "Rudy" Habibie. A native of Parepare, Sulawesi, Rudy is an aviation enthusiast, embraced by his father, who teaches him and whose prophetic teachings motivated him to be the person he aspires to be. Their family's early years are affected by the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies: they have to move to Gorontalo, staying in Alwi's family's house, then to Makassar, where Alwi dies whilst in sujud.

In Aachen, West Germany, adult Rudy is a soon-to-be college student. He soon meets his friend Liem Keng Kie, who introduces him to Ayu Puspitasari and Poltak Hasibuan. His green passport subjects him to prejudice, as those with blue passports are somehow smart, labeling him dumb; Rudy silences them down by ordering the customers' orders without penning them down, a "smart" ability.

Rudy is accepted for college. One day, his college is assigned to solve an aviation accident. Meanwhile, Ayu shows interest towards him. At the same time, he received prejudice for being raised by a cannibal father. His haters are silenced as he is able to solve the aviation accident assigned. He was later elected as leader of the Aachen Indonesian Students Union (PPI), a union for all Indonesian students studying abroad. He is soon criticized and humiliated for his unusual style of leadership. At a Tielman Brothers-run dance hall, Rudy meets Ilona, a Polish woman who once lived in Maluku. Her love for Indonesia and metaphoric mindset gets them closer, prompting envy from Ayu. He receives a letter from his mother about a woman named Hasri Ainun Besari, whom Rudy once had a crush on when he was in high school. A proposal made by Rudy for the PPI is accepted; inducing a violent political debate.

The program, a counter-revolutionary, ran well. The Embassy of Indonesia in West Germany orders for the Government of Indonesia be credited in all prints related to the program; Rudy rejects, saying that the program is not meant for them, but for the whole country. The Embassy supports him. Rudy's program causes himself and the supporters to be severely beaten; Ayu defends Rudy's side and condemns the opposition's malice. Rudy, willing to spread the word, posts pamphlets amidst a cold winter, and thus he faints. He is quickly hospitalized, and is soon allowed to be discharged. At the hospital, Rudy meets his mother, who traveled from Indonesia.

After questioning Rudy's feelings for her, Ilona decides to move on from Rudy. At the same time, Rudy created a submarine blueprint he wishes to be manufactured in Indonesia, but financial shortcomings led to the only possibility being making it a German product; Rudy refuses to. He then gives up on everything and deems himself a failure. His mother, now back to Indonesia, tells him not to give up, despite how hard it is to reach the summit.

At Aachen Hauptbahnhof, Ilona is about to leave Germany for Poland. Rudy meets her as part of an appointment. Although Ilona expected Rudy to follow her to Poland to start a new life, he did not. Ilona concedes, saying that she supports Rudy's grand plan on modernizing Indonesia. They hugged each other and Ilona embarked on the train. As it accelerates, they looked at each other, crying helplessly.

Right before the credits, Rudy narrates: "This is far from over. I will never give up. I love Indonesia, I believe in Indonesia, and I will always fight for the motherland."


The Kitten from Lizyukov Street

The storyline tells about the kitten Vasily who always wanted to be bold against the yard dogs (in particular, from a long-eared puppy). One day his wish is granted as the crow lets him be turned into the hippopotamus and finding himself in Africa. However Vasily kept his cat's habits while in the form of an hippo. In the African savanna, Vasily meets an elephant, quarrels with a lion, saves an ostrich and befriends an alligator. Eventually the kitten is nostalgic for his love to his native street Lizyukov in Voronezh and tells the crow to return to his original form. The crow accepts and hippo Vasily is transported back to his native homeland. The renewed kitten now can be bold against the puppies again because he has not lost his roar of the hippopotamus.


The Gun Runners

Sam Martin (Audie Murphy) runs a charter boat with his alcoholic first mate Harvey (Everett Sloane). He is forced by financial necessity to run guns for the Cuban Revolution but his employer seeks to maximise his profit.


Bambaru Avith

In a fishing village, Anton ''Aiya'' is an exploiter who outwardly resembles and acts like a regular fisherman, but he exploits and feeds off the other fishermen. Into this setting arrives members of the urban entrepreneurial youth. They have adapted to Western Culture, dressing like Westerners and preferring Western music.

Conflict arises between Anton ''Aiya'' and Baby ''Mahattaya'' (Victor), a representative of the urban youth. A middle-class leftist Weerasena is also of this group. The arrival of these youths has clearly caused a social crisis requiring a solution and all Weerasena can do is stand on a platform and deliver a speech that no one listens to. He finally leaves for the city.


Baby Face Nelson (film)

Chicago mob boss Rocca manages to get Lester Gillis sprung from jail in Joliet. His motive is to have Gillis kill a labor organizer, but Gillis refuses, preferring to work with Rocca's gang on robberies instead. He meets mob moll Sue Nelson and they start a relationship. He is relaxing, alone in his hotel room, when cops burst in, finding a gun Rocca has planted to frame Gillis for the labor leader's murder. Gillis vows revenge, escapes from the cops with Sue's help, then guns down Rocca and two henchmen. He adopts Sue's surname as an alias.

In a holdup at a pharmacy, Gillis is winged by a gunshot. He goes to Doc Saunders (Cedric Hardwicke), whose patients include America's most wanted criminal, John Dillinger (portrayed by Leo Gordon). Acquiring a nickname, "Baby Face Nelson", a grateful Gillis joins up with Dillinger and quickly becomes the FBI's second most wanted man.

The ruthless Baby Face goes on a shooting spree, even killing innocent motorists just to steal a car. He doesn't like playing second fiddle to Dillinger, but after the arch-criminal is shot in Chicago, it becomes Baby Face's turn to be public enemy number one. He commits multiple murders, even killing Doc in a fit of anger, and frightens Sue by placing a rifle sight on children.

Trapped by a roadblock, Baby Face flees on foot and is shot several times. Stumbling to a graveyard, he pleads with Sue at first, then taunts her, to put him out of his misery, and she does.


Black Patch (film)

In a New Mexico town, two former pals from the Civil War, Clay Morgan and Hank Danner, meet again; but Morgan is town marshal and Danner is a wanted bank robber. They both love Helen, Danner's wife.


L'Île des esclaves

Iphicrate and his slave Arlequin find themselves shipwrecked on Slave Island, a place where masters become slaves and slaves become masters. Trivelin, the governor of the island, makes Arlequin and Iphicrate, as well as Euphrosine and her slave Cléanthis, change roles, clothes, and names.

Both Arlequin and Cléanthis take advantage of the situation to expose the frivolities and fickleness of their masters. However, Arlequin is ultimately touched by the tears of Euphrosine, who is suffering from humiliation at the hands of Cléanthis. Arlequin and Iphicrate make amends and return to their original roles; Euphrosine and Cléanthis do the same. Trivelin reveals that had Arlequin and Cléanthis not pardoned their masters, that they would have been punished.


Ma'am May We Go Out?

Soriano brothers Dennis, Chipipoy/Chip, and Jeff are bums who do odd jobs to earn a living, including driving a jeepney. Their lives take a different turn after meeting Atty. Aga Agaton, who told them that they are long-lost heirs of a US-based millionaire. Per the millionaire's will, the brothers would claim his inheritance as long as they finish high school or else the lawyer will take it all.

The brothers enroll at the Rajah Putih High School where their age turns them into the butt of their classmates' jokes. The brothers eventually befriend a group of students after saving them from thugs. They also seek help from Einstein, the class' resident genius, in order to get away with the most difficult subjects.

Trouble starts when the Soriano brothers become involved in different mishaps happening in the school (including almost burning the school during the foundation day and getting Chip a prom date who turned out to be a striptease dancer), resulting in multiple confrontations with the school principal. However, despite compromises that eventually lead to more shenanigans & their great ideas for programs that earned the school more money, the brothers are set to graduate high school and get the inheritance.

However, Agaton wants the money for himself, plotting with his bodyguard to bomb the Soriano brothers' graduation. At the ceremonies, the brothers were accorded special honors by the school despite having caused much havoc. As a sign of gratitude, Dennis, Chip and Jeff share the special award with Agaton. The lawyer hesitantly accepts the trophy, but the driver warns him too late that the bomb was inside the trophy. Agaton and the driver die, while the Soriano brothers and everyone else on stage are sprawled all over the place.


Charlie Chan's Secret

Charlie Chan has been investigating the whereabouts of Allen Colby, heir to a vast fortune. He recently made contact with his relations in San Francisco - his Aunt Henrietta Colby Lowell, her daughters Alice and Janice, and Janice's husband, Fred. The story opens as Allen is traced to a ship that has sunk, but it cannot be confirmed that he is dead. On the contrary, evidence is found that someone is trying to kill him to prevent his return to San Francisco to claim the estate.

Allen arrives at Colby House and is promptly murdered. His body is revealed in the course of a seance conducted that evening at Colby House with Chan in attendance. He is an old friend of Mrs Lowell; who, like her late brother, is a devout believer in psychic research. She has retained the services of Professor Bowen and his wife, Carlotta, who is a medium. Someone subsequently attempts to kill Mrs Lowell and eventually appears to succeed. The truth is revealed in another seance, at which the murderer makes a foolish mistake.


Memoirs of a Madman

''Memoirs of a Madman'' alternates between the narrator's musings on the present and his memories of the past. In the sections that deal with the present, the narrator takes a bleak outlook on life, discussing writing, sanity, and death.

More attention has been given to the memories of his past. In one section, he recalls a summer near the ocean when he is fifteen. There he meets and falls in love with a married woman named Maria (thought to be based on Elisa Schlésinger, who would later influence his ''Sentimental Education)''. Later in the work, he will remember returning to the seashore many years later to look for her again unsuccessfully. A second episode concerns his meeting two young English girls, one of whom seems to fall in love with him. Still in love with Maria, he cannot return the girl's emotions, and she moves away.


Exploration Team

The novelette is set in a future time during which humanity has begun colonizing planets in other solar systems. The Colonial Survey agency has decreed the (fictional) planet of Loren Two to be off-limits, due to the extremely dangerous native animals. Despite its decree, the Colonial Survey has authorized an experimental colony on the planet. At about the same time, the overcrowded inhabitants of another planet have established an unauthorized reconnaissance station on Loren Two. Neither group is aware of the other's existence. The authorized colony is well-funded, consisting of one dozen persons equipped with advanced robotic and other equipment. The unauthorized reconnaissance team consists of a single man, Huyghens (no first name given), accompanied by an eagle and four specially-bred Kodiak bears. The bears have been bred (the story uses the term "mutated") so as to have the psychological profile of dogs. They are friendly to humans and able to work in teams.

When the story begins, Huyghens receives a signal indicating that a ship is about to land near his station. The ship drops off its sole passenger, an officer with the Colonial Survey named Roane (no first name given), and then departs. Roane soon learns that Huyghens is an illegal trespasser on the planet and that his (Huyghens') signal beacon was not that of the authorized colony. For his part, Huyghens is surprised to learn that there was an authorized colony on the same planet. The two men put their minds to the question of why the authorized colony's signal beacon was not working and soon determine that it has been replaced with a low-technology emergency beacon. From this, the two men surmise that the authorized colony has been overrun by the indigenous predators, but that some colonists might still be alive in the mine tunnels that the colony was expected to have dug.

Huyghens and Roane, along with the bears and the eagle, undertake a dangerous cross-country trek to determine the status of the authorized colony.


The Last Castle (novella)

In the far future, a small elite group of humans have returned from Altair (over 16 light years away) to Earth, their mother planet, to live in nine elaborate, high-tech castles as idle aristocrats. They are primarily concerned with theoretical discussions of aesthetics, past times and questions of honor and etiquette. Their time is spent drinking fine wines, socializing at formal dinners, and striving to rise in their political standing. Various enslaved alien races provide technicians ("Meks"), transportation ("birds", "power wagons"), household service ("Peasants"), and amusement ("Phanes"). Only a small minority of humans live a free life outside of the castles, and are considered barbaric by the castle inhabitants because they perform manual labor to serve their own needs.

After seven centuries during which the noble humans develop an increasingly refined society, the Meks revolt. The inhabitants of some castles without defenses are immediately killed, while the inhabitants of the best defended castles consider the revolt only a nuisance. Complacently the humans consider their high-tech castles unchallengeable. To take action themselves rather than only planning and commanding is seen as a vulgar loss of dignity. Gentlemen in this society only do intellectual activity; all technical work or labour is seen as beneath them.

However, without the Meks, the technology of the castles cannot be maintained. Furthermore, the Meks use their inside knowledge of the operation of the castles to successfully besiege the remaining castles until only Castle Hagedorn is left. While most castle citizens value their traditions and social customs and standing higher than their own survival, one gentleman however, Xanten, takes it upon himself to research the situation and search for allies outside of the castle. He eventually accepts that he can learn from the "barbaric" free-living outsiders and tribes.

After a short and hard battle, the Meks take over Castle Hagedorn. Xanten and his allies win by destroying the Meks' food supply, which starves the Meks after several months. When the Meks call for terms, Xanten concludes that humanity cannot go on depending on slave labor, so they send the surviving Meks back to their native planet, Etamin 9 and resolve to live off the land and produce their needs by their own labor in the future. Castle Hagedorn becomes a museum to the past ways of life.


Charlie Chan in Shanghai

Charlie Chan arrives in Shanghai at the behest of the U.S. government to help stop an opium smuggling ring. He receives a warning aboard ship not to stop in Shanghai. He is met by his Number One Son, Lee Chan, as well as Philip Nash and his fianceé, Diana Woodland. Charlie is the guest of honor at a banquet held that evening, hosted by Sir Stanley Woodland (David Torrence in an uncredited role). When Sir Stanley opens a box to give a handwritten scroll to Charlie, he is shot and killed by a gun inside the booby-trapped box. Charlie meets with Colonel Watkins, the commissioner of police, and agrees to investigate the crime. The next day, American FBI man James Andrews arrives in Shanghai, accompanied by his valet, Forrest (Gladden James in an uncredited role). That night, an assassin shoots what seems to be a sleeping Charlie Chan in bed. But Charlie, suspecting another attempt on his life, rigged a dummy and escaped death.

Watkins, Nash, and Woodland try to meet with Andrews. Nash sneaks off and goes through Andrews' briefcase, suitcase, and other papers. Charlie arrives, and while he is speaking with Andrews is nearly shot. Charlie and Andrews managed to retrieve the gun, but the assassin escaped. A fingerprint on the gun reveals that Nash is the likely suspect, and he is arrested. A letter Nash had stolen from Andrews' things seem innocuous, but Charlie takes it as evidence. Charlie returns to his hotel and meets with Lee. They receive a note from Col. Watkins asking them to come to an office downtown. They check with police headquarters, which assures them the note is genuine. Charlie goes, but Lee realizes the note is fake when Col. Watkins calls soon thereafter. Charlie is kidnapped and taken into a room to meet with a mysterious Russian (Ivan Marloff). Lee tries to save his father, but is caught. The two bluff their way out of danger, and after a brief fight manage to escape.

That evening, Charlie and Andrews meet with Col. Watkins. Diana Woodland arrives and asks to see Nash; her request is granted. But Diana sneaks Nash a pistol, and the two escape. Later that day, Andrews and Charlie return to the house where Charlie was held. The gang has left, but Charlie finds an ink pad in the fireplace and takes it as evidence. Lee shows up dressed as a beggar, and Charlie sends him home. Oddly, Charlie arrives at the hotel first. Lee shows up later, and reveals that he saw their kidnapper in a taxi on the street and followed him to the Cafe Versailles. Moments later, Andrews calls and summons Charlie to his apartment. Before he leaves, Charlie sends Lee off on a secret mission. Charlie arrives at Andrews' apartment, where the FBI agent has caught a gangster involved with the Marloff gang. After a punch to the jaw, the gangster reveals that the Cafe Versailles is where the opium gang is hiding out. Andrews calls the police, and asks them to meet them at the club. Charlie and Andrews leave for Cafe Versailles. After Charlie and Andrews depart, Andrews' valet, Forrest, frees the gangster and the two leave. At the club, Nash (disguised as an able seaman) sees some of the Marloff gang heading toward the basement and follows, but is captured. Charlie and Andrews arrive moments later, and follow a gang member into the basement as well. The basement is where opium is being shipped out via riverboat, reached by a trap door. Andrews urges Charlie to go first, but Charlie hesitates when his flashlight mysteriously refuses to work. The police arrive by boat, and after a brief shootout capture the gang.

Charlie surprises everyone by arresting James Andrews. Lee Chan reveals that his father sent him off to cable America, and he has just received a reply which indicates that the real Agent Andrews was murdered in San Francisco three weeks earlier. The false "James Andrews" is really the leader of the Marloff gang, and intended to have the gang murder Charlie in a shoot-out when they descended through the trap door. Charlie knew Andrews did not really call the police, and had Lee summon them instead. Nash's escape from police custody was planned by Charlie. Charlie reveals that Forrest used the ink pad to put Nash's thumbprint on the revolver to frame him. Nash is declared innocent, and Andrews and Forrest go to jail.


Legions in Time

A widow with the strange job of sitting in an empty office and guarding an empty closet, decides to take action and steps through—and falls into a cosmic, time-spanning adventure that ends with her becoming an entire organization spread throughout time with a goal of destroying the evil Empire of the Aftermen.


Charlie Chan at the Circus

Charlie Chan takes his wife and twelve children on an outing to a circus after receiving a free pass from one of the owners, Joe Kinney. Kinney wants Chan to find out who is sending him anonymous threatening letters. Nearly all of the circus workers are suspects, since Kinney is very unpopular. However, when Chan goes to meet him during the night's performance, he finds the man dead, seemingly killed by a rampaging gorilla who somehow escaped from his cage.

Lieutenant Macy takes charge of the investigation, assisted by Chan and his overzealous eldest son Lee, who also takes the opportunity to (unsuccessfully) romance Su Toy (Toshia Mori, credited as Shia Jung), the contortionist. On Chan's advice, Macy lets the circus continue on to its next stop, with the trio tagging along. During the train ride, an attempt is made to murder Chan with a poisonous cobra.

Then someone tries to break into the circus's safe, but nothing is missing. Macy finds a marriage certificate inside, showing that Kinney supposedly married circus wardrobe lady Nellie Farrell in Mexico. However, Kinney's fiance Marie Norman claims that she can prove Kinney was not in Mexico the day indicated on the certificate. Before she can prove it, during her act, someone shoots one of the ropes of her trapeze swing and she falls to the ground, seriously injured, but still alive.

A doctor is summoned. Chan states that Marie is too badly hurt to move, so the doctor must operate on the spot. Chan asks everyone to keep quiet and clear the area, so as not to cause a potentially fatal distraction for the medical staff during the delicate operation.

Meanwhile, Chan has noticed a newspaper article about a crime committed at a casino the day of Kinney's alleged marriage. He sends his son to phone for a description of the crooks involved from the police. When Lee returns, he sees a man slug the policeman guarding the gorilla's cage and let the ape out again. He struggles with the man, but is knocked out.

The gorilla reaches the tent where the operation is in progress and tries to cause trouble. The operation is a fake, as is the gorilla. He is shot to death by policemen masquerading as doctors. It is revealed to be snake charmer Tom Holt in a costume, trying to pin a second death on the escaped animal. He and Kinney had robbed the casino and hidden out at the circus. However they had had a falling out over the division of the money, leading to Kinney's murder. Nellie Farrell and her brother Dan are also arrested for trying to use a forgery to gain half interest in the circus. Charlie Chan agrees to obtain a lifetime pass to the circus for his family. He sees Lee Chan and Su Toy having some romance together wondering if any future grandchildren will be able to see the circus, too.


The Texan Meets Calamity Jane

A western in which Calamity Jane's (Evelyn Ankers) rightful ownership of a gambling hall is challenged. She nearly loses the business to a shady crook, but Texas lawyer Ellion puts up a legal fight to help her stay in charge. After a sensational fight, the letters proving her right are discovered.


Charlie Chan at the Race Track

When a prominent racehorse owner winds up dead-allegedly kicked to death by his prized stallion, Charlie Chan is called in to investigate. But when the indomitable detective discovers evidence of foul play, he's soon hot on the hooves of an international gambling ring with an evil plot to turn the racetracks of the world into a trifecta of terror!


The Sharing of Flesh

After a galactic dark age, humanity sends an expedition to a primitive human planet, where all cultures practice cannibalism as a rite of manhood. When one of the expedition members is brutally killed, his wife embarks on a mission of vengeance.

Evalyth Sairn is a woman of Kraken, from a society where both sexes learn the art of combat. She accompanies her husband Donli, a scientist from the civilized world Atheia, to a planet that reverted to complete savagery during the collapse of galactic civilization. She manages camp security for the expedition.

Donli is killed and eviscerated by Moru, a local guide, while out on an expedition. The whole incident is recorded by the camera on Donli's communicator while Evalyth watches in horror. After recovering from the shock, she begins to study Moru's people, discovering their bizarre rites of passage where young boys eat certain organs of men, usually slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, in order to become men. The organs Moru took from Donli match those used in the rites. Moru himself was lame and too poor to buy them from the usual sources.

At first, Evalyth is consumed by the need for vengeance. Under the terms of the expedition, each member is allowed to live by their own customs, which in her society demand blood for blood. With the aid of an artificial intelligence she finds a way of tracking Moru by detecting the unique chemical makeup of Donli's body. With Moru in captivity, she begins to doubt that Donli would have wanted her to kill for him and instead looks at the problem the way Donli himself might have. Instead of assuming that the rites are mere customs, she asks the AI for other possibilities. The AI offers the example of dung flies (the Diptera mentioned in the alternate title) which have evolved to depend on nutrients from prey insects. The conclusion is that Moru's people have lost the ability to undergo maturation without hormones from the cannibalism. The camp doctor informs her that once the genetic defect is found, it can be easily cured.

Moru is brought before her. Although she intended to kill him, she announces that she had her revenge by imagining that nothing would be done for his people, and they would live in fear forever. Producing a knife, she does not harm him, but cuts his bonds and tells him to remember Donli.


The Cloak and the Staff

A skilled human translator tries to balance his desire to stay alive with his need to lash out at Earth's hulking overlords, who treat humans as cattle, or at best, pets.


Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight

A lost child tumbles into the confusing world of Southwestern US desert folklore and lives for a while with the trickster Coyote.


Permafrost (story)

On Balfrost, a planet that experiences decades-long seasons, the Playpoint resort attracts tourists during the warm seasons. In winter it is maintained by an artificial intelligence who was once a man, Andrew Aldon, and a pair of custodians, a man and a woman, who are in suspended animation except for a few days each year when they awake to inspect and maintain the resort. The resort has powerful weapons to keep encroaching ice at bay.

Paul Plaige, a former custodian who left under suspicious circumstances, returns in winter with his latest paramour, a woman named Dorothy. His real reason for returning is to retrieve some precious stones lost in a cave-in that claimed his partner, a woman named Glenda.

In the years since Paul's departure, Andrew Aldon has noticed a change in the weather patterns. He believes that the planet is somehow intelligent, as in the Gaia hypothesis. Paul sets out to find the stones, with the weather curiously helping him by maintaining a calm area around him. Later, Dorothy tries to follow with help from Andrew Aldon. Paul comes upon a cave containing Glenda's corpse, somehow preserved. In fact Glenda is still alive, having merged with a biological network present across the planet, and has been controlling the weather. In the confrontation that follows, Dorothy sees Paul with Glenda's re-animated body. Andrew, in touch through Dorothy's wrist communicator, tries to prevent a conflict, but instead Glenda causes his personality to switch places with Paul's.

Andrew and Dorothy leave the planet, while Paul and Glenda act out their hatred for each other with the weapons of Playpoint and the planet's weather.


Lion of Ireland

The story begins with Brian as a child of around 8 or 9 and it ends with him as an 88-year-old man. The book shows his rise to power and his struggle to maintain it. His personal life is an important part of the plot, because Brian's war against Máel Mórda (leader of the Leinstermen) and Sihtric (king of Dublin) was to be inextricably connected with his complicated marital relations, in particular his marriage to Gormlaith, Máel Mórda's sister and Sihtric's mother, who had been in turn the wife of Amlaíb Cuarán, king of Dublin and York, then of Máel Sechnaill. Even though the book is based on a historical figure, most of it is fiction.


First Contact (novelette)

Space travel is routine between planets in the Solar System. Ships function very much like naval warships or research vessels. There are technologies such as "overdrive" which allows a ship to travel much faster than light in normal space, and apparently artificial gravity within a ship. Atomic power is used everywhere, even in a space suit propulsion unit. Ships are equipped with "blasters", not necessarily for use as weapons, but for destroying space debris which would otherwise collide with the ship.

The exploration ship ''Llanvabon'' is approaching the Crab Nebula when it suddenly detects another ship on its radar. The two ships' radars are, in fact, interfering with each other, so each sees a wildly distorted image of the other ship. Even after the problem is resolved and the two crews, one human, one alien, establish communication, both realize they have a problem. Neither can leave without ensuring that the other cannot track them to their home planet.

The aliens are humanoid bipeds, but see in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Also, instead of using sound to communicate among themselves they use microwaves emitted from an organ in their heads. As one human points out, "From our point of view, they have telepathy. Of course from their point of view, so do we."

The crews discover they have much in common. This is especially true of young Tommy Dort and his counterpart on the other ship, to whom he has assigned the name Buck. Although they are only able to communicate through an artificial code, they are able to establish a rapport. However, Buck is pessimistic about the eventual outcome. He sends Tommy a message, "You are a good guy. Too bad we must kill each other."

The deadlock persists. Neither ship dares to leave for fear that the other will be able to track it home. Neither captain is ready to gamble by attacking the other ship. Then Tommy realizes the way out of the impasse. He and his Captain arrange an exchange of personnel between the ships. Tommy and the Captain go aboard the alien ship even as two aliens board the ''Llanvabon''. Then they present an ultimatum: they will detonate the atomic power packs in their suits if the aliens refuse to go along with their plan, which is for each crew to take the other's ship back to their home planet. Each will disable all the tracking equipment on their own ship before the exchange, and indeed they will have to be thorough to prevent the new crew from tracking them.

At this point the aliens begin behaving very strangely, twitching or lying down and kicking the floor. In fact this is their equivalent of laughter. Their own people have just given the humans the same ultimatum, and the same plan.

The story ends with each crew taking over the other's ship. Naturally, before leaving their own ship they are able to remove everything which might point back to their home world. Each stands to benefit from the new technology on the other's ship. Each keeps the other race's fiction library to gain insight into their thinking. They agree to repeat the encounter at the same location some time in the future.

Tommy is confident that the two races will get along. He believes this because, as he tells the Captain, he and Buck spent a good deal of time swapping dirty jokes.


Slow Life (novelette)

The first explorers on Titan find that the ocean is a weird chemical soup. There does not seem to be any life in it until one of the expedition members begins to believe that something is talking to her through her dreams.


Thor Meets Captain America

Just as World War II began to turn against them, Nazi Germany is suddenly aided by the Norse pantheon. However, Loki joins the Allies, and they prepare a last-ditch sneak attack against Valhalla called Operation Ragnarok. The story follows Captain Chris Turing, who is part of the team which is going to attack Valhalla and starts out with them traveling to their attack destination in a group of submarines hoping that what remained of the United States Surface Navy would be able to distract the Nazi and Norse pantheon forces. Originally the plan was to include only Chris' team and their commando escorts, but Loki informs them that he will accompany his troops to Gotland as well. Due to Loki's previous actions in aiding the Allies and the way he ended the Holocaust by saving the inmates of the concentration camps, Chris agrees and convinces Major Marlowe to allow it.

While waiting for them to get to their destination, Chris recollects his memory of World War II and how the Nazi Germany was about to be defeated by the allied forces until they received the aid of the Norse pantheon. Loki notices Chris and allows the captain to ask the Norse God three questions. Loki answers the questions asked, and in one answer mentions how he does not think that he is older than Chris and also implies that the Nazi extermination camps were established for reasons other than for "Nazi racial purification", but refuses to answer any further questions to clarify this. The group arrives at Gotland, and during the operation Loki disappears as Æsir forces led by Thor defeats the troops.

The survivors of Operation Ragnarok are taken prisoner after the failed mission and are given to Thor by his father Odin. While in custody, Chris recollects more of his memories of World War II and recalls how as a child he wished that he would have an event like the war that he could partake in like his father did. He ends up discussing the history of World War II with his captured troops, and argues with the group about the suggestion the United States should have simply bombed Germany in order to end the war as soon as possible. He also takes an opportunity to mock one of his human captors about how the Nazis have become mere puppets of the Æsir.

After these conversations, Chris is taken to be interrogated by Thor. Thor tries to get Chris to reveal the whereabouts of Loki, but the captive captain does not tell him and does not know. Chris ends up insulting Thor, insisting that they are aliens, and as a result Thor orders his death before revealing that the Norse pantheon were invited "upon the wings of death itself."

O'Leary later tells Chris that he was told by Loki to give Chris an answer to his final question: necromancy. Chris realizes that the death camps were built not for "racial purification", but for human sacrifices to fuel magic. The captain also realizes that the Norse Gods were created by necromancy due to Loki's admission that he is actually young. After realizing that he has gained superhuman powers from Loki, Chris attacks the guards and dies in an attempt to resist the Norse Gods after managing to destroy Odin's Spear. In doing so, he hopes that his actions will give hope to other heroes who will eventually rise up to overcome the Nazis.


Tainá 2: A New Amazon Adventure

The evil woman Zuzu gets these two men to go to the jungle and take the animals and this little amazon jungle girl Tainá have to rescue the animals. And the men shot the mother of the cute little jungle cat, and the jungle cat was only a little baby and it got very sad.

Carlito, a young boy helps Taina rescue animals from evil woman. Carlito has lost his puppy and he's looking for it, but Catiti found it.


Napoleon (1995 film)

In Sydney, Australia, a puppy named Muffin is living with a human family and his own mother. He, calling himself Napoleon and pretending to be tough, wishes that he could live with the wild dogs that he can hear howling in the distance. The family has a birthday party and one of the decorations is a basket with balloons strapped to it. Out of curiosity, Napoleon hops inside it, but it, untied from its tether, begins to float away.

Napoleon flies high above Sydney and heads out to the sea. A galah named Birdo drops down on the side of his basket and offers to help him get down. Birdo's idea of help is to pop the balloons suspending the basket, causing Napoleon to land unharmed on a beachhead. He thinks he can finally seek out the wild dogs and heads into a nearby forest, ignoring Birdo's suggestion to return home.

At night, Napoleon starts to fear being alone. A tawny frogmouth in the forest warns him of terrible things that can happen to pets in the wild, but he ignores him as well and continues on his way, briefly getting caught in the web of a spider. He discovers a large tree which is home to a psychotic cat. She spots Napoleon and, thinking he is a mouse, chases him. He escapes when the tawny frogmouth pushes the cat into a pond. The tawny frogmouth then warns him that she will not rest until he is dead. As he runs off, she pulls herself from the pond angrily swearing revenge.

The next morning, following an encounter with a flock of annoying rainbow lorikeets and then a rude koala, Napoleon once again meets with Birdo, asking him to teach him how to live in the wild, also revealing his real name is Muffin. He is then taunted for his name by both a deep-voiced green tree frog and the lorikeets from earlier, despite Birdo's attempts to stop them, and thereafter gets stranded on a floating log. Birdo agrees at last to teach Napoleon how to live in the wild, beginning by teaching him how to swim back to shore in a lake, pushing him off a floating log.

Napoleon learns about hunting by practicing on a group of rabbits, but fails to catch one and ends up eating moss instead. Birdo's next lessons about friendly and dangerous animals with a wombat and some heavily injured quokkas, having suffered a brutal attack by the cat, and then snowy weather are ignored. Napoleon narrowly avoids a herd of stampeding brumbies during the latter lesson, which Birdo mistakes for "blinding snow and freezing fog", which causes him to abandon Birdo in frustration. He follows the smell of what he believes to be sweets to a sugarcane field, though Birdo, fearing how dry it is, tries to stop him from going in it but to no avail. He briefly encounters a snake warning him of danger just before a bushfire breaks out, escaping with Birdo's help. The cat returns and attempts to attack Birdo, but fails. He reunites with his lost flock but she has found them too; Napoleon saves them with a warning of her. They come to a road where they witness a frill-necked lizard hiding on a road stripe survive a passing truck, as it angrily bullies Napoleon away when he tries to see if it's okay. He and Birdo then part ways as he wants to seek the wild dogs and Birdo wants to rejoin his flock.

Napoleon then helps an echidna find water and seeks out shade. While resting, he is heartbroken when he realises that the howling he has been hearing was just a perentie lizard wandering the desert and imitating various animals, and begins lamenting running away from home. A torrential rainstorm arrives as the area begins to flood, and Napoleon runs for shelter and discovers two dingo puppies named Sid and Nancy inside a damp cave, assuming they are lost like him. The water floods the cave and sweeps Nancy away. Napoleon dives in and rescues her. The pups' mother returns and Napoleon realises that he has found the wild dogs. She agrees to let him live with her, Sid, and Nancy. While out together, she asks why he wanted to be with the wild dogs. He explains that he always wanted to feel brave by living in the wild, but confesses to being disappointed with the lifestyle. She comforts him by reminding him that it was his courage that led him out here and helped him save Sid and Nancy, which represents the true spirit of the wild dogs.

Wanting to go home, Napoleon takes a trip across the landscape in a kangaroo's pouch. He reaches the shore and discovers that his basket is inhabited by a feisty penguin who calls himself Conan, wanting to be a wild and brave creature, mirroring how Napoleon was when he first arrived. He learns however that Conan's real name is Pengi when his raucous family arrives. That night, Napoleon's plan to sail back to Sydney with the basket is interrupted by the cat's return. A battle ensues and he tries multiple times to stop her. Before she can kill him, she becomes distracted by Pengi, who taunts her. Napoleon then knocks her off the cliff and into the basket, which sails away. On a cliff side, Napoleon sees an image of a wild dog howling, symbolizing that he understands his bravery of being one inside.

Birdo reappears with a sea turtle who takes Napoleon back to Sydney. He returns home to his mother, who consents to calling him Napoleon instead of Muffin. The cat, having been carried to Sydney by the ocean currents, reappears one last time. She finally realises that Napoleon is not a mouse but a dog, but she still vows to get him in the end.


Wisegal

''The story is narrated by an adult Nino Montanari, who reminisces on his family history...''

Brooklyn, New York, ca. 1976: Angie resists abandoning baby daughter Patty on a cathedral doorstep and decides to raise her alone in the streets, surviving by their wits. Years later, a teenaged Patty meets and marries kind policeman Dante Montanari, and the couple have two sons: Joey and Nino.

Dante eventually dies of cancer, and the hospital bills have now left the surviving family without any money. Patty must now make ends meet. She quickly befriends local funeral director Frank Russo, with whom she has a romantic relationship, and Frank's boss Salvatore “Sal” Palmeri, with whom she has a business relationship.

Frank uses his persistent and persuasive charms to reel Patty into his world of organized crime. He offers her a job running a floundering Italian restaurant, which she converts into a successful transvestite nightclub. Sal attends opening night and he is impressed with her business savvy and street smarts. He soon assigns her to serve as his mule; she must drive to Toronto and pick up half-a-million dollars at a shipboard casino. Patty successfully delivers Sal his money, and soon gains his confidence.

Later, Patty and Sal's girlfriend June must make the same trip to Canada together. En route, Patty witnesses June repeatedly snorting cocaine. While Patty is making her usual pick-up, the casino is raided by police, but she manages to slip through their fingers and return to the hotel where June impatiently waits.

Back in Brooklyn, Frank's son Mouse has been selling cocaine in the neighborhood. The teenage boy soon shows up at Patty's doorstep afraid that his father will beat him up again for not 'staying clean'. Shortly thereafter, a newspaper headline reveals that Mouse has been murdered.

During Mouse's funeral, Patty watches from a distance as the procession leaves the wake. FBI agent Robert Wilford approaches Patty for help in bringing down Sal's criminal empire. Robert asks that Patty wear a wire to record incriminating evidence that will facilitate Palmeri's arrest.

Soon, Patty discovers that June had turned Mouse on to selling her drugs, and that Palmeri had placed a hit on him for selling it on the streets. Patty also finds out that Frank asked his boss for permission to, mercifully, kill his own son. June is now fleeing for her life, but Patty intercepts her at her apartment, and finds out that she, June, and Frank are probably the next on Palmeri's hit list.

Eventually, Patty persuades Palmeri to let her go free and to not kill Frank unless he continues threatening her family. Soon thereafter, Palmeri and his men are either arrested or killed, and June's dead body is discovered (presumably from a drug overdose).

The Montanaris and Angie hop on the next train to Florida, leaving their criminal past behind.


A Lick of Frost

Prologue

A faerie princess turned private investigator in a world where faeries are not only known to the general public, but are also fashionable, the title heroine is Princess Meredith NicEssus, also known as Merry Gentry. As niece to Andais, The Queen of Air and Darkness, she is a royal of the Unseelie Court. While her aunt tried to kill her as a child, she has since offered her the title as crown princess as the Court needs more heirs.

Summary

A Lick of Frost begins one month after the events of Mistral's Kiss. The opening chapters show Merry and her guards Rhys, Galen, Doyle, Frost, and Abeloec in a conference room, being questioned about the charges of rape against Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec. King Taranis has brought the charges on behalf of the woman allegedly raped by the aforementioned fey. The meeting ends badly, with Taranis losing what little control he had on his sanity, and one of the officers of Taranis' guard, Sir Hugh, telling Merry that he is going to force a vote among the nobles of the Seelie court to choose a new king, and he wants Merry to take Taranis' place.

When Merry and her guards get home after taking a trip to the hospital (as Doyle and Abe got badly hurt from Taranis' attack), they call Aunt Andais to tell her of all that has happened- specifically the offer to rule the Seelie Court. Andais believes Merry already agreed to rule and abuses one of her guards (Crystall) in a sadistic rage. Eventually, Merry and her men convince Andais otherwise, but she still continues to abuse the guard in reaction to many of them leaving to join Merry. The series of mirror-calls end, and Merry finalises the coming together of her, Ash, and Holly for later that night.

Night comes and Holly and Ash arrive, along with all of the Red Caps in tow. Jonty, a Red Cap that helped Merry fight in Mistral's Kiss, sheds a tear as Merry tells him she would bring the Red Caps into their power. She catches the tear on her finger and consumes it. This brings on the remaking of Maeve Reed's house into a sithen. Those of faerie who stand in that room with no faerie dog to keep them grounded, crumple to the floor. Some of the crumpled men are revived by one of the dogs, but Frost stays down.

The creation of the sithen (faerie land) allows the ring of fertility on her finger to flare to life and Merry realises that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers like in the story of Ceridwen. A phantom image of Merry's children appear by their respective fathers, Rhys, Frost, Galen, Doyle, Mistral, and Sholto. There is also a dimmer phantom image of a 3rd child (that has the potential to be born after the twins).

Frost turns out to be the sacrificial king for the creation of the new sithen. Merry prays for him not to die, and he turns into a white stag and runs off. Merry runs to one of the gardens of her sithen to be alone and grieve the loss of Frost. While out there, Taranis (using illusion to appear as one of her guards) knocks her out and takes her to his bedroom back at the Seelie Court. It is assumed that he rapes her, and then believes he fathers her children. Hugh, some others at the Seelie Court, and Doyle (in dog form) sneak her out of the bedroom and into a press conference where she tells the press that Taranis made the Seelie woman (Lady Catarin) believe that it was Rhys, Galen, and Abe who raped her. However, it was all just an illusion of Taranis' making and the woman was in fact raped by other Seelie nobles working with him. Merry also tells them that she is pregnant, and that Taranis kidnapped and raped her.

The book ends with Merry in an ambulance with Doyle, continuing to mourn Frost and her current situation. She is on her way to the hospital to treat the concussion she received from Taranis and to take a rape test.


Cinders (1920 film)

As described in a film magazine, Bing (Gibson) fondly adores Joyce (Wood) and she really loves Bing, but is not into giving him any encouragement. One day Bing flirts with Stella, who is riding in a rail inspection car with her father, a railway company manager, which gets Joyce angry. Stella likes to do daredevil stunts and pranks, and when the train reaches the next railroad station she sends back a message to town that it has been held up. Bing gets the message from the railway agent and races to the scene. In the meantime, 'Wearie' Willie (Corey) is conducting an actual holdup, and Bing arrives in time to get the draw on him. The conductor, however, misconstrues the actions of Bing and fells him, allowing the real bandit to escape. Stella relents of her actions and trails Bing. Bing catches the bandit just as Stella arrives and, after some explanations, everything is cleared up.


The Land of Sannikov

The exiled settler Alexander Ilyin persuades the gold mine owner Trifon Perfilyev to sponsor the expedition dedicated to the search for "Sannikov Land", a legendary warm land behind the polar circle. Hoping that this land could be filled with gold, Perfilyev agrees. A few more daredevils volunteer for the mission. The finally gathered crew consists of Ilyin himself, officer Evgeniy Krestovskiy, Perfilyev's servant Ignatiy, who is given a task of killing every other crew member in case they really find any gold, and Gubin, a Katorga runaway and a former doctor.

After a long journey, they reach the volcanic land and meet the natives – a tribe of "Onkilon". However they soon find out that the volcano is cooling down quickly, and the legendary land is about to start to freeze so that its unique ecosystem is doomed. Gubin chooses to stay with the Onkilons so as to share his knowledge and help them through the disaster, Ignatiy is killed, Krestovskiy falls from a cliff, and Ilyin has to return alone. Exhausted, he is picked up in the wilderness by Yakut hunters. As they carry him to safety, he watches the migrating birds overhead flying to the Sannikov Land, still unaware of its demise.


The Red Tent (film)

The film begins in Rome many years after the expedition. Nobile has endured years of scorn for his actions during the disaster and its aftermath. He imagines his apartment turned into a court of inquiry against him, where witnesses and judges are his former crewmen – including Captain Zappi, his navigator and his meteorologist Finn Malmgren. Also arrayed against him are Valeria, Malmgren's lover, Captain Romagna, one of the expedition's would-be rescuers, famed aviator Lundborg, professor Samoilovich, chief of the Soviet rescue mission, his pilot Boris Chukhnovsky, and Roald Amundsen, who lost his life in the search for survivors of Nobile's expedition.

As they try Nobile, the events of the expedition and its failure are depicted. The expedition is successful at first, but ends in disaster. The ''Italia'' is weighed down when ice forms on it. Colliding with the ground, the airship's gondola is torn away from its keel and the envelope containing the airship's hydrogen cells; freed of the weight of the gondola, the rest of the ship floats away and out of control, taking some of Nobile's crew with it.

Nobile maintains control of the surviving crew who are now marooned on arctic pack ice. Rescue efforts are made by both Italy and the Soviet Union. Nobile's group is first found by Lundborg, a Swedish pilot who lands on the ice. The aviator insists he can only take Nobile. Reluctantly, Nobile agrees, sure he can best assist the rescue once he returns from the ice. These efforts are blocked: reaching the Italian ship ''Città di Milano'' he finds that his superiors have stripped him of command for apparently abandoning his crew, and he is ordered confined to his room and have no role in the rescue. Desperate, Nobile contacts the ''Krassin'', a Soviet icebreaker also searching for the survivors. Nobile implores Samoilovich, the ''Krassin'' s captain, for help in rescuing the survivors. Unfortunately, the ''Krassin'' has sustained damage. Also, because the ice pack has drifted, Nobile cannot give the ''Krassin'' an accurate position for the survivors. Some of Nobile's crew – Zappi, Mariano and Malmgren – leave the camp in a group hoping to reach Kings Bay.

Amundsen joins the rescue effort as well, but disappears, becoming another victim of Nobile's expedition. In the film, Amundsen explains that he died soon after his plane after his plane was blown off-course. Flying far to the North, Amundsen's party finds the wreckage of the ''Italia'', spotting what appeared to be survivors. Amundsen orders his pilot, René Guilbaud, to land. Instead, the plane crashes, with Amundsen the sole survivor. On inspecting the wreck, Amundsen realizes that he is doomed, finding nothing to build shelter or fire with, no supplies and no hope of rescue. The men who had appeared to be survivors when seen from the air were already long dead.

Back at camp, the ice begins to break apart, and the survivors there barely escape from the gondola before it sinks. Alone on the ice, Nobile's survivors find themselves at their bleakest point before finally spotting the ''Krassin'' on the horizon. As the ship nears for a rescue, the survivors see Zappi and Mariano waving at them from its deck. Malmgren, who had also joined Zappi, died before he could be rescued.

Pressed for a vote, Samoilovich defends Nobile's actions, noting that his rescue of the survivors was a direct result of Nobile's escape to King's Bay. Neither can he fault Nobile's apparent lack of heroism because a captain has no right to risk his own safety by individual acts of heroism. The others quickly reach a verdict of guilty, but Amundsen discounts the verdict, finding each of the accusers unfit to judge for various reasons, including indifference to others and emotional sterility, but mostly for their bitterness. The accusers file out of Nobile's apartment, Amundsen being the last. With Amundsen, Nobile reveals his feelings of guilt for leaving the men on the ice. While Nobile admits that his decision to join Lundborg was based on a number of reasons, some correct while others were wrong, his first thoughts on entering Lundborg's plane were not of rescue, but of a good hot bath. Amundsen helps Nobile find peace by reminding him that his frailty is only a sign of humanity and not guilt.


After Thomas

Kyle Graham (Andrew Byrne) is a severely autistic child with limited communication skills, throws violent tantrums and is not toilet-trained. His condition tests the patience of his parents Nicola (Keeley Hawes) and Rob (Ben Miles).

Nicola believes that the symptoms of Kyle's autism can be made less severe over time by attempting to integrate him with the world around him. Rob, however, believes that the best solution is to send Kyle to a specialist boarding school run by the charismatic and caring headteacher John Havers (Clive Mantle). Rob, who has not had sex with his wife for years, becomes more torn when family friend Rachel (Lorraine Pilkington) offers him casual sex. Nicola's only respite is the unwavering support of her mother Pat (Sheila Hancock) and father Jim (Duncan Preston), who dote on Kyle and provide practical support when needed.

Open-minded on autism therapies, Nicola reads about a child whose condition improved with the help of a therapy dog; Rob remains sceptical, believing that Kyle will either be terrified of the dog or oblivious to its existence. Kyle names his golden retriever puppy Thomas after Thomas the Tank Engine. Slowly, through Thomas, he learns about emotions and interpersonal relationships. Rob discovers that he can quell his son's tantrums by speaking in a different voice that Kyle believes is that of Thomas. Rob and Nicola's marriage improves and she becomes pregnant with her second child. Thomas falls ill and the couple fear that if the dog should die, their son will regress. However, he makes a full recovery. In the final scene of the film, Kyle acknowledges his parents for the first time and says that he loves them.

Before the credits, an epilogue shows what happened to the real-life counterparts portrayed as characters in the film.


Dogs of Hell

The U.S. military has bred and trained Rottweilers, which have escaped, and they are heading for a peaceful community.


La Chamade (film)

Based on the 1965 novel ''La Chamade'' by Françoise Sagan, the film is about a beautiful woman who is mistress to Charles, a rich, good-hearted businessman who provides for all her material needs, but for whom she has no true love. When she meets a charming young man her own age, Antoine, she falls in love. He finds her a menial job in a publishing firm, but she can not or will not hold it down. Soon she becomes pregnant with his child. But Charles helps her through her crisis by funding her abortion – against the wishes of Antoine, who nevertheless accepts, even though he planned on moving out of his bachelor flat, the three of them into a soulless concrete block, money being short. In the aftermath, her feelings for the younger Antoine fade. Eventually, she returns to the good-hearted businessman who has patiently waited for her.


Pietà (manga)

Rio Sakaki is a high school girl who cuts herself and has attempted suicide a few times. She is unloved by her family—her stepmother is especially abusive, and her father, while aware of the abuse, does nothing to stop it. At the beginning of the manga, Rio meets Sahoko Higa, a classmate who spent two years as a hikikomori. They fall in love and begin spending a lot of time together, but Rio's inner demons, especially those that involve the gaps in her memory and her deceased baby sister, threaten to cause Rio to relapse into a suicidal state.


Tiefland (film)

Pedro, a shepherd, is sleeping in his Pyrenean mountain hut when his herd is attacked by a lone wolf. He awakens to defend his sheep, and manages to strangle the wolf. Meanwhile, in the Catalan lowlands of northeastern Spain, a canal is completed which diverts water from the farms and fields of the peasants to support the prize bulls of the landowner, Don Sebastian, marquis of Roccabruno. He arrogantly rejects the request of the peasants for water. However, he has significant debts and needs money. The rich Amelia plans to marry him, but he offends her.

Martha, a "beggar dancer", comes to the village and entertains the people. Sebastian sees her and takes her to his castle, enchanted by her beauty and grace. He keeps her as his mistress in a "golden cage". Martha pleads with him to listen to the plight of the peasants, but he rejects their request again. Seeing his arrogance and inhumanity, she runs away. She collapses in exhaustion in the mountains where Pedro finds her and takes her to his hut. Sebastian's men locate her and return her to the castle.

Sebastian, in dire need to settle his finances, conjures a plan. He will marry Amelia but keep Martha as a mistress; he wants her married to somebody he can manipulate and control. Pedro is commanded to marry her and is installed in a mill under Sebastian's control. For this, Martha despises Pedro at first; but once she realizes that he married her out of love, she responds. Sebastian arrives to be with his mistress. A fight ensues, and Pedro strangles him as he had done to the wolf. In the final scene, Pedro and Martha walk up to the mountains.


Doraemon: Nobita and the Green Giant Legend

Nobita's troubled about what to do with his zero test marks once again. A gust of wind scatters his test papers, and he falls into a garbage dump trying to gather them together again. There he finds a young withered tree that caught one of his papers and he decides to take it home. He tries to plant it in his garden but gets caught by his mother, who doesn't allow him to grow it.

Still wanting to keep it but not being allowed to grow, Doraemon comes up with the idea of making it come alive with a gadget he uses. Nobita names the little tree "Kibō" because all it can say is "ki". As the days pass, Nobita's parents also accept Kibō because he was a very smart boy who helped Nobita's mother whenever he was away. However, aliens from the Planet of Green decides to pass judgement claiming humans were destroying all the green on Earth. Nobita and his friends manage to escape by coincident and arrive at their planet. They are warmly welcomed to their city of Green Pier but also learn of what they are doing to their planet.

Unfortunately, with all his gadgets borrowed by Dorami, there was little Doraemon could do. They manage to escape and come across Princess Rire who tricks them into thinking she was leading them home but along the way, learns that what her adviser was about to do was wrong. Eventually with the help of the alien planet's Elder they manage to return to Earth which was already invaded. Fortunately the time watch Doraemon had dropped had frozen life on Earth giving them a chance to save everyone. The aliens try to summon their giant using Kibō to wipe out all humans despite the Elder's warnings and the plan backfires on them.

But with Nobita's persistence, he wakes up Kibō and everything is restored as the Elder sacrifices himself. Princess Rire announces to her people that they will watch Earth for the time being while Kibō decides to travel around space to learn more and become like the Elder. Nobita and his friends say goodbye to Kibō and go home. Back at Nobita's home, Nobita's mother calls to him and Doraemon to come down for dinner, and one can see Kibo's shoe beside Nobita's shoe.


The Joy of Nelly Deane

After rehearsing for a choir, Nelly asks Peggy to walk back home in Riverbend with her and keep her away from Scott, who wants to walk her back. After the performance, Peggy sleeps over at Nelly's, and the latter tells her she is engaged to Guy Franklin. After graduation, Peggy moves to Denver, Colorado with her family. She later receives a latter from Mrs Dow saying Mr Deane has lost money in an investment in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Franklin ended up marrying a woman in Long Pine, Nebraska, and Nelly is a teacher at the local school. The following winter, Peggy stops at Riverbend, where Nelly is to join the Baptist faith and marry Scott. The day after the baptism, Nelly confesses to being unhappy to Peggy.

After living in Rome for years, Peggy receives another letter from Mr Dow announcing Nelly's death subsequent to her second child's birth. Both children are now being looked after by Mrs Spinny, the Deanes having died. Back in Riverbend, Mrs Dow explains to Peggy that Nelly died because she was looked after by the wrong doctor - Scott had fallen out with two other good doctors. Finally, Peggy meets Margaret whilst she is sledging on Lupton's Hill, and Mrs Spinny also shows her the new baby, who reaches for the flower in her hat.


The Swan Princess III: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure

As Prince Derek and Princess Odette's kingdom prepares to celebrate Festival Days, the evil sorceress Zelda plots to reclaim Rothbart's notes on the Forbidden Arts; notes she helped write when she and Rothbart were partners. To discover if the notes still exist, Zelda captures a yakey-bird named Whizzer, who has the ability to imitate any voice after hearing it only once. Though Zelda's magical abilities are limited, she can create a magical fireball called a seeker to target anyone she commands it to. Threatening his life with this ability, Whizzer goes to Swan Lake Castle as a spy and overhears how Derek and Rogers discovered Rothbart's notes and had them hidden. Odette never knew Derek found the notes and always assumed if such things were discovered, the notes would be immediately destroyed. She tries to convince Derek to dispose of it saying how nothing good will ever come of them while Derek maintained his belief of someday using the notes for good.

After Whizzer informs Zelda, she goes to the castle pretending to be an "accordion slave". She flirts and charms Lord Rogers with a story about how she had escaped a king who kept her locked up and play the accordion constantly. Rogers falls in love with Zelda and invites her to stay at the castle, despite the reservations of Queen Uberta. That night, Zelda steals the chest with Rothbart's notes and flees. To her dismay, the notes are incomplete and prevent her from gaining full power. Zelda questions Whizzer and learns that Derek tore off the remaining portion and has it hidden.

Zelda casts a seeker to find Odette, while Whizzer is sent to deliver a ransom note to Derek. The seeker successfully brings Odette and Jean-Bob to Zelda's lair. At the castle, Derek receives the ransom note and retrieves the torn portion of Rothbart's notes from where he'd hidden it in the library. Whizzer is captured by Speed and Puffin, who convince him to help them stop Zelda. Whizzer eventually agrees and the group heads out to help Derek to rescue Odette.

When Jean-Bob frees Odette, she attempts to sneak off with the notes only to be caught again. Zelda then transforms Odette into a swan, and imprisons her and Jean-Bob in a dome of green fire that will disintegrate anything that touches it, including its prisoners. When Derek arrives at the meeting place to pay the ransom, Zelda tricks Derek into letting his guard down by disguising herself as Odette and snatches the final piece from his grip. Zelda mocks Derek and retracts her promise of returning Odette. Instead, she plans to test the Power to Destroy on Odette.

Puffin, Speed, and Whizzer finally meet up with Derek and race toward Zelda's lair. They free Odette and Jean-Bob while Zelda is busy absorbing the Power to Destroy. Derek and the others face her in battle during the ensuing fight, Zelda conjures a destroying seeker and casts it at Odette, who flies away from the lair with Puffin in an attempt to escape. Whizzer distracts Zelda by imitating Rothbart's voice, allowing Derek to snap her wand in two. Zelda falls back onto her own barricade of green fire and is killed for good. However, Puffin returns to the lair alone and reveals that Odette was killed by the seeker. A heartbroken Derek cries for his lost love, regretting that he did not destroy the notes earlier. As he burns the notes, he apologizes to Odette and prays that some good may still come from it. The flames take on the shape of a swan, from which Odette materializes, and returns to life. Derek embraces and tells Odette he loves her.

The Kingdom is safe once more and the festival takes place as planned with Jean-Bob winning the obstacle course and becoming prince for a day (with a little outside help from Whizzer), and Uberta and Rogers winning the talent show. As Derek and Odette watch the proceedings, Odette asks Derek to promise there is no more magic in the castle. Derek replies he cannot because there will always be magic when Odette is there.


On Our Merry Way

Oliver Pease (Burgess Meredith) has deceived his bride Martha (Paulette Goddard) into believing he's an inquiring reporter for the ''Los Angeles Daily Banner'' when, in fact, he is employed there as a classified ads clerk. When Martha suggests Oliver ask people on the street, "What influence has a baby had on your life?," he submits the question to the real reporter, who dismisses it outright. Oliver approaches the editor and introduces himself as a representative of the publisher, who he claims wants to improve the feature by having Oliver roam the city and ask the question suggested by his wife.

Jazz musicians Slim and Lank (James Stewart and Henry Fonda) mistake the word "baby" for "babe" and reminisce about a female trumpeter (Dorothy Ford) they met when their tour bus broke down in a rundown California seaside resort, where they tried to fix a talent contest so the mayor's son would win.

Hollywood film star Gloria Manners (Dorothy Lamour) recalls the time she was hired to work with precocious child star Peggy Thorndyke (Eileen Janssen), who unintentionally triggered her big break in the movies, transforming her from a drab Iowa secretary into a Polynesian goddess.

In a story similar to the O. Henry short story "The Ransom of Red Chief", successful stage magician Al (Fred MacMurray) relates how he and his buddy Floyd (William Demarest) once were con artists who stumbled upon young runaway and practical joker Edgar Hobbs in the woods. Upon learning he lived with his wealthy banker uncle, they conspired to return the boy and claim a reward, only to discover his uncle did not want him back. All ended well when Al married Edgar's sister and made the two siblings part of his magic act.

At the end of the day, Oliver returns to the newspaper only to discover he's been fired from his real job for being AWOL. When he tells his wife what has happened, she surprises him by telling him she has known all along about his job and does not mind in the least. The paper's editor, impressed by the notes Oliver made while talking to his various subjects, arrives to tell him he likes his column and plans to print it, and asks how he thought of the question in the first place. Martha confesses it came to her because she's going to have a baby.


A Happy Woman

As the titular "happy woman," Lee Ji-yeon (Yoon Jung-hee) is an accessory designer with a cheerful, go-getting personality despite often being looked down upon because of her humble educational and family background. She ends up in a love triangle with her wealthy husband (Jung Gyu-woon) and a lonely detective (Kim Suk-hoon), as the drama explores what happiness means for a woman in terms of family, work, and love.


My Mother Said I Never Should

The play has a non-chronological and non-linear structure and moves between different places (Manchester, Oldham, and London) and time periods. It presents various episodes in the lives of the four female characters between the 1920s to 1987. It also features scenes set in "the wasteground", where the four characters play together as their child selves in their own contemporary costumes.

The play begins in the Wasteground, where the four girls play as contemporaries - Doris appears aged five, Rosie aged eight, and Jackie and Margaret aged nine. They show disgust for the idea of little girls being made of 'sugar and spice and all things nice' and then put forth the idea of 'killing their Mummy'. Jettisoning the younger Doris, they are wary of ingredients for their 'curse' being too real (such as harelip) or too fantastical; and then call upon the spirit of their Granny, fleeing as a figure moves upstage towards them.
The figure is Doris, now an adult and singing to a racy George Formby song on the radio. Her daughter, Margaret, aged eight; surprises her by shouting 'knickers' from beneath the piano. Doris insists on being called 'Mother' rather than 'Mummy', and pushes Margaret to practice the piano rather than answering her inquisitive, lively child's questions about the war and whether her parents say their prayers. The next scene shows Doris as a grandmother with Jackie, Margaret's daughter; now affectionate and lenient, by contrast to her relationship with Margaret.


Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors

Similar in subject to and perhaps inspired by the novel Through The Looking Glass, the film centers around an encounter between a girl named Olya and a mysterious counterpart, Yalo, while staring into a mirror. The characters are exact opposites: Yalo is the absolute opposite of Olya in every way. Where Yalo is organized and precise, Olya is careless and absent-minded. In the story, Olya steps through the mirror into the Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors where Yalo resides. The kingdom, under the rule of King Yagupop LXXVII (reverse of Popugay, meaning parrot), produces crooked mirrors that brainwash its people through subtle changes in reality. When Yalo's friend, a boy named Gurd (reverse of Drug, meaning friend), is suddenly imprisoned for refusing to make crooked mirrors by the evil leaders Anidag (reverse of Gadina, meaning snake), Nushrok (reverse of Korshun, meaning kite) and Abazh (reverse of Zhaba, meaning toad), Olya decides to accompany Yalo to rescue him.

They meet a character who introduces herself as Aunt Aksal (reverse of Laska, meaning kindness), one of the king's cooks, who in order to help them reach the king and save Gurd, disguises them as pages of the king. On meeting the king, Anidag, Nushrok, and Abazh reveal themselves to be the actual powers behind the throne. The latter half of the story focuses on their ultimate defeat and the rescue of Gurd with the help of Anidag's humiliated old servant Bar (reverse of Rab, meaning slave), who rebels against his master. The kingdom's mirrors are returned to normal, and its society becomes free. Olya at last returns to her home and lives happily ever after with her grandmother.

It has been suggested the story is directed at the perceived hypocrisy of western nations in attacking the Soviet propaganda machine during the Cold War.


Hero (2007 film)

The film begins six years after Kuryu Kohei was transferred to Ishigaki Island (in the TV series finale). We learn in the interim that he has since been transferred to Sapporo and then to a brief tenure in Yamaguchi Prefecture (the events of the 2006 Hero TV Special). Kuryu Kohei returns to the same Tokyo District Prosecutors Office from the TV series and reunites with his old workmates. The events of the film takes him to Korea, wraps up plot threads from the TV special and allows Amamiya and Kuryu to rekindle their relationship which had been in limbo since their date at the 2002 World Cup (5 years).

Kuryu prosecutes a fatal hit and run case, but runs into obstruction and interference as the chief suspect is a witness to a high profile political case. As such, Kuryu must face an elite, powerful lawyer, played by Koshiro Matsumoto. Proving his suspect guilty risks collapsing the national case. However, as always, Kuryu only cares about finding the truth and justice about his case and goes to great lengths (even travelling to Korea) to find it. While the TV episodes focused mostly on Kuryu's pre-trial investigative abilities, the film showcases Kuryu's legal skills within the courtroom, leaving Amamiya and the other co-workers to do much of the legwork.


The Enchanted Bluff

In Sandtown, a Midwestern town, six local boys talk about the stars and the river and places they'd like to go to. Tip mentions Enchanted Bluff, a rock surrounded by a plain in New Mexico, where Native Americans used to live before the Spaniards came along. Once, the men were down the rock hunting and an army party killed them. The women and children starved to death on the rock, as an "awful storm" or waterspout had destroyed the stairs needed to go down the rock. The boys eventually get back to their house, and later talk about their plan to go there.

Years later, none of them ever made it to the Enchanted Bluff. Percy is a stockbroker in Kansas City; Otto worked on the railway and has now taken up his father's tailor shop with his brother; Arthur had done nothing with his life. He tells the narrator he wants to go to the Enchanted Bluff and to the Grand Canyon, but soon dies in the same old town. Tip, however, plans to go there when his son, who is also obsessed with the bluff, is old enough to go with him.


Charlie Chan at the Opera

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) gets a chance to watch a popular opera performance. For seven years, opera star Gravelle (Boris Karloff) has been locked in an insane asylum, his identity a mystery – even to himself. But when his memory unexpectedly returns, he begins to recall that his wife and her lover tried to murder him – and now he's determined to make them face the music. Gravelle escapes from the asylum and makes his way to the San Marco opera house and begins hiding out in the various rooms and passageways. Soon, members of the opera company are being murdered one by one.

Chan soon investigates the killings and despite the presence of Gravelle, there are other suspects who may be the real killer. The suspects, excluding Gravelle, include Lilli Rochelle, the opera company's ''prima donna'' who has been having a secret affair with Enrico Barelli, the baritone; Mr. Whitely, Madame Rochelle's husband who has warned Barelli to stay away from his wife; Anita Barelli, the opera company's number two soprano who has learned of her husband's affair with Lilli Rochelle; and Phil Childers, the fiancée of Lilli's unacknowledged daughter who has been refused permission to marry the daughter.

Clues found by Chan to apprehend the killer include a torn newspaper, a charred note, a heel mark on a newspaper picture, and a bloodstained belt. Among the questions asked are who has been threatening Lilli Rochelle's life, the mystery man in Barelli's dressing room before he is murdered, and why does Chan insist that the opera be performed twice in one evening?


Coming Attraction

The story is set in Manhattan during a protracted war between the United States and the Soviet Union; midtown Manhattan has been rendered an uninhabitable wasteland by a Soviet "Hell Bomb," though the rest of the city is still occupied. The narrator is a British citizen named Wysten Turner, who is in New York to barter, in exchange for grain, electronic equipment that he suspects will be used in the construction of an American military base on the moon.

As the story begins, he pulls a young woman out of the way of a car; apparently it is a favorite gang activity to snag women's clothing with fishhooks welded to their cars' fenders, although this car came a bit too close. Turner involves the police, but they do not regard the incident as serious, and he ends up bribing them to go away. The wearing of masks, akin to the Muslim burka but carrying no religious significance, has become all but mandatory for fashionable American women. Turner therefore cannot see the face of the woman he has helped, and he is intrigued.

She arranges for him to meet her later, and they go to a nightclub. She begs him to help her escape America, explaining that her boyfriend, a professional wrestler, beats her when he loses a wrestling match. Turner's sense of chivalry is aroused, and a fight occurs when the boyfriend arrives. Turner, to his surprise, knocks the boyfriend down, but when he does, the girl turns on him rather than thanking him for defending her. Her quasi-seduction of Turner is a ploy she has used on other men in the past, as all those around her already know. She never intended to leave the wrestler, as she craves his abuse. Turner rips the mask from her face, but is repulsed by her lack of grooming and by her expression of hatred. He leaves, anxious to return to England.


Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Alcatraz Smedry, a young teen, is always breaking things. After receiving a bag of sand for his thirteenth birthday, he is involved in a very strange set of events.

The book starts with Alcatraz setting fire to his foster parents' kitchen. It is revealed that he has been in countless foster homes, always ending up with Alcatraz "destroying" things precious to the people taking care of him. Ms. Fletcher, Alcatraz's personal caseworker, arrives and scolds him for destroying his foster parents' kitchen.

The next day an old man arrives at the house and claims to be his grandfather, telling Alcatraz that he has a special, powerful talent, breaking things. After the old man finds Alcatraz's bag of sand missing, he and Alcatraz must go on a mission to recover it at all cost from the Evil Librarians, secret rulers of the world.


The Quest for Saint Aquin

In a post-apocalyptic technocratic future Earth, religion has been banned and the Catholic church has gone underground, relying on secret cells and symbols as in the days of the early church. The central character is a crypto-priest named Thomas, who is charged by the secret Pope with finding the resting place of a semi-legendary figure called Aquin (a hint to Saint Thomas of Aquin). Aquin had been an evangelist of great power who converted all those who listened to him preach, and his body supposedly never rotted after his death. The Pope believes that this miracle, if true, will be a powerful tool in winning new converts.

Thomas is provided with an intelligent multi-terrain transportation device called a robass ("robotic ass"), to assist him in reaching the area where Aquin's body supposedly rests. To his surprise, the vehicle is theologically literate and tries to persuade him to abandon his quest, arguing for example that he had not been asked to ''find'' Aquin, but rather to ''report'' that he had so that the pope could begin the process of canonization. Thomas resists the robass' persuasive arguments in the main, though he does succumb to the temptation to drink and carouse with a pretty half-Martian barmaid in a village. The villagers discover he is a priest, beat and rob him, leaving him for dead. He is ignored by all passers-by, but Abraham, an orthodox Jew, rescues him and nurses him back to health. He is able to return to his quest with the help of several secret believers in God. Various episodes from the New Testament are echoed as his quest continues.

Ultimately, Thomas does locate Aquin, only to find that he was a robot, and that therefore the legend of his incorruptibility was true...in a sense: his body could not possibly have decayed as he was never made of flesh.

Stanislaw Lem comments on this religious quagmire as follows: The monk is enraged: you cannot help the victory of the truth with lies! The holy robot during his missionary work did pretend to be a human, and he even died because he decided not to visit a mechanic, so that not to reveal his robotic nature. Therefore the robot served the Truth to the people with the use of a lie.


Surface Tension (short story)

A human colonization ship crash-lands on a distant planet which is Earth-like but whose only landmass is completely covered in shallow puddles of water and mostly microscopic life forms. Normal humans could not survive on this planet, so the crew must genetically engineer their descendants into something that can survive. (Blish coined the term pantropy to refer to this concept.) They create a race of microscopic aquatic humanoids to complete their mission and colonize the planet.

The majority of the story concerns one group of these genetically engineered colonists and their intelligence, curiosity, and evolving technology. In particular, the tiny aquatic humanoids develop a "space ship", or rather "air ship", which enables them to pierce the previously impenetrable surface tension of the water and travel through what is, to them, hostile space—open air—to other worlds in other puddles of water.


Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn

Christian Huxley enters Ryhope wood on a search for the compelling mythago Guiwenneth and for a better understanding of his mother's suicide. Inside the wood he joins a small group of mythago companions who, in turn, join a vast army of mythagos, numbering in the thousands. This army includes many mythic archetypes including shaman, shapeshifters, and warriors. Among these mythagos are those whose creation is influenced by King Arthur and the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion, specifically the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. Echoing the tales of Culhwch and Olwen, Christian is assigned with completing many impossible tasks. Holdstock uses the story within a story device to have Kylhuk retell a tale involving himself, Olwen and Pwyll, among others.

This army, known as a legion, is pursued by the angry dead on its search for the gates to the underworld. As Christian nears the end of his quest in the wood, he has an opportunity to enter the underworld (like Orpheus) and grapple with the suicide of his mother which has two very different manifestations, one true and one false. While in the underworld he is also faced with a difficult choice of rescuing only one of two loved ones from death.


King of Thieves (2004 film)

Barbu is a young boy growing up in a remote area of Ukraine. He and his older sister Mimma perform circus acts for their village. Barbu and Mimma are sold by their parents to Caruso, a German circus master to supposedly become part of his circus act in Berlin.

On their arrival to Germany, Barbu is taken to the circus, in reality being a training camp of young thieves, and Mimma is sold to Cardinal for prostitution in his brothel. Barbu develops a bond with Caruso and Julie, Caruso's wife, and they feel he is the son they never had. Barbu is trained to pickpocket by Marcel, an older Albanian boy. Caruso eventually discovers that Marcel is keeping a small amount of the cash that he steals, resulting in having him lashed and then sold.

Now working on his own, Barbu learns that Mimma has been forced into prostitution, and attempts to free her by entering the brothel with a colt pistol left for him by Marcel. Barbu fails and is violently returned to the circus by Cardinal. Caruso denies that he knew Mimma was in Germany, and says it will cost 100,000 euros for her freedom.

Barbu steals all of Caruso's hidden stash of money, and attempts to flee with Mimma by having her escape from the brothel window. He is again unsuccessful and severely punished by Caruso. While being lashed, Julie comes in with a pistol and shoots Curuso in the arm. She then takes Barbu to the brothel where they shoot their way to Mimma's room and rescue her.

Caruso arrives to the brothel as the three are leaving, and fatally shoots Julie. He lets Barbu and Mimma leave, and then returns to the circus and burns down his big top whilst inside.


Wish You Well (novel)

The story starts out with the Cardinal family going on a trip to relieve them from some unknown stress. On the way back, it is revealed that the Cardinal family plans to move to California, due to financial concerns. Jack Cardinal is an acclaimed but underpaid writer, and plans to move with promises of higher pay. However, Amanda, his wife, is opposed to the idea, stating that they would not be happy and that Jack would not be free to write as he pleases, being controlled by the movie studios. Seeing that the children seem asleep, they battle it out.

Eventually, a violent outburst awakes Lou, a young girl who greatly admires her father. She tries to stop the argument multiple times by offering a story, but Jack is undeterred. Meanwhile, Oz, Lou's timid little brother is also awakened. Both Amanda and Lou hurry to comfort him, while simultaneously being calmed. As the argument further escalates, none of the passengers notice a man in the middle of the road, blocking their way. Jack turns the car just in time to avoid killing the man, but then loses all control. The car rolls, and when it stops, Jack is dead. Amanda faints.

The story then shifts forward to the funeral, where it is discovered that Amanda is now in a catatonic state. Lou overhears two men discussing the fate of the children, and offers the idea of moving in with their great-grandmother in the mountains of Virginia, Louisa Mae. The men accept the offer, and the two children, a nurse, and their mother head off.

When they arrive at the station, an African-American man picks them up and drives them through a series of towns, each more sparsely populated than the one previous. Soon they pick up a boy, who introduces both himself and their driver. Afterwards, he leaves to fish, and the others continue on towards Louisa's house.

Once there, Lou starts a completely new life, learning different chores and helping with the farm. In return, they achieve a comfortable, yet poor lifestyle.

Diamond, the boy they picked up, starts playing a bigger role, often taking the children out on adventures, showing them things such as a little collection of items, a wishing well, a danger-filled shortcut to the city, his version of constellations and the like. Eugene, the "mute" that drove the car, is also revealed as an honest man that will stand up for what is right. At around the same time, Cotton Longfellow, a lawyer, shows up, and offers to read to Amanda in hopes that she would get better.

Then, a mysterious offer from Southern Valley, a coal and gas company, comes in, offering Louisa $100,000 for her land. She refuses, but receives pressure from her neighbors, who have also received the offer but is told that their land is useless without Louisa's.

Then, a series of incidents occurs. Diamond dies in a dynamite explosion, killed trying to save his dog. Louisa's barn is burned to the ground in the middle of the night, causing her to suffer a stroke. George Davis, a wealthy but hateful farmer, goes into Louisa's land in search of something.

Southern Valley comes back with an offer of 5 times the original, but is now refused by Cotton. It is then revealed that a court case is to ensue.

Southern Valley is represented by Thurston Goode, a renowned lawyer from Richmond. He and Cotton each have several goes at the jury at a very eventful court case. In the end, however, Southern Valley wins, but Amanda comes in, supported by her children, and the book ends with her getting back the land Louisa fought so hard to protect.

In the book's epilogue, in which Lou is in her golden age, she writes that after the trial, Cotton and her mother married the following year, and soon afterwards he adopted the children. Oz became a star Major League baseball pitcher and later retired to become a school teacher. Eugene built his own farm, married and raised a family, and remained good friends with Lou. Lou states that, like her father, she left the mountains to become a famous writer, but she, unlike Jack, returned years later to live out the rest of her life at the family home.


The Next Voice You Hear...

The voice of God is heard on the radio, preempting all programming throughout the world and causing widespread hope and alarm. The story is told through Joe and Nancy Smith, a typical American couple, and the positive and negative reactions of other people.

The six messages (one for each day, Tuesday through Sunday, but "on the seventh day He rested.") that God speaks on the radio are read aloud, for the benefit of the film audience, by different characters in the film. The voice of God is never heard.


The Adventures of Pepero

The story starts with Pepero, a young boy in a small poor village in the Andes who lives with his mother in their small house in the village. Pepero's father had left the village earlier in search of the mythical El Dorado, a city that is said to be built completely out of gold which no one has ever found. Pepero's father's aim is to put his family and village out of poverty. However, the father is away for a very long time and no one heard anything about him since he left. The story starts with Pepero seeing the reflection of a golden condor in a river when he was filling some pots with water. Pepero considers that a sign that his father is alive and that he should look for him. His mind is made up when he meets two weary travelers, an old man named Titicaca and an amnesiac girl named Kayna, who apparently had heard of the mythical El Dorado. Pepero's mind is made up and he decides to set off on the quest for El Dorado with Titicaca and Kayna agreeing to come along with him. On the way, he picks up more friends like Aztec, a teenager who has to look after his siblings while his mother is sick and who sometimes resorts to stealing to support his family and agrees to tag along in promise of the lost treasures, and Chuchu, who is a small boy performing in a circus and who has to look after his sister. In one episode, Pepero succeeds in taming a wild white horse and the horse repays him by coming to Pepero's rescue whenever the latter whistles. Pepero also wears a unique necklace in the shape of a white horn which is the same as the one worn by his father. This helps people identify him as the son of Carlos. This fact is uncovered when Pepero meets a guy who claims that he is Carlos and who is wearing the same necklace. At the end of the episode we discover that Carlos actually saved this man and gave him his necklace.

The golden condor also makes an appearance once in a while to guide Pepero in the general direction he has to take in order to reach El Dorado. Pepero also encounters such sinister characters as a swindler who convinces people that he alone can prevent the wrath of a mountain god in return for money from the natives and a girl who tries to kill them off in a maze among others. At one point in the story and while trying to traverse a cave to the other side, Titicaca gets trapped after a cave-in and the rest of the troop have to travel without him. The gang have to use their heads in order to pass through a maze and later on to solve another puzzle in order to get the map to El Dorado. This rough map in addition to another they acquire from a jealous princess leads them to the gates of El Dorado where Pepero discovers that his father is being accused of stealing the imperial jewels. Pepero in the nick of time discovers that his father is being framed by the head of the police and ends up proving his father's innocence and exposing the cheating official. The whole gang is later taken to meet the emperor and his family and there it is that he discovers that Kayna is actually the princess and that she had lost her memory when a group of conspirators tried to kill her off. The group is still there and try to repeat their act again but Pepero finds out and saves her. An engagement ceremony is held for Pepero and Kayna and the whole gang returns to their respective homes while Pepero and his father, loaded with cash, return to their village to spread the wealth among the poor residents.

The show holds a great fascination especially for the young viewers since it has all the elements that excite such an audience like lost treasures, clues that have to be solved, maps...etc. It also presents a wide array of interesting people who the gang meet and present them with moral and ethical problems that they have to cope with while looking for their way along the Andes.


The Accused (1949 film)

Wilma Tuttle (Young) is a college professor who becomes the target of sexual interest from her student Bill Perry (Douglas Dick). When Perry tries to rape Tuttle, she beats him to death with an auto part, unintentionally, in a terrified effort at self defense. She covers up her crime by making it seem as though Perry was killed while diving into the sea from a precipitous cliff. As she follows the police investigation into Perry's death, Wilma realizes that she'll never be able to escape her conscience, especially when she falls in love with Warren Ford (Cummings), the dead boy's guardian.


Bootleggers (1961 film)

The trio make moonshine alcohol in a hut hid in a forest. At work they sing about their moonshine still. Their dog takes a piece of it (a coiled condenser) and runs away. The trio chase the dog, using skis. In the end all of them run to the police department, where the bootleggers are arrested.


Go Fly a Kit

At an airport, a business man notices a red cat looking out over a fence, seeming to be anxiously waiting for something or someone. When he asks the steward, he's told the story of her boyfriend. As a kitten, he was adopted by a mother eagle. He quickly learned to fly and had to say goodbye to his mother like all eagles.

One day, he notices a bulldog chasing a female cat (the same cat from the beginning). He saves her from the dog, using his ability to fly. The cats fall in love with each other. The steward then wraps up by explaining that her boyfriend flies south every winter and every spring she goes to the airport and waits for him to come back. As the story finishes, her face suddenly lights up as he comes flying in. At the gate, he's greeted by his girlfriend and their litter of flying kittens.


Before the Hurricane

The film is set in 1905 in a textile factory in Tiflis where two friends are working, Lado and Tade. Lado falls in love with Tade's sister, Tasya. Prince Rostam orders his servants to bring her to him. The friends manage to free the girl and after this they become part of the revolutionary underground ...


The Gadfly (1980 film)

Series 1. "Memory"

Student Arthur Burton, the son of a wealthy English shipowner from Livorno, is fascinated by the idea of uniting Italy into one country and liberating it from the Austrian Habsburgs. Elder brother James and his wife Julia openly dislike Arthur, and the only person close to him is the rector of the seminary, Bishop Montanelli. Due to the circumstances, Arthur is briefly imprisoned, and after leaving there, he experiences a serious quarrel with Gemma. On the same day, he learns from his brother's wife that his father is in fact Montanelli. Arthur decides to go to South America, and pre-simulates his death…

Series 2. "Gemma"

Many years later, Arthur returned to Italy under the name of Felice Rivares. He is a popular pamphleteer "Ovid", known for his intolerance of ministers of the Catholic Church. Here he meets again with Gemma, who does not recognize him, and he himself does not seek to reveal his secret to her. Despite some controversy, Ovid and Gemma begin preparations for an armed uprising in the Papal States. During one of his business trips, Ovid, disguised as a traveler, meets in the cathedral with his father Montanelli, who has already become a cardinal and is firmly convinced of Arthur's death. Right in the cathedral he was arrested by the guards and sent to prison…

Series 3. "Father and son"

Friends try to arrange for him to escape from prison, which breaks down due to a sudden exacerbation of chronic Ovod's disease. Montanelli comes to his cell for a spiritual conversation, but Arthur does not want to compromise, constantly showing his hostility to the priest. In the end, he reveals his secret to the cardinal, but refuses to accept help from his father. Ovoda is soon shot, and Montanelli goes mad and dies during a service in the cathedral.


The Gadfly (1955 film)

Young student Arthur Burton says goodbye to his beloved teacher, the priest Montanelli, who is departing to Rome on the orders of the Pope. Arthur participates in activities of the organization "Young Italy". He is resentful of its leader, Giovanni Bolla; he experiences jealousy towards him regarding his girlfriend Gemma and confesses this to the priest, father Cardi. After the confession all revolutionaries end up arrested by the gendarmes. Arthur is walking through the prison courtyard and admits to Giovanni what he told in the confessional and Giovanni calls him a traitor. Arthur gets released from prison and tries to tell Gemma about what happened but she slaps him and runs away. Back home Arthur learns from his uncle Burton that his real father is Montanelli. Arthur's world falls apart before his eyes, he breaks his crucifix and runs out of his home. Everyone considers him dead.

Many years later Arthur comes home adorned with scars which he received from revolutionary battles in South America. Under the pseudonym of Gadfly he joins the revolutionaries and leads an armed struggle in Italy and terrifies the Austrian invaders. To the revolutionary intellectuals he is known under the name Felice Rivarez. The Austrian emperor sends an additional military contingent to Italy and Cardi's father welcomes marching Austrian soldiers and their commander. Gadfly is involved in a secret weapons delivery but the police agents are on his tail. The Carbonari retreat from battle but Rivarez lowers his weapon as he hears the order of Montanelli and is taken prisoner. The death sentence has been predetermined for him. Compatriots give a file to the prisoner and he saws through the bars but falls unconscious in the prison yard. Before the execution Arthur admits to Montanelli that he is his son and offers his shocked father a choice between fighting for freedom or faith in Christ. The cardinal offers his son an escape but Arthur does not want to take life or become a servant of the church. Austrians shoot Gadfly at dawn and he commands his own execution. Montanelli screams in terror that there is no God.


A Farewell to Arms (1957 film)

Frederick Henry (Rock Hudson) is an American officer serving in an ambulance unit for the Italian Army during World War I. While recovering from a wound in a British base hospital in northern Italy, he is cared for by Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones), a Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps nurse he had met earlier, near the front, and they engage in an affair. Frederick's friend, the doctor, convinces the army that Frederick's knee is more severely wounded than it actually is and the two continue their romance but never get married.

Catherine discovers she is pregnant but after sneaking alcohol into the hospital for Frederick, the head nurse Miss Van Campen (Mercedes McCambridge) discovers the duplicity and separates them. She informs Frederick's superiors that he has fully recovered from his wounds and is ready for active duty. During their separation, Catherine comes to believe Frederick has abandoned her.

Following the Battle of Caporetto, Frederick and his close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are among the dispirited and retreating Italian army. Along the path or the retreat, several people die or are left behind due to exhaustion. Raving with illness, exhaustion and depression, Major Rinaldi professes defeatism with the pair arrested by the Carabinieri. A drumhead court-martial sentences Rinaldi to execution by firing squad that is immediately carried out. Enraged, Frederick knocks out the kerosene lamps and flees, jumping into the river.

Wanted by the Italian authorities, Frederick evades capture and meets up with Catherine. They flee Milan to hide out on a lake on the Italian-Swiss border (Lake Lugano or Lake Maggiore). Fearing arrest by the police, Catherine persuades Frederick to flee to Switzerland by rowboat; after some adventures, they land successfully in Switzerland. Claiming to be tourists trying to evade the war, the two are allowed to remain in neutral Switzerland. Catherine's pregnancy progresses but due to the conditions around them, the pregnancy becomes complicated and Catherine is hospitalized. Their child is stillborn, and Catherine dies shortly afterward. Frederick leaves, shocked, and wanders the empty streets.


La prima notte di quiete

While a teacher is on sick leave, despite his dishevelled appearance and an employment history with unexplained gaps, Daniele is hired to take a class in Rimini. To get to know his pupils, he asks them to write a free essay or, if they prefer, one on the writer Manzoni. To his surprise, only one chooses the latter, the quiet and very attractive Vanina, who increasingly absorbs his attention. He talks to her when he can and gives her the book ''Vanina Vanini'' by Stendhal. In his free time, he leaves his partner Monica to herself (they sleep apart) while he gets to know a group of local men who enjoy drinking, gambling, recreational drugs, fast cars and easy women. Prominent among them are a crooked businessman Gerardo, who drives an ostentatious Lamborghini and is the lover of Vanina, and Spider, a gay pharmacist who is secretly a devout Catholic and lover of poetry.

Daniele takes the withdrawn Vanina to see a wall painting by Piero della Francesca and on the way back they share a kiss. When Spider's birthday comes round, after going to a disco where Vanina sulks and will not dance, the group end up at Gerardo's luxurious house. In revenge he shows a home movie, which starts innocently with Vanina on holiday but turns into a sex tape. She switches off the electricity and Gerardo asks everybody to leave. Next day Vanina does not turn up at school and Daniele goes to the house of her mother, who with threats warns him to stay away from her daughter. Going home, he faces trouble from Monica, who tolerates his evenings out with other men but not his growing obsession over his pupil. In addition, Spider has fallen in love with him and has found a book of poems he wrote called ''The First Night of Stillness''. When Spider asks the significance of the title, Daniele says it is taken from Goethe: after you die, you have your first night without dreams.

Another friend Marcello, a real estate agent with empty properties to sell, takes Daniele to a solitary house by the sea he has allowed Vanina to hide in. After Daniele and Vanina have made love, they are woken by a furious Gerardo who has been looking for his runaway lover. He tells Daniele that Vanina was a child prostitute, managed by her mother, who has been enjoyed by most men in town and some women too. Daniele then gets the better of him in a fight and he leaves.

Putting Vanina on a train to stay with her sister, Daniele goes home to tell Monica he is leaving her, to which she replies that she will kill herself. On his way to join Vanina, he stops at a bar to ring Monica, but she does not reply and as he leaves he is professionally beaten up by the lover of Vanina's mother. Rescued by Marcello, he is looked after by Spider. Injured and upset, he drives fast and erratically through the fog. Again getting no response from Monica's telephone, he decides to return to her but is hit by a truck and killed. The only character to go to his funeral, in the private chapel of his family's country mansion, is Spider. There he discovers that Daniele was the only child of a war hero who was killed at El Alamein.


Over Her Dead Body

Kate and Henry are a happy couple. Henry proposed to Kate and they are about to be married, but on the day of their wedding, Kate is accidentally killed by an ice sculpture angel, because of the actions of an ice sculptor (Stephen Root). Unaware that she has died and her soul left her body, Kate awakens in Purgatory, and wastes precious time arguing with an angel who finally leaves before she can explain to Kate what she must do to move on.

A year later, Henry's sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) hopes that he will find closure by consulting beautiful Ashley (Lake Bell), a psychic who also runs a catering business with her gay best friend Dan (Jason Biggs). After an unsuccessful first meeting, Chloe gives Kate's diary to Ashley so that she can pretend to communicate with Kate and convince Henry to move on with his life. In the process, Henry and Ashley fell in love with each other... much to the consternation of Kate, who has been watching over Henry. When Kate voices her displeasure, Ashley hears her, unaware of what it means.

Angry over Ashley's deception and uncertain of what she is supposed to do, Kate later encounters the ice sculptor, and discovers that he is also a ghost (a result of a drunk driving accident). He explains to her that they must deal with their unfinished business. Believing that her job is to protect Henry, Kate proceeds to harass Ashley (who is the only one who can see or hear Kate). Using her ghostly abilities of intangibility, levitation, and auditory hallucination, Kate hopes to force Ashley to break up with Henry. Ashley persists, but then Henry discovers the fraud with the diary and breaks off the relationship. Despondent over the break-up, Ashley turns to Dan for solace, but is further distraught when Dan reveals that he is not gay and has secretly been in love with her for years. Over time, Ashley and Dan eventually reconcile.

After several months of watching Henry fall back into a depressed funk, Kate encounters the sculptor once more, who points out that if she had resolved her unfinished business, she would have moved on to Heaven by now. When the sculptor asks her what she really wants, Kate reluctantly admits that she only wants Henry to be happy... and realizes that he could be happy with Ashley. Then the sculptor reveals that Kate was ''his'' unfinished business and he had to get her to do the right thing before moving on, which he does. Kate first attempts to convince Ashley to get back together with Henry but Ashley doesn't believe her change of heart, and is preparing to fly to Las Vegas with Dan. In desperation, Kate finds she is able to talk to Henry through his pet parrot and gets him to meet Ashley at the airport. Realizing that Henry has forgiven her and that she has Kate's blessing, Ashley joyfully embraces with Henry. At their wedding, Ashley delays her walk down the aisle to sit briefly in the back pew, to promise Kate that she will strive to make Henry happy. Also at the wedding, Dan makes a new connection with Chloe. Now ready to move on, Kate arrives once more in Purgatory, congratulated for her efforts by the angel and requests the "orb of true light" collected from Kate's loved ones. The angel leaves once again, leaving Kate in Purgatory.


Nine Days in One Year

Two young physicists and old friends — the possessed experimental physicist Dmitri Gusev and the skeptical theoretical physicist Ilya Kulikov — conduct nuclear studies at a research institute in Siberia. Dmitri leads the research started by his teacher Sintsov, who has received a deadly dose of radiation as a result of an experiment. Dmitri has also been irradiated. Doctors warn him that further irradiation might kill him as well. Meanwhile, his friend Ilya and Lyolya, a love interest of Dmitri, have developed a romantic relationship. The enamoured couple is getting prepared for the wedding and looking for an opportunity to inform Dmitri. When they finally meet, Dmitri already suspects Lyolya and Ilya and treats them coldly. Caught up in self-contradictions, Lyolya tries to understand Dmitri's true feelings for her, only to learn the terrible diagnosis. Realizing that she still loves Dmitri, Lyolya cancels the wedding to Ilya in order to marry Dmitri.

Despite the health warnings, Dmitri continues with his experiments in fusion power. After a number of failures, he turns to Ilya for help. Whilst carrying out of the experiment successfully, Dmitri receives a new radiation dose. He tries to hide this fact from everyone, including his wife Lyolya who is misinterpreting his sudden isolation, though the truth eventually rises to the surface. The research work has been continued by Ilya. Dmitri's health is getting worse, but he decides to fight his illness to the end and agrees to undergo bone marrow transplantation.


None So Blind

A nerd falls in love with a blind musician, and wonders, “Why aren't all blind people geniuses?” This leads him to develop an experimental procedure to repurpose the visual areas of his own brain to amplify intelligence.


Speech Sounds

A mysterious pandemic leaves civilization in ruins and severely limits humankind's ability to communicate. Some are deprived of their ability to read or write, while others lose the ability to speak. They identify themselves by carrying items or symbols that function as names. People communicate among themselves through universally understood sign language and gestures that can often exacerbate misunderstandings and conflicts. Additionally, it seems that as a result of the illness and their handicap, many ordinary people are easily prone to uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, resentment, and rage over their own impairments and the ability of others.

In Los Angeles, a woman named Rye has lost her parents, husband, sister and children to the illness. Due to this isolation, she decides to seek out her brother and his family in nearby Pasadena. They are her only remaining relatives, although she is unsure if they have survived. When a fight breaks out on a bus, Rye is forced to consider walking the rest of the twenty miles through dangerous territory. She then meets Obsidian, a man dressed in an LAPD uniform, an oddity in a society in which all governmental organizations have disintegrated. He stops to restore order, ending the fight by throwing an object which releases gas into the bus, causing everyone to exit and the fight to end. He then offers her a ride in his car. She initially refuses the offer of a ride, noting the gun he owns and fearing his intentions. However, he gestures persistently and removes his revolver to indicate he doesn't intend to harm her. Confronted with the hostilities of her fellow passengers or the threat of walking the streets alone, she cautiously accepts the stranger's offer, and together they resume the trip out of the city. Before long, Rye learns that Obsidian can still read a map, and she struggles with an intense feeling of jealousy and an urge to kill him. Instead, she reveals that she is still able to talk, and the two share an intimate moment and have sex. Rye asks Obsidian to return home with her, and he reluctantly agrees.

On the road home, the couple observes a woman being chased by a man wielding a knife. Both feel inclined to intervene in the woman's defense but are unable to prevent the woman from being fatally stabbed. After wounding the assailant, the man is able to wrestle the gun from Obsidian and shoot him in the head, which instantly kills him. Rye then kills the assailant. After the violence, two children emerge, a boy and a younger girl, apparently the children of the dead woman. Rye drags Obsidian back to the car with the intention of giving him a proper burial—and initially plans to ignore the plight of the children—but shortly afterward, she has a change of heart and returns for the body of the woman and her two children. As she reaches for the woman's body, the girl speaks in coherent English, shouting "No. Go Away," and the young boy tells her not to speak. This is the first coherent speech that Rye has heard in many years, and she realizes that her choice to adopt the children is the right one. "I’m Valerie Rye," she says. "It‘s all right for you to talk to me." It is the first time she has spoken her own name in a very long time.Butler, Octavia E. "Speech Sounds." Bloodchild and Other Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996. pp. 87–110. Print.


The Longest Voyage

On a distant world the age of exploration is beginning. A party of daring explorers attempts to circumnavigate their world. In unknown waters they encounter an island civilization which claims to have a prophet who fell from the stars.


No Truce with Kings

In a post-apocalyptic United States, the Pacific States of America are racked by wars backed on one side by the "Espers", a movement claiming their followers achieve great psychic powers. However, as we shall see, the Espers are a front for a weirder bunch.

The story explores a couple of social forms -- feudal and super-state -- and warns of the dangers of forced civilizations. It begins on the east coast of the Pacific. After civilizational collapse following global wars, the area is traveled by independent clans with a few minor marxists claiming moral superiority by pretending to be centralized government agents. Suddenly, another war is started by the marxists in their drive to replace the independent clans with more/better centralized government agents. Unknown to the marxists, forces behind the scenes manipulate their flawed elections system through the "esper" colonies. Eventually, the clans realize the "espers" are a fraud; they use advanced technology to perform their 'psychic' acts. Knowing this, the inherent superiority of the independent clans inevitably defeats the marxist quest for a big top-heavy unwieldy mob of centralized government agents.

In downtown San Francisco, artillery damage reveals the secret -- a San Francisco skyscraper houses an alien spacecraft. The aliens claim they are manipulating independent human individuals into a drone-like state of mindlessly following dictates from centralized government agents. Without help from the aliens, the aliens predict more wars between centralized government agents. After learning their interference resulted in wars, the aliens shrug their alien shoulders and admit they are still 'working out some kinks' in their alien predictions.

Discussions between a) independent folks and b) true believers in centralised authorities distill the points of the parable: * individuals always think, * individuals always choose their culture instead of mindlessly accepting any artificial concept imposed by an outside group.

According to Jerry Pournelle's foreword in " ''Day of the Tyrant: There Will Be War vol IV'' ", Poul Anderson says "The do-gooders get their comeuppance".


Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers

A young man tells his story about growing up working at a greasy spoon diner near Sutton, West Virginia. Late at night it happened to be a hang-out for unusual travelers from alternate versions of Earth. After being tantalized by descriptions of far-off wonders, the young man begins to dream of hitching a ride in one of the "traveler's" vehicles.


Suzy Q (film)

The film is set in the sixties and revolves around the teenager Suzy, who is part of an uncaring family: father is abusive and unemployed, mother is naive, one brother is the brooding type while the other is habitually stoned.

Suzy surreptitiously manages to gain access to the hotel room of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull during their visit to Amsterdam. Suzy gets kissed by her idol Jagger and wants to tell the world, but nobody believes her or even wants to hear the story.


Travels with My Cats

Small town newspaper editor and failed novelist Ethan Owens leads a cautious, disappointing life, until he spends a few evenings with the long-dead author Priscilla Wallace, who wrote his favorite travel book, 'Travels with My Cats'.

When his only copy is destroyed at the end of the story, Ethan swears to find another and finds a new cause to go on in life.


Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister

;Characters * Silvia: a beautiful young woman, who slowly becomes more calculating and deceptive as she falls from grace; romantically connected to Philander, Octavio, and Alonzo * Philander: a young handsome man, who enjoys conquering women; romantically connected to Silvia and Calista * Octavio: a handsome, rich, and noble man; one of the States of Holland; Calista's brother; in love with Silvia and a rival to Philander * Cesario: Prince of Condy; leader of the rebellion of the Huguenots in France; aspires to become the next King of France; he is the King's bastard son * Brilljard: Philander's servant; later Silvia's lawful husband, who promised not to claim her as his wife; however, he falls in love with her * Calista: Octavio's sister, married to an old Spanish Count; Philander's new conquest * Sebastian: Octavio's uncle, one of the States of Holland as well * Sir Mr. Alonzo Jr.: a handsome young gentleman, nephew of the governor of Flanders, by birth a Spaniard; a womanizer * Osell Hermione: Cesario's mistress, later his wife; neither young nor beautiful * Fergusano: one of the two wizards appointed to Hermione; Scottish; deals with black magic

Part I

;Dedication Addressed to Thomas Condon. This dedication is to a relatively unknown young man. The author compares his passionate nature to Philander's, but encourages him to act prudently and judiciously in the art of love.

;Plot Silvia, a young beautiful woman, is wooed by Philander, her brother-in-law, in an "incestuous" affair. Philander is ultimately successful, and at the end of the novel, he and Silvia flee their country and their families. The plot is the slow decline of honor and nobility, as well as the psychological effects of love. The novel is told through letters between Silvia and Philander that give a deeply personal nature to the affair. Silvia is a loose representation of Lady Henrietta Berkeley, daughter to George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley who was a prominent Tory politician. She eloped in 1682 with the Whig Ford Grey. Meanwhile, Henrietta's sister and Grey's wife Mary Berkeley was having an affair with James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son. As Monmouth would go on later to challenge his uncle James II for the throne when Charles died, the scandal gave the author considerable political fodder to pull from.

Part II

Silvia, disguised as a young man with the name Fillmond, and Philander run away to Holland. Brilljard, who has been married to Silvia to save her from being married to another man by her parents, and two male servants accompany them. On their journey they meet a young Hollander, Octavio. Quickly, a strong friendship develops between Philander and Octavio. Both Brilljard and Octavio develop feelings for Silvia, and when she falls into a violent fever, her true sex is discovered by the servants and the whole truth of their story is revealed to Octavio. Philander leaves the country to avoid being captured by the king, leaving Silvia to recover. Philander's affection lessen in his absence, and both Brilljard and Octavio reveal their love to Silvia. She denies them both.

Angered by Philander's lessening affection, Silvia has Octavio write a letter to Philander in which he confesses his love for her, asking Philander for his permission to do pursue her. Philander, who has also fallen in love with someone else—Calista, wife of the Count of Clarinau—encourages Octavio. Octavio reveals Philander's inconstancy, angered because Calista is his sister. Upset by Philander's betrayal, Silvia attempts suicide but is stopped. After a series of misunderstandings, Silvia enlists Octavio's help in her scheme to get revenge on Philander for successfully wooing Calista. Octavio proposes, and after Silvia learns of Philander's betrayal, she agrees to marry him. The second part ends with Silvia and her maid, Antonett, setting off for a church in a nearby village to meet Octavio.

Part III

;Dedication '''To Lord Spencer''': The author praises Spencer for his noble birth and the glorious future, that is surely destined for him. The author compares Spencer to Cesario, saying that he is too loyal to be like him, but also warning him against unlawful ambition.

;The Lovers The main plot of last volume is difficult to ascertain. Many new characters, such as Alonzo, are introduced and the plot contains various love affairs, disguises, mistaken identities, and personal and political intrigues. Despite the title "The Amours of Philander and Silvia" the love between these two characters does not seem to play the major role any more (as it did in part 1). Their feelings towards each other are only dissembled and their relationship to other people gain in importance. Silvia continues to be pursued by Octavio and by Brilljard; Philander pursues Calista and other women. Furthermore, a large part of the action is concerned with Cesario's political scheme to gain the crown. In addition, the narrative form shifts from epistolary to an omniscient narrator's voice, creating distance between the character's motivations and what the reader is allowed to know.

Part two ended with Silvia meeting Octavio at a nearby church. Their marriage is prevented by Brilljard, Silvia's lawful husband, who has grown jealous of Octavio. Although Brilljard had promised never to claim her as his wife, he reveals in public that he is already married to her. Silvia and Octavio's reputations are damaged, and although Octavio has learned that she is already married to Brilljard, he still wants to marry her. After Silvia evades the advances of Octavio's uncle Sebastian, she and Octavio flee to Brussels.

Meanwhile, Calista leaves Philander and takes orders after learning he has another mistress. Philander returns to Silvia and quickly woos her again. Octavio and Philander duel over Silvia, and Octavio is badly wounded. Silvia leaves him and absconds with Philander to a nearby town. However, their affections quickly dwindle. Philander starts having other affairs, and Silvia gives birth to a child that is barely mentioned in the text. Its fate is unknown.

Silvia begins leveraging physical affection for loyalty. She enlists Brilljard as her confidant in an attempt to win back Octavio, promising Brilljard sexual favors for his help. Similarly to his sister Calista, Octavio takes orders to avoid unlawful passions. He settles a good pension on Silvia so she can support herself honorably, but she immediately spends it on fine clothes and jewels. In this new guise, she impresses Alonzo at the "Toure," who she had met earlier while inhabiting the guise of a man. With Brilljard's help she manages to deprive him of his fortune.

;The Political Plot: The political plot is focused on Cesario's ambition of becoming King of France. His relationship to Osell Hermione plays a crucial role in this part of the story. She is a former mistress to Cesario and is already past her beauty. To the surprise of everyone, the handsome prince falls in love with her. Only the reader gets to know the reason: Fergusano, a Scottish wizard, made a philtre, that bewitched Cesario and attached him to Hermione. She finally becomes his wife, and stirs up his ambition to become King with the help of two wizards.

Cesario leaves with all his men from Brussels to France, where he proclaims himself King. Cesario's army is defeated by the Royal Army due to his impatience and losing the loyalty of his friends. He is eventually executed.


Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

The film focuses on the descendants of the DeWolf family, a prominent slave trading family who settled in Bristol, Rhode Island, who trafficked Africans from 1769 to 1820, and the legacy of the slave trade in the North of the United States. The film follows ten family members as they retrace the triangle trade starting at Linden Place in Bristol, Rhode Island, the hometown of the DeWolfs. The family has been prominent in local businesses and banking, as academics, in the local Episcopal and other institutions, and organizing the Bristol Fourth of July Parade. The film goes with the family to Ghana, where the slaves were purchased and where they meet with current residents, and to Cuba, where James DeWolf owned three sugar and coffee plantations in the 19th century.

The film competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It was shown on PBS TV and nominated for an Emmy Award.


The Helen Morgan Story

Helen Morgan begins her career as a Chicago carnival dancer. She catches the eye of fast-talking, double-dealing Larry Maddux, whose promotion catapults her to fame as a Broadway performer in ''Show Boat'' and a headliner in her own nightclub.

Helen is involved in two romantic relationships - with Maddux, and with wealthy attorney Russell Wade - each of which cause her great anguish. When she realizes the caddish Maddux has been merely using her to support the upscale lifestyle he has come to enjoy, she turns to alcohol. Wade, who is genuinely in love with Helen, is nonetheless married and a divorce is impossible; this helps drive her further into the bottle.

She loses the bulk of her money to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Wall Street Crash of 1929, hits rock bottom and, finally is hospitalized in the alcoholic ward of Bellevue.

Maddux has a redemptive change of heart and arranges a gala dinner, hosted by Walter Winchell and Florenz Ziegfeld, in Helen's honor. The film's ending suggests this was her first step on the road to recovery, success, and happiness; this, however, was not the case for the real Helen Morgan.


A Flower of Evil

After many years of work, a scientist obsessed with revenge develops a flower that will do his bidding and drink human blood.Synopsis from


Fatal Contact (film)

A young Chinese martial arts national champion, Kong, comes to Hong Kong on a short contract with a Chinese opera group. A small-time gambling boss, Ma, is so impressed with Kong that he wants him to be his fighter in the underground all-contact boxing world. In need of money, Kong makes up his mind to enter the underground boxing scene with his girlfriend Tin, and together they are under control. Kong's fighting skills made him unbeatable in the arena, but after each win, he gets himself too deep into the underground world.


The Lady of Musashino

Michiko Akiyama (Kinuyo Tanaka) is married to Tadao Akiyama (Masayuki Mori), a college professor but a vulgar man with a low-class background. Towards the end of World War II, they flee the Bombing of Tokyo to her parents' estate in the suburban Musashino. When her parents die, Michiko inherits the estate. Nearby is her cousin, Eiji Ono (So Yamamura), a wartime profiteer with loose morals, and his wife Tomiko (Yukiko Todoroki). After the end of the war, the extended family is joined by the young and handsome Tsutomu Miyaji (Akihito Katayama), another cousin of hers and former prisoner-of-war.

In the immediate post-war era, Japanese traditions and morals decline. Tadao comes home drunk every night and has sexual relationships with students.

He also propositions Tomiko. However, Tomiko, unhappy in her marriage, also lusts after Tsutomu.

Michiko also has mutual feelings for Tsutomu but resists his advances because she is a married woman and because she does not want him to fall prey to permissiveness. However, when she learns of her husband's plans to swindle her out of her inheritance and run off with Tomiko, she decides to commit suicide to frustrate Tadao's theft and to leave most of her estate to Tsutomu.


Everything on a Waffle

''Everything on a Waffle'', set in a small Canadian community of Coal Harbor fishing village, tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl named Primrose Squarp. One night, a storm hits their town. Her father is out to sea during the storm, so her mother leaves Primrose with a neighbor while she takes a boat out to go find him. Primrose's parents disappear in the typhoon, but Primrose refuses to believe they are dead and doesn't attend their memorial service.

While she defends her family's survival, her custody situation moves around from aging neighbor Miss Perfidy to her preoccupied, but caring Uncle Jack. The only thing that remains constant is her enjoyment of a restaurant called the Girl on the Red Swing, where each menu item is served on a waffle. Restaurant owner Kate Bowzer takes Primrose under her wing. She teaches her how to cook (recipes are all cited in a notepad). She doesn't question or criticize her, even through her odd predicaments, such as accidentally setting the class guinea pig on fire.

Primrose is taken from the custody of her uncle Jack after a series of accidents, including losing a toe and part of her finger. Uncle Jack is said to be fighting "tooth and nail" for custody of her. As a foster kid, she is put into the home of an older couple, Evie and Bert. Although, they are all fond of each other, Primrose does not seem able to develop an attachment to them, likely because of her history of unstable living.

While in foster care, the mental state of Primrose's former guardian, Miss Perfidy, quickly deteriorates. While Primrose is visiting her in the hospital, Miss Perfidy dies, but Primrose does not exhibit much of a reaction.

Through her oddities and accidents, Primrose becomes a town curiosity, with neighbors questioning her emotional state. She gathers many stories from many people regarding times when they have "just known" something was true, even though they mightn't have had proof. This helps develop the main theme of this strange story: hope is not crazy. But even through all of this, Primrose never gives up hope in finding her parents and being a normal family again. Primrose is eventually returned to her uncle, but remains in contact with Bert and Evie, as they see her as a granddaughter figure. Later on, her parents come back, which is a real shock to everyone in town. Uncle Jack faints upon seeing them alive, and Primrose embraces her parents. They reveal that the storm had washed them up on a shore, where they had survived until they flagged down a passing-by ship.


Wikipedia:Articles for creation/2008-01-08

December goes to a funfair and is caught by Ludicolo and his gang (which includes Stantler, Flygon, Salamence and Zigzagoon). This leads to a big adventure, with thrilling rollercoasters, scary haunted houses and dizzy waltz rides.


Red Leaves

With the death of Chief Issetibbeha, custom demands that all the Chickasaw leader's prized possessions be buried alive in the earth along with him. This includes his black servant, a slave who has served the chief since boyhood. The unnamed slave makes a desperate bid for freedom, taking refuge in the swamps and reflecting on his past life. Meanwhile, the dead chief's son Moketubbe, who is grossly overweight and has no real interest in leadership, is forced to marshal his forces and begin a manhunt for the fugitive slave. The few Indians willing to accompany Moketubbe are equally corrupt, decadent, and full of despair. As they slowly close in on the missing slave, they too reflect on the past, discussing the ways in which slavery and the coming of the white man have doomed them to crime, violence, and slow extinction as a people.


SP (TV series)

Kaoru Inoue had suffered a tragedy when his parents were killed by a knife-wielding man in the political rally of Assemblyman Yūzō Asada in Tokyo when he was 6. Because of this, all of his senses have been improved with the ability to detect anything in his surroundings ranging from telling who is an assassin and who is a civilian while being able to tell important details such as having photographic and tracking abilities. Veteran SP officer Sōichirō Ogata recruits him from SP training after being impressed with his training under Section 4 of the SP division. Inoue works with Eri Sasamoto, one of the few women serving in the division. Another officer is Takafumi Yamamoto, who is the only known SP officer to have MMA experience with a preference to use the 7:3 hairstyle ratio. Mitsuo Ishida is the only known SP officer in the section who had been previously married. Together, these men and women work in unison to protect the VIPs assigned to them from being killed by assassins. But when the team is assigned to protect Asada, now the Prime Minister of Japan, Inoue begins to have nightmares relating to the tragedy while Ogata strives to ensure his safety while having some secrets of his own aside from Inoue.


A Terrible Beauty (film)

Dermot O'Neill (Robert Mitchum) is recruited into the Irish Republican Army (IRA) when a unit is formed in his Northern Ireland town during the Second World War. Reaction to the news is mixed. His mother is strongly against it, while his father (Harry Brogan) is proud. His brother Ned (Niall MacGinnis) and sister Bella (Marianne Benet) are ambivalent. Dermot's girlfriend, Neeve Donnelly (Anne Heywood), breaks up with him, telling him the IRA will turn him into a murderer.

Dermot and his friend Sean Reilly (Richard Harris) are chosen from their unit to participate in a raid on a British armoury to steal weapons and ammunition. Don McGinnis (Dan O'Herlihy) is frustrated because, as commandant of the unit, he is too important to risk. The theft goes off without a hitch.

However, their next attack, to destroy a guarded power plant in concert with a planned German invasion, results in bloodshed. To get away, Dermot shoots a soldier blocking the way out. Sean is wounded in the foot and Johnny Corrigan is killed. Dermot and Sean evade their pursuers and manage to cross the border to safety in the Irish Free State. Dermot returns home, leaving his friend to recuperate.

Despite Dermot's advice to stay away, Sean tries to sneak back across the border and is captured by the police. Dermot wants to stage a rescue, but McGinnis turns him down. Sean is sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

McGinnis decides to get revenge by attacking a police barracks. Dermot opposes this plan, as a policeman's wife and children are living there, and warns that he will tell the authorities if McGinnis does not change his mind. When the commandant refuses to back down, Dermot tells McGinnis he is quitting the IRA. He is beaten up, but a police patrol comes upon the scene before the IRA members can do anything more drastic. Dermot carries through on his threat, telling Sergeant Crawley (Geoffrey Golden), though without naming names. He is abducted to stand trial as an informant.

Bella becomes concerned when her brother does not come home. She goes to Neeve. The two then consult Dermot's good friend, cobbler Jimmy Hannafin (Cyril Cusack). Jimmy has a pretty good idea what has happened. He gets Ned to help in the rescue. Neeve refuses to be left behind, but Bella is sent home to reassure her parents. Once they find and free Dermot, guarded only by youngster Quinn (Wilfred Downing), Jimmy arranges for a friend to give Dermot a ride to Belfast, where he can leave the country. Neeve goes with him.

Meanwhile, the IRA men start searching for him. McGinnis stations himself at the O'Neill home. In the darkness and driving rain, he mistakes the returning Bella (wearing Dermot's coat) for the fugitive and shoots her dead. He is horrified to discover that he has killed the woman he loves.


The Bohemian Girl (short story)

Nils Ericson gets off a train in his hometown. He gets a ride in a carriage to his family home, where his mother greets him after many years apart. He goes for a walk with his little brother, Eric. The next day, the two brothers talk about Lou Sandberg's suicide - Nils dismisses the old man for his folly.

Nils visits Clara, who asks him if he has the second will his father wrote that bequeathed him some land. His mother drives him home and expresses her disapproval of Clara's father, Joe, for being a saloon-keeper. Later, Clara meets Nils outside the saloon. He tells her he came back to see her because he loves her. She gallops off. Some time later, her father invites her and Nils along for wine and music. Later, at the Ericsons's barnraising, Nils follows Clara down to the cellar, then dances with her and says they should run away together. On her way back home from her father's one night, the two lovers run away.

A year after the couple's departure, Eric is on a train bound for New York City where he is to board a ship to join his brother and Clara in Bergen, Norway. Nils has been corresponding with Clara's father, Joe. However, Eric decides to stop at Red Oak, Iowa and return home to his mother, as he doesn't want to leave her alone in the house. Once he is back, she says she has been milking the cows instead of asking a local boy to do the job for her: she did not want people to talk. Mother and son are happily reunited.


Meet Mr. Lucifer

When Mr Pedelty leaves his firm, he is given a television set as a retirement present. At first, he enjoys all the attention from his neighbours, but soon the attraction wears off, and he sells it on to a young married couple the Nortons, living in the flat above him. They soon encounter the same problems, and again the set is passed on to several different characters all with the same results.

The set passes to the chemist Hector McPhee who falls in love with "The Lonely Hearts Singer" on a television programme. At first he has the same dour character as his maiden aunt, Miss MacPherson. At first, the set improves his character, but as his obsession grows, he becomes increasingly angry at any interruption.