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Miguel de Cervantes
Full name: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Miguel de Cervantes wrote the epic satire Don Quixote, which is regarded as the first true modern novel. Little is known of Cervantes's early life; at 23 he enlisted in the Spanish militia and then fought against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto (1571) where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. The title character, a dreamy middle-aged nobleman, sets out through Spain on a makeshift quest to fight injustice through acts of chivalry. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but none had the impact or popularity of his masterpiece.
Because of his injury Cervantes was nicknamed "the cripple of Levanto"… Don Quixote is the basis for the musical Man of La Mancha… Cervantes died on the same day as author William Shakespeare.
Copyright © 1998-2018 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.


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I need to make some sort of algorithm for chess pieces. I need a king, which can move 1 square in any direction. I need a knight which can move one square forward, though forward is defined differently for each color, and one to the left, or the right, one forward, and two to the left or right, etc, a rook which can move basically along the x and y axis, a bishop which basically moves along the lines x = y and x = - y. And a queen which can move either like the bishop or like the rook.
I have an 8 by 8 grid and want to know how to make it check how each piece moves legally within that grid.

subset: commoncrawl


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DURHAM — Sophomores Jay Camper and Matt Willows, and freshman Dan Correale made up the fourth line in name only Monday.
They played more like a first or second unit in the University of New Hampshire hockey team's 3-2 win over Bemidji State in the consolation game of the Ledyard Bank Classic at Dartmouth College.
In fact, without their contribution the Wildcats might very well be trying to snap a three-game losing streak Saturday night (7) against Rensselaer at the Whittemore Center.
"I don't think we would have won the game without that line to be quite honest with you," said coach Dick Umile. "They added jam and energy to our team and I think the team fed off that."
They scored the second goal that broke a 1-all tie and gave UNH its first lead in three games and set up the third in overtime by defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk.
"As a coach you love games like that when that line comes out and does that," Umile said. "It just energizes the whole team. The guys on the bench were cheering for them. It was good stuff."
Camper finished with a goal and an assist and Willows added two assists. What made their production even more noteworthy is that Camper was a healthy scratch in six of the previous seven games and Willows was a spectator for five of the previous six.
"It's definitely tough," Willows said of the lack of ice time, "but you've got to stay with it. You've just got to keep your confidence up and when you get your opportunity make the best of it."
Correale sat out two of the previous three games. All three were healthy scratches for Sunday's 4-1 loss to Dartmouth. Umile told them they'd be in the lineup Monday morning, several hours before the 4 p.m. start.
"That was awesome," Camper said. "It was a good breakthrough game. We needed that as a line, especially me and Matt. We've been battling to get a good game in and stay in the lineup."
That's a good possibility Saturday night, given a performance that helped snap the team's first two-game losing streak of the season.
Camper and Willows have dressed for only seven of 17 games this season while Correale has played in 10.
Camper registered his first two points of the season and Willows had just one assist in his previous six appearances before recording two against Bemidji.
"We're definitely an energy line," Willows said. "We just wanted to go out there and give everything we've got, and I think we did that. We didn't play the night before, but once you get in there you've got to take advantage of the opportunity you're given and see what you can do."
Camper's goal midway through the second period capped a nice passing play that included Willows and defenseman Justin Agosta. Willows drew the primary assist on a goal that gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.
Willows also had the primary assist on van Riemsdyk's game-winner at 2:08 of the overtime period. Camper won the faceoff to set the play in motion.
"It was good," Camper said. "We definitely earned that shift with the way we played for three periods. It was good to not only get out there, but to get that goal to show we can play in situations where we need energy and also in situations where we need a goal — we can do that too."
Coaches often shorten their bench in OT, but not this time.
"They were playing well so you've got to go with them," Umile said. "Kept the rotation and they were up. They earned it. They made the decision happen by the way they played. They were a threat every time they were on the ice."
Willows has six points (all assists) in 27 career games and Camper has two goals and two assists in 19 games. Correale has two assists in his rookie season.
"We were playing well the whole week in practice," Camper said. "We knew if we got the shot on the weekend we'd have a good game. We definitely earned those shifts. Coach gave us an opportunity and it was good to finally prove ourselves and do what we could with the shifts we were given."
The linemates combined for four points, six shots on goal and a plus-6 rating.
"All three of us had a great game," Willows said. "We played well together. We just rolled off each other and got the job done."
It was an important win for the fourth-ranked Wildcats (12-3-2), who were in danger of losing their third straight game after the Beavers made it 2-2 midway through the third period.
"It was good to have a game like that," Camper said. "It was big, especially with the way we were playing the first half with the win streaks. It was a weird feeling to lose two in a row. It was good to get back on track."
"We'd be pretty miserable right now if we didn't win that game," Umile said. "We'd be pretty miserable if we tied the game."
Austin Block was named to the all-tournament team. The senior forward scored the Wildcats only goal — his team-high 10th of the season — in their 4-1 loss to Dartmouth on Sunday.
Win or lose Sunday, the Wildcats were scheduled to play the 4 p.m. game on Monday because the hotel where they were staying booked a wedding reception and needed the rooms.


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Starcraft Travelstar 19CK Mattress ReplacementThursday, July 19th, 2012
We love getting emails like this at Rocky Mountain Mattress:
Re: Starcraft Travelstar 19CK Mattress Replacement
Rocky Mountain Mattress,
I wanted to let you know that I received the mattress today and am VERY pleased with the purchase! The fit and finish were excellent. It is currently expanding back out to its full/original shape in the camper.
Thanks again for all of your help!
Kyle Swartley
Click on Image below to view Other Rocky Mountain Mattress Custom RV Mattress on Pinterest


text:
Affirmative Action at University of Texas Faces Retest
The University of Texas's use of diversity in the admissions process will face a new test in the 5th Circuit Court. Ashby Joes and Jess Bravin discuss. AP Photo.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... Einstein has as a degree from another university now ... she half that bring this case back to the fifth selected and continue ... to press acclaim for this to be when we ... told us in all of them until we get we ... well if she decides to drop what it is seeking a way to drop it ... we'll have to see it that that happens Ike iconic doubt that the case will just disappear so the about the history that she ... this is graduated from Louisiana State University ... and doesn't want to you know it's too late for to be an undergrad to see Austin and More however ... she didn't just filed this lawsuit ... I mean she was actually recruited ... by folks who are against affirmative action she was willing to be up of the you know the the the plaintiff in a test case ... challenging ... the admissions program at UT so ... now those you know the the the challengers ... you know the folks who are opposing affirmative action ... will be able to put you seem to detest defeat also be able to make it even ... going to court to explain what it's doing and why it's necessary so I don't think ... he'll mind initially haven't spoken them yet but I don't see a reason why they would just give up ... now that they ... got the cases ... they didn't really have it good for us ... at Ashby fun with the hope is a very interesting is that in Texas Republican trustees the top ten percent of a high school class would office of the high school ... gets automatic admission write and read this this M lady was not part of the top aside ... ten percent off of high school class ... what she did it she said she had better schools than people who would admit to it ... thus the reason is I'm going to be part of the issue there will be discussed by the fiscal certificates according to does go back to ... to discuss whether that was the wind way to do the diversity ... who are well read and I think this is Jess's that has laid out former Tennessee when it goes back to the concert in Izzard in a scene examination ... of whether or not diversity sort of threat Martenson ... is a proper consideration or up a proper search consideration ... aam for for schools to use when looking at it and potential applicant pools and and looking out there and saying well you know this is something that ... we feel we need to do in order to provide the best educational effort is possible is to make as diverse a student body as ... best as possible ... and and what I understand the opinion said today that the circuit did not ... wrestle with that decision to the degree they needed to ... so it's really about ... diversity ... aam and as odd as the answer of of of of a larger consideration and whether the fifth circuit really wrestled with that to the degree it needed to ... on in order to come to its decision ...


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I was on the floor when I read this one by Peter Roebuck today. The article was about right and left hand batsmen etc.
Hahahaha.EVERYONE has been batting the wrong way around. Right-handers ought to take guard as southpaws and vice-versa. The reason is simple. Cricket is a top-handed game. Moreover, both hands have roles to play. Most racquet games are played one-handed.....
.... Consider the teams playing in this Ashes series. Marcus Trescothick opens chocolate bars with his right hand. Matthew Hayden tosses salad with the same palm. In the ring, Justin Langer leads with his left but dispatches with his right.
Anyways, with the millions of words being dedicated to the 5 matches, post the good, bad and ugly here. Puns as well, as SL once mentioned, the puns here are really out of control.


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Artist description:
this done last year on my another account on rmd.Hope to do more still life soon. The whole process was really interesting and great :)
Java Draw Created Feb 21, 2013 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2013 Lideeh.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
Back again after almost a year.
Your gallery is absolutely fantastic, here you can find only masterpieces. My favorite of course is "Beyonce" and "Sappho", but I want this beautiful painting in my living room! ... Definitely is the number one top choices.You are a great artist
!5h Most beautiful still yet that ive seen!5h+
This is beautiful! I love the colors you used. Amazing,its look like oil painting. FAV and COLLECT
genial ...
wowwwwwwwwwwwww.you are back..wonderful to see you again..a gorgeous,splendid work..wowwwwwwww.....welcome back my dear...5/5 and fav..
From drawing gorgeous modern fashion trends, to classic traditional still lifes like this. You're style is so beautiful and diverse, you really can draw anything :))
This is brilliant...The apple is my best part :) 5h
epiccccccccccccccccc beauty.5/5. coll
its perfect..amazing.


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Kuhn Rikon Straight Peeler
- Only at Williams Sonoma
- Exclusive
Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
Earn 5% Back in rewards4 plus free standard shipping3every day when you shop with your Williams Sonoma credit card at Williams Sonoma.Apply Now Learn More
- Summary
Peel fruit and vegetables effortlessly without tearing the skin. This little powerhouse features ultra-sharp performance that professional chefs love. It also works better than peelers that cost 3-4 times more.
- Carbon-steel blade starts sharp, stays sharp.
- Heavy-duty plastic handle.
- Features convenient potato eye remover.
- Ergonomic design accommodates left-handed and right-handed users.
- Dimensions & More Info
- Overall: 4 1/4" long.
- Blade: 2" long.
- Made in Switzerland.
- Overall: 4 1/4" long.
- Use & Care
- Warning: Not for children; blade is very sharp.
- Always use caution when handling sharp objects.
- Store peeler in safe place to prevent injury.
- Hand-wash and towel-dry immediately.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Next Day Delivery
For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
Orders received by 9:00 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday will arrive the next business day; orders placed Friday through Sunday will arrive on the following Tuesday.
Return Policy
At Williams Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and knife storage), please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Returns Policy.
- Spaghettini with Squash Recipe
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
Meanwhile, in a large fry pan over medium heat, combine the olive oil and speck and sauté until the speck is crispy, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until it just begins to turn golden, about 3 minutes.
Add the squash and toss well to coat the strands with the oil. Season with the 1/4 tsp. salt and a generous grinding of pepper. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the squash is just tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the basil and remove from the heat. Cover the sauce to keep warm.
Add the pasta to the boiling water, stir and cook until al dente, about 9 minutes or according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./125 ml) of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta to the pan with the sauce. Using tongs or a pasta fork, toss gently to combine. Add a splash or two of the pasta-cooking water to loosen the sauce, if needed. Sprinkle with the cheese and toss again. Season with salt and pepper.
Divide the pasta among shallow bowls, spoon any remaining sauce on top and serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6.
Adapted from Williams Sonoma Rustic Italian, by Domenica Marchetti (Weldon Owen, 2011).
Rated 1 out of 5 by rustbomb from Rust very easily I bought this peeler a week ago, used it once, and dried immediately and still rusted.Date published: 2019-10-29Rated 5 out of 5 by Maggie from Peeler I have been using this peeler for years. I always buy more than one. I use it to peel orange and grapefruit. I have recommended it to friends. Love it. The only thing that before they use to come in colors and now they only have it transparent plastic. I would like them to be brought back in set of three as they were before and in colors.Date published: 2018-04-21Rated 5 out of 5 by Hector from Best Peeler Best peeler I have ever used. I lost mine this week so I will be ordering 2 more.Date published: 2018-04-07Rated 5 out of 5 by JillinFla from A share from a friend and kitchen necessity... and must have--Butternut squash is a breeze with little or no effort! I wouldn't live without and haven't tried the more stylish ones as a result! You can't get the old rhythm as the prior potato pealer but change is good if the result is effortless! I also give them as gifts to even "mother-in-laws" that love them--just let them know that they are VERY SHARP and to be careful! I just replenished my supply by 10 at the affordable pricing.Date published: 2017-12-24Rated 1 out of 5 by ann444 from complete waste of money I purchased this because it was the top rated peeler from cook's illustrated. What I received must be defective. It doesn't peel at all and I almost cut a finger struggling with it. It honestly feels like I was sold a knock off. I don't want to pay the postage to return a $4 item so won't be returning it. This was my first experience purchasing online from WS and it will be my last. Would have been much better off buying locally from brick and mortar store in case needed to return.Date published: 2017-10-07Rated 5 out of 5 by wamber from The Best Peeler at a great Price I have own this Peeler for a few years now and love it. I always. I also given one to my mom and she loves it and has given multiple one to friends as gifts. its easy to use and its good for people who may have arthritis or any other problems with there hands because it has a bigger handle then others so its easy to hold on to. And well you cant beat the price of it either.Date published: 2017-02-27Rated 5 out of 5 by daywalker996 from best cheap peeler ever I'm on my second one the first lasted for years in the restaurants and finally walked away. So I got another and it's great, butternut squash and slightly thicker skins can be peeled.Date published: 2016-09-22Rated 1 out of 5 by Minneapple from Cheap Rust Bomb I have another peeler just like this one made by a different company and I adore it. I bought this one thinking I'd have two & it would be so handy. Nope. This is cheap, cheap junk. Rusted immediately even though it barely got wet and was dried immediately. The peeler design is fine, the quality is an abomination.Date published: 2015-10-15
I purchased 3 of these peelers and the blades on all 3 have rusted after a few uses. Is this normal and are they still safe to use?HI MJA1, Carbon steel does not typically have enough chromium to form a chromium oxide layer, allowing oxygen to bond with the iron which results in iron oxide, or rust. A bit of rust will not harm you. Rust is basically iron oxide, a rather benign substance in small quantities.Date published: 2019-09-03


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To serve a client, know his industry— and serve his industry as well. Why does Haskins & Sells regard this two-fold objective of industry knowledge and industry service as so important? How does the Firm mobilize resources to give its objective practical effect? Serving Clients- The answer to the first question is fairly simple" according to Executive Office partner Thomas B. Hogan, whose responsibilities include coordination of industry relations and activities. He says, "It stems from the fact that each industry tends to have distinctive characteristics that set it apart from other industries, some more so than others. Unique problems result, and these must be studied to be understood. Moreover, despite the fact that organizations within an industry are basically competitive with each other, their common problems force them to band together, typically in trade associations, for their mutual protection and advancement!' Accountants who are sensitive to their clients' needs and their industries' characteristics and problems are bound to develop constructive contributions, if they are persistent and innovative, whether in the areas of accounting, auditing, financial reporting, tax matters or MAS techniques.These contributions benefit their clients in the first instance, and when the accountants can so skillfully articulate their contributions as to share them with an entire industry they advance the progress of that industry's total membership. By so doing, they can enhance the prospects of the client whose livelihood comes from within that industry. The answer to the second question- How does the Firm mobilize to meet its objective?—"is more complex;' says Tom Hogan, adding that "the challenge is not easily met, since it calls for the skillful coordination of a widespread body of talent operating on what is sometimes a virtually global basis. It entails the wise allocation of time so as to achieve maximum immediate effectiveness in day-to-day tasks, while preparing imaginatively for future effectiveness in a world of incessant change that causes continuing shifts in industry patterns. Moreover, a successful response to the challenge depends heavily on those subtle qualities of human personality and character that can never be programmed on computers: true intellectual curiosity, persistence in study, a disposition to immerse oneself in new subject areas, and a willingness to'go the extra mile' not only in acquiring expertise but in sharing it generously with others!' While the years have seen many shifts in the administrative techniques the Firm has used to meet its industry challenge, three basic concepts have clearly shaped the selection of techniques. First, the partner in charge of an engagement—the man on the firing line who, in the eyes of his client, is Haskins & Sells—must personify the Firm's total expertise. He must commit himself to his client's industry and communicate this commitment. His role is paramount, whatever the industry—or industries—in which his client operates. Second, in fulfilling his commitment, the engagement partner must be aided by the resources of the entire Firm, however they may be structured and wherever they may be located. The Firm has never supposed that any magic wand could be waved by which industry sophistication could be concentrated at any single point. It has held, instead, that industry expertise must arise from the full interflow of ideas and experience throughout the entire Firm. Effective interflow comes not only from a system of communications but also from a spirit of communications, an alertness to phenomena that affect industries, the enterprise to flag developments to the attention of those with the need to know, and the skill to do so clearly and promptly. At the Executive Office, for example, there is hardly any unit that does not contribute in one way or another to the interflow of industry expertise. As the Firm's nerve center, the EO tries to monitor all developments that can affect industries: the impact on these industries of accounting principles and procedures; the emergence of auditing concepts and techniques that have special value for particular industries; the effect of taxation on industry operations; and advances in management science that can help an entire industry progress. Moreover, it uses a variety of communication methods—including such vehicles as the Subject File Binder—to channel industry information throughout the Firm. Third, in backstopping the engagement partner, the Firm must recognize that within the total range of industries there are clearly certain ones in which characteristics and problems are so unique and demanding—or the Firm's activity so substantial—that they must be given special attention in a formal way. It is this third concept that has given rise to the building ofacorps of industry experts for a group of twenty-four selected industries. These experts, who are located throughout the country, are designated as "specialists," or as "coordinators!' They have been assigned to industries in these categories: agricultural cooperatives, oil and gas, textile mills, paper and paperboard, publication and printing, primary metals, rail transportation, truck transportation, water 14


text: By Monica Reyes As you may know, one of our great customers recently opened her heart and adopted a black lab named Jenny. She was in dire need of a loving home, and was very timid. Leah D'Ambrosio was so kind to share her story with us, and how she has been making a difference


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Apple enlists Winnie-the-Pooh in e-book argument
NEW YORK An Apple Inc. (AAPL) lawyer used Winnie-the-Pooh and millions of customers too in trying to convince a judge the computer giant did not manipulate electronic book prices and stifle competition when it opened an online bookstore three years ago.
Attorney Orin Snyder enlisted the popular children's title Tuesday as he questioned David Shanks, the top executive at publisher Penguin Group USA, during the second day of an antitrust civil trial resulting from a lawsuit brought last year by the Justice Department.
The Penguin chief executive officer conceded the Winnie-the-Pooh book looks "extremely beautiful" in color on Apple products and not as good in black and white on other devices. He said "irrational enthusiasm'' about the potential for 80 million to 100 million Apple customers to buy books online led the company to meet many of Apple's demands in 2010.
Snyder was trying to rebut government claims Apple and five book publishers conspired to eliminate Seattle-based Amazon.com's $9.99 bargain price for popular e-books by agreeing to a pricing policy that forced millions of consumers to pay more than they should have for most online books.
Under questioning by Justice Department lawyer Mark Ryan, Shanks said Penguin was not pleased that Amazon was selling its electronic books below cost before Apple entered the market, since the publisher tried to maintain "a fairly delicate ecosystem in publishing, where we are trying to have everybody make a profit: the author, the publisher and the reseller."
Penguin, the last of five publishers to settle its case with the government, tried to maintain a pricing agreement with Amazon that would enable the online megastore to continue its $9.99 price for e-books but had to change its position once Barnes & Noble (BKS), then the second-largest seller of e-books, entered the market with a pricing scheme similar to Apple's, Shanks testified. He said Penguin otherwise would have risked losing money.
Apple has insisted that its entrance into the e-book market improved the online book industry and stabilized prices in the long term.
Shanks said Apple insisted on limits to prices for e-books at a time when some believed the prices for e-books could be steadily increased. He said the negotiations with Apple were not unlike many of the other 100 or so negotiations he has conducted in his 35 years in the book-publishing industry.
Now, he testified, Penguin is better able to project its sales of hardbacks, paperbacks and e-books, in part because the electronic book industry is established and more predictable and because it is clear the number of printed books is decreasing. The company agreed in a deal announced last month to pay $75 million to settle claims against it.
Under questioning from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, Shanks conceded he was worried about whether Amazon would retaliate against Penguin for its dealings with the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple.
He said Penguin had decided it did not want to enter the Apple deal to price e-books at $12.99 and $14.99 unless at least three of the largest six publishers were joining the Apple bookstore as well. Without them, he said, consumers would be disappointed that there was not a sufficient selection of books available.
"We think the consumer want to feel they're viewing the whole gamut of books, he said.


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We have so many great Costa Rica coffees right now, it would be a shame not to roast as many of them as we can before they sell out.
This Tuesday we will be roasting Costa Rica Helsar - Magdalena Vega. This coffee shines at a City+, so you can expect that it will be developed a little past first crack. The cup possesses the archetype of Costa Rica coffee character in nut-to-chocolate roast tastes and restrained sweetness of caramelized sugars that balance it out.
We will also be roasting Tanzania Bergfrieden AB which has yet to be offered on our coffee offerings page! This coffee brings forth golden raisin and apple. It's sweet to say the least, and has a deep raw sugar flavor from start to finish at a City+ roast.
Click here for more about our roasted coffee subscription.
-Danny G


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added by spikes_girl
This video is about Spike and Buffy and how much they want each other. And the way that they make each other feel when they are together. Made by roxyfoxy22. Footage belongs to Whedon, WB, etc.
added by spikes_girl
Exploring the relationship of Buffy and Faith in Season 3. Song: I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry. Made by Moonlightalways/ All footage belongs to Whedon, WB, etc.


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Code: RG 11/1032.
Description: Enumeration district details not transcribed - however inspection of the transcription suggests two districts covered the parish. House details and schedule numbers not transcribed. Schedule numbers have been invented for the purpose of separating households (two ranges to cover the supposed districts), but the lack of house details means that addresses are possibly fewer than houses, so the number of households living in each address may be misleading.
Registration district: Battle.
Address: Crowhurst Street.
Type: Inhabited.
Show all the households at this property
Show everyone in this property (Crowhurst Street)
Schedule: 39.
Head of household: Walters, Thos.
Show everyone in this household (schedule)
Folio: 40.
Page: 11.
Name: Walters, Thos.
Occupation: Unknown or not given.
Age: 69.
Gender: Male.
Marital status: Married.
Relationship to head: Head.
Born In County?: Yes (based on birth parish).
Birth parish: Salehurst.
Birth county: East Sussex.
Birth country: England.
Birthplace given as Robertsbridge assumed to be Salehurst..
Transcribed by: Corresponding Society.
Batch: CEN_Crowhurst_1881-Crowhurst-David-Green.csv.
Source: Census returns for Crowhurst.


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May 22, 1831 Monroeville Huron Co Ohio
Oct. 18, 1903
Spouse: Mary Hancock
Contributed on 2/7/13 by tslundberg
Email This Contributor
Record #: 737862
Thank you for visiting the Missouri Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Missouri, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 2/7/13 • Approved: 2/7/13 • Last Updated: 4/9/18 • R737862-G0-S3


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Forest Swastikas? Photos of Mysterious Trees in the Shape of Nazi Swastikas Spark Anger (VIDEO)
So-called Forest swastikas have been causing huge debate in Germany, with the mysterious sight of swastika images appearing in the trees of a forest in the country. Some have called for the trees to be chopped down, where as other Neo-Nazis have taken to visiting the site as a type of homage.
The swastika, the symbol adopted by Nazis in World War II, is known to spark anger among many Germans who now see it as a symbol of the darkest period of their nation's history, and an image representing hatred and war.
The image of swastikas made out of trees in a forest region has been sparking increased debate and backlash, with the mysterious phenomena condemned by many.
The mysterious forest swastikas were originally discovered in 1992 by Ökoland Dederow, who was searching aerial photos for irrigation lines. However, what he saw stunned him – among the forests of green colored pine trees, were groupings of yellow larches, forming the image of a swastika.
The find was reported to authorities and investigators themselves hired a plane to fly over the region and see the swastika image for themselves. They confirmed the so-called forest swastikas were about 200 by 200 feet. They also measured the trees and carried out tests to estimate that they were planted around the 1930s.
There is no clear explanation for the trees, but most believe that the trees must have been planted in the 1930s as a sort of honor for the Nazi regime in Germany at the time.
In addition, a local farmer has even come forward to claim that he was paid money by a forester to plant the trees.
Others believe that a local village's inhabitants planted the trees to try and prove their loyalty to Hitler and the Nazi regime, fearing they would be targeted should their loyalty be questioned.
Over recent decades, Neo-Nazis have been known to travel to the sites of the forest swastikas as a kind of homage.
However, the mysterious forest swastikas have also sparked anger in many, and advocates have pushed for them to be cut down. In 2000 a group succeeded in getting approval for 25 of the 150 trees making up a forest swastika to be cut down.


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Giocomina Arnone, 90, of Coral Springs, Fla., said her trusting heart cost her meaningful pieces of jewelry and other prized possessions after she opened her front door to someone claiming to be a city worker.
Last month, a man knocked on Arnone's door and told her he was sent from City Hall to cut the trees in her backyard. He asked her if she got a card he left by her door last week, but she replied she hadn't.
Although she told him she never received a card from him, Arnone let him in due to what she says is her trusting nature.
"My [late] husband said, 'Don't trust everybody,'" she said. "And that's one thing I did wrong."
Instead of cutting the trees on city business, the man distracted Arnone and led her out of her home as an accomplice went into her bedroom and robbed her, police said.
"I had everything laid out so neat," Arnone said. "It was stupid, but I had everything laid out so neat. Like, he knew where they were."
The duo made out with $1600 worth of jewelry, including diamond earrings, gold necklaces, her late daughter's ring, her late mother's brooche, her cherished rosary and a ring she said touched the hand of a Pope.
Arnone told police she saw the suspect leave in a black, unmarked pickup truck. Anyone with information is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS.
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This life with chronic pain is not a simple one. It encompasses lifting a large bucket of problems, doesn't it? Life with chronic pain requires us to live with pain, learn all we can about our condition, practically memorize the daily actions of a whole new lifestyle, and subject ourselves to a shelf of legalized poison, also known as medication. Is there anything in your life that has not changed? Every aspect of mine changed when chronic pain moved into my life, baggage and all.
We are faced with a world of choices. As an RN and a patient, I believe I've seen all variations of the consequences of those choices. Many of them I've tried myself. We cry, we throw fits of rage, we sink into depression, we ignore our doctors, and we take too many pills, then not enough pills. We desperately seek that doctor who will bring forth the magic answers via crystal ball, a number of degrees framed on the wall, or pure guesswork. Most of us grow desperate looking for answers outside ourselves when the truth is hiding from us, deep within our hearts; so near yet so far.
Looking into the matters of the heart reveals a wealth of information about this vital organ that pumps oxygen to all parts of our bodies. When you read about hearts in the dictionary, you are once again reminded of all the aspects of our lives which are dominated by this organ that is not Valentine-shaped at all. This magical organ can give us much trouble with heart attacks, heartburn and heartache. We can have a broken heart, wear our heart on our sleeve, and be sick at heart. We, apparently, can live in the heartland, be heartbroken, and behave in a heartless manner. If all the songs are correct, we also have heartstrings; funny, I don't remember that from anatomy class. It's difficult to imagine, but we can be wholehearted, half-hearted, and warm-hearted. Apparently, we can also have an "ACHY BREAKY HEART."
In my years of searching for answers to the conundrum of learning to live with chronic pain, I confess I was a bit late in getting started. When I became ill I was forty-years-old. I was obsessed with shedding this awful condition, not adjusting to it, and I just knew there had to be an answer as well as a cure. I fought with every stubborn ounce in me, and there is a considerable amount of it. I had no intention of putting up with this usurper that had moved in and created chaos out of the life I had fought so hard to establish. I have always been a spiritual person, even as a child, and in that area I was angry, betrayed, and generally pissed off. I discovered you can only flap your jaw so long before you become a pariah to others, driving your husband to tears, and generally becoming a pain in the ass; all of which was ironic because, as most of you already know, that was the "seat" of my troubles. It was God's little jest just for me, which I found less than funny. Sorry, Lord. Normally I have an excellent sense of humor, and I very soon became a thesaurus of jokes and remarks regarding the human tush, sitter, hiney, rump, fanny, po po, buttock, rear, etc. I also heard or used all of the associated actions such as sit on it, up yours, hard ass, bad ass, pain in the ass, and the list goes on. All of it was happening to me. At the same time, my heart began to trip away in a peculiar tachycardia, or rapid heartbeat. My energy flew away and where it went, I do not know. Wherever it went, it has yet to return.
When I consider these many past years, I consider and have often written about the many ways I have learned to cope with this pain. Even though I am aware it sounds like a country western song, I've concluded, "You gotta have heart" — the heart to believe life can still be good, the faith that comes from the heart to know it may get better but if it doesn't you and I can still survive. There is a spiritual quality to the interactions between the heart and the brain. We are driven by our desires hidden deep within our hearts, as many of these activities keep us going. We exercise because we are driven by the desire to be strong in order to survive. We rest, not only because we are fatigued but because we have learned we have to pace ourselves, and in the pacing, we gain strength and live a more productive life. We eat correctly, learn to stop brooding, and grasp the life we have left to us; all driven by the desires of the heart. Great athletes always have great spirits, and thus, heart. Meaningful writers dig deep within their hearts to inspire us and motivate us to achieve, to survive, and to more than survive. We learn to step up to the next level and renew our enjoyment of life in spite of the pain. Our heart's desires teach us to dream. We find new and hidden talents by looking within our hearts. I guess you would say we really get to know ourselves even though so few people really do.
Each of us has to face this journey alone. We can love, cavort, visit with, and help others, but this seeking must be done within oneself. Where do we find the heart to live this rough and sometimes terrible life? It's a secret. Don't you hate that? It's like having to go to the bathroom at the end of a movie and missing out on the best part, or finding the last page missing in a John Grisham novel. I wouldn't do that to you. I just mean it's different for each of us. Your secrets are different from my secrets. We are each as individual as a snowflake falling from the sky; each as different in conformation and each with a different destiny. Some flakes will simply melt on the window. Others will join forces and become a snowman with a carrot nose and a goofy old hat found in the depths of the basement. Other snowflakes will be made into snowballs and crash into laughing children who know how to have heart in almost all circumstances. Beware, lest you become a flake in this vicious game and do not meet your destiny. Do I have the nerve to think there is a purpose in all of this misery? Yes, I do.
How do I find the heart to live this life? It's very simple and there are basically three steps to take. I have learned to take the time to think alone, make notes, or just reflect on what my life has become. You'd be surprised what comes to you if you turn off the TV, turn on some soothing music, and look deep within your mind and heart. Prayer helps a great deal as it shows belief and expectation. The next step is to avoid those individuals, books, films, or other forces which are full of negativity, horror, or evil. Negative people, whether they are friends or family, can pull you down. You don't need their opinions, their views, or their downward thrust on life. You must stay UP or you will drown. Lastly, I attempt to stay true to what I embrace by being consistent in my actions and in my way of living. I don't always succeed, but I try. Honesty toward oneself is vital in this. If you can't respect and like yourself, there isn't much hope. In re-reading this, I know I make it sound so simple. It isn't, but at least if we live this way, we are trying and showing effort. Life is often a fight — a fight we must win. How can we let something so precious slip away without giving it our whole heart's effort?
Sue now has a Facebook page — check it out and "like" her now!


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OAKLAND — Fliers depicting a swastika on Libby Schaaf's forehead were plastered throughout Montclair this weekend in an attack against the City Council member of Jewish descent in the district she represents and was raised in.
The fliers purport to be from opponents of the city's plan to build a controversial surveillance center, though no one has stepped forward to take responsibility for them. Glued to lampposts along Mountain Boulevard in the busy shopping district, not far from Sunday's farmers market, the posters read: "Stop Schaaf. Stop the DAC (domain awareness center)."
"As a person of Jewish heritage I found this particularly hurtful. As an Oaklander I found it shameful," said Schaaf, an Oakland native who is running for mayor in this November's election.
Police said they are investigating the incident, which was first reported at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. By noon, many of the fliers were partially torn down, and on some, the swastikas were covered with black marker. It was not immediately clear if police were investigating the case as a possible hate crime.
This past September, similar fliers popped up in the Fruitvale district with a swastika emblazoned on Councilman Noel Gallo's forehead after he proposed a curfew for the city's youth.
The surveillance center, a joint project between the city and Port of Oakland funded through federal grants, will establish a data hub where authorities can monitor feeds through street cameras, gunshot sensors and other surveillance tools. Proponents have said the center will help police detectives solve crimes, but opponents have raised privacy issues, saying the center could allow police to create files on citizens. An online petition opposing the center had gathered 4,299 signatures as of Sunday afternoon, about 700 signatures short of its goal.
Later this month, the Public Safety Committee, a subcommittee of the City Council, will consider a recommendation on a $1.6 million contract to pay Schneider Electric Inc. to complete the surveillance center later this year.
Schaaf has expressed concerns about the center and supported initiatives aimed at preventing privacy abuses. But she has voted with council majorities to proceed with the project. The councilwoman found irony in the message of the flier.
"I have throughout the project expressed serious concern," Schaaf said. "So I am surprised that I have been targeted with this particular issue."
Staff writers Harry Harris and Matthew Artz contributed to this report. David DeBolt covers breaking news. Contact him in Richmond at 510-262-2728. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt.


text: I have played this game 4-5 years now. I played in 28 before its merge to 124 and played there until Eizenhertz blowed the world. And i play now in 111 Tristan. But now you have to merge worlds again. Otherwis im gonno stop play. Its not fun to be so fue people in a world. So do IT as son as posible pleas. Merge IT with lots of worlds! So we be thousands of active people in same world. Regards// Csix The Legion Army In Tristan111


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Industry veteran to serve Fort Smith, River Valley and Eastern Oklahoma.
FORT SMITH, Ark. – Arvest Bank is pleased to announce that Darin Drennan has been hired as a regional investment officer for Arvest Wealth Management (AWM).
Drennan has worked in the financial services industry since 2001, helping clients with their financial goals. As regional investment officer, Drennan will focus on working with high net worth clients on asset allocation, risk management, diversification and legacy planning.
Drennan prefers a holistic approach of guiding clients through the intricacies of pursuing their life goals, and will work with a team of AWM client advisors and trust officers to properly manage their resources. He will serve the Fort Smith, River Valley and eastern Oklahoma regions for AWM.
Submitted questions will be answered by an Arvest banker and may appear on the Arvest Blog.
All Arvest banks are Equal Housing Lenders and Member FDIC.
Investment products and services are provided by Arvest Investments, Inc., doing business as Arvest Asset Management, member FINRA/SIPC, an SEC registered investment adviser and a subsidiary of Arvest Bank. Trust services are provided by Arvest Bank. Insurance products are made available through Arvest Insurance, Inc., which is registered as an insurance agency. Insurance products are marketed through Arvest Insurance, Inc., but are underwritten by insurance companies.
Securities and Insurance Products: Not Insured by FDIC or any Federal Government Agency, May Lose Value, Not a Deposit of or Guaranteed by a Bank or any Bank Affiliate.


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|Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Arts and Sciences
|The Spanish American Novel
|Three semester hours. (SP)
|Conducted in Spanish. A study of Spanish America's most widely acclaimed genre. Students will examine representative works of the older generation of novelists, including Sarmiento and Gairaldes, Gallegos and Rivera, as well as more modern writers such as Carpentier, Cortzar, Asturias, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Rulfo, and Garcia Marquez. The novels' historical, social, cultural and intellectual ambience will form an integral part of the course. Prerequisite: SPAN 3300 and 3310 or consent of instructor.
Home - General Information - Student Services -
Academic Undergraduate Regulations -
Undergraduate Degrees - Academic Graduate Regulations -
Graduate Degrees - Course Descriptions - Faculty -
Appendix A - Appendix B - Appendix C - Appendix D


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Receive updates and compelling news on VisionFund International and the network
of microfinance institutions by email.
Outstanding articles, news stories, and achievements are regularly highlighted with
captivating photos and media. Sign up today.
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Securing Africa's Future is an initiative from World Vision and VisionFund to help build the 'resilience' of farming communities in East Africa. We understand that farmers are the key to ensuring their families and communities have enough food, whilst improving their rural livelihoods and protecting the natural environment in Africa.
When farmers can mitigate their own risks and manage their own shocks, then the impact of any environmental, economic or political change is severely reduced. This is our aim; to help farmers become independent and economically secure, so they can look after their families and invest in their community.
The key features of the programme are;
- Spiritual. We foster a Judeo-Christian world view on human dignity and work ethic, and support communities to become creative, productive, caring and self-reliant.
- Economic. We help improve livelihoods and resilience by lending farmers the funds to invest in their businesses so they can increase their yields, incomes and savings. Beyond micro-loans, we offer savings and insurance, technical expertise to produce quality products and knowledge of markets to find buyers, so that farmers follow a value chain that improves productivity and processes.
- Environmental. We promote the management of natural resources, especially water, as a way to both increase production and to mitigate the risk and reduce the impact of droughts and floods. Preparing for an event before it happens is essential to ensure farming productivity year round.
Securing Africa's Future began as a pilot project in rural Tanzania, about two hours drive from its capital, Arusha. Over 5,000 rice farmers took part in the initiative.
Since its inception;
- Rice production among participating farmers has increased by over 30%.
- A collective income in the community has increased by over 140%
- Farmers have been able to pay off school fees in one lump sum.
- Participants have used profits to invest in other businesses.
- Farmers and their families have opened savings accounts.
©2014 World Vision International. All photos are the property of World Vision.


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"I think with speed, obviously you'll hear people say, 'Well if you improve by 10 seconds, you can add this much in sales,'" adds Carmen Gianguzzo, director of franchise operations at Taco John's. "Speed is not the end game, but we do want to look at anything we can do to enhance that, whether it's looking at standardized, new drive-thru menuboards that should help simplify the ordering process … [or] we want to eliminate anything that gets in the way of speed that isn't critical toward quality or guest experience."
Still, the industry's evolution toward more complex menu items and consumers' purchasing behaviors signal that speed-of-service times may never return to the highs of the mid-2000s heyday. And brands are discovering that even slight tweaks to the menu or operations can have a significant effect on speed of service in the drive thru.
Take Krystal as an example. The company's average speed of service fell more than 40 seconds over last year's 175.94-second showing. Krystal CEO Doug Pendergast, who joined the brand in 2012 and spearheaded its recent move from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta, acknowledges that he didn't expect speed of service to improve this year because the company has been undergoing several operational changes to improve the overall business.
"We have not had the time to focus on the drive thru as much as we'd like, but we have been able to build a new scorecard where we're tracking every single score, every single day, week, period, and quarter, based on the window time," Pendergast says, noting that the company focuses mostly on window speed of service so as not to rush customers at the ordering station. "So I think we now have the leadership in place, the data in place, to begin to systematically improve what we're doing."
Free report download from King-Casey!
How to Compete at the Drive-Thru: You Need More Than Speed and Accuracy
Pendergast adds that Krystal has experienced a shift in its menu mix, with more customers purchasing bulk orders of Krystal's signature sliders.
"Right now, as an example, over 20 percent of our sales are multi-packs—12 packs, 24 packs of Krystals," he says. "That's a pretty significant increase from what it was when we came into the company just over a year ago. That's a little bit more of a challenge to execute in a drive-thru environment. So we're working on the changes and procedures, layout, and production to make that happen." He says the company is developing a new store prototype that reconfigures the drive-thru set-up; tests have shown that the new prototype cuts about 20 seconds off the Krystal drive-thru experience.
Eby says Taco John's internal speed-of-service benchmark in the drive thru is 180 seconds, almost exactly its measured time (181.19 seconds) in this year's Study. But he adds that the figure is not set in stone, as speed of service is a fluid metric that evolves across the system.
"I think for guests, they want it fast, but everyone's perception of fast is different," he says. "But they absolutely want the order correct, and they want the food hot and fresh, so you have to have a combination of those. But the first two come
before speed."
If operators were to formally rank their priorities, accuracy would likely be No. 1 at each of the benchmark brands. It doesn't matter how fast you get the food out, brand reps say; if the order is wrong, the whole experience turns sour.
Accuracy has come a long way since the Drive-Thru Study's inaugural year. In 1998, accuracy ratings for today's benchmark brands were as low as 61.8 percent and only as high as 83.9 percent. Today, their accuracy ratings range from 79.5 to 91.6 percent. Even though accuracy has slipped slightly since last year—average order accuracy at benchmark brands last year was 88.8 percent, compared with 87.2 percent this year—operators are still laser-focused on making sure the right food is being served to the right cars.
Similar to speed of service, the complexities involved with new menu items are affecting the way the benchmark brands approach accuracy in the drive thru. Lynch uses Wendy's Berry Almond Chicken Salad as an example of a premium product that throws a wrench into the drive-thru process. The salad comes with dressings, almonds, and croutons in separate packages and can be customized based on how the customer designs the order. "Those things, the customer likes, but it makes it tougher in the drive thru to make sure you have all of the condiments and the extra ingredients that go with the whole meal," Lynch says. "So order accuracy becomes a constant point of emphasis."
Savage shares a similar story in regards to Taco Bell's new Cantina Bell menu. The burritos and bowls have nearly 10 ingredients, he says, making it the most complex product line the chain serves. Taco Bell has rolled out special training procedures to ensure employees are able to consistently serve the right product. Another system that ensures accuracy at Taco Bell is a triple-check system, Savage says. At most restaurants, orders are confirmed through an OCB, the crewmember repeating the order to the customer over the speaker box, and then an employee repeating the order one final time at the pick-up window.
"In our best circumstance, they repeat the order back to the customer and say, 'Here are your two Doritos Locos Tacos and your Cantina Bowl,'" Savage says. "So you as a customer felt good when you ordered it, because we guaranteed on the screen and when we brought it up to you, and then when it's being handed to you at the drive thru. You feel good that we paid attention to your order specifically because that team member is presenting it to you."
While accuracy percentages in the Study can be affected by mistakes that OCBs cannot control—missing napkins, for example, or inaccurate change—the boards are increasingly employed by the benchmark brands to improve accuracy in the drive thru. The vast majority of Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's units studied this year had an OCB in place, while the share of Taco Bell restaurants with one in place grew over last year.
Chick-fil-A has famously opted against using OCBs; the brand only has the boards in place at 11.7 percent of its restaurants. Moraitakis says the company is leveraging people over technology under the belief that employees firing on all cylinders can be plenty fast and accurate.
"I think there's a concern that speed of service could slow down [with OCBs]," he says. "We can think of what all the reasons are you would want an order-confirmation board, and then … design the experience that gives you those without that actual technology. That's been our philosophy at this point as we've thought through all the ways we can enhance the drive-thru experience. We'd rather people be our confirmation board."
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The bill from former lawyer Jack Thompson passed by a landslide the Utah House of Representatives earlier this month. It has now also passed in the Utah Senate.
The bill, HB 353, imposes even stiffer fines on video game retailers and movie theaters should they provide M- or R-rated products to minors in direct violation of their own store policies.
From what we can tell, language choices clarify that retailers cannot get in trouble if "a buyer subject to age restrictions" (note how they don't use the word minor or person under age 18) lies about their age to the retailer.
Drafted by Thompson, the bill passed by a 25-4 margin. However, it was amended by the Senate to apply to all sales (including internet), and it went back to the House, where the amendment was approved. Next stop, the desk of Utah Governor Jon M. Hunstman, Jr., who can either sign the bill into law or veto it.
Now, Utah Bill Races Against the Clock [GamePolitics]


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Review: Oslo, August 31st
Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st dramatizes the perils of drug addiction in the story of 34-year-old Anders, who leaves a rehab clinic for his first job interview in years. His attempt at regaining stability gets off to a promising start: Anders charms a magazine editor by wittily branding the highfalutin analysis of lowbrow popular culture as "Sex in the City through the eyes of Schopenhauer." But when a gap on his resume is questioned, Anders drops any pretense of normality, reciting a long list of substance abuse. He taunts the interviewer, sabotaging his chance of getting the job. He soon finds himself adrift in the streets of Oslo. Rapturously rendered, the city at summer's end is lush and green, redolent with the memories of adolescent bliss, recalled via voiceovers. But domestic comfort and bliss—experienced by others yet denied to him—are what haunts Anders, his scorn too blistery not to betray his insecurity. When his sister stands him up, it's not only from fear of remission; she resents the financial burden that her brother's drug problems have placed on the family. After a series of random encounters, at a birthday party, a bar and a rave, punctuated by desperate calls to an ex-girlfriend, seeking out help but also redemption, Anders finally abandons his shaky resolve to resist alcohol and drugs.
Trier delivers a quiet, haunting masterpiece, all the more remarkable since it's made up of fleeting, episodic moments—from Anders's charged conversations with friends, percolating with wounded pride and self-mockery, to his catching snippets of strangers' gossiping in a café, or watching his new acquaintances go for a dip in a public swimming pool before summer officially ends. The evocation of things ending suffuses the film with melancholy, as Anders increasingly becomes an observant rather than a participant in his own life. Sentimentality is offset by Anders's sarcastic, oftentimes effusive manner, and by his cockiness, to the point where we must question whether his boyish fragility isn't also a defense mechanism—aimed to solicit empathy, as he simultaneously evades claiming responsibility for his actions.
If Oslo, with its temptations and reminiscences, is a Proustian trap, it's also one created by Anders: His reputation as a dissolute prankster and player precedes him, and his inconsolable insistence on the writer and the man he might have been, rather than the one he may still become, gains more edge with each abrasive exchange. What propels this story forward, in spite of its lacking in dramatic character transformations or plot twists, is the enormity of Anders's predicament: In a sporty leather jacket, fitting jeans, and sneakers, Anders, who unlike his married friends fearing the onslaught of middle age, still retains his forlorn, boyish looks, tries hard to appear passé; yet a single unkind comment or gesture may propel him toward drug-induced oblivion. What parades as Anders's refusal to compromise—no rat race for him, or moldy intellectualism either—soon becomes a devastating portrait of a man pursued by his own sense of worthlessness. Echoing Generation Y's discontents, and perfectly cast by Anders Danielsen Lie in the title role, the film portrays a young man's intellectually privileged upbringing as a hindrance to happiness—setting up exalted expectations he can't meet.
In spite of its weighty theme, and mostly thanks to its lyricism, the film is also a love poem to Oslo—all the more touching since, as night nears, Anders begins to take his leave, recording each site and instant, knowing it's for the last time. His stealing money at a friend's birthday party, to buy a large dose of cocaine, is only one more step on a grimly linear trajectory. To Trier's credit, the final scenes are suffused with dark quietism, pitch-perfect. In the end, Oslo, August 31st succeeds as a finely observed portrait, as much as an evocation of social ills. The last few shots of Oslo's empty streets, the city awakening to another workday, are poignant, not so much—or rather not only—because of Anders's personal tragedy, but also because they affirm what Anders has rejected: the delicate, resilient beauty of the everyday.
Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Malin Crépin, Aksel M. Thanke, Hans Olav Brenner, Ingrid Olava Director: Joachim Trier Screenwriter: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier Distributor: Strand Releasing Running Time: 96 min Rating: NR Year: 2011 Buy: Video
Review: Guns of the Trees Wears Its Looseness as a Badge of Honor
The film is but one deliberately imperfect piece of a vast slipstream.2.5
Jonas Mekas establishes the tone of 1961's Guns of the Trees with a director's statement, declaring that the "mad heart of the insane world" has prevented him from finishing the film. What follows, Mekas asserts, is "a sketchbook," a "madhouse sutra," "a cry." And such a description aptly articulates the film's melodramatic, self-pitying sense of yearning, which is driven by Mekas's career-spanning need to contexualize the divide of artifice that separates artist from audience. To Mekas, sketch-like scenes represent a refutation of staid, insidious craftsmanship that can smooth out rougher and more resonant contours.
In the case of the quasi-fictional Guns of the Trees, Mekas follows a handful of young people in New York City as they hang out and grapple with the state of modern existence, decrying America's involvement in Cuba, the development of the atom bomb, and various other atrocities that underscore the awfulness of the imperial machine. Occasionally, Allen Ginsberg reads his poetry over the soundtrack, his scalding free-associational verse conjuring an anger that the film's characters can't quite articulate, while providing Guns of the Trees with another element of the literary. A little of Ginsberg's poetry goes a long way. What is the "hunger of the cannibal abstract" and why can't man endure it for long?
Ginsberg's bebop phrasing complements Mekas's fragmentary images, which are alternately ludicrous and lovely. In keeping with the sketchbook concept, the film wears its unevenness and looseness as aesthetic badges of honor. A framing device in which two businessmen in white mime makeup wander a cabbage patch in near hysteria, in all likelihood embodying the ageless corruption of man, is self-consciously oblique and edgy, feeling like an earnest film student's pastiche of 1920s-era avant-garde tropes. Other scenes, however, poignantly detail life in the early '60s, such as when a woman sits her husband down in a chair in their loft and cuts his hair, or when a man tries to talk his drinking buddy down from an intoxicated rant. These scenes have the humor and behavioral specificity of John Cassasvetes's films, evoking the comforting rhythm of the little moments that come to define us.
Guns of the Trees belongs to an easily mocked beatnik era, when people discussed whether to conform or be free while listening to folk music and reading Ginsberg and smoking grass. At times, even Mekas seems to be on the verge of ribbing his subjects' sincerity. For all their thrashing about, these people seem prosperous and more interested in speaking of revolution than in truly sparking it. Ben (Ben Carruthers) sells life insurance, prompting the film's funniest line, when a potential client asks, "Don't you still believe in death?" A young woman named Barbara (Frances Stillman) is gripped by authentic depression though, and her suicide haunts Ben, Gregory (Adolphus Mekas), and Ben's wife, Argus (Argus Spear Julliard).
If the beatnik navel-gazing dates Guns of the Trees, Mekas's docudramatic eye memorably revels in poetic details throughout. His protagonists wander through fields, which suggest the rice fields of Vietnam, and junkyards that testify both to the beauty and the waste of mainstream society. The play of light off the twisted metal of the trashed cars suggests found sculpture, while indirectly conjuring the wreckage wrought by the wars the characters protest. Such images, which include profoundly intimate close-ups of the characters' faces, also anticipate the rapture offered by future Mekas "sketchbook" films such as Walden.
Mekas would go on to pare away the preachiness of Guns of the Trees from his subsequent work, as he increasingly honed a personal style that would make ecstasy out of the commonplace, utilizing multimedia and a restless syntax to suggest how memory intricately shapes life. Guns of the Trees is but one deliberately imperfect piece of a vast slipstream.
Cast: Adolfas Mekas, Frances Stillman, Ben Carruthers, Argus Spear Juillard, Frank Kuenstler, Louis Brigante Director: Jonas Mekas Screenwriter: Jonas Mekas Running Time: 86 min Rating: NR Year: 1961
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Animated Feature
Forky rules.
Completist-prone Oscar prognosticators were dealt a merciful hand last week when the Oscar nominations were announced and Frozen II didn't show up in this category. But the winning hand belongs to Toy Story 4, which likely lost the Golden Globe to Missing Link as a result of a vote split between the two Disney properties. Sentiment to reward the American-based production studio Laika is brewing, and the fitfully droll Missing Link will, like Kubo and the Two Strings before it, probably find favor at the BAFTAs, but Laika's latest and most expensive production to date dramatically bombed at the box office. And while no one will be weighing between the film and I Lost My Body, a singularly and actively morose and creepy film that won't appeal to the academy at large, this category's short history tells us that the Mouse House is only vulnerable to the biggest money makers. Also, Forky rules.
Will Win: Toy Story 4
Could Win: Missing Link
Should Win: I Lost My Body
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Supporting Actor
Pitt winning here will seem like the stars are lining up given what went down when he was first nominated in 1995.
We didn't predict Anthony Hopkins to get nominated here, thinking that the Golden Globes's enthusiasm for The Two Popes was a fluke. We were wrong, and he ended up becoming the elder statesman in an acting lineup that contains, on average, by far the oldest nominees. The person we predicted to get in instead, Marriage Story's Alan Alda, is a year older than Hopkins, so we certainly weren't betting the farm on any male ingénues.
On the other hand, it sure feels like spry 56-year-old Brad Pitt, who opened his acceptance speech at last night's SAG Awards with a joke about having a Tinder profile, had this award in the bag the moment his Marlboro Man-ish handyman hopped atop his buddy's roof to fix the antenna in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, whipping off his shirt to reveal a tawny, fully-abbed torso that scarcely seems to have aged in the nearly 30 years since he seduced the country in Thelma & Louise. He, as Leonardo DiCaprio's co-lead, has a lot more to do throughout than just doff tees, but the "I'm still here" virility of that moment embodies the entire film's love letter to old-guard masculinity in Tinseltown.
Not that anyone's reading too deeply into it, not when there's good old-fashioned awards numerology to fall back on. Within minutes of the nominations being announced, Oscar Twitter jumped on the fact that the best supporting actor slate this year is composed of acting winners from 1990 (Joe Pesci), 1991 (Anthony Hopkins), 1992 (Al Pacino), and 1993 and 1994 (Tom Hanks). Fewer pointed out that Pitt was also a nominee in 1995 for 12 Monkeys, losing out to the now-canceled Kevin Spacey. Which makes it seem all the more poetically like the stars are lining up when Pitt wins for a film whose finale proposes a rousing bit of alternate, corrective history in which the "good" guys obliterate the "bad" ones.
Will Win: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Could Win: Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Should Win: Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Documentary Feature
Every film nominated in this category grapples with the nature of freedom in a world gripped by war and shaped by technology.
Few Oscar categories are bigger snub magnets than this one. And while the failure of Apollo 11 to secure a nomination this year was indeed surprising, it was not as telling as the omission of The Biggest Little Farm, a handsomely, if conspicuously, sculpted "pop" documentary that's very much in the academy's wheelhouse. It was almost as if the committee responsible for selecting the nominees here was sending a message by embracing, at a time of increased global instability, five documentaries that looked only outward: not at mankind's possibilities, but at the ways in which we've become our own worst enemy.
When discussing the potential winner in this category, Eric and I were pulled in two different directions. "Doc will go American Factory and, by extension, the Obamas, right?" Eric asked. "Honeyland notched an Oscar record by being the first documentary to also be nominated for international feature. That has to mean something?" I asked. Which is to say that he and I, no strangers to this Oscar-predicting process, were sacrificing ourselves to rigamarole, forgetting that, at the end of the day, academy members vote with their hearts above all else.
Every film nominated in this category grapples with the nature of freedom in a world gripped by war and shaped by technology. American Factory specifically takes the closing of a Chinese-owned factory in Ohio as a jumping-off point for a study of the wiles of global capitalism, and it's every bit as smart as you might expect from a film produced by the Obamas. A more sobering reminder of how the global order of the world has been cataclysmically disrupted in the last four years is another Netflix documentary, The Edge of Democracy, about Brazil's own national(ist) sickness. It's a harrowing lament, but it offers the viewer no sense of escape.
Which isn't to say that the The Cave and especially For Sama, both filmed in Syria and in the midst of war there, are escapist. The two most viscerally powerful documentaries in the category confront us with the chaos of imperial domination. Both films center the female experience of war, but For Sama does so more shrewdly, positing itself not just as a chronicle of war, but an act of remembrance. In a film that doesn't lack for gut-wrenching images of the dead, one particularly stands out: of a child, after being pulled from his mother's womb via C section in the wake of a bombing, being brought back to life. Combined with the scenes depicting the citizens of war-torn Aleppo finding humor in the midst of conflict, the film attests not only to the perseverance of the Syrian people, but to the possibility that the country might still be brought back from the edge of oblivion.
Will Win: For Sama
Could Win: The Cave
Should Win: For Sama
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Makeup and Hairstyling
There doesn't seem to be much standing in the way of the triumph of the red, white, and blue neo-Juggalo.
We couldn't really say it any better than Odie Henderson, who recently scoffed: "Who wins the Costume Design Oscar for Joker? The Goodwill? Who wins the Makeup Oscar for Joker? A blind Mary Kay consultant?" While we think the Academy will stop short of awarding the motley threads of Todd Phillips's risible throwback machine in the costume category, the fact that they were nominated at all over, say, the imaginatively garish '70s finery that Ruth Carter created for Dolemite Is My Name indicates a level of affection for Joker that no one who doesn't use the word "snowflake" on a daily basis seems prepared for.
While, to us, Joaquin Phoenix's Joker looks like nothing so much as Marge after sitting still for a makeup gun, as Homer put it best, "Women will like what I tell them to like." From his lips to the Academy's ears (and face). And given this category's expansion didn't add more multicolored prosthetic creations along the lines of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, but instead more invisible character augmentation along the lines of Judy and Bombshell, there doesn't seem to be much standing in the way of the triumph of the red, white, and blue neo-Juggalo.
Will Win: Joker
Could Win: Judy
Should Win: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: International Feature Film
Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time. As I write this latest prediction for Slant's rolling Oscar coverage, the top article on the front page of Rotten Tomatoes is a ranking, by Tomatometer, of the nine films nominated for best picture this year. Number one? Parasite. Immediately next to that article is a callout to readers to vote for their favorite film of 2019 that uses Song Kang-ho's face from Parasite's poster as the featured image. Regarding that poster, in simply placing black bars over the actors' faces, it succinctly, eerily, perfectly underlines the film's obsession with social strata. And you don't need to look far beyond the aggregate site to land on some article praising the perfectly lit and designed architectural purgatory that is the film's main setting.
Perfect. That's a funny word. There are no objectively measurable criteria for perfection, but given how many times I've heard Bong's film described as being "perfect" since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or, you'd think that there were. Still, the impulse to use it to describe this particular film, so balanced and attuned to the ties that both bind and separate us, evident in everything from the dimensions of Bong's aesthetic, to his actors' faces, to their words, makes a certain kind of sense. Quick, can you name the other four films nominated in this category? How apt if you can't, as this is a film profoundly obsessed with the subterfuge that can be weaponized during class warfare. Or awards campaigns.
Will Win: Parasite
Could Win: Pain and Glory
Should Win: Parasite
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Original Score
John Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four.
That one of the five films nominated for original score this year is not a best picture nominee nor had any shot at being one almost makes this category an outlier among this year's Oscar races, which seem otherwise fixated on frontrunners. John Williams already had the record-setting strength of 51 previous nominations leading into this week's announcement, so his nod for the third Star Wars installment, or sixth, or ninth, or…does The Mandalorian count? Anyway, suffice it to say that the only thing that could've been more knee-jerk than to select nominations solely from among this year's best picture probables would be to rubber stamp Williams uploading yet more variations on intellectual property.
Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four. Alexandre Desplat already has two wins here, both in the last six years, but Little Women is finally picking up momentum at just the right time. His richly romantic cues, which are practically wall to wall throughout the film, come on like a crushed-velvet dust jacket, binding Greta Gerwig's shifting timeline together in a way that makes just about everyone who isn't Sasha Stone want to clutch the entire thing to their bosoms.
Arguably, another film that's still reaching its crest stage is 1917, and unlike Desplat, composer Thomas Newman is still waiting for his first win, and now holding the category's longest losing streak. It can't be said that Newman doesn't pull out all the stops, piecing together a work that feels inspired by both Hans Zimmer's pulsating Dunkirk score and Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," most memorably used in Oliver Stone's Platoon. And yet, we're kind of with Bilge Ebiri, who after the nominations were announced, tweeted, "You didn't give it to DUNKIRK, you're not allowed to give it to 1917. Sorry, we're very strict on this matter."
Not to say that we expect 1917 to roll snake eyes on its 10 nominations. Only that any nominations for the film related to things that Dunkirk already did better two years ago are a tough sell, despite the draw of Newman's increasingly amplified Oscar backstory. That's presuming that the narrative doesn't wind up over-shadowed by the sidebar-friendly cousin's duel between Thomas and his cousin, Randy Newman, whose jaunty, Terms of Endearment-esque Marriage Story score appears to have as many detractors as it has fans.
Until the nominations were announced, we admit to assuming that Hildur Guðnadóttir's Golden Globe win for Todd Phillips's Joker was going to go down the same way as Justin Hurwitz's did a year ago: with an Oscar snub. We reasoned that Guðnadóttir, who also perked ears up and won an Emmy last year for her work on HBO's Chernobyl, was still too fresh a talent for the more cliquey AMPAS musicians' branch. But now that she's there, Globe in hand and attached to the film that, by the numbers, the academy loved best this year, she offers even conscience-wracked voters the chance to hand a feature-length 4chan fantasy a guilt-free win by also awarding one of the film's few female nominees.
Will Win: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker
Could Win: Thomas Newman, 1917
Should Win: Alexandre Desplat, Little Women
Tags: Academy Awards, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker, Thomas Newman, 1917, Alexandre Desplat, Little Women, Randy Newman, Marriage Story, John Williams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Review: Dolittle, Like Its Animals, Is Flashy but Dead Behind the Eyes
Dolittle's inability to completely develop any of its characters reduces the film to all pomp and no circumstance.1
Stephen Gaghan's Dolittle begins with a just-shy-of-saccharine animated sequence that spins the tale of the eponymous character's (Robert Downey Jr.) adventures with his wife, who one day dies at sea during a solo voyage. It's something of a more condensed, less moving version of the prologue to Pixar's Up, underscoring our protagonist's upcoming fantastical journey on behalf of Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) with a tinge of melancholy.
As soon as the film shifts to live action, we immediately sense the loss felt by Dolittle in the overgrown vines and shrubbery that surround the famed doctor and veterinarian's estate, as well as in his unkempt appearance. But any hopes that the film might follow through on its promise to explore Dolittle's emotional turmoil are quickly dashed once he begins interacting with the animal friends who keep him company. Their banter is ceaseless and mostly ranges from corny and tiresome to downright baffling, as evidenced by a pun referencing Chris Tucker in Rush Hour that may leave you wondering who the target is for half of the film's jokes.
The tenderness of Dolittle's prologue does resurface sporadically across the film, most memorably in a late scene where the good doctor shares the pain of losing a spouse with a fierce dragon that's also enduring a similar grief. But just as the film seems primed to say something profound about the nature of loss, Dolittle shoves his hand into the dragon's backside—with her permission of course—in order to extract a bagpipe and an array of armor, leading the fiery beast to unleash a long, loud fart right into the doctor's face.
That moment is crass, juvenile, and, above all, cheap in its cynical undercutting of one of Dolittle's rare moments of vulnerability. But it serves as a ripe metaphor for the filmmakers' incessant need to respond to a show of earnestness with a dollop of inanity, as if believing that their young audience can't handle anything remotely sincere without a chaser of flatulence.
But worse than the film's failure to truly probe Dolittle's emotional landscape is how it surrounds him with a series of uncompelling character types. While the film seems to mostly unfold through the eyes of young Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), who becomes Dolittle's apprentice after witnessing the doctor communicate with animals, he serves little purpose aside from drawing the man out of his shell. And Dolittle's arch-enemy, Dr. Blair Müdfly (Michael Sheen, chomping on every bit of scenery within reach), has little motivation to justify his ceaseless quest to stop his rival from attaining an elixir that will save Queen Victoria's life.
Despite repeatedly paying lip service to notions of grief and opening oneself up to the world, Dolittle ultimately plays like little more than an extended showpiece for its special effects. But even the CGI on display here is patchy at best, with the countless animals that parade through the film's frames taking on a creepy quality as their photorealistic appearance often awkwardly clashes with their cartoonish behavior. The film's notoriously troubled production, which went so off the rails that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles director Jonathan Liebesman was brought on board for reshoots, is evident in its clumsy staging and lifeless interplay between humans and animals, but it's the film's inability to completely develop any of its characters that reduces it to all pomp and no circumstance. Like the CGI animals that inhabit much of the film, Dolittle is flashy and colorful on the outside but dead behind the eyes.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Harry Collett, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland Director: Stephen Gaghan Screenwriter: Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand Distributor: Universal Pictures Running Time: 106 min Rating: PG Year: 2020 Buy: Soundtrack
Review: Bad Boys for Life Is a Half-Speed Echo of Michael Bay's Toxic Formula
In the end, the film's perpetuation of the franchise's endorsement of police brutality comes back to bite it..5
From its parodically overused low-angle and circling tracking shots to its raw embodiment of Michael Bay's unique brand of jingoism and adolescent vulgarity, Bad Boys II arguably remains the purest expression of the director's auteurism. Bay doesn't direct the film's belated sequel, Bad Boys for Life, leaving one to wonder what purpose this franchise serves if not to give expression to his nationalist, racist, and misogynistic instincts.
Intriguingly, Bad Boys for Life is helmed by the Belgian team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, whose streetwise, racially focused crime films, from 2014's Image to 2018's Gangsta, represent positions that are nearly the polar opposite of those of Bay's work. Except the filmmakers do nothing to shake the franchise from its repellent roots, merely replicating Bay's stylistic tics at a more sluggish pace, losing the antic abandon that is his only redeeming quality as an artist. At best, the half-speed iterations of Bay's signature aesthetic reflect the film's invocation of too-old-for-this-shit buddy-movie clichés, with Miami cops Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) forced to contend with growing old and obsolete.
The film is quick to establish that Marcus, newly a grandfather, longs to settle down, even as Mike continues to insist that he's at the top of his game. It's then that the partners are thrown for a loop when Mike is shot by Armando (Jacob Scipio), whose drug kingpin father Mike killed and whose mother, Isabel (Kate del Castillo), he helped get imprisoned in Mexico. Both men are left traumatized by the event, with a horrified Marcus forswearing a life of violence, while Mike seeks brutal revenge for his wounded sense of masculine security. And for a brief moment, Bad Boys for Life finds fertile ground in the emotional chasm that opens between the two pals, with Mike's single-minded rage leaving Marcus morally disgusted.
Almost immediately, though, the film turns to gleeful violence, showing how grotesque the consequences of Mike's vigilantism actions can be, only to then largely justify his actions. When Mike violates orders during a surveillance assignment to abduct a possible lead, that source is left dead in a gruesomely elaborate shootout that's played for satire-less kicks. Partnered with a new unit of inexperienced, tech-savvy rookies (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton), Mike can only express his dismay at the new generation resorting to gadgets and nonlethal, perhaps even—dare one say—legal, measures of law enforcement. Each one gets a single defining characteristic (Hudgens's Kelley is a trigger-happy fascist in the making and Ludwig's Dorn possesses a bodybuilder's physique that belies his pacifism), and they all exist for Smith to target with stale jokes about old-school justice.
Likewise, the surprising soulfulness that Lawrence brings to his character is ultimately just fodder for jokes about how the weary, flabby new grandpa isn't getting laid. Unsurprisingly, then, Marcus only reclaims his virility as a man by lunging back into a life of chaotic police action. Even his turn toward faith and a vow of peace is mocked, as when he finds himself in possession of a machine gun during a hectic chase and Mike reassures him that God gave that to him in a time of need. "Shit, I do need it!" Marcus exclaims, but the humor of Lawrence's delivery only momentarily distracts us from the film's flippant take on his spirituality.
By saddling both heroes and villains alike with quests for revenge, Bad Boys for Life broaches deeper thematic possibility than has ever existed in this franchise. Indeed, the film's focus on aging, when paired with a last-act reveal that forces the characters to think about the legacies that are passed on to future generations, places it in unexpected parallel to another recent Will Smith vehicle, Gemini Man. But where Ang Lee's film actually grappled with the implications of violence bred and nurtured in our descendants, this movie merely gets some cheap sentimentality to contrast with its otherwise giddy embrace of carnage.
In the end, the film's perpetuation of the franchise's endorsement of police brutality comes back to bite it. The aforementioned scene with Marcus discovering the machine gun is played as a joke, even though the man, half-blind but refusing to wear the glasses that show his age, fires wildly at gunmen on motorcycles weaving around civilian vehicles. Watching this scene, it's hard not to think of the recent, real-life case of Miami cops firing hundreds of rounds at armed robbers despite being surrounded by commuters, not only killing the suspects but their hostage and a random bystander. This coincidental timing is a reminder that the supposed harmlessness of glib entertainments like Bad Boys for Life plays a part in normalizing the increasing police-state tactics and mentality of our nation's over-armed law enforcement.
Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Joe Pantoliano, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah Screenwriter: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, Joe Carnahan Distributor: Columbia Pictures Running Time: 110 min Rating: R Year: 2020 Buy: Soundtrack
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Actress
Well hi, everybody, it's nice to see you.
Well hi, everybody, it's nice to see you. Loyal readers of Slant's Oscar coverage know that we don't like to beat around the bush, and this year we have even less reason to do so what with the accelerated awards calendar forcing us to kick-start our rolling predictions earlier than usual. So, as we busy ourselves in the next few days catching up with some remaining blindspots, and being thankful that we don't actually ever have to see Cats, we will be bringing you our predictions in some of Oscar's easier-to-call categories.
Which isn't to say that we're going to be drama-free. Case in point: the revelation that Eric Henderson, my fellow awards guru, made on Twitter this week that "Scarlett Johansson is genuinely better in Jojo Rabbit than in Marriage Story." He also asked us to throw the tweet back in this face four or five years from now, but I say right now is as good a time as any.
No, seriously, shocking as that tweet was to this fan of Marriage Story's entire acting ensemble, that some are already predicting the actress as a possible spoiler in supporting actress in the wake of Jojo Rabbit scoring six nominations, it's gotten us thinking about the ostensibly evolving tastes of AMPAS's membership at a time when it's struggling to diversify itself. And based on how things went down at last year's Oscars, the only conclusion we can come up with is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Immediately after Glenn Close lost the Oscar last year to Olivia Coleman, Eric sent me a text wondering why AMPAS hates the former so much, to which I offered that there's nothing more unwavering than Hollywood's support for actors playing real-life individuals. Well, that and its support for actors who actually want to be exalted by the industry. Even in a world where Renée Zellweger isn't also being helped by a comeback narrative, and has yet to follow Joaquin Phoenix's savvy lead by getting arrested at Jane Fonda's weekly climate change protest and erasing our memory of her performance at the Golden Globes, she's nominated for a generally well liked performance in a film that has actually performed well at the box office.
On Monday, more outcry was provoked by the Oscar nominations, again for women being shut out of the best director race, but also for the snubbing of several actors of color, most notably Jennifer Lopez and Lupita N'yongo. Some will speculate that Cynthia Erivo, the only actor of color to be nominated this year, is a potential spoiler here, but whether she stands to benefit from a core of protest votes is something that can never be known. This fine actress's performance checks off almost as many boxes as Zellweger's, if not, at the end of the day, the one that matters most: representing a film about the industry itself, in this case one that will allow a reliably backward-looking Hollywood to atone for sins committed against their own.
Will Win: Renée Zellweger, Judy
Could Win: Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Should Win: Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story


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