title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols began her professional career as a singer and dancer in Chicago. She then toured the United States and Canada with the bands of Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. In 1959, she appeared as the principal dancer in the film version of "Porgy and Bess" Nichols' acting break came in an appearance in "Kicks and Co.", Oscar Brown's highly touted but ill-fated 1961 musical. In a thinly veiled satire of "Playboy" magazine, she played Hazel Sharpe, a voluptuous campus queen who was being tempted by the devil and "Orgy Magazine" to become "Orgy Maiden of the Month". Although the play closed after a short run in Chicago, Nichols attracted the attention of Hugh Hefner, the publisher of "Playboy", who booked her as a singer for his Chicago Playboy Club. She also appeared in the role of Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of "Carmen Jones" and performed in a New York production of "Porgy and Bess". Between acting and singing engagements, Nichols did occasional modeling work.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In January 1967, Nichols also was featured on the cover of "Ebony" magazine, and had two feature articles in the publication in five years. Nichols continued touring the United States, Canada, and Europe as a singer with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands. On the West Coast, she appeared in "The Roar of the Greasepaint" and "For My People" and she garnered high praise for her performance in the James Baldwin play "Blues for Mister Charlie". Prior to being cast as Lieutenant Uhura in "Star Trek", Nichols was a guest actress on television producer Gene Roddenberry's first series "The Lieutenant" (1964) in an episode, "To Set It Right", which dealt with racial prejudice.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: On "Star Trek", Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series. Her prominent supporting role as a bridge officer was unprecedented. Nichols was once tempted to leave the series; however, a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr. changed her mind. Towards the end of the first season, Nichols was given the opportunity to take a role on Broadway. She preferred the stage to the television studio, so she decided to take the role. Nichols went to Roddenberry's office, told him that she planned to leave, and handed him her resignation letter. Roddenberry tried to convince Nichols to stay but to no avail, so he told her to take the weekend off and if she still felt that she should leave then he would give her his blessing. That weekend, Nichols attended a banquet that was being run by the NAACP, where she was informed that a fan really wanted to meet her.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: King personally encouraged her to stay on the series, saying she "could not give up" because she was playing a vital role model for Black children and young women across the country, as well as for other children who would see Black people appearing as equals, going so far as to favorably compare her work on the series to the marches of the ongoing civil rights movement. This response by King left Nichols speechless, allowing her to realize how important to the civil rights movement her role was, and the next day she went back to Roddenberry's office to tell him that she would stay. When she told Roddenberry what King had said, tears came to his eyes. Nichols asked Roddenberry for her role back and Roddenberry took out her resignation letter, which he had already torn up. Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison has cited Nichols' role of Lieutenant Uhura as her inspiration for wanting to become an astronaut and Whoopi Goldberg has also spoken of Nichols' influence. Goldberg asked for a role on "", and the character Guinan was specially created, while Jemison appeared on an episode of the series.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In her role as Lieutenant Uhura, Nichols kissed white actor William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in the November 22, 1968, "Star Trek" episode "Plato's Stepchildren". The episode is cited as the first example of an interracial kiss on U.S. television. The Shatner/Nichols kiss was seen as groundbreaking, even though it was portrayed as having been forced by alien telekinesis. There was some praise and almost no dissent. In her autobiography "Beyond Uhura, Star Trek and Other Memories", Nichols cited a letter from a white Southerner who wrote, "I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it." During the Comedy Central Roast of Shatner on August 20, 2006, Nichols jokingly referred to the kiss and said, "what do you say, let's make a little more TV history ... "and kiss my black ass!""


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Despite the cancellation of the series in 1969, "Star Trek" lived on in other ways, and continued to play a part in Nichols' life. She again provided the voice of Uhura in ""; in one episode, "The Lorelei Signal", Uhura assumes command of the "Enterprise". Nichols noted in her autobiography her frustration that this never happened on the original series. Nichols co-starred in six "Star Trek" films, the last one being "". Following the death of Leonard Nimoy in 2015, and until her own death in July 2022, Nichols was one of four surviving cast members, the others being William Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In 1994, Nichols published her autobiography "Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories". In it, she claimed that the role of Peggy Fair in the television series "Mannix" was offered to her during the final season of "Star Trek", but producer Gene Roddenberry refused to release her from her contract. Between the end of the original series and the "Star Trek" animated series and feature films, Nichols appeared in small television and film roles. She briefly appeared as a secretary in "Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!" (1967), and portrayed Dorienda, a foul-mouthed madam in "Truck Turner" (1974) opposite Isaac Hayes, her only appearance in a blaxploitation film.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols appeared in animated form as one of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers in the "Anthology of Interest I" episode of "Futurama", and she provided the voice of her own head in a glass jar in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". She voiced the recurring role of Elisa Maza's mother Diane Maza in the animated series "Gargoyles", and played Thoth-Kopeira in an episode of "". In 2004, she provided the voice for herself in "The Simpsons" episode "Simple Simpson". In the comedy film "Snow Dogs" (2002), Nichols appeared as the mother of the male lead, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. In 2006, she appeared as the title character in the film "Lady Magdalene's", the madam of a legal Nevada brothel in tax default. She also served as executive producer and choreographer, and sang three songs in the film, two of which she composed. She was twice nominated for the Chicago theatrical Sarah Siddons Award for Best Actress. The first nomination was for her portrayal of Hazel Sharpe in "Kicks and Co."; the second for her performance in "The Blacks".


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols played a recurring role on the second season of the NBC drama "Heroes". Her first appearance was on the episode "Kindred", which aired October 8, 2007. She portrayed Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family financially and personally devastated by Hurricane Katrina, who cares for her orphaned grandchildren and her great-nephew, series regular Micah Sanders. In 2008, Nichols starred in the film "The Torturer", playing the role of a psychiatrist. In 2009, she joined the cast of "The Cabonauts", a sci-fi musical comedy that debuted on DailyMotion. Playing CJ, the CEO of the Cabonauts Inc, Nichols is also featured singing and dancing. On August 30, 2016, she was introduced as the aging mother of Neil Winters on the long-standing soap opera "The Young and the Restless". She received her first Daytime Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series" category for this role March 22, 2017.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols released two music albums. "Down to Earth" is a collection of standards released in 1967, during the original run of "Star Trek". "Out of This World", released in 1991, is more rock-oriented and is themed around "Star Trek" and space exploration.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: As Uhura, Nichols sang songs on the "Star Trek" episodes "Charlie X" and "The Conscience of the King".


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: After the cancellation of "Star Trek", Nichols volunteered her time in a special project with NASA to recruit minority and female personnel for the space agency. She began this work by making an affiliation between NASA and a company which she helped to run, Women in Motion.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: The program was a success. Among those recruited were Dr. Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and United States Air Force Colonel Guion Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, as well as Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ronald McNair, who both flew successful missions during the Space Shuttle program before their deaths in the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster on January 28, 1986. Recruits also included Charles Bolden, the former NASA administrator and veteran of four shuttle missions, Frederick D. Gregory, former deputy administrator and a veteran of three shuttle missions and Lori Garver, former deputy administrator. An enthusiastic advocate of space exploration, Nichols served from the mid-1980s on the board of governors of the National Space Institute (today's National Space Society), a nonprofit, educational space advocacy organization.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In late 2015, Nichols flew aboard NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Boeing 747SP, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn on an eight hour, high-altitude mission. She was also a special guest at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on July 17, 1976, to view the "Viking 1" soft landing on Mars. Along with the other cast members from the original "Star Trek" series, she attended the christening of the first space shuttle, "Enterprise", at the North American Rockwell assembly facility in Palmdale, California. On July 14, 2010, she toured the space shuttle simulator and Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols' work with NASA is given significant focus in the documentary "Woman in Motion" about her life.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In her autobiography, Nichols wrote that she was romantically involved with "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry for a few years in the 1960s. She said the affair ended well before "Star Trek" began, when she realized Roddenberry was also involved with her acquaintance Majel Hudec (known as Majel Barrett). Hudec went on to marry Gene Roddenberry and have a regular supporting role as nurse Christine Chapel on "Star Trek".


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: When Roddenberry's health was fading, Nichols co-wrote a song for him, entitled "Gene", which she sang at his funeral.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols married twice, first to dancer Foster Johnson (1917–1981). They were married in 1951 and divorced that same year. Johnson and Nichols had one child together, Kyle Johnson, who was born August 14, 1951. She married for the second time, to Duke Mondy, in 1968. They divorced in 1972.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols' younger brother, Thomas, was a member of the Heaven's Gate cult. He died on March 26, 1997, in the cult's mass suicide that purposely coincided with the passing of Comet Hale–Bopp. A member for 20 years, he frequently identified himself as Nichelle's brother in promotional materials released by the cult.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: On February 29, 2012, Nichols met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. She later tweeted about the meeting, "Months ago, [President] Obama was quoted as saying that he'd had a crush on me when he was younger," Nichols also wrote. "I asked about that and he proudly confirmed it! President Obama also confirmed for me that he was definitely a Trekker! How wonderful is that?!"


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In June 2015, Nichols suffered a mild stroke at her Los Angeles home and was admitted to a Los Angeles–area hospital. A magnetic resonance imaging scan confirmed a small stroke had occurred, and she began inpatient therapy. In early 2018, Nichols was diagnosed with dementia, and subsequently announced her retirement from convention appearances.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Following a legal dispute over the actions of her manager-turned-caretaker Gilbert Bell, her son Kyle Johnson filed for conservatorship in 2018. Before a court granted his petition in January 2019, Nichols' friend Angelique Fawcette, who had already expressed concern in 2017 over Bell's control of access to her, pressed for visitation rights, including by opposing Johnson's petition. That dispute and a 2019 court case by Bell over being evicted from the guesthouse on Nichols' property were both ongoing as of August 2021.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: In 1999, Nichols was awarded a Goldene Kamera for ("Cult Star of the Century"). 2010, Nichols received an honorary degree from Los Angeles Mission College.


title: Nichelle Nichols

text: Nichols received The Life Career Award, from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, in 2016, the first woman to receive it. The award was presented as part of the 42nd Saturn Awards ceremony. Nichols was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2018.


title: Rajinikanth filmography

text: Rajinikanth is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 160 films, predominantly in Tamil cinema. He began his film career by playing antagonistic and supporting roles before graduating to a lead actor. After starring in numerous commercially successful films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he has continued to hold a matinée idol status in the popular culture of Tamil Nadu. Writing for "Slate", Grady Hendrix called him the "biggest movie star you've probably never heard of." Rajinikanth has also worked in other Indian film industries such as Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.


title: Rajinikanth filmography

text: He made his cinematic debut with K. Balachander's 1975 Tamil drama "Apoorva Raagangal", in which he played a minor role of an abusive husband. He had his first major role in Balachander's Telugu drama film "Anthuleni Katha" (1976), and got his breakthrough in Tamil with "Moondru Mudichu" (1976)—also directed by Balachander. His style and mannerisms in the latter earned recognition from the audience. In 1977, he acted in 15 films, playing negative characters in most of them, including "Avargal", "16 Vayathinile", "Aadu Puli Attam" and "Gaayathri". He had positive roles in "Kavikkuyil", the Kannada film "Sahodarara Savaal", and the Telugu film "Chilakamma Cheppindi", in which he played the protagonist for the first time in his career. His role as a failed lover in S. P. Muthuraman's "Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri" (1977) won him critical acclaim. In 1978, he was cast as the main lead in the Tamil film "Bairavi". The same year, he received critical acclaim for his roles in "Mullum Malarum" and "Aval Appadithan"; the former earned him a Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Actor. He made his Malayalam cinema debut with I. V. Sasi's fantasy "Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum" (1979), an adaptation of a story from "One Thousand and One Nights". By the end of the decade, he had worked in all South Indian languages and established a career in Tamil cinema.


title: Rajinikanth filmography

text: He played dual roles in the action thriller "Billa" (1980), which was a remake of the Bollywood film "Don" (1978). It was his biggest commercial success to that point and gave him the action hero image. Murattu Kaalai released in 1980 was instrumental in establishing Rajinikanth as both an action hero and superstar. Balachander's "Thillu Mullu" (1981), the Tamil remake of the Bollywood film "Gol Maal" (1979), was Rajinikanth's first full-length comedy film. He played triple roles in the 1982 Tamil film "Moondru Mugam", which earned him a special prize at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards ceremony. The following year, he made his Bollywood debut with T. Rama Rao's "Andhaa Kaanoon"; it was among the top-grossing Bollywood films in 1983. Muthuraman's "Nallavanukku Nallavan" (1984) won him that year's Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor. In 1985, he portrayed the Hindu saint Raghavendra Swami in his 100th film "Sri Raghavendrar", a box-office failure. In the latter half of the 1980s, he starred in several films in Tamil and Hindi, including "Padikkadavan" (1985), "Mr. Bharath" (1986), "Bhagwaan Dada" (1986), "Velaikaran" (1987), "Guru Sishyan" (1988) and "Dharmathin Thalaivan" (1988). During this time, he made his debut in American cinema with a supporting role in the mystery adventure film "Bloodstone" (1988), a box-office failure.


title: Rajinikanth filmography

text: Rajinikanth continued to act in Bollywood, often playing supporting roles in films such as "Hum", "Khoon Ka Karz", and "Phool Bane Angaray" (all in 1991). Mani Ratnam's Tamil film "Thalapathi" (1991), based on the Indian epic "Mahabharata", earned him critical acclaim. Suresh Krissna's "Annaamalai" (1992), P. Vasu's "Mannan" (1992) and "Uzhaippali" (1993) are among his box-office successes in Tamil. He made his debut as a screenwriter with "Valli" (1993), a commercial failure. The Suresh Krissna-directed "Baashha", in which he played a crime boss, was a major commercial success in his career and earned him a "demigod" status in Tamil Nadu. Later that year he acted in K. S. Ravikumar's "Muthu", which was dubbed into Japanese. In Japan, the film grossed a record US$1.6 million in 1998 and was largely instrumental in creating a fan-base for Rajinikanth in the country. "Padayappa" (1999), his second collaboration with Ravikumar, went on to become the highest-grossing Tamil film to that point. In 2002 Rajinikanth produced, wrote and starred in the fantasy thriller "Baba", which fell short of market expectations and incurred heavy losses for its distributors. After a three-year sabbatical, he returned to acting with the comedy horror film "Chandramukhi" (2005); it went on to become the highest-grossing Tamil film to that point, and its theatrical run lasted 126 weeks at Shanti Theatre in Chennai. Rajinikanth was paid 26 crore for his role in S. Shankar's "" (2007), which made him the second-highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan. He played dual roles, as a scientist and an andro-humanoid robot, in the science fiction film "Enthiran" (2010). It was India's most expensive production at the time of its release, and is among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. He played triple roles in the 2014 animated film "Kochadaiiyaan", the first in India to be shot with motion capture technology; it was a commercial failure. Two years later, Rajinikanth played a Malaysian Tamil crime boss in Pa. Ranjith's "Kabali", which had the biggest weekend opening for an Indian film.


title: Napster

text: Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker, and Hugo Sáez Contreras. As the software became popular, the company ran into legal difficulties over copyright infringement. It ceased operations in 2001 after losing a wave of lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002.


title: Napster

text: Later, more decentralized projects followed Napster's P2P file-sharing example, such as Gnutella, Freenet, FastTrack, and Soulseek. Some services and software, like AudioGalaxy, LimeWire, Scour, Kazaa / Grokster, Madster, and eDonkey2000, were also brought down or changed due to copyright issues.


title: Napster

text: Napster's assets were eventually acquired by Roxio, and it re-emerged as an online music store. Best Buy later purchased the service and merged it with its Rhapsody service on December 1, 2011, rebranding back to Napster.


title: Napster

text: Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Initially, Napster was envisioned by Fanning as an independent peer-to-peer file sharing service. The service operated between June 1999 and July 2001. Its technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with other participants. Although the original service was shut down by court order, the Napster brand survived after the company's assets were liquidated and purchased by other companies through bankruptcy proceedings.


title: Napster

text: Although there were already networks that facilitated the distribution of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and Usenet, Napster specialized in MP3 files of music and a user-friendly interface. At its peak, the Napster service had about 80 million registered users. Napster made it relatively easy for music enthusiasts to download copies of songs that were otherwise difficult to obtain, such as older songs, unreleased recordings, studio recordings, and songs from concert bootleg recordings. Napster paved the way for streaming media services and transformed music into a public good for a brief time.


title: Napster

text: High-speed networks in college dormitories became overloaded, with as much as 61% of external network traffic consisting of MP3 file transfers. Many colleges blocked its use for this reason, even before concerns about liability for facilitating copyright violations on campus.


title: Napster

text: The service and software program began as Windows-only. However, in 2000, Black Hole Media wrote a Macintosh client called Macster. Macster was later bought by Napster and designated the official Mac Napster client ("Napster for the Mac"), at which point the Macster name was discontinued. Even before the acquisition of Macster, the Macintosh community had a variety of independently developed Napster clients. The most notable was the open source client called MacStar, released by Squirrel Software in early 2000, and Rapster, released by Overcaster Family in Brazil. The release of MacStar's source code paved the way for third-party Napster clients across all computing platforms, giving users advertisement-free music distribution options.


title: Napster

text: Heavy metal band Metallica discovered a demo of their song "I Disappear" had been circulating across the network before it was released. This led to it being played on several radio stations across the United States, which alerted Metallica to the fact that their entire back catalogue of studio material was also available. On March 13, 2000, they filed a lawsuit against Napster. A month later, rapper and producer Dr. Dre, who shared a litigator and legal firm with Metallica, filed a similar lawsuit after Napster refused his written request to remove his works from its service. Separately, Metallica and Dr. Dre later delivered to Napster thousands of usernames of people who they believed were pirating their songs. In March 2001, Napster settled both suits, after being shut down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a separate lawsuit from several major record labels (see below). In 2000, Madonna's single "Music" was leaked out onto the web and Napster prior to its commercial release, causing widespread media coverage. Verified Napster use peaked with 26.4 million users worldwide in February 2001.


title: Napster

text: In 2000, the American musical recording company A&M Records along with several other recording companies, through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), sued Napster ("A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.") on grounds of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Napster was faced with the following allegations from the music industry:


title: Napster

text: Napster lost the case in the District Court but then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Although it was clear that Napster could have commercially significant non-infringing uses, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's decision. Immediately after, the District Court commanded Napster to keep track of the activities of its network and to restrict access to infringing material when informed of that material's location. Napster wasn't able to comply and thus had to close down its service in July 2001. In 2002, Napster announced that it had filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets to a third party. In a 2018 "Rolling Stone" article, Kirk Hammett of Metallica upheld the band's opinion that suing Napster was the "right" thing to do.


title: Napster

text: Along with the accusations that Napster was hurting the sales of the record industry, some felt just the opposite, that file trading on Napster stimulated, rather than hurt, sales. Some evidence may have come in July 2000 when tracks from English rock band Radiohead's album "Kid A" found their way to Napster three months before the album's release. Unlike Madonna, Dr. Dre, or Metallica, Radiohead had never hit the top 20 in the US. Furthermore, "Kid A" was an album without any singles released, and received relatively little radio airplay. By the time of the album's release, the album was estimated to have been downloaded for free by millions of people worldwide, and in October 2000 "Kid A" captured the number one spot on the "Billboard" 200 sales chart in its debut week. According to Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire, the effect of Napster in this instance was isolated from other elements that could be credited for driving sales, and the album's unexpected success suggested that Napster was a good promotional tool for music.


title: Napster

text: Since 2000, many musical artists, particularly those not signed to major labels and without access to traditional mass media outlets such as radio and television, have said that Napster and successive Internet file-sharing networks have helped get their music heard, spread word of mouth, and may have improved their sales in the long term. One such musician to publicly defend Napster as a promotional tool for independent artists was DJ Xealot, who became directly involved in the 2000 A&M Records Lawsuit. Chuck D from Public Enemy also came out and publicly supported Napster.


title: Napster

text: Napster's facilitation of the transfer of copyrighted material raised the ire of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which almost immediately—on December 6, 1999—filed a lawsuit against the popular service. The service would only get bigger as the trial, meant to shut down Napster, also gave it a great deal of publicity. Soon millions of users, many of whom were college students, flocked to it.


title: Napster

text: After a failed appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court, an injunction was issued on March 5, 2001 ordering Napster to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on its network.


title: Napster

text: Lawrence Lessig claimed, however, that this decision made little sense from the perspective of copyright protection: "When Napster told the district court that it had developed a technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not good enough. Napster had to push the infringements 'down to zero.' If 99.4 percent is not good enough," Lessig concluded, "then this is a war on file-sharing technologies, not a war on copyright infringement."


title: Napster

text: On July 11, 2001, Napster shut down its entire network to comply with the injunction. On September 24, 2001, the case was partially settled. Napster agreed to pay music creators and copyright owners a $26 million settlement for past, unauthorized uses of music, and as an advance against future licensing royalties of $10 million. To pay those fees, Napster attempted to convert its free service into a subscription system, and thus traffic to Napster was reduced. A prototype solution was tested in 2002: the Napster 3.0 Alpha, using the ".nap" secure file format from PlayMedia Systems and audio fingerprinting technology licensed from Relatable. Napster 3.0 was, according to many former Napster employees, ready to deploy, but it had significant trouble obtaining licenses to distribute major-label music. On May 17, 2002, Napster announced that its assets would be acquired by German media firm Bertelsmann for $85 million to transform Napster into an online music subscription service. The two companies had been collaborating since the middle of 2000 where Bertelsmann became the first major label to drop its copyright lawsuit against Napster. Pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement, on June 3 Napster filed for Chapter 11 protection under United States bankruptcy laws. On September 3, 2002, an American bankruptcy judge blocked the sale to Bertelsmann and forced Napster to liquidate its assets.


title: Napster

text: Napster's brand and logos were acquired at a bankruptcy auction by Roxio which used them to re-brand the Pressplay music service as Napster 2.0. In September 2008, Napster was purchased by US electronics retailer Best Buy for the US $121 million. On December 1, 2011, pursuant to a deal with Best Buy, Napster merged with Rhapsody, with Best Buy receiving a minority stake in Rhapsody. On July 14, 2016, Rhapsody phased out the Rhapsody brand in favor of Napster and has since branded its service internationally as Napster and expanded toward other markets by providing music on-demand as a service to other brands like the iHeartRadio app and their All Access music subscription service that provides subscribers with an on-demand music experience as well as premium radio.


title: Napster

text: On May 10, 2022, Napster was sold to Hivemind and Algorand. The investor consortium also includes ATC Management, BH Digital, G20 Ventures, SkyBridge, RSE Ventures, Arrington Capital, Borderless Capital, and others.


"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence in English, often presented as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs through lexical ambiguity. It has been discussed in literature in various forms since 1967, when it appeared in Dmitri Borgmann's "".


title: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

text: A semantically equivalent form preserving the original word order is: "Buffalo bison that other Buffalo bison bully also bully Buffalo bison."


text: The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are:


text: The sentence is syntactically ambiguous; one possible parse (marking each "buffalo" with its part of speech as shown above) is as follows:


text: When grouped syntactically, this is equivalent to: [(Buffalonian bison) (Buffalonian bison intimidate)] intimidate (Buffalonian bison).


text: As the sentence uses a restrictive clause, there are no commas. The qualifier "which" or "that" could appear between the second and third words of the sentence, as in "Buffalo buffalo, which Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo"; as these are omitted, the clause is further a reduced relative clause.


text: Thus, the parsed sentence reads as a claim that bison who "are intimidated or bullied by bison" are themselves "intimidating or bullying bison" (at least in the city of Buffalo – implicitly, Buffalo, New York):


text: Thomas Tymoczko has pointed out that there is nothing special about eight "buffalos"; any sentence consisting solely of the word "buffalo" repeated any number of times is grammatically correct. The shortest is "Buffalo!", which can be taken as a verbal imperative instruction to bully someone ("[You,] buffalo!") with the implied subject "you" removed,; or, as a noun exclamation, expressing e.g. that a buffalo has been sighted, or as an adjectival exclamation, e.g. as a response to the question, "where are you from?" Tymoczko uses the sentence as an example illustrating rewrite rules in linguistics.


text: The idea that one can construct a grammatically correct sentence consisting of nothing but repetitions of "buffalo" was independently discovered several times in the 20th century. The earliest known written example, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", appears in the original manuscript for Dmitri Borgmann's 1965 book "Language on Vacation", though the chapter containing it was omitted from the published version. Borgmann recycled some of the material from this chapter, including the "buffalo" sentence, in his 1967 book, "". In 1972, William J. Rapaport, then a graduate student at Indiana University, came up with versions containing five and ten instances of "buffalo". He later used both versions in his teaching, and in 1992 posted them to the LINGUIST List. A sentence with eight consecutive buffalos is featured in Steven Pinker's 1994 book "The Language Instinct" as an example of a sentence that is "seemingly nonsensical" but grammatical. Pinker names his student, Annie Senghas, as the inventor of the sentence.


text: Neither Rapaport, Pinker, nor Senghas were initially aware of the earlier coinages. Pinker learned of Rapaport's earlier example only in 1994, and Rapaport was not informed of Borgmann's sentence until 2006.


text: Versions of the linguistic oddity can be constructed with other words which similarly simultaneously serve as collective noun, adjective, and verb, some of which need no capitalization (such as "police").


title: Saint Patrick

text: Saint Patrick (; ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigit of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formally canonised, having lived prior to the current laws of the Catholic Church in these matters. Nevertheless, he is venerated as a Saint in the Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The dates of Patrick's life cannot be fixed with certainty, but there is general agreement that he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the fifth century. A recent biography on Patrick shows a late fourth-century date for the saint is not impossible. Early medieval tradition credits him with being the first bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, and regards him as the founder of Christianity in Ireland, converting a society practising a form of Celtic polytheism. He has been generally so regarded ever since, despite evidence of some earlier Christian presence in Ireland.


title: Saint Patrick

text: According to the autobiographical "Confessio" of Patrick, when he was about sixteen, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals; he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had already come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.


title: Saint Patrick

text: His feast day is observed on 17 March, the supposed date of his death. It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is also a celebration of Ireland itself.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Two Latin works survive which are generally accepted as having been written by St. Patrick. These are the "Declaration" () and the "Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus" (), from which come the only generally accepted details of his life. The "Declaration" is the more biographical of the two. In it, Patrick gives a short account of his life and his mission. Most available details of his life are from subsequent hagiographies and annals, which have considerable value but lack the empiricism scholars depend on today.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The only name that Patrick uses for himself in his own writings is , which gives and (); English "Patrick"; ; ; .


title: Saint Patrick

text: Hagiography records other names he is said to have borne. Tírechán's seventh-century "Collectanea" gives: "Magonus, that is, famous; Succetus, that is, god of war; Patricius, that is, father of the citizens; Cothirthiacus, because he served four houses of druids." "Magonus" appears in the ninth century "Historia Brittonum" as "Maun", descending from British "*Magunos", meaning "servant-lad". "Succetus", which also appears in Muirchú moccu Machtheni's seventh century "Life" as "Sochet", is identified by Mac Neill as "a word of British origin meaning swineherd". Cothirthiacus also appears as "Cothraige" in the 8th century biographical poem known as "Fiacc's Hymn" and a variety of other spellings elsewhere, and is taken to represent a , although this is disputed. Harvey argues that "Cothraige" "has the form of a classic Old Irish tribal (and therefore place-) name", noting that "Ail Coithrigi" is a name for the Rock of Cashel, and the place-names "Cothrugu" and "Catrige" are attested in Counties Antrim and Carlow.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The dates of Patrick's life are uncertain; there are conflicting traditions regarding the year of his death. His own writings provide no evidence for any dating more precise than the 5th century generally. His Biblical quotations are a mixture of the Old Latin version and the Vulgate, completed in the early 5th century, suggesting he was writing "at the point of transition from Old Latin to Vulgate", although it is possible the Vulgate readings may have been added later, replacing earlier readings. The "Letter to Coroticus" implies that the Franks were still pagans at the time of writing: their conversion to Christianity is dated to the period 496–508.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The Irish annals for the fifth century date Patrick's arrival in Ireland at 432, but they were compiled in the mid 6th century at the earliest. The date 432 was probably chosen to minimise the contribution of Palladius, who was known to have been sent to Ireland in 431, and maximise that of Patrick. A variety of dates are given for his death. In 457 "the elder Patrick" () is said to have died: this may refer to the death of Palladius, who according to the "Book of Armagh" was also called Patrick. In 461/2 the annals say that "Here some record the repose of Patrick"; in 492/3 they record the death of "Patrick, the arch-apostle (or archbishop and apostle) of the Scoti", on 17 March, at the age of 120.


title: Saint Patrick

text: While some modern historians accept the earlier date of c. 460 for Patrick's death, scholars of early Irish history tend to prefer a later date, c. 493. Supporting the later date, the annals record that in 553 "the relics of Patrick were placed "sixty years after his death" in a shrine by Colum Cille" (emphasis added). The death of Patrick's disciple Mochta is dated in the annals to 535 or 537, and the early hagiographies "all bring Patrick into contact with persons whose obits occur at the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth". However, E. A. Thompson argues that none of the dates given for Patrick's death in the Annals are reliable. A recent biography argues that a late fifth-century date for the saint is not impossible.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick was born at the End of Roman rule in Britain. His birthplace is not known with any certainty; some traditions place it in what is now England—one identifying it as Glannoventa (modern Ravenglass in Cumbria). In 1981, Thomas argued at length for the areas of Birdoswald, twenty miles (32 km) east of Carlisle on Hadrian's Wall. . In 1993, Paor glossed it as "[probably near] Carlisle". There is a Roman town known as Bannaventa in Northamptonshire, which is phonically similar to the Bannavem Taburniae mentioned in Patrick’s confession, but this is probably too far from the sea. Claims have also been advanced for locations in present-day Scotland, with the Catholic Encyclopedia stating that Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland, and in 1926 Eoin MacNeill also advanced a claim for South Wales.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick's father, Calpurnius, is described as a decurion (Senator and tax collector) of an unspecified Romano-British city, and as a deacon; his grandfather Potitus was a priest from Bonaven Tabernia. However, Patrick's confession states he was not an active believer in his youth.


title: Saint Patrick

text: According to the "Confession of Saint Patrick", at the age of sixteen he was captured by a group of Irish pirates, from his family's Villa at “Bannavem Taburniae”. They took him to Ireland where he was enslaved and held captive for six years. Patrick writes in the "Confession" that the time he spent in captivity was critical to his spiritual development. He explains that the Lord had mercy on his youth and ignorance, and afforded him the opportunity to be forgiven his sins and convert to Christianity. While in captivity, he worked as a shepherd and strengthened his relationship with God through prayer, eventually leading him to convert to Christianity.


title: Saint Patrick

text: After six years of captivity he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away, where he found a ship and with difficulty persuaded the captain to take him. After three days' sailing, they landed, presumably in Britain, and apparently all left the ship, walking for 28 days in a "wilderness" and becoming faint from hunger. Patrick's account of his escape from slavery and return home to Britain is recounted in his "Declaration". After Patrick prayed for sustenance, they encountered a herd of wild boar; since this was shortly after Patrick had urged them to put their faith in God, his prestige in the group was greatly increased. After various adventures, he returned home to his family, now in his early twenties. After returning home to Britain, Patrick continued to study Christianity.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us."


title: Saint Patrick

text: A.B.E. Hood suggests that the Victoricus of St. Patrick's vision may be identified with Saint Victricius, bishop of Rouen in the late fourth century, who had visited Britain in an official capacity in 396. However, Ludwig Bieler disagrees.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick studied in Europe principally at Auxerre, but is thought to have visited the Marmoutier Abbey, Tours and to have received the tonsure at Lérins Abbey. Saint Germanus of Auxerre, a bishop of the Western Church, ordained him to the priesthood.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Acting on his vision, Patrick returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. According to J. B. Bury, his landing place was Wicklow, Co. Wicklow, at the mouth of the river Inver-dea, which is now called the Vartry. Bury suggests that Wicklow was also the port through which Patrick made his escape after his six years' captivity, though he offers only circumstantial evidence to support this. Tradition has it that Patrick was not welcomed by the locals and was forced to leave and seek a more welcoming landing place further north. He rested for some days at the islands off the Skerries coast, one of which still retains the name of Inis-Patrick. The first sanctuary dedicated by Patrick was at Saul. Shortly thereafter Benin (or Benignus), son of the chieftain Secsnen, joined Patrick's group.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Much of the "Declaration" concerns charges made against Patrick by his fellow Christians at a trial. What these charges were, he does not say explicitly, but he writes that he returned the gifts which wealthy women gave him, did not accept payment for baptisms, nor for ordaining priests, and indeed paid for many gifts to kings and judges, and paid for the sons of chiefs to accompany him. It is concluded, therefore, that he was accused of some sort of financial impropriety, and perhaps of having obtained his bishopric in Ireland with personal gain in mind.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The condemnation might have contributed to his decision to return to Ireland. According to Patrick's most recent biographer, Roy Flechner, the "Confessio" was written in part as a defence against his detractors, who did not believe that he was taken to Ireland as a slave, despite Patrick's vigorous insistence that he was. Patrick eventually returned to Ireland, probably settling in the west of the island, where, in later life, he became a bishop and ordained subordinate clerics.


title: Saint Patrick

text: From this same evidence, something can be seen of Patrick's mission. He writes that he "baptised thousands of people", even planning to convert his slavers. He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too. The "Confessio" is generally vague about the details of his work in Ireland, though giving some specific instances. This is partly because, as he says at points, he was writing for a local audience of Christians who knew him and his work. There are several mentions of travelling around the island, and of sometimes difficult interactions with the ruling elite. He does claim of the Irish: Never before did they know of God except to serve idols and unclean things. But now, they have become the people of the Lord, and are called children of God. The sons and daughters of the leaders of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ! Patrick's position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity. Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in chains, perhaps awaiting execution. Patrick says that he was also "many years later" a captive for 60 days, without giving details.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Murchiú's life of Saint Patrick contains a supposed prophecy by the druids which gives an impression of how Patrick and other Christian missionaries were seen by those hostile to them:


title: Saint Patrick

text: The second piece of evidence that comes from Patrick's life is the "Letter to Coroticus" or "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus", written after a first remonstrance was received with ridicule and insult. In this, Patrick writes an open letter announcing that he has excommunicated Coroticus because he had taken some of Patrick's converts into slavery while raiding in Ireland. The letter describes the followers of Coroticus as "fellow citizens of the devils" and "associates of the Scots [of Dalriada and later Argyll] and Apostate Picts". Based largely on an eighth-century gloss, Coroticus is taken to be King Ceretic of Alt Clut. Thompson however proposed that based on the evidence it is more likely that Coroticus was a British Roman living in Ireland. It has been suggested that it was the sending of this letter which provoked the trial which Patrick mentions in the "Confession".


title: Saint Patrick

text: An early document which is silent concerning Patrick is the letter of Columbanus to Pope Boniface IV of about 613. Columbanus writes that Ireland's Christianity "was first handed to us by you, the successors of the holy apostles", apparently referring to Palladius only, and ignoring Patrick. Writing on the Easter controversy in 632 or 633, Cummian—it is uncertain whether this is Cumméne Fota, associated with Clonfert, or Cumméne Find—does refer to Patrick, calling him "our papa"; that is, pope or primate.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Two works by late seventh-century hagiographers of Patrick have survived. These are the writings of Tírechán and the "Vita sancti Patricii" of Muirchú moccu Machtheni. Both writers relied upon an earlier work, now lost, the "Book of Ultán". This Ultán, probably the same person as Ultan of Ardbraccan, was Tírechán's foster-father. His obituary is given in the "Annals of Ulster" under the year 657. These works thus date from a century and a half after Patrick's death.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Tírechán writes, "I found four names for Patrick written in the book of Ultán, bishop of the tribe of Conchobar: holy "Magonus" (that is, "famous"); "Succetus" (that is, the god of war); "Patricius" (that is, father of the citizens); "Cothirtiacus" (because he served four houses of druids)."


title: Saint Patrick

text: Muirchu records much the same information, adding that "[h]is mother was named Concessa". The name "Cothirtiacus", however, is simply the Latinised form of Old Irish "Cothraige", which is the Q-Celtic form of Latin "Patricius".


title: Saint Patrick

text: The Patrick portrayed by Tírechán and Muirchu is a martial figure, who contests with druids, overthrows pagan idols, and curses kings and kingdoms. On occasion, their accounts contradict Patrick's own writings: Tírechán states that Patrick accepted gifts from female converts although Patrick himself flatly denies this. However, the emphasis Tírechán and Muirchu placed on female converts, and in particular royal and noble women who became nuns, is thought to be a genuine insight into Patrick's work of conversion. Patrick also worked with the unfree and the poor, encouraging them to vows of monastic chastity. Tírechán's account suggests that many early Patrician churches were combined with nunneries founded by Patrick's noble female converts.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The martial Patrick found in Tírechán and Muirchu, and in later accounts, echoes similar figures found during the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. It may be doubted whether such accounts are an accurate representation of Patrick's time, although such violent events may well have occurred as Christians gained in strength and numbers.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Much of the detail supplied by Tírechán and Muirchu, in particular the churches established by Patrick, and the monasteries founded by his converts, may relate to the situation in the seventh century, when the churches which claimed ties to Patrick, and in particular Armagh, were expanding their influence throughout Ireland in competition with the church of Kildare. In the same period, Wilfred, Archbishop of York, claimed to speak, as metropolitan archbishop, "for all the northern part of Britain and of Ireland" at a council held in Rome in the time of Pope Agatho, thus claiming jurisdiction over the Irish church.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Other presumed early materials include the Irish annals, which contain records from the Chronicle of Ireland. These sources have conflated Palladius and Patrick. Another early document is the so-called "First Synod of Saint Patrick". This is a seventh-century document, once, but no longer, taken as to contain a fifth-century original text. It apparently collects the results of several early synods, and represents an era when pagans were still a major force in Ireland. The introduction attributes it to Patrick, Auxilius, and Iserninus, a claim which "cannot be taken at face value."


title: Saint Patrick

text: Legend credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God. The earliest written version of the story is given by the botanist Caleb Threlkeld in his 1726 "Synopsis stirpium Hibernicarum", but the earliest surviving records associating Patrick with the plant are coins depicting Patrick clutching a shamrock which were minted in the 1680s.


title: Saint Patrick

text: In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities, a fact that may have aided Patrick in his evangelisation efforts when he "held up a shamrock and discoursed on the Christian Trinity". Patricia Monaghan says there is no evidence that the shamrock was sacred to the pagan Irish. However, Jack Santino speculates that it may have represented the regenerative powers of nature, and was recast in a Christian context. Icons of St Patrick often depict the saint "with a cross in one hand and a sprig of shamrocks in the other". Roger Homan writes, "We can perhaps see St Patrick drawing upon the visual concept of the "triskele" when he uses the shamrock to explain the Trinity".


title: Saint Patrick

text: The absence of snakes in Ireland has been noted from as early as the third century by Gaius Julius Solinus, but later legend has attributed the banishment of all snakes from the island to Patrick. As Roy Flechner shows in his biography, the earliest text to mention an Irish saint banishing snakes from Ireland is in fact the Life of Saint Columba (chapter 3.23), written in the late seventh or early eighth century. The earliest written record of a legend about Patrick ridding Ireland of venomous creatures dates to the thirteenth century by Gerald of Wales, who expressed scepticism about the veracity of the story. The more familiar version of the legend is given by Jocelyn of Furness, who says that the snakes had all been banished by Patrick chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill. The hagiographic theme of banishing snakes may draw on the Biblical account of the staff of the prophet Moses. In , Moses and Aaron use their staffs in their struggle with Pharaoh's sorcerers, the staffs of each side turning into snakes. Aaron's snake-staff prevails by consuming the other snakes.


title: Saint Patrick

text: . "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Tírechán wrote in the 7th century that Patrick spent forty days on the mountaintop of Cruachán Aigle, as Moses did on Mount Sinai. The 9th century "Bethu Phátraic" says that Patrick was harassed by a flock of black demonic birds while on the peak, and he banished them into the hollow of Lugnademon ("hollow of the demons") by ringing his bell. Patrick ended his fast when God gave him the right to judge all the Irish at the Last Judgement, and agreed to spare the land of Ireland from the final desolation. A later legend tells how Patrick was tormented on the mountain by a demonic female serpent named Corra or Caorthannach. Patrick is said to have banished the serpent into Lough Na Corra below the mountain, or into a hollow from which the lake burst forth. The mountain is now known as Croagh Patrick (Cruach Phádraig) after the saint.


title: Saint Patrick

text: According to tradition, Patrick founded his main church at Armagh (Ard Mhacha) in the year 445. Muirchú writes that a pagan chieftain named Dáire would not let Patrick build a church on the hill of Ard Mhacha, but instead gave him lower ground to the east. One day, Dáire's horses die after grazing on the church land. He tells his men to kill Patrick, but is himself struck down with illness. Dáire's men beg Patrick to heal him, and Patrick's holy water revives both Dáire and his horses. Dáire rewards Patrick with a great bronze cauldron and gave him the hill of Ard Mhacha to build a church, which eventually became the head church of Ireland. Dáire has similarities with the Dagda, an Irish god who owns a cauldron of plenty.


title: Saint Patrick

text: In a later legend, the pagan chieftain is named Crom. Patrick asks the chieftain for food, and Crom sends his bull, in the hope that it will drive off or kill Patrick. Instead, it meekly submits to Patrick, allowing itself to be slaughtered and eaten. Crom demands his bull be returned. Patrick has the bull's bones and hide put together and brings it back to life. In some versions, Crom is so impressed that he converts to Christianity, while in others he is killed by the bull. In parts of Ireland, Lughnasa (1 August) is called 'Crom's Sunday' and the legend could recall bull sacrifices during the festival.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The twelfth-century work "Acallam na Senórach" tells of Patrick being met by two ancient warriors, Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, during his evangelical travels. The two were once members of Fionn mac Cumhaill's warrior band the Fianna, and somehow survived to Patrick's time. In the work St. Patrick seeks to convert the warriors to Christianity, while they defend their pagan past. The heroic pagan lifestyle of the warriors, of fighting and feasting and living close to nature, is contrasted with the more peaceful, but unheroic and non-sensual life offered by Christianity.


title: Saint Patrick

text: According to the "Annals of the Four Masters", an early-modern compilation of earlier annals, his corpse soon became an object of conflict in the Battle for the Body of Saint Patrick ():


title: Saint Patrick

text: Irish academic T. F. O'Rahilly proposed the "Two Patricks" theory, which suggests that many of the traditions later attached to Saint Patrick actually concerned the aforementioned Palladius, who Prosper of Aquitaine's "Chronicle" says was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431. Palladius was not the only early cleric in Ireland at this time. The Irish-born Saint Ciarán of Saigir lived in the later fourth century (352–402) and was the first bishop of Ossory. Ciaran, along with saints Auxilius, Secundinus and Iserninus, is also associated with early churches in Munster and Leinster. By this reading, Palladius was active in Ireland until the 460s.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Prosper associates Palladius' appointment with the visits of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to suppress Pelagianism and it has been suggested that Palladius and his colleagues were sent to Ireland to ensure that exiled Pelagians did not establish themselves among the Irish Christians. The appointment of Palladius and his fellow-bishops was not obviously a mission to convert the Irish, but more probably intended to minister to existing Christian communities in Ireland. The sites of churches associated with Palladius and his colleagues are close to royal centres of the period: Secundus is remembered by Dunshaughlin, County Meath, close to the Hill of Tara which is associated with the High King of Ireland; Killashee, County Kildare, close to Naas with links with the kings of Leinster, is probably named for Auxilius. This activity was limited to the southern half of Ireland, and there is no evidence for them in Ulster or Connacht.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Although the evidence for contacts with Gaul is clear, the borrowings from Latin into Old Irish show that links with Roman Britain were many. Iserninus, who appears to be of the generation of Palladius, is thought to have been a Briton, and is associated with the lands of the Uí Ceinnselaig in Leinster. The Palladian mission should not be contrasted with later "British" missions, but forms a part of them; nor can the work of Palladius be uncritically equated with that of Saint Patrick, as was once traditional.


title: Saint Patrick

text: According to Patrick's own account, it was Irish raiders who brought him to Ireland where he was enslaved and held captive for six years. However, a recent alternative interpretation of Patrick's departure to Ireland suggests that, as the son of a decurion, he would have been obliged by Roman law to serve on the town council (curia), but chose instead to abscond from the onerous obligations of this office by fleeing abroad, as many others in his position had done in what has become known as the 'flight of the curiales'. Roy Flechner also asserts the improbability of an escape from servitude and journey of the kind that Patrick purports to have undertaken. He also draws attention to the biblical allusions in Patrick's own account (e.g. the theme of freedom after six years of servitude in Exod. 21:2 or Jer. 34:14), which imply that perhaps parts of the account may not have been intended to be understood literally.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick believed that Ireland is located at the ends of the Earth. Some scholars argue that he believed that his mission to this most distant of places would bring about the Second Coming of Christ and, thus, the end of the world.


title: Saint Patrick

text: 17 March, popularly known as Saint Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his Feast Day. The day became a feast day in the Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary in the early part of the 17th century.


title: Saint Patrick

text: For most of Christianity's first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of people considered very holy, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, Patrick has never been formally canonised by a pope (common before the Great Schism of 1054, and in the Orthodox Church which never innovated a formal canonisation process and has always lacked a Supreme Pontiff); nevertheless, various Christian churches declare that he is a saint in Heaven (see List of Saints). He is still widely venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick is honoured with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) and with a commemoration on the calendar of "Evangelical Lutheran Worship," both on 17 March. Patrick is also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a pre-Schism Western saint, especially among Orthodox Christians living in Ireland and the Anglosphere; as is usual with saints, there are Orthodox icons dedicated to him.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, alongside Saint Brigid and Saint Columba, although this has never been proven. Saint Patrick Visitor Centre is a modern exhibition complex located in Downpatrick and is a permanent interpretative exhibition centre featuring interactive displays on the life and story of Patrick. It provides the only permanent exhibition centre in the world devoted to Patrick.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Saint Patrick's Breastplate is a "lorica", or hymn, which is attributed to Patrick during his Irish ministry in the 5th century.


title: Saint Patrick

text: There are two main types of crosses associated with Patrick, the cross pattée and the Saltire. The cross pattée is the more traditional association, while the association with the saltire dates from 1783 and the Order of St. Patrick.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The cross pattée has long been associated with Patrick, for reasons that are uncertain. One possible reason is that bishops' mitres in Ecclesiastical heraldry often appear surmounted by a cross pattée. An example of this can be seen on the old crest of the Brothers of St. Patrick. As Patrick was the founding bishop of the Irish church, the symbol may have become associated with him. Patrick is traditionally portrayed in the vestments of a bishop, and his mitre and garments are often decorated with a cross pattée.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The cross pattée retains its link to Patrick to the present day. For example, it appears on the coat of arms of both the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh and the Church of Ireland Archdiocese of Armagh. This is on account of Patrick being regarded as the first bishop of the Diocese of Armagh. It is also used by Down District Council which has its headquarters in Downpatrick, the reputed burial place of Patrick.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Saint Patrick's Saltire is a red saltire on a white field. It is used in the insignia of the Order of Saint Patrick, established in 1783, and after the Acts of Union 1800 it was combined with the Saint George's Cross of England and the Saint Andrew's Cross of Scotland to form the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A saltire was intermittently used as a symbol of Ireland from the seventeenth century, but without reference to Patrick.


title: Saint Patrick

text: It was formerly a common custom to wear a cross made of paper or ribbon on St Patrick's Day. Surviving examples of such badges come in many colours and they were worn upright rather than as saltires.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Thomas Dinely, an English traveller in Ireland in 1681, remarked that "the Irish of all stations and condicõns were crosses in their hatts, some of pins, some of green ribbon." Jonathan Swift, writing to "Stella" of Saint Patrick's Day 1713, said "the Mall was so full of crosses that I thought all the world was Irish". In the 1740s, the badges pinned were multicoloured interlaced fabric. In the 1820s, they were only worn by children, with simple multicoloured daisy patterns. In the 1890s, they were almost extinct, and a simple green Greek cross inscribed in a circle of paper (similar to the Ballina crest pictured). "The Irish Times" in 1935 reported they were still sold in poorer parts of Dublin, but fewer than those of previous years "some in velvet or embroidered silk or poplin, with the gold paper cross entwined with shamrocks and ribbons".


title: Saint Patrick

text: The National Museum of Ireland in Dublin possesses a bell ("") first mentioned, according to the "Annals of Ulster", in the "Book of Cuanu" in the year 552. The bell was part of a collection of "relics of Patrick" removed from his tomb sixty years after his death by Colum Cille to be used as relics. The bell is described as "The Bell of the Testament", one of three relics of "precious minna" (extremely valuable items), of which the other two are described as Patrick's goblet and "The Angels Gospel". Colum Cille is described to have been under the direction of an "Angel" for whom he sent the goblet to Down, the bell to Armagh, and kept possession of the Angel's Gospel for himself. The name Angels Gospel is given to the book because it was supposed that Colum Cille received it from the angel's hand. A stir was caused in 1044 when two kings, in some dispute over the bell, went on spates of prisoner taking and cattle theft. The annals make one more apparent reference to the bell when chronicling a death, of 1356: "Solomon Ua Mellain, The Keeper of The Bell of the Testament, protector, rested in Christ."


title: Saint Patrick

text: The bell was encased in a "bell shrine", a distinctive Irish type of reliquary made for it, as an inscription records, by King Domnall Ua Lochlainn sometime between 1091 and 1105. The shrine is an important example of the final, Viking-influenced, style of Irish Celtic art, with intricate Urnes style decoration in gold and silver. The Gaelic inscription on the shrine also records the name of the maker "U INMAINEN" (which translates to "Noonan"), "who with his sons enriched/decorated it"; metalwork was often inscribed for remembrance.


title: Saint Patrick

text: The bell itself is simple in design, hammered into shape with a small handle fixed to the top with rivets. Originally forged from iron, it has since been coated in bronze. The shrine is inscribed with three names, including King Domnall Ua Lochlainn's. The rear of the shrine, not intended to be seen, is decorated with crosses while the handle is decorated with, among other work, Celtic designs of birds. The bell is accredited with working a miracle in 1044, and having been coated in bronze to shield it from human eyes, for which it would be too holy. It measures 12.5 × 10 cm at the base, 12.8 × 4 cm at the shoulder, 16.5 cm from base to shoulder, 3.3 cm from shoulder to top of handle and weighs 1.7 kg.


title: Saint Patrick

text: Patrick features in many stories in the Irish oral tradition and there are many customs connected with his feast day. The folklorist Jenny Butler discusses how these traditions have been given new layers of meaning over time while also becoming tied to Irish identity both in Ireland and abroad. The symbolic resonance of the Saint Patrick figure is complex and multifaceted, stretching from that of Christianity's arrival in Ireland to an identity that encompasses everything Irish. In some portrayals, the saint is symbolically synonymous with the Christian religion itself. There is also evidence of a combination of indigenous religious traditions with that of Christianity, which places St Patrick in the wider framework of cultural hybridity. Popular religious expression has this characteristic feature of merging elements of culture. Later in time, the saint becomes associated specifically with Catholic Ireland and synonymously with Irish national identity. Subsequently, Saint Patrick is a patriotic symbol along with the colour green and the shamrock. Saint Patrick's Day celebrations include many traditions that are known to be relatively recent historically, but have endured through time because of their association either with religious or national identity. They have persisted in such a way that they have become stalwart traditions, viewed as the strongest "Irish traditions".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born 27 July 1968) is a New Zealand actor. His film credits include "Once Were Warriors" (1994), "Three Kings" (1999), "Training Day" (2001), "Whale Rider" (2002), "Collateral Damage" (2002), "Sunshine", "Live Free or Die Hard" (both 2007), "The Dark Horse" (2014), for which he won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor, and "Doctor Sleep" (2019). Curtis had television series roles on NBC's "Trauma" and ABC's "Body of Proof" and "Missing". From 2015 to 2017, he portrayed Travis Manawa on the AMC horror drama series "Fear the Walking Dead".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: Curtis was born on 27 July 1968 in Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty. He is one of eight children, the son of an amateur dancer. Curtis is of Māori descent; his tribal affiliations are Te Arawa and Ngāti Hauiti.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: As a boy he studied mau rākau, a traditional Māori form of taiaha fighting, with Māori elder Mita Mohi on Mokoia Island, which nurtured his abilities as a performer in kapa haka. Curtis later performed as a breakdancer and competitively in rock 'n' roll dance competitions. He received his secondary education at Edmund Rice College, Rotorua. Curtis graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1989 with a Diploma in Acting.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: Curtis started acting in amateur productions of musicals "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Man of La Mancha" with the Kapiti Players and the Mantis Cooperative Theatre Company, before attending the New Zealand Drama School and Teatro Dimitri Scoula in Switzerland. He worked at a number of New Zealand theatre companies, including Downstage, Mercury Theatre, Bats Theatre, and Centre Point. His stage roles include "Happy End", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Othello", "The Cherry Orchard", "Porgy and Bess", "Weeds", "Macbeth", "Serious Money", and "The End of the Golden Weather".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: His first feature film role was a small part in the Oscar-nominated Jane Campion film "The Piano". He went on to win attention in "Once Were Warriors", one of the most successful films released on New Zealand screens; the line "Uncle fucken Bully" referring to Curtis's character spoken by "Jake the Muss", played by Temuera Morrison, became one of New Zealand film's most memorable and quoted lines, as well as being part of the "Kiwiana" trend. He played Kahu in the short-film "Kahu & Maia", a contemporary depiction of a Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Rongomaiwahine legend. He played a seducer in the melodrama "Desperate Remedies". In 2000 Curtis starred as family man Billy Williams in "Jubilee", before playing father to the lead character in the international hit "Whale Rider".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: In 2004 with producer Ainsley Gardiner, Curtis formed independent film production company Whenua Films. The goals of the company are to support the growth of the New Zealand indigenous film-making scene, and support local short filmmakers. He and Gardiner were appointed to manage the development and production of films for the Short Films Fund for 2005–06 by the New Zealand Film Commission. They have produced several shorts under the new company banner, notably "Two Cars, One Night", which received an Academy Award nomination in 2005, and "Hawaikii" by director Mike Jonathan in 2006. Both short films circulated through many of the prestigious international film festivals like the Berlinale.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Miramax Films bought US distribution rights to relationship comedy "Eagle vs Shark", the first feature film directed by Taika Waititi. Waititi's follow-up feature "Boy", also from Whenua Films, went on to become the highest grossing New Zealand film released.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: In 2014, Curtis played the lead role in "The Dark Horse", which the National Radio review called "one of the greatest New Zealand films ever made." The "New Zealand Herald" praised him for his "towering performance" as real-life Gisborne speed chess player and coach Genesis Potini, who died in 2011. Curtis studied chess and deliberately put on weight for the role.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: Curtis has appeared in the films Martin Scorsese's "Bringing Out the Dead" (1999), "Three Kings" (1999), the drug drama "Blow" (2001) with Johnny Depp, "Training Day" (2001), "Collateral Damage" (2002), "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007), "Sunshine" (2007), "Push" (2009), and "Colombiana" (2011). In M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" (2010), he played the main villain, Fire Lord Ozai. Curtis portrayed Lt. Cortez in the film "Last Knights" (2015) and Jesus Christ in the film "Risen" (2016).


title: Cliff Curtis

text: In the NBC TV drama "Trauma", he played daredevil flight medic Reuben "Rabbit" Palchuck. Curtis was cast as Travis Manawa, a leading male role of the AMC TV series "Fear the Walking Dead", the spin-off of "The Walking Dead".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: In 2017, Curtis was cast as Tonowari and is set to appear in the four sequels to "Avatar", including "" and "Avatar 3".


title: Cliff Curtis

text: In 2019, he played Jonah Hobbs, the brother of Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw"; their characters are Samoan.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: He was married in late 2009 in a private ceremony at his home, and has four children. He is Roman Catholic.


title: Cliff Curtis

text: When asked about being an "all-purpose ethnic" actor, he said, "It's been a real advantage, I love being ethnic, I love the color of my skin. There are limitations in the business, that's a reality, but I've been given such wonderful opportunities."


title: Rhys Darby

text: Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for the Billy T Award in 2001 and 2002. He also won the 2012 Fred (Dagg) award at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, for best NZ show.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Darby is best known for playing Murray Hewitt, the band manager of Flight of the Conchords in the television series, a role he originally played in the under the name Brian Nesbit, and for playing the boss of Jim Carrey's character in "Yes Man", as well as roles in "What We Do in the Shadows", "The Boat That Rocked", "", "A Series of Unfortunate Events", "", Psycho Sam in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", Crash Bandicoot in "Skylanders Academy", and "". He is currently starring as Stede Bonnet alongside Taika Waititi in the HBO Max period romantic comedy series "Our Flag Means Death".


title: Rhys Darby

text: Darby was born in Auckland and was brought up in the suburb of Pakuranga. He attended Edgewater College. A former soldier (signaller trained in morse code), he left the New Zealand Army in 1994 and began studies at the University of Canterbury. In 1996 he formed a comedy duo, Rhysently Granted, with Grant Lobban. After winning an open mic contest at Southern Blues Bar in Christchurch, they began performing at local venues.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Rhysently Granted performed at two international comedy festivals which led to Darby moving back to Auckland to seek more solo stand-up experience. After performing his first solo show at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Darby moved to the UK to pursue his career further.


title: Rhys Darby

text: In 2004 he appeared in the Flight of the Conchords BBC radio series as the band's manager Brian Nesbit alongside comedy stars such as Rob Brydon, Andy Parsons and Jimmy Carr. Darby's character was renamed to Murray Hewitt, the band's manager, for the Flight of the Conchords TV show. He provided vocals for the track "Leggy Blonde" on their self-titled first album and also in the second series of the show on the track "Rejected" during the episode "A Good Opportunity" alongside tenor Andrew Drost.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Darby played the role of Norman, the boss of Jim Carrey's character in "Yes Man". In July 2008 he appeared in a Nike advertisement featuring Roger Federer; he played an impostor posing as Federer's coach.


title: Rhys Darby

text: He appeared on a British children's television program "The Slammer" during its first season. He also appeared in several advertisements for New Zealand mobile phone company 2degrees. He appeared on Soccer AM on 18 October 2008 and on "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" on 23 October. The DVD of his live performance "Imagine That!" has gone platinum in New Zealand.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Rhys Darby's hair colour is self-described as "Electric Copper" in the episode of "Flight of the Conchords" entitled "Murray Takes It to the Next Level". He refers to this in his stand-up show "It's Rhys Darby Night" which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 6–15 August 2009, The Bloomsbury Theatre in London from 27 July–1 August and toured around New Zealand with in October and November that year.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Darby played the role of Angus in the Richard Curtis film "The Boat That Rocked" released in the UK on 1 April 2009. This film was released in some countries in November 2009 under the name "Pirate Radio".


title: Rhys Darby

text: In 2009 while home in New Zealand he began filming TV ads for NZ's new mobile network 2degrees and appearing in NZ shows Rocked the Nation 2, Jaquie Brown Diaries and Intrepid Journeys. He has also branched out into producing live comedy with his wife and their company "Awesomeness International". At the NZ International Comedy Festival they produced shows for local comedians. Darby became a climate ambassador for Greenpeace in its Sign on climate campaign and published a poem and video in support of the campaign.


title: Rhys Darby

text: In 2009 Darby became a part of the New Zealand TV ONE series "Intrepid Journeys", Season 5, touring Rwanda. On 10 August 2010, "Entertainment Weekly" claimed that Darby was in consideration for a role in the television series "The Office" after Steve Carell left at the end of the 2011 season, however this did not materialise.


title: Rhys Darby

text: In May 2011, he also filmed a pilot for a Channel 4 sitcom in the UK, "The Fun Police". The pilot was broadcast on 16 September. In 2011, Darby and family moved to the US for Darby to take a role in the CBS sitcom "How to Be a Gentleman". Darby's second DVD "It's Rhys Darby Night!" was released in NZ on 12 December 2011.


title: Rhys Darby

text: He wrote a self-described "autobiographical space novel" entitled "This Way to Spaceship", which was released on 12 April 2012. On 20 May 2012, Darby was awarded the Fred Award by the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for his show of the same name as his book.


title: Rhys Darby

text: In 2013, he was responsible for flying 'Cornish rappers' Hedluv + Passman to New Zealand for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. This was followed by an appearance on "Seven Sharp", where he introduced 'his rappers' to the New Zealand public.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Since 2013, Darby has co-hosted the cryptozoology-focused podcast "The Cryptid Factor" with Dan Schreiber, David Farrier and producer Leon 'Buttons' Kirkbeck.


title: Rhys Darby

text: Darby climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2013 as part of a World Vision team of celebrities that included Olympian Mahé Drysdale and musician Boh Runga. On 8 November 2013, Darby made an appearance and performed some standup comedy in his capacity as second guest on the "Late Show with David Letterman". He portrayed Anton in the 2014 release comedy horror film "What We Do in the Shadows".


title: Rhys Darby

text: In February 2016, he played Guy Mann in the third episode ("Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster") of season 10 of "The X-Files". Darby, a long time fan of the show, was thrilled by his experience on set. He saw this as an opportunity that only comes around every so often and said he'd return to the set the first chance he received.


title: Rhys Darby

text: In 2022, he starred in the HBO Max show "Our Flag Means Death" as pirate Stede Bonnet. "Our Flag Means Death" received praise for its non-binary and LGBTQ representation, in part due to the romantic relationship between Bonnet and Blackbeard, played by co-star Taika Waititi.


title: Restaurant

text: A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models ranging from inexpensive fast-food restaurants and cafeterias to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments.


title: Restaurant

text: The word derives from early 19th century from French word 'provide food for', literally 'restore to a former state' and, being the present participle of the verb, The term "restaurant" may have been used in 1507 as a "restorative beverage", and in correspondence in 1521 to mean 'that which restores the strength, a fortifying food or remedy'.


title: Restaurant

text: A public eating establishment similar to a restaurant is mentioned in a 512 BC record from Ancient Egypt. It served only one dish, a plate of cereal, wild fowl, and onions.


title: Restaurant

text: A forerunner of the modern restaurant is the thermopolium, an establishment in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome that sold and served ready-to-eat food and beverages. These establishments were somewhat comparable to modern fast food restaurants. They were most often frequented by people who lacked private kitchens. In the Roman Empire they were popular among residents of insulae.


title: Restaurant

text: In Pompeii, 158 thermopolia with service counters have been identified throughout the town. They were concentrated along the main axis of the town and the public spaces where they were frequented by the locals.


title: Restaurant

text: The Romans also had the popina, a wine bar which in addition to a variety of wines offered a limited selection of simple foods such as olives, bread, cheese, stews, sausage, and porridge. The popinae were known as places for the plebeians of the lower classes of Roman society to socialize. While some were confined to one standing room only, others had tables and stools and a few even had couches.


title: Restaurant

text: Another early forerunner of the restaurant was the inn. Throughout the ancient world, inns were set up alongside roads to cater to people traveling between cities, offering lodging and food. Meals were typically served at a common table to guests. However, there were no menus or options to choose from.


title: Restaurant

text: The "Arthashastra" references establishments where prepared food was sold in ancient India. One regulation states that "those who trade in cooked rice, liquor, and flesh" are to live in the south of the city. Another states that superintendents of storehouses may give surpluses of bran and flour to "those who prepare cooked rice, and rice-cakes", while a regulation involving city superintendents references "sellers of cooked flesh and cooked rice".


title: Restaurant

text: Early eating establishments recognizable as restaurants in the modern sense emerged in Song dynasty China during the 11th and 12th centuries. In large cities, such as Kaifeng and Hangzhou, food catering establishments catered to merchants who travelled between cities. Probably growing out of tea houses and taverns which catered to travellers, Kaifeng's restaurants blossomed into an industry that catered to locals as well as people from other regions of China. As travelling merchants were not used to local cuisine of other cities, these establishments were set up to serve dishes familiar to merchants from other parts of China. Such establishments were located in the entertainment districts of major cities, alongside hotels, bars, and brothels. The larger and more opulent of these establishments offered a dining experience that was similar to modern restaurant culture. According to a Chinese manuscript from 1126, patrons of one such establishment were greeted with a selection of pre-plated demonstration dishes which represented food options. Customers had their orders taken by a team of waiters who would then sing their orders to the kitchen and distribute the dishes in the exact order in which they had been ordered.


title: Restaurant

text: There is a direct correlation between the growth of the restaurant businesses and institutions of theatrical stage drama, gambling and prostitution which served the burgeoning merchant middle class during the Song dynasty. Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements. Even within a single restaurant choices were available, and people ordered the entrée from written menus. An account from 1275 writes of Hangzhou, the capital city for the last half of the dynasty:


title: Restaurant

text: The restaurants in Hangzhou also catered to many northern Chinese who had fled south from Kaifeng during the Jurchen invasion of the 1120s, while it is also known that many restaurants were run by families formerly from Kaifeng.


title: Restaurant

text: In Japan, a restaurant culture emerged in the 16th century out of local tea houses. Tea house owner Sen no Rikyū created the "kaiseki" multi-course meal tradition, and his grandsons expanded the tradition to include speciality dishes and cutlery which matched the aesthetic of the food.


title: Restaurant

text: In Europe, inns which offered food and lodgings and taverns where food was served alongside alcoholic beverages were common into the Middle Ages and Renaissance. They typically served common fare of the type normally available to peasants. In Spain, such establishments were called "bodegas" and served tapas. In England, they typically served foods such as sausage and shepherd's pie. Cookshops were also common in European cities during the Middle Ages. These were establishments which served dishes such as pies, puddings, sauces, fish, and baked meats. Customers could either buy a ready-made meal or bring their own meat to be cooked. As only large private homes had the means for cooking, the inhabitants of European cities were significantly reliant on them.


title: Restaurant

text: France in particular has a rich history with the development of various forms of inns and eateries, eventually to form many of the now-ubiquitous elements of the modern restaurant. As far back as the thirteenth century, French inns served a variety of food — bread, cheese, bacon, roasts, soups, and stews - usually eaten at a common table. Parisians could buy what was essentially take-out food from "rôtisseurs", who prepared roasted meat dishes, and pastry-cooks, who could prepare meat pies and often more elaborate dishes. Municipal statutes stated that the official prices per item were to be posted at the entrance; this was the first official mention of menus.


title: Restaurant

text: Taverns also served food, as did cabarets. A cabaret, however, unlike a tavern, served food at tables with tablecloths, provided drinks with the meal, and charged by the customers' choice of dish, rather than by the pot. Cabarets were reputed to serve better food than taverns and a few, such as the Petit Maure, became well known. A few cabarets had musicians or singing, but most, until the late 19th century, were simply convivial eating places. The first café opened in Paris in 1672 at the Saint-Germain fair. By 1723 there were nearly four hundred cafés in Paris, but their menu was limited to simpler dishes or confectionaries, such as coffee, tea, chocolate (the drink; chocolate in solid state was invented only in the 19th century), ice creams, pastries, and liqueurs.


title: Restaurant

text: At the end of the 16th century, the guild of cook-caterers (later known as "traiteurs") was given its own legal status. The "traiteurs" dominated sophisticated food service, delivering or preparing meals for the wealthy at their residences. Taverns and cabarets were limited to serving little more than roast or grilled meats. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, both inns and then traiteurs began to offer "host's tables" ("tables d'hôte"), where one paid a set price to sit at a large table with other guests and eat a fixed menu meal.


title: Restaurant

text: The earliest modern-format "restaurants" to use that word in Paris were the establishments which served bouillon, a broth made of meat and egg which was said to restore health and vigour. The first restaurant of this kind opened in 1765 or 1766 by Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau on rue des Poulies, now part of the Rue de Louvre. The name of the owner is sometimes given as Boulanger. Unlike earlier eating places, it was elegantly decorated, and besides meat broth offered a menu of several other "restorative" dishes, including macaroni. Chantoiseau and other chefs took the title "traiteurs-restaurateurs". While not the first establishment where one could order food, or even soups, it is thought to be the first to offer a menu of available choices.


title: Restaurant

text: In the Western world, the concept of a restaurant as a public venue where waiting staff serve patrons food from a fixed menu is a relatively recent one, dating from the late 18th century. Modern restaurant culture originated in France during the 1780s.


title: Restaurant

text: In June 1786, the Provost of Paris issued a decree giving the new kind of eating establishment official status, authorising "restaurateurs" to receive clients and to offer them meals until eleven in the evening in winter and midnight in summer. Ambitious cooks from noble households began to open more elaborate eating places. The first luxury restaurant in Paris, the La Grande Taverne des Londres, was opened at the Palais-Royal at the beginning of 1786 by Antoine Beauvilliers, the former chef of the Count of Provence. It had mahogany tables, linen tablecloths, chandeliers, well-dressed and trained waiters, a long wine list and an extensive menu of elaborately prepared and presented dishes. Dishes on its menu included partridge with cabbage, veal chops grilled in buttered paper, and duck with turnips. This is considered to have been the "first real restaurant". According to Brillat-Savarin, the restaurant was "the first to combine the four essentials of an elegant room, smart waiters, a choice cellar, and superior cooking".


title: Restaurant

text: The aftermath of the French Revolution saw the number of restaurants skyrocket. Due to the mass emigration of nobles from the country, many cooks from aristocratic households who were left unemployed went on to found new restaurants. One restaurant was started in 1791 by Méot, the former chef of the Duke of Orleans, which offered a wine list with twenty-two choices of red wine and twenty-seven of white wine. By the end of the century there were a collection of luxury restaurants at the Grand-Palais: Huré, the Couvert espagnol; Février; the Grotte flamande; Véry, Masse and the Café de Chartres (still open, now Le Grand Vefour)


title: Restaurant

text: In 1802 the term was applied to an establishment where restorative foods, such as bouillon, a meat broth, were served (""établissement de restaurateur""). The disestablishment of culinary guilds and societal changes resulting from the industrial revolution contributed significantly to the increased prevalence of restaurants in Europe.


title: Restaurant

text: Restaurants are classified or distinguished in many different ways. The primary factors are usually the food itself (e.g. vegetarian, seafood, steak); the cuisine (e.g. Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, French, Mexican, Thai) or the style of offering (e.g. tapas bar, a sushi train, a tastet restaurant, a buffet restaurant or a yum cha restaurant). Beyond this, restaurants may differentiate themselves on factors including speed (see fast food), formality, location, cost, service, or novelty themes (such as automated restaurants). Some of these include fine dining, casual dining, contemporary casual, family style, fast casual, fast food, cafes, buffet, concession stands, food trucks, pop-up restaurants, diners, and ghost restaurants.


title: Restaurant

text: Restaurants range from inexpensive and informal lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with modest food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and fine wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal or formal wear. Typically, at mid- to high-priced restaurants, customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready. After eating, the customers then pay the bill. In some restaurants, such as workplace cafeterias, there are no waiters; the customers use trays, on which they place cold items that they select from a refrigerated container and hot items which they request from cooks, and then they pay a cashier before they sit down. Another restaurant approach which uses few waiters is the buffet restaurant. Customers serve food onto their own plates and then pay at the end of the meal. Buffet restaurants typically still have waiters to serve drinks and alcoholic beverages. Fast food restaurants are also considered a restaurant. In addition, food trucks are another popular option for people who want quick food service.


title: Restaurant

text: Tourists around the world can enjoy dining services on railway cars and cruise ships dining rooms, which are essentially travelling restaurants. Many railways dining services cater to the needs of travellers by providing railway refreshment rooms at railway stations. Many cruise ships provide a variety of dining experiences including a main restaurant, satellites restaurants, room service, speciality restaurants, cafes, bars, and buffets to name a few. Some restaurants on these cruise ships required table reservations and specific dress codes.


title: Restaurant

text: A restaurant's proprietor is called a "restaurateur", this derives from the French verb "restaurer", meaning "to restore". Professional cooks are called chefs, with there being various finer distinctions (e.g. sous-chef, chef de partie). Most restaurants (other than fast food restaurants and cafeterias) will have various waiting staff to serve food, beverages and alcoholic drinks, including busboys who remove used dishes and cutlery. In finer restaurants, this may include a host or hostess, a maître d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them, and a sommelier or wine waiter to help patrons select wines. A new route to becoming a restaurateur, rather than working one's way up through the stages, is to operate a food truck. Once a sufficient following has been obtained, a permanent restaurant site can be opened. This trend has become common in the UK and the US.


title: Restaurant

text: A chef's table is a table located in the kitchen of a restaurant, reserved for VIPs and special guests. Patrons may be served a themed tasting menu prepared and served by the head chef. Restaurants can require a minimum party and charge a higher flat fee. Because of the demand on the kitchen's facilities, chef's tables are generally only available during off-peak times.


title: Restaurant

text: France has a long tradition with public eateries and modern restaurant culture emerged there. In the early 19th century traiteurs and restaurateurs became known simply as "restaurateurs". The use of the term "restaurant" for the establishment itself only became common in the nineteenth century.


title: Restaurant

text: The first restaurant guide, called "Almanach des Gourmandes", written by Grimod de La Reyniére, was published in 1804. During the French Restoration period, the most celebrated restaurant was the Rocher de Cancale, frequented by the characters of Balzac. In the middle of the century, Balzac's characters moved to the Cafe Anglais, which in 1867 also hosted the famous Three Emperors Dinner hosted by Napoleon III in honor of Tsar Alexander II, Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck during the Exposition Universelle in 1867


title: Restaurant

text: Other restaurants that occupy a place in French history and literature include Maxim's and Fouquet's. The restaurant of Hotel Ritz Paris, opened in 1898, was made famous by its chef, Auguste Escoffier. The 19th century also saw the appearance of new kinds of more modest restaurants, including the bistrot. The brasserie featured beer and was made popular during the 1867 Paris Exposition.