title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The first three parts were initially published individually and were first published together in a single volume in 1887. The fourth part was written in 1885 and kept private. While Nietzsche retained mental capacity and was involved in the publication of his works, forty-five copies of the fourth part were printed at his own expense and distributed to his closest friends, to whom he expressed "a vehement desire never to have the Fourth Part made public". In 1889, however, Nietzsche became significantly incapacitated. In March 1892 the four parts were published in a single volume.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The book begins with a prologue which sets up many of the themes that will be explored throughout the work. Zarathustra is introduced as a hermit who has lived ten years on a mountain with his two companions, an eagle and a serpent. One morning – inspired by the sun, which is happy only when it shines upon others – Zarathustra decides to return to the world and share his wisdom. Upon descending the mountain, he encounters a saint living in a forest, who spends his days praising God. Zarathustra marvels that the saint has not yet heard that "God is dead".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Arriving at the nearest town, Zarathustra addresses a crowd which has gathered to watch a tightrope walker. He tells them that mankind's goal must be to create something superior to itself – a new type of human, the "Übermensch". All men, he says, must be prepared to will their own destruction in order to bring the "Übermensch" into being. The crowd greets this speech with scorn and mockery, and meanwhile the tightrope show begins. When the rope-dancer is halfway across, a clown comes up behind him, urging him to get out of the way. The clown then leaps over the rope-dancer, causing the latter to fall to his death. The crowd scatters; Zarathustra takes the corpse of the rope-dancer on his shoulders, carries it into the forest, and lays it in a hollow tree. He decides that from this point on, he will no longer attempt to speak to the masses, but only to a few chosen disciples.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: There follows a series of discourses in which Zarathustra overturns many of the precepts of Christian morality. He gathers a group of disciples, but ultimately abandons them, saying that he will not return until they have disowned him.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Zarathustra retires to his mountain cave, and several years pass by. One night, he dreams that he looks into a mirror and sees the face of a devil instead of his own; he takes this as a sign that his doctrines are being distorted by his enemies, and joyfully descends the mountain to recover his lost disciples.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: More discourses follow, which continue to develop the themes of the death of God and the rise of the "Übermensch", and also introduce the concept of the will to power. There are hints, however, that Zarathustra is holding something back. A series of dreams and visions prompt him to reveal this secret teaching, but he cannot bring himself to do so. He withdraws from his disciples once more, in order to perfect himself.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: While journeying home, Zarathustra is waylaid by the spirit of gravity, a dwarf-like creature which clings to his back and whispers taunts into his ear. Zarathustra at first becomes despondent, but then takes courage; he challenges the spirit to hear the "abysmal thought" which he has so far refrained from speaking. This is the doctrine of eternal recurrence. Time, says Zarathustra, is infinite, stretching both forward and backward into eternity. This means that everything that happens now must have happened before, and that every moment must continue to repeat itself eternally.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: As he speaks, Zarathustra hears a dog howl in terror, and then he sees a new vision – a shepherd choking on a black serpent which has crept into his throat. At Zarathustra's urging, the shepherd bites the serpent's head off and spits it out. In that moment, the shepherd is transformed into a laughing, radiant being, something greater than human.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Zarathustra continues his journey, delivering more discourses inspired by his observations. Arriving at his mountain cave, he remains there for some time, reflecting on his mission. He is disgusted at humanity's pettiness, and despairs at the thought of the eternal recurrence of such an insignificant race. Eventually, however, he discovers his own longing for eternity, and sings a song in celebration of eternal return.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Zarathustra begins to grow old as he remains secluded in his cave. One day, he is visited by a soothsayer, who says that he has come to tempt Zarathustra to his final sin – compassion ("mitleiden", which can also be translated "pity"). A loud cry of distress is heard, and the soothsayer tells Zarathustra that "the higher man" is calling to him. Zarathustra is alarmed, and rushes to the aid of the higher man.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Searching through his domain for the person who uttered the cry for help, Zarathustra encounters a series of characters representative of various aspects of humanity. He engages each of them in conversation, and ends by inviting each one to await his return in his cave. After a day's search, however, he is unable to find the higher man. Returning home, he hears the cry of distress once more, now coming from inside his own cave. He realises that all the people he has spoken to that day are collectively the higher man. Welcoming them to his home, he nevertheless tells them that they are not the men he has been waiting for; they are only the precursors of the "Übermensch".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Zarathustra hosts a supper for his guests, which is enlivened by songs and arguments, and ends in the facetious worship of a donkey. The higher men thank Zarathustra for relieving them of their distress and teaching them to be content with life.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The following morning, outside his cave, Zarathustra encounters a lion and a flock of doves, which he interprets as a sign that those whom he calls his children are near. As the higher men emerge from the cave, the lion roars at them, causing them to cry out and flee. Their cry reminds Zarathustra of the soothsayer's prediction that he would be tempted into feeling compassion for the higher man. He declares that this is over, and that from this time forward he will think of nothing but his work.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Scholars have argued that "the worst possible way to understand Zarathustra is as a teacher of doctrines". Nonetheless "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" "has contributed most to the public perception of Nietzsche as philosophernamely, as the teacher of the 'doctrines' of the will to power, the overman and the eternal return".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Nietzsche's thinking was significantly influenced by the thinking of Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer emphasised will, and particularly will to live. Nietzsche emphasised "Wille zur Macht", or will to power.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Nietzsche was not a systematic philosopher and left much of what he wrote open to interpretation. Receptive fascists are said to have misinterpreted the will to power, having overlooked Nietzsche's distinction between "Kraft" ("force" or "strength") and "Macht" ("power" or "might").


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Scholars have often had recourse to Nietzsche's notebooks, where will to power is described in ways such as "willing-to-become-stronger ["Stärker-werden-wollen"], willing growth".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: It is allegedly "well-known that as a term, Nietzsche’s Übermensch derives from Lucian of Samosata's hyperanthropos". This hyperanthropos, or overhuman, appears in Lucian's Menippean satire "Κατάπλους ἢ Τύραννος", usually translated "Downward Journey or The Tyrant". This hyperanthropos is "imagined to be superior to others of 'lesser' station in this-worldly life and the same tyrant after his (comically unwilling) transport into the underworld".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Nietzsche included some brief writings on eternal recurrence in his earlier book "The Gay Science". Zarathustra also appeared in that book. In "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", the eternal recurrence is, according to Nietzsche, the "fundamental idea of the work".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Interpretations of the eternal recurrence have mostly revolved around cosmological and attitudinal and normative principles.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: As a cosmological principle, it has been supposed to mean that time is circular, that all things recur eternally. A weak attempt at proof has been noted in Nietzsche's notebooks, and it is not clear to what extent, if at all, Nietzsche believed in the truth of it. Critics have mostly dealt with the cosmological principle as a puzzle of "why" Nietzsche might have touted the idea.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: As an attitudinal principle it has often been dealt with as a thought experiment, to see how one would react, or as a sort of ultimate expression of life-affirmation, as if one should "desire" eternal recurrence.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Nietzsche studied extensively and was very familiar with Schopenhauer and Christianity and Buddhism, each of which he considered nihilistic and "enemies to a healthy culture". "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" can be understood as a "polemic" against these influences.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Though Nietzsche "probably learned Sanskrit while at Leipzig from 1865 to 1868", and "was probably one of the best read and most solidly grounded in Buddhism for his time among Europeans", Nietzsche was writing when Eastern thought was only beginning to be acknowledged in the West, and Eastern thought was easily misconstrued. Nietzsche's interpretations of Buddhism were coloured by his study of Schopenhauer, and it is "clear that Nietzsche, as well as Schopenhauer, entertained inaccurate views of Buddhism". An egregious example has been the idea of "śūnyatā" as "nothingness" rather than "emptiness". "Perhaps the most serious misreading we find in Nietzsche's account of Buddhism was his inability to recognize that the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness was an initiatory stage leading to a reawakening". Nietzsche dismissed Schopenhauer and Christianity and Buddhism as pessimistic and nihilistic, but, according to Benjamin A. Elman, "[w]hen understood on its own terms, Buddhism cannot be dismissed as pessimistic or nihilistic". Moreover, answers which Nietzsche assembled to the questions he was asking, not only generally but also in "Zarathustra", put him "very close to some basic doctrines found in Buddhism". An example is when Zarathustra says that "the soul is only a word for something about the body".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: It has been often repeated in some way that Nietzsche takes with one hand what he gives with the other. Accordingly, interpreting what he wrote has been notoriously slippery. One of the most vexed points in discussions of Nietzsche has been whether or not he was a nihilist. Though arguments have been made for either side, what is clear is that Nietzsche was at least "interested" in nihilism.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: As far as nihilism touched other people, at least, metaphysical understandings of the world were progressively undermined until people could contend that "God is dead". Without God, humanity was greatly devalued. Without metaphysical or supernatural lenses, humans could be seen as animals with primitive drives which were or could be sublimated. According to Hollingdale, this led to Nietzsche's ideas about the will to power. Likewise, ""Sublimated will to power" was now the Ariadne's thread tracing the way out of the labyrinth of nihilism".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The nature of the text is musical and operatic. While working on it Nietzsche wrote "of his aim 'to become Wagner's heir'". Nietzsche thought of it as akin to a symphony or opera. "No lesser a symphonist than Gustav Mahler corroborates: 'His "Zarathustra" was born completely from the spirit of music, and is even "symphonically constructed"'". Nietzsche The length of paragraphs and the punctuation and the repetitions all enhance the musicality.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The title is "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Much of the book is what Zarathustra said. What Zarathustra says


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Nietzsche would often appropriate masks and models to develop himself and his thoughts and ideas, and to find voices and names through which to communicate. While writing "Zarathustra", Nietzsche was particularly influenced by "the language of Luther and the poetic form of the Bible". But "Zarathustra" also frequently alludes to or appropriates from Hölderlin's "Hyperion" and Goethe's "Faust" and Emerson's "Essays", among other things. It is generally agreed that the sorcerer is based on Wagner and the soothsayer is based on Schopenhauer.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The original text contains a great deal of word-play. For instance, words beginning with "über" ('over, above') and ('down, below') are often paired to emphasise the contrast, which is not always possible to bring out in translation, except by coinages. An example is "untergang" (lit. 'down-going'), which is used in German to mean 'setting' (as in, of the sun), but also 'sinking', 'demise', 'downfall', or 'doom'. Nietzsche pairs this word with its opposite "übergang" ('over-going'), used to mean 'transition'. Another example is "übermensch" ('overman' or 'superman').


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: To this, Parkes has said: "Many scholars believe that Nietzsche managed to make that step". But critical opinion varies extremely. The book is "a masterpiece of literature as well as philosophy" and "in large part a failure".


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The style of the book, along with its ambiguity and paradoxical nature, has helped its eventual enthusiastic reception by the reading public, but has frustrated academic attempts at analysis (as Nietzsche may have intended). "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" remained unpopular as a topic for scholars (especially those in the Anglo-American analytic tradition) until the latter half of the 20th century brought widespread interest in Nietzsche and his unconventional style.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The critic Harold Bloom criticized "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in "" (1994), calling the book "a gorgeous disaster" and "unreadable." Other commentators have suggested that Nietzsche's style is intentionally ironic for much of the book.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Text from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" constitutes the Nietzsche memorial stone that was erected at Lake Sils in 1900, the year Nietzsche died.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: In 1893, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche returned to Germany from administrating a failed colony in Paraguay and took charge of Nietzsche's manuscripts. Nietzsche was by this point incapacitated. Förster-Nietzsche edited the manuscripts and fostered affiliations with the Nazis. The Nazis issued durable military editions of "Zarathustra" to soldiers.<ref name="Pierpont_3/31/2002"></ref>


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche, Parts I - III of the Kaufmann Translation, (1993) 97 minute Film with Subtitles by Ronald Gerard Smith. Distributed by Films for the Humanities and Sciences (2012 - 2019).


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Thomas Common published a translation in 1909 which was based on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt. Common wrote in the style of Shakespeare or the King James Version of the Bible. Common's poetic interpretation of the text, which renders the title "Thus Spake Zarathustra", received wide acclaim for its lambent portrayal. Common reasoned that because the original German was written in a pseudo-Luther-Biblical style, a pseudo-King-James-Biblical style would be fitting in the English translation.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of "The Genealogy of Morals" to the difference between "bad" and "evil." This and other errors led Kaufmann to wonder whether Common "had little German and less English."


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The Common translation remained widely accepted until more critical translations, titled "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", were published by Walter Kaufmann in 1954, and R.J. Hollingdale in 1961, which are considered to convey the German text more accurately than the Common version. The translations of Kaufmann and Hollingdale render the text in a far more familiar, less archaic, style of language, than that of Common. However, "deficiencies" have been noted.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: The German text from which Hollingdale and Kaufmann worked was untrue to Nietzsche's own work in some ways. Martin criticizes Kaufmann for changing punctuation, altering literal and philosophical meanings, and dampening some of Nietzsche's more controversial metaphors. Kaufmann's version, which has become the most widely available, features a translator's note suggesting that Nietzsche's text would have benefited from an editor; Martin suggests that Kaufmann "took it upon himself to become [Nietzsche's] editor."


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Thomas Wayne, an English Professor at Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, published a translation in 2003. The introduction by Roger W. Phillips, Ph.D., says "Wayne's close reading of the original text has exposed the deficiencies of earlier translations, preeminent among them that of the highly esteemed Walter Kaufmann", and gives several reasons.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Graham Parkes describes his own 2005 translation as trying "above all to convey the musicality of the text." In 2006, Cambridge University Press published a translation by Adrian Del Caro, edited by Robert Pippin.


title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

text: Mastroniani's critical analysis of the various English translations/interpretations of Nietzsche's works & words and their shortcomings. In his abstract "This paper will examine German and “Also sprach Zarathustra,” also referred to as “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” later on, and argue that “Beyond-Human” is the best translation of übermensch."


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Annabella Gloria Philomena Sciorra ( , ; born March 29, 1960) is an American actress. She came to prominence with her film debut in "True Love" (1989), earning an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Female Lead. Subsequent projects included a mixture of mainstream and small-scale films in the drama, comedy, action and thriller genres, such as "Cadillac Man", "Internal Affairs", "Reversal of Fortune" (all 1990), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", "Whispers in the Dark" (both 1992), "Romeo Is Bleeding", "Mr. Wonderful", "The Night We Never Met" (all 1993), "The Cure" (1995), "Cop Land", "Mr. Jealousy" (both 1997), "What Dreams May Come" (1998), "Chasing Liberty" (2004), and "Find Me Guilty" (2006). She has worked with filmmaker Abel Ferrara three times: "The Addiction" (1995), "The Funeral" (1996), and "New Rose Hotel" (1998).


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Outside of film, Sciorra has played recurring roles on "" (2005–2006), "ER", "The L Word" (both 2007), "" (2013), "GLOW", "Daredevil", "Luke Cage" (all 2018), "Truth Be Told" (2019–2020), "New Amsterdam", "Godfather of Harlem" (both 2021), and "Blue Bloods" (2021–2022). She also starred as Kim Vicidomini in the CBS series "Queens Supreme" (2003) and as Nora Skoff in Fox's "Mental" (2009), and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for portraying Gloria Trillo on "The Sopranos" (2001–2004). Her stage credits include "The Motherfucker with the Hat" (Broadway, 2011), for which she received a Theatre World Award.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Sciorra was regarded as one of the key figures of the MeToo movement after speaking out against Harvey Weinstein and subsequently testifying at his sexual assault trial.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Sciorra was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Italian immigrant parents. Her mother was a fashion stylist from Formia, Lazio, and her father a veterinarian from Carunchio, Abruzzo. Sciorra studied dance as a child, and later took drama lessons at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: After making her professional acting debut with a supporting role in the 1988 television miniseries "The Fortunate Pilgrim", where she appeared alongside Sophia Loren, Sciorra made her feature film debut playing the character of Donna in the 1989 romantic comedy-drama "True Love". Her performance was praised by critics, with Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" commenting, "Ms. Sciorra, with her gentle beauty and hard-as-nails negotiating style, perfectly captures the mood of the film, and makes Donna fully and touchingly drawn". The part earned Sciorra a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead the following year.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Various film roles came next, including the Richard Gere thriller "Internal Affairs", the Robin Williams comedy "Cadillac Man", and the acclaimed drama "Reversal of Fortune", in which she co-starred with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons (all 1990). The latter received three Academy Award nominations.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Sciorra encountered widespread attention in 1991 with her co-lead role as Angie Tucci—opposite Wesley Snipes—in the acclaimed Spike Lee drama "Jungle Fever", which was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival. In his review for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan wrote that Sciorra was "possessed of considerable presence, assurance and vulnerability". The following year, she starred alongside Rebecca De Mornay in Curtis Hanson's successful psychological thriller "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" (1992), which held the top position at the North American box office for four consecutive weeks. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" felt that, with her portrayal of Claire Bartel, Sciorrra "brings her eye-of-the-storm serenity to the role of a passionately ordinary middle-class woman", giving an "accomplished performance", while "Variety" said in their review: "A totally deglamorized Sciorra becomes unglued subtly and slowly, eliciting sympathy without begging for it". In subsequent years the film has been regarded as one of the quintessential examples of 1990s genre filmmaking.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Sciorra continued to work steadily throughout the decade. Film parts included the romantic lead—opposite Matthew Broderick—in "The Night We Never Met"; neo-noir crime thriller "Romeo Is Bleeding", with Gary Oldman; "Mr. Wonderful", with Matt Dillon (all 1993); cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara's "The Addiction" (1995) and "The Funeral" (1996); James Mangold's box office hit "Cop Land" (1997), with Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro; and the fantasy drama "What Dreams May Come" (1998), in which she co-starred for a second time with Robin Williams. Film critic Roger Ebert described her portrayal of Annie Nielsen in the latter as "heartbreakingly effective".


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: In 2001, Sciorra received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress for her portrayal of Gloria Trillo on HBO's acclaimed crime drama "The Sopranos", a part—described as "career changing" by "Entertainment Weekly"—she played intermittently until 2004.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: In 2006, she co-starred with Vin Diesel in "Find Me Guilty", directed by Sidney Lumet. The film, based on the true story of the longest Mafia trial in American history, was described as "gripping" by Stephen Holden of "The New York Times", who also called Sciorra's performance "excellent".


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Subsequent credits included starring roles in the CBS courtroom drama series "Queens Supreme" (2003) and the Fox medical drama "Mental" (2009), a recurring role as Detective Carolyn Barek on "" (2005–2006), and guest appearances on shows such as "The L Word", "ER", "The Good Wife", "", and "GLOW".


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: In 2018, Sciorra played the guest role of Rosalie Carbone on the second season of Netflix's "Luke Cage". Of Sciorra's casting, executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker said: "I've been a huge fan of hers since "Jungle Fever", and [she's] no joke as Rosalie Carbone. You haven't seen her this gangster since [...] "The Sopranos". I'm thrilled her introduction to the Marvel Universe will be [this show]". Later that year, she reprised the role of Carbone for two episodes of Netflix's "Daredevil".


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Between 2019–2020, Sciorra played the role of Erin Buhrman in seven episodes of the Apple TV+ series "Truth Be Told".


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: Sciorra was married to actor Joe Petruzzi from 1989 to 1993. In 2004, she began a relationship with Bobby Cannavale which lasted for three years; the relationship ended in 2007.


title: Annabella Sciorra

text: In October 2017, Sciorra leveled allegations of rape against the film producer Harvey Weinstein. In an article published by "The New Yorker", Sciorra alleged that Weinstein raped her after he forced his way into her apartment in 1993, then over a number of years repeatedly harassed her. Sciorra was the key witness addressing the predatory sexual assault charges during Weinstein's trial in 2020, leading to his conviction.


title: May Calamawy

text: May El Calamawy (, , born October 28, 1986) is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress who has worked and resided in the United States since 2015. She is known for her roles in the American television series "Ramy" as Dena Hassan, and "Moon Knight" as Layla El-Faouly.


title: May Calamawy

text: Calamawy was born on October 28, 1986, in Bahrain to an Egyptian father who worked as a banker, and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother. She has an older brother. Raised mostly in Bahrain, she also spent six years living between Doha, Qatar, and Houston, Texas, before she was twelve years old. Calamawy speaks English and Arabic.


title: May Calamawy

text: She was inspired to become an actress after watching the 1992 film "Death Becomes Her" when she was a child.


title: May Calamawy

text: Calamawy completed high school in Bahrain, and at 17 she moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to study industrial design, because her father wanted her to. She then lived in Dubai for five years before moving back to the United States to pursue an acting career.


title: May Calamawy

text: She applied to Emerson College and told her parents, "If I get in, I'm going." She was accepted and earned a B.A. in theatre studies. Calamawy has also studied at the William Esper Studio in New York City.


title: May Calamawy

text: Calamawy started her career acting in short films and used to be credited with her full name, May El Calamawy. She later changed it to May Calamawy. After attending college, she participated in the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. From 2009 to 2014, she was dividing her time between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, acting in shorts and a TV pilot.


title: May Calamawy

text: Her first major film role was in Tobe Hooper's 2013 film "Djinn", the first horror film to be produced in the United Arab Emirates.


title: May Calamawy

text: In 2017, she had a recurring role in the National Geographic miniseries "The Long Road Home" and guest-starring roles in "The Brave" and "Madam Secretary". The following year, she guest-starred in the CBS crime drama television series "FBI".


title: May Calamawy

text: In October 2018, it was announced that she would have a recurring role in the Hulu comedy-drama series "Ramy", playing Ramy's sister, Dena Hassan. In 2020, she had a voice role as Ellie Malik in the video game "NBA 2K21".


title: May Calamawy

text: In 2021, she appeared in the film "Together Together", with Ed Helms and Patti Harrison. In January of the same year, it was announced she would appear in the Disney+ miniseries "Moon Knight", which premiered on March 30, 2022, where Calamawy portrayed Layla El-Faouly, an Egyptian archeologist and estranged wife of Marc Spector (portrayed by Oscar Isaac). Layla was the first Arab character and superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: May Calamawy

text: In July 2022, it was announced that she will join the voice cast of "Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" as a guest star. The show is set to premiere on Disney Channel and Disney+ in 2023. In October 2022, she was announced in the cast of Duke Johnson's upcoming thriller, "The Actor".


title: May Calamawy

text: Calamawy was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease alopecia areata at the age of 22. Her alopecia was incorporated into the storyline of her character Dena Hassan in "Ramy" during the show's second season.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade names "NutraSweet", "Equal", and "Canderel". First submitted for approval as a food ingredient in 1974, aspartame was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame is one of the most rigorously tested food ingredients. Reviews by over 100 governmental regulatory bodies found the ingredient safe for consumption at current levels. , several reviews of clinical trials showed that using aspartame in place of sugar reduces calorie intake and body weight in adults and children.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame is around 180 to 200 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). Due to this property, even though aspartame produces of energy per gram when metabolized, the quantity of aspartame needed to produce a sweet taste is so small that its caloric contribution is negligible. The taste of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners differs from that of table sugar in the times of onset and how long the sweetness lasts, though aspartame comes closest to sugar's taste profile among approved artificial sweeteners. The sweetness of aspartame lasts longer than that of sucrose, so it is often blended with other artificial sweeteners such as acesulfame potassium to produce an overall taste more like that of sugar.


title: Aspartame

text: Like many other peptides, aspartame may hydrolyze (break down) into its constituent amino acids under conditions of elevated temperature or high pH. This makes aspartame undesirable as a baking sweetener and prone to degradation in products hosting a high pH, as required for a long shelf life. The stability of aspartame under heating can be improved to some extent by encasing it in fats or in maltodextrin. The stability when dissolved in water depends markedly on pH. At room temperature, it is most stable at pH 4.3, where its half-life is nearly 300 days. At pH 7, however, its half-life is only a few days. Most soft-drinks have a pH between 3 and 5, where aspartame is reasonably stable. In products that may require a longer shelf life, such as syrups for fountain beverages, aspartame is sometimes blended with a more stable sweetener, such as saccharin.


title: Aspartame

text: Descriptive analyses of solutions containing aspartame report a sweet aftertaste as well as bitter and off-flavor aftertastes. In products such as powdered beverages, the amine in aspartame can undergo a Maillard reaction with the aldehyde groups present in certain aroma compounds. The ensuing loss of both flavor and sweetness can be prevented by protecting the aldehyde as an acetal.


title: Aspartame

text: The safety of aspartame has been studied since its discovery, and it is one of the most rigorously tested food ingredients. Aspartame has been deemed safe for human consumption by over 100 regulatory agencies in their respective countries, including the FDA, UK Food Standards Agency, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Health Canada, and Food Standards Australia New Zealand.


title: Aspartame

text: A 2017 review of metabolic effects by consuming aspartame found that it did not affect blood glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, calorie intake, or body weight. While high-density lipoprotein levels were higher compared to control, they were lower compared to sucrose.


title: Aspartame

text: High levels of the naturally occurring essential amino acid phenylalanine are a health hazard to those born with phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare inherited disease that prevents phenylalanine from being properly metabolized. Because aspartame contains a small amount of phenylalanine, foods containing aspartame sold in the US must state: "Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine" on product labels.


title: Aspartame

text: In the UK, foods that contain aspartame are required by the Food Standards Agency to list the substance as an ingredient, with the warning "Contains a source of phenylalanine". Manufacturers are also required to print "with sweetener(s)" on the label close to the main product name on foods that contain "sweeteners such as aspartame" or "with sugar and sweetener(s)" on "foods that contain both sugar and sweetener".


title: Aspartame

text: In Canada, foods that contain aspartame are required to list aspartame among the ingredients, include the amount of aspartame per serving, and state that the product contains phenylalanine.


title: Aspartame

text: Phenylalanine is one of the essential amino acids and is required for normal growth and maintenance of life. Concerns about the safety of phenylalanine from aspartame for those without phenylketonuria center largely on hypothetical changes in neurotransmitter levels as well as ratios of neurotransmitters to each other in the blood and brain that could lead to neurological symptoms. Reviews of the literature have found no consistent findings to support such concerns, and, while high doses of aspartame consumption may have some biochemical effects, these effects are not seen in toxicity studies to suggest aspartame can adversely affect neuronal function. As with methanol and aspartic acid, common foods in the typical diet, such as milk, meat, and fruits, will lead to ingestion of significantly higher amounts of phenylalanine than would be expected from aspartame consumption.


title: Aspartame

text: Reviews have found no association between aspartame and cancer. This position is supported by multiple regulatory agencies like the FDA and EFSA as well as scientific bodies such as the National Cancer Institute. The EFSA, FDA, and US National Cancer Institute state that aspartame is safe for human consumption.


title: Aspartame

text: Reviews found no evidence that low doses of aspartame would plausibly lead to neurotoxic effects. A review of studies on children did not show any significant findings for safety concerns with regard to neuropsychiatric conditions such as panic attacks, mood changes, hallucinations, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or seizures by consuming aspartame.


title: Aspartame

text: Headaches are the most common symptom reported by consumers. While one small review noted aspartame is likely one of many dietary triggers of migraines, in a list that includes "cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot dogs, monosodium glutamate, aspartame, fatty foods, ice cream, caffeine withdrawal, and alcoholic drinks, especially red wine and beer", other reviews have noted conflicting studies about headaches and other studies lack any evidence and references to support this claim.


title: Aspartame

text: The perceived sweetness of aspartame (and other sweet substances like acesulfame potassium) in humans is due to its binding of the heterodimer G protein-coupled receptor formed by the proteins TAS1R2 and TAS1R3. Aspartame is not recognized by rodents due to differences in the taste receptors.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame is rapidly hydrolyzed in the small intestine by digestive enzymes which break aspartame down into methanol, phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and further metabolites, such as formaldehyde and formic acid. Due to its rapid and complete metabolism, aspartame is not found in circulating blood, even following ingestion of high doses over 200 mg/kg.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartic acid (aspartate) is one of the most common amino acids in the typical diet. As with methanol and phenylalanine, intake of aspartic acid from aspartame is less than would be expected from other dietary sources. At the 90th percentile of intake, aspartame provides only between 1% and 2% of the daily intake of aspartic acid.


title: Aspartame

text: The methanol produced by aspartame metabolism is unlikely to be a safety concern for several reasons. The amount of methanol produced from aspartame-sweetened foods and beverages is likely to be less than that from food sources already in diets. With regard to formaldehyde, it is rapidly converted in the body, and the amounts of formaldehyde from the metabolism of aspartame are trivial when compared to the amounts produced routinely by the human body and from other foods and drugs. At the highest expected human doses of consumption of aspartame, there are no increased blood levels of methanol or formic acid, and ingesting aspartame at the 90th percentile of intake would produce 25 times less methanol than what would be considered toxic.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame is a methyl ester of the dipeptide of the natural amino acids -aspartic acid and -phenylalanine. Under strongly acidic or alkaline conditions, aspartame may generate methanol by hydrolysis. Under more severe conditions, the peptide bonds are also hydrolyzed, resulting in free amino acids.


title: Aspartame

text: While known aspects of synthesis are covered by patents, many details are proprietary. Two approaches to synthesis are used commercially. In the chemical synthesis, the two carboxyl groups of aspartic acid are joined into an anhydride, and the amino group is protected with a formyl group as the formamide, by treatment of aspartic acid with a mixture of formic acid and acetic anhydride. Phenylalanine is converted to its methyl ester and combined with the "N"-formyl aspartic anhydride; then the protecting group is removed from aspartic nitrogen by acid hydrolysis. The drawback of this technique is that a byproduct, the bitter-tasting β-form, is produced when the wrong carboxyl group from aspartic acid anhydride links to phenylalanine, with desired and undesired isomer forming in a 4:1 ratio. A process using an enzyme from "Bacillus thermoproteolyticus" to catalyze the condensation of the chemically altered amino acids will produce high yields without the β-form byproduct. A variant of this method, which has not been used commercially, uses unmodified aspartic acid but produces low yields. Methods for directly producing aspartyl-phenylalanine by enzymatic means, followed by chemical methylation, have also been tried but not scaled for industrial production.


title: Aspartame

text: The acceptable daily intake (ADI) value for aspartame, as well as other food additives studied, is defined as the "amount of a food additive, expressed on a body weight basis, that can be ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risk". The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) has determined this value is 40 mg/kg of body weight for aspartame, while the FDA has set its ADI for aspartame at 50 mg/kg.


title: Aspartame

text: The primary source for exposure to aspartame in the US is diet soft drinks, though it can be consumed in other products, such as pharmaceutical preparations, fruit drinks, and chewing gum among others in smaller quantities. A can of diet soda contains of aspartame, and, for a adult, it takes approximately 21 cans of diet soda daily to consume the of aspartame that would surpass the FDA's 50 mg/kg of body weight ADI of aspartame from diet soda alone.


title: Aspartame

text: Reviews have analyzed studies which have looked at the consumption of aspartame in countries worldwide, including the US, countries in Europe, and Australia, among others. These reviews have found that even the high levels of intake of aspartame, studied across multiple countries and different methods of measuring aspartame consumption, are well below the ADI for safe consumption of aspartame. Reviews have also found that populations that are believed to be especially high consumers of aspartame such as children and diabetics are below the ADI for safe consumption, even considering extreme worst-case scenario calculations of consumption.


title: Aspartame

text: In a report released on 10 December 2013, the EFSA said that, after an extensive examination of evidence, it ruled out the "potential risk of aspartame causing damage to genes and inducing cancer" and deemed the amount found in diet sodas safe to consume.


title: Aspartame

text: Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame as an intermediate step in generating a tetrapeptide of the hormone gastrin, for use in assessing an anti-ulcer drug candidate. He discovered its sweet taste when he licked his finger, which had become contaminated with aspartame, to lift up a piece of paper. Torunn Atteraas Garin participated in the development of aspartame as an artificial sweetener.


title: Aspartame

text: In 1975, prompted by issues regarding Flagyl and Aldactone, an FDA task force team reviewed 25 studies submitted by the manufacturer, including 11 on aspartame. The team reported "serious deficiencies in Searle's operations and practices". The FDA sought to authenticate 15 of the submitted studies against the supporting data. In 1979, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) concluded, since many problems with the aspartame studies were minor and did not affect the conclusions, the studies could be used to assess aspartame's safety.


title: Aspartame

text: In 1980, the FDA convened a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) consisting of independent advisors charged with examining the purported relationship between aspartame and brain cancer. The PBOI concluded aspartame does not cause brain damage, but it recommended against approving aspartame at that time, citing unanswered questions about cancer in laboratory rats.


title: Aspartame

text: In 1983, the FDA approved aspartame for use in carbonated beverages and for use in other beverages, baked goods, and confections in 1993. In 1996, the FDA removed all restrictions from aspartame, allowing it to be used in all foods.


title: Aspartame

text: Several European Union countries approved aspartame in the 1980s, with EU-wide approval in 1994. The SCF reviewed subsequent safety studies and reaffirmed the approval in 2002. The EFSA reported in 2006 that the previously established ADI was appropriate, after reviewing yet another set of studies.


title: Aspartame

text: Under the trade names Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, aspartame is an ingredient in approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide, including (but not limited to) diet sodas and other soft drinks, instant breakfasts, breath mints, cereals, sugar-free chewing gum, cocoa mixes, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, juices, laxatives, chewable vitamin supplements, milk drinks, pharmaceutical drugs and supplements, shake mixes, tabletop sweeteners, teas, instant coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers, and yogurt. It is provided as a table condiment in some countries. Aspartame is less suitable for baking than other sweeteners because it breaks down when heated and loses much of its sweetness.


title: Aspartame

text: In 1985, Monsanto bought G.D.Searle, and the aspartame business became a separate Monsanto subsidiary, NutraSweet. In March 2000, Monsanto sold it to J.W. Childs Associates Equity Partners II L.P.<ref name="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUY/is_22_6/ai_62920821">J.W. Childs Equity Partners II, L.P , "Food & Drink Weekly", 5 June 2000</ref> European use patents on aspartame expired starting in 1987, and the US patent expired in 1992. Since then, the company has competed for market share with other manufacturers, including Ajinomoto, Merisant, and the Holland Sweetener Company.


title: Aspartame

text: Many aspects of industrial synthesis of aspartame were established by Ajinomoto. In 2004, the market for aspartame, in which Ajinomoto, the world's largest aspartame manufacturer, had a 40% share, was a year, and consumption of the product was rising by 2% a year. Ajinomoto acquired its aspartame business in 2000 from Monsanto for $67 million (equivalent to $ in ).


title: Aspartame

text: In 2007, Asda was the first British supermarket chain to remove all artificial flavourings and colours in its store brand foods.<ref name="standard/6582564"></ref> In 2008, Ajinomoto sued Asda, part of Walmart, for a malicious falsehood action concerning its aspartame product when the substance was listed as excluded from the chain's product line, along with other "nasties". In July 2009, a British court found in favor of Asda.<ref name="independent/1747827"></ref> In June 2010, an appeals court reversed the decision, allowing Ajinomoto to pursue a case against Asda to protect aspartame's reputation.<ref name="confectionerynews/2010-Ajinomoto-Asda"></ref> Asda said that it would continue to use the term "no nasties" on its own-label products, but the suit was settled in 2011 with Asda choosing to remove references to aspartame from its packaging.<ref name="foodmanufacture/2011-Asda-settles"></ref>


title: Aspartame

text: A joint venture of DSM and Tosoh, the Holland Sweetener Company manufactured aspartame using the enzymatic process developed by Toyo Soda (Tosoh) and sold as the brand Sanecta. Additionally, they developed a combination aspartame-acesulfame salt under the brand name Twinsweet. They left the sweetener industry in late 2006, because "global aspartame markets are facing structural oversupply, which has caused worldwide strong price erosion over the last five years", making the business "persistently unprofitable".


title: Aspartame

text: Because sucralose, unlike aspartame, retains its sweetness after being heated, and has at least twice the shelf life of aspartame, it has become more popular as an ingredient. This, along with differences in marketing and changing consumer preferences, caused aspartame to lose market share to sucralose. In 2004, aspartame traded at about and sucralose, which is roughly three times sweeter by weight, at around .


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament is an upcoming football competition that will be played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that will join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Euro 2024 final tournament. The competition will be linked with the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League, which will give countries a secondary route to qualify for the final tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: A total of 53 UEFA member associations entered the qualifying process. The draw for the qualifying group stage took place at the Festhalle in Frankfurt on 9 October 2022.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The format is similar to the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying competition; the group stage will decide 20 of the 23 teams that will advance to the final tournament to join hosts Germany. The 53 UEFA member associations were divided into ten groups, with seven groups containing five teams and three containing six teams. The draw for the qualifying group stage took place on 9 October 2022, after conclusion of the league phase of the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League. The four UEFA Nations League Finals participants were drawn into groups of five teams (so they are able to compete in the Nations League Finals in June 2023). The qualifying group stage will be played in a home-and-away, round-robin format on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2023. The winners and runners-up from the ten groups will qualify directly to the final tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: Following the qualifying group stage, the remaining three teams will be decided through the play-offs, to be held in March 2024. Twelve teams will be selected based on their performance in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League. These teams will be divided into three paths, each containing four teams, with one team from each path qualifying for the final tournament. The group winners of Nations Leagues A, B and C will automatically qualify for the play-off path of their league unless they have qualified for the final tournament via the qualifying group stage. If a group winner has already qualified through the qualifying group stage, they will be replaced by the next best-ranked team in the same league. However, if there are not enough non-qualified teams in the same league, then the spot will go first to the best-ranked group winner of League D, unless that team has already qualified for the final tournament. The remaining slots are then allocated to next best team in the Nations League overall ranking. However, group winners of Leagues B and C cannot face teams from a higher league.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The three play-off paths will each feature two single-leg semi-finals, and one single-leg final. In the semi-finals, the best-ranked team will host the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team will host the third-ranked team. The host of the final will be drawn between the winners of the semi-final pairings. The three play-off path winners will join the twenty teams that already qualified for the final tournament through the group stage.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: To determine the overall rankings of the European Qualifiers, results against teams in sixth place are discarded and the following criteria are applied:


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The qualifying group stage draw was held on 9 October 2022, 12:00 CEST, at the Festhalle in Frankfurt. Of UEFA's 55 member associations, 53 will compete in the qualifying competition. Host team Germany qualified directly to the final tournament, while it was confirmed on 20 September 2022 that Russia were ineligible due to the suspension from FIFA and UEFA competitions following their country's invasion of Ukraine.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The 53 UEFA national teams were seeded into six pots based on the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League overall ranking following the conclusion of the league phase. The four participants of the 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals were placed into the UNL Pot and drawn into Groups A–D, which only have five teams, so that they only have to play eight qualifying matches, leaving two free matchdays to play in Nations League Finals in June 2023. The next six-highest teams were then placed into Pot 1. If Germany had won their Nations League group, the UNL Pot would have contained three teams, and Pot 1 would have instead contained seven teams. Pots 2 to 5 contained ten teams, while Pot 6 contained the three lowest-ranked teams. The teams were drawn into ten groups: seven groups of five teams (Groups A–G) and three groups of six teams (Groups H–J). The draw started with the UNL Pot and Pot 1, and continued from Pot 2 to Pot 6, from where a team was drawn and assigned to the first available group (based on draw conditions) in alphabetical order.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 10 October 2022, the day following the draw. The schedule was initially released on the day of the draw, but was withdrawn shortly after its distribution due to an alleged calendar issue. However, UEFA ultimately confirmed the initial schedule the following day, with no changes made. Group matches will take place from 23 March to 21 November 2023.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: Teams that fail in the qualifying group stage can still qualify for the final tournament through the play-offs. Leagues A, B, and C in the UEFA Nations League will be allocated one of the three remaining final tournament spots. Four teams from each league that have not already qualified for the European Championship finals will compete in the play-offs of their league. The play-off berths were first allocated to each Nations League group winner, and if any of the group winners already qualify for the European Championship finals, then to the next-best ranked team of the league.


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The team selection process will determine the twelve teams that will compete in the play-offs based on the Nations League overall rankings, using a set of criteria that obey these principles:


title: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying

text: The overall rankings will be used for seeding in the final tournament draw. Results against sixth-placed teams will not be considered in the ranking.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Fantasy Island, also known as Blumhouse's Fantasy Island, is a 2020 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Jeff Wadlow. Serving both as a horror reimagining and a prequel to ABC's 1977 television series of the same name, it stars Michael Peña, Maggie Q, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen, Portia Doubleday, and Michael Rooker and follows a group of people who, while visiting the eponymous island, discover that their dream fantasies brought to life begin to turn into horrific living nightmares and they must try to survive.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: "Fantasy Island" was theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020 by Sony Pictures Releasing to generally negative reviews from critics. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing $49 million worldwide against its $7 million production budget.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Businesswoman Gwen Olsen, former police officer Patrick Sullivan, step-brothers J. D. and Brax Weaver, and teenager Melanie Cole arrive at Fantasy Island, a tropical resort where fantasies apparently come true. Upon arrival, island proprietor Mr. Roarke guides the guests to their fantasies: Patrick is enlisted in a war in honor of his late father; the Weavers become honor guests at a mansion rave; Melanie takes revenge on her childhood bully Sloane Maddison; and Gwen accepts her ex-boyfriend Allen Chambers' marriage proposal, which she rejected many years ago.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Melanie learns that Sloane was kidnapped and brought to Fantasy Island against her will. She saves her from a masked surgeon and both run away. Meanwhile, Patrick is captured by a military platoon and taken to their commander, Lieutenant Sullivan, whom Patrick recognizes as his father. As night falls, the surgeon attacks Melanie and Sloane again before Damon, a private investigator, kills him. Damon reveals that Roarke offered him to see his deceased daughter again. However, his fantasy turned into a nightmare that trapped him on the island. He also explains that the fantasies are created by spring water under a glowing rock in a cave. The trio collect some spring water and heads to the resort for help. Gwen wakes up the next morning to find she has a daughter with Allen and becomes dissatisfied. When Roarke explains that the fantasies must be fulfilled so that his own fantasy of being with his deceased wife can continue, Gwen convinces him to give her the fantasy she really wanted: to save a neighbour who died in a fire.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Unknown to the guests, Fantasy Island begins to turn the fantasies into living nightmares as the Weavers are taken hostage by a drug cartel associated with the mansion's owner, and Gwen is taken to the night she accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor Nick Taylor. She finds out that the other guests, except Melanie, were also there and attempts to save Nick, fails and is rescued by Roarke's assistant, Julia. Elsewhere, Sullivan's soldiers are summoned to rescue the Weavers. After being shot dead, the cartel reanimate as zombies who attack the soldiers. In the ensuing gunfight, J. D. is fatally shot and Sullivan sacrifices himself so Patrick and Brax can escape.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Melanie and Sloane are ambushed by the zombified surgeon until Damon leaps over a cliff with him, saving them at the cost of his own life. The remaining guests regroup at the resort, but are cornered by Roarke, who reveals that they are in a fantasy in which they are all killed. Realizing that everyone was involved in Nick's death (Melanie says that Nick asked her out that night and she turned him down, which is the reason he was in the apartment), the guests assume it is Julia's fantasy as they believe that Julia was Nick's mother. The guests escape to the dock to be rescued by a plane sent by Damon's associates, but it is shot down. In response, the guests run to the cave to destroy the glowing rock with a grenade Patrick is carrying. Suddenly, Melanie stabs Patrick and takes Sloane hostage, revealing that it is her true fantasy. She orchestrated their arrival to seek revenge on them for Nick's death, with whom she had a date and was convinced was her soulmate. Julia is revealed to be Roarke's wife, brought back by the power of the island dying of a terminal disease she was suffering from when she met Roarke, and convinces him to help the guests before disappearing.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Sloane remembers the spring water she collected before and wishes Melanie "to be" forever with Nick. As a result, a zombified Nick attacks Melanie and drags her into the water. Before drowning, Melanie detonates the grenade, but Patrick sacrifices himself and falls on it to protect the others. As the fantasy concludes, Gwen, Sloane, and Brax wake up at the resort, where Roarke agrees to let them go. While the guests board a plane to leave the now-purified Fantasy Island, Brax wishes for J. D. to come back to life but Roarke explains Brax must stay on the island for his fantasy to come true. After Gwen, Sloane, and a resurrected J. D. depart, Roarke asks Brax to become his new assistant. Remembering a nickname J. D. gave him, Brax chooses to rename himself "Tattoo", initiating the events of the 1977 television series.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: In July 2018, it was announced that a horror film adaptation of the "Fantasy Island" television series was being developed at Blumhouse Productions and Sony Pictures. It was described as "a mix of "Westworld" and "The Cabin in the Woods"". Jeff Wadlow was set to direct as well as co-write the screenplay, and co-produce.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: In October 2018, Michael Peña, Jimmy O. Yang, Dave Bautista, and Lucy Hale joined the cast. In November 2018, during an interview, Wadlow disclosed that Maggie Q, Portia Doubleday, and Ryan Hansen were added as well, though Bautista was no longer to appear in the film. Michael Rooker, Charlotte McKinney, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Austin Stowell, and Mike Vogel were cast in January 2019.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: On February 14, 2020, Madison Gate Records released the score soundtrack for the film composed by Bear McCreary. Jared Lee performed a track titled "Don’t Wish Your Life Away", which appeared in the film's end credits and was released as a single on January 31, 2020.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: "Fantasy Island" was released on February 14, 2020. It originally was scheduled to open on February 28, 2020, before being moved up, with another Blumhouse production, "The Invisible Man", being set for its original date.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: "Fantasy Island" was released on digital on April 14, 2020. Later, the film released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 12, 2020.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: "Fantasy Island" grossed $27.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $21.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $49 million, against a production budget of $7 million.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside "Sonic the Hedgehog", "The Photograph" and "Downhill", and was projected to gross $13–20 million from 2,770 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $5.7 million on its first day, and went on to debut to $12.6 million for its first three days, and a total $14 million over four, finishing third at the box office.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 8% based on 110 critics, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The site's critics consensus read: ""Fantasy Island" tries to show audiences the dark side of wish fulfillment, but mainly serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of exhuming long-dead franchises." On Metacritic, the film had a score of 22 out of 100 based on 29 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Fantasy Island (film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" called the film "inane" and "contrived," and wrote that "it feels like someone planted about a half-dozen different scripts all over this "Fantasy Island"." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film zero out of five stars, writing, "If crimes against cinema merited prosecution, Blumhouse's "Fantasy Island" would go directly to death row...The only genuine, blood-curdling scream incited by this stupefyingly dull time- and money-waster comes at the end, when the notion dawns that [the film] is meant to spawn sequels. Stop it now, before it kills again." Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com wrote that the film "contains less raw terror in its entirety than "Sonic the Hedgehog" during any five minutes of its running time," calling it "utterly boring" and "no sane person's fantasy of a half-decent movie." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 2/5 stars, describing it as "an odd attempt at genre-surfing that ends up well out of its depth".


title: Troy Kotsur

text: His supporting role in the film "CODA" (2021) earned him a number of accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award. He is the first deaf actor to win the latter three awards, and first deaf man and second deaf performer overall to win the former.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: Kotsur was born in Mesa, Arizona, the largest suburb of Phoenix, on July 24, 1968, to JoDee (née True) and Leonard Stephen "Len" Kotsur, who was Mesa's police chief. When Kotsur was nine months old, his parents discovered that he was deaf, and they learned American Sign Language so the family could communicate. His parents encouraged Kotsur to play sports and to make friends with hearing children in their neighborhood. Kotsur attended the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf, where he first became interested in acting. He graduated from Westwood High School. In high school, his drama teacher encouraged him to participate in the senior variety show, and he performed a pantomime skit that was positively received and motivated him to pursue theater.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: After Kotsur graduated from high school, he interned at KTSP-TV (now KSAZ-TV). While he had aspired to direct films, at the internship he assisted an editor and did not feel connected with people, recalling, "My directing dream poofed after I accepted the fact that I lived in a world that did not use my language." He then attended Gallaudet University from 1987 to 1989 and studied theater, television, and film.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: When Kotsur received an acting job offer from the National Theatre of the Deaf, he accepted it and left Gallaudet to tour with NTD for two years, performing in two plays. In 1994, he started working for the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles, California, acting in and directing several productions. On stage, his roles included Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire", Lenny in "Of Mice and Men", and Prince Hamlet in "Ophelia".


title: Troy Kotsur

text: In 2001, Kotsur and hearing actor Lyle Kanouse were cast together in a Deaf West Theatre production of the 1985 musical "Big River". Kotsur and Kanouse both played Huckleberry Finn's father Pap, with Kotsur signing and Kanouse speaking and singing. "Big River"s success led to the play being performed at the Mark Taper Forum, then to a Broadway revival under Roundabout Theater Company and Deaf West at the American Airlines Theater in New York City. He also had a recurring role on "", also working as an ASL specialist for the show.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: In 2012, Kotsur starred in the play "Cyrano", based on "Cyrano de Bergerac" and a co-production of Deaf West Theatre and The Fountain Theatre. The play, directed by Stephen Sachs, premiered in April 2012. Following "Cyrano", Kotsur directed the feature film "", which premiered at the Heartland Film Festival in 2013.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: In 2016 he starred in Deborah LaVine's independent feature, "Wild Prairie Rose". The film won the Jimmy Stewart Legacy award at the Heartland International Film Festival.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: In "The Mandalorian", the Tusken Raiders use a sign language, and Kotsur was brought on to develop that conlang. He did not mention that he was also an actor for fear that it would come across as brown-nosing. But after they found out from his manager, he was cast to play the lead Tusken Raider.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: In 2021, Kotsur appeared in the feature film "CODA" in a supporting role as the deaf father to a hearing teenage daughter. Director Sian Heder first saw his performances in Deaf West productions of "Our Town" and "Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo" and cast him as part of the ensemble. NPR reported that Kotsur's performance in "CODA" "awed both audiences and critics". For his performance in the film, Kotsur won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the second deaf actor, after Marlee Matlin (his "CODA" co-star) in "Children of a Lesser God" (1986), to win an Academy Award.


title: Troy Kotsur

text: Kotsur is set to star in "Flash Before the Bang", a sports drama television show with an all-deaf cast.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The national flag of Mexico () is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms charged in the center of the white stripe. While the meaning of the colors has changed over time, these three colors were adopted by Mexico following independence from Spain during the country's War of Independence, and subsequent First Mexican Empire.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: Red, white, and green are the colors of the national army in Mexico. The central emblem is the Mexican coat of arms, based on the Aztec symbol for Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the center of the Aztec Empire. It recalls the legend of an eagle sitting on a cactus while devouring a serpent that signaled to the Aztecs where to found their city, Tenochtitlan.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: Before the adoption of the first national flag, various flags were used during the War of Independence from Spain. Though it was never adopted as an official flag, many historians consider the first Mexican flag to be the Standard of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which was carried by Miguel Hidalgo after the on September 16, 1810. The Standard became the initial symbol of the rebel army during the Mexican War of Independence. Various other Standards were used during the war. José María Morelos used a flag with an image of the Virgin to which was added a blue and white insignia with a crowned eagle on a cactus over a three-arched bridge and the letters V.V.M. ( – "long live the Virgin Mary"). The Revolutionary Army also used a flag featuring the colors white, blue and red in vertical stripes. The first use of the modern colors—green, white and red—was in the flag of the unified Army of the Three Guarantees (pictured above) after independence from Spain was won.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: While similar to the national flag that is used today, the eagle in these arms is not holding a serpent in his talons and a crown has been affixed to the head of the eagle to signify the Empire. Variants of this flag that appeared in this period also included a naval flag that had the tricolor pattern.But only contained the eagle with the crown above its head. The military also used a similar square flag, but the eagle was larger than on the national flag. The national flag was officially decreed by Agustín de Iturbide in November 1821 and first officially used in July 1822. This flag was no longer used upon the abolishment of the empire.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The first national flag was established in 1821, the first year of Mexican recognized sovereignty. The imperial government that was set up chose a tricolor flag of green, white and red and charged with the national coat of arms. The official decree stated that


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The second national flag was adopted after the establishment of the first federal republic in 1823. The new flag was chosen for the republic in April of that year, the only difference being the appearance of the central emblem. The crown was removed from the eagle's head and a serpent was placed in the eagle's right talon. Another addition to the flag is a branch of oak and laurel branches, a tradition that was carried over to the current flag. This flag was discontinued in 1864 upon the dissolution of the first federal republic.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The third national flag was that of the Second Mexican Empire. Once again, the national flag used the green, white and red tricolor pattern with the white stripe being charged with the national arms. However, the ratio of the flag was changed from 4:7 to 1:2 and four eagles, which had crowns above their heads, were placed at each corner of the flag. The design, which was ordered by the Emperor Maximilian, gave the arms a look similar to the French Imperial arms, but he decided to add a bit of "Mexican flavor" to the flag. The coat of arms was described in a decree issued in November 1865 as:


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The current national flag was adopted on September 16, 1968, and was confirmed by law on February 24, 1984. The current version is an adaptation of the design approved by presidential decree in 1916 by Venustiano Carranza, where the eagle was changed from a front-facing to a side-facing position. Before the adoption of the current national flag, official flags have been used by the government. All of these flags used the tricolor pattern, with the only differences being the changes in the coat of arms, which was still charged in the center of the white stripe. One possible reason for the 1968 flag and arms change was that Mexico City was the host of the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. Around this same time period, the plain tricolor flag that Mexico used as its merchant ensign was also legally abandoned. The reasoning is that without the coat of arms, the flag would not be the Mexican flag; it would become nearly identical to the Italian flag.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: There was also debate in 1984 about how the coat of arms would be depicted on the reverse of the flag. To solve this problem, a PAN deputy proposed a change to the Law of the National Arms, Flag and Anthem that same year to allow for the eagle to face to the right when the reverse of the flag is displayed. In 1995, the law was changed to include the following:


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The official design of the Mexican flag can be found in Article 3 of the Law on the National Arms, Flag, and Anthem, passed in 1984. While the exact shades of the flag have not been defined by law, in 2001 it was reported, through personal communication, to Flags of the World that the Interior Ministry ("Secretaría de Gobernación") has suggested the following tones in the Pantone system; nevertheless, the ministry has not officially ruled on the matter. So far, there are no official printed documents or statements on the color shades. The Pantone colors listed below were employed by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited in its "Flag Manual". while 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Flag Manual proposed others.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The article dictates what must be featured on the flag and also its proportions. Copies of the national flag which are made according to this law are kept in two locations: the General National Archive ("Archivo General de la Nación") and the National Museum of History ("Museo Nacional de Historia").


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The Mexican tricolor (green, white, red) has been continuously used for a longer time than the Italian one. At the time of the Mexican flag's adoption, the similarly toned Italian tricolor had already been used briefly in Europe, for example by the Cisalpine Republic in 1797, but it had different proportions from the modern Italian flag.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: Both flags use the same colors (green, white, and red), but the Mexican flag has darker shades of green and red (particularly green). Additionally, these flags present a different aspect ratio (proportions): the Italian flag aspect ratio is 2:3 (1 to 1.5), more squarish in shape, while the Mexican flag aspect ratio is 4:7 (1 to 1.75), a longer shape.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: When the flag is paraded in front of a crowd, those in military uniform must present a salute according to military regulations. Civilians who are present give the following salute to the national flag: standing at attention ("firms"), they raise their right arms and place their right hands on their chests, in front of the heart. The hand is flat and the palm of the hand is facing the ground. This salute is known as the "El saludo civil a la Bandera Nacional" ("The Civil Salute to the National Flag"). When the President is acting in the capacity of the Head of the Armed Forces, he salutes the national flag with a military salute. When the national anthem is played on television to open or close daily programming, the national flag will be shown at the same time. During certain times of the year, the flag is flown by both civilians and government personnel. Mostly, these events coincide with national holidays and days of significance to the country. During some of these occasions, the flag will be flown at half-mast to honor the death of important Mexicans. These dates are listed in Article 18 of the Law of the National Flag, Arms, and Anthem. The national " Día de la Bandera" (Flag Day) celebration occurs on February 24. On this day in 1821, all the factions fighting in the War of Independence joined to form the Army of the Three Guarantees in response to the Plan de Iguala, which was signed by Vicente Guerrero and Agustín de Iturbide, declaring Mexico officially an independent country. General Vicente Guerrero was the first military official who swore allegiance to the national flag. Another flag tradition is that before every Olympics in which Mexico is a participant, the President hands a flag over to the flag bearer, chosen by their peers, to carry with them to the host city.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The flag songs are dedicated to the flag day, it is a national holiday in Mexico. Flag Day is celebrated every year on February 24 since its implementation in 1937. The songs were established by President of Mexico General Lázaro Cárdenas before the monument to General Vicente Guerrero, first to pledge allegiance to the Mexican flag and Agustin de Iturbide:


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The following pledge of fidelity is taken every February 22 and any day whenever new flags are given to institutions in accordance with the form established by Article 3 of the Law on the National Arms, Flag, and Anthem:


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The pledge taking is taken on this day in a presentation of colours ceremony to units of the Armed Forces, National Guard, law enforcement and emergency organizations, as well as public schools and colleges of the Secretariat of Education.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: There are two variants of the national flag that are mostly used by the state and federal governments, the difference between the national flag and the variants are the designs of the coat of arms. In the first variant, which is used by the President of Mexico and secretaries of federal bodies, the entire coat of arms is coloured gold, with the exception of the tricolour ribbon, which is green, white and red, and with the stone, lake and talons of the eagle coloured in silver. In the second variant, the entire coat of arms is coloured gold, even the ribbon, lake, stone and talons. The second variant is used mostly by State governments and federal bodies who are not able to use the first variant.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: The image of the flag is protected under law. A special permit is needed to broadcast its image. In February 2010, MTV Mexico controversially canceled a much-publicized broadcast of an episode of "South Park", called "Pinewood Derby", featuring the flag, because it claimed that the permit had not been issued.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: Other flags were flown as Mexican flags, either designed to intimidate the enemy or to act as identification. These flags were considered without subsequent formal documentation as national flag and temporally situated; Flag of Francisco I. Madero (February 9, 1913), Flag of Doliente Hidalgo (January 2, 1812), Flag of José María Morelos y Pavón, Flag of Francisco Villa, Flag of Siera Battalion, Flag of Jalisco Battalion, Libres de Puebla Battalion, Artillería Mina Battalion, Oaxaca Battalion, Toluca Battalion, Flag of Chihuahua Battalion, Flag of Durango Battalion, Flag of San Lorenzo Battalion, Flag of Lanceros Battalion, Flag of San Luis Potosí Battalion, Flag of Aguascalientes Battalion, Flag of Galeana Battalion (May 22, 1864), Flag of San Blas Battalion (September 24, 1846), Flag of Tres Villas Battalion, Flag of Milicias Battalion, Flag of Remixto Battalion, Flag of Quautla Battalion, Flag of 201 Squadron, Etc.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: In 1999, President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo started a program erecting giant flags across the country. Directed by the Secretariat of National Defense, the "banderas monumentales" (monumental flags) were placed in various cities and spots, most of which are of great significance to the nation. In a decree issued on July 1, 1999, by Zedillo, the flags were to be placed in Mexico City, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Veracruz. The decree also stipulated for the flags to measure , which are raised on flag poles that are high. After these initial monumental flags were created, cities such as Ensenada, Nuevo Laredo and Cancún were reported to have their own monumental flags. Smaller flags, called "banderas semi-monumentales", have been erected in smaller towns and at various educational institutes.


title: Flag of Mexico

text: As of December 22, 2010, the biggest Mexican flag in the world is now located in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Located at the Gran Plaza (Great Plaza) right across from International Bridge I connecting Piedras Negras with Eagle Pass, Texas. The pole is in height and weighs making it the tallest one in Latin America and one of the tallest in the world. The flag measures and weighs .


title: Flag of Mexico

text: Mexico's first largest monumental flag was the one located at the Mirador del Obispado in Monterrey (northeast) with a pole of and in height. The flag measures and weighs , four times the size of most other monumental flags at the time. It is located at the top of the "Cerro del Obispado" (Bishopric Hill) at an altitude of above the sea level (city's altitude ).


title: Enid Blyton

text: Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been translated into 90 languages. As of June 2019, Blyton held 4th place for the most translated author. She wrote on a wide range of topics, including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She is best remembered today for her "Noddy", "Famous Five", "Secret Seven", the "Five Find-Outers", and "Malory Towers" books, although she also wrote many others including the "St Clare's", "The Naughtiest Girl" and "The Faraway Tree" series.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Her first book, "Child Whispers", a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Following the commercial success of her early novels, such as "Adventures of the Wishing-Chair" (1937) and "The Enchanted Wood" (1939), Blyton went on to build a literary empire, sometimes producing 50 books a year, in addition to her prolific magazine and newspaper contributions. Her writing was unplanned and sprang largely from her unconscious mind: she typed her stories as events unfolded before her. The sheer volume of her work and the speed with which she produced it led to rumors that Blyton employed an army of ghost writers, a charge she vigorously denied.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers, and parents beginning in the 1950s, due to the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing and her themes, particularly in the Noddy series. Some libraries and schools banned her works, and from the 1930s until the 1950s the BBC refused to broadcast her stories because of their perceived lack of literary merit. Her books have been criticized as elitist, sexist, racist, xenophobic, and at odds with the more progressive environment that was emerging in post-World War II Britain, but they have continued to be bestsellers since her death in 1968.


title: Enid Blyton

text: She felt she had a responsibility to provide her readers with a strong moral framework, so she encouraged them to support worthy causes. In particular, through the clubs she set up or supported, she encouraged and organized them to raise funds for animal and paediatric charities.


title: Enid Blyton

text: The story of Blyton's life was dramatized in "Enid", a BBC television film featuring Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. It was first broadcast in the UK on BBC Four in 2009.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Enid Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 in East Dulwich, South London, United Kingdom, the eldest of three children, to Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a cutlery salesman (recorded in the 1911 census with the occupation of "Mantle Manufacturer dealer [in] women's suits, skirts, etc.") and his wife Theresa Mary ("née" Harrison; 1874–1950). Enid's younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976), were born after the family had moved to a semi-detached house in Beckenham, then a village in Kent. A few months after her birth, Enid almost died from whooping cough, but was nursed back to health by her father, whom she adored. Thomas Blyton ignited Enid's interest in nature; in her autobiography she wrote that he "loved flowers and birds and wild animals, and knew more about them than anyone I had ever met". He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature, and theatre, and the pair often went on nature walks, much to the disapproval of Enid's mother, who showed little interest in her daughter's pursuits. Enid was devastated when he left the family shortly after her 13th birthday to live with another woman. Enid and her mother did not have a good relationship, and she did not attend either of her parents' funerals.


title: Enid Blyton

text: From 1907 to 1915, Blyton attended St Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and lacrosse captain. She was not keen on all the academic subjects, but excelled in writing and, in 1911, entered Arthur Mee's children's poetry competition. Mee offered to print her verses, encouraging her to produce more. Blyton's mother considered her efforts at writing to be a "waste of time and money", but she was encouraged to persevere by Mabel Attenborough, the aunt of school friend Mary Potter.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's father taught her to play the piano, which she mastered well enough for him to believe she might follow in his sister's footsteps and become a professional musician. Blyton considered enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music, but decided she was better suited to becoming a writer. After finishing school, in 1915, as head girl, she moved out of the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, before going to stay with George and Emily Hunt at Seckford Hall, near Woodbridge, in Suffolk. Seckford Hall, with its allegedly haunted room and secret passageway, provided inspiration for her later writing. At Woodbridge Congregational Church, Blyton met Ida Hunt, who taught at Ipswich High School and suggested she train there as a teacher. Blyton was introduced to the children at the nursery school and, recognizing her natural affinity with them, enrolled in a National Froebel Union teacher training course at the school in September 1916. By this time, she had nearly terminated all contact with her family.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's manuscripts were rejected by publishers on many occasions, which only made her more determined to succeed, saying, "it is partly the struggle that helps you so much, that gives you determination, character, self-reliance –all things that help in any profession or trade, and most certainly in writing." In March 1916, her first poems were published in "Nash's Magazine". She completed her teacher training course in December 1918 and, the following month, obtained a teaching appointment at Bickley Park School, a small, independent establishment for boys in Bickley, Kent. Two months later, Blyton received a teaching certificate with distinctions in zoology and principles of education; first class in botany, geography, practice and history of education, child hygiene, and classroom teaching; and second class in literature and elementary mathematics. In 1920, she moved to Southernhay, in Hook Road Surbiton, as nursery governess to the four sons of architect Horace Thompson and his wife Gertrude, with whom Blyton spent four happy years. With the shortage of area schools, neighboring children soon joined her charges, and a small school developed at the house.


title: Enid Blyton

text: In 1920, Blyton moved to Chessington and began writing in her spare time. The following year, she won the "Saturday Westminster Review" writing competition with her essay "On the Popular Fallacy that to the Pure All Things are Pure". Publications such as "The Londoner", "Home Weekly" and "The Bystander" began to show an interest in her short stories and poems.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's first book, "Child Whispers", a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Its illustrator, Enid's schoolfriend Phyllis Chase collaborated on several of her early works. Also in that year, Blyton began writing in annuals for Cassell and George Newnes, and her first piece of writing, "Peronel and his Pot of Glue", was accepted for publication in "Teachers' World". Further boosting her success, in 1923, her poems appeared alongside those of Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare, and G. K. Chesterton in a special issue of "Teachers' World." Blyton's educational texts were influential in the 1920s and '30s, with her most sizable being the three-volume "The Teacher's Treasury" (1926), the six-volume "Modern Teaching" (1928), the eight-volume "Pictorial Knowledge" (1930), and the four-volume "Modern Teaching in the Infant School" (1932).


title: Enid Blyton

text: In July 1923, Blyton published "Real Fairies", a collection of thirty-three poems written especially for the book with the exception of "Pretending", which had appeared earlier in "Punch" magazine. The following year, she published "The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies", illustrated by Horace J. Knowles, and in 1926 the "Book of Brownies". Several books of plays appeared in 1927, including "A Book of Little Plays" and "The Play's the Thing" with the illustrator Alfred Bestall.


title: Enid Blyton

text: In the 1930s, Blyton developed an interest in writing stories related to various myths, including those of ancient Greece and Rome; "The Knights of the Round Table", "Tales of Ancient Greece" and "Tales of Robin Hood" were published in 1930. In "Tales of Ancient Greece" Blyton retold 16 well-known ancient Greek myths, but used the Latin rather than the Greek names of deities and invented conversations between characters. "The Adventures of Odysseus", "Tales of the Ancient Greeks and Persians" and "Tales of the Romans" followed in 1934.


title: Enid Blyton

text: The first of twenty-eight books in Blyton's Old Thatch series, "The Talking Teapot and Other Tales", was published in 1934, the same year as "Brer Rabbit Retold"; (note that Brer Rabbit originally featured in Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris), her first serial story and first full-length book, "Adventures of the Wishing-Chair", followed in 1937. "The Enchanted Wood", the first book in the Faraway Tree series, published in 1939, is about a magic tree inspired by the Norse mythology that had fascinated Blyton as a child. According to Blyton's daughter Gillian the inspiration for the magic tree came from "thinking up a story one day and suddenly she was walking in the enchanted wood and found the tree. In her imagination she climbed up through the branches and met Moon-Face, Silky, the Saucepan Man and the rest of the characters. She had all she needed." As in the Wishing-Chair series, these fantasy books typically involve children being transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies and other mythological creatures.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's first full-length adventure novel, "The Secret Island", was published in 1938, featuring the characters of Jack, Mike, Peggy and Nora. Described by "The Glasgow Herald" as a "Robinson Crusoe-style adventure on an island in an English lake", "The Secret Island" was a lifelong favourite of Gillian's and spawned the Secret series. The following year Blyton released her first book in the Circus series and her initial book in the Amelia Jane series, "Naughty Amelia Jane!" According to Gillian the main character was based on a large handmade doll given to her by her mother on her third birthday.


title: Enid Blyton

text: During the 1940s Blyton became a prolific author, her success enhanced by her "marketing, publicity and branding that was far ahead of its time". In 1940 Blyton published two books – "Three Boys and a Circus" and "Children of Kidillin" – under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock (middle name plus first married name), in addition to the eleven published under her own name that year. So popular were Pollock's books that one reviewer was prompted to observe that "Enid Blyton had better look to her laurels". But Blyton's readers were not so easily deceived and many complained about the subterfuge to her and her publisher, with the result that all six books published under the name of Mary Pollock – two in 1940 and four in 1943 – were reissued under Blyton's name. Later in 1940 Blyton published the first of her boarding school story books and the first novel in the Naughtiest Girl series, "The Naughtiest Girl in the School", which followed the exploits of the mischievous schoolgirl Elizabeth Allen at the fictional Whyteleafe School. The first of her six novels in the St. Clare's series, "The Twins at St. Clare's", appeared the following year, featuring the twin sisters Patricia and Isabel O'Sullivan.


title: Enid Blyton

text: In 1942 Blyton released the first book in the Mary Mouse series, "Mary Mouse and the Dolls' House", about a mouse exiled from her mousehole who becomes a maid at a dolls' house. Twenty-three books in the series were produced between 1942 and 1964; 10,000 copies were sold in 1942 alone. The same year, Blyton published the first novel in the Famous Five series, "Five on a Treasure Island", with illustrations by Eileen Soper. Its popularity resulted in twenty-one books between then and 1963, and the characters of Julian, Dick, Anne, George (Georgina) and Timmy the dog became household names in Britain. Matthew Grenby, author of "Children's Literature", states that the five were involved with "unmasking hardened villains and solving serious crimes", although the novels were "hardly 'hard-boiled' thrillers". Blyton based the character of Georgina, a tomboy she described as "short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed" and "bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal", on herself.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton had an interest in biblical narratives, and retold Old and New Testament stories. "The Land of Far-Beyond" (1942) is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1698), with contemporary children as the main characters. In 1943 she published "The Children's Life of Christ", a collection of fifty-nine short stories related to the life of Jesus, with her own slant on popular biblical stories, from the Nativity and the Three Wise Men through to the trial, the crucifixion and the resurrection. "Tales from the Bible" was published the following year, followed by "The Boy with the Loaves and Fishes" in 1948.


title: Enid Blyton

text: The first book in Blyton's Five Find-Outers series, "The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage", was published in 1943, as was the second book in the Faraway series, "The Magic Faraway Tree", which in 2003 was voted 66th in the BBC's Big Read poll to find the UK's favourite book. Several of Blyton's works during this period have seaside themes; "John Jolly by the Sea" (1943), a picture book intended for younger readers, was published in a booklet format by Evans Brothers. Other books with a maritime theme include "The Secret of Cliff Castle" and "Smuggler Ben", both attributed to Mary Pollock in 1943; "The Island of Adventure", the first in the Adventure series of eight novels from 1944 onwards; and various novels of the Famous Five series such as "Five on a Treasure Island" (1942), "Five on Kirrin Island Again" (1947) and "Five Go Down to the Sea" (1953).


title: Enid Blyton

text: Capitalising on her success, with a loyal and ever-growing readership, Blyton produced a new edition of many of her series such as the Famous Five, the Five Find-Outers and St. Clare's every year in addition to many other novels, short stories and books. In 1946 Blyton launched the first in the Malory Towers series of six books based around the schoolgirl Darrell Rivers, "First Term at Malory Towers", which became extremely popular, particularly with girls.


title: Enid Blyton

text: The first book in Blyton's Barney Mysteries series, "The Rockingdown Mystery", was published in 1949, as was the first of her fifteen Secret Seven novels. The Secret Seven Society consists of Peter, his sister Janet, and their friends Colin, George, Jack, Pam and Barbara, who meet regularly in a shed in the garden to discuss peculiar events in their local community. Blyton rewrote the stories so they could be adapted into cartoons, which appeared in "Mickey Mouse Weekly" in 1951 with illustrations by George Brook. The French author Evelyne Lallemand continued the series in the 1970s, producing an additional twelve books, nine of which were translated into English by Anthea Bell between 1983 and 1987.


title: Enid Blyton

text: Blyton's Noddy, about a little wooden boy from Toyland, first appeared in the "Sunday Graphic" on 5 June 1949, and in November that year "Noddy Goes to Toyland", the first of at least two dozen books in the series, was published. The idea was conceived by one of Blyton's publishers, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, who in 1949 arranged a meeting between Blyton and the Dutch illustrator Harmsen van der Beek. Despite having to communicate via an interpreter, he provided some initial sketches of how Toyland and its characters would be represented. Four days after the meeting Blyton sent the text of the first two Noddy books to her publisher, to be forwarded to van der Beek. The Noddy books became one of her most successful and best-known series, and were hugely popular in the 1950s. An extensive range of sub-series, spin-offs and strip books were produced throughout the decade, including "Noddy's Library", "Noddy's Garage of Books", "Noddy's Castle of Books", "Noddy's Toy Station of Books" and "Noddy's Shop of Books".


title: Enid Blyton

text: In 1950 Blyton established the company Darrell Waters Ltd to manage her affairs. By the early 1950s she had reached the peak of her output, often publishing more than fifty books a year, and she remained extremely prolific throughout much of the decade. By 1955 Blyton had written her fourteenth Famous Five novel, "Five Have Plenty of Fun", her fifteenth Mary Mouse book, "Mary Mouse in Nursery Rhyme Land", her eighth book in the Adventure series, "The River of Adventure", and her seventh Secret Seven novel, "Secret Seven Win Through". She completed the sixth and final book of the Malory Towers series, "Last Term at Malory Towers", in 1951.