title: Second Life

text: Criticism of quality assurance of "Second Life" states that Linden Lab focuses too much on bringing new features to the production environment instead of fixing long-standing bugs that, in the worst case, cause financial loss for the users. On April 30, 2007, an open letter signed by over 3,000 users was sent to Linden Lab to protest the quality assurance process of the company. Linden Lab has responded to the open letter.


title: Second Life

text: Computer hardware and Internet connections capable of smoothly rendering high quality content in other MMOGs may perform poorly in "Second Life", resulting in low frame rates and unresponsive controls on even minimal graphical configurations. The problem is especially prevalent when large numbers of avatars congregate in one area. The problem is largely due to the fact that the world is entirely user created, and the majority of content created by users is made without any sort of basic graphical optimization. As a result, objects with both unnecessarily high polygon counts, and unnecessarily high resolution textures are prevalent. It is not uncommon for users to have to download and use upwards of a dozen times the amount of resources than would actually be required for the equivalent visual result. Certain areas have guidelines for script usage, which helps reduce lag by reducing resources used server-side, but does nothing to alleviate the primary issue above.


title: Second Life

text: A single region (65,536 m of land hosted on a single CPU) is set to accommodate a limited number of Residents (40 on 'mainland' regions, up to 100 on private islands), causing some popular locations such as teleportation points to become inaccessible at times. It is possible for an area of land a Resident has paid for to become inaccessible because another area in the same region has exhausted the avatar limit.


title: Second Life

text: On September 8, 2006, Linden Lab released a news bulletin that revealed their "Second Life" database had been compromised and customer information, including encrypted passwords and users' real names, had likely been accessed. However, it was later revealed that the hacker had in fact been focused on trying to cheat the in-world money system and their access to personal information was believed incidental, although a full alert was still raised for safety's sake.


title: Second Life

text: Although "Second Life"s client and server incorporate digital rights management technology, the visual data of an object must ultimately be sent to the client in order for it to be drawn; thus unofficial third-party clients can bypass them. One such program, CopyBot, was developed in 2006 as a debugging tool to enable objects to be backed up, but was immediately hijacked for use in copying objects; additionally, programs that generally attack client-side processing of data, such as GLIntercept, can copy certain pieces of data. Such use is prohibited under the "Second Life" TOS and could be prosecuted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.


title: Second Life

text: Linden Lab may ban a user who is observed using CopyBot or a similar client, but it will not ban a user simply for uploading or even selling copied content; in this case, Linden Lab's enforcement of intellectual property law is limited to that required by the "safe harbor" provisions of the DMCA which used to require a regular mail DMCA complaint. However, since 2019 an electronic DMCA complaint form is also available.


title: Second Life

text: A few high-profile businesses in "Second Life" have filed such lawsuits, none of the cases filed to date have gone to trial, and most have been dismissed pursuant to a settlement agreement reached between the parties. Another case where settlement and dismissal was gained may be found in the matter of Eros, LLC v. Linden Research, Inc. As of October 7, 2010, the case was transferred to private mediation and the plaintiffs filed for dismissal of charges on March 15, 2011.


title: Second Life

text: Most users in the world as paying, private individuals are, likewise, effectively unprotected. Common forms of fraud taking place in-world include bogus investment and pyramid schemes, fake or hacked vendors, and failure to honor land rental agreements.


title: Second Life

text: A group of virtual landowners online have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming the company broke the law when it rescinded their ownership rights. The plaintiffs say a change in the terms of service forced them to either accept new terms that rescinded their virtual property ownership rights, or else be locked out of the site.


title: Second Life

text: Linden Lab, for a period, offered "Openspace" regions to users: regions which were purchased in packs of four, with all four running on a single CPU core, intended to be placed next to an existing region to create the effect of larger size. The fee for 4 Openspaces was identical to that for a single private region. However, in March 2008, this rule was modified to permit Openspaces to be bought individually and placed elsewhere, as well as increasing the prim load each one could handle. Openspaces were made available for a US$415 downpayment plus a US$75 monthly fee.


title: Second Life

text: In October 2008, Linden Lab announced that the Openspaces being used for this purpose were being misused; there was in fact no technical throttle limiting their usage. Linden Lab raised the monthly fee per Openspace to US$125, the same cost as half a region; added an avatar limit of 20; and renamed it to Homestead.


title: Second Life

text: A week after the initial announcement Linden Lab stated its intention to add technical limits. A revised Openspace product, with far fewer prims, a no-residency rule, and costing the same monthly amount, was announced.


title: Second Life

text: In May 2009, Linden Lab announced they were "grandfathering" Openspace sims (now rebranded as "Homesteads"), after a protracted protest movement caused a major amount of negative publicity and funded potential litigation.


title: Second Life

text: Some media attention has been given to sexual activity involving avatars with a childlike appearance. The United Kingdom and Germany are among the countries investigating new laws to combat simulated child pornography. The USA has attempted to pass several laws forbidding simulated child pornography; however, each one has been struck down by the US Supreme Court as an infringement on the First Amendment right to free speech.


title: Second Life

text: As of May 2007, two such countries, Germany and Belgium, have launched a police investigation into age of consent-related offenses in "Second Life" (including both trading of non-virtual photography and involuntary virtual sexual activity with childlike avatars by means of virtual identity theft). Linden Lab responded by issuing a statement that any "depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving minors" was a bannable offence.


title: Second Life

text: In France, a conservative family union, Familles de France, sued Linden Lab in June 2007, alleging that "Second Life" gave minors access to sexual content, including bondage, zoophilia and scatophilia, as well as gambling, and advertisements for alcohol, drugs or tobacco. Linden Lab pointed out that the virtual world is not meant for children (people under the age of 18) because of the mature content and interactions within "Second Life". However, minors aged between 13 and 17 can access "Second Life", but they will be restricted to what they can see or do based on age. The "Second Life" world is split into sections/worlds and each one is given a maturity rating similar to films: General, Moderate and Adult. Minors aged 13–17 can access areas with a General Rating only.


title: Second Life

text: "Second Life" Main Grid regions are rated either "General", "Moderate", or "Adult" (previously "PG", "Mature", or "Adult"). Builds, textures, actions, animations, chat, or businesses that are of an adult nature are regulated by the "Second Life" Terms of Service to only occur in simulators with a Moderate or Adult rating. General rated sims exist as an alternative for residents who do not wish to reside in areas where adult-oriented activities and businesses are permitted.


title: Second Life

text: Linden Lab has created an Adult rated "mainland" continent named Zindra in response to its other "mainland" continents being mostly General.


title: Second Life

text: "Second Life" features a built-in digital rights management system that controls the movement of textures, sounds, scripts, and models with the "Second Life" servers at Linden Lab. At some point, though, this data must be sent to a user's computer to be displayed or played—an issue fundamental to any system attempting to apply restrictions to digital information.


title: Second Life

text: In November 2006 controversy arose over a tool called CopyBot, developed as part of libsecondlife and was intended to allow users to legitimately back up their "Second Life" data. For a brief period, an unmodified CopyBot allowed any user to replicate SL items or avatars (although not scripts, which run only on the servers at Linden Lab). Later changes to the SecondLife protocols prevented unmodified copies of CopyBot from working. Nevertheless, the basic issue of users being able to duplicate content that is sent to them remains.


title: Second Life

text: Residents who copy content belonging to other users face being banned from "Second Life", but Linden Lab has so far never sued any of these users for copyright infringement; since the resident creators (and not Linden Lab) retain ownership of the rights, it is not clear whether Linden Lab would legally be able to do so. Linden Lab does, however, comply with DMCA takedown notices served to them against resident content; serving a DMCA Takedown Notice is the normal procedure recommended by Linden Lab for having copyrighted content illegally resold on "Second Life".


title: Second Life

text: Any user who uploads, publishes or submits any content keeps the intellectual property rights of that content, however both Linden Lab and other users gain their own rights from your content. Linden Lab receives a content license from anything a user uploads to the server. Section 7.3 of the "Second Life" terms of service states; "you hereby automatically grant Linden Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-license able, and transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the content solely for the purpose of providing and promoting the service".


title: Second Life

text: A user who uploads their content to a public area also gives a content licence to other users as well, which allows other users to replicate and record for use in Machinima (as outlined in section 7.4, Snapshot and Machinima Policy).


title: Second Life

text: Regardless of what rights and licences are given, Linden Lab takes no responsibility for the outcome of any dispute between users or the server regarding content. Section 10.2 states; "you release Linden Lab (and its officers, directors, shareholders, agents, subsidiaries, and employees) from claims, demands, losses, liabilities and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any dispute you have or claim to have with one or more users, including whether or not Linden Lab becomes involved in any resolution or attempted resolution of the dispute". Section 10.3 repeats a similar passage but regarding the responsibility of Linden Lab during any data or technical fault.


title: Second Life

text: In 2006, attorney Marc Bragg sued Linden Lab, claiming that it had illegally deprived him of access to his account after he discovered a loophole in the online land auction system which allowed regions to be purchased at prices below reserve. Although most users and commentators believed that Bragg would have no chance of winning, a number of legal developments occurred as a result of the case, including a court ruling that parts of the "Second Life" Terms of Service were unenforceable, due to being an unconscionable contract of adhesion. The case eventually ended with Bragg's virtual land and account being restored to him in a confidential out-of-court settlement. Since the settlement created no legal precedent, it left users with confusion as to what legal rights they truly had with respect to their virtual land, items, and account. Many of Bragg's legal arguments rested on the claim—advertised on Linden Lab web site—that virtual land within "Second Life" could be "owned" by the purchasing user, which was removed shortly after the settlement.


title: Second Life

text: Eros, LLC and Shannon Grei brought forth a class action suit in US District Court in Northern California against Linden Research, Inc on September 15, 2009 (Case4:09-cv-04269-PJH). Court papers allege the defendants knowingly and profitably turned a blind eye to copyright and trademark violations within the Second Life service.<ref name="Strokerz Toyz/Eros LLC Takes Linden Lab to Court in Class Action Lawsuit!!!">Mistral, Pixeleen: "Strokerz Toyz/Eros LLC Takes Linden Lab to Court in Class Action Lawsuit!!!" Alphaville Herald, September 15, 2009.</ref>


title: Second Life

text: In 2010, a group of banned SL users filed suit against Linden Lab and CEO Philip Rosedale, in the same Pennsylvania Federal District Court that the Bragg case was adjudicated in, with the same judge, to deal with further land seizures and account suspensions by the Lab against various customers. Due to the Terms of Service agreement changes since the Bragg case, defendants attorneys successfully argued to move the suit to federal court in California, where the case lingered for several years. The judge did rule that there was a basis to turn the litigation into a class action, and that there were two classes under which claimants could file claims. The primary class was those who suffered economic damages to their livelihoods, through loss of their business revenues in "SL". The secondary class was those who suffered property losses from loss of land, money on hand, and virtual goods in avatar inventories. In May 2013, attorney for defendants negotiated a settlement agreement with one of the lead attorneys that, in plain language, agreed to refund region setup fees for private island owners, pay land owners 2 Linden Dollars per square meter of virtual land, refund all L$ and USD amounts in the plaintiffs' accounts at the time of suspension, and allow the plaintiffs the option of either receiving $15US as compensation for loss of accounts and inventory virtual goods OR restoration of their accounts in order to sell their goods on the "SL" Marketplace. The settlement agreement went to final hearing in March 2014, with an objection from claimant Mike Lorrey as to the vagueness of certain terms in the settlement as to which fees exactly would be refunded. With the resolution of that objection, claimants who had filed claims prior to March 28, 2014, began to receive settlement money a few months later.


title: Second Life

text: Since its debut in 2003, "Second Life" has been referred to by various popular culture media, including literature, television, film and music. In addition, various personalities in such media have themselves used or employed "Second Life" for both their own works and for private purposes.


title: Second Life

text: In September 2006, former Governor of Virginia Mark Warner became the first politician to appear in a MMO when he gave a speech in "Second Life". Musicians followed suit, with Redzone being credited by "Wired" and Reuters as the first band to tour in "Second Life" in February 2007. Then, in June 2008, author Charles Stross held a conference in "Second Life" to promote an upcoming novel. "Second Life" was also featured prominently, and used as a tool to locate a suspect, in the television show "" in 2007. In the American sitcom "The Office", Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is known to play the game, most notably in the episode "Local Ad".


title: Second Life

text: Much of the published research conducted in "Second Life" is associated with education and learning. Unlike computer games, "Second Life" does not have a pre-defined purpose and allows for highly realistic enactment of real life activities online. One such study tested the usefulness of "SL" as an action learning environment in a senior course for management information systems students. Another presented a case study in which university students were tasked with building an interactive learning experience using "SL" as a platform. Both problem-based learning and constructionism acted as framing pedagogies for the task, with students working in teams to design and build a learning experience which could be possible in real life.


title: Second Life

text: Situated learning has also been examined in "SL", in order to determine how the design and social dynamics of the virtual world support as well as constrain various types of learning. The paper, "The future for (second) life and learning", published in the "British Journal of Educational Technology", examines the potential of "Second Life" to further innovative learning techniques. It notes trends within the "SL" innovation to date, including the provision of realistic settings, the exploitation of pleasant simulated environments for groups, and the links with other learning technologies. It also considers the creativity sparked by "SL"s potential to offer the illusion of 3-D ‘spaces’ and buildings, and points to infinite imaginative educational possibilities.


title: Second Life

text: Second Life has also offered educational research potential within the medical and healthcare fields. Examples include in-world research facilities such as the Second Life Medical and Consumer Health Libraries (Healthinfo Island—funded by a grant from the US National Library of Medicine), and VNEC (Virtual Neurological Education Centre—developed at the University of Plymouth, UK).


title: Second Life

text: There have also been healthcare related studies done of "SL" residents. Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. One survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in" SL" which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors.


title: Second Life

text: Another focus of "SL" research has included the relationship of avatars or virtual personas to the 'real' or actual person. These studies have included research into social behavior and reported two main implications. The first is that "SL" virtual selves shape users' offline attitudes and behavior. The research indicated that virtual lives and physical lives are not independent, and our appearances and actions have both online and offline consequences. The second deals with experimental research and supports the idea that virtual environments, such as "SL", can enable research programs in that people behave in a relatively natural spread of behavioral patterns.


title: Second Life

text: The "SL" avatar-self relationship was also studied via resident interviews, and various enactments of the avatar-self relationship were identified. The study concluded that "SL" residents enacted multiple avatar-self relationships and cycled through them in quick succession, suggesting that these avatar-self relationships might be shaped and activated strategically in order to achieve the desired educational, commercial, or therapeutic outcomes.


title: Second Life

text: Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff describes the anthropological applications of studying "Second Life" and its userbase in "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human." Boellstorff explores the relationship between anonymity and community when everyone in a community belongs to varying degrees of anonymity, and how this feeds into the idea of digital collectivity. He also comments on the phenomenon of data becoming "part of social context" that has been observed both inside and outside of "Second Life" as surveillance becomes more integrated into everyday life. He stresses the difference between the concepts of anonymity and pseudonymity, identifying "Second Life" users as belonging to the latter group of people - though their avatars are not directly linked to their real identities and reputations, they have forged new ones in this online space, a unique effect of creating an online persona in the digital age.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: Tales of the Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama anthology television series created by Scott M. Gimple and Channing Powell. The fourth television series within "The Walking Dead" franchise, it is a spin-off to "The Walking Dead", which is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. "Tales of the Walking Dead" premiered on AMC on August 14, 2022.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: "Tales of the Walking Dead" is an episodic anthology series that is based on new and existing characters within "The Walking Dead" universe.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: In September 2020, AMC announced they and Scott M. Gimple had been developing an episodic anthology series set within "The Walking Dead" universe. In October 2021, AMC officially greenlit a six-episode first season to debut in mid-2022. Channing Powell, who has written for both "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead", serves as showrunner.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: In February 2022, it was announced that Anthony Edwards, Parker Posey, Terry Crews, Poppy Liu, and Jillian Bell had been cast in starring roles. Daniella Pineda, Olivia Munn, Danny Ramirez, Loan Chabanol, Embeth Davidtz, Jessie T. Usher and Gage Munroe later joined the cast in undisclosed roles. In April 2022, it was confirmed that Samantha Morton would reprise her role as Alpha in an episode, and that Lauren Glazier and Matt Medrano had joined the cast.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: Filming for the series began in January 2022 in Buford, Georgia, with the first episode directed by Michael E. Satrazemis; who has directed several episodes of both "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead". In February 2022, it was confirmed that Satrazemis would direct three of the six first-season episodes, with the remaining episodes directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, Deborah Kampmeier, and Tara Nicole Weyr (who previously directed for "Fear the Walking Dead"). Later, it was revealed that Ron Underwood would be directing an episode, replacing Weyr. In April 2022, a crew member suffered an accidental injury on set, briefly suspending production. Filming for the season wrapped in April 2022.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: The series premiered on AMC on August 14, 2022. The first episode was released on August 11, on AMC+ and each subsequent episode is made available a week before their AMC air dates.


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: A teaser trailer was released on April 10, 2022, using the tagline "6 Different Stories, 1 Dead World".


title: Tales of the Walking Dead

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 74% approval rating with an average rating of 5.95/10, based on 29 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While these "Tales of the Walking Dead" are shaggy dog stories of varying quality, there's still enough meat on the bone to justify this expansion of the long-running zombie saga." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 60 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers and also known as "Los Diablos Tejanos" (), is an investigative law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in the US state of Texas. It is based in the capital city of Austin. In the time since its creation, the Texas Rangers have investigated crimes ranging from murder to political corruption, acted in riot control and as detectives, protected the governor of Texas, tracked down fugitives, served as a security force at important state locations, including the Alamo, and functioned as a paramilitary force at the service of both the Republic (1836–1845) and the State of Texas.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Texas Rangers were unofficially created by Stephen F. Austin in a call-to-arms written in 1823 and were first headed by Captain Morris. After a decade, on August 10, 1835, Daniel Parker introduced a resolution to the Permanent Council creating a body of rangers to protect the Mexican border. The unit was dissolved by the federal authorities after the Civil War during the Reconstruction Era but was quickly reformed upon the reinstitution of home government. Since 1935, the organization has been a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS); it fulfills the role of Texas' state bureau of investigation. As of 2019, there are 166 commissioned members of the Ranger force.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Rangers have taken part in many of the most important events of Texas history, such as stopping the assassination of presidents William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz in El Paso, and in some of the best-known criminal cases in the history of the Old West, such as those of gunfighter John Wesley Hardin, bank robber Sam Bass, and outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. Scores of books have been written about the Rangers, from well-researched works of nonfiction to pulp novels and other such fiction, making the Rangers significant participants in the mythology of the Wild West. The Lone Ranger, perhaps the best-known example of a fictional character derived from the Texas Rangers, draws his alias from having once been a Texas Ranger. Other well-known examples include the radio and television series "Tales of the Texas Rangers", and the several Texas Ranger roles, including Chuck Norris portraying Cordell Walker in "Walker, Texas Ranger". The Major League Baseball (MLB) team Texas Rangers is named after the division.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Rangers are culturally significant to Texans and are legally protected against disbandment. There is a museum dedicated to the Texas Rangers known as the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas, which celebrates the cultural significance of the Rangers.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The rangers were founded in 1823 when Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, employed ten men to act as rangers to protect 600 to 700 newly settled families who arrived in Mexican Texas following the Mexican War of Independence. While there is some discussion as to when Austin actually employed men as "rangers", Texas Ranger lore dates the year of their organization to this event. The Texas Rangers were formally constituted in 1835, and in November, Robert McAlpin Williamson was chosen to be the first Major of the Texas Rangers. Within two years the Rangers comprised more than 300 men.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Following the Texas Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Texas, newly elected president Mirabeau B. Lamar (the second elected president of the Republic) raised a force of 56 Rangers to fight the Cherokee and the Comanche, partly in retaliation for the support they had given the Mexicans at the Cordova Rebellion against the Republic. Ten Rangers were killed in the Battle of Stone Houses in 1837. The size of the Ranger force was increased from 56 to 150 men by Sam Houston, as President of the Republic, in 1841 (the second time he was elected president of the Republic).


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Rangers continued to participate in skirmishes with Native Americans through 1846, when the annexation of Texas to the United States and the Mexican–American War saw several companies of Rangers mustered into federal service. They played important roles at various battles, acting as guides and participating in counter-guerrilla warfare, soon establishing a fearsome reputation among both Mexicans and Americans. At the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846, famous Texas Rangers such as John Coffee "Jack" Hays, Ben McCulloch, Bigfoot Wallace and Samuel Hamilton Walker played important roles in the battle, including advising General William Jenkins Worth on the tactics required to fight inside a Mexican city. Richard Addison Gillespie, a famed Texas Ranger, died at Monterrey, and General Worth renamed a hill "Mount Gillespie" after him. Colonel Hays organized a second regiment of Texas Rangers, including Rip Ford, who fought with General Winfield Scott in his Mexico City Campaign and the Anti-guerrilla campaign along his line of communications to Vera Cruz.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: John Jackson Tumlinson Sr., the first alcalde of the Colorado district, is considered by many Texas Ranger historians to be the first Texas Ranger killed in the line of duty. One of his most urgent issues was protection of settlers from theft and murder by marauders. On his way to San Antonio in 1823 to discuss the issue with the governor, Tumlinson was killed by Native Americans. His traveling companion, a Mr. Newman, escaped. Tumlinson's body was never found.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Following the end of the war in 1848, the Rangers were largely disbanded, but the election of Hardin Richard Runnels as governor in 1857 meant US$70,000 () was allocated to fund the Rangers under John Salmon "Rip" Ford, a veteran of the Mexican war. The now 100-strong Rangers participated in campaigns against the Comanche and other tribes, whose raids against the settlers and their properties had become common. Ford and his Rangers fought the Comanche in the Battle of Little Robe Creek in 1858 and then Juan Cortina in the Battle of Rio Grande City the following year with Capt. Peter Tumlinson.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The success of a series of campaigns in the 1860s marked a turning point in Rangers' history. The U.S. Army could provide only limited and thinly-stretched protection in the enormous territory of Texas. By contrast, the Rangers' effectiveness when dealing with these threats convinced both the people of the state and the political leaders that a well-funded and organized state Ranger force was essential. Such a force could use the deep familiarity with the territory and the proximity with the theater of operations as major advantages in its favor. This option was not pursued, in view of the emerging national political problems (prelude to the American Civil War), and the Rangers were again dissolved.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Many Rangers enlisted to fight for the Confederacy following the secession of Texas from the United States in 1861 during the Civil War. In 1870, during Reconstruction, the Rangers were briefly replaced by a Union-controlled version called the Texas State Police; supplemented by the 30 man Texas Special Police. Both organizations were disbanded only three years later. The state election of 1873 saw newly elected Governor Richard Coke and the state legislature recommission the Rangers. During these times, many of the Rangers' myths were born, such as their success in capturing or killing notorious criminals and "desperados" (including bank robber Sam Bass and gunfighter John Wesley Hardin), their involvement in the Mason County War, the Horrell-Higgins Feud, and their decisive role in the defeat of the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache peoples. The Apache "dreaded the Texas Rangers...whose guns were always loaded and whose aim was unerring; they slept in the saddle and ate while they rode, or done without...when they took up our trail they followed it determinedly and doggedly day and night." Also during these years, the Rangers suffered the only defeat in their history when they surrendered at the Salinero Revolt in 1877.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Despite the fame of their deeds, the conduct of the Rangers during this period was illegally excessive. In particular, Leander H. McNelly and his men used ruthless methods that often rivaled the brutality of their opponents, such as taking part in summary executions and confessions induced by torture and intimidation.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Rangers next saw serious action at the summit of William Howard Taft and President Porfirio Díaz in 1909, preventing an assassination of both presidents, and during the subsequent Mexican Revolution. The breakdown of law and order on the Mexican side of the border, coupled with the lack of federal military forces, meant the Rangers were once again called upon to restore and maintain law and order, by any necessary means, which again led to excesses. However, the situation necessitated the appointment of hundreds of new special Rangers by the state, which neglected to carefully screen aspiring members. The Rangers were responsible for several incidents, ending in the January 28, 1918 massacre of the male population (15 Mexican men and boys ranging in age from 16 to 72 years) of the tiny community of Porvenir, Texas, on the Mexican border in western Presidio County. Before the decade was over, thousands of people died, Texans and Mexicans alike. In January 1919, an investigation launched by Texas lawmaker José Tomás Canales found that from 300 to 5,000 people, mostly of Hispanic descent, had been killed by Rangers from 1910 to 1919, and that members of the Rangers had been involved in many acts of brutality and injustice. The Rangers were reformed by a resolution of the Legislature in 1919, which saw the special Ranger groups disbanded and a complaints system instituted.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Great Depression forced both the federal and state governments to cut down on personnel and funding of their organizations, and the number of commissioned officers was reduced to 45, with the only means of transportation afforded to Rangers being free railroad passes or using their personal horses. The agency was again damaged after supporting Governor Ross Sterling in his re-election campaign—after his opponent Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson won, she proceeded to discharge all serving Rangers in 1933.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The ensuing disorganization of law enforcement in the state caused the Legislature to engage a firm of consultants to reorganize the state security agencies. The consultants recommended merging the Rangers with the Texas Highway Patrol under a new agency called the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). This change took place in 1935, with an initial budget of US$450,000 (). With minor rearrangements over the years, the 1935 reforms have ruled the Texas Rangers' organization until present day. Hiring new members, which had been largely a political decision, was achieved through a series of examinations and merit evaluations. Promotion relied on seniority and performance in the line of duty. Today, the historical importance and symbolism of the Texas Rangers is such that they are protected by statute from being disbanded.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: On January 31, 1919, the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House convened at the state capitol in Austin, Texas, to begin an investigation of the Texas Rangers. The investigation was prompted by José Tomás Canales, a state representative from Brownsville, Texas. Canales filed 19 charges against the Texas Rangers and declared a state of emergency as a result of the violent policing practices that he alleged were routinely used by the state force against Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals living along the US-Mexico border. Canales also introduced a piece of legislation, House Bill 5, which proposed reorganizing the Texas Rangers and increasing the minimum qualifications and pay. From January 31 to February 13, 1919, the committee heard testimony from people across the state, including victims of state violence, witnesses or surviving relatives, and members of the Texas Rangers. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has preserved the full transcript of the investigation, which consists of over 1600 pages of testimony and evidence.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The testimony revealed many issues within the Texas Rangers and highlighted several high-profile cases of abuse. For example, in January 1918, a group consisting of Texas Rangers belonging to Company B and four local ranchers executed 15 innocent Mexican men and boys in Porvenir, a small community in West Texas. In the aftermath, Texas Ranger Captain James Monroe Fox falsified official reports to Adjutant General James Harley to claim that the Porvenir residents had fired on the group of Rangers. Fox would later amend his statements and ultimately resigned under pressure in 1918. However, other Texas Rangers involved in the massacre remained on the force. Another incident that came to light during the 1919 Investigation was the murder of Toribio Rodriguez, a Brownsville police officer, in December of 1912. Rodriguez encountered a group of Texas Rangers and county law enforcement traveling in a hack with no lights. After Rodriguez asked the men to light the lamps on the hack, they began shooting at him. He returned home with a minor wound. However, the group of men went to Rodriguez's house, shot him in the back, and took him to the jail. Rodriguez died a few days later on November 14, 1912. At the time of the investigation, at least one of the Rangers involved, Captain John J. Sanders, was still active on the force. Both particularly egregious cases offered a small sample of the many accounts of abuse that appear throughout the transcript. Witnesses also testified that violence by Texas Rangers extended beyond the US-Mexico border region and that other racial groups, and particularly African Americans, were subject to harassment and violence from the state agents.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: On February 19, 1919, the committee presented its findings to the Texas House of Representatives. However, despite the revelations, the 1919 investigation did not produce the sweeping changes in the organization's culture that policymakers like Canales had wanted. Ultimately, no Texas Rangers were prosecuted for their involvement in acts of violence like the Porvenir Massacre or the murder of Toribio Rodriguez. While the committee acknowledged that “the conduct of certain members of the ranger force... is most reprehensible,” they justified the Rangers’ continuing presence along the border and praised the majority of the state agents for their “great service... in the protection of property.” However, there were a few notable changes. The state legislators decided to reduce the force from well over 1,000 men to just 68 Rangers. The majority of the reduction came from eliminating the "Loyalty Rangers," a group of unpaid volunteer Rangers that was established during World War I to monitor acts of "disloyalty" in their communities. At the time of the investigation, there were approximately 800 Loyalty Rangers still in service. Many of the men who were dismissed moved into careers in local law enforcement or later in the US Border Patrol, which was established in 1924.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: From its earliest days, the Rangers were surrounded with the mystique of the Old West. Although popular culture's image of the Rangers is typically one of rough living, tough talk and a quick draw, Ranger Captain John "Rip" Ford described the men who served him as this:


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: A large proportion ... were unmarried. A few of them drank intoxicating liquors. Still, it was a company of sober and brave men. They knew their duty and they did it. While in a town they made no braggadocio demonstration. They did not gallop through the streets, shoot, and yell. They had a specie of moral discipline which developed moral courage. They did right because it was right.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Despite the age of the agency, and the many contributions they have made to law enforcement over their entire history, Texas Rangers developed most of their reputation during the days of the Old West. Of the 79 Rangers killed in the line of duty, 30 were killed during the Old West period of 1858 through 1901. Also during this period, two of their three most high-profile captures or killings took place, the capture of John Wesley Hardin and the killing of Sam Bass, in addition to the capture of Texas gunman Billy Thompson and others.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: American historian Andrew Graybill has argued that the Texas Rangers resemble the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in many ways. He argues that each organization protected the established order by confining and removing Native Americans, by tightly controlling the mixed blood peoples (the African Americans in Texas, and the Métis in Canada), assisted the large-scale ranchers against the small-scale ranchers and farmers who fenced the land, and broke the power of labor unions that tried to organize the workers of industrial corporations.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: A famous phrase associated with the Rangers is "One Riot, One Ranger". It is a sensationalized apocrypha in that there was never actually a riot; rather, the phrase was coined by Ranger Captain William "Bill" McDonald, who was sent to Dallas in 1896 to prevent the illegal heavyweight prize fight between Pete Maher and Bob Fitzsimmons that had been organized by Dan Stuart and patronized by the eccentric "Hanging Judge" Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas. According to the story, McDonald's train was met by the mayor, who asked the single Ranger where the other lawmen were. McDonald is said to have replied: "Hell! Ain't I enough? There's only one prize-fight!"


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Although some measure of truth lies within the tale, it is largely an idealized account written by author Bigelow Paine and loosely based on McDonald's statements, published in Paine's 1909 book "Captain Bill McDonald: Texas Ranger". In truth, the fight had been so heavily publicized that nearly every Ranger was on hand, including all captains and their superior, Adjutant General Woodford H. Mabry. Many of them were undecided on stopping the fight or attending it; and other famous lawmen, such as Bat Masterson, were also present. The orders of the governor were clear, however, and the bout was stopped. Stuart then tried to reorganize it in El Paso and later in Langtry, but the Rangers thwarted his attempts. Finally, the fight took place on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near Langtry.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The motto appears on the pedestal of a bronze Texas Ranger statue that was at Dallas Love Field airport also titled One Riot, One Ranger. The statue was contributed in 1961 by Earle Wyatt and his wife. The Texas Ranger statue was removed from the airport and put in storage in 2020 after publication of the book "Cult of Glory", which details a number of unsavory incidents involving the Rangers. According to "Cult of Glory", the statue was modeled after Jay Banks, a pro-segregation Ranger of the era. Banks was on good terms with White Citizens' Councils and was involved in resistance to school integration after "Brown v. Board of Education". A final status on the location of the statue is awaiting a "community dialogue".


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Texas Rangers have assisted in many high-profile cases throughout the years. Some cases are deeply entrenched in the Rangers' lore, such as those of outlaw John Wesley Hardin, bank robber Sam Bass, and Bonnie and Clyde.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: In 1878, Sam Bass and his gang, who had perpetrated a series of bank and stagecoach robberies beginning in 1877, held up two stagecoaches and four trains within 25 miles (40 km) of Dallas. The gang quickly found themselves the object of pursuit across North Texas by a special company of Texas Rangers headed by Captain Junius "June" Peak. Bass was able to elude the Rangers until a member of his party, Jim Murphy, turned informer, cut a deal to save himself, and led the law to the gang. As Bass's band rode south, Murphy wrote to Major John B. Jones, commander of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Jones set up an ambush at Round Rock, where the Bass gang had planned to rob the Williamson County Bank. On July 19, 1878, Bass and his gang scouted the area before the actual robbery. They bought some tobacco at a store, and were noticed by Williamson County Sheriff Ahijah W. "Caige" Grimes, who approached the group and was shot and killed. A heavy gunfight ensued between the outlaws and the Rangers and local lawmen. A deputy named Moore was mortally wounded, as was Bass. The gang quickly mounted their horses and tried to escape while continuing to fire, and as they galloped away, Bass was shot again in the back by Ranger George Herold. Bass was later found lying helpless in a pasture north of town by the authorities. They took him into custody; he died from his wounds the next day.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: One of Texas's deadliest outlaws, John Wesley Hardin, was reputed to be the meanest man alive, an accolade he supposedly earned by killing a man for snoring. He committed his first murder at age 15, and admitted to killing more than 40 men over 27 years. In May 1874, Hardin killed Charles Webb, the deputy sheriff of Brown County and a former Texas Ranger. John Barclay Armstrong, a Texas Ranger known as "McNelly's Bulldog" since he served with the Special Force as a sergeant and Captain Leander McNelly's right hand, received permission to arrest the outlaw. He pursued Hardin across Alabama and into Florida, and caught up with him in Pensacola.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: After Armstrong, Colt pistol in hand, boarded a train that Hardin and four companions were on, the outlaw shouted, "Texas, by God!" and drew his own pistol. When it was over, one of his gang members was killed, and his three surviving friends were staring at Armstrong's pistol. Hardin had been knocked unconscious. Armstrong's hat had been pierced by a bullet, but he was uninjured. Hardin was charged for murder, convicted, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Seventeen years later, Hardin was pardoned by Governor Jim Hogg and released from prison on March 16, 1894. He moved to El Paso, where he began practicing law. On August 19, 1895, he was murdered during a poker game at the Acme Saloon over a personal disagreement.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: In 1909, Private C.R. Moore of Company A, "performed one of the most important feats in the history of the Texas Rangers". William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz planned a summit in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a historic first meeting between a U.S. president and a Mexican president and the first time an American president would cross the border into Mexico. But tensions rose on both sides of the border, including threats of assassination, so the Texas Rangers, 4,000 U.S. and Mexican troops, United States Secret Service agents and United States Marshals were all called in to provide security. Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, was put in charge of a 250-person private security detail hired by John Hays Hammond, a nephew of Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays, who in addition to owning large investments in Mexico was a close friend of Taft from Yale University and a U.S. Vice-Presidential candidate in 1908. On October 16, the day of the summit, Burnham and Private C.R. Moore discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route. Burnham and Moore captured, disarmed, and arrested the would-be assassin within only a few feet of Taft and Díaz.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Bandit War, a small but major campaign during the Border War, was fought in 1910–1915 in Texas. The conflict was a series of violent raids conducted by Mexican revolutionaries in the American settlements of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Chihuahua. The Texas Rangers became the primary fighting force and protection of the Texans during the operations against the rebels. The Mexican faction's incursion in the territory was carried out by the Seditionistas and Carrancistas, and led by major political leaders such as Basilio Ramos and Luis de la Rosca; however, the Seditionistas were never able to launch a full-scale invasion of the United States so they resorted to conducting small raids into Texas. Much of the fighting involved the Texas Ranger Division though the United States Army also engaged in operations against the rebels. The Texas Rangers were led by Captain Harry Ransom on the orders of the Governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Frank Hamer, the longtime Ranger captain, left the Rangers in 1932. In 1934, at the request of Col. Lee Simmons, head of the Texas prison system, Hamer was asked to use his skills to track down Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, whose Barrow gang had engineered a successful breakout of associates imprisoned at the Eastham Prison Farm in Houston County. Prisoner and Barrow friend Joe Palmer had killed a guard while escaping, and the Barrow gang was responsible for many murders, robberies, and car thefts in Texas alone. Nine law enforcement officers had already died in confrontations with the gang.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: After tracking the Barrow gang across nine states, Hamer, in conjunction with officials in Louisiana, learned Bonnie and Clyde had visited a home in Bienville Parish on May 21, 1934, and that Clyde had designated a rendezvous point in the vicinity with gang member Henry Methvin, in case they were later separated. Methvin, allegedly cooperating with law enforcement, made sure he was separated from them that evening in Shreveport, and the posse set up an ambush along the route to the rendezvous at Highway 154, between Gibsland and Sailes. Led by former Rangers Hamer and B. M. "Manny" Gault, the posse included Sheriff Henderson Jordan and Deputy Prentiss Oakley of Bienville Parish, Louisiana, and Dallas County Deputies Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton. They were in place by 9:00 that night, waiting all through the next day, but with no sign of Bonnie and Clyde.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Around 9:00 a.m. on May 23, the posse, concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat, heard Clyde's stolen Ford V-8 approaching. When he stopped to speak with Henry Methvin's father (planted there with his truck that morning to distract Clyde and force him into the lane closest to the posse), the lawmen opened fire, killing Bonnie and Clyde while shooting a combined total of approximately 130 rounds.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Texas Rangers have received widespread coverage for their role in the investigation of the death of Irene Garza, a Texas beauty queen. In 1960, Garza was last seen going to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen where Father John Feit heard her confession. Her body was found five days later in a canal. Autopsy results showed she had been raped while unconscious and died of asphyxiation, likely from suffocation. Feit was the primary suspect, but the case stalled for many years as the Hidalgo County district attorney did not feel that the evidence was sufficient to secure a conviction. Texas Ranger Rudy Jaramillo started working on the case in 2002. In 2015, under a new district attorney, Feit was indicted for murder. In December 2017, Feit was found guilty of murder with malice aforethought. Feit, aged 85, was sentenced to life imprisonment, bringing to close the longest unsolved criminal case in Hidalgo County.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The duties of the Texas Ranger Division consist of conducting criminal and special investigations; apprehending wanted felons; suppressing major disturbances; the protection of life and property; and rendering assistance to local law enforcement in suppressing crime and violence. The Texas Ranger Division is also responsible for the gathering and dissemination of criminal intelligence pertaining to all facets of organized crime. The Texas Ranger Division joins with all other enforcement agencies in the suppression of the same; under orders of the Director, suppress all criminal activity in any given area, when it is apparent that the local officials are unwilling or unable to maintain law and order; also upon the request or order of a judge of a court of record, Texas Rangers may serve as officers of the court and assist in the maintenance of decorum, the protection of life, and the preservation of property during any judicial proceeding; and provide protection for elected officials at public functions and at any other time or place when directed. The Texas Rangers, with the approval of the Director, may conduct investigations of any alleged misconduct on the part of other Department of Public Safety personnel.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The Texas Rangers' internal organization maintains the basic outlines that were set in 1935. The agency is divided into seven companies: six District Companies lettered from "A" to "F", and Headquarters Company "H". The number of personnel is set by the Texas Legislature; , the Texas Rangers number 150 commissioned officers, one forensic artist, one fiscal analyst and 24 civilian support personnel. The Legislature has also made a provision for the temporary commissioned appointment of up to 300 Special Rangers for use in investigative or emergency situations. The statewide headquarters of the Texas Rangers is located in Austin at the Texas DPS headquarters. , the Chief of the Texas Rangers is Assistant Director of DPS Randall Prince.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: "Field Rangers" are supervised by a Senior Captain (Chief), Headquarters Captain (Assistant Chief), company majors and lieutenants. Sergeants and agents are also part of the rank structure of the Rangers.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Modern-day Rangers (as well as their predecessors) do not have a prescribed uniform "per se", although the State of Texas does provide guidelines as to appropriate Ranger attire, including a requirement that Rangers wear clothing that is western in nature. Currently, the favored attire includes white shirt and tie, khaki/tan or gray trousers, light-colored western hat, "ranger" belt, and cowboy boots. Historically, according to pictorial evidence, Rangers wore whatever clothes they could afford or muster, which were usually worn out from heavy use. While Rangers still pay for their clothing today, they receive an initial stipend to offset some of the costs of boots, gunbelts and hats.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: To carry out their horseback missions, Rangers adapted tack and personal gear to fit their needs. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the greatest influence was from the "vaqueros" (Mexican cowboys). Saddles, spurs, ropes and vests used by the Rangers were all fashioned after those of the "vaqueros". Most Rangers also preferred to wear broader-brimmed "sombreros" as opposed to cowboy hats, and they favored square-cut, knee-high boots with a high heel and pointed toes, in a more Spanish style. Both groups carried their guns the same way, with the holsters positioned high around their hips instead of low on the thigh. This placement made it easier to draw while riding a horse.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: The wearing of badges became more common in the late 1800s. Historians have suggested several reasons for the lack of the regular use of a badge; among them, some Rangers felt a shiny badge was a tempting target. Other historians have speculated there was no real need to show a badge to a hostile Native American or outlaw. Additionally, from a historical viewpoint, a Ranger's pay was so scanty that the money required for such fancy accoutrements was rarely available. Nevertheless, some Rangers did wear badges, and the first of these appeared around 1875. They were locally made and varied considerably from one to another, but they invariably represented a star cut from a Mexican silver coin (usually a five-peso coin). The design is reminiscent of Texas's Lone Star flag.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Although present-day Rangers wear the familiar "star in a wheel" badge, it was adopted officially only recently. The current design of the Rangers' badge was approved in 1962, when Ranger Hardy L. Purvis and his mother donated enough Mexican five-peso coins to the DPS to provide badges for all 62 Rangers who were working at that time as commissioned officers.


title: Texas Ranger Division

text: Since the establishment of the Texas Department of Public Safety Texas Rangers Division, 124 Rangers have been killed in the line of duty. The following list also contains officers from the Texas Rangers, which was merged into the Texas Department of Public Safety.


title: Coming to America

text: Coming to America is a 1988 American romantic comedy film directed by John Landis and based on a story originally created by Eddie Murphy, who also stars in the lead role. The film also co-stars Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley, and John Amos. The film was released in the United States on June 29, 1988. Eddie Murphy plays Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda, who travels to the United States in the hopes of finding a woman he can marry and love for who she is, not for her status or for having been trained to please him.


title: Coming to America

text: In 1989, a pilot for a planned spin-off television series was made, although this was never picked up for a series. A sequel, "Coming 2 America", was released on March 4, 2021.


title: Coming to America

text: In the wealthy African nation of Zamunda, crown prince Akeem Joffer grows weary of his pampered lifestyle on his 21st birthday and wishes to do more for himself. When his parents, King Jaffe and Queen Aoleon, present him with an arranged bride-to-be, Akeem takes action. Seeking an independent woman who loves him for himself and not his social status, Akeem and his best friend/personal aide, Semmi, travel to the New York City borough of Queens and rent a squalid tenement in the neighborhood of Long Island City under the guise of poor foreign students.


title: Coming to America

text: Beginning their search for Akeem's bride, they end up being invited by some locals to a rally raising money for the inner city. During the rally, Akeem encounters Lisa McDowell, who possesses all the qualities he is looking for in a woman. So, upon his insistence, he and Semmi get entry-level jobs working at the local fast-food restaurant called McDowell's, a McDonald's knockoff owned by widower Cleo McDowell, Lisa's father.


title: Coming to America

text: Akeem's attempts to win Lisa's love are complicated by Lisa's lazy and obnoxious boyfriend, Darryl Jenks, whose father owns Soul Glo (a Jheri curl–like hairstyling aid). After Darryl announces their engagement—without Lisa's consent—to their families, she starts dating Akeem, who claims that he comes from a family of poor goat herders.


title: Coming to America

text: Meanwhile, although Akeem thrives on hard work and learning how commoners live, Semmi is not comfortable with living in such meager conditions. After a dinner date with Lisa is thwarted when Semmi furnishes their apartment with a hot tub and other luxuries, Akeem confiscates his money and donates it to two homeless men. Semmi wires a telegraph to King Jaffe for more money, prompting the Joffers to travel to Queens to find him.


title: Coming to America

text: Cleo initially disapproves of Akeem, as he believes he is poor and therefore not good enough for his daughter. He becomes ecstatic when he discovers that Akeem is actually an extremely wealthy prince, after meeting the Joffers. When Akeem discovers that his parents have arrived in NYC, he and Lisa go to the McDowell residence to lie low where Cleo welcomes them. After Cleo's bond with Akeem is ruined by the unexpected arrival of the Zamundan entourage, Lisa later becomes angry and confused that Akeem lied to her about his identity. Akeem explains that he wanted her to love him for who, not what, he is, even offering to renounce his throne, but Lisa, still hurt and angry, refuses to marry him. Despondent, Akeem resigns himself to the arranged marriage, but as they leave, Jaffe is reprimanded by Aoleon for clinging to outdated traditions instead of thinking of their son's happiness.


title: Coming to America

text: At the wedding procession, a still-heartbroken Akeem becomes surprised when his veiled bride is Lisa herself. Following the ceremony, they ride happily in a carriage to the cheers of Zamundans. Witnessing such splendor, Lisa is both surprised and touched by the fact that Akeem would have given it up just for her. Akeem offers again to abdicate if she does not want this life, but Lisa playfully declines.


title: Coming to America

text: The cast also includes: Vondie Curtis-Hall as a basketball game vendor; Garcelle Beauvais as a royal rose bearer; Victoria Dillard as a royal personal bather; as well as the film debuts of Ruben Hudson as a street hustler and Cuba Gooding Jr. as a boy getting a haircut.


title: Coming to America

text: Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy reprise their roles as Mortimer and Randolph Duke respectively from Landis's Murphy-starring comedy film "Trading Places" (1983). A segment of the "Trading Places" score can be heard during their scene.


title: Coming to America

text: According to Hall, Paramount Pictures insisted on having a white actor in the cast. Paramount Pictures provided a list of three white performers, and Murphy and Hall chose Louie Anderson because they knew him and liked him.


title: Coming to America

text: As previously indicated, "Coming to America" features Murphy and Hall in several different roles, of different races and genders. Following the success of this film, this became a Murphy staple, as seen in four later films: "Vampire in Brooklyn" (1995); "The Nutty Professor" (1996) and (2000); and "Norbit" (2007).


title: Coming to America

text: "Coming to America" reunited star Eddie Murphy with director John Landis. The two men had previously worked together on the comedy hit "Trading Places". Landis recalled the differences in working with Murphy on the two movies: "The guy on "Trading Places" was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on "Coming to America" was the pig of the world... But I still think he's wonderful in the movie." Murphy said:


title: Coming to America

text: Despite the experience, Landis and Murphy collaborated again six years later on "Beverly Hills Cop III".


title: Coming to America

text: South African chorus Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings "Mbube" during the opening sequence (the song also known as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"). The group has since recorded several different versions of "Mbube;" however, the version heard in "Coming to America" had not been released on its soundtrack or on CD as of 2006.


title: Coming to America

text: Murphy received a personal salary of $8 million for his work on the film, plus 15% of film rentals. Landis received $600,000, plus 10% of gross receipts.


title: Coming to America

text: Landis's calling card/easter egg, "See You Next Wednesday", appears on a science-fiction movie poster in the subway station after Lisa storms off the train.


title: Coming to America

text: A promotional song for the film, also titled "Coming to America", was written and performed by The System.


title: Coming to America

text: Paramount cancelled press screenings of the film after initial negative reactions to a press screening in New York City.


title: Coming to America

text: Released on June 29, 1988, by Paramount Pictures in the United States, it was a commercial box-office success, both domestically and worldwide. The film debuted at number one with $21,404,420 from 2,064 screens, for a five-day total of $28,409,497. The film made $128,152,301 in the United States and ended up with a worldwide total of $288,752,301. It was the highest earning film that year for the studio and the third-highest-grossing film at the United States box office.


title: Coming to America

text: It opened a month later in the UK and earned $7,712,622 during its seven-week run. It opened on September 2 in West Germany, where it debuted at number one with $3,715,791 from 297 screens. It ended its run after 13 weeks with $15,743,447. Several contemporary articles stated that the worldwide gross for the movie was $350 million.


title: Coming to America

text: Review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 73%, based on reviews from 55 critics with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Eddie Murphy was in full control at this point, starkly evident in "Coming to America"s John Landis' coasting direction." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 16 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Coming to America

text: Sheila Benson in the "Los Angeles Times" called it a "hollow and wearying Eddie Murphy fairy tale" and bemoans, "That an Eddie Murphy movie would come to this." Vincent Canby in "The New York Times" was also critical of the writing, calling it a "possibly funny idea" but suggesting the screenplay had escaped before it was ready. Canby viewed the film as essentially a romantic comedy but said the romantic elements fell flat, and the film instead goes for broad slapstick. Siskel & Ebert had mixed opinions on the film. Siskel enjoyed the acting from Murphy and Hall but Ebert was disappointed that Murphy did not bring his usual more lively performance, and Ebert was also critical of the unoriginal script.


title: Coming to America

text: The film was nominated for two Oscars: Best Costume Design for Deborah Nadoolman Landis and Best Makeup for Rick Baker, who designed the makeup effects for both Murphy's and Arsenio Hall's multiple supporting characters.


title: Coming to America

text: The film was the subject of the "Buchwald v. Paramount" civil suit, which the humorist Art Buchwald filed in 1990 against the film's producers on the grounds that the film's idea was stolen from his 1982 script treatment about a rich, despotic African potentate who comes to America for a state visit. Paramount had optioned the treatment from Buchwald, and John Landis was attached as director and Eddie Murphy as the lead, but after two years of development hell Paramount abandoned the project in March 1985. In 1987, Paramount began working on "Coming to America" based on a story by Eddie Murphy. Buchwald won the breach of contract action and the court ordered monetary damages. The parties later settled the case out-of-court before an appeal going to trial.


title: Coming to America

text: In August 2022, Paramount filed a lawsuit against JMC Pop Ups LLC for creating a temporary version of McDowell's, the fictional fast food restaurant similar to McDonald's, via the Copyright Claims Board, a tribunal created in 2020 to deal with such matters. The pop up restaurant had operated in Springfield, Virginia, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in 2022 prior to the suit. McDowell's was featured in both the original movie and its sequel.


title: Coming to America

text: "Coming to America" was released on DVD on June 3, 2008. The Film was released on Blu-Ray on June 3, 2008, and re-released on Blu-Ray on January 1, 2013 and on June 12, 2018. "Coming To America" was released on 4K Blu-Ray on December 1, 2020.


title: Coming to America

text: The soundtrack to the film was released on LP, cassette and CD. The songs "Coming to America" by The System, "Better Late Than Never" by The Cover Girls and "Come into My Life" by Laura Branigan and Joe Esposito were released as singles from the album. "That's The Way It Is" by Mel & Kim had been released as a single in the UK, before the film's release, in February 1988, and became a top ten hit. It was released as a single in the US at the time of the film's release.


title: Coming to America

text: The jingle for the commercial for the fictional product Soul Glo was composed by Nile Rodgers, who has suggested it is his "proudest moment". Vocals were provided by Christopher Max.


title: Coming to America

text: A television pilot of a weekly sitcom version of the film was produced for CBS, following the film's success, starring Tommy Davidson as Prince Tariq, and Paul Bates reprising his role as Oha. The pilot went unsold, but was televised on July 4, 1989, as part of the "CBS Summer Playhouse" pilot anthology series.


title: Coming to America

text: A Tamil film, "My Dear Marthandan", was produced based on the plot of "Coming to America". A Hong Kong film, "The Fun, the Luck & the Tycoon", also has the same plot.


title: Coming to America

text: The melody heard in the bathroom scene, where Prince Akeem is being washed by female servants, was sampled in Snoop Dogg's 2006 song "That's That" featuring R. Kelly; a remix of the song featuring American rapper Nas includes a woman's voice saying "the royal penis is clean, Your Highness", a line taken from the same scene.


title: Coming to America

text: The movie has been described as having a "cult following" years after its release, despite negative press, with one of the highest-grossing box office of the year it was released, as well as one of the highest-grossing films featuring African-Americans.


title: Coming to America

text: In early 2017, an announcement was publicized which addressed the impending production of a sequel to the film. Kevin Misher was named as producer, and Sheffield and Blaustein, the original screenwriters, were also attached to the project. However, a possible participation of lead actors Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall was left undefined.


title: Coming to America

text: On January 11, 2019, it was announced that the sequel will be moving forward with Murphy reprising his role and Craig Brewer as director (having previously worked with Murphy on the Netflix film "Dolemite Is My Name"). Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, John Amos, Paul Bates and James Earl Jones were expected to return for the sequel as well. Wesley Snipes signed on for a role in the film. It was reported that Leslie Jones and American rapper Rick Ross were joining the cast in undisclosed roles.


title: Coming to America

text: The film was scheduled to be theatrically released on December 18, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon Studios bought the distribution rights and released it digitally on Amazon Prime Video on March 4, 2021.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The infinity symbol (formula_1) is a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. This symbol is also called a lemniscate, after the lemniscate curves of a similar shape studied in algebraic geometry, or "lazy eight", in the terminology of livestock branding.


title: Infinity symbol

text: This symbol was first used mathematically by John Wallis in the 17th century, although it has a longer history of other uses. In mathematics, it often refers to infinite processes (potential infinity) rather than infinite values (actual infinity). It has other related technical meanings, such as the use of long-lasting paper in bookbinding, and has been used for its symbolic value of the infinite in modern mysticism and literature. It is a common element of graphic design, for instance in corporate logos as well as in older designs such as the Métis flag.


title: Infinity symbol

text: Both the infinity symbol itself and several variations of the symbol are available in various character encodings.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The lemniscate has been a common decorative motif since ancient times; for instance it is commonly seen on Viking Age combs.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The English mathematician John Wallis is credited with introducing the infinity symbol with its mathematical meaning in 1655, in his "De sectionibus conicis". Wallis did not explain his choice of this symbol. It has been conjectured to be a variant form of a Roman numeral, but which Roman numeral is unclear. One theory proposes that the infinity symbol was based on the numeral for 100 million, which resembled the same symbol enclosed within a rectangular frame. Another proposes instead that it was based on the notation CIↃ used to represent 1,000. Instead of a Roman numeral, it may alternatively be derived from a variant the lower-case form of omega, the last letter in the Greek alphabet.


title: Infinity symbol

text: Perhaps in some cases because of typographic limitations, other symbols resembling the infinity sign have been used for the same meaning. Leonhard Euler used an open letterform more closely resembling a reflected and sideways S than a lemniscate, and even "O–O" has been used as a stand-in for the infinity symbol itself.


title: Infinity symbol

text: In mathematics, the infinity symbol is used more often to represent a potential infinity, rather than an actually infinite quantity as included in the extended real numbers, the cardinal numbers and the ordinal numbers (which use other notations, such as formula_2and ω, for infinite values). For instance, in mathematical expressions with summations and limits such as formula_3


title: Infinity symbol

text: the infinity sign is conventionally interpreted as meaning that the variable grows arbitrarily large towards infinity, rather than actually taking an infinite value, although other interpretations are possible.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The infinity symbol may also be used to represent a point at infinity, especially when there is only one such point under consideration. This usage includes, in particular, the infinite point of a projective line, and the point added to a topological space to form its one-point compactification.


title: Infinity symbol

text: In areas other than mathematics, the infinity symbol may take on other related meanings. For instance, it has been used in bookbinding to indicate that a book is printed on acid-free paper and will therefore be long-lasting. On cameras and their lenses, the infinity symbol indicates that the lens's focal length is set to an infinite distance, and is "probably one of the oldest symbols to be used on cameras".


title: Infinity symbol

text: In modern mysticism, the infinity symbol has become identified with a variation of the ouroboros, an ancient image of a snake eating its own tail that has also come to symbolize the infinite, and the ouroboros is sometimes drawn in figure-eight form to reflect this identification—rather than in its more traditional circular form.


title: Infinity symbol

text: In the works of Vladimir Nabokov, including "The Gift" and "Pale Fire", the figure-eight shape is used symbolically to refer to the Möbius strip and the infinite, as is the case in these books' descriptions of the shapes of bicycle tire tracks and of the outlines of half-remembered people. Nabokov's poem after which he entitled "Pale Fire" explicitly refers to "the miracle of the lemniscate". Other authors whose works use this shape with its symbolic meaning of the infinite include James Joyce, in "Ulysses", and David Foster Wallace, in "Infinite Jest".


title: Infinity symbol

text: The well-known shape and meaning of the infinity symbol have made it a common typographic element of graphic design. For instance, the Métis flag, used by the Canadian Métis people since the early 19th century, is based around this symbol. Different theories have been put forward for the meaning of the symbol on this flag, including the hope for an infinite future for Métis culture and its mix of European and First Nations traditions, but also evoking the geometric shapes of Métic dances, Celtic knots, or Plains First Nations Sign Language.


title: Infinity symbol

text: A rainbow-coloured infinity symbol is also used by the neurodiversity movement, as a way to symbolize the infinite variation of the people in the movement and of human cognition. The Bakelite company took up this symbol in its corporate logo to refer to the wide range of varied applications of the synthetic material they produced. Versions of this symbol have been used in other trademarks, corporate logos, and emblems including those of Fujitsu, Cell Press, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The symbol is encoded in Unicode at and in LaTeX as codice_1: formula_1. An encircled version is encoded for use as a symbol for acid-free paper.


title: Infinity symbol

text: The Unicode set of symbols also includes several variant forms of the infinity symbol that are less frequently available in fonts in the block Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols-B.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Harold Perrineau (born August 7, 1963) is an American actor best known for his roles as Michael Dawson in the ABC television series "Lost" (2004–2010), Augustus Hill in the HBO television series "Oz" (1997–2003), Sheriff Boyd Stevens in the Epix television "From" (since 2022), Link in "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" (both 2003), and Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" (1996). He has also starred in the films "Smoke" (1995), for which was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male, "The Edge" (1997), "The Best Man" (1999), "Woman on Top" (2000), and "28 Weeks Later" (2007). His other television credits include "Sons of Anarchy" (2012), "Constantine" (2014–2015), "Claws" (2017–2022), and "The Rookie" (2019–2021).


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents changed his name to Williams when he was a child, but he later changed it back, after discovering there was already a Harold Williams in the Screen Actors Guild. He attended Shenandoah University and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: In 1989, Perrineau was cast as the original Tyrone Jackson in the world premiere of the stage adaptation of the 1980 hit movie "Fame" (now known as "Fame: The Musical") at the Walnut Street Theatre, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He took the role of Link in "The Matrix" series after the original operator Tank was written out of the script when Marcus Chong was fired over monetary disputes. "Lost" co-star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje starred with Perrineau on the HBO series "Oz".


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau played Michael Dawson on ABC's hit show "Lost". He was temporarily written off when his character left the island with his son at the end of season two and did not appear in season three. In July 2007, it was announced he would return to the main cast for the show's fourth season. However, the return was short-lived, as the fourth season was his last as a regular cast member. He made one guest appearance in the sixth and final season.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau starred in "" with Rhys Coiro, Mia Kirshner, Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird and Monique Ganderton. Perrineau appeared in the 2008 music video "Yes We Can".


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau voiced the title character from Marvel's "Blade" anime series on G4 January 2012. He was cast to play the character of Damon Pope, the main antagonist of season 5 of the hit show "Sons of Anarchy".


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau starred as Stevie, the bass player, in the TBS comedy "Wedding Band", which ran from 2012 to 2013.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau starred as Manny, an angelic messenger, in "Constantine", the short-lived 2015 television series based on the DC Comics/Vertigo character John Constantine.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: He made his Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company production of Anton Chekov's "The Cherry Orchard," adapted by Stephen Karam. The play ran from September 2016 to December 4, 2016. Perrineau played Lopakhin, with Diane Lane as Ranevskaya. Also in 2016, Perrineau co-starred in the Amazon Studios legal series "Goliath".


title: Harold Perrineau

text: From 2017 to 2022, Perrineau played Dean, a man on the autism spectrum and the brother of Desna, in TNT's "Claws". He won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the NAACP Awards. Perrineau starred as a cop, Nick Armstrong, on "The Rookie" for most of season 2 and as a guest on season 3.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Since his debut single "Stay Strong" in 2007 Perrineau has been working on his musical career. He is actively collaborating with music producer Tomo in der Muhlen, known as DJ Tomo Tom Tom, on his debut album, "Seeker". The first single, "Moving On", was released October 15, 2011. Perrineau enjoys doing live shows where he performs with a full band: two guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. He performed at Los Angeles club The Mint in April 2010. Perrineau has appeared in MKTO's "Thank You" music video and J. Cole's "She Knows" music video.


title: Harold Perrineau

text: Perrineau has been married to former actress and model Brittany Perrineau (née Robinson) since 2002. They have three daughters, including actress Aurora Perrineau.


title: Lent

text: Lent (, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is observed in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Oriental Orthodox, Persian, United Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Reformed (including certain Continental Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches), and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not.


title: Lent

text: Which days are enumerated as being part of Lent differs between denominations (see below), although in all of them Lent is described as lasting for a total duration of 40 days. In Lent-observing Western Churches, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later; depending on the Christian denomination and local custom, Lent concludes either on the evening of Maundy Thursday, or at sundown on Holy Saturday, when the Easter Vigil is celebrated, though in either case, Lenten fasting observances are maintained until the evening of Holy Saturday. Sundays may or may not be excluded, depending on the denomination. In Eastern Churches (whether Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Lutheran, or Eastern Catholic), Lent is observed continuously without interruption for 40 days starting on Clean Monday and ending on Lazarus Saturday before Holy Week.


title: Lent

text: Lent is a period of grief that necessarily ends with a great celebration of Easter. Thus, it is known in Eastern Orthodox circles as the season of "bright sadness" (). The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, simple living, and self-denial. In Lent, many Christians commit to fasting, as well as giving up certain luxuries in imitation of Jesus Christ's sacrifice during his journey into the desert for 40 days; this is known as one's Lenten sacrifice.


title: Lent

text: Many Lent-observing Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional or praying through a Lenten calendar, to draw themselves near to God. Often observed are the Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ's carrying the Cross and crucifixion. Many churches remove flowers from their altars and veil crucifixes, religious statues that show the triumphant Christ, and other elaborate religious symbols in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. The custom of veiling is typically practiced the last two weeks, beginning on the Sunday "Judica" which is therefore in the vernacular called Passion Sunday until Good Friday, when the cross is unveiled solemnly in the liturgy.


title: Lent

text: In most Lent-observing denominations, the last week of Lent coincides with Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday. Following the New Testament narrative, Jesus' crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, and at the beginning of the next week the joyful celebration of Easter Sunday, the start of the Easter season, which recalls the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In some Christian denominations, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday form the Easter Triduum.


title: Lent

text: The English word "Lent" is a shortened form of the Old English word , meaning "spring season", as its Dutch language cognate (Old Dutch ) still does today. A dated term in German, (Old High German ), is also related. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", 'the shorter form (? Old Germanic type *"laŋgito"- , *"laŋgiton"-) seems to be a derivative of *"laŋgo"- long […] and may possibly have reference to the lengthening of the days as characterizing the season of spring'. The origin of the -"en" element is less clear: it may simply be a suffix, or "lencten" may originally have been a compound of *"laŋgo"- 'long' and an otherwise little-attested word *-"tino", meaning "day".


title: Lent

text: In languages spoken where Christianity was earlier established, such as Greek and Latin, the term signifies the period dating from the 40th weekday before Easter. In modern Greek the term is (), derived from the earlier (), meaning "fortieth". The corresponding word in Latin, ("fortieth"), is the origin of the terms used in Latin-derived languages and in some others. Examples in the Romance language group are: Catalan , French , Galician , Italian , Occitan , Portuguese , Romanian , Sardinian , Spanish , and Walloon .


title: Lent

text: In other languages, the name used refers to the activity associated with the season. Thus it is called "fasting period" in Czech (), German (), and Norwegian (/), and it is called "great fast" in Arabic ( – , literally, "the Great Fast"), Polish (), Russian ( – ), and Ukrainian ( – ). Romanian, apart from a version based on the Latin term referring to the 40 days (see above), also has a "great fast" version: . Dutch has three options, one of which means "fasting period", and the other two referring to the 40-day period indicated in the Latin term: , and , respectively.


title: Lent

text: Early Christianity records the tradition of fasting before Easter. The Apostolic Constitutions permit the consumption of "bread, vegetables, salt and water, in Lent" with "flesh and wine being forbidden." The Canons of Hippolytus authorize only bread and salt to be consumed during Holy Week. The practice of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, meat and lacticinia during Lent thus became established in the Church.


title: Lent

text: In AD 339, Athanasius of Alexandria wrote that the Lenten fast was a forty-day fast that "the entire world" observed. Saint Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–AD 430) wrote that: "Our fast at any other time is voluntary; but during Lent, we sin if we do not fast."


title: Lent

text: Three main prevailing theories exist on the finalization of Lent as a forty-day fast prior to the arrival of Easter Sunday: First, that it was created at the Council of Nicea in 325 and there is no earlier incarnation. Second, that it is based on an Egyptian Christian post-theophany fast. Third, a combination of origins syncretized around the Council of Nicea. There are early references to periods of fasting prior to baptism. For instance, the "Didache", a 1st or 2nd-century Christian text, commends "the baptizer, the one to be baptized, and any others that are able" to fast to prepare for the sacrament. For centuries it has been common practice for baptisms to take place on Easter, and so such references were formerly taken to be references to a pre-Easter fast. Tertullian, in his 3rd-century work "On Baptism", indicates that Easter was a "most solemn day for baptism." However, he is one of only a handful of writers in the ante-Nicene period who indicates this preference, and even he says that Easter was by no means the only favored day for baptisms in his locale. Since the 20th century, scholars have acknowledged that Easter was not the standard day for baptisms in the early church, and references to pre-baptismal periods of fasting were not necessarily connected with Easter. There were shorter periods of fasting observed in the pre-Nicene church (Athanasius noted that the 4th-century Alexandrian church observed a period of fasting before Pascha [Easter]). However it is known that the 40-day period of fasting – the season later named Lent – before Eastertide was clarified at the Nicene Council. In 363-64 AD, the Council of Laodicea prescribed the Lenten fast as "as of strict necessity."


title: Lent

text: The 40 days of Lent are calculated differently among the various Christian denominations that observe it, depending on how the date of Easter is calculated, but also on which days Lent is understood to begin and end, and on whether all the days of Lent are counted consecutively. Additionally, the date of Lent may depend on the calendar used by the particular church, such as the (revised) Julian or Gregorian calendars typically used by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches, or the Ethiopian and Coptic calendars traditionally used by some Oriental Orthodox churches.


title: Lent

text: Since 1970, in the Roman Rite Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on the evening of Maundy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord's Supper. This comprises a period of 44 days. The Lenten fast excludes Sundays and continues through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, totaling 40 days (though the Eucharistic Fast still applies). Although Lent may formally end on Maundy Thursday, Lenten fasting practices continue until the Easter Vigil and additionally, the celebration of Easter is preceded by the Paschal fast.


title: Lent

text: In the Ambrosian Rite, Lent begins on the Sunday that follows what is celebrated as Ash Wednesday in the rest of the Latin Catholic Church, and ends as in the Roman Rite, thus being of 40 days, counting the Sundays but not Maundy Thursday. The day for beginning the Lenten fast in the Ambrosian Rite is the Monday after Ash Wednesday. The special Ash Wednesday fast is transferred to the first Friday of the Ambrosian Lent. Until this rite was revised by Saint Charles Borromeo, the liturgy of the First Sunday of Lent was festive, celebrated in white vestments with chanting of the Gloria in Excelsis and Alleluia, in line with the recommendation in Matthew 6:16, "When you fast, do not look gloomy."


title: Lent

text: During Lent, the Church discourages marriages, but couples may marry if they forgo the special blessings of the Nuptial Mass and limit social celebrations.


title: Lent

text: The period of Lent observed in the Eastern Catholic Churches corresponds to that in other churches of Eastern Christianity that have similar traditions.


title: Lent

text: In Protestant and Western Orthodox Churches that celebrate it, the season of Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday to the evening of Holy Saturday. This calculation makes Lent last 46 days if the 6 Sundays are included, but only 40 days if they are excluded. This definition is still that of the Moravian Church, Lutheran Church, Anglican Church, Methodist Church, Western Rite Orthodox Church, United Protestant Churches, and those of the Reformed Churches (i.e., Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist) that observe Lent.


title: Lent

text: In the Byzantine Rite, i.e., the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent (Greek: Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή or Μεγάλη Νηστεία, meaning "Great 40 Days" and "Great Fast" respectively) is the most important fasting season in the church year.


title: Lent

text: The 40 days of Great Lent include Sundays, and begin on Clean Monday. The 40 days are immediately followed by what are considered distinct periods of fasting, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, which in turn are followed straightway by Holy Week. Great Lent is broken only after the Paschal (Easter) Divine Liturgy.


title: Lent

text: The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains the traditional Church's teaching on fasting. The rules for lenten fasting are the monastic rules. Fasting in the Orthodox Church is more than simply abstaining from certain foods. During the Great Lent Orthodox Faithful intensify their prayers and spiritual exercises, go to church services more often, study the Scriptures and the works of the Church Fathers in depth, limit their entertainment and spendings and focus on charity and good works.


title: Lent

text: Among the Oriental Orthodox, there are various local traditions regarding Lent. Those using the Alexandrian Rite, "i.e.", the Coptic Orthodox, Coptic Catholic, Ethiopian Orthodox, Ethiopian Catholic, Eritrean Orthodox, and Eritrean Catholic Churches, observe eight continuous weeks of fasting constituting three distinct consecutive fasting periods:


title: Lent

text: As in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the date of Easter is typically reckoned according to the Julian Calendar, and usually occurs later than Easter according to Gregorian Calendar used by Catholic and Protestant Churches.


title: Lent

text: In Ethiopian Orthodoxy, fasting ("tsome") lasts for 55 continuous days before Easter ("Fasika"), although the fast is divided into three separate periods: Tsome Hirkal, the eight-day Fast of Heraclius, commemorating the fast requested by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius before he reputedly set out to fight the Sassanian Empire and recover the True Cross which had been seized and taken from Jerusalem; Tsome Arba, 40 days of Lent; and Tsome Himamat, seven days commemorating Holy Week. Fasting involves abstention from animal products (meat, dairy, and eggs), and refraining from eating or drinking before 3:00 pm. Ethiopian devotees may also abstain from sexual activity and the consumption of alcohol.


title: Lent

text: Quartodeciman Christians end the fast of Lent on the Paschal full moon of the Hebrew calendar, in order to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread beginning on the 14th of Nisan, whence the name derives. For this practice, they were excommunicated in the Easter controversy of the 2nd century A.D.


title: Lent

text: Three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent; these are known as the three pillars of Lent:


title: Lent

text: During the season of Shrovetide, it is customary for Christians to ponder what Lenten sacrifices they will make for Lent. Another hallmark of Shrovetide is the opportunity for a last round of merrymaking associated with Carnival and Fastelavn before the start of the somber Lenten season; the traditions of carrying Shrovetide rods and consuming Shrovetide buns after attending church is celebrated. On the final day of the season, Shrove Tuesday, many traditional Christians, such as Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists and Roman Catholics, "make a special point of self-examination, of considering what wrongs they need to repent, and what amendments of life or areas of spiritual growth they especially need to ask God's help in dealing with." During Shrovetide, many churches place a basket in the narthex to collect the previous year's Holy Week palm branches that were blessed and distributed during the Palm Sunday liturgies; on Shrove Tuesday, churches burn these palms to make the ashes used during the services held on the very next day, Ash Wednesday.


title: Lent

text: In historically Lutheran nations, Shrovetide is known as Fastelavn. After attending the Mass on Shrove Sunday, congregants enjoy Shrovetide buns (fastelavnsboller), "round sweet buns that are covered with icing and filled with cream and/or jam." Children often dress up and collect money from people while singing. They also practice the tradition of hitting a barrel, which represents fighting Satan; after doing this, children enjoy the sweets inside the barrel. Lutheran Christians in these nations carry Shrovetide rods (fastelavnsris), which "branches decorated with sweets, little presents, etc., that are used to decorate the home or give to children."


title: Lent

text: In English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, the day before Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday, which is derived from the word "shrive", meaning "to administer the sacrament of confession to; to absolve." In these countries, pancakes are associated with Shrove Tuesday because they are a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar – rich foods which are not eaten during the season.


title: Lent

text: "Mardi Gras" ("Fat Tuesday") refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the feast of Epiphany and culminating on the day before Lent. The carnival celebrations which in many cultures traditionally precede Lent are seen as a last opportunity for excess before Lent begins. Some of the most famous are the Carnival of Barranquilla, the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Carnival of Venice, Cologne Carnival, the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Rio de Janeiro carnival, and the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.


title: Lent

text: In stark contrast to traditions of merrymaking and feasting, Oriental Orthodox Churches practice a Pre-Lenten fast in preparation for Lent which is immediately followed by the fast of Great Lent without interruption.


title: Lent

text: There are traditionally 40 days in Lent; these are marked by fasting, both from foods and festivities, and by other acts of penance. Fasting is maintained for all forty days of Lent (regardless of how they are enumerated; see above). Historically, fasting has been maintained continuously for the whole Lenten season, including Sundays. The making of a Lenten sacrifice, in which Christians give up a personal pleasure for the duration of 40 days, is a traditional practice during Lent.


title: Lent

text: During Shrovetide and especially on Shrove Tuesday, the day before the start of the Lenten season, many Christians finalize their decision with respect to what Lenten sacrifices they will make for Lent. Examples include practicing vegetarianism and teetotalism during Lent as a Lenten sacrifice. While making a Lenten sacrifice, it is customary to pray for strength to keep it; many often wish others for doing so as well, e.g. "May God bless your Lenten sacrifice." In addition, some believers add a regular spiritual discipline, to bring them closer to God, such as reading a Lenten daily devotional.