title: Green's function

text: Through the superposition principle, given a linear ordinary differential equation (ODE), formula_5, one can first solve formula_8, for each , and realizing that, since the source is a sum of delta functions, the solution is a sum of Green's functions as well, by linearity of .


title: Green's function

text: Green's functions are named after the British mathematician George Green, who first developed the concept in the 1820s. In the modern study of linear partial differential equations, Green's functions are studied largely from the point of view of fundamental solutions instead.


title: Green's function

text: Under many-body theory, the term is also used in physics, specifically in quantum field theory, aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, electrodynamics, seismology and statistical field theory, to refer to various types of correlation functions, even those that do not fit the mathematical definition. In quantum field theory, Green's functions take the roles of propagators.


title: Green's function

text: A Green's function, , of a linear differential operator formula_9 acting on distributions over a subset of the Euclidean space formula_10, at a point , is any solution of


title: Green's function

text: where is the Dirac delta function. This property of a Green's function can be exploited to solve differential equations of the form


title: Green's function

text: If the kernel of is non-trivial, then the Green's function is not unique. However, in practice, some combination of symmetry, boundary conditions and/or other externally imposed criteria will give a unique Green's function. Green's functions may be categorized, by the type of boundary conditions satisfied, by a Green's function number. Also, Green's functions in general are distributions, not necessarily functions of a real variable.


title: Green's function

text: Green's functions are also useful tools in solving wave equations and diffusion equations. In quantum mechanics, Green's function of the Hamiltonian is a key concept with important links to the concept of density of states.


title: Green's function

text: This definition does not significantly change any of the properties of Green's function due to the evenness of the Dirac delta function.


title: Green's function

text: If the operator is translation invariant, that is, when formula_1 has constant coefficients with respect to , then the Green's function can be taken to be a convolution kernel, that is,


title: Green's function

text: In this case, Green's function is the same as the impulse response of linear time-invariant system theory.


title: Green's function

text: Loosely speaking, if such a function can be found for the operator formula_1, then, if we multiply the equation () for the Green's function by , and then integrate with respect to , we obtain,


title: Green's function

text: Because the operator formula_9 is linear and acts only on the variable (and "not" on the variable of integration ), one may take the operator formula_1 outside of the integration, yielding


title: Green's function

text: Thus, one may obtain the function through knowledge of the Green's function in equation () and the source term on the right-hand side in equation (). This process relies upon the linearity of the operator formula_1.


title: Green's function

text: In other words, the solution of equation (), , can be determined by the integration given in equation (). Although is known, this integration cannot be performed unless is also known. The problem now lies in finding the Green's function that satisfies equation (). For this reason, the Green's function is also sometimes called the fundamental solution associated to the operator formula_1.


title: Green's function

text: Not every operator formula_1 admits a Green's function. A Green's function can also be thought of as a right inverse of formula_1. Aside from the difficulties of finding a Green's function for a particular operator, the integral in equation () may be quite difficult to evaluate. However the method gives a theoretically exact result.


title: Green's function

text: This can be thought of as an expansion of according to a Dirac delta function basis (projecting over formula_24; and a superposition of the solution on each projection. Such an integral equation is known as a Fredholm integral equation, the study of which constitutes Fredholm theory.


title: Green's function

text: The primary use of Green's functions in mathematics is to solve non-homogeneous boundary value problems. In modern theoretical physics, Green's functions are also usually used as propagators in Feynman diagrams; the term "Green's function" is often further used for any correlation function.


title: Green's function

text: Green's function is not necessarily unique since the addition of any solution of the homogeneous equation to one Green's function results in another Green's function. Therefore if the homogeneous equation has nontrivial solutions, multiple Green's functions exist. In some cases, it is possible to find one Green's function that is nonvanishing only for formula_47, which is called a retarded Green's function, and another Green's function that is nonvanishing only for formula_48, which is called an advanced Green's function. In such cases, any linear combination of the two Green's functions is also a valid Green's function. The terminology advanced and retarded is especially useful when the variable x corresponds to time. In such cases, the solution provided by the use of the retarded Green's function depends only on the past sources and is causal whereas the solution provided by the use of the advanced Green's function depends only on the future sources and is acausal. In these problems, it is often the case that the causal solution is the physically important one. The use of advanced and retarded Green's function is especially common for the analysis of solutions of the inhomogeneous electromagnetic wave equation.


title: Green's function

text: While it doesn't uniquely fix the form the Green's function will take, performing a dimensional analysis to find the units a Green's function must have is an important sanity check on any Green's function found through other means. A quick examination of the defining equation,


title: Green's function

text: shows that the units of formula_2 depend not only on the units of formula_51 but also on the number and units of the space of which the position vectors formula_39 and formula_40 are elements. This leads to the relationship:


title: Green's function

text: where formula_2 is defined as, "the physical units of formula_2", and formula_57 is the volume element of the space (or spacetime).


title: Green's function

text: If a differential operator admits a set of eigenvectors (i.e., a set of functions and scalars such that ) that is complete, then it is possible to construct a Green's function from these eigenvectors and eigenvalues.


title: Green's function

text: Applying the operator to each side of this equation results in the completeness relation, which was assumed.


title: Green's function

text: The general study of Green's function written in the above form, and its relationship to the function spaces formed by the eigenvectors, is known as Fredholm theory.


title: Green's function

text: There are several other methods for finding Green's functions, including the method of images, separation of variables, and Laplace transforms.


title: Green's function

text: If the differential operator formula_51 can be factored as formula_69 then the Green's function of formula_51 can be constructed from the Green's functions for formula_71 and formula_72:


title: Green's function

text: The above identity follows immediately from taking formula_74 to be the representation of the right operator inverse of formula_51, analogous to how for the invertible linear operator formula_76, defined by formula_77, is represented by its matrix elements formula_78.


title: Green's function

text: A further identity follows for differential operators that are scalar polynomials of the derivative, formula_79. The fundamental theorem of algebra, combined with the fact that formula_80 commutes with itself, guarantees that the polynomial can be factored, putting formula_51 in the form:


title: Green's function

text: where formula_83 are the zeros of formula_84. Taking the Fourier transform of formula_85 with respect to both formula_39 and formula_40 gives:


title: Green's function

text: The fraction can then be split into a sum using a partial fraction decomposition before Fourier transforming back to formula_39 and formula_40 space. This process yields identities that relate integrals of Green's functions and sums of the same. For example, if formula_91 then one form for its Green's function is:


title: Green's function

text: While the example presented is tractable analytically, it illustrates a process that works when the integral is not trivial (for example, when formula_93 is the operator in the polynomial).


title: Green's function

text: The following table gives an overview of Green's functions of frequently appearing differential operators, where formula_94, formula_95, formula_96 is the Heaviside step function, formula_97 is a Bessel function, formula_98 is a modified Bessel function of the first kind, and formula_99 is a . Where time () appears in the first column, the retarded (causal) Green's function is listed.


title: Green's function

text: Green's functions for linear differential operators involving the Laplacian may be readily put to use using the second of Green's identities.


title: Green's function

text: Suppose that the linear differential operator is the Laplacian, ∇, and that there is a Green's function for the Laplacian. The defining property of the Green's function still holds,


title: Green's function

text: Using this expression, it is possible to solve Laplace's equation ∇"φ"("x") = 0 or Poisson's equation ∇"φ"("x") = −"ρ"("x"), subject to either Neumann or Dirichlet boundary conditions. In other words, we can solve for "φ"("x") everywhere inside a volume where either (1) the value of "φ"("x") is specified on the bounding surface of the volume (Dirichlet boundary conditions), or (2) the normal derivative of "φ"("x") is specified on the bounding surface (Neumann boundary conditions).


title: Green's function

text: This form expresses the well-known property of harmonic functions, that "if the value or normal derivative is known on a bounding surface, then the value of the function inside the volume is known everywhere".


title: Green's function

text: In electrostatics, "φ"("x") is interpreted as the electric potential, "ρ"("x") as electric charge density, and the normal derivative formula_110 as the normal component of the electric field.


title: Green's function

text: If the problem is to solve a Dirichlet boundary value problem, the Green's function should be chosen such that "G"("x","x"′) vanishes when either "x" or "x"′ is on the bounding surface. Thus only one of the two terms in the surface integral remains. If the problem is to solve a Neumann boundary value problem, it might seem logical to choose Green's function so that its normal derivative vanishes on the bounding surface. However, application of Gauss's theorem to the differential equation defining the Green's function yields


title: Green's function

text: meaning the normal derivative of "G"("x","x"′) cannot vanish on the surface, because it must integrate to 1 on the surface.


title: Green's function

text: The simplest form the normal derivative can take is that of a constant, namely 1/"S", where "S" is the surface area of the surface. The surface term in the solution becomes


title: Green's function

text: where formula_113 is the average value of the potential on the surface. This number is not known in general, but is often unimportant, as the goal is often to obtain the electric field given by the gradient of the potential, rather than the potential itself.


title: Green's function

text: With no boundary conditions, the Green's function for the Laplacian (Green's function for the three-variable Laplace equation) is


title: Green's function

text: Supposing that the bounding surface goes out to infinity and plugging in this expression for the Green's function finally yields the standard expression for electric potential in terms of electric charge density as


title: Green's function

text: One can ensure proper discontinuity in the first derivative by integrating the defining differential equation (i.e., ) from formula_130 to formula_131 and taking the limit as formula_132 goes to zero. Note that we only integrate the second derivative as the remaining term will be continuous by construction.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Varsity Blues is a 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy-drama film directed by Brian Robbins that follows a small-town high school football team through a tumultuous season, in which the players must deal with the pressures of adolescence and their football-obsessed community while having their overbearing coach constantly on their back. In the small fictional town of West Canaan, Texas, football is a way of life and losing is not an option. The film drew a domestic box office gross of $52 million against its estimated $16 million budget despite mixed critical reviews. The film has since gone on to become a cult film.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: In the small town of West Canaan, Texas, Jonathan “Mox” Moxon is an academically gifted backup quarterback for the high school Varsity football team, the West Canaan Coyotes. Despite his relative popularity at school, easy friendships with other players, and smart and sassy girlfriend Jules Harbor, Mox is dissatisfied with his life. Wanting to leave Texas and attend Brown University, he constantly clashes with his football-obsessed father Sam, and dreads playing under legendary coach Bud Kilmer, a verbally abusive, controlling authority who believes in winning no matter what it takes, and has a strong track record, remarking in a speech, "In my thirty years of coaching at West Canaan, I have brought two state titles, and 22 district championships!"


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Kilmer's philosophy finally takes its toll when he pushes the Coyotes' star quarterback Lance Harbor, Mox's best friend and Jules' older brother, into taking painkilling shots into an injured knee. This leads to Lance injuring the knee further during a game, partly because Kilmer had forced offensive lineman Billy Bob to continue playing despite a concussion. At the hospital, the doctors, appalled at the massive amount of scar tissue found under his knee, explain that recovery will take at least a year and a half, costing Lance his football scholarship to Florida State.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Mox, who has accompanied Lance, is shocked when Kilmer denies his role in Lance's injury, when in fact he ordered the trainer to provide the painkillers. Needing a new quarterback, Kilmer reluctantly names Mox to replace Lance as team captain and starting quarterback, which brings unexpected dividends for Mox. Wanting to marry someone leaving West Canaan in order to escape small-town life, Darcy Sears, Lance's cheerleader girlfriend, shows sexual interest in Mox and even attempts to seduce him with a whipped cream "bikini" over her otherwise naked body, but he gently rebuffs her, telling her that she can independently escape West Canaan.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Disgusted with Kilmer and not strongly needing to win, Mox starts calling his own plays on the field without Kilmer's approval. He also chides his father, screaming at him, "I don't want your life!" Sam had been a football player at West Canaan, and although Kilmer dismissed him for lacking talent and courage, Sam still respected and obeyed him. When Kilmer discovers that Mox has won a full academic scholarship to Brown, he threatens to alter Mox's transcripts to endanger his scholarship unless he falls in line.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Kilmer's disregard for players continues, resulting in Billy Bob's dramatic mental collapse. When star running back Wendell Brown, another friend of Mox's, is injured in the district title game, Kilmer persuades him to take a shot of cortisone to deaden the pain in his knee, allowing Wendell to continue at risk of more serious, and perhaps even permanent, injury. Desperate to be recruited by a good college, Wendell almost consents when Mox intervenes and tells Kilmer he will quit if the procedure continues. Undaunted, Kilmer orders wide receiver Charlie Tweeder, a friend of both Mox and Wendell, to replace Mox, but Tweeder refuses. Mox tells Kilmer that the team will only return to the field without him.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Realizing that he will be forced to forfeit the game, an angered Kilmer physically assaults Mox, but the other players intercede and then refuse to take to the field. Knowing his outburst has cost him his credibility, Kilmer tries unsuccessfully to rally support and spark the team's spirit into trusting him, but none of the players follow him out of the locker room. Kilmer continues down the hall, and seeing no one following him, then turns in the other direction and into his office. Using a five-receiver offense in the second half, the Coyotes proceed to win the game and the district championship without Kilmer's guidance, thanks largely to Lance calling the plays from the sideline, and Billy Bob scoring the game-winning touchdown on a hook-and-ladder play.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: In a voice-over epilogue, Mox recounts several characters' aftermaths: Kilmer left town and never coached again, but his statue still remained due to its weight; after the game, Tweeder drank beer and Billy Bob cried in celebration; Lance became a successful football coach, Wendell received a football scholarship to Grambling State University, and Mox went on to attend Brown on an academic scholarship.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: The film opened at #1 at the North American box office making $17.5 million USD in its opening weekend. Though it had a 39.6% decline in earnings, it was still enough to keep it at the top spot for another week.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 43% approval rating based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's consensus states, "This is a predictable football movie that lacks intensity." On Metacritic, it has a score of 50 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Roger Ebert noted in his "Chicago Sun-Times" review that, "Scenes work, but they don't pile up and build momentum." ReelViews online film critic James Berardinelli's summary was that although it "takes a worthwhile detour or two, it ultimately finds its way back to the well-worn track of its genre."


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: The film was later parodied in the 2001 film "Not Another Teen Movie"; Ron Lester reprised his role of Billy Bob by playing a nearly identical character named Reggie Ray while Ali Larter's whipped cream bikini was parodied. The film was also quoted in the 2004 film "Mean Girls" as being Regina George's favorite movie.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: On January 21, 2002, Nelvana and MTV announced that they would co-produce a television series based on the film. Screenwriter Peter Iliff and producer Tova Leiter signed on to produce the series. The cast included Sean Dwyer as Stick and Charlie Talbert as Billy-Bob.


title: Varsity Blues (film)

text: Being a production of MTV Films, the "Varsity Blues" soundtrack included well-known bands as well as little-known songs. The soundtrack album was published by Hollywood Records and contained:


title: Fred Haise

text: Fred Wallace Haise Jr. ( ; born November 14, 1933) is an American former NASA astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force, and a test pilot. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, having flown as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 13. He was to have been the sixth person to walk on the Moon, but the Apollo 13 landing mission was aborted en route.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise went on to fly five Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests in 1977, and retired from NASA in 1979.


title: Fred Haise

text: Born on November 14, 1933, and raised in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Fred Wallace Haise Sr. (1903–1960) and Lucille ( Blacksher) Haise (1913–2005). He attended Biloxi High School, from which he graduated in 1950, and Perkinston Junior College (now Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College), with original aims of a career in journalism, receiving an Associate of Arts degree in 1952. He was a Boy Scout, earning the rank of Star Scout. Eligible for the draft and despite being apprehensive of flying, he joined the Naval Aviation Cadet (NAVCAD) training program. Haise underwent Naval Aviator training from 1952 to 1954. He served as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot, with VMF-533, then VMF-114 on the F2H-4 Banshee and F9F-8 Cougar at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, from March 1954 to September 1956. Haise also served as a tactics and all-weather flight instructor in the U.S. Navy Advanced Training Command at NAS Kingsville, Texas.


title: Fred Haise

text: After his military service, Haise returned to school and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in aeronautical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1959, concurrently serving for two years in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, as a fighter interceptor pilot with the 185th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, flying the F-86D. He then worked for the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), first as a research pilot at the Lewis Research Center near Cleveland. His Air National Guard unit was called up during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and he served ten months as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. He was a tactical fighter pilot and chief of the 164th Standardization-Evaluation Flight of the 164th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base, Ohio, flying the F-84F.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise completed post-graduate courses at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class 64A) at Edwards Air Force Base, California in 1964, and attended the six-week Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1972.


title: Fred Haise

text: In 1966, Haise was one of 19 new astronauts selected for NASA Astronaut Group 5. He had already been working with NASA for several years as a civilian research pilot. He was the first astronaut among his class to be assigned to a mission, serving as backup Lunar Module Pilot for both Apollo 8 and Apollo 11.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise flew as the Lunar Module Pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970. Due to the distance between the Earth and Moon during the mission, Haise, Jim Lovell, and Jack Swigert hold the record for the farthest distance from the Earth ever traveled by human beings. During this flight Haise developed a urinary tract infection and later kidney infections. These caused him to be in pain for most of the trip.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise was slated to become the sixth human to walk on the Moon during Apollo 13 behind Lovell, who was to be fifth. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell eventually became the fifth and sixth, respectively, on Apollo 14, which completed Apollo 13's mission to the Fra Mauro formation.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise remained in the astronaut rotation and served as the backup mission Commander for Apollo 16. Though there was no formal selection, Haise was prospectively slated to command Apollo 19 with William R. Pogue as Command Module Pilot and Gerald P. Carr as Lunar Module Pilot. However, the mission was canceled in late 1970 due to budget cuts.


title: Fred Haise

text: After completing his backup assignment on Apollo 16, Haise moved to the Space Shuttle program. In 1977, he participated in the program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) at Edwards Air Force Base. Along with C. Gordon Fullerton as Pilot, Haise as Commander piloted the Space Shuttle "Enterprise" in free flight to three successful landings after being released from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The tests successfully verified the shuttle's flight characteristics, an important step toward the overall success of the program.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise was assigned to command STS-2A, with Jack R. Lousma as Pilot, the second Space Shuttle mission, which would have delivered the Teleoperator Retrieval System that would have boosted Skylab to a higher orbit, preserving it for future use. Delays in the Shuttle program development as well as an unexpected increase in Skylab's orbital decay led to the mission being canceled. Skylab was destroyed upon entering the Earth's atmosphere in July 1979, while the Space Shuttle did not launch until April 1981.


title: Fred Haise

text: In June 1979, Haise left NASA to become a test pilot and executive with Grumman Aerospace Corporation, where he remained until retiring in 1996. He was the only one of the four astronauts who conducted the "Enterprise" landing tests not to fly in space on the Shuttle.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise has four children with his first wife Mary Griffin Grant, whom he married in 1954 and divorced in 1978: Mary (b. 1956), Frederick (b. 1958), Stephen (b. 1961), and Thomas (b. 1970). He married Frances Patt Price, in 1979. On February 7, 2022, Frances died.


title: Fred Haise

text: On August 22, 1973, Haise was piloting a Convair BT-13 belonging to the Commemorative Air Force that had been converted to look like an Aichi D3A "Val" torpedo bomber for the 1970 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!". While attempting a landing go around at Scholes Field in Galveston, Texas, an undetermined power plant failure led to a crash landing. Haise suffered second‐degree burns over 50 percent of his body in the post crash fire.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise is a fellow of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP); member, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Gamma Tau, and Phi Theta Kappa; and honorary member, National WWII Glider Pilots Association.


title: Fred Haise

text: Haise's other awards include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Haley Astronautics Award for 1971; the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Awards for 1970 and 1977; the City of New York Gold Medal in 1970; the City of Houston Medal for Valor in 1970; the Jeff Davis Award (1970); the Mississippi Distinguished Civilian Service Medal (1970); the American Defense Ribbon; the SETP's Ray E. Tenhoff Award for 1966; the A. B. Honts Trophy as the outstanding graduate of Class 64A from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1964; an honorary doctor of science degree from Western Michigan University (1970); the JSC Special Achievement Award (1978); the Soaring Society of America's Certificate of Achievement Award (1978); the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy for 1977; the SETP's Iven C. Kincheloe Award (1978); and the Air Force Association's David C. Schilling Award (1978).


title: Fred Haise

text: He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal.


title: Fred Haise

text: He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Aerospace Walk of Honor in 1995. He was also one of 24 Apollo astronauts inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4, 1997.


title: Fred Haise

text: On February 13, 2022, the City of Biloxi unveiled a statue of Haise in the parking lot of the historic Biloxi Lighthouse. Haise was present at the ceremony and had his handprints set in concrete at the statue's base prior to its unveiling. The statue was created by Mississippi artist Mary Ott Tremel Davidson.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. The park is themed after Disney's interpretation of California, which is manifested through the use of various Disney, Pixar and Marvel Studios properties. The park opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney's California Adventure Park and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland Park.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The concept of a theme park dedicated to California arose from a meeting of Disney executives in 1995, following the cancellation of WestCOT, a planned West Coast version of Walt Disney World's utopian EPCOT Center. Construction of the park began in June 1998 and was completed by early 2001. Disney initially projected high attendance rates at the new park; a series of preview openings held in January 2001 led to negative reviews, however, and after the park officially opened to the public on February 8, 2001, the company's attendance projections were never met. Disney spent the next several years incrementally adding new rides, shows, and attractions, and implementing other promotions aimed at boosting attendance. In 2007, Disney announced a major overhaul of the park consisting of new expansion as well as re-construction of existing areas of the park. Construction lasted for five years and was completed in stages, culminating with the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land along with the re-dedication of the park in June 2012. The most recent addition to the park was the completion of Avengers Campus when the Disneyland Resort reopened in mid-2021, after being closed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: According to the Themed Entertainment Association, the park hosted approximately 9.9 million guests in 2018, making it the 12th-most visited theme park in the world that year.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The present-day site of Disney California Adventure was acquired by Walt Disney in the 1950s and functioned as the parking lot of Disneyland for over 40 years. After succeeding with the multi-park business model at Walt Disney World in Florida, the Disney company decided to turn Walt Disney's original theme park into a multi-park resort complex as well. Disneyland was boxed-in, however, because of the growth of Anaheim around the park; while the Walt Disney World property was 30,000 acres at the time, the Disneyland site was about 400. This consisted of the park itself, the 100-acre parking lot, and the newly acquired Disneyland Hotel and vacation property from the Wrather Corporation. In 1991, Disney announced plans to build WestCOT, a west coast version of what was then known as EPCOT Center, on the site of Disneyland's parking lot. The price tag of the proposed park was high and the company was facing financial and public relation problems with the newly opened Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris). Plus, Disney president Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994. These issues led Disney to cancel WestCOT in 1995.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: In the summer of 1995, Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at the time, gathered company executives in Aspen, Colorado, to think of another idea for a second theme park in California. They broke down the Disneyland problem as follows: The majority of the people visiting Disneyland consisted primarily of California residents, locals, or those traveling from nearby states. Those who were visiting from another state or another country, probably had Disneyland as one of the several attractions to do in California. Based on this, Disney decided it would instead build a park themed to California's history and culture. Disney's executives aimed to make California a theme park, to keep guests at the resort instead of going off-site. This would require less expensive hotels, a single parking garage, and very little additional property acquisition, with most of the park residing on the Disneyland parking lot. Then-Disneyland president Paul Pressler relied on merchandising and retail staff instead of Imagineers to design the park. As an adult-oriented park-like Epcot, dining, and shopping were the design focus. Construction of the park began on January 22, 1998. On Main Street, U.S.A., a Disney's California Adventure Preview Center opened in October 1998. The park's construction was accompanied by Downtown Disney and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, in addition to renovations of the Disneyland Hotel and Disneyland Pacific Hotel.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The park was expected to draw large crowds when it opened on February 8, 2001. There were four districts with 22 shows and attractions and 15 restaurants.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: On January 14, a "Los Angeles Times" article stated, "Senior Disney officials acknowledge that there will be days when California Adventure will have to turn patrons away, particularly in the first weeks after the park opens, during spring break and again in the summer." The attendance that year was substantially less than expected, however. This is suggested to have happened as a result of negative reviews from early visitors. For example, Disney had originally planned the park to be aimed at adults, rather than children, which became the basis of significant criticism.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The park opened to 5 million visitors in 2001 while its sister park Disneyland saw 12.3 million visitors during the same time frame. Low attendance caused Disney to lower ticket prices for California Adventure, slashing as much as $10 off the park's ticket prices. In its first year, the park averaged 5,000 to 9,000 visitors on weekdays and 10,000 to 15,000 on the weekends, despite having a capacity of 33,000. Visitor surveys reported that 20% of visitors to the park in its first year were satisfied with their experience. By October 2001, both Wolfgang Puck and Robert Mondavi had closed their high-profile restaurants in the park, citing low crowds, though Mondavi remained as a sponsor.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: In the 2019 documentary series "The Imagineering Story", then-Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive Kevin Rafferty described how he and other Imagineers felt about the original design of California Adventure:


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Reflecting on the park's initial reception in "The Imagineering Story", Barry Braverman, executive producer of California Adventure (1995–2001) stated;


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Two major criticisms of the park in its first year were the lack of attractions appealing to children and the lack of a nighttime show or parade to keep visitors from leaving at nightfall. Within the first year of operation, Disney's Electrical Parade and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It! were brought to the park, and several of its original rides and attractions were closed, including Superstar Limo and the stage show "Disney's Steps in Time". During the 2001 holiday season, "Disney's LuminAria" was presented on Paradise Bay. In October 2002, the Flik's Fun Fair area opened, which added attractions for children, and in May 2004, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened as another E ticket. The park regularly featured seasonal promotions such as concert series, food festivals, and promotions for other Walt Disney Company franchises including the X Games and ABC soap operas. Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opened in the former Superstar Limo building in January 2006.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: By 2007, Disney began making plans for major updates to the park. CEO Bob Iger said, "Any time you do something mediocre with your brand, that's withdrawal. California Adventure was a brand withdrawal." Iger briefly considered combining California Adventure and Disneyland Park into one large park, but the price would have cost as much as completely remodeling California Adventure. On October 17, 2007, The Walt Disney Company announced a multi-year, $1.1 billion redesign and expansion plan for Disney's California Adventure Park (against its initial $600 million cost to build). Each district was reimagined to transform the park from a spoof of modern California culture to a romanticized, idealized version of the state, exploring specific time periods and historic settings. The project began in December 2007 and was completed in stages. Toy Story Midway Mania! opened on Paradise Pier in June 2008, in space formerly occupied by a store and restaurants. "World of Color", nighttime water and lights show on Paradise Bay, opened in June 2010. opened on the site formerly occupied by the "Golden Dreams" theater in June 2011.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The most drastic changes to the park included a complete overhaul of the main entrance, Sunshine Plaza, and Paradise Pier and an expansion into the last of the parking area originally designated as future growth space for the park. The main entrance and Sunshine Plaza were turned from a "giant postcard" spoof of California into Buena Vista Street, a representation of Los Angeles as it appeared when Walt Disney moved there in the 1920s. The "CALIFORNIA" sign in front was removed and donated to Cal Expo in Sacramento. Paradise Pier was turned from a contemporary representation of California boardwalks into a representation of Victorian seaside amusement parks of the 1920s, and some of the area's off-the-shelf rides were either removed outright (Maliboomer) or re-themed to have more of a focus on Disney characters (Mickey's Fun Wheel, Goofy's Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings). Cars Land, an area that simulates Radiator Springs from Disney·Pixar's "Cars" film franchise, was added to the southeast portion of the park and features three rides, including the E ticket Radiator Springs Racers. Construction was completed in 2012 and the park was then re-dedicated on June 15, 2012. The park received a modified name, Disney California Adventure, and a new logo first put into use in June 2010.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The redesign and expansion of the park saw attendance rates increase dramatically. In 2012, Disney California Adventure reached a record high for the park of over 7 million visitors (a 23% increase from the year before), a number Disney had hoped the park would attain in its first year. The day of the park's rededication saw the park draw a record number of 43,000 visitors in one day. The night before the rededication, over 500 people camped outside of the park in order to be the first admitted in. Two days later, the park hit a new record of 45,000 visitors. Speaking on the attendance increase at Disney California Adventure, Jay Rasulo, Disney's chief financial officer, said: "We had a very uneven distribution where most people spent most of their time at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure was empty. Now, half of the folks go to one, half of the folks go to the other. It's almost a dream come true."


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Disney California Adventure, along with Disneyland, was closed indefinitely starting on March 14, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The park was scheduled to reopen alongside Disneyland on July 17, but due to rising cases in California, both parks remained closed. In October 2020, it was announced that Buena Vista Street would open as an expansion of the Downtown Disney District. This expansion would allow for additional shops and dining options for visitors to the Disneyland Resort, while the parks remained closed under State guidelines. In February 2021, Disney California Adventure announced there would be a limited-capacity ticketed event called “A Touch of Disney”, which would allow Disney fans to shop at stores and enjoy eateries around the park from March 18 through April 19, 2021. On March 5, 2021, it was announced by the California Department of Public Health that Disney California Adventure was allowed to reopen with capacity restrictions beginning April 1, 2021. Disney CEO Bob Chapek then announced the following week that the company planned on officially reopening the park in late April 2021. On March 17, 2021, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products announced that both Disney California Adventure and Disneyland would officially reopen on April 30, 2021 with limited capacity and social distancing/mask guidelines in effect. Mask policies were relaxed at the Disneyland Resort in the summer of 2021, but ultimately were reinstated for indoor shops and attractions in July in response to the Delta strain. In February 2022, face masks were made optional for guests who are fully vaccinated.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Disney California Adventure is divided into eight themed lands; Buena Vista Street, Pixar Pier, Paradise Gardens, Pacific Wharf, Grizzly Peak, Hollywood Land, Avengers Campus, and Cars Land.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Buena Vista Street is the first area seen upon entering the park. It represents Los Angeles in the 1920s, when Walt Disney first arrived there. Similar to Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland Park, it has shops, restaurants, and a transportation system. Its central hub has entrances to Hollywood Land, Grizzly Peak, and Pacific Wharf. In the hub's center, also known as Carthay Circle, is a replica of the Carthay Circle Theater, where Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" debuted in 1937. Guests can ride from Buena Vista Street to the end of Hollywood Land on the Red Car Trolley. It stops at Kingswell Camera Shop, and the Carthay Circle Restaurant. Other restaurants along the street include Mortimer's Market; Trolley Treats; Clarabelle's Hand Scooped Ice Cream; and Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe. Main stores along the street include Oswald's, Five & Dime, Big Top Toys, Kingswell Camera Shop, and Elias & Co.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Hollywood Land is inspired by the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. It includes attractions based on film, television, theater and a subsection called "Hollywood Studios", which is designed to appear as an active studio backlot. Found within that subsection is the 3D film "Mickey's PhilharMagic" and the Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! attraction, a dark ride based on the characters from Disney·Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." The land is also home to the 2000-seat Hyperion Theater, which formerly presented "Frozen – Live at the Hyperion". Between Monster's Inc. and "Mickey's Philharmagic" is Stage 17: Backlot Premiere Shop, a large store dedicated to carrying all Marvel merchandise.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Disney Junior – Live on Stage! opened on March 25, 2011 in the Disney Theater, and has featured stage productions such as "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", "Sofia the First", "Doc McStuffins", and "Jake and the Never Land Pirates". Its final day of performance was April 9, 2017. It was replaced by Disney Junior Dance Party, which opened on May 26, 2017, and most recently featured "Mickey and the Roadster Racers", "Doc McStuffins", "Vampirina", and "The Lion Guard". Next door to Disney Theater is the Animation Building, which hosts Sorcerer's Workshop (a walk-through exhibit focused on basic animation and determining which Disney character matches your personality), Animation Academy (a workshop that teaches Guests how to draw popular Disney characters), Turtle Talk with Crush, and an Elsa & Anna Meet and Greet. Outside of the Animation Building and Disney Theater are the land's two main stores: Off the Page and Gone Hollywood.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The restroom facilities in the district are designed in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer House, located in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. The stamped concrete structure is typical of Wright's pioneering design.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Grizzly Peak is themed around California's wilderness and national parks, with particular references to Yosemite and Redwood national parks. Its main attraction is Grizzly River Run, a Gold Rush-esque river rapids ride around the area's summit. Nearby is the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, a playground area with elements from Disney's "Brother Bear" and Disney·Pixar's "Up". It has an entrance exclusively accessible to guests of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Grizzly Peak Airfield, formally known as Condor Flats, is a sub-land within Grizzly Peak, themed to an airfield in California's High Sierras in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The area's main attraction is "Soarin' Around the World", which simulates a hang-glider tour of locations, landscapes and landmarks across six of the world's continents. The area also has the Smokejumpers Grill counter-service restaurant, a shop, and a decorative fire lookout tower.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Paradise Gardens, the largest land in Disney California Adventure, is at the park's center, with direct entrances to Pixar Pier, Pacific Wharf and Grizzly Peak. The Paradise Gardens Park area, in front of The Little Mermaid, is a prominent place to watch the World of Color water show and for taking photos with Pixar Pier as a backdrop. Paradise Garden's five attractions include Goofy's Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Golden Zephyr, and . The Paradise Gardens neighborhood also hosts many of the Resort's seasonal and cultural celebrations throughout the year. Some of these celebrations include the Dia de los Muertos celebration during the fall (with two shows, "A Musical Celebration of Coco" and "Mariachi Divas"), the Festival of the Holidays (with "Disney Viva Navidad Street Party" and "Mickey's Happy Holidays"), and the Lunar New Year Festival (with "Mulan's Lunar New Year Processional"). Most parades and cavalcades that run through the park begin in Paradise Gardens and travel north towards Buena Vista Street.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Located between Pixar Pier and Cars Land, Pacific Wharf is themed to resemble the old waterfront of Monterey, California as a tribute to its fishing industry. Its attractions are The Bakery Tour and the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar.This area is primarily an outdoor food court with the following restaurants:


title: Disney California Adventure

text: In September 2022, it was announced that Pacific Wharf will be re-themed to San Fransokyo from Disney's 2014 film "Big Hero 6".


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Cars Land is a land designed to look like the town of Radiator Springs from the Disney·Pixar's 2006 film "Cars" on the town's big race day. The land spans and contains three attractions. The largest attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, is a dark ride that utilizes the technology of Epcot's Test Track. Based on Pixar's " Cars" films, the ride begins with a scenic drive through the mountains, then enters a show building, where the vehicle finds its way into the town of Radiator Springs and gets a race briefing from Doc Hudson; the ride ends with an outdoor, side-by-side dueling race to the Comfy Caverns Motor Court. With a budget of an estimated US$200 million, it is the most expensive theme park ride ever built.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The other attractions at Cars Land are family attractions with smaller height requirements: Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree opened with Cars Land in 2012. Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters opened on March 7, 2016, and replaced Luigi's Flying Tires.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: The land includes several dining and shopping venues. The district serves as a connection between Pacific Wharf, Hollywood Land, and Avengers Campus. Construction began in July 2009 and opened to the public on June 15, 2012.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: In September 2017, Cars Land received Halloween decorations during Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort. Two Cars Land attractions, Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, became Luigi's Honkin' Haul-O-Ween and Mater's Graveyard JamBOOree. Cars Land also receives holiday overlays, where Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters becomes Luigi's Joy to the Whirl, and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree becomes Mater's Jingle Jamboree.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Pixar Pier is themed after films produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and is divided into four districts; Incredibles Park, Toy Story Boardwalk, Pixar Promenade, and Inside Out Headquarters. Its attractions include the Pixar Pal-A-Round, Incredicoaster, Jessie's Critter Carousel, Games of Pixar Pier, Toy Story Midway Mania, and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind. Its main stores are Knick's Knacks, Midway Mercantile, and Bing Bong's Sweet Stuff, and offers table-service dining at the Lamplight Lounge. It is connected to Paradise Gardens Park at both ends; its main entrance is via a bridge under a large Pixar Pier gateway.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Avengers Campus is inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring attractions based on characters originating from Marvel Comics and appearing in MCU media. The area is anchored around an Avengers campus located on the former restricted grounds of a Stark Industries and Strategic Scientific Reserve complex. Attractions and restaurants include , , the , and the Pym Test Kitchen. The area opened on June 4, 2021 on the former site of A Bug's Land, after its July 2020 opening was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: As with other Disney Parks, characters based on Disney properties roam around the themed areas of the park.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Following the COVID-19 reopening, up-close character meet and greets have returned to pre-pandemic state. Nonetheless, character cavalcades began in Paradise Gardens, as Pixar characters from Disney·Pixar's "The Incredibles" and "Toy Story" roam through the land. Characters also began to meet and greet with Guests from a distance; including Goofy and Max from a balcony on Pacific Wharf, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Disney's "Zootopia" outside of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Anna and Elsa from Disney's "Frozen" on Buena Vista Street, and the Avengers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers Campus.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Sunshine Plaza was the first land guests would explore when entering Disney California Adventure. It featured 2 stores, Engine Ears Toys and Greetings from California. At the center of the plaza was the “Sun Icon”.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Bountiful Valley Farm was a themed area presented by Caterpillar. It featured farm equipment, different crops, and fake animals. When A Bug’s Land opened in 2002, the district was absorbed into the land. Caterpillar ended their sponsorship in 2007 and the area closed in 2010. It was replaced by Cars Land.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Paradise Pier opened in 2001 with the park. It featured attractions such as California Screamin’, The Maliboomer, The Sun Wheel and King Triton’s Carousel. The land closed in 2018 and reopened as Pixar Pier.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: A Bug's Land (stylized "a bug's land") was seen from the point of view of Flik, the inventor ant from the Disney·Pixar film "A Bug's Life", where oversized human items were scattered throughout. It featured Flik's Fun Fair (a collection of themed, family and child-friendly attractions such as Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, Tuck & Roll's Drive 'em Buggies, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, and Dot's Puddle Park). It opened as the park's first expansion in 2002 to expand the park's family-friendly attractions. The land was built around the existing attraction "It's Tough to Be a Bug!", a 3D film based on "A Bug's Life", which opened with the park in 2001.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: "It's Tough to Be a Bug!" closed on March 19, 2018. The rest of A Bug's Land closed on September 4, 2018 to make way for Avengers Campus. When A Bug's Land closed in 2018, Flik's Flyers was re-themed into Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and relocated to Pixar Pier.


title: Disney California Adventure

text: Unlike Disneyland Park (with the exception of Club 33 in New Orleans Square and Oga's Cantina in ), Disney California Adventure serves beer, wine and cocktails throughout its restaurants, stands and food kiosks. The park also hosts the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, an annual event featuring a number of themed kiosks, each featuring food and beverages from a particular aspect of California cuisine.


title: Girl

text: A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a "woman". However, the term "girl" is also used for other meanings, including "young woman", and is sometimes used as a synonym for "daughter", or "girlfriend". In certain contexts, the usage of "girl" for a woman may be derogatory. "Girl" may also be a term of endearment used by an adult, usually a woman, to designate adult female friends. "Girl" also appears in portmanteaus (compound words) like "showgirl", "cowgirl", and "schoolgirl".


title: Girl

text: The treatment and status of girls in any society is usually closely related to the status of women in that culture. In cultures where women have a low societal position, girls may be unwanted by their parents, and the state may invest less in services for girls. Girls' upbringing ranges from being relatively the same as that of boys to complete sex segregation and completely different gender roles.


title: Girl

text: The English word "girl" first appeared during the Middle Ages between 1250 and 1300 CE and came from the Anglo-Saxon word "gerle" (also spelled "girle" or "gurle"). The Anglo-Saxon word "gerela" meaning "dress" or "clothing item" also seems to have been used as a metonym in some sense. Until the late 1400s, the word meant a child of either sex, and has meant 'female child' since about the late 1500s century.


title: Girl

text: The word "girl" is sometimes used to refer to an adult female, usually a younger one. This usage may be considered derogatory or disrespectful in professional or other formal contexts, just as the term "boy" can be considered disparaging when applied to an adult man. Hence, this usage is often deprecative. It can also be used depreciatively when used to discriminate against children (e.g., ""you're just a girl""). However, "girl" can also be a professional designation for a woman employed as a model or other public feminine representative such as a "showgirl", and in such cases is not generally considered derogatory.


title: Girl

text: In a casual context, the word has positive uses, as evidenced by its use in titles of popular music. It has been used playfully for people acting in an energetic fashion (Canadian singer Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous Girl") or as a way of unifying women of all ages on the basis of their once having been girls (American country singer Martina McBride's "This One's for the Girls").


title: Girl

text: The status of girls throughout world history is closely related to the status of women in any culture. Where women enjoy a more equal status with men, girls benefit from greater attention to their needs.


title: Girl

text: Girls' formal education has traditionally been considered far less important than that of boys. In Europe, exceptions were rare before the printing press and the Reformation made literacy more widespread. One notable exception to the general neglect of girls' literacy is Queen Elizabeth I. In her case, as a child, she was in a precarious position as a possible heir to the throne, and her life was in fact endangered by the political scheming of other powerful members of the court. Following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was considered illegitimate. Her education was for the most part ignored by Henry VIII. Remarkably, Henry VIII's widow, Catherine Parr, took an interest in the high intelligence of Elizabeth, and supported the decision to provide her with an impressive education after Henry's death, starting when Elizabeth was 9. Elizabeth received an education equal to that of a prominent male aristocrat; she was educated in Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, philosophy, history, mathematics and music. It has been argued that Elizabeth's high-quality education helped her grow up to become a successful monarch.


title: Girl

text: By the 18th century, Europeans recognized the value of literacy, and schools were opened to educate the public in growing numbers. Education in the Age of Enlightenment in France led to up to a third of women becoming literate by the time of the French Revolution, contrasting with roughly half of men by that time. However, education was still not considered as important for girls as for boys, who were being trained for professions that remained closed to women, and girls were not admitted to secondary level schools in France until the late 19th century. Girls were not entitled to receive a Baccalaureate diploma in France until the reforms of 1924 under education minister Léon Bérard. Schools were segregated in France until the end of World War II. Since then, compulsory education laws have raised the education of girls and young women throughout Europe. In many European countries, girls' education was restricted until the 1970s, especially at higher levels. This was often done by teaching different subjects to each sex, especially since tertiary education was considered primarily for males, particularly with regard to technical education. For example, prestigious engineering schools, such as École Polytechnique, did not allow women until the 1970s.


title: Girl

text: Many cultures have traditional customs to mark the "coming of age" of a girl or boy, to recognize their transition to adulthood, or to mark other milestones of their journey to maturity as children.


title: Girl

text: Japan has a coming-of-age ritual called Shichi-Go-San (七五三), which literally means "Seven-Five-Three". This is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three- and seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys, held annually on November 15. It is generally observed on the nearest weekend. On this day, the girl will be dressed in a traditional kimono, and will be taken to a temple by her family for a blessing ceremony. Nowadays, the occasion is also marked with a formal photo portrait.


title: Girl

text: Many coming-of-age ceremonies are to acknowledge the passing of a girl through puberty, when she experiences menarche, or her first menstruation. The traditional Apache coming-of-age ceremony for girls is called the "na'ii'ees" (Sunrise Ceremony), and takes place over four days. The girls are painted with clay and pollen, which they must not wash off until the end of the rituals, which involve dancing and rituals that challenge physical strength. Girls are given teaching in aspects of sexuality, confidence, and healing ability. The girls pray in the direction of the east at dawn, and in the four cardinal directions, which represent the four stages of life. This ceremony was banned by the U.S. government for many decades; after being decriminalized by the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, it has seen a revival.


title: Girl

text: Some coming-of-age ceremonies are religious rituals to recognize a girl's maturity with respect to her understanding of religious beliefs, and to recognize her changing role in her religious community. Confirmation is a ceremony common to many Christian denominations for both boys and girls, usually taking place when the child is in their teen years. In Roman Catholic communities, Confirmation ceremonies are considered one of seven sacraments that a Catholic may receive during their life. In many countries, it is traditional for Catholics children to undergo another sacrament, First Communion, at the age of 7 years old. The sacrament is usually performed in a church once a year, with children who are of age receive a blessing from a Bishop in a special ceremony. It is traditional in many countries for Catholic girls to wear white dresses and possibly a small veil or wreath of flowers in their hair to their First Communion. The white dress symbolizes spiritual purity.


title: Girl

text: A traditional coming-of-age ritual for daughters of college age (17 to 21 years old) from high society and well-connected upper-class and White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) families in North America and Europe has historically been their debut at a debutante ball, such as the International Debutante Ball in New York City. Traditionally, debutantes wear couture white gowns and gloves symbolising purity and wealth.


title: Girl

text: Across Latin America, the "fiesta de quince años" is a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday. The girl celebrating the birthday is called a Quinceañera. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood.


title: Girl

text: In many ancient societies, girls' upbringing had much to do with preparing them to be future wives. In many cultures, it was not the norm for women to be economically independent. Thus, where a girl's future well-being depended upon marrying her to a man who was economically self-sufficient, it was crucial to prepare her to meet whatever qualities or skills were popularly expected of wives.


title: Girl

text: In cultures ranging from Ancient Greece to the 19th-century United States, girls have been taught such essential domestic skills as sewing, cooking, gardening, and basic hygiene and medical care such as preparing balms and salves, and in some cases midwife skills. These skills would be taught from generation to generation, with the knowledge passed down orally from mother to daughter. A well-known reference to these important women's skills is in the folk tale Rumpelstiltskin, which dates back to Medieval Germany and was collected in written form by the folklorists the Brothers Grimm. The miller's daughter is valued as a potential wife because of her reputation for being able to spin straw into gold.


title: Girl

text: In some parts of China, beginning in the Southern Tang kingdom in Nanjing (937-975), the custom of foot binding was associated with upper-class women who were worthy of a life of leisure, and husbands who could afford to spare them the necessity of work (which would require the ability to be mobile and spend the day on their feet). Because of this belief, parents hoping to ensure a good marriage for their daughters would begin binding their feet from about the age of 5–8 to achieve the ideal appearance. The tinier the feet, the better the social rank of a future husband. This practice did not end until the early years of the 20th century.


title: Girl

text: China has had many customs tied to girls and their roles as future wives and mothers. According to one custom, a girl's way of wearing her hair would indicate her marital status. An unmarried girl would wear her hair in two "pigtails", and once married, she would wear her hair in one.


title: Girl

text: In some cultures, girls' passing through puberty is viewed with concern for a girl's chastity. In some communities, there is a traditional belief that female genital mutilation is a necessity to prevent a girl from becoming sexually promiscuous. The practice is dangerous, however, and leads to long-term health problems for women who have undergone it. The practice has been a custom in 28 countries of Africa, and persists mainly in rural areas. This coming-of-age custom, sometimes incorrectly described as "female circumcision", is being outlawed by governments, and challenged by human rights groups and other concerned community members, who are working to end the practice.


title: Girl

text: Girls have been used historically, and are still used in some parts of the world, in settlements of disputes between families, through practices such as baad, swara, or vani. In such situations, a girl from a criminal's family is given to the victim's family as a servant or a bride. Another practice is that of selling girls in exchange for the bride price. The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery defines "institutions and practices similar to slavery" to include: c) Any institution or practice whereby: (i) A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or (ii) The husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or (iii) A woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person.


title: Girl

text: Scholars are unclear and in dispute as to possible causes for variations in human sex ratios at birth. Countries which have sex ratios of 108 and above are usually presumed as engaging in sex selection. However, deviations in sex ratios at birth can occur for natural causes too. Nevertheless, the practice of bias against girls, through sex selective abortion, female infanticide, female abandonment, as well as favouring sons with regard to allocating of family resources is well documented in parts of South Asia, East Asia, and the Caucasus. Such practices are a major concern in China, India and Pakistan. In these cultures, the low status of women creates a bias against females.


title: Girl

text: China and India have a very strong son preference. In China, the one child policy was largely responsible for an unbalanced sex ratio. Sex-selective abortion, as well as rejection of girl children is common. The Dying Rooms is a 1995 television documentary film about Chinese state orphanages, which documented how parents abandoned their newborn girls into orphanages, where the staff would leave the children in rooms to die of thirst, or starvation. In India, the practice of dowry is partly responsible for a strong son preference.


title: Girl

text: Another manifestation of son preference is the violence inflicted against mothers who give birth to girls.


title: Girl

text: In India, by 2011, there were 91 girls younger than 6 for every 100 boys. Its 2011 census showed that the ratio of girls to boys under the age of 6 years old has dropped even during the past decade, from 927 girls for every 1000 boys in 2001 to 918 girls for every 1000 boys in 2011. In China, scholars report 794 baby girls for every 1000 baby boys in rural regions. In Azerbaijan, last 20 years of birth data suggests 862 girls were born for every 1000 boys, on average every year. Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute in Washington, D.C. has said: "Twenty-five million men in China currently can't find brides because there is a shortage of women [...] young men emigrate overseas to find brides." The gender imbalance in these regions is also blamed for spurring growth in the commercial sex trade; the UN's 2005 report states that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls.


title: Girl

text: Embryos that inherit two X chromosomes (XX), one from each parent, are generally identified as girls when born.


title: Girl

text: Girls have a female reproductive system. Some intersex children with ambiguous genitals, as well as transgender children may also be classified or self-identify as girls.


title: Girl

text: Girls' bodies undergo gradual changes during puberty. Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction to enable fertilization. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads. In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, and sexual organs. Physical growth—height and weight—accelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when the child has developed an adult body. Until the maturation of their reproductive capabilities, the pre-pubertal, physical differences between boys and girls are the genitalia. Puberty is a process that usually takes place between 10 and 16 years, but these ages differ from person to person. The major landmark of female puberty is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between 12 and 13. According to a 2010 Canadian study, the variation of age in which menstruation begins had a "statistically significant" relation to where the child was living, household income, and family type.


title: Girl

text: Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood. Identical twin girls separated at birth and reunited decades later have shown both startling similarities and differences. In 2005, professor Kim Wallen of Emory University noted, "I think the 'nature versus nurture' question is not meaningful, because it treats them as independent factors, whereas in fact everything is nature and nurture." Wallen said gender differences emerge very early and come about through an underlying preference males and females have for their chosen activities.


title: Girl

text: Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially-defined and biologically created factors. This makes it distinct from the definition of the biological female sex, as both males and females can exhibit feminine traits. Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity, though traits associated with femininity vary depending on location and context, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.


title: Girl

text: Gender neutrality describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from rigid gender roles. Unisex refers to things that are considered appropriate for any sex. Campaigns for unisex toys include "Let Toys Be Toys".


title: Girl

text: Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in an adolescent girl. A female can become pregnant from sexual intercourse after she has begun to ovulate. Pregnant teenagers face many of the same pregnancy related issues as other women. There are, however, additional concerns for young adolescents as they are less likely to be physically developed enough to sustain a healthy pregnancy or to give birth.


title: Girl

text: In developed countries, teenage pregnancy is usually associated with social issues, including lower educational levels, poverty, and other negative life outcomes; and often carries a social stigma. By contrast, teenage girls in developing countries are often married, and their pregnancies welcomed by family and society. However, in these societies, child marriage and early pregnancy often combine with malnutrition and poor health care and create medical problems.


title: Girl

text: Girls' equal access to education has been achieved in some countries, but there are significant disparities in the majority. There are gaps in access between different regions and countries and even within countries. Girls account for 60 per cent of children out of school in Arab countries and 66 per cent of non-attendees in South and West Asia; however, more girls than boys attend schools in many countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe. Research has measured the economic cost of this inequality to developing countries: Plan International’s analysis shows that a total of 65 low, middle income and transition countries fail to offer girls the same secondary school opportunities as boys, and in total, these countries are missing out on annual economic growth of an estimated $92 billion.


title: Girl

text: Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has asserted "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all" girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary and secondary schools (70%:74% and 59%:65%). Worldwide efforts have been made to end this disparity (such as through the Millennium Development Goals) and the gap has closed since 1990.


title: Girl

text: According to Kim Wallen, expectations will nonetheless play a role in how girls perform academically. For example, if females skilled in math are told a test is "gender neutral" they achieve high scores, but if they are told males outperformed females in the past, the females will do much worse. "What's strange is," Wallen observed, "according to the research, all one apparently has to do is tell a woman who has a lifetime of socialization of being poor in math that a math test is gender neutral, and all effects of that socialization go away." Author Judith Harris has said that aside from their genetic contribution, the nurturing provided by parents likely has less long-term influence over their offspring than other environmental aspects such as the children's peer group.


title: Girl

text: In England, studies by the National Literacy Trust have shown girls score consistently higher than boys in all scholastic areas from the ages of 7 through 16, with the most striking differences noted in reading and writing skills. In the United States, historically, girls lagged on standardized tests. In 1996 the average score of 503 for US girls from all races on the SAT verbal test was 4 points lower than boys. In math, the average for girls was 492, which was 35 points lower than boys. "When girls take the exact same courses," commented Wayne Camara, a research scientist with the College Board, "that 35-point gap dissipates quite a bit." At the time Leslie R. Wolfe, president of the Center for Women Policy Studies said girls scored differently on the math tests because they tend to work the problems out while boys use "test-taking tricks" such as immediately checking the answers already given in multiple-choice questions. Wolfe said girls are steady and thorough while "boys play this test like a pin-ball machine." Wolfe also said although girls had lower SAT scores they consistently get higher grades than boys across all courses in their first year in college. By 2006 girls were outscoring boys on the verbal portion of the United States' nationwide SAT exam by 11 points. A 2005 University of Chicago study showed that a majority presence of girls in the classroom tends to enhance the academic performance of boys.


title: Girl

text: In many parts of the world, girls face significant obstacles to accessing proper education. These obstacles include: early and forced marriages; early pregnancy; prejudice based on gender stereotypes at home, at school and in the community; violence on the way to school, or in and around schools; long distances to schools; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic; school fees, which often lead to parents sending only their sons to school; lack of gender sensitive approaches and materials in classrooms.


title: Girl

text: Sex segregation is the physical, legal, and cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. It is practiced in many societies, especially starting when children attain puberty. In certain circumstances, sex segregation is controversial. Some critics contend that it is a violation of capabilities and human rights and can create economic inefficiencies and discrimination, while some supporters argue that it is central to certain religious laws and social and cultural histories and traditions. Purdah is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that women cover almost entirely their bodies. The ages from which this practice is enforced vary by community. Such practices are most common in cultures where the concept of family honor is very strong. In cultures where sex segregation is common, the predominant form of education in single sex education.


title: Girl

text: In many parts of the world, girls are at risk of specific forms of violence and abuse, such as sex-selective abortion, female genital mutilation, child marriage, child sexual abuse, honor killings.


title: Girl

text: In parts of the world, especially in East Asia, South Asia and some Western countries' girls are sometimes seen as unwanted; in some cases, girls are selectively aborted, abused, mistreated or abandoned by their parents or relatives. In China, boys exceed girls by more than 30 million, suggesting over a million excess boys are born every year than expected for normal human sex ratio at birth. In India, scholars estimate from boy to girl ratio at birth that sex-selective abortions cause a loss of about 1.5%, or 100,000 female births per year. Abnormal boy to girl ratio at birth is also seen in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, suggesting possible sex-selective abortions against girls.


title: Girl

text: Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." It is practiced mainly in 28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. FGM is most often carried out on girls aged between infancy and 15 years.


title: Girl

text: Child marriages, where girls are married at young ages (often forced and often to much older husbands) remain common in many parts of the world. They are fairly widespread in parts of the world, especially in Africa, South Asia, Southeast and East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania. The ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Malawi.


title: Girl

text: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. In Western countries CSA is considered a serious crime, but in many parts of the world there is a tacit tolerance of the practice. CSA can take many forms, one of which is child prostitution. Child prostitution is the commercial sexual exploitation of children in which a child performs the services of prostitution, for financial benefit. It is estimated that each year at least one million children, mostly girls, become prostitutes. Child prostitution is common in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia), and many adults from wealthy countries travel to these regions to engage in child sex tourism.


title: Girl

text: In many parts of the world, girls who are deemed to have tarnished the 'honor' of their families by refusing arranged marriages, having premarital sex, dressing in ways deemed inappropriate or even becoming the victims of rape, are at risk of honor killing by their families.


title: Girl

text: Girls' health suffers in cultures where girls are valued less than boys, and families allocate most resources to boys. A major threat to girls' health is early marriage, which often leads to early pregnancy. Girls forced into child marriage often become pregnant quickly after marriage, increasing their risk of complications and maternal mortality. Such complications resulting from pregnancy and birth at young ages are a leading cause of death among teenage girls in developing countries. Female genital mutilation (FGM) practiced in many parts of the world is another leading cause of ill health for girls.


title: Girl

text: Gender influences the pattern of child labor. Girls tend to be asked by their families to perform more domestic work in their parental home than boys are, and often at younger ages than boys. Employment as a paid domestic worker is the most common form of child labor for girls. In some places, such as East and Southeast Asia, parents often see work as a domestic servant as a good preparation for marriage. Domestic service, however, is among the least regulated of all professions, and exposes workers to serious risks, such as violence, exploitation and abuse by the employers, because the workers are often isolated from the outside world. Child labor has a very negative effect on education. Girls either stop their education, or, when they continue it, they are often subjected to a double burden, or a triple burden of work outside the home, housework in the parental home, and schoolwork. This situation is common in places such as parts of Asia and Latin America.


title: Girl

text: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1988) and Millennium Development Goals (2000) promoted better access to education for all girls and boys and to eliminate gender disparities at both primary and secondary level. Worldwide school enrolment and literacy rates for girls have improved continuously. In 2005, global primary net enrolment rates were 85 per cent for girls, up from 78 per cent 15 years earlier; at the secondary level, girls’ enrolment increased 10 percentage points to 57 per cent over the same period.


title: Girl

text: A number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created programs focussing on addressing disparities in girls' access to such necessities as food, healthcare and education. CAMFED is one organization active in providing education to girls in sub-Saharan Africa. PLAN International's "Because I am a Girl" campaign is a high-profile example of such initiatives. PLAN's research has shown that educating girls can have a powerful ripple effect, boosting the economies of their towns and villages; providing girls with access to education has also been demonstrated to improve community understanding of health matters, reducing HIV rates, improving nutritional awareness, reducing birthrates and improving infant health. Research demonstrates that a girl who has received an education will:


title: Girl

text: Plan International also created a campaign to establish an International Day of the Girl. The goals of this initiative are to raise global awareness of the unique challenges facing girls, as well as the key role they have in addressing larger poverty and development challenges. A delegation of girls from Plan Canada introduced the idea to Rona Ambrose, Canada's Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, at the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in February 2011. In March 2011, Canada's Parliament unanimously adopted a motion requesting that Canada take the lead at the United Nations in the initiative to proclaim an International Day of the Girl. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted an International Day of the Girl Child on December 19, 2011. The first International Day of the Girl Child is October 11, 2012.


title: Girl

text: Its most recent research has led PLAN International to identify a need to coordinate projects that address boys' roles in their communities, as well as finding ways of including boys in activities that reduce gender discrimination. Since political, religious and local community leaders are most often men, men and boys have great influence over any effort to improve girls' lives and achieve gender equality. PLAN International's 2011 Annual Report points out that men have more influence and may be able to convince communities to curb early marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) more effectively than women. Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Saad, who has campaigned against the practice, is quoted in the report: “We have decided that our daughter will not go through this bad, inhumane experience [...] I am part of the change.”


title: Girl

text: Historically, art and literature in Western culture has portrayed girls as symbols of innocence, purity, virtue and hope. Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls who were daughters of royalty. Sappho's poetry carries love poems addressed to girls.


title: Girl

text: In Europe, some early paintings featuring girls were Petrus Christus' "Portrait of a Young Girl" (about 1460), Juan de Flandes' "Portrait of a Young Girl" (about 1505), Frans Hals' "" in 1620, Diego Velázquez' "Las Meninas" in 1656, Jan Steen's "The Feast of St. Nicolas" (about 1660) and Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" along with "". Later paintings of girls include Albert Anker's portrait of a "" and Camille Pissarro's 1883 "".


title: Girl

text: Mary Cassatt painted many famous Impressionist works that idealize the innocence of girls and the mother-daughter bond, for example her 1884 work "". During the same era, Whistler's "Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander" and "The White Girl" depict girls in the same light.


title: Girl

text: The European children's literature canon includes many notable works with young female protagonists. Traditional fairy tales have preserved memorable stories about girls. Among these are "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Rapunzel", "The Princess and the Pea" and the Brothers Grimm's "Little Red Riding Hood". Well-known children's books about girls include "Heidi", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the Nancy Drew series, "Little House on the Prairie", "Madeline", "Pippi Longstocking", "A Wrinkle in Time", "Dragonsong", and "Little Women".


title: Girl

text: Beginning in the late Victorian era, more nuanced depictions of girl protagonists became popular. Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl", "The Little Mermaid", and other tales featured themes that ventured into tragedy. Published in 1865, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll featured a widely noted female protagonist, Alice, confronting eccentric characters and intellectual puzzles in surreal settings. The character of the plucky, yet proper, Alice has proven immensely popular and inspired similar heroines in literature and pop culture. Literature followed different cultural currents, sometimes romanticizing and idealizing girlhood, and at other times developing under the influence of the growing literary realism movement. Many Victorian novels begin with the childhood of their heroine, such as "Jane Eyre", an orphan who suffers ill treatment from her guardians and then at a girls' boarding school. The character Natasha in "War and Peace", on the other hand, is sentimentalized.


title: Girl

text: By the 20th century, the portrayal of girls in fiction had for the most part abandoned idealized portrayals of girls. Popular literary novels include Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" in which a young girl, Scout, is faced with the awareness of the forces of bigotry in her community. Vladimir Nabokov's controversial book "Lolita" (1955) is about a doomed relationship between a 12-year-old girl and an adult scholar as they travel across the United States. "Zazie dans le métro" ("Zazie in the Metro") (1959) by Raymond Queneau is a popular French novel that humorously celebrates the innocence and precocity of Zazie, who ventures off on her own to explore Paris, escaping from her uncle (a professional female impersonator) and her mother (who is preoccupied by a meeting with her lover). Zazie was also made into a popular movie in 1960 ("Zazie dans le Métro") by French director Louis Malle.


title: Girl

text: Books which have both boy and girl protagonists have tended to focus more on the boys, but important girl characters appear in "Knight's Castle", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", "The Book of Three" and the "Harry Potter" series.


title: Girl

text: Recent novels with an adult audience have included reflections on girlhood experiences. "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden begins as the female main character and her sister are dropped off in the pleasure district after being separated from their family in 19th-century Japan. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See traces the laotong (old sames) bond of friendship between a pair of childhood friends in modern Beijing, and the parallel friendship of their ancestors in 19th-century Hunan, China.


title: Girl

text: There have been many comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character such as "Little Lulu" and "Little Orphan Annie" from the US, and "Minnie the Minx" from the UK. In superhero comic books an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of Wonder Woman's sidekicks. In the "Peanuts" series (by Charles Schulz) girl characters include Peppermint Patty, Lucy van Pelt and Sally Brown.


title: Girl

text: In Japanese animated cartoons and comic books girls are often protagonists. Most of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films feature a young girl heroine, as in "Majo no takkyūbin" ("Kiki's Delivery Service"). There are many other girl protagonists in the shōjo style of manga, which is targeted at girls as an audience. Among these are "The Wallflower", "Ceres, Celestial Legend", "Tokyo Mew Mew" and "Full Moon o Sagashite". Meanwhile, some genres of Japanese cartoons may feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls.


title: Girl

text: The term "girl" is widely heard in the lyrics of popular music (such as with the song "About a Girl"), most often meaning a young adult or teenaged female.


title: Arn Anderson

text: Martin Anthony Lunde (born September 20, 1958), better known by the ring name Arn Anderson, is an American professional wrestling road agent, author, and retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a manager. Although he is widely regarded as one of the finest tag team wrestlers in history, he also had a successful singles career and became a four-time NWA/WCW World Television Champion, which he often called his "world title".


title: Arn Anderson

text: Anderson's career was highlighted by his alliances with Ric Flair and various members of the wrestling stable The Four Horsemen in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After his retirement, he worked as a producer for WWE until 2019, when he joined AEW. On March 31, 2012, Anderson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen. His son, Brock Anderson also pursued a career in professional wrestling, performing for AEW.


title: Arn Anderson

text: Lunde began his career on January 2, 1982 in Georgia Championship Wrestling going by the ring name Jim Vertaroso, having been trained by Ted Lipscomb (Allen). He spent much of the year wrestling in various independent wrestling companies across the United States, including a minor run in Mid South Wrestling for Bill Watts from 1982 to 1983. By the middle of 1983, he made his way to Southeastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA affiliated promotion operating out of Tennessee and Alabama. Taking the name of "Super Olympia", Lunde soon became a member of Ron Fuller's Stud Stable before the year was out. Lunde saw success in the tag team ranks by winning the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship three times with Mr. Olympia and once with Pat Rose throughout 1984. It was also here in this promotion that Lunde met and began what would become a lifelong friendship with Ric Flair. By the end of the year, however, Lunde left the company and joined Mid South Wrestling based out of Shreveport. Lunde's time in Mid South was coming to an end, and during a TV taping the Junk Yard Dog mentioned to Bill Watts, the owner of Mid South Wrestling, that Lunde looked like an Anderson. Watts called Jim Crockett and convinced him to book Lunde.


title: Arn Anderson

text: Lunde made his way to Jim Crockett, Jr.'s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, based in the Virginias and the Carolinas. By this time, the company extended its range into Georgia after rival promoter Vince McMahon purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling. There was a strong physical resemblance between Lunde and Ole Anderson, who had achieved legendary status in the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic territories as a tag team wrestler. Ole noticed that Lunde's style was a no nonsense approach in the ring and specialized in working over a part of an opponent's body throughout the match, much like Ole himself. Anderson agreed to work with Lunde, helping to hone his capabilities, and re-formed the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with Lunde replacing Gene Anderson and taking on the name of "Arn Anderson", Ole's kayfabe nephew. The team quickly became a force in the territory by capturing the NWA National Tag Team Championship in March 1985. Arn and Ole defended the titles throughout the year, with their highest profile match being part of the card for Starrcade 1985 on Thanksgiving night. The Crew successfully defended the titles against Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes.


title: Arn Anderson

text: In the latter half of 1985, the Andersons formed a loose knit alliance with fellow heels Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair, as they began to have common enemies. The foursome frequently teamed together in six-man, and sometimes, eight-man tag matches or interfered in each other's matches to help score a victory or, at least, to prevent each other from losing their titles. The alliance quickly became a force within the territory, working in feuds against some of the biggest stars in the company like Dusty Rhodes, Magnum T. A., The Road Warriors and the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Anderson also saw success as a singles wrestler on January 4, 1986, by winning the vacant NWA Television Championship. Simultaneously, Anderson was still one half of the NWA National Tag Team Champions and, even though Crockett promotions abandoned the National Tag titles in March, Anderson's success as a dual champion elevated his status within the territory. It was also during this time (in 1986) that the Andersons, Blanchard, and Flair began calling themselves The Four Horsemen with J. J. Dillon serving as the group's manager. Anderson also had a tremendous ability to do interviews to further the storylines he participated in. His ability to improvise in interviews allowed him to coin the "Four Horsemen" moniker for the stable, as he likened their coming to wrestle at an event and the aftermath of their wrath as being akin to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the name stuck. Anderson continued his reign as NWA Television Champion for most of the year, holding the championship for just over 9 months before losing it to Dusty Rhodes on September 9, 1986.


title: Arn Anderson

text: The first real setback with the Horsemen occurred at Starrcade 1986 after Anderson and Ole lost a Steel Cage match to The Rock 'n' Roll Express, with Ole getting pinned. The subsequent storyline positioned Ole as the weak link within the team, possibly attributed to his age. Ole's position with the group was only further weakened after he decided to take two months off after Starrcade. After Ole's return in February 1987, the other Horsemen turned on him and threw him out of the group, resulting in Ole incurring numerous attacks over the next several months. Afterwards, Ole was replaced with Lex Luger and the Horsemen resumed their dominance of the company.


title: Arn Anderson

text: As a member of the Horsemen, Anderson continued to be involved in high-profile angles within the company. By mid-1987, Anderson and fellow Horsemen Tully Blanchard began regularly competing as a tag team and rose quickly through the tag team ranks. The duo faced the Rock 'n' Roll Express for the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 29, 1987, and were victorious. This win further solidified the group's dominance in the company as Lex Luger was the reigning NWA United States Heavyweight Champion and Ric Flair spent most of 1987 as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, losing it to Ron Garvin in September, only to regain it at Starrcade 1987 on Thanksgiving night. Anderson and Tully continued to feud throughout the rest of the year and first few months of 1988 with the Road Warriors, the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Midnight Express being their most frequent rivals.


title: Arn Anderson

text: By December 1987, Luger had defected from the Horsemen and began a heated feud with the group, with Ric Flair especially. In early 1988, Luger formed a tag team with Barry Windham and began challenging Anderson and Blanchard for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. The bigger, stronger team of Windham and Luger were eventually successful, winning the titles on March 27, 1988. The reign would be short lived, however, as Anderson and Blanchard regained the titles less than a month later after Barry Windham turned on Luger during their match and joined the Horsemen. Though Anderson and Blanchard were two of the biggest stars in Crockett's company, they were frequently in dispute with Crockett over their pay. Despite the fact that the two, along with the Horsemen, were helping to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the company, they considered themselves to be underpaid. Their last contracted match with the company took place on September 10, 1988, when they dropped the NWA World Tag Team Championship to the Midnight Express before leaving for the WWF.


title: Arn Anderson

text: Anderson and Blanchard left Crockett's company to join Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation. Upon being named the Brain Busters, the team took Bobby "The Brain" Heenan as their manager and quickly began rising through the tag team ranks, eventually coming to challenge Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship. On July 18, 1989, the Brain Busters won the titles, ending Demolition's historic reign of 478 days; the match would air on the July 29 edition of "Saturday Night's Main Event XXII". Although they would lose the titles back to Demolition on an episode of "WWF Superstars" just over three months later, the Brain Busters continued to be a force in the WWF's tag team division.