title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: In June 2015, he partnered with Heineken to launch the project, branded as the “Subway Symphony.” However, the MTA has denied any possibility of the project happening, as the standard turnstile beep is a necessary ADA-compliant tool for the visually impaired.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: Collaborating with IBM, James Murphy “remixed” the 2014 US Open matches. Murphy composed an algorithm that generated pieces from the sounds and occurrences, such as fault, point and ace for example, of the actual matches. Murphy cut his favorite moments from the pieces and created 14 remixes from them. The remixes were created in real time during the matches on US Open's website. The pieces are titled by their match number and are viewable on the website with visual accompaniment denoting points scored. The website categorizes the pieces by men's’ matches, women's’ matches and Murphy's 14 remixes.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: On November 5, 2013, Columbia Records released "The Next Day Extra", a three-disc expanded edition of David Bowie's album "The Next Day". On the expanded edition, Murphy remixed the track "Love Is Lost". The title of the remix is “Love is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Remix)". When Murphy was offered to remix the track, he had not remixed a song in five years, making it “really scary”. He said “it would have been scary if it was a remix for somebody I had never even heard of, but it was super scary to do that "[Laughs]”". David Bowie is a significant influence on Murphy's music.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: Murphy was to be a producer for Bowie's final studio album, "Blackstar", but it reportedly fell through. However, he does make a guest appearance on the album as a percussionist.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: Murphy participated in Canon’s Project Imaginat10n, which called for 5 celebrities to direct short films based on pictures uploaded by people around the world to the Project Imaginat10n site. The result was “Little Duck”, Murphy's first directorial effort. Ron Howard advised Murphy in his directing. Shooting took place in Japan, the setting of the film. The film follows a young man who travels from Manhattan to Japan in order to help solve his brothers’ problems.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: In collaboration with coffee company Blue Bottle, Murphy created his signature coffee called House of Good. It is described as a “syrupy, well-balanced and thoroughly accessible" espresso. It was developed with help of Blue Bottle founder James Freeman.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: LCD Soundsystem played their last show until 2016 on April 2nd, 2011 at Madison Square Garden. Both a documentary and a complete recording of the show were made". Shut Up and Play the Hits", directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, documents the highlights of the show and Murphy's actions after it. 11 cinematographers captured the entire near four-hour show from different angles in addition to three roof cameras. The concert footage is interwoven with scenes from Murphy's personal life, including an interview with writer Chuck Klosterman. The documentary screened at select theaters around America for a limited time in 2012 and was later released in a DVD and Blu-ray form by Oscilloscope on October 9, 2012. The physical form consisted of three discs that contained the documentary and footage of the entire concert.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: "" is an audio capture of LCD Soundsystem's last show at Madison Square Garden. James Murphy mixed the audio, which was different from its video counterpart “because the film is mixed for your eye and the record is mixed for your ears.” Murphy has stated that the work into mixing the audio had been strenuous and “just murder”. "The Long Goodbye "was released as a vinyl box set on record store day, April 19, 2014. It was later released on vinyl and digitally. " "


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: He recorded a song with Gorillaz and OutKast's Andre 3000, called "DoYaThing", for their Converse collection. It was released on February 23, 2012. He produced a song with Pulp called "After You". It was released as a present on Christmas Day 2012 to fans. Murphy also appeared in "The Comedy" with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: Murphy was listed as a producer for Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2013 album, "Mosquito". He also wrote the musical scores for the Noah Baumbach films "Greenberg" and "While We're Young".


title: James Murphy (electronic musician)

text: Murphy opened a wine bar named Four Horsemen in June 2015 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, selling a range of natural red, white and orange wines.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Michael Sheehan Bradley (born July 31, 1987) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder and captains Toronto FC in Major League Soccer and formerly captained the United States national team.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: The son of soccer coach Bob Bradley, he began his professional career with the MetroStars in Major League Soccer in 2004. He then spent several years in Europe, playing in the Dutch Eredivisie with Heerenveen, German Bundesliga with Borussia Mönchengladbach, English Premier League with Aston Villa and Italian Serie A with Chievo and Roma. He returned to MLS with Toronto FC in 2014, making over 250 total appearances and winning the MLS Cup in 2017.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Since his debut in 2006, Bradley has made over 150 appearances for the United States men's national soccer team. He was selected for tournaments including five CONCACAF Gold Cups and two FIFA World Cups, winning two of the former and finishing as runner-up at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley was born in Princeton, New Jersey, son to Bob Bradley, former coach of the United States national team and Los Angeles FC. While his father was the head soccer coach at Princeton University, the family lived in Pennington, New Jersey.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Michael spent his teenage years in Palatine, Illinois while his father coached the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer (MLS), and he grew up playing for Sockers FC, who went to the 2002 National Championships and finished third. He later attended the United States Under-17 Men's National Team Residency Program in Bradenton, Florida – the dedicated facility for the training of the under-17 national team – for four semesters, from 2002 to 2004. As a child, he idolized Roy Keane, the Manchester United and Republic of Ireland midfielder.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Before leaving Bradenton, Bradley signed a Project-40 contract with MLS, turning professional at the age of sixteen, and entered the 2004 MLS SuperDraft, where he was selected thirty-sixth overall by the MetroStars, who at the time were coached by his father. Bradley did not see any playing time in his rookie season, missing out with a foot injury, but went on to gain a starting spot in 2005, playing 30 out of 32 matches for the Metro. Just weeks after his father was fired as the club's coach, he headed in his first professional goal in a victory over Chivas USA on the last day of the 2005 season, sending the team to the playoffs.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In January 2006, Bradley became the youngest MLS player to ever be sold when he was transferred to Heerenveen for $250,000 and a portion of any sell-on fee His first start for the Dutch club came on April 16, 2006, in a match against AZ. He found success early, earning five starts and helping the club to a coveted UEFA Cup spot in his first half-season. Upon the retirement of Paul Bosvelt after the 2006–07 season, Bradley took the veteran's starting place in central midfield. Bradley scored sixteen Eredivisie goals and twenty in all competitions during the 2007–08 season.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In January 2008, Bradley broke the record for the most goals scored in a single season by an American soccer player playing in a European first division, which was previously held by Brian McBride with his thirteen goals for Fulham in the Premier League. On January 26, 2008, Bradley extended his record to eighteen, with sixteen league goals.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On August 31, 2008, Bradley signed a four-year deal with Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach for an undisclosed fee. It was later revealed that Bradley had agreed to a switch to English club Birmingham City on the condition that the club retained its Premier League status. However, they did not and he made his Gladbach debut on September 20 in a loss against Hertha Berlin. On November 15, 2008, Bradley scored his first goal for Mönchengladbach against Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich with an eighty-first minute equalizing header. The game ended 2–2.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Early in the 2009–10 season, Bradley was briefly suspended after an argument with manager Michael Frontzeck over playing time. However, the two later reconciled and Bradley re-established himself as a starter with the club before assisting a goal against Bayern Munich with a one-touch volley pass, and scoring the winning goal on a low free kick against Hannover 96. On January 30, 2011, Aston Villa of the Premier League confirmed via their official website that they were in talks to sign Bradley on a loan deal until the end of the 2010–11 season.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley completed the loan deal to Aston Villa on January 31, 2011. Bradley was paraded in front of the fans at Villa Park on February 5 before kick off of the Premier League match against Fulham. On February 12, Bradley made his Aston Villa debut, coming on in the second half after Jean Makoun was sent off. It was said that Bradley would not join Villa on a permanent basis after Alex McLeish declined to extend his contract. He made only three Premier League appearances and one FA Cup appearance.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley joined Italian Serie A club Chievo on August 31, 2011. He made his Chievo debut on September 18, coming on in the second half for Paolo Sammarco. He has been nicknamed "The General" by the local fans. Bradley scored his first goal in Italian soccer in a 3–2 victory over Catania on April 7 to take his side up to ninth in the league standings.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On July 16, 2012, Bradley joined Roma, signing a four-year contract for a transfer fee of €3.75 million. On July 17, 2012, Bradley made his debut for Roma as a starter in a 2–1 victory against fellow U.S. national team member Terrence Boyd of the Austrian Football Bundesliga club, Rapid Wien. On July 25, 2012, Bradley scored his first goal for Roma in a club friendly against Liverpool at Fenway Park in Boston. On August 19, Bradley scored his second pre-season goal against Greek club Aris. On August 26, Bradley made his league debut as a starter for Roma in their 2–2 draw against Catania; he picked up the assist in Roma's game-tying goal in the 90th minute. On October 7, 2012, in his first game back after a month-long groin injury, Bradley scored his first goal for the "Giallorossi" in Roma's 2–0 win over Atalanta.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In late January 2013, Bradley received praise from freelance writer for ESPN.com Michael Cox, stating that Serie A are choosing midfielders like Bradley who "epitomizes the new breed of Serie A midfielder, who's all about energy and hard running, rather than the typical number 10." On May 26, 2013, Bradley started in midfield for Roma as the club fell 1–0 to Rome rivals S.S. Lazio in the final of the Coppa Italia.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On September 6, Bradley was sidelined due to an injury he suffered on national team duty against Costa Rica. He returned to action for Roma on October 27, where he scored a goal against Udinese, the only goal either side scored during the match.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On January 9, 2014, AS Roma announced the sale of Bradley to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer for $10 million. As part of the transfer, the two clubs agreed to a partnership including two friendly matches at BMO Field over six years, and a player development program for Toronto FC players at Roma's training facility.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley made his debut with Toronto in their season opener at Seattle Sounders FC on March 15, 2014, the game ended in a 2–1 away victory with both goals coming from newly acquired Jermain Defoe. He scored his first goal for Toronto three weeks later on April 5 against the Columbus Crew, a game which ended in a 2–0 away victory.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley captained and scored once for Toronto FC in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals in a derby against Montreal Impact in which Toronto won on an aggregated score of 7–5, to take Toronto FC to the MLS Cup Final for the first time in their history. On December 10, 2016, Toronto lost the final at home to the Seattle Sounders 5–4 in penalty shoot-out following a goalless draw after extra-time in which Seattle had no shots on target; Bradley missed Toronto's second penalty.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: The arrival of Spanish playmaker Victor Vázquez in midfield at the beginning of the 2017 season saw less of a burden placed on Bradley and star forward Sebastian Giovinco to create goalscoring opportunities for Toronto; furthermore, Greg Vanney's switch in tactics from a 4–4–2 diamond to a 3–5–2 formation often saw Bradley occupy more of a supporting role in midfield, which left the Spaniard free to take on the majority of playmaking duties, although the midfield duo often switched positions and effectively shared the team's defensive and creative responsibilities, forming a notable partnership throughout the season. On June 27, Toronto defeated Montreal 2–1 at home in the second leg of the 2017 Canadian Championship final to capture the title for the second consecutive season, edging Montreal 3–2 on aggregate. On September 30, 2017, Bradley won his first Supporters' Shield with a 4–2 home win over New York Red Bulls, to clinch top of the league with the most points that season. On December 9, 2017, Bradley helped Toronto defeat Seattle 2–0 in the 2017 MLS Cup at BMO Field, to lift the title for the first time in the club's history, and complete an unprecedented domestic treble.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: After a 2–1 home loss to Guadalajara on April 18, in the first leg of the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Finals, Toronto managed a 2–1 away win in the return leg on April 25, which took the match straight to penalty shoot-out; Bradley missed the decisive spot kick as Toronto lost the shoot-out 4–2.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On March 2, 2019, Bradley scored a brace for Toronto in their 3–1 win away against Philadelphia Union to kick off Toronto FC's regular Major League Soccer season. He made his 200th appearance for the club on November 10, a 3–1 away defeat to Seattle Sounders in the 2019 MLS Cup Final.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: At the beginning of 2020, he had ankle surgery and was expected to miss a significant portion of the season. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting the MLS season, he only missed two games and was able to return upon the league restart in the MLS is Back Tournament.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In 2022, Bradley scored a brace against Charlotte FC in a 4-0 home win that saw the debuts of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, both of whom assisted on Bradley's goals. The performance led Bradley to be voted MLS Player of the Week.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In May 2006, Bradley was brought into the 2006 World Cup training camp to train with the United States national team. While not a member of the World Cup squad or an alternate, Bradley was on the roster for the three send-off friendlies played before the tournament. He earned his first cap in the May 26 match against Venezuela in Cleveland.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: In late 2006 Bob Bradley, Michael's father, was hired as head coach of the national team, and Michael established himself as a key player for the U.S. during his father's tenure. Bradley earned his first international start on March 28, 2007, during a friendly against Guatemala. He was a starter at the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup and helped lead the U.S. to the title, though he was sent off for a late tackle in the semi-final against Canada. The next month, he started every match for the U.S. at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, where he scored the game-winning goal in the 107th minute against Uruguay in the round of 16. He scored his first senior international goal on October 17, 2007, with a game-winner in the 87th minute against Switzerland in a friendly in Basel. Following these performances, Bradley was named U.S. Soccer's Young Athlete of the Year for 2007. Against Mexico in Columbus, Ohio on February 11, 2009 in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier, Bradley scored both goals in a 2–0 victory.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: During the United States' surprise run to the final of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, Bradley scored the second goal against Egypt off an assist from Landon Donovan, helping the Americans advance to the semi-final on goal differential after beating the Egyptians 3–0. He started in the 2–0 upset victory against Spain in the semi-final, but was sent off late in the game. The resulting suspension kept Bradley out of the tournament final, which the U.S. lost 3–2 to Brazil. Bradley was later reported to have confronted referee Jorge Larrionda following the match, resulting in him receiving an additional three-match suspension to be served during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley was a key player for the U.S. in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, starting all four matches in central midfield. In the group stage, he scored the equalizer in a comeback 2–2 draw against Slovenia. He captained the national team for the first time in an August 10, 2010 friendly against Brazil in his birthplace of New Jersey. In the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Bradley featured in each game in a new midfield partnership with Jermaine Jones, and scored the opening goal in the final against Mexico, though the United States went on to lose 4–2.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Following the Gold Cup loss, Bob Bradley was fired as national team coach and replaced by Jürgen Klinsmann under whom Michael remained a key starter in midfield. He started each game for the U.S. at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: After U.S. Soccer removed the captaincy from Clint Dempsey as punishment for a controversial incident with a referee before the 2015 Gold Cup, Klinsmann named Bradley the national team's new permanent captain. In the opening game against Honduras on July 7, Bradley earned his 100th cap at the age of 27.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: On July 7, 2019 Bradley played as the U.S. lost the final of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup by a single goal to Mexico. He became the third American to 150 caps, after Cobi Jones and Landon Donovan.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: A hard-working, intelligent, and physically imposing right-footed player, Bradley is capable of playing in several midfield roles, and has been used in the center, in a holding role, in a box-to-box role, in the hole, or even in a more withdrawn creative role as a deep-lying playmaker; his tenacity, ball-winning abilities, energy, tactical intelligence, and positional sense enable him to recover the ball and quickly transition from defense to attack by making forward runs, while his vision and range of passing allow him to dictate the tempo of his team's play in midfield or create goalscoring opportunities after retrieving possession. In addition to his stamina and playing ability, he is also known for his communication and leadership skills. He has also been used as a central defender on occasion.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley speaks fluent English, Italian, Dutch, German, and Spanish. He is married to Amanda, a former University of Rhode Island tennis player. The couple have a son and a daughter, born in 2012 and 2014 respectively.


title: Michael Bradley (soccer)

text: Bradley is the son of soccer coach Bob Bradley, who managed teams including the United States men's national team. Scott Bradley, the younger brother of Bob and uncle of Michael, played as a catcher in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Seattle Mariners, and served as long-time coach of the Princeton Tigers. Michael Bradley's sister married the Australian-born soccer player Andy Rose.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts is a pene-exclave of Washington on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, south of Vancouver, Canada. The area, which had a population of 1,191 at the 2020 census, is reached by land from the rest of the United States by traveling through Canada. It is a census-designated place in Whatcom County, Washington, with a post office, and a ZIP Code of 98281. Direct sea and air connections with the rest of the U.S. are available across Boundary Bay.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts was created when the United Kingdom and the United States settled the Pacific Northwest American-Canadian border dispute in the mid-19th century with the Oregon Treaty. The two parties agreed that the 49th parallel would define the boundary between their respective territories, and the small area that incorporates Point Roberts is south of the 49th parallel. Questions about ceding the territory to the United Kingdom and later to Canada have been raised since its creation but its status has remained unchanged.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The area around the southern Tsawwassen Peninsula was a favored fishing spot for several Coast Salish groups, who named the peninsula "q̓ʷulƛ̕əl̕". The first Europeans to see Point Roberts were members of the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza. The maps produced from Eliza's explorations depicted Point Roberts as "Isla de Cepeda" or "Isla de Zepeda." In 1792, the British expedition of George Vancouver and the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano encountered one another near Point Roberts. In the morning of June 13, 1792, the two ships under Galiano sailed into Boundary Bay and verified Point Roberts was not an island, which was thus renamed "Punta Cepeda". They then sailed around Point Roberts and immediately encountered HMS "Chatham", the second ship of Vancouver's expedition. The two parties made contact and agreed to share information and work together in mapping the Strait of Georgia.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts acquired its present name from Vancouver, who named it after his friend Henry Roberts, who had originally been given command of the expedition. Point Roberts assumed its present political status in 1846, when the Oregon Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between U.S. and British territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: After years of joint occupation of the disputed area between Mexican California and Russian America known as the Oregon Country to the Americans, and as the Columbia District to the British, American expansionists like U.S. Senator Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana urged U.S. President James K. Polk to annex the entire Oregon Country up to latitude 54°40′N, as the Democrats had been elected on the slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight".


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: While his government asserted that the title of the United States of America to the entire territory was unquestionable even though there was only one U.S. resident (a former Briton) north of the Columbia basin, Polk and Secretary of State James Buchanan made an offer of a boundary at 49 degrees with the line straight across Vancouver Island, with no commercial privilege to be granted to the British south of the line, with the exception of free ports on Vancouver Island. The British rejected the offer and the U.S. soon withdrew it.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: On April 18, 1846, notice was forwarded to London that the U.S. Congress had adopted a joint resolution abrogating the Treaty of 1818 which provided for joint occupancy.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The British emissary, Richard Pakenham, had been advised that the last concession he could expect of the United States was to bend the boundary at the 49th parallel around the southern end of Vancouver Island. Fort Victoria was viewed as the future center for settlements on the island. It was deemed necessary around this point in time to give up territory on the Lower Mainland to keep Vancouver Island part of British North America.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, proposed a treaty making the 49th parallel the boundary to the sea, giving the UK the whole of Vancouver Island. The Treaty of Oregon was concluded on June 15, 1846.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The acceptance of the 49th parallel as the international boundary was concluded without precise knowledge of its effects. Later, as the Boundary Commission surveyed the line, the British government realized the peninsula of Point Roberts would be an isolated part of the United States. The British Foreign Office instructed Captain James Prevost, the British Boundary Commissioner, to inform his U.S. counterpart of the situation and request Point Roberts be left to Britain, because of the great inconvenience it would be to the United States. If the American Boundary Commission was reluctant, Prevost was instructed to offer "some equivalent compensation by a slight alteration of the Line of Boundary on the Mainland". It is not known how the U.S. commissioner responded, but Point Roberts remained part of the United States.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: During the 1858 Fraser gold rush, prospectors from Victoria, BC who were attempting to avoid tax collection briefly settled Point Roberts. Their settlement was called Robert's Town and consisted of six wooden buildings, including a store and saloon, but lasted less than a year.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: In 1949, there was talk about Point Roberts seceding from the U.S. and joining Canada. A regional development plan for the Lower Mainland presented in 1952 suggested turning Point Roberts into an international park or leasing it for 99 or 999 years. In 1973, a drought that caused the wells to run dry created tensions between Point Roberts's U.S. and Canadian residents. The Americans threatened to cut off the Canadian residents' water supply — and hung up signs saying "Canadians Go Home" — unless the Canadian municipality of Delta agreed to provide water. An agreement signed on August 28, 1987, requires the Point Roberts Water District to purchase raw water on an annual basis from the Greater Vancouver Water District. Delta Fire Department also provides assistance to the Point Roberts volunteer fire department when requested. Until 1988, BC Tel (now Telus) provided telephone service; the sole exchange prefix of 945, officially part of area code 206, could also be dialed through area code 604 during the period of BC Tel ownership.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: After the September 11 attacks of 2001, security at border crossings—including Point Roberts—was increased, leading to long delays for residents. The Canadian border was closed to non-essential travel in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had been worsening in both countries but especially in the United States. A study found that Point Roberts had lost 80 percent of its business and hundreds of seasonal residents as a result of the pandemic and border shutdown. The area, described as a "ghost town" by the local chamber of commerce director, had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 . A temporary ferry was set up by the Port of Bellingham in August 2020 to connect Point Roberts to the mainland, initially to Blaine and later to Bellingham. The Canadian government waived its mandatory COVID testing requirements for Point Roberts residents in February 2021, following negotiations with Washington state. The border was fully reopened for non-essential travel in August 2021 and the ferry service ceased the same month.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts is a U.S. exclave bordered by Canada and the waters of Boundary Bay. It is south of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Point Roberts is part of the U.S. because it lies south of the 49th parallel, which constitutes the Canada–US border in that area. Other exclaves of this type include parts of Minnesota such as the Northwest Angle and Elm Point, Minnesota. Alburgh, Vermont and nearby Province Point are separated from the rest of the U.S. by Lake Champlain, though Alburgh is reachable by highway bridge from "mainland" Vermont.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts borders the municipality of Delta in British Columbia. Boundary Bay lies to the east of Point Roberts and the Strait of Georgia to the south and west. The U.S. portion of the peninsula is about from north to south and about from east to west. It has an area of .


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Beneath Point Roberts, the bedrock of the Chuckanut Formation was deposited as an alluvial plain containing layers of sediments consisting of silt, sand, sand and gravel, and peat. During the last 60 million years the sediments were compacted and folded by mountain building forces from continental drift to form strata of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and coal. During recent geologic history, the Chuckanut formation was overridden by four or more glaciations.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts consists of a series of the resulting glacial sediments resting upon the Chuckanut Formation. The lowest glacial sediments (now near sea level) are from Salmon Springs or older glaciations. At the peak of the most recent glaciation, the main ice sheet was in excess of 7,000 feet thick as it moved southward between Vancouver Island and the Canadian Coast Range and down the Strait of Georgia. A smaller lobe of the continental glacier in excess of 5,000 feet traveled down the Fraser River flood plains merging with the main ice sheet over the greater Vancouver area and Whatcom and Skagit Counties. The coalesced continental ice sheet traveled south terminating in the vicinity of Chehalis, Washington. Relatively impermeable Vashon glacial lodgment till (estimated to be as much as 40 feet thick at the uppermost layer) was plastered over the advance outwash as the weight of the 7,000 foot thick plus Strait of Georgia ice lobe moved southward over approximately 10,000 years. (Armstrong, et al., 1965) Point Roberts, Tsawwassen, and part of British Columbia extending past English Bluff comprised an island at the close of the Vashon Glaciation, approximately 11,000 years ago.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: As the ice sheets melted, the thinner Fraser Lobe began to float while the Strait of Georgia lobe acted as a dam forming a lake under the Fraser Lobe. Sediments settling from the melting, floating ice resulted in the accumulation of 300 feet or more of glacial marine drift over much of western Whatcom County. (Easterbrook, 1976; Geologic Map of Western Whatcom County, Washington, USGS, Map I-854-B) This glacial marine drift is generally soft and was not consolidated by the weight of the glacier. A discontinuous, thin mantle of this glacial marine drift above the glacial lodgement till has been identified sporadically across Point Roberts. The uppermost layer of glacial sediments consists of recessional sand, silt, and gravel deposited as the Strait of Georgia ice lobe receded. Since the recession of the glaciers, the Fraser River has deposited deltaic sediments on the north and easterly side of the Point Roberts-Tsawwassen Island, connecting it to the Greater Vancouver mainland (approximately 2,500 years ago, Murray 2008). At some locations, these sediments have been eroded or removed, exposing the lodgement till.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Despite its proximity to 49 °N latitude, Point Roberts has an Oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") although winters may be colder for this climatic subtype, similar to the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland axis. Point Roberts lies within a depression created by Vancouver Island, the north shore mountains surrounding Vancouver, and the North Cascades (including Mount Baker). This micro-climate provides some of the mildest weather in the Pacific Northwest. With annual precipitation of about , Point Roberts enjoys more sunny days and a milder climate than its neighbors. While 49 °N latitude suggests a harsh winter, snow averages and low January temperatures are milder than the American average: in vs and vs , respectively. Although the amount of rainfall is less than the regional average, it is better-distributed through the year , with 146 days of precipitation. The comfort index is high.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 1,314 people, 678 households, and 372 families residing in the Point Roberts ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area). There were 2,068 housing units, only 678 (33%) of which were occupied. The racial makeup of the ZCTA was 91.9% White, 0.8% African American, 0.8% Native American, 4.5% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.4% of the population.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The age distribution was 16.2% under 20, 3.0% from 20 to 24, 16.2% from 25 to 44, 40.7% from 45 to 64, and 23.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 52.7 years.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The median income for a household in the ZCTA was $58,672; the median income for a family was $75,724; and the per capita income was $39,696.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: During the summer the population swells to about 4,500, most of the visitors being vacationing Canadians.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts' population includes descendants of Icelandic immigrants, who first settled there in the 1890s.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Many of the area's businesses serve weekend and recreational visitors from Greater Vancouver. Canadians visit for cheaper American gasoline, alcohol, and food when the Canadian dollar is strong; Americans from Point Roberts do the same in Canada. Many Canadians visited its bars and nightclubs on Sundays until Sunday drinking was legalized in British Columbia in 1986. The local post office and several private companies rent many post office boxes to individuals and businesses from the Greater Vancouver area, who find it a convenient and fast way to receive mail and parcels from the United States without paying for cross-border shipping costs. The U.S. Consulate General in Vancouver also used the Point Roberts post office, but it has since changed to using one in Blaine, directly on the border.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Because entry to Point Roberts from the rest of the U.S. requires two international border crossings, it has sometimes been described as "the best gated community in the U.S." Residents enjoy a low crime rate, with a high local security presence. While there is one doctor's clinic, there is no hospital, dentist, pharmacist or veterinarian, and because American health insurers will not pay for treatment from Canadian providers, Point Roberts residents usually seek medical care in Bellingham, Washington, although Vancouver is closer.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts has a single grocery store, which threatened to close in July 2021 due to the prolonged COVID-19 travel restrictions. An emergency grant of $100,000 from the state government was approved in late June to prevent its closure.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Point Roberts Primary School, the only school on the Point, provides only kindergarten and first, second and third grades. From fourth grade on (previously third grade), American children must take a 40-minute ride through British Columbia, crossing back into the United States at Blaine, Washington. Canadian children can attend school in Delta, British Columbia.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: The only authorized land access to Canada from Point Roberts is Point Roberts-Boundary Bay Border Crossing, the westernmost in the Lower 48. On the US side, this major thoroughfare northward is named Tyee Drive; on the Canadian side, it is 56th Street. Point Roberts also has a small airport (Point Roberts Airpark) and a large marina (Point Roberts Marina Resort) for air and water access; these two point facilities allow direct access to the rest of Washington state without the need to enter Canada.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: A temporary passenger ferry service from Point Roberts to Blaine operated by the Port of Bellingham and the Whatcom Transportation Authority entered service in August 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which had closed the Canadian border to non-essential travel for several months. The ferry used two vessels leased from San Juan Cruises and was fare-free. It was initially run once per week, but the frequency was increased to twice a week and the ferry was diverted to serve the Bellingham Cruise Terminal due to high demand. Ferry service ended in August 2021.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Roosevelt Road follows the US side of the border across the peninsula. To the west, it ends at a small park, Monument Park built around "Monument 1", the westernmost point of the 49th parallel border.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Until 1988, Point Roberts telephone numbers were in British Columbia's area code 604 and served by BCTel, the local telephone company for most of British Columbia. It was served by the 945 exchange which was officially in area code 206, the area code for most of western Washington, but protected in 604, resulting in the oddity of calls from British Columbia being local calls while calls from Washington and the rest of the United States were billed as international calls. In 1988, Point Roberts service was severed from BC Tel, and the protection of the 604-945 prefix ended, at the expense of losing the ability to make local calls to any other exchange in either country. Along with the rest of Whatcom County, Point Roberts moved to area code 360 in 1995. The local regular-service telecom provider is Whidbey Telecom.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Although Point Roberts is nominally part of the Seattle television market, the only over-the-air stations available in the town come from the Metro Vancouver region and Bellingham, Washington. Cable television in Point Roberts was provided by Delta Cable, a subsidiary of Canadian cable company EastLink. Delta Cable pulled out of Point Roberts with short notice in August 2019.


title: Point Roberts, Washington

text: Whidbey Telecom is the broadband Internet provider to residents of Point Roberts. In 2019, Whidbey Telecom began construction to provide fiber-optic Internet to Point Roberts.


title: Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon

text: Françoise d'Aubigné (27 November 1635 – 15 April 1719), known first as Madame Scarron and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon (), was a French noblewoman who secretly married King Louis XIV. Although she was never considered queen of France, she was one of the King's closest advisers and the royal children's governess. In 1686, she founded the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, a school for girls from poorer noble families.


text: Françoise d'Aubigné was born on 27 November 1635, in Niort, France. A plaque suggests her birthplace was at the Hotel du Chaumont, but some sources indicate she was born in or just outside the local prison, where her Huguenot father Constant d'Aubigné was incarcerated for conspiring against King Louis XIII's powerful chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu. Her mother, Jeanne de Cardilhac, was the daughter of the prison director and was probably seduced by the incarcerated Constant. She was a fervent Catholic and had her child baptised in her religion. Her paternal grandfather was Agrippa d'Aubigné, a former intimate servant of the late king Henry IV well known for his roles as Protestant general and propagandist. Her godmother was the nine-year-old Suzanne de Baudéan, daughter of the comtesse de Neuillant and the governor of Niort, and her godfather was the duc de la Rochefoucauld, father of François de La Rochefoucauld, the author of the famous "Maxims".


text: In 1639, Constant was released from prison and went with Jeanne and Françoise to the French island colony of Martinique in the West Indies. Jeanne was a strict mother, allowing her children few liberties. She gave them a Protestant education despite their Catholic baptism. Constant returned to France, leaving his family behind in Martinique, causing Jeanne to try to be "mother and father" to their children until they also returned to France, in 1647. Within months of the family's return, both parents died, and the children went to the care of their paternal aunt, Madame de Villette. The Villettes' home, Mursay, became a happy memory for Françoise, who had been in the care of her aunt and uncle before leaving for Martinique. The de Villettes were wealthy and took good care of the children, but were ardent Protestants and continued to school their nieces and nephews in their beliefs. When this became known to the family of Françoise's godmother, an order was issued that she had to be educated in a convent.


text: Françoise disliked convent life, mainly because she received only limited education and freedom. Her lessons included basic mathematics, French, Latin, and domestic work. The main emphasis was on religion and liturgy, with no opening onto the secular world. Despite her disgust, Françoise grew to love one of the nuns there, Sister Céleste, who persuaded the young girl to receive her first communion. In her older days, Maintenon would say, "I loved [Sister Céleste] more than I could possibly say. I wanted to sacrifice myself for her service." Madame de Neuillant, the mother of Françoise's godmother, brought the girl to Paris and introduced her to sophisticated people, who became vital contacts that she would use in the future.


text: who was 25 years her senior, and began to correspond with him. He counted King Louis XIII's favourites among his patrons and offered her marriage or pay her dowry so that she might enter a convent. Although Scarron suffered from chronic and crippling pain, Françoise accepted his proposal and the two married in 1652. The match permitted her to gain access to the highest levels of Parisian society, something that would have otherwise been impossible for a girl from an impoverished background. For nine years, she was more a nurse than a wife to Paul who, in turn, gave her exposure to education and a vocation as a teacher.


text: After Paul Scarron's death in 1660, Queen Mother Anne of Austria, continued his pension to his widow and even increased it to 2,000 livres a year, thus enabling Françoise to remain in literary society. After his mother's death in 1666, Louis XIV suspended the pension. Once again in straitened circumstances and having spent several years living off the charity of her friends, Madame Scarron prepared to leave Paris for Lisbon as a lady-in-waiting to the new queen of Portugal, Marie-Françoise de Nemours. Before setting off, however, she met Madame de Montespan, who was secretly already the king's mistress. Montespan took such a fancy to Scarron that she had the king reinstate her pension, which enabled the latter to stay in Paris.


text: In 1669, Madame de Montespan placed her second child by Louis XIV with Madame Scarron in a house on Rue de Vaugirard, provided with a large income and staff of servants. Scarron took care to keep the house well-guarded and discreet, doing many duties as secretary and caretaker. Her care for the infant Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine (born 1670) first brought her to the attention of Louis XIV, though he was initially repelled by her strong temper and strict religious practice. After Louis Auguste and his siblings were legitimised on 20 December 1673, she moved to Château de Saint-Germain and became the royal governess, one of the very few people permitted to speak candidly with the king as an equal. Madame de Sévigné observed that Louis XIV was charmed by having someone who would speak to him in this way.


text: Due to her hard work, the king rewarded Scarron with 200,000 livres, which she used to purchase the property at Maintenon in 1674. In 1675, Louis XIV gave her the title of Marquise de Maintenon after the name of her estate. Such favours incurred the jealousy of Madame de Montespan, who began to spar frequently over the children and their care. In 1680, the king made Madame de Maintenon the second mistress of the robes to his daughter-in-law, the dauphine. Soon after the Affair of the Poisons, Montespan left the court and was unofficially replaced by de Maintenon, who proved to be a good influence on Louis XIV. His wife, Queen Marie Thérèse, who for years had been rudely treated by Madame de Montespan, openly declared she had never been so well-treated as at this time.


text: "Madame de Maintenon knows how to love. There would be great pleasure in being loved by her," said the king, Louis XIV. He probably asked her to become his mistress at that time. Though she later claimed she didn't yield to his advances ("Nothing is so clever as to conduct one's self irreproachably,") the king spent much of his spare time with the royal governess by the late 1670s, discussing politics, economics, and religion. After the death of Marie-Thérèse, Françoise married Louis in a private ceremony by François de Harlay de Champvallon, archbishop of Paris. It is believed that in attendance were Père la Chaise, the king's confessor, the Marquis de Montchevreuil, the Chevalier de Forbin and Alexandre Bontemps, a valet with whom the groom was very close. Owing to the disparity in their social status, the marriage was morganatic, meaning that Madame de Maintenon wasn't openly acknowledged as the king's wife and didn't become queen. No official documentation of the marriage exists, but that it took place is nevertheless accepted by historians. Biographers have dated the wedding to 9 October 1683 or January 1684.


text: In his memoirs, the duc de Saint-Simon (himself only a boy at the time of the event) wrote the following:


text: "But what is very certain and very true, is, that some time after the return of the King from Fontainebleau, and in the midst of the winter that followed the death of the Queen (posterity will with difficulty believe it, although perfectly true and proved), Père de la Chaise, confessor of the King, said mass at the dead of night in one of the King's cabinets at Versailles. Bontems, governor of Versailles, chief valet on duty, and the most confidential of the four, was present at this mass, at which the monarch and La Maintenon were married in presence of Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, as diocesan, of Louvois (both of whom drew from the King a promise that he would never declare this marriage), and of Montchevreuil...<br>


text: The satiety of the honeymoon, usually so fatal, and especially the honeymoon of such marriages, only consolidated the favour of Madame de Maintenon. Soon after, she astonished everybody by the apartments given to her at Versailles, at the top of the grand staircase facing those of the King and on the same floor. From that moment the King always passed some hours with her every day of his life; wherever she might be she was always lodged near him, and on the same floor if possible."


text: The Marquise of Montespan wrote the following in her memoirs about the marriage between her former friend and ex-lover:


text: "The following week, Madame de Maintenon... consented to the King's will, which she had opposed in order to excite it, and in the presence of the Marquis and Marquise de Montchevreuil, the Duc de Noailles, the Marquis de Chamarante, M. Bontems and Mademoiselle Ninon, her permanent chambermaid, was married to the King of France and Navarre in the chapel of the château. The Abbé de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, assisted by the Bishop of Chartres and Père de la Chaise, had the honour of blessing this marriage and presenting the rings of gold. After the ceremony, which took place at an early hour, and even by torchlight, there was a slight repast in the small apartments. The same persons, taking carriages, then repaired to Maintenon, where the great ceremony, the mass, and all that is customary in such cases were celebrated. At her return, Madame de Maintenon took possession of an extremely sumptuous apartment that had been carefully arranged and furnished for her. Her people continued to wear her livery, but she scarcely ever rode anymore except in the great carriage of the King, where we saw her in the place, which had been occupied by the Queen. In her interior, the title of Majesty was given her, and the King, when he had to speak of her, only used the word Madame, without adding Maintenon, that having become too familiar and trivial."


text: Historians have often remarked upon Madame de Maintenon's political influence, which was considerable. She was regarded as the next most powerful person after the king, considered the equivalent of a prime minister after 1700. Without an official position as queen, she was more easily approached by those wishing to have an audience with the king. However, her judgment wasn't infallible and some mistakes were undoubtedly made; replacing the military commander Nicolas Catinat by the Duke of Villeroi in 1701 may be attributed to her, but certainly not the Spanish Succession.


text: As a strongly religious person, Madame de Maintenon had a strong influence on her husband, who no longer had open mistresses and banned operas during Lent. Some have accused her of responsibility for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and for the "dragonnades", but recent investigations have shown that she opposed the cruelties of the "dragonnades", though she was pleased with the conversions they produced. She told her confessor that in view of her own Protestant upbringing, she feared that a plea for tolerance on behalf of the Huguenots might lead her enemies to claim that she was still a secret Protestant. In 1692, Innocent XII granted her the right of visitation over all the convents in France. Unlike what others believed, Madame de Maintenon mainly used her power for personal patronage, for example in the frequent economical assistance she gave to her brother Charles, the comte d'Aubigné. In the latter years of her life, she encouraged her husband to promote her previous charges, the children of the king by Madame de Montespan, to high positions at court intermediate between the prince and princesses du sang and the peers of the realm.


text: Madame de Maintenon founded the "Maison royale de Saint-Louis", a school for girls of impoverished noble families, who were becoming increasingly numerous because many provincial noblemen died in wars or expended their fortunes in the King's service. The school began at Rueil and moved to Noisy-le-Roi until the King endowed Saint-Cyr, a village 5 km west of Versailles, at her request by using the funds of the Abbey of St. Denis. According to her wishes, the education would be different from that traditionally practised in convents, where education was minimal and principally centred on religion: her students were educated to be ladies of the nobility, receiving an education that was severe but showed proof of the era's modernity. Madame de Maintenon was considered a born teacher and a friendly, motherly influence on her pupils, who included Dauphine Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy.


text: Madame de Maintenon drew up the rules of the institution and attended to every detail. The school buildings housed 250 students, cared for by 36 lay female educators or "professes", 24 "converses" sisters carrying out domestic tasks, and some priests. The students, aged 7 to 20, were divided by their uniform colour: red for 7 to 10 years old; green for 11 to 14; yellow for 15–16; blue for 17–20, and black for the most talented and disciplined from the "blues". Each class had a timetable appropriate to its students' age: the "reds" learned arithmetic, geometry, reading and writing, along with receiving the rudiments of Catechism, Latin, and religious history; the "greens" continued in these subjects, along with geography and history; the "yellows" also learned drawing and dancing; the "blues" were initiated into heraldry, the history of the Catholic Church and more detailed teaching in morality; and the blacks were in charge of helping the teachers in classes, accounts, hospital, refectory, and sewing clothes for their fellow students or the teachers. Leisure time was also important for Maintenon, who encouraged the students to play intellectual games such as chess and checkers, though card games were banned. She asked Jean Racine to write "Esther" and "Athalie" for the girls at Saint-Cyr.


text: "Maison royale de Saint-Louis" is considered to have greatly influenced the demands of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, the first women's political interest group founded in 1793. Their successful attempt to link gender equality through the educational system's reformation and the enforcement of the 1724 royal ordinance that imposed compulsory universal primary education, was inspired by the 17th-century treatises by Madame de Maintenon and François Fénelon. In the Revolutionary context, Madame de Maintenon's ideas were used by local officials and philanthropists who successfully established neighbourhood primary schools that accepted many young poor girls. Her work had a lasting impact on the original feminist movement, which gathered in Parisian salons and during the Age of Enlightenment, one aim of which was to promote educational equality between sexes to both improve society with more capable workers and help lower-class women escape their condition and prostitution.


text: After her husband's death in 1715, Françoise retired to Saint-Cyr with a pension of 48,000 livres by the Duc d'Orléans and regent of France. She continued to receive visitors at Saint-Cyr, including Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. He was seated at a chair by the foot of her bed and asked what her illness was, to which she replied, "Old age". She asked what brought him to her room, to which he replied, "I came to see everything worthy of note that France contains." He later remarked to his aides that she had rendered a great service to the King and nation.


text: Françoise died on 15 April 1719, at the age of 83. Her will expressed her wishes to be buried in the choir at Saint-Cyr and bequeath her Château de Maintenon to her niece, Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné, Duchess of Noailles and her brother Charles' only daughter. In her honour, a small island, off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, which at that time was known as "L'Île Royale", was attributed to her; this island was named Isle Madame (first noted as l'Isle de la Marquise).


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the "Carry On" films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques started her career in 1944 with an appearance at the Players' Theatre in London, but came to national prominence through her appearances on three highly popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on "It's That Man Again"; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on "Educating Archie"; and then with Tony Hancock on "Hancock's Half Hour". After the Second World War Jacques made her cinematic debut in "Green for Danger" (1946), in which she had a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 "Carry On" films, playing various roles including the formidable hospital matron. On television she had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long-running series "Sykes" and "Sykes and a...". The role endeared her to the public and the two became staples of British television.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In private, Jacques led a turbulent life. She was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965, a separation caused by her five-year affair with another man. Jacques, who had been overweight since her teenage years, suffered ill-health soon after the separation from Le Mesurier and her weight rose to nearly <ins></ins>. She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58. Her biographer, Frances Gray, considers Jacques had a "talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while she could also display "a broader comic mode" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Kent. She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and later the Royal Air Force, and Mary Jaques ( Thorn), a nurse who served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).


title: Hattie Jacques

text: The Jaques family were predominantly non-theatrical, with the exception of Mary who appeared in the small role of Harry Hathaway in the Christmas pantomime "Robinson Crusoe" at the Palace Theatre, Cologne, in 1920. Mary enjoyed the theatre, and took Jacques to live performances from an early age. The result had a "profound effect" on the young girl, particularly a love of dance. Robin Rochester Jaques, who attained the rank of flight lieutenant with the RAF, was a keen sportsman and became a semi-professional footballer. He signed to Clapton Orient and Fulham F.C., but his career was cut short when he died in a flying accident on 8 August 1923. Upon his death, Mary, Jacques and her elder brother Robin moved from Newton in Lincolnshire to London, where Jacques was sent to the Lady Margaret primary school in Chelsea. In July 1930 Jacques started her secondary schooling at the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith, and also attended a local dance school, the Dean Sisters Academy, where she was a principal dancer in the academy's shows. She left Godolphin and Latymer in the summer of 1939 with unremarkable grades. She continued intermittently with amateur theatricals, and in May 1939 appeared with the Curtain Club in Barnes in productions of "Fumed Oak" and "Borgia".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: At the outbreak of the Second World War Jacques became a nurse in the VAD; she served in a mobile unit in London, attending bombed sites during the Blitz. After a reorganisation in the VAD, Jacques sought new work and, in the summer of 1943, she became a welder in a factory in north London, a job that lasted until the end of the year. Around this time she became romantically involved with an American soldier, Major Charles Kearney. Jacques later claimed that the pair had been engaged and that Kearney had been killed in action, although her biographer, Andy Merriman, discovered that Kearney had a wife and children in the United States when he had proposed to Jacques, and had returned to them after the war.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 1944, after being auditioned by Leonard Sachs, Jacques made her professional theatrical debut as Josephine Jacques—adding a "c" to her birth name as she did so—at the Players' Theatre, London in a revue called "Late Joys". Almost immediately she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. Her biographer, Frances Gray, described the Players' as being Jacques's drama school, as she acted, directed, wrote lyrics and "developed the persona she was to use in pantomime for years, the large, bossy, but vulnerable fairy queen". It was while appearing in a "Late Joys" revue in June 1946 that she made her debut on television, when the show was broadcast on the BBC. While appearing at the Players' in 1946 she acquired the nickname "Hattie" after performing in the minstrel show "Coal Black Mammies for Dixie". A member of the backstage staff compared her "blacked up" appearance with the American actress Hattie McDaniel, known for her work in "Gone with the Wind", and Jacques adopted the name for the rest of her life.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques made her big-screen debut, briefly and uncredited, in the 1946 film "Green for Danger", directed by Sidney Gilliat. In December that year, she joined the Young Vic Theatre Company and played Smeraldina in "The King Stag". The play ran at the Lyric Theatre for a month before going on a five-month tour of the UK. It received favourable reviews; the "Gloucestershire Echo" described the piece as "a noble play", and thought that Jacques was "very solidly in step". In March 1947 Alberto Cavalcanti's film "Nicholas Nickleby" was released, in which Jacques had her first credited big-screen role as Mrs Kenwick. While engaged at the Players' in June 1947, Jacques was introduced to the actor John Le Mesurier and the two began a relationship. Le Mesurier was married but estranged from his wife.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In August 1947 Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of the BBC Home Service show "It's That Man Again" ("ITMA"), visited the Players' and invited Jacques to audition for the series, which she did on 18 September, for a fee of five guineas. She became so nervous during the audition that Tommy Handley, the show's star, held her hand, which she found made her more nervous. Jacques joined the cast of "ITMA" as the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop, where she "would regale listeners with terrifying accounts of epic binges", before finishing her stories with the catchphrase "But I'm all right now". Jacques started her run in "ITMA" in September 1947, at the beginning of series eleven, which ran for 38 episodes, and was paid ten guineas per episode.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: For much of 1948 Jacques continued to record episodes of "ITMA" for half the week, while spending evenings in the Players' Theatre; she also found time during the spring to record the role of Flora in "No, No, Nanette" for the BBC and appear at the Whitehall Theatre in "Bates Wharf" with the Under Thirty Theatre Group. Later that year she appeared as a singer at the Three Cripples tavern in the David Lean film "Oliver Twist". In September she started recording her second series of "ITMA"—the show's twelfth—before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". In the latter performance, "The Times" commented that Jacques "must surely be among the funniest fairies" in her role as the Fairy Queen Antedota—which was one of her favourite parts.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Tommy Handley died suddenly on 9 January 1949; the BBC decided that he was "so much the keystone and embodiment of the actual performance" of "ITMA", that they cancelled the show immediately. Jacques later remarked that Handley was "one of the greatest radio performers we have ever known. I learned ... so much from him". Later that year Le Mesurier divorced his wife; shortly after the divorce came through, Jacques proposed to him, asking, "don't you think it's about time we got married?" The couple wed on 10 November that year, at Kensington Registrar's Office. After a week's honeymoon in Southsea, she returned to the Players' where she was engaged to appear as Marrygolda in the Christmas pantomime "Beauty and the Beast".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In the early months of 1950 "Chance of a Lifetime" was released into British cinemas; it was a film in which Jacques "really made her mark", according to her biographer, Andy Merriman. "Chance of a Lifetime" is a social and industrial relations drama based in a plough factory whose manager cedes control to the workforce. Jacques played Alice, a welder: when she was offered her fee for 17 days filming, she replied "I've done this job welding Bailey and Pontoon Bridges and I know how hard it is. That's not enough money!" and the offer was raised accordingly. The film critic Geoff Mayer considered that Jacques had "the best scene in the film with her mock seductive dance in front of an angry [Niall] MacGinnis".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: On 6 June 1950 Jacques was cast in the first episode of the weekly radio show "Educating Archie" as Agatha Dinglebody. The "Archie" of the title was the ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews, operated by Peter Brough. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December. In the show Jacques appeared alongside Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid and—in the second series—Tony Hancock. It was on this programme that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts for the series. Sykes had been impressed with Jacques since he visited the Players' in 1948. He later wrote that she "moved about the stage with an elegance and grace as if she owned it. At the end of her act, to great applause, she leapt in the air, finishing in the splits, landing as softly as a snowflake in July". After the show Sykes was introduced to Jacques backstage and thought that the meeting was "the beginning of a new flight" in his professional life. At the end of the series Jacques returned to the Players' to appear in the Christmas pantomime, "Ali Baba and the Thirty-nine Thieves", which she and Joan Sterndale-Bennett had adapted after they had copied it out long-hand at the British Museum. The reviewer in "The Times" thought that Jacques was "as appealing as last year", in her performance as Ali Baba's wife, Cogia.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Throughout 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film "Scrooge" starring Alastair Sim; from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second radio series of "Educating Archie", as well as appearing in the related stage show, "The Archie Andrews Christmas Show" at the Prince of Wales Theatre from December 1952 to January 1953. She again appeared in—and co-adapted—a Christmas pantomime at the Players' Theatre, "Riquet with the Tuft", a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. In 1952 Jacques also portrayed Mrs Jenks in John Gilling's comedy horror film "Mother Riley Meets the Vampire", co-starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques became pregnant in 1952, but worked through most of her pregnancy, appearing in the Players' revue "The Bells of St Martins" between August and November 1952: she slid down the table and did the splits at the end—something "The Times" thought was "especially good", although "The Manchester Guardian" considered that she was "monumental of person but surprisingly thin of voice". Le Mesurier reported that he was "faintly relieved" when the revue came to an end because of her exertions, added to which she appeared in the 27 episodes of the third series of "Educating Archie" between September 1952 and June 1953. She then directed—but did not appear in—the Players' Christmas pantomime of 1952, "Babes in the Wood". In March 1953 Jacques gave birth to her first son, Robin, and returned to work after a few days to film "Up to His Neck". Later that year she provided the lead alongside Le Mesurier in the 38-minute "movie-masque" "The Pleasure Garden"; filmed in 1952, it won the at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. From October until April 1954 she was in series four of "Educating Archie", while in December 1953 she also appeared in and directed "Cinderella" at the Players'; "The Times" commented that "Miss Jacques as actress, playing a deliciously arch and absent-minded Fairy Queen, goes a long way to retrieve the failure of Miss Jacques as dramatist".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 1954 Jacques continued to work on radio. Between April and July she was in "Paradise Street", a spin-off series from "Educating Archie", while in June she was in "Archie in Goonland", a one-off special programme that was a collaboration between "Educating Archie" and "The Goon Show". As well as recording in series five of "Educating Archie", she was also cast as Mrs Leathers for 18 episodes of "Mrs Dale's Diary" between February and April 1955. She both produced and directed "Twenty Minutes South", first at the Players' Theatre, and then for 105 performances at the St Martin's Theatre and finished the year by appearing in seven episodes of "The Granville Melodramas" on ITV between October and December.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: A second pregnancy led to the birth of a son, Kim, "who came rollicking and laughing into the world in October 1956, a trifle before his allotted time", according to Le Mesurier. In June 1956 Jacques appeared in an episode of "The Tony Hancock Show" on ITV; this led to the role of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in the BBC radio series "Hancock's Half Hour". She appeared in 16 episodes from November 1956 to February 1957, alongside Hancock and regulars Sidney James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. Jacques's arrival on "Hancock" "provided an additional boost to the series", according to television historian Richard Webber. She appeared again in five further episodes of "Hancock's Half Hour" between April and June 1957, and again for a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958, before a special edition on Christmas Day 1958. She spent much of 1958 at the London Palladium, undertaking 380 performances of the revue "Large as Life", alongside Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes and Harry Secombe. She appeared in the sketches "Concerto for Three Buffoons" with Secombe and Sykes, "The Good Old Days", and the two full company numbers that closed each of the two halves of the show.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: When the first "Carry On" film was made in 1958, Jacques formed part of the cast. This series would go on to employ the same group of actors who would collectively become known as the "Carry On team". Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15-year period and like many of her "Carry On" co-stars, she quickly became typecast. A recurring role for Jacques was a no-nonsense matron which she played in five of the films – "Carry On Nurse", "Carry On Doctor", "Carry On Again Doctor", "Carry On Camping" and "Carry On Matron". She became known by the team as a "Mother Hen" figure, and was a close friend to many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Jacques provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend", and as "both a sister and a mother to me". Jacques would frequently invite Sims, Williams and Hawtrey to her house for Christmas dinner.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques began her association with the "Carry On" series in March 1958 with the first film in the series, "Carry On Sergeant". She played the small role of Captain Clark, a "battleaxe medical officer" who fails to believe the fabricated ailments of the hypochondriac Private Horace Strong, played by Kenneth Connor. The following year she played "Matron" for the first time in "Carry On Nurse", a film which broke that year's box office records, selling more than 10 million tickets in British cinemas. Although Jacques's role was still relatively small, she appeared in perhaps the best known scene of the film, in which she retrieves a daffodil from Wilfrid Hyde-White's buttocks, put there by a mischievous nurse as revenge for his constant harassment of the staff. So popular was Jacques's scene, that the producers imported two million plastic daffodils from Japan which were then used to promote the comedy. Other characterisations followed, including the formidable maths mistress Grace Short in "Carry On Teacher" (1959) and the friendly Police Sergeant Laura Moon in "Carry On Constable" (1960). Of the former film, Derek Prouse of "The Sunday Times" thought that Jacques "triumph[ed] over material so remorselessly juvenile that one is battered into a kind of fascinated admiration".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first episode of the BBC comedy series "Sykes and a...", co-starring with Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars in the cast. Jacques's character—Hattie (Hat) Sykes—was "a middle-class, slightly pretentious lady struggling to keep her dignity as the men made fools of themselves". "Sykes and a..." went on to run for sixty episodes over nine series during the next five years. According to the media historian Graham McCann, the show was "one of the best-natured, least pretentious and most successful British sitcoms of the 1960s". Because of the success, Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public mind as a priceless comic partnership"; to capitalise, they released a comedy album entitled "Eric and Hattie and Things<nowiki>!!!</nowiki>", but it failed to chart. In September 1960 she starred in her second television series, "Our House", alongside Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw and Joan Sims; Jacques played the librarian Georgina Ruddy, who was forced to keep quiet at work and so made up for it by being extremely noisy at home. Later that year she played minor roles in two films: "Watch Your Stern", with many of the "Carry On" regulars, and "School for Scoundrels", opposite Ian Carmichael. After these her screen time increased with the part of Nanette Parry in "Make Mine Mink" in which she co-starred with Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler. She later described this as her favourite film.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In October 1961 Jacques appeared on "Desert Island Discs", and said that she would be too lonely on such a quiet island for someone of her temperament. By this time "Carry On" had become a leading film franchise, with the author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon". That year's film, "Carry On Regardless", was the fifth in the series; Jacques received a fee of £100 for the small role of a disgruntled hospital sister, who appeared briefly on screen alongside the English character actor Kynaston Reeves. Jacques was initially intended for a major part in the film, but she was unable to commit to a longer role because of ill health. She appeared in her sixth "Carry On", "Carry On Cabby", in 1963, as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi-firm boss "Charlie", played by Sid James. Jacques later named the film as her favourite of the series, as she was allowed to drop her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques's private life became complicated in 1963. The previous year she had met John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer, who chauffeured her to a Leukaemia Research Fund event. The couple became romantically involved after the driver gave her the attention and support that Le Mesurier did not. When Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family home, Le Mesurier moved into a separate room. He later commented about this period: "I could have walked out, but, whatever my feelings, I loved Hattie and the children and I was certain—I had to be certain—that we could repair the damage". During these upheavals in her personal life, Jacques was surprised to be the subject of "This Is Your Life" in February 1963, when she was approached by Eamonn Andrews during rehearsal for the sixth series of "Sykes and a...". Although Le Mesurier did not mention the marital situation when being questioned by Andrews, he made the comment that for Jacques "the home comes first", which Merriman considered had been said "rather pointedly". Despite the matrimonial upsets, Jacques and Le Mesurier both appeared in the 1963 Tony Hancock film, "The Punch and Judy Man". In 1964 Le Mesurier moved out of the marital home, made a decision to protect Jacques from any negative publicity, and allowed her to bring a divorce suit on grounds of his own infidelity. This ensured that the press blamed him for the break-up, casting Jacques as the victim in the matter.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 1964, as well as recording four episodes of the radio show "Housewives' Choice", Jacques starred in her own television series, "Miss Adventure", as the private investigator Stacey Smith. Although Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the programmes were more comedic and she was disappointed with the results. In August that year she appeared as Madame Arcati in an ITV production of "Blithe Spirit". The play's writer, Noël Coward, felt that "finally someone had delivered a performance that wasn't overshadowed by Margaret Rutherford", who had originated the stage role in 1940 and played it in the 1945 film version.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film "The Bobo" with Peter Sellers; before this she went on a strict diet and lost five stone (32 kg), although she was disappointed that so few people noticed. She enjoyed the filming experience, calling it "one of the loveliest things I've worked on". While she was in Italy, Schofield came out to stay, started an affair with an Italian heiress and broke off his relationship with Jacques; deeply upset, Jacques, who had had a weight problem since her teens, began eating comfort food and her weight increased to nearly .


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In the summer of 1967 the "Carry On" producer Peter Rogers assembled the cast for the 15th film of the series, "Carry On Doctor". Rogers initially chose Joan Sims to play the role of the hospital matron but she declined the part, stating that Jacques's performance of the role in "Carry On Nurse" could not be bettered. As such, Rogers cast Jacques as Matron, with Sims accepting a smaller role as the timid assistant of the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd. Jacques's screen time was increased from "Carry On Nurse", as the producers considered her part to be an extension of the earlier role. "Carry On Doctor" was released in December of that year, to much success.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques started 1968 by appearing with Spike Milligan and Frank Thornton in thirteen episodes of the sketch show "The World of Beachcomber", based on the Beachcomber column in the "Daily Express" newspaper and broadcast on the BBC from January to April. Shortly after the series finished, she appeared alongside Frankie Howerd in his sketch show, "Howerd's Hour", on ITV. She continued her busy schedule with appearances in six films for 1969, including another with Sellers, "The Magic Christian". Here she portrayed a character named Ginger, who was described as a "grotesque figure", with an "insatiable lust for bestsellers on the atrocities of World War Two". She also appeared on television alongside Harry Secombe and Roy Castle in "Pickwick", which was based on the musical of the same name, and in "Carry On Christmas", broadcast on Christmas Eve. Although 1969 had been busy, 1970 was relatively quiet in terms of her professional output: apart from an episode of "Catweazle", she appeared alongside Willoughby Goddard in a six-episode series of "Charley's Grants". She spent May and June filming "Carry On Loving", in which she played Sophie Bliss, released in September that year. Another "Carry On" film followed in 1971, "Carry On at Your Convenience", where she played Beattie Plummer, the housebound wife of Sid Plummer, played by Sid James. In the same year she completed another series with Sykes, "Sykes and a Big, Big Show", a music and sketch programme which had six episodes, broadcast between February and April.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Two further "Carry On" films followed for Jacques in 1972: "Carry On Matron", for which she was engaged in the title role, and "Carry On Abroad", as Floella, the fiery Spanish cook at a half-finished hotel. As well as the film being Charles Hawtrey's last, it also marked a reduction in Jacques's screen time; she spent only one week filming her scenes. During post-production, the film's insurers became concerned about Jacques's deteriorating health. In a letter to the series producer Peter Rogers, they expressed their reluctance to insure her on set in any future film.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: During the course of 1972 Jacques co-starred in the first series of "Sykes", in which she played Hattie Sykes, "the wide-eyed, less-knowing but remarkably patient sister-cum-mother-figure"; at its height, "Sykes" had 17 million viewers. In February 1972 Jacques was at home with her son Robin to watch Le Mesurier win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts "Best Television Actor" award for his portrayal of a "boozy British aristocrat ... who became a spy for the Soviets" in Dennis Potter's television play "Traitor". Jacques cried when her ex-husband won the award, and divulged to her son that she "wasn't crying out of professional resentment or even envy about Joan Le Mesurier ... but from an unhappiness that, through her own actions, she lost John or there was now no-one with whom to spend her life".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 1974 Jacques's sons were arrested for possession of cannabis, and her house was searched by police. In the same week that the two boys appeared in court, she received official notification of the intention to appoint her as an OBE. In order to protect her sons from further press intrusion she declined the honour. Later that year, while filming the third series of "Sykes", she suffered a cancer scare and lost a considerable amount of weight. Despite this she refused to interrupt the busy production schedule; when filming was completed on 5 December she underwent surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for what proved to be benign tumours on her kidneys.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 1976 Jacques appeared in a promotional advertising film for British Rail, which pitted her against racing driver Jackie Stewart in a race to London. From 1976 onwards Sykes and Jacques appeared together in the stage play "A Hatful of Sykes", both in the UK and internationally. During the course of the different tours relations between the two stars became increasingly strained and Sykes altered the act several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques. While appearing in Blackpool in 1977 Jacques's health became problematic as she suffered from arthritis and ulcerated legs, which required daily dressing. Because a dressing room was arranged that avoided her needing to use stairs, Sykes accused her of receiving special treatment. When the show moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Sykes "began to behave rather strangely ... and he even accused Hattie ... of not being able to deliver a proper feed line". By the time the show appeared in Brighton in 1979 the relationship between the two "was rapidly deteriorating", and, although the pair praised each other in public, Jacques felt hurt by Sykes's treatment of her. Despite the differences, the pair filmed the seventh series of "Sykes" in 1979, and—in April 1980—the television film "Rhubarb Rhubarb"; although her part was a small one, she looked "a little unsteady on her feet", according to Merriman.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In May 1980 Jacques's doctor advised her against travelling to Greece on holiday as planned, so she visited Ireland instead. During the return ferry crossing she told her friend Bruce Copp that "You know I'm not going to live long". Her health remained poor, and insurance companies refused to insure her for film work. By October her weight had risen again; she had problems breathing and was again admitted to Charing Cross Hospital. She took a weekend break from hospital and returned home to Eardley Crescent, where on 6 October she died from a heart attack in her sleep at the age of 58; she was also suffering from kidney failure.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques's funeral took place at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were scattered. Her sons refused to allow Sykes entry to the funeral because they resented the way he had treated her during the stage show; Sykes was upset by the exclusion and failed to understand why he had been banned. The other notable absentee from the funeral was Joan Sims, who "stayed in her home and spent the day drinking, reading old letters from Hattie and wallowing in self pity", according to Merriman.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Kenneth Williams was deeply saddened by the loss of his friend, and wrote that "all the chums have died ... one is left marooned on the shore ... the tide is receding and leaving some incongruous wrecks exposed ... I fear I am one of them". John Le Mesurier described Jacques as "a remarkable lady ... [who] had an aura of love and kindness about her", while her obituary in "The Times" observed that "she will be remembered with affection by all who saw her". A month after the funeral, a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, otherwise known as the Actors' Church, which was described by Le Mesurier as a "joyous occasion".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: A memorial plaque to Jacques is situated in St Paul's, Covent Garden. In November 1995 a blue plaque was unveiled by Eric Sykes and Clive Dunn—a colleague from her Players' Theatre days—at her former house: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London. In 2002 plaques were unveiled for Jacques, Sid James and Tony Hancock at BBC Broadcasting House in London.


title: Hattie Jacques

text: In 2011 Jacques and Le Mesurier's marriage was the subject of a BBC Four biographical film called "Hattie", which focused on Jacques's affair with John Schofield. She was played by Ruth Jones, who Robin Le Mesurier thought "had captured my mother perfectly". Jones was thrilled at playing Jacques whom she considered to be her comedy heroine, describing her as an "incredibly talented and fascinating woman both on and off screen".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: The writer Susan Leckey described Jacques as "one of the best-loved British comedy stars", while Jacques's obituarist in "The Times" observed that "she was invariably successful" at making people "laugh with, rather than at you". Peter Chapman of "The Independent" stated that Jacques was "blessed with remarkable grace, delicacy and warmth, giving her an almost unique comic appeal". "Sunday Life" said that for decades she was "Britain's favourite silly, sexually frustrated, fat woman". Nina Wadia of "Goodness Gracious Me" considers Jacques along with Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor to have "paved the way for younger comediennes in Britain today", remarking that "if it had not been for women like Hattie and Barbara, there is no way that younger actresses would have any role model, or probably the ambition to do what they do".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Jacques's biographer, Frances Gray, highlighted two aspects of the actress's abilities; in her appearances in the sequence of post-war Dickens adaptations ("Nicholas Nickleby", "Oliver Twist", "Scrooge" and "Pickwick") Jacques "reflected her talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while in other films, such as "Mother Riley Meets the Vampire", she displayed "a broader comic mode". In her later career Jacques showed "a comic talent of extraordinary versatility. In "Sykes" her performance had to be a foil for the main character; in the "Carry Ons" she blossomed". As a singer she was also praised; Jonathan Cecil of "The Spectator" said that her "bell-tone voice with its cut-crystal diction—perfect for radio—had an edge of pain which suggested a greater depth to her talents than she was generally allowed to express". The actor Neville Phillips, who toured with Jacques, described her as having a "pretty voice" and able to "take an innocuous old Victorian or Edwardian ballad and with just a few intonations and expressions give it another meaning entirely".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Gray observes that "Jacques is enduringly associated with the role of hospital matron" and her portrayal of the character in five films had a lasting impact on both her legacy and on the role and view of Matrons in the National Health Service. An article in "The Guardian" by Mark Lawson mixed fiction with reality when he wrote that "standards of hygiene have slipped since Hattie Jacques ran NHS wards". According to "The Scotsman", the 2003 Labour Party Conference "applauded deliriously because the government has revived Hattie Jacques", in relation to a change in government policy. After complaints about the NHS in 2008, the "Western Morning News" suggested the government should "clone a Hattie Jacques-type matron to run a tight ship everywhere". NHS nurses have complained about the stereotype: in August 2013 the "Nursing Times" quoted one matron, who protested that they were "not like Hattie Jacques anymore".


title: Hattie Jacques

text: Alan Simpson, the co-writer of "Hancock", enjoyed writing for Jacques, and thought that she was "almost like a fella in terms of playing comedy; you didn't write for her thinking she's a woman so we've got to write the feminine point of view. That made it easier for us". Neville Phillips thought she was a "complete revelation", adding "although she was a large lady (very large, in fact), her movements were dainty, light and graceful, and she had a way of playing comedy that put me in mind of the great Beatrice Lillie ... a subtle, sophisticated actress". Her friend Bob Monkhouse thought that her career was overshadowed by her size: "She was such a great comedienne ... everyone wanted her but the movers and shakers of entertainment didn't perceive her as anything other than a fat lady". Garth Pearce, writing in the "Daily Express", noted that "she always chose to play women in funny situations, rather than refer directly to her weight. She concentrated on the script and its interpretation instead of winning easy laughs by playing 'the fattie'." The approach of writers differed in how they dealt with the characters they asked Jacques to portray. Morwenna Banks and Amanda Swift consider Jacques to have been "unimaginatively cast as the 'fat person'" in "ITMA", while in "Sykes", her weight was rarely referred to—and Jacques said that Sykes "hardly ever made jokes about my size which was a refreshing change". Gray considers that "although often cast in broad comedy, she never played it broadly, but with an elegance of voice and body that belied all the clichés about women and weight".


title: Home video game console generations

text: In the video game industry, the market for home video game consoles has frequently been segmented into generations, grouping consoles that are considered to have shared in a competitive marketspace. Since the first home consoles in 1972, there have been nine defined home console generations.


title: Home video game console generations

text: A new console generation typically has occurred approximately every five years, in keeping pace with Moore's law for technology, though more recent generations have had extended periods due to the use of console revisions rather than completely new designs. Not all home consoles are defined as part of these generations; only those considered to be significant competitive consoles are classed into generations, and systems such as microconsoles are often omitted from these generations.


title: Home video game console generations

text: Like most consumer electronics, home video game consoles are developed based on improving the features offered by an earlier product with advances made by newer technology. For video game consoles, these improvements typically occur every five years, following a Moore's law progression where a rough aggregate measure of processing power doubles every 18 months or increases ten-fold after five years. This cyclic market has resulted in an industry-wide adoption of the razorblade model in selling consoles at minimal profit margin while making revenue from the sale of games produced for that console, and then transitioning users to the next console model at the fifth year as the successor console enters the market. This approach incorporates planned obsolescence into the products to continue to bring consumers towards purchasing the newer models.


title: Home video game console generations

text: Because of the industry dynamics, many console manufacturers release their new consoles in roughly the same time period, with their consoles typically offering similar processing power and capabilities as their competitors. This systematic market has created the nature of console generations, categorizing the primary consoles into these segmented time periods that represent consoles with similar capabilities and which shared the same competitive space. Like consoles, these generations typically start five years after its prior one, though may have long tails as popular consoles remain viable well beyond five years.


title: Home video game console generations

text: The use of the generation label came after the start of the 21st century as console technology started to mature, with the terminology applied retroactively to earlier consoles. However, no exact definition and delineation of console generations was consistently developed in the industry or academic literature since that point. Some schemes have been based on direct market data (including a seminal work published in an IEEE journal in 2002), while others are based on technology shifts. Wikipedia itself has been noted for creating its own version of console generation definitions that differ from other academic sources, the definitions from Wikipedia has been adopted by other sources but without having any true rationale behind it. The discrepancies between how consoles are grouped into generations and how these generations are named have caused confusion when trying to compare shifts in the video game marketplace compared to other consumer markets. Kemerer "et al." (2017) provide a comparative analysis of these different generations through systems released up to 2010 as shown below.


title: Home video game console generations

text: For purposes of organization, the generations described here and subsequent pages maintain the Wikipedia breakdown of generation, generally breaking consoles apart by technology features whenever possible and with other consoles released in that same period incorporated within that same generation, and starting with the Odyssey and "Pong"-style home consoles as the first generation, an approach that has generally been adopted and extended by video game journalism. In this approach the generation "starts" with the release of the first console considered to have those features, and considered to end with the known last discontinuation of a console in that generation. For example, the third generation is considered to end in 2003 with the formal discontinuation of the Nintendo Entertainment System that year. This can create years with overlaps between multiple generations, as shown.


title: Home video game console generations

text: This approach uses the concepts of "bits", or the size of individual word length handled by the processors on the console, for the earlier console generations. Longer word lengths generally led to improved gameplay concepts, graphics, and audio capabilities than shorter ones. The use of bits to market consoles to consumers started with the TurboGrafx 16, a console that used an 8-bit central processing unit similar to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but included a 16-bit graphical processing unit. NEC, the console's manufacturer, took to market the console as a "16-bit" system over the NES' "8-bit" to establish it as a superior system. Other advertisers followed suit, creating a period known as the "bit wars" that lasted through the fifth generation, where console manufactures tried to outsell each other simply on the bit-count of their system. Aside from some "128 Bit" advertising slogans at the beginning of the sixth generation, marketing with bits largely stopped after the fifth generation. Though the bit terminology was no longer used in newer generations, the use of bit-count helped to establish the idea of console generations, and the earlier generations gained alternate names based on the dominant bit-count of the major systems of that era, such as the third generation being the 8-bit era or generation.


title: Home video game console generations

text: Later console generations are based on groupings of release dates rather than common hardware as base hardware configurations between consoles have greatly diverged, generally following trends in generation definition given by video game and mainstream journalism. Handheld consoles and other gaming systems and innovations are frequently grouped within the release years associated with the home console generations; for example the growth of digital distribution is associated with the seventh generation.


title: Home video game console generations

text: The following table provides an overview of the major hardware technical specifications of the consoles of each major generations by central processor unit (CPU), graphics processor unit (GPU), memory, game media, and other features.


title: Home video game console generations

text: The development of video game consoles primarily follows the history of video gaming in the North American and Japanese markets. Few other markets saw any significant console development on their own, such as in Europe where personal computers tended to be favored alongside imports of video game consoles. The clones of video game consoles in less-developed markets like China and Russia are not considered here.


title: Home video game console generations

text: The first generation of home consoles were generally limited to dedicated consoles with just one or two games pre-built into the console hardware, with a limited means to alter gameplay factors. In the case of the Odyssey, while it did ship with "game cards", these did not have any programmed games on them but instead acted as jumpers to alter the existing circuitry pathway, and did not extend the capabilities of the console. Unlike most other future console generations, the first generation of consoles were typically built in limited runs rather than as an ongoing product line.