title: Liturgy of the Hours

text: Latin Church clerics can lawfully fulfill their obligation to pray the Office using the edition of the Roman Breviary promulgated by John XXIII in 1961 rather than the current edition of the Liturgy of the Hours. While the 2007 motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" states that communities belonging to institutes of religious life and societies of apostolic life require authorization only by their major superiors to use the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal for their conventual or community Mass frequently, habitually or permanently; it makes no such statement regarding use of the 1962 Roman Breviary, which could be allowed by their constitutions.


title: Liturgy of the Hours

text: Laity, especially if they are involved in ministries of the Church (lector, cantor, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, catechists, religious education directors or school principals, altar servers, those contemplating religious life or the seminary), are strongly encouraged to participate.


title: Liturgy of the Hours

text: The constitutions of some institutes of consecrated life, in particular many congregations of Benedictine monks and nuns but also others, oblige them to follow an arrangement of the Psalter whereby all the psalms are recited in the course of a single week, partly through an extension of the Office of Readings, and by maintaining the Hour of Prime.


title: Applebee's

text: The Applebee's chain was founded by Bill and T. J. Palmer in 1980. Their vision was "to create a restaurant that had a neighborhood pub feel to it and could offer friendly service along with quality fare at a lower price than most of their competition." The name “Appleby” was their first choice for this concept, but they found that it had already been registered. They also considered "Cinnamon's" and "Pepper's" before arriving at Applebee's. They opened their first location in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time named T.J. Applebee's Rx for Edibles & Elixirs. They opened a second location outside of Atlanta, Georgia a few years later, and sold the company to W. R. Grace and Company in 1983. As part of the transaction, Bill Palmer was named president of the Applebee's Division, an indirect subsidiary of W. R. Grace and Company. In that capacity, Palmer guided the operation from its entrepreneurial beginnings to a full-fledged franchise system. He became an Applebee's franchisee in 1985. Bill Palmer died in 2020.


title: Applebee's

text: In 1986, the name of the concept was changed to Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar. In 1988, Applebee's International, Inc., became the restaurant chain's franchiser when Kansas City franchisees Abe Gustin and John Hamra purchased the rights to the Applebee's concept from W. R. Grace. In 1989, Applebee's opened their 100th restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee.


title: Applebee's

text: In the 1990s Applebee's became one of the largest sit-down restaurant chains in the United States, and it began trading publicly in November 1991. In 1998, Applebee's opened its 1000th restaurant.


title: Applebee's

text: On July 16, 2007, IHOP Corp. announced that it agreed to buy Applebee's International for about $2.1 billion. Applebee's shareholders would receive $25.50 in cash per share, representing a 4.6% premium to the closing price on July 13, 2007.


title: Applebee's

text: The acquisition was completed on November 29, 2007, after which IHOP Corp. was renamed DineEquity. The combined company became the largest full-service restaurant company in the world, with more than 3,250 locations. A major goal for the new ownership was to revitalize the chain, as well as shift towards a franchise model for the majority of its locations.


title: Applebee's

text: In 2013, the chain faced an uproar on the Internet after firing a waitress who posted a picture of a customer's receipt that had a rude note written on it objecting to a required gratuity, and then poorly handling their response to the incident.


title: Applebee's

text: On August 11, 2017, DineEquity announced that Applebee's would close between 105 and 135 locations by the end of the year. Same-store sales decreased 7% in the previous quarter.


title: Applebee's

text: In-late 2017, Applebee's began to place an increased focus on promotions involving low-cost cocktails, including a $1 margarita promotion dubbed the "Dollarita" in October, and $1 Long Island iced tea (promoted as "L.I.T.s") in December. The drinks would serve as a loss leader, with customers subsequently upsold towards higher-priced food products. Despite hesitation by some franchisees to participate, the promotions were associated with a major increase in traffic at some locations, and prompted the chain to offer similar promotions later on. Dine Brands' new CEO Steve Joyce credited the promotions with having helped influence a major financial turnaround at the company, noting that almost all customers who ordered one also ordered food, and that some customers also moved towards the other cocktails on its menu.


title: Applebee's

text: As of December 31, 2019, there were 1,787 restaurants operating system-wide in the United States and 15 other countries, including 69 that are company owned and 1,718 that are franchised. United States locations have steadily declined in recent years and as of December 31, 2021, there were 1,578 locations.


title: Applebee's

text: As part of the company's marketing campaign and slogan, Wanda Sykes was hired in 2007 to voice the chain's new mascot, the Applebee's Apple. The character appears in commercials touting Applebee's various specials and stating the new slogan "Together is good" or saying "Get it together, baby!" as the slogan appears at the bottom right of the screen. A new campaign started on February 25, 2008, without Sykes' character (the spokesapple), with the slogan "It's a whole new neighborhood." The commercials used both the original and new logos. In 2009 Applebee's changed its slogan again to "There's no place like the neighborhood."


title: Applebee's

text: From 2012 to 2016 Applebee's aired an advertising campaign focusing on fresh ingredients and new dishes, narrated by Jason Sudeikis, featuring the slogan "See you tomorrow."


title: Applebee's

text: In 2012, Applebee's partnered with the country group Zac Brown Band on a Veteran's Day-themed "Thank You Movement" campaign to honor members of the U.S. military. The band's song "Chicken Fried" has also been featured in a Applebee's commercial; in February 2022, Applebee's pulled its advertising from CNN after an incident where an inappropriately timed split-screen commercial break featured live footage of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine shown alongside the ad.


title: Applebee's

text: In late September 2017 Applebee's brought back its most famous slogan from the early-to-mid 2000s, "Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood." In 2019, Applebee's advertising fees accounted for 165.5 million U.S. dollars.


title: Applebee's

text: In 2021, after having removed it due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Applebee's restored its Oreo Cookie Shake to its menu. The chain and beverage had been mentioned in Walker Hayes' song "Fancy Like", which was subsequently featured in a new Applebee's commercial as well.


title: Applebee's

text: Since 2006, Applebee's and its servers have been engaged in a lawsuit over hourly wages. The servers, who received a federal minimum wage of $2.13 per hour as tipped employees, allege that the company requires them to spend 20% of their time doing non-serving labor, for which they should be paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The case has gone through several stages, including a judicially mandated binding arbitration session.


title: Applebee's

text: In September 2012, a judge in Illinois ruled in favor of the Applebee's employees and will evaluate damages at a later date.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: Fashion in the 1970s was about individuality. In the early 1970s, "Vogue" proclaimed "There are no rules in the fashion game now" due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing. Common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularized by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colors, glitter, and satin.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: New technologies brought advances in production through mass production, higher efficiency, generating higher standards and uniformity. Generally the most famous silhouette of the mid and late 1970s for both genders was that of tight on top and loose on bottom. The 1970s also saw the birth of the indifferent, anti-conformist casual chic approach to fashion, which consisted of sweaters, T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. The French designer Yves Saint Laurent and the American designer Halston both observed and embraced the changes that were happening in the society, especially the huge growth of women's rights and the youth counterculture. They successfully adapted their design aesthetics to accommodate the changes that the market was aiming for.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: Top fashion models in the 1970s were Lauren Hutton, Margaux Hemingway, Beverly Johnson, Gia Carangi, Janice Dickinson, Cheryl Tiegs, Jerry Hall, and Iman.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: Throughout much of the decade, women and teenage girls wore their hair long, with a centre or side parting, which was a style carried over from the late 1960s. Other hairstyles of the early to mid-1970s included the wavy "gypsy" cut, the layered shag, and the "flicked" style, popularly referred to as "wings", in which the hair was flicked into resembling small wings at the temples. This look was popularised by the stars of the television series "Charlie's Angels". Blonde-streaked or "frosted" hair was also popular. In 1977, punk singer Debbie Harry of Blondie sparked a new trend with her shoulder-length, dyed platinum blonde hair worn with a long fringe (bangs).


title: 1970s in fashion

text: In the 1970s, making one of the popular hairstyles for a woman didn't take a lot of time. These hairstyles, including Afro hairstyle, Shaggy Hairdo and Feathered hair (then known as "Farrah Fawcett hairstyle") were said to be perfect when you're on-the-go and would still keep your expressive style in-check. For black people in the United States and elsewhere, the afro was worn by both sexes throughout the decade. It was occasionally sported by Whites, especially Jewish Americans as an alternative to the uniform long, straight hair which was a fashion mainstay until the arrival of punk and the "disco look" when hair became shorter and centre partings were no longer the mode.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: The most iconic women's hairstyle of the 1970s is arguably the Farrah Fawcett hairstyle. Popularized in 1976, the hairstyle was heavily imitated by many American women and girls. It incorporated waves, curls, and layers. The style mostly worn with bangs, but could also be worn with a side part. To make it even more stylish, women and girls would frost their hair with blonde streaks.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: Continuing on from the 1960s, the ducktail and Pompadour hairstyle (then known as the "Elvis Presley hairstyle") were popular among young Italian-American and Mexican-American men in big cities like New York. Large quantities of grease or brylcreem was normally used to keep the hair in place. The early and mid 1970s generally featured longer hair on men, as way of rebelling against the social norms of years past. Sideburns were also worn around the same time. Some of the most popular hairstyles for men include "Long and Luscious" hairstyle, mod haircut, and the "buzzcut" hairstyle popularised by action heroes like Steve McQueen. In the late 1970s, men went for the chop, ranging from crew cuts, to buzz cuts, to a shag. This was mainly done for an athletic look, and sideburns and facial hair went out of style.


title: 1970s in fashion

text: Cosmetics in the 1970s reflected the contradictory roles ascribed for the modern woman. For the first time since 1900, make-up was chosen situationally, rather than in response to monolithic trends. The era's two primary visions were the daytime "natural look" presented by American designers and "Cosmopolitan" magazine, and the evening aesthetic of sexualized glamour presented by European designers and fashion photographers. In the periphery, punk and glam were also influential. The struggling cosmetics industry attempted to make a comeback, using new marketing and manufacturing practices.


title: 2014 NHL Entry Draft

text: The 2014 NHL Entry Draft was the 52nd NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held on June 27–28, 2014 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The top three selections were Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Leon Draisaitl, going to the Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers, respectively. This draft featured the first selection of a player from Oceania with Australian Nathan Walker, being selected by the Washington Capitals in the third-round.


title: 2014 NHL Entry Draft

text: Ice hockey players born between January 1, 1994, and September 15, 1996, are eligible for selection in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Additionally, un-drafted, non-North American players born in 1993 are eligible for the draft; and those players who were drafted in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, but not signed by an NHL team and who were born after June 30, 1994, are also eligible to re-enter the draft.


title: 2014 NHL Entry Draft

text: Since the 2012–13 season, all 14 teams not qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs have a "weighted" chance at winning the first overall selection. The Florida Panthers won the 2014 draft lottery that took place on April 15, 2014, thus moving them from the second-overall pick to the first-overall pick.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo (22 July 1932 – 20 October 2014), known professionally as Oscar de la Renta, was a Dominican fashion designer. Born in Santo Domingo, he was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta became internationally known in the 1960s as one of the couturiers who dressed Jacqueline Kennedy. He worked for Lanvin and Balmain. His eponymous fashion house has boutiques around the world including in Harrods of London and Madison Avenue in New York.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta, the youngest of seven children and the only boy in his family, was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother of distant Portuguese descent, Carmen María Antonia Fiallo and Puerto Rican father, Óscar Avelino De La Renta, owner of an insurance company. The Fiallos, De la Renta's mother's family, were so embedded in Dominican society that they could count poets, scholars, and businessmen, as well as top army brass among their members. Their origin in the island can be traced back to the foundation of San Carlos de Tenerife in 1685 by Canarian settlers.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: A maternal uncle, Luis Arístides Fiallo Cabral, was a doctor, lawyer, and architect, who received every degree the University of Santo Domingo could offer. Another maternal uncle, Fabio Fiallo, was a diplomat and poet. On his father's side, De la Renta's great-great grandfather José Ortíz de la Renta was the first mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, elected by popular vote and who had the distinction of serving as mayor eight times, the most ever for the city.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta was raised Catholic in a protective family. His mother died from complications of multiple sclerosis when he was 18.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: At the age of 18, he went to study painting in Spain at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. For extra money, he drew clothes for newspapers and fashion houses. After Francesca Lodge, the wife of John Davis Lodge, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, saw some of his dress sketches, she commissioned de la Renta to design a gown for her daughter. The dress appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine that fall. He quickly became interested in the world of fashion design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. He considered Cristóbal Balenciaga his mentor. In 1961, de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio del Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1963, de la Renta turned to Diana Vreeland, the editor-in-chief of "Vogue", for advice, saying that what he really wanted was to "get into ready to wear, because that's where the money is". Vreeland replied, "Then go to Arden because you will make your reputation faster. She is not a designer, so she will promote you. At the other place, you will always be eclipsed by the name of Dior." De la Renta proceeded to work for Arden for two years in New York City before he went to work for Jane Derby, an American fashion house. When Derby died in August 1965, de la Renta took over the label.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: From 1993 to 2002, de la Renta designed the haute couture collection for the house of Balmain, becoming the first Dominican to design for a French couture house. In 2006, the Oscar de la Renta label diversified into bridal wear.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta's designs have been worn by a diverse group of distinguished women and celebrities. De la Renta's brand saw international wholesale growth beginning in 2003, under the direction of CEO Alex Bolen, from five to seventy-five locations. De la Renta's ready-to-wear designs are available in his retail stores, online, and with select wholesale partners worldwide.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 2014, the George W. Bush Presidential Center hosted an exhibit titled "Oscar de la Renta: Five Decades of Style" which shared the designer's creations for Mrs. Bush and America's First Ladies.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1977, de la Renta launched his fragrance, "OSCAR", followed by an accessories line in 2001 and a homewares line in 2002. The new business venture included 100 home furnishings for Century Furniture featuring dining tables, upholstered chairs, and couches. In 2004, he added a less expensive line of clothing called O Oscar. De la Renta said he wanted to attract new customers whom he could not reach before.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 2006, de la Renta designed Tortuga Bay, a boutique hotel at Puntacana Resort and Club. The hotel is part of the luxury hotel collection, The Leading Hotels of the World.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1967 and 1968, de la Renta won the Coty Award (the U.S. fashion industry "Oscars") and in 1973 was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: From 1973 to 1976, and from 1986 to 1988, he served as President of the CFDA. He is also a two-time winner of the American Fashion Critic's Award and was inducted into the Fame in 1973.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta's talents received continual international recognition. Among them, he received the "Council of Fashion Designers Designer of the Year Award" in 2000 and in 2007 (tied with Proenza Schouler). In February 1990, he was honored with the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award. King Juan Carlos of Spain bestowed de la Renta with two awards, the Gold Medal of Bellas Artes and the La Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil. He was recognized by the French government with the Légion d'honneur as a Commandeur.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: The Dominican Republic honored him with the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella and the Order of Christopher Columbus. De la Renta founded the Casa del Niño orphanage in La Romana He contributed extensively in the construction of a much needed school near his home at the "Punta Cana Resort and Club" in Punta Cana.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta held dual citizenship in the Dominican Republic and the United States. He was an Ambassador-at-Large of the Dominican Republic.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta served as a board member of the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall and WNET. He served on the boards of several charitable institutions such as New Yorkers for Children, the America's Society. He was chairman of the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute. He received an honorary degree from Hamilton College (New York) on 26 May 2013.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In February 2014, Oscar de la Renta recreated his entire Spring presentation, "Designed for A Cure 2014 collection", to raise money for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1991, de la Renta was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2014, de la Renta was the recipient of the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 2017, de la Renta was honored by the United States Postal Service with an eleven stamp series, featuring a black and white photo of him and ten details from his fashion designs.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1966, de la Renta became the third husband of Françoise de Langlade (1921–1983), an editor-in-chief of "French Vogue" who once worked for the fashion house of Elsa Schiaparelli. They were married until she died of cancer in 1983. After her death, de la Renta adopted a boy from the Dominican Republic and named him Moisés.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: In 1990, the designer married Annette Engelhard (born 1939), daughter of Fritz Mannheimer and his wife Jane née Reiss, and adoptive daughter of her mother's second husband, Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. De la Renta had stepchildren from both marriages. His son-in-law Alex Bolen currently operates as Chief Executive Officer, and stepdaughter Eliza Bolen serves as Vice President of Licensing at Oscar de la Renta, LLC.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta was regarded as an unofficial ambassador of the Dominican Republic, his home country, and held a diplomatic passport. He had homes there in Casa de Campo and Punta Cana, in addition to his residence in Kent, Connecticut.


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. A year later at the CFDA "Fashion Talks" event, Executive Director Fern Mallis called him "The Sultan of Suave". At that event, he spoke of his cancer, saying:


title: Oscar de la Renta

text: De la Renta died of complications from cancer on October 20, 2014, at his home in Kent, Connecticut, at the age of 82.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maria Alexandrovna (), born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (8 August 1824 – 3 June 1880), was Empress of Russia as the first wife and political adviser of Emperor Alexander II. She was one of the founders of the Russian Red Cross Society.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: The legal daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, Wilhelmine Marie was raised in austerity but was well educated by her mother, who died when her daughter was very young. She was only 14 years old when the Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich (later Tsar Alexander II of Russia) fell in love with her while he was traveling to Western Europe. She arrived in Russia in September 1840, converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church, changed the name Wilhelmine Marie for Maria Alexandrovna, and took the title of Grand Duchess. For fourteen years (1840–1855), she was Tsesarevna, the wife of the heir of the Russian throne. Although she did not enjoy court life because of her withdrawn nature, she identified with her adopted country.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: After the death of Nicholas I, Maria Alexandrovna became the Russian Empress consort and was known for her intellect. She organized and expanded the funds of the Russian Red Cross, established Russia's first all-female schools, and helped Alexander II to end serfdom. However, she suffered from tuberculosis from 1863 and spent long stays in southern Europe to avoid harsh winters, which worsened after the death of her eldest son Nicholas Alexandrovich. Although she and her husband were unofficially separated shortly afterwards, Maria was treated with respect and love by her surviving family. The Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and Mariinskyi Palace were built with her help and named after her.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie was born on in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. She was the youngest child among the seven children of Prince Hereditary Ludwig of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, sister of Russian Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. Although her parents were double first cousins, they were a mismatched couple: Ludwig was dull, shy and withdrawn, while Wilhelmine, eleven years his junior, was pretty and charming. After the birth of three sons, the couple grew apart during the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars while Ludwig was in the battlefields. After a gap of eleven years, Princess Wilhelmine went on to have four more children, but court rumors attributed the biological paternity of the second set of children to Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, Grand Master of the stables of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Of those four children, Marie and her brother Alexander, who was a year older, lived to adulthood. While Prince Ludwig officially recognized the children as his, he and his wife became estranged by 1827. Her ancestry chart below assumes her legitimacy. See Grancy's page for her rumored paternal ancestry.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In 1828, Princess Wilhelmine moved with her two younger children and their household to Heiligenberg, a mountainside estate nestled on a hill overlooking the village of Jugenheim that she purchased that same year Wilhelmine Marie was 4 years old when she moved with 5-years-old Alexander and their mother to Heiligenberg, where the siblings spent most of their childhood. The castle had been previously a nunnery and was located some 20 kilometers from Darmstadt. In 1829, however, their parents celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in apparent harmony. In 1830, their paternal grandfather, Ludwig I of Hesse, died and their father became the new reigning Grand Duke. The ducal couple gradually reconciled and used Heiligenberg in the summer months.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Wilhelmine Marie grew up under the care of her mother, who was responsible for her high education and had preference for French culture. This was evident in her lessons, which had special emphasis on finances, history, and literature. After her mother died of tuberculosis, her lady-in-waiting and possible paternal aunt, Marianne , successfully took over the responsibility of 11-years-old Marie's education.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: After their mother's death, Marie and Alexander moved permanently to their father's court in Darmstadt. The siblings would remain very close throughout their lives. She became close to her two elder brothers Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Prince Karl of Hesse. However, the cloud over the birth's legitimacy continued to be cast upon Marie and Alexander since Ludwig II was cold and distant towards the children.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, traveled to western Europe to complete his education and search for a wife. His parents had preselected Princess Alexandrine of Baden, but he was unmoved. On 13 March, after visiting the courts of Prussia, Württemberg and Baden, Alexander's entourage made an unplanned stop at the court of Hesse. Although the Grand Duke's only surviving daughter wasn't on the list of possible brides, they stopped for one day in Darmstadt because it was on their way and they needed some rest. Invited to a performance of Gaspare Spontini's "La vestale" by the Grand Duke, Alexander was introduced to 14-year-old Marie, who was slender and tall for her age, but still wore her hair loose. She was eating cherries and had to spit the pits into her hands when she was pushed forward to be introduced to the Tsesarevich. Alexander's tutor, Vasily Zhukovsky, who was traveling with him, described the Princess as: "modest, charming and even intelligent."


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Alexander was smitten and stayed to dine with the boring Ludwig II to see Marie again. Before he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket containing a piece of her hair. That night Alexander wrote to his father: "I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England." As his son had carefully planned, Nicholas I received the letter nine days later on the day of the annunciation and saw the timing as a good omen. He gave his approval despite the gossip surrounding her birth: if Ludwig II recognized her as his daughter, that was good enough. In early June, Alexander returned to Darmstadt to ask marriage to Marie, who accepted. As she wasn't yet fifteen, a long engagement period was necessary before the actual marriage would take place. Towards the closing weeks of 1839, he returned to Darmstadt to visit her again. A Russian Orthodox priest came to Darmstadt to give her instruction in the Russian Orthodox religion.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: The engagement between the Princess of Hesse and the Russian Tsesarevich was officially announced in April 1840. Two generations earlier, another princess of Hesse-Darmstadt had married a Tsesarevich: Marie's paternal great-aunt, Natalia Alexeievna, was the first wife of Tsar Paul I. In addition, Marie's maternal aunt Louise of Baden (Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna) had married Tsar Alexander I, though she died when Marie was only two years old. However, Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia) objected to her son's choice of a wife. The Empress wasn't only disturbed by the rumors surrounding Marie's paternity, but ill-disposed towards the Hesse family and concerned that Marie might have inherited her mother's consumption. In a letter to his mother, Alexander wrote: "I love her, and I would rather give up the throne, than not marry her. I will marry only her, that has my decision!" After being persuaded by her husband, Empress Alexandra went to Frankfurt, where she met Marie in June. By then, Marie had quickly learned the Russian language. The Empress liked what she saw and gave her permission for the marriage.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: A few weeks after her sixteenth birthday in August 1840, Marie's party set out for Russia. She was escorted by her brother Alexander and her governess, Mlle. von Grancy, who remained in Russia. Marie arrived in September and shared her impressions of


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Saint Petersburg in a letter to her family: "St. Petersburg is much more beautiful than I thought. The Neva River contributes to this. I think it is difficult to find a greater city. The view from the Winter Palace on the Neva is wonderful!" Her arrival in Russia was greeted with great ceremony with a continuous round of amusements. French plays, operas and new ballets were performed in the Chinese theater, and each Sunday her future mother-in-law gave a banquet in the Alexander Palace. However, Marie had a hard time adapting to her new surroundings. Years later, her-lady-in waiting Anna Tiutcheva was to write about this period in the life of her mistress: "Having been raised in seclusion even, one might say, in austerity, in the little castle of Jugenheim, where she saw her father only rarely, she was more frightened than bedazzled when she was suddenly brought to the most opulent and brilliant court of all European nations. She told me that many times. After constant battles of overcoming her awkwardness, later on, under cover of darkness and the stillness of her room, she would give freedom to her muffled cries".


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Having been raised in the Lutheran religion, Marie was received into the Russian Orthodox Church on and became Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. On the next day, the official betrothal was held in the presence of the Imperial Family, the whole court, the Russian nobility, many notable foreign guests, and representatives of foreign states. The wedding took place on in the Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, on the eve of Alexander's twenty-third birthday. Maria wore a white dress richly embroidered with silver, a crimson robe with white satin and fine ermine fastened on her shoulders, and diamond jewelry (tiara, earrings, a necklace, and bracelets). Her future mother-in-law decorated her hair with orange blossoms sticking them between the diamonds in her tiara and pinned a small branch on her chest. The wedding was attended by members of the Russian Imperial family, the court and numerous guests and it was followed by a festive dinner ball.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: After the wedding, the young couple settled in a suite of rooms in the south-west block of the Winter Palace. During the summer, they resided in Tsarskoye Selo. Their apartments were located in the Zubov wing of the Catherine Palace.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maria Alexandrovna struggled to assimilate herself with the court and make friends. Endless balls and court receptions bored her, but etiquette obliged her to fulfill the duties of representation as the wife of the Tsarevich. She reflected that life at court demanded “daily heroism... I lived like a volunteer fireman, ready to jump up at the alarm. Of course, I wasn't too sure about where to run or what to do.” She preferred country life in Tsarskoye Selo, where she enjoyed a more private life.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maria won the approval of her father-in-law, Nicholas I. Nicholas I forbade anyone from discussing, or even thinking about, any rumors about her.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Like her late mother, Maria took great interest in horticulture and imported flowers from her native Germany, such as lilies of the valley and cowslips. In the mornings, she took long walks with her ladies-in-waiting through the parks at the Catherine and Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In this early period of her life in Russia, Maria was guided by her husband's aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. Although seventeen years apart in age, the two women became close friends and frequently ran their salons as a joint venture.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maria and Alexander made a happy couple, full of tender care for one another. He ordered that banquets of fresh strawberries should be placed on his wife's dining table and enjoyed her company spending his mornings sitting on her bed. There were regular informal gatherings at the young couple's household of loud readings, music, and card playing. Alongside her husband, Maria read Mikhail Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls", Feodor Dostoevsky's "Poor Folk", and later, Ivan Turgenev's "A Sportsman's Sketches", sharing Alexander's sympathies for the plight of the serfs and becoming an ardent abolitionist. The Tsarevich and the Tsarevna charmed their guests with their manners. She gave useful advice to her husband, who in turn gave her confidence to guide herself into society.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Sixteen months after her wedding, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to her first child, Alexandra, born in August 1842, two years after her arrival in Russia. In September 1843, she gave birth to a son, Nicholas. Two more sons, Alexander and Vladimir, were born in 1845 and 1847. Shortly after having her third son, her health began to fail and she had to go to Bad Kissingen in Bavaria to recuperate. To mark each birth, Alexander and Maria planted oak trees in their private garden at Tsarskoye Selo, where skittles, swings and slides were provided for the children. Indoors, she played the piano and created tapestries with her family. In July 1849, both parents were devastated when their daughter Alexandra died from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half. Grief-stricken by her loss, Maria had to go to the sea town of Revel in Estonia to recuperate. Even many years later, she would still cry over the death of her eldest child. In January 1850, she gave birth to a fourth son, Grand Duke Alexei.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: During her first decade in Russia, Maria Alexandrovna enjoyed the company and support of her brother Alexander, who had accompanied her to Russia to follow a military career there. In 1851, he contracted a morganatic marriage with Julia von Hauke, one of his sister's ladies-in-waiting. As a consequence, he fell from grace and had to resign his Russian commission. He left the country, returning to Heiligenberg, the siblings' childhood home. In October 1853, Maria had a much-awaited second daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: On 18 February 1855, Nicholas I died of pneumonia and was succeeded by Alexander to the Russian throne as Tsar. It was a turbulent period as Russian troops were being defeated by an international coalition in the Crimean War. After a siege lasting eleven months, Sevastopol fell in September 1855. With a prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued, Russia sued for peace in March 1856 in Paris. The humiliation of defeat was left behind by the coronation festivities that were held with Byzantine splendor from 14 to 26 August 1856. The coronation ceremony lasted five hours took place at the Assumption Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin on . When four court ladies tried to fix the crown to the 30-years-old Empress's head it nearly clattered to the ground, saved only by the fold of her cloak, a bad omen by the time. Nine months after the coronation, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to a fifth son, Sergei, in April 1857. Suffering from depression, she was sent to Kissingen to recuperate. On 3 October [O.S. 21 September] 1860, she gave birth to Paul, her eighth and final child, but was so weakened that she was forced to spend several months resting on a couch in her boudoir in the Winter Palace. A month later, her mother-in-law died.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Since Russian tradition gave precedence to the Empress Mother over the reigning tsar's consort, it was only then that Maria Alexandrovna took a more decisive role in charitable activities. It was with her that the Red Cross was established in Russia, which quickly turned into the largest and wealthiest public structure. Under her organization, the institution accumulated in its accounts huge sums of money transferred by benefactors from all over the Empire. The women's committees recollected twice the average funds recollected by provincial committees.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Maria Alexandrovna was the supreme patroness of the Red Cross: In total, she patronized 5 hospitals, 12 alms-houses, 30 shelters, 2 institutes, 38 gymnasiums, 156 lower schools, and 5 private charitable societies. Empress Maria expanded charitable activities during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The beginning of a new era in women's education in Russia was marked by her establishment of open all-union women's educational institutions in 1872. The students received lessons of physics, chemistry, and medicine.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Tsar Alexander II relied on Maria Alexandrovna's judgment and serious nature to support his government, opening official documents and discussing states of affairs with her. She supported Alexander's ideals of introducing reforms. Two opposite philosophical currents divided Russian politics of their time: Westernizers and Slavophiles. The Westernizers, led by Alexander Herzen, Vissarion Belinsky, Ivan Turgenev and Mikhail Bakunin, wanted Russia aligned to Western science and values such as free thought, rationalism and individual liberty. By contrast, the Slavophiles, led by Aleksey Khomyakov, the two Aksakov brothers, Konstantine and Ivan, and Ivan Kireyevsky and his brother Pyotr Kireevsky advocated three principles: Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Although she embraced Slavism with fervor, Maria Alexandrovna encouraged freedom and capitalism. She played an important role in the liberation of the serfs that came into fruition with the Emancipation Proclamation on , ending serfdom in Russia.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: The Russian court began its season early December and lasted until Lent. While subzero temperatures and icy winds kept the streets empty, balls and banquets were held indoors in overheated palaces, where their gracious host, Alexander II, gave intimate parties known as "Les Bals des Palmières" for which hundreds of palm trees were brought to the Winter Palace in horse-drawn boxes. However, Maria Alexandrovna did not share her husband's enthusiasm since she still disliked court events and considered Russian nobility frivolous. Society complained that she seemed cold, distant, and had no taste in dress. Behind her back, she was called "la petite bourgeoise allemande".


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Instead of letting the gossips affect her, Empress Maria paid great attention to the upbringing and education of her children, carefully choosing experienced teachers and ensuring their environment was strict. Her efforts centered on her eldest son, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, her favorite child who resembled her most.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Empress Maria expressed her anger about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russia and her poor treatment of her daughter-in-law and Empress Maria's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She complained to her brother Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse that England was “certainly hostile to us. That makes the Tsar very anxious, on Marie’s account too.” When she learned about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russians, she wrote “The insulting things that the Queen says in her letters to Alfred about the Tsar and the Russian people are worthy of a fish-wife. Added to this is her grief that ‘our dear Marie’ should belong to a nation from whose vocabulary the words truth, justice, and humanity are lacking. Silly old fool.” When her daughter Maria complained about Queen Victoria, she sympathized with Maria: "To be quite frank, it is difficult to take such a mother-in-law seriously, and I am sorry on Marie's account."


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: As Empress consort, Maria Alexandrovna had to attend many state functions, but from the 1860s her health declined. The doctors advised her to spend the winters in a warm climate and stop


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: intercourse with her husband in an effort to prolong her life. Preferring to remain in Russia, she agreed to the suggestion of recuperating in Crimea. Alexander II then bought for his wife the Livadia villa, a two-story wooden villa from the heirs of Polish Count Lev Potocki. At the end of August 1861, Maria, her husband, and their children Alexei, Sergei and Paul visited Crimea for the first time. She was charmed by the southern flora, the mild climate, the beautiful house, and the surrounding park. The modest villa was expanded with the additions of a large palace, a small palace, and a church. Construction took place between 1862 and 1866 under the direction of Ippolito Monighetti, a Russian architect who had redecorated her apartments in the Catherine Palace in the 1850s.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Feeling better, Maria Alexandrovna financed the Mariinsky Theatre in St Peterburg in 1859–1860, built according to the plans of architect Albert Cavos as an opera and ballet house. The theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar". The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness. (The name was changed during the Soviet period, but the original name was restored in 1992, and at present there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer.)


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: The humid summers in Saint Petersburg began to take a toll on Maria's frail constitution, to the point she was absent from Russia's capital for long periods of time. In June 1864, she left Russia, accompanied by her husband and their three youngest children, to take the waters in the Bavarian spa of Bad Kissingen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria came to meet his distant aunt and became infatuated with her. In late July, Alexander II returned to Russia, but Maria traveled to Bad Schwalbach, where she celebrated her birthday with Ludwig II. In late August, the whole family was reunited in Darmstadt.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: As she was still sick, Maria Alexandrovna spent the winter in Nice, where she received the announcement of the Tsarevich's engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Nicholas was nevertheless in frail health and joined his mother in Nice in early 1865, but was seriously ill with meningitis of the spine by then. Attended by her brother Alexander and her sister-in-law, the Empress did not leave her son's side during his illness. Nicholas was initially misdiagnosed with simple rheumatism and deteriorated rapidly. The whole family gathered around his deathbed on . Princess Dagmar, who was with the Romanovs during her fiancé's final days, was quickly engaged to his brother, the future Emperor Alexander III, whom she would marry the following year. Both Alexander II and Maria were devastated by the death of their eldest son on whom their hopes for the future lay. The Tsarina spent the following year grieving and found some solace with her family in Hesse, since her brother Karl had recently lost his only daughter Anna.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In 1866, Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. With the passing of the years, they still respected each other but grew apart romantically, particularly after the deterioration of her health and


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: the death of their eldest children. Alexander had many affairs, but they did not threaten their marriage. From the mid-1850s until 1862, he had a relationship with Alexandra Sergeevna Dolgorukova, one of Russia's most illustrious noblewomen and the Tsarina's ladies-in-waiting. This affair ended in 1862 when Alexandra married General Pyotr Pavlovich Albedinsky (1826–1883).


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In 1865, Alexander II fell deeply in love with 18-year-old Catherine Dolgorukova, a distant cousin of his former mistress. Catherine resisted his advances for over a year, but they became lovers in July 1866. Empress Maria inevitably heard about the affair, but she initially did not attach great importance to it.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: In order to have comfortable accommodations and rest in their route from St Petersburg to Crimea, Alexander II ordered the reconstruction of the Imperial Palace in Kiev. It was in total disrepair and abandoned for almost half a century after the palace burned down in a series of fires in the early 19th century. The commission was assigned in 1867 to the architect Konstantin Mayevsky, using old drawings and watercolors as guide. Work took place from 1868 to 1870 and the Kievan palace was then renamed Mariinskyi Palace after the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. By her wish, a large park was established off the southern side of the palace. The palace was used as a residence for visiting members of the imperial family until 1917. Currently it is the official ceremonial residence of the President of Ukraine.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: From the early 1860s through the 1870s, Maria Alexandrovna began to pay extended visits to her homeland. Usually accompanied by her husband, children and their Russian entourage, she stayed at "Schloss Heiligenberg", the small castle of her brother Alexander, who lived with his morganatic wife and their children at Jugenheim outside Darmstadt. There she met Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of her nephew Louis of Hesse. She resisted Alice's suggestion that her brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, marry her only daughter Maria, but the couple would wed anyway in 1874. In December 1875, Empress Maria visited England to meet her first British grandchild. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "I thought her very ladylike, kind and amiable. We were at ease at once, but she has a sad expression and looks so delicate. I think we should get on very well together, poor thing. I pity her much."


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: After Princess Alice died in 1878, it was Maria Alexandrovna's turn to pity the British royal family. She invited her motherless relatives to visit during the holidays she spent with brother Alexander at Heiligenberg. It was during these visits that her second youngest son Sergei met his future wife, Alice's second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. It was also here that Maria met Elisabeth's youngest surviving sister, Princess Alix, who would eventually become the devoted and ill-fated wife of Maria's eldest grandson, Emperor Nicholas II. A legend alleges that on a visit to Darmstadt, upon meeting Alix, Empress Maria turned to her ladies-in-waiting with the words, "Kiss her hand. That is your empress to be."


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Tsar Alexander had three children with Princess Dolgorukova, whom he moved into the Imperial Palace during Maria's final illness out of fear that she might become the target of assassins. The affair, in the face of the Tsarina's declining health, served to alienate the rest of his adult children, save their son Alexei and their daughter. When the Grand Duchess Marie made a visit to her mother in May 1880, she was horrified to learn of the imperial mistress' living arrangements and confronted her father. Courtiers spread stories that the dying Empress was forced to hear the noise of Catherine's children moving about overhead, but their rooms were actually far away from each other. After Maria Alexandrovna asked to meet her husband's children with Catherine, he brought their two older children, George and Olga, to her deathbed, where she kissed and blessed both children. Both rulers were in tears during the meeting. With her blessing, the couple entered into a morganatic marriage on .


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Empress Maria Alexandrovna died on 3 June 1880, aged 55. She was buried with full dignity with her children present and remembered for her wisdom and grace. In later years, Nicholas II's eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga, claimed that as a small child she saw the ghost of her great-grandmother, according to her nanny Margaretta Eagar.


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: Through her marriage with Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to and raised eight children, which consisted of six sons and two daughters:


title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)

text: The city of Mariinsk in Kemerovo Oblast, and the city of Mariehamn in Åland are named after Empress Maria.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: A Geta, (, ; geta or getas) is a traditional East Asian footwear that resembles flip-flops. A kind of sandals, geta have a flat wooden base elevated with up to three (though commonly two) "teeth", held on the foot with a fabric thong, which keeps the foot raised above the ground.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The earliest known pair of geta was excavated in a neolithic archaeological site near Ningbo, Zhejing, China, dated to the Liangzhu culture (3400–2250 BCE). These geta differed in construction to modern geta, having five or six holes in place of the modern-day three. The use and popularity of wooden clogs in China has been recorded in other sources dating to between the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BCE) to the Qin (221–206 BCE) and Han dynasties (202 BCE–220 CE). Geta-style shoes were worn in Southern China likely until sometime between the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1636/1644–1912), when they were replaced by other types of footwear.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: It is likely that geta originated from Southern China and were later exported to Japan. Examples of Japanese geta dating back to the latter part of the Heian period were found in Aomori in 2004, during an excavation along the right bank of the Shinjo river.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: This style of geta was likely worn as a point of visual distinction between , geisha and their apprentice geisha, as though the former entertained the upper classes, the latter did not, and were considered to be lower-class, despite their immense popularity.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Some seafood and fish merchants also used very high geta with particularly long teeth to keep their feet above any scraps of fish on the floor of their shops; these were known as geta.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Geta are primarily worn with , but sometimes also with Western clothing during the summer months. As geta are usually worn only with or other informal Japanese clothes or Western clothes, there is no need to wear socks. Ordinarily, people wear slightly more formal zori when wearing .


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Geta are worn with the foot overhanging the back and a finger-width of space between the strap and the skin webbing between the toes. The toes pinch the strap to lift the toe of the geta. Wearing them otherwise can make balancing more difficult and blisters more likely.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Sometimes geta are worn in rain to keep the feet dry, due to their extra height and impermeability compared to other footwear such as zori. They make a similar noise to flip-flops slapping against the heel whilst walking, though the inflexibility of geta means that, unlike flip-flops, water and dirt are not flipped up onto the back of the legs.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Geta are not normally worn in snow, because snow often gets stuck to the teeth of the geta, making it difficult to walk. However, in historical times, they were worn in the snow.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Geta may come with removable toe covers for use in cold, snow and rain. Some even come with iceskating blades.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: There are several different styles of geta. The most familiar style consists of an unfinished wooden board called a that the foot is set upon, with a cloth thong (known as the ) passing between the big toe and second toe.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The supporting blocks below the base boards, called the , are also made of wood, usually very light-weight paulownia wood (known as ). If there are two "teeth", the forefront one is placed under the ball of the foot, and the geta pivots on it while walking, while the rear one is placed under the standing center of gravity. The teeth make a distinctive "clacking" sound while walking, referred to as . This is sometimes mentioned as one of the sounds that older Japanese people miss most in modern life. A traditional saying in Japanese translates as "You don't know until you have worn geta." This means roughly, "you can't tell the results until the game is over."


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The original motivation for wearing the high platform shoes was not fashion, but practicality: to keep feet and kimono from coming in contact with things on the ground, such as dirt, filth, water, or snow.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The may vary in shape, from oval shapes to more rectangular, with the former being considered more feminine and the latter more masculine. Geta also vary in colour from natural wood to lacquered or wood-stained varieties. The may also vary in style; for example, geta have only a single centered "tooth". There are also less common geta with three teeth.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: (geisha in training) wear distinctive tall geta called , which are similar to the chopines worn in Venice during the Renaissance. Very young girls also wear (also called and ) that have a small bell inside a cavity in the thick sole. These geta have no teeth, but are formed of one piece of wood. The middle part is carved out from below and the front is sloped to accommodate for walking.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Geta are made of one piece of solid wood forming the sole and two wooden blocks underneath. These blocks may have a metal plate on the section that touches the ground in order to lengthen the life span of the geta. A V-shaped thong of cloth forms the upper part of the sandal.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The teeth are usually not separate, instead, the geta is carved from one block of wood. The tooth is, however, strengthened by a special attachment. The teeth of any geta may have harder wood drilled into the bottom to avoid splitting, and the soles of the teeth may have rubber soles glued onto them.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: The can be wide and padded, or narrow and hard, and can be made with many sorts of fabric. Printed cotton with traditional Japanese motifs is popular, but there are also geta with vinyl and leather . Inside the is a cord (synthetic in modern times, but traditionally hemp) that is knotted in a special way to the three holes of the . In the wide there is some padding as well. The are replaceable. It sits between the two first toes because having the thong of rectangular geta anywhere but the middle would result in the inner back corners of the geta colliding when walking.


title: Geta (footwear)

text: Recently, as Western shoes have become more popular, more Western-looking geta have been developed. They are more round in shape, may have an ergonomically shaped , a thick heel as in Western clogs, instead of separate teeth, and the thong at the side as in flip-flops. According to Japanese superstition, breaking the thong on one's geta is considered very unlucky.


title: WPS Office

text: WPS Office (an acronym for Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, previously known as Kingsoft Office) is an office suite for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and HarmonyOS developed by Zhuhai-based Chinese software developer Kingsoft. It also comes pre-installed on Fire tablets. WPS Office is made up of three primary components: WPS Writer, WPS Presentation, and WPS Spreadsheet. By 2022, WPS Office reached a number of more than 494 million monthly active users and over 1.2 billion installations.


title: WPS Office

text: The personal basic version is free to use. A fully featured professional-grade version is also available for a subscription fee. WPS Office 2016 was released in 2016. As of 2019, the Linux version is developed and supported by a volunteer community rather than Kingsoft itself.


title: WPS Office

text: The product has had a long history of development in China under the name "WPS" and "WPS Office". For a time, Kingsoft branded the suite as "KSOffice" for the international market, but later returned to "WPS Office". Since the release of WPS Office 2005, the user interface is similar to that of Microsoft Office products, and it supports Microsoft document formats in addition to its own files.


title: WPS Office

text: WPS Office was initially known as (Super-WPS Word Processing System, then known simply as WPS) in 1988 as a word processor that ran on DOS systems and sold by then-Hong Kong Kingsun COMPUTER CO. LTD.. It was the first Chinese-language word processor designed and developed for the mainland Chinese market. WPS was used from the late 1980s.


title: WPS Office

text: Faced with competition from Microsoft Office, Kingsoft chief software architect Pak Kwan Kau (求伯君) diverted 4 million Renminbi from his personal account to assist in the development of WPS 97 for Microsoft Windows. In 1997, WPS 97 was released. The next version, WPS 2000, was released two years later. Both products were developed for a 16-bit Windows platform, with the capability of running on 32-bit Windows platforms.


title: WPS Office

text: In May 2001, Kingsoft launched a full office suite under the name WPS Office 2001, which contained a word processor together with spreadsheet and presentation applications. With WPS Office 2001, Kingsoft entered the office productivity market in the People's Republic of China.


title: WPS Office

text: In 2002, WPS Office 2002 was released, adding an email client to the office suite. WPS Office 2002 aimed to maintain interface compatibility with established office products.


title: WPS Office

text: In 2003, WPS Office 2003 was released. The Chinese government made Kingsoft office software the standard for various divisions of the government.


title: WPS Office

text: The 2004 incarnation of the office suite, dubbed "WPS Office Storm", was released in late 2004. It claimed to offer total backward compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats. Unlike previous versions, WPS Storm was based on OpenOffice.org and was the first WPS Office suite to support operating systems other than Microsoft Windows. Kingsoft collaborated with Intel and IBM to integrate its text-to-text and text-to-speech technology into WPS Office Storm.


title: WPS Office

text: In late 2005, WPS Office 2005 was released with a revamped interface and a smaller file size. Besides the Professional edition, a free Simplified Chinese edition was offered for students and home users. A Wine-hosted edition was provided for Linux users of WPS Office Storm.


title: WPS Office

text: In 2007, Kingsoft Office 2007 was released. This was the first version that tried to enter international markets, with support for the English and Japanese languages. The native Chinese-language version continued under the name WPS Office.


title: WPS Office

text: In 2009, Kingsoft Office 2009 was released. It had increased compatibility with Microsoft Office including support for the newer 2007-version file formats.


title: WPS Office

text: In 2011, Kingsoft Office was granted funding from the Chinese government and received further orders from central ministries in China.


title: WPS Office

text: Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 was released in 2011. Kingsoft Office Professional 2012 and Kingsoft Office Standard 2012 were released for sale in February 2012, in addition to Kingsoft Office for Android. The initial release for Android included standard word processor functions such as creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.


title: WPS Office

text: On 28 March 2012 Kingsoft announced that WPS for Linux was under development. It is the third WPS Linux product, following WPS Storm and WPS 2005. It was developed from scratch, based on the Qt framework, as compatible as possible with its Windows counterpart.


title: WPS Office

text: The free and paid versions of Kingsoft Office 2013 were released on 4 June 2013. They consist of three programs: Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentation, which are similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. WPS Office for Linux Alpha 18 Patch 1 was released on 11 June 2015.


title: WPS Office

text: On December 16, 2014, WPS Office 2014 for Windows, build 9.1.0.4932, was released as a subscription model for a monthly charge of US$3 for some features. The free version provided basic features and supported Microsoft Office .doc, .xls, and .ppt file formats. Premium paid versions provided full compatibility for Microsoft Office files. Officially only the paid 2014 version supported saving files in .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats, but, actually, the free version also supported these formats (as had the 2013 free version).


title: WPS Office

text: On June 21, 2016, WPS Office 2016 for Windows became generally available as Freemium software, with no subscription needed for basic features.


title: WPS Office

text: On 28 May 2017 Kingsoft tweeted that the Linux version was at a halt, but denied this a few days later, removed the tweet, and issued a further alpha version. Kingsoft also tweeted making reference to making WPS Office for Linux open-source towards the end of 2017 to allow the Linux community to step in and continue maintaining it, but later deleted this tweet too. Since at least June 2022, the fully functional Linux freeware version "WPS 2021" could simply be downloaded from the WPS website at no cost to the user.


title: WPS Office

text: WPS Office 2019 was released on May 6, 2019. It introduced new integration and personalized features as well as full support for the PDF format.


title: WPS Office

text: On July 22, 2021, WPS Office arrived on Huawei's new HarmonyOS platform on smartphones and tablets with Multi-terminal document service capabilities as a .hap app. HarmonyOS version comes with large-screen presentation, small-screen prompts, text highlighting to focus on key information, full-screen video playback without professional settings, small-screen graffiti, large-screen presentation, picture zoom information at a glance, atomic service on-the-go. Also HarmonyOS version of WPS Office connects the personal version and multi-screen collaboration to improve productivity.


title: WPS Office

text: WPS Office 2016 is available in Free, Premium, and Professional versions, along with versions for Android and iOS. The free version provides basic features and supports Microsoft Office file formats. Some features, such as printing and mail-merge, can be temporarily accessed only after viewing an advertisement, which WPS Office refers to as sponsored access.


title: WPS Office

text: The subscription-based, paid version, called WPS Office 2016 Premium, is available for US$9.99 per 3 months, and makes all features available without viewing advertisements.


title: WPS Office

text: According to an April 2017 review of WPS Office 2016 Free v10.2.0.5871 for Windows, the program opens and saves all Microsoft Office document formats (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, etc.), HTML, RTF, XML, and PDF.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter.


title: Zane Lowe

text: After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through presenting on XFM and MTV Europe (MTV Two), developing a DJ career by opening sets for bands and eventually landing a slot on prime-time radio on BBC Radio 1 from 2003–2015, with the trademark 'Zane Lowe's World Record', airing the UK's best and hottest in music.


title: Zane Lowe

text: In 2015, he was head-hunted by Apple to be the Creative Director of their new world-wide music station, Apple Music 1.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Born in Auckland, Lowe attended Auckland Grammar School and was a presenter on local music station Max TV. Zane was a member of Urban Disturbance, an early 90s hip hop group whose standout hit was "No Flint No Flame" and Breaks Co-Op, alongside Andy Lovegrove and Hamish Clark. Lowe and Clark formed Breaks Co-Op in Auckland, releasing the electronic album "Roofers" in 1997 before they both left New Zealand to travel and pursue other interests. Both would eventually develop their careers in the UK.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Lowe relocated to the UK in 1997. He initially worked at the Record and Tape Exchange in Notting Hill, before being asked to cover for a show on XFM, going on to host XFM's Music Response. In 2003, he joined BBC Radio 1, showcasing new music from around the world.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Also a successful international DJ, he has played sets at festivals including Coachella, Future Music Festival in Australia, Glastonbury, Creamfields and Bestival. He has toured with artists including, Skrillex, The Prodigy, Kasabian and The Weeknd and opened shows for both Muse and Foo Fighters at their concerts at Wembley Stadium. As well as being a regular performer at Ibiza and Mallorca Rocks, Lowe is also Musical Director for the brand, helping to develop and build their artistic and musical output.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Lowe started his career on MTV UK before moving to MTV2 Europe (now MTV Rocks) presenting shows such as "MTV News" (1998-2001), "MTV News Daily Edition" (1999-2001) and "Brand:New" (1999). From 2002 to 2015, he presented "Gonzo", its flagship music show. The show evolved from a two-hour random collection of presenting and clips, to a primetime (7pm) show featuring regular musical guests and interviews. The show was presented solely by Lowe, with the studio effectively being a blue screen and 'Brown Couch'. His presenting manner on "Gonzo" was more laid back than on his radio show. The show featured music videos, music news and input from the channel's message boards. The show also featured mock interview done by a character called Ginger Bloke, in which popular musical artists were humorously "interviewed." Occasionally, moderators of the boards (chosen on "Gonzo" and by the members) contributed; one member even filled in for a week when Lowe was too unwell to present. At Oxegen Festival 2006, Zane Lowe was reportedly "beaten up" by Didz Hammond and Carl Barât from Dirty Pretty Things on an episode of "Gonzo". He has since said that the punch was in fact completely playful but unfortunately, and painfully, connected with his groin.


title: Zane Lowe

text: Lowe's BBC Radio 1 evening show was broadcast from 2003 to 2015, occupying a 7-9PM timeslot on Mondays to Thursdays every week. Lowe's method of DJing was high octane and fast-paced, The show developed a number of features including "Hottest Record In The World Right Now", "masterpieces" and the "Zane Lowe Meets" interviews, including interviews with Jay-Z, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Twenty One Pilots, Eminem and Rick Rubin.


title: Zane Lowe

text: On 15 February 2015 it was announced that Lowe would be leaving BBC Radio 1 in March 2015 to launch a new station with Apple. Lowe presented his last show on 5 March 2015, bowing out with "Song for the Dead" by Queens of the Stone Age, from their 2002 album "Songs for the Deaf".


title: Zane Lowe

text: Between 2007 and 2012, one week per year of Lowe's show was dedicated to albums considered "masterpieces". Each show focused on a different album which Lowe and his team considered to be a classic. The first half of the show was dedicated to interviews and an in-depth look at the album's cultural impact, with the album being played in full in the second half of the show.


title: Zane Lowe

text: In 2011, during a 21 November broadcast of "Masterpieces" featuring The Smashing Pumpkins, Lowe expressed his delight at securing the opportunity to play "Siamese Dream" in full, stating the album to be one of his favourites. Three days later, Lowe announced that 2011 could possibly be the final edition of "Masterpieces", concluding the show with "Hallelujah" from Jeff Buckley's album "Grace", stating that the idea of the feature originally came from the suggestion that the album "Grace" be played on the air from beginning to end. However, Lowe later announced that "Masterpieces" would continue in 2012, with the four chosen albums being announced on 6 November 2012. Lowe himself stated that 2012 was a slightly different year of selection, in that the team chose albums that were of "pure quality, but [haven't] necessarily featured on any traditional 'greatest albums' lists."


title: Zane Lowe

text: At the 2015 Apple WWDC Keynote, Lowe was introduced as one of the DJs of Apple Music 1 (previously Beats 1), a radio station part of Apple Music. He is also the host of the Apple Music show "Planet of the Apps".


title: Zane Lowe

text: Lowe has been the recipient of "NME" Awards and Radio Academy Awards. Lowe has also won the Gold Award in the Specialist Music Programme and Music Broadcaster of the Year categories at the Radio Academy Awards. Lowe recently won the Gold 'Music Radio Broadcaster of the Year' award at the Radio Academy Awards 2014 and, in early 2015, was nominated for a Grammy Award for his writing and production on Sam Smith's hit album "In the Lonely Hour".


title: Zane Lowe

text: Lowe is remembered for saving Ryan Jarman's life at the 2006 "NME" Awards, an incident which "NME" now refers to as "engraved in indie folklore".<ref name="NME 26/01/08">NME 26/01/08</ref> The incident occurred when Jarman's band, the Cribs, accepted an award on behalf of winners Franz Ferdinand. While on his way to collect the trophy from presenter Russell Brand, Jarman dived onto the Kaiser Chiefs' table and pierced his back with broken glass, narrowly missing his vital organs. He was taken to hospital but discharged himself to return for the show's after-party later in the night. However, his injuries were severe and he fell unconscious in a back corridor. Lowe, a fellow guest at the party, found Jarman lying on the floor bleeding profusely and another ambulance was called which took Jarman to hospital where doctors stitched up the injuries along with the ones the first surgeon had missed.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The BMW 02 Series is a range of compact executive cars produced by German automaker BMW between 1966 and 1977, based on a shortened version of the New Class Sedans.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The first 02 Series produced was the 1600-2 (later renamed 1602) in 1966. In 1975, the 02 Series was replaced by the E21 3 Series (except for the 1502 model which continued until 1977).


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The 1600-2, as the first "02 Series" BMW was designated, was an entry-level BMW, and was smaller, less expensive, and less well-appointed than the New Class Sedan on which it was based. BMW's design director Wilhelm Hofmeister assigned the two-door project to staff designers Georg Bertram and Manfred Rennen. With 5 cm (2 in) shorter wheelbase and some 25 cm (10 in) shorter in length, mainly by shortening the rear deck, the lighter weight of the two-door made it more suitable than the original New Class sedan for sporting purposes. As a result, the two door sedan became the basis of the sporting 02 Series.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Beginning in 1967, a convertible based on the 02 body was built by Karosserie Baur. The original design was a full convertible; after 1971 this was replaced by a targa-top model with fixed window frames called a "top cabriolet" (commonly referred to as a cabrio coach). A hatchback, called the Touring model, was developed from the 02 body, being available from 1971. Only 25,827 Touring models were sold before the bodystyle was discontinued in 1974.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: At the Paris Motor Show in 1969, BMW unveiled a fastback 2002 GT4 concept car. This model never reached production.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The 1600-2 (the "-2" meaning "2-door") made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966 and was sold through 1975, with the designation being simplified to "1602" in 1971. The badging on the 1600-2 read simply "1600". The 1.6 L M10 engine produced at 5,700 rpm and at 3,500 rpm. In 1968, Road & Track declared the US$2676 1600 "a great automobile for the price".


title: BMW 02 Series

text: A high performance version, the 1600 TI, was introduced in September 1967. With a compression ratio of 9.5:1 and the dual Solex PHH side-draft carburettor system from the 1800 TI, the 1600 TI produced at 6,000 rpm. Kerb weight for the 1600 TI is . Once the 2002 arrived, the 1600 TI was immediately discontinued.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Also introduced in September 1967 was a limited-production cabriolet, which would be produced by Baur from 1967 through 1971. A hatchback 1600 Touring model was introduced in 1971 but was discontinued in 1972.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Helmut Werner Bönsch, BMW's director of product planning, and Alex von Falkenhausen, designer of the M10 engine, each had a two-litre engine installed in a 1600-2 for their respective personal use. When they realized they had both made the same modification to their own cars, they prepared a joint proposal to BMW's board to manufacture a two-litre version of the 1600-2. At the same time, American importer Max Hoffman was asking BMW for a sporting version of the 02 series that could be sold in the United States.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: As per the larger coupe and 4-door sedan models, the 2.0 engine was sold in two states of tune: the base single-carburetor 2002 producing and the dual-carburetor high compression 2002 ti producing . The 2002 Automatic, with the base engine and a ZF 3HP12 3 speed automatic transmission, became available in 1969.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: In 1971, the Baur cabriolet was switched from the 1.6 L engine to the 2.0 L engine to become the 2002 TopCabriolet, a cabrio coach with a large rollbar and fixed window frames which continued to be available well into 1975. In 1978 Baur presented a TopCabriolet version of the succeeding 3-series as well. The Touring version of the 02 Series became available with all engine sizes at the time, including the 2002 tii (of which only 422 examples were made) as the replacement for the 2002 ti. The 2002 tii used the fuel-injected engine from the 2000 tii, which resulted in a top speed of . A 2002 tii Touring model was available throughout the run of the tii engine and the Touring body, both of which ended production in 1974.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The 2002 turbo (E20) was launched at the 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show. This was Europe's and BMW's first turbocharged production car. It produced at 5,800 rpm, with of torque. The car had a top speed of 211 km/h (131 mph). The 2002 Turbo used the 2002 tii engine with a twin-scroll 0.55 Bar turbocharger developed together with KK&K. The cylinder head was a modified version of the '121TI' design (used on 1972 & earlier 2002s) with larger combustion chambers to give a compression ratio of 6.9:1, in order to prevent engine knocking. A version of the Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection was used with integrated boost enrichment feature and altitude compensation. The car had a larger radiator and an oil cooler as standard, front brakes were a ventilated derivative of the tii brake and rear drums were a 250mm design that would later appear on the E21 3-series. Gearbox was either a strengthened Getrag 232 4-speed (unique to the 2002 turbo) or the Getrag 235/5 close-ratio 5 speed (which was also optional on 2002 tii), this drove through a 3.36:1 limited slip differential to 5.5J13 steel wheels of a similar design to those that would appear later on the E21 The interior added an extra gauge cluster for the boost gauge & clock plus a red instrument panel with 240kmh/150 mph speedometer, sports seats & steering wheel. The steel body featured a different front-panel with additional tow-bracket and air-intake apertures and the front & rear wheel arches are cut-back to allow fitting of wider wheels. These body changes are clothed in fibreglass wheelarch extensions and a front airdam, all bolted to the body, plus a rubber rear spoiler on the trunk lid. Two standard colours were available: Chamonix (white) and Polaris (silver) - and cars featured BMW motorsport colour-scheme stripes/decals on the sides & front airdam. The 2002 Turbo was introduced just before the 1973 oil crisis, therefore only 1,672 were built, as BMW has since said ""BMW had built a car that contradicted the spirit of the times like no automobile before"".


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The 1802 was introduced in 1971 and was available with either the original 2-door sedan body or the 3-door Touring hatchback introduced that year. Power from the 1.8-liter engine is at 5250 rpm. Production of the Touring model continued until 1974, with the 1802 sedan ending production the following year.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The 1502, an economy model with an engine displacement of 1573 cc as the 1602 but lower power of was introduced in 1975. This engine had a lower compression ratio of 8.0:1, therefore standard-octane petrol could be used. While the rest of the 02 Series was replaced in 1975 by the E21 3 Series, the 1502 continued until 1977.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: In 1971, the 02 Series received a facelift. The 3-door hatchback "Touring" body style (badged "2000" initially) and the 1802 model were introduced as part of the facelift, and the 2002ti was replaced by the 2002tii. Other changes included wraparound bumpers for all models, a 2-piece instrument cluster and new seats.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Exterior trim changes, including revised tail-lights (except for Touring models and in the United States, which maintained round tail lights, US models received the revisions for the 1974 model year), grille and kidney trim.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: To celebrate the marriage of racer Hubert Hahne to Diana Körner, twelve custom 2002 ti models were built with changes including twin headlights (from the 2800 CS) a leather interior and Italian aluminium wheels. Each of the twelve cars were painted in a different colour. There are only four known remaining 2002 ti Diana.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: For the 1972 Olympic Games, BMW developed the "1602 Elektro" electric-powered concept vehicle. Two vehicles were produced, and they served as a support vehicle of the long-distance walkers and marathon runners during the games. The pack of twelve lead-acid batteries (located under the bonnet) gave a range of approximately .


title: BMW 02 Series

text: A special Frua-designed coupe body was developed on the basis of a 2002 Ti. Only two were produced in 1969/1970.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The Racing Sportscars database shows the BMW 2002 was used in competitive motorsport from 1968 to 1986, and 2002's were entered in 600 events. There were 2449 entries of cars at these 600 events, with 1520 finishes and 707 retirements (a finishing ratio of 68%).


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Overall event wins totaled 50 (with additional 53 class wins), 57 2nd places and 62 3rd-place finishes.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Dieter Quester & Hubert Hahne won the June 1969 European Touring Car Race (ETCC) at Brand's Hatch, Kent, UK in a BMW 2002 TiK (the ~250BHP turbocharged factory-developed 2002 touring car)


title: BMW 02 Series

text: The BMW 2002 competed in the Trans Am Series under two liter class, although it saw little success as the class was dominated by Alfa Romeo, Porsche, and Datsun. In the golden age of Trans Am (1966–1972), BMW only garnered two race wins (Bryar and Bridgehampton in 1970).


title: BMW 02 Series

text: Hans-Joachim Stuck and Clemens Schickentanz won the inaugural 1970 24 Hours Nürburgring driving a 2002.


title: BMW 02 Series

text: In 2015, BMW introduced a pair of concept cars paying tribute to the BMW 2002 turbo: the 2002 Hommage Concept and the 2002 Hommage Turbomeister Concept.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: Vladimir Zelenko (November 27, 1973 – June 30, 2022) was an American family physician and author known for promoting a three-drug combination of hydroxychloroquine, zinc sulfate, and azithromycin as part of an experimental outpatient treatment for COVID-19 that he called the "Zelenko Protocol". He also promoted unfounded medical advice, conspiracy theories, and misinformation about COVID-19 vaccination.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: On March 23, 2020, Zelenko published an open letter to U.S. president Donald Trump where he claimed to have successfully treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients with a five-day course of his protocol. Zelenko's treatment protocol quickly gained notoriety, with several right-wing media figures and various Trump administration officials promoting it, including Rudy Giuliani and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, despite cautionary messages from health experts.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: Vladimir "Zev" Zelenko was born to Larisa (Portnoy) Zelenko and Alex in Kyiv (then, part of Soviet Ukraine), on November 27, 1973. His father was a taxi driver and his mother worked at a fur factory before working as a computer programmer at Morgan Stanley. His family moved to the U.S. when he was three years old, and settled in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: Zelenko earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2000 from the State University of New York at Buffalo and subsequently specialized in family medicine.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: On March 21, 2020, Zelenko posted a video to YouTube and Facebook addressed to U.S. president Donald Trump, in which he claimed to have successfully tested an experimental treatment for COVID-19 on hundreds of patients with coronavirus-like symptoms. He described the treatment as a three-drug combination consisting of the anti-malarial medication hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin, and zinc sulfate, and posted an open letter to Trump with similar claims two days later. At the time, ongoing research was being conducted by various groups, including the World Health Organization, to determine the efficacy of using hydroxychloroquine and/or azithromycin to treat COVID-19. In March 2020, Alex Kasprak, a science writer for Snopes, noted that since Zelenko did not describe his study design nor publish any data, his claims were unverifiable.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In July 2020, the month after FDA withdrew emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, Zelenko coauthored a retrospective study of 141 COVID-19 outpatients who were prescribed a combination of zinc, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin. Zelenko's study compared the outcomes of treated patients to untreated patients in his New York community, with hospitalization rates of 2.8% for treated patients and 15.4% for untreated. Based on the study, Zelenko said that his combination therapy "resulted in five times less hospitalizations and deaths". Higher quality studies disproved Zelenko's claims, finding that zinc, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin did not improve serious outcomes of COVID-19. The National Institutes of Health ultimately recommended against the use of zinc, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in treatments for COVID-19.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: The Satmar Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, New York in Monroe, New York, where Zelenko was a long-time community physician, disputed Zelenko's claims about the potential infection rate in the community, which prompted Zelenko to shut down his office after nearly 20 years.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In December 2020, Twitter suspended Zelenko's account for violating rules against "platform manipulation and spam".


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In 2021, Zelenko began selling a dietary supplement called Z-Stack, which contained zinc and several vitamins. Fact-checkers noted the lack of scientific support for Zelenko's claims of Z-Stack's ingredients boosting immunity, killing the virus that causes COVID-19, and preventing hospitalization.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In January 2022, Zelenko claimed that children are more likely to die from COVID-19 vaccines than from COVID-19.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In April 2020, Zelenko presented a lecture over Zoom to a group of physicians, in which he alleged that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted approval to a clinical trial he was helping organize. The lecture was attended by conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, who had been collaborating with Zelenko on a telemedicine website. Corsi inadvertently sent an email mentioning that Zelenko had "an FDA approved randomized test of HCQ underway" to federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, instead of Zelenko. Zelinsky, who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller's team, had previously questioned Corsi during the investigation of Roger Stone.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: According to Corsi, Zelinsky responded to his email and asked whether he had an attorney, and subsequently informed Corsi's attorney that he had discovered that Zelenko's study was not listed on a government website of FDA-approved clinical trials. Zelinsky requested all communications between Corsi and Zelenko, including text messages, podcast documents, and marketing materials for their website, which Corsi supplied. Zelenko denied any wrongdoing and said that he thought that his study had FDA approval because he had spoken with FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn.


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: In 2019, Zelenko published an autobiography, "Metamorphosis", that explores his journey and transformation from an irreligious, Jewish Russian-American young man to a "baal teshuva" (newly religious Jew), which helped him form close ties with many diverse Jewish communities, and how circumstances in his life provided him with the willpower to overcome the challenges he has been handed, including a life-threatening disease. Zelenko also lectured about his personal story and the book he wrote about it. He also told of his personal journey in "Mishpacha" magazine. Also in 2019, Zelenko co-authored with one of his sons, Levi Yitzchok Zelenko, a book about Kabbalah, on Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, called "Essence To Essence", which "describes the metaphysical dynamics shared by science, medicine, psychology, economics, law, and politics".


title: Vladimir Zelenko

text: Zelenko died at a hospital in Dallas where he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer on June 30, 2022, at the age of 48.


title: Knitting

text: Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.


title: Knitting

text: Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or in "the round" (tubular). There are usually many "active stitches" on the knitting needle at one time. Knitted fabric consists of a number of consecutive rows of connected loops that intermesh with the next and previous rows. As each row is formed, each newly created loop is pulled through one or more loops from the prior row and placed on the "gaining needle so" that the loops from the prior row can be pulled off the other needle without unraveling.


title: Knitting

text: Differences in yarn (varying in fibre type, "weight", uniformity and "twist"), needle size, and stitch type allow for a variety of knitted fabrics with different properties, including color, texture, thickness, heat retention, water resistance, and integrity. A small sample of knitwork is known as a "swatch".


title: Knitting

text: Like weaving, knitting is a technique for producing a two-dimensional fabric made from a one-dimensional yarn or thread. In weaving, threads are always straight, running parallel either lengthwise (warp threads) or crosswise (weft threads). By contrast, the yarn in knitted fabrics follows a meandering path (a "course"), forming symmetric loops (also called bights) symmetrically above and below the mean path of the yarn. These meandering loops can be easily stretched in different directions giving knit fabrics much more elasticity than woven fabrics. Depending on the yarn and knitting pattern, knitted garments can stretch as much as 500%. For this reason, knitting was initially developed for garments that must be elastic or stretch in response to the wearer's motions, such as socks and hosiery. For comparison, woven garments stretch mainly along one or other of a related pair of directions that lie roughly diagonally between the warp and the weft, while contracting in the other direction of the pair (stretching and contracting with the "bias"), and are not very elastic, unless they are woven from stretchable material such as spandex. Knitted garments are often more form-fitting than woven garments, since their elasticity allows them to contour to the body's outline more closely; by contrast, curvature is introduced into most woven garments only with sewn darts, flares, gussets and gores, the seams of which lower the elasticity of the woven fabric still further. Extra curvature can be introduced into knitted garments without seams, as in the heel of a sock; the effect of darts, flares, etc. can be obtained with short rows or by increasing or decreasing the number of stitches. Thread used in weaving is usually much finer than the yarn used in knitting, which can give the knitted fabric more bulk and less drape than a woven fabric.


title: Knitting

text: If they are not secured, the loops of a knitted course will come undone when their yarn is pulled; this is known as "ripping out", "unravelling" knitting, or humorously, "frogging" (because you 'rip it', this sounds like a frog croaking: 'rib-bit'). To secure a stitch, at least one new loop is passed through it. Although the new stitch is itself unsecured ("active" or "live"), it secures the stitch(es) suspended from it. A sequence of stitches in which each stitch is suspended from the next is called a "wale". To secure the initial stitches of a knitted fabric, a method for casting on is used; to secure the final stitches in a wale, one uses a method of binding/casting off. During knitting, the active stitches are secured mechanically, either from individual hooks (in knitting machines) or from a knitting needle or frame in hand-knitting.


title: Knitting

text: There are two major varieties of knitting: weft knitting and warp knitting. In the more common "weft knitting", the wales are perpendicular to the course of the yarn. In warp knitting, the wales and courses run roughly parallel. In weft knitting, the entire fabric may be produced from a single yarn, by adding stitches to each wale in turn, moving across the fabric as in a raster scan. By contrast, in warp knitting, one yarn is required for every wale. Since a typical piece of knitted fabric may have hundreds of wales, warp knitting is typically done by machine, whereas weft knitting is done by both hand and machine. Warp-knitted fabrics such as tricot and milanese are resistant to runs, and are commonly used in lingerie.


title: Knitting

text: Weft-knit fabrics may also be knit with multiple yarns, usually to produce interesting color patterns. The two most common approaches are intarsia and stranded colorwork. In intarsia, the yarns are used in well-segregated regions, e.g., a red apple on a field of green; in that case, the yarns are kept on separate spools and only one is knitted at any time. In the more complex stranded approach, two or more yarns alternate repeatedly within one row and all the yarns must be carried along the row, as seen in Fair Isle sweaters. Double knitting can produce two separate knitted fabrics simultaneously (e.g., two socks). However, the two fabrics are usually integrated into one, giving it great warmth and excellent drape.


title: Knitting

text: In securing the previous stitch in a wale, the next stitch can pass through the previous loop from either below or above. If the former, the stitch is denoted as a 'knit stitch' or a 'plain stitch;' if the latter, as a 'purl stitch'. The two stitches are related in that a knit stitch seen from one side of the fabric appears as a purl stitch on the other side.


title: Knitting

text: The two types of stitches have a different visual effect; the knit stitches look like 'V's stacked vertically, whereas the purl stitches look like a wavy horizontal line across the fabric. Patterns and pictures can be created in knitted fabrics by using knit and purl stitches as "pixels"; however, such pixels are usually rectangular, rather than square, depending on the gauge/tension of the knitting. Individual stitches, or rows of stitches, may be made taller by drawing more yarn into the new loop (an elongated stitch), which is the basis for uneven knitting: a row of tall stitches may alternate with one or more rows of short stitches for an interesting visual effect. Short and tall stitches may also alternate within a row, forming a fish-like oval pattern.


title: Knitting

text: In the simplest of hand-knitted fabrics, every row of stitches are all knit (or all purl); this creates a garter stitch fabric. Alternating rows of all knit stitches and all purl stitches creates a stockinette pattern/stocking stitch. Vertical stripes (ribbing) are possible by having alternating wales of knit and purl stitches. For example, a common choice is 2x2 ribbing, in which two wales of knit stitches are followed by two wales of purl stitches, etc. Horizontal striping (welting) is also possible, by alternating "rows" of knit and purl stitches. Checkerboard patterns (basketweave) are also possible, the smallest of which is known as "seed/moss stitch": the stitches alternate between knit and purl in every wale and along every row.


title: Knitting

text: Fabrics in which each knitted row is followed by a purled row, such as in stockinette/stocking stitch, have a tendency to curl—top and bottom curl toward the front (or knitted side) while the sides curl toward the back (or purled side); by contrast, those in which knit and purl stitches are arranged symmetrically (such as ribbing, garter stitch or seed/moss stitch) have more texture and tend to lie flat. Wales of purl stitches have a tendency to recede, whereas those of knit stitches tend to come forward, giving the fabric more stretchability. Thus, the purl wales in ribbing tend to be invisible, since the neighboring knit wales come forward. Conversely, rows of purl stitches tend to form an embossed ridge relative to a row of knit stitches. This is the basis of shadow knitting, in which the appearance of a knitted fabric changes when viewed from different directions.


title: Knitting

text: Typically, a new stitch is passed through a single unsecured ('active') loop, thus lengthening that wale by one stitch. However, this need not be so; the new loop may be passed through an already secured stitch lower down on the fabric, or even between secured stitches (a dip stitch). Depending on the distance between where the loop is drawn through the fabric and where it is knitted, dip stitches can produce a subtle stippling or long lines across the surface of the fabric, e.g., the lower leaves of a flower. The new loop may also be passed between two stitches in the 'present' row, thus clustering the intervening stitches; this approach is often used to produce a smocking effect in the fabric. The new loop may also be passed through 'two or more' previous stitches, producing a decrease and merging wales together. The merged stitches need not be from the same row; for example, a tuck can be formed by knitting stitches together from two different rows, producing a raised horizontal welt on the fabric.