title: Psychobilly

text: The bass is often played in the slap style, in which the player snaps the string by pulling it until it hits the fingerboard, or hits the strings against the fingerboard, which adds a high-pitched percussive "clack" or "slap" sound to the low-pitched notes. Kim Nekroman and Geoff Kresge are two examples of psychobilly bassists who have developed a rapid, percussive slap bass technique. This live Nekromantix song showcases Kim's rapid percussive slapping.


title: Psychobilly

text: Psychobilly bassists often use gut strings, to get the deep, low 1950s tone. Like rockabilly bassists, psychobilly bassists often use both a bridge pickup and a fingerboard pickup, with the latter being used to pick up slapping and percussive sounds. Psychobilly bassists often decorate their basses by painting them with retro pin-up style images or designs or by putting stickers on them.


title: Psychobilly

text: Some acts have made their upright bass the centerpiece of their stage shows; some psychobilly musicians elaborately decorate their upright bass, such as Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman, whose "coffinbass" is in the shape of a coffin, with a headstock in the shape of a cross. Nekroman created his original "coffinbass" from an actual child-sized coffin, and has since designed new models to achieve better acoustics, as well as collapsibility for easier transportation. Another notable act to use a coffin-shaped bass is the Brazilian psychobilly band Os Catalepticos. HorrorPops frontwoman Patricia Day also uses an elaborately painted and decorated double bass.


title: Psychobilly

text: The Cramps performed without a bass player in their early career, using two guitars instead. They did not add a bass guitar to their arrangement until 1986, and have used an electric bass since that time. Cramps guitarist/bassist Poison Ivy sees this as one of the distinctions that separate the band from the psychobilly movement: "I think psychobilly has evolved into a gamut of things... It seems to involve upright bass and playing songs extremely fast. That's certainly not what we do."


title: Psychobilly

text: Samantha Von Trash's history of psychobilly lists 13 essential albums for people new to psychobilly: The Cramps: "Songs the Lord Taught Us"; Reverend Horton Heat: "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em"; The Misfits: "Static Age"; Social Distortion: "Mommy's Little Monster"; "The Essential Johnny Cash"; Cult of the Psychic Fetus: "Funeral Home Sessions"; Cult of the Psychic Fetus: "She Devil"; Demented Are Go: "Satan's Rejects"; 7 Shot Screamers: "Keep the Flame Alive"; Nekromantix: "Curse of the Coffin"; "Rockabilly Riot!" compilation; Thee Merry Widows' self-titled EP; Stray Cats: either "Built For Speed" or "Rock This Town".


title: Psychobilly

text: The performance style in psychobilly concerts emphasizes high energy and a lot of interactions between the band members and with the audience. The HorrorPops sometimes switch instruments for fun, and Kim Nekroman does stunts such as playing the fingerboard of his Coffinbass with his tongue. Demented are Go are known for their wild stage show, which included simulated on-stage sex with a vacuum cleaner. The Australian band Zombie Ghost Train were known for appearing on stage in "zombified" clothes, featuring rips and bloodstains, and zombie make up, complete with fake stitches across the face.


title: Psychobilly

text: The Phenomenauts are known for their inventive and fun-filled live shows, which often include smoke machines, the Streamerator 2000, and various on-stage theatrics. Big John Bates was banned in one venue due to concerns about their overly risque stage antics. Deadbolt is known for its use of power tools during their live sets, and it is customary for the audience to be showered with sparks of red-hot metal during their live shows. King Kurt, a 1980s band, was known for its infamous "food fight" gigs, in which eggs and bags of flour were thrown around on and off stage and audience members were given free haircuts. "King Kurt had a bad reputation for doing things that would make people question the band's stability. These included going on stage in dresses, dressed as Zulus, and playing drinking games on stage. Tabloids often accused them of mixing drugs ... into whatever they made people drink on stage, tossing dead animals into the crowds, and rampant sex occurring as they played."


title: Psychobilly

text: "At any psychobilly show, you might see some dancing... only, it's not your average dancing. That would be what's called "wrecking". According to wreckingpit.com, wrecking is more like a demented hybrid of "slam-dancing and freestyle wrestling". It's basically the semi-official psycho happy-dance, hence the Nekromantix song, "Struck By a Wrecking Ball"." "Originally, the dancing was known as 'going mental' – this type of dancing eventually became known as 'stomping', and then finally took on its official name: 'wrecking. One definition of "wrecking" is "a strange form of dance that can best be described as a combination of slam dancing, swing dancing, and fistfights."


title: Psychobilly

text: Lyrically, psychobilly bands tend to favor topics and imagery drawn from horror, science fiction and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other taboo topics, usually presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion reminiscent of the camp aesthetic. Shawn McIntosh and Marc Leverette note that while rockabilly and punk scenes took their retro "nostalgia very seriously, striving for authenticity", in the psychobilly scene, the "aesthetics of kitsch, camp and cheese" are openly embraced.


title: Psychobilly

text: Psychobilly bands drew on "all eras of horror, from Gothic novels and classic films to schlocky cold war flicks to psychological thrillers and splatter films." Psychobilly songs make reference to slashers (The Meteor's "Michael Myers") and serial killers (e.g., The Frantic Flintstone's "Jack the Ripper"). Most acts avoid "serious" subjects such as politics. Original psychobilly act The Meteors articulated a very apolitical stance to the scene, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes dividing British youth cultures of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This attitude has carried through later generations of psychobilly. Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman describes: "We are all different people and have different political views. Psychobilly is all about having fun. Politics is not fun and therefore has nothing to do with psychobilly!"


title: Psychobilly

text: 1980 was an important year for Britain. Recently elected Margaret Thatcher's policies led to a drastic decline in employment, especially among the blue collared and youth (Kim, 2005). A year later, there were five race riots within the London area... On a political level, London was incredibly tense. Fans of psychobilly (known as psychos) wanted none of this, or at the very least a break from the stress created by the political world. By establishing an unwritten rule that the music was to be apolitical, psychobilly music became a method of escape from the real world.


title: Psychobilly

text: Katz notes that at the "same time [in the 1980s], the revival of the B-movie, particularly the return of horror movies, occurred...[,] such as "The Howling", "The Shining", a remake of "The Thing", "Friday the 13th", and "An American Werewolf in London" (All 80s Movies). Psychos gravitated towards these movies due to their lack of seriousness, mindless gore, and enjoyed the throwback to the original B-movies of the 1950s."


title: Psychobilly

text: According to Nate Katz, "in its early days, Psychobilly relied almost entirely on word of mouth to be spread throughout London... If your friends did not know of it [a band or gig], the odds were that you did not either." The then manager of The Meteors, Nick Garrard, produced a magazine called 'Cat Talk' which was heavy on Meteors content & their new style of Psychobilly music. One of the band's original fans (Proff) produced gig flyers with a heavy horror/Frankenstein theme. Roy Williams of Nervous Records created a newsletter that would be passed around known as 'Zorch News', which allowed fans to keep up with psychobilly news that specifically related to bands involved with Nervous Records. "Despite being starved of the oxygen of mainstream music press attention for more than 25 years, psychobilly has thrived in the underground[,] building a network of fiercely loyal followers and producing a huge number of bands who each peddle their own brand of the genre." Fanzines are one of the ways the psychobilly scene created a social network, with "Deathrow" being the "...only long running psychobilly fanzine."


title: Psychobilly

text: Psychobilly musicians and fans, who are sometimes called "psychos" or just "Psychobillies", often dress in styles that borrow from 1950s rockabilly and rock and roll, as well as 1970s punk fashions. Long "Old Mans" overcoats, army trousers, bleached jeans & Dr Martin Boots were all part of the early "Psycho" uniform along with band logo T-shirts. Heavily painted and studded leather jackets were also worn. This was topped off by a 1950s style quiff or flat-top, often bleached with shaved back and sides. Psychobilly band members of both sexes often have prominent tattoos, often with a vintage theme. Psychobilly "tattoos followed the same general notions as band designs, being highly influenced by the same movies. Common tattoos were images of the macabre nature such as bats, skulls, gravestones, as well as the occasional pin-up doll and band logo." The goal of the psychobilly scene member is to "live fast, die young, and leave a (not so) beautiful corpse."


title: Psychobilly

text: Other aesthetic later influences include the scooterboy and skinhead subcultures, although not all performers or fans choose to dress in these styles. Scooterboy fashion includes flight jackets, mechanic's jackets, and motorcycle jackets. "Skinheads brought in things such as Doc Martens and pilot jackets ... [and] Punks brought in clothes such as the leather jacket and tighter clothing[;] Beneath the jacket was often a band T-shirt or a tartan shirt taken from rockabillies" Psychos often cut the arms off of their leather jackets, converting them into vests, and decorate the jackets with horror imagery or band logos.


title: Psychobilly

text: Men often wear brothel creepers or Dr. Martens boots and shave their heads into high wedge-shaped pompadours or quiffs, military-style crops, or mohawks. The Sharks song "Take a Razor to Your Head" articulated the early psychobilly scene's code of dress, which was a reaction to the earlier British Teddy Boy movement: Teddy boys had long, strongly-moulded greased-up hair with a quiff at the front and the side combed back to form a duck's arse at the rear. The Shark's song said: "When your Mom says you look really nice / When you're dressed up like a Ted / It's time to follow this cat's advice / Take a razor to your head". "Like most hairstyles of the 1980s, things were taken to the extreme. People [in the psychobilly scene] tried to get their hair as tall as possible and brought in streaks of strange colors."


title: Sam Childers

text: Sam Childers (born 1963), also known as the Machine Gun Preacher, is an American motorcyclist, author, and humanitarian. A Detroit Highwaymen Motorcycle Club member, Childers became well known after Dateline NBC's (Keith Morrison and Tim Sandler) story about him and his interactions with Joseph Kony (leader of the Lord's Resistance Army) in 2005 and now dedicates his life and resources to rescue children in the war zone of South Sudan. Childers and his wife Lynn founded and operate Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village Orphanage in Nimule, South Sudan, where they currently have around 185 children in their care. Childers also has orphanages and homes in Uganda and Ethiopia with another 160 children in his organisation's care.


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Paul Childers, an ironworker and former Marine. Childers had two older brothers, Paul Jr. and George. He also had a sister, Donna, who died of a heart problem before she was a year old. While he was growing up, his parents moved the family from place to place, following construction projects.


title: Sam Childers

text: In the spring of 1974, shortly before Childers turned 12, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Going into seventh grade he discovered cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol and heroin, which led to many years of drug addiction, drug dealing, and alcoholism. Childers also developed a love for motorcycles and the lifestyle that led him to become a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers married a woman named Lynn before converting to Christianity, and had a daughter (Paige) and a son.


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers converted to Christianity in mid-1992, with the help of his 1st wife, during a revival meeting at an Assembly of God church. That same evening Childers' pastor allegedly prophesied that he would go to Africa. At the end of 1997, Childers made his first trip to Sudan. In that first trip and the many that followed, he was exposed to the acts of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which he described as atrocious.


title: Sam Childers

text: Not long after his first trip to Sudan, Childers and his then wife Lynn founded the Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village in Southern Sudan. The Children’s Village currently houses and educates over 180 (figures update 2021) orphans, with over a thousand children rescued since its conception. The staff at the Children's Village are primarily Sudanese orphans and widows themselves.


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers details the events of his life and his experiences in Africa in his book "Another Man's War". The book bears the endorsement from South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit: "The Reverend Sam Childers has been a very close friend to the government of South Sudan for many years and is a trusted friend."


title: Sam Childers

text: In November 2009, Childers appeared on Debra Peppers' television show "Outreach Connection" in Quincy, Illinois. He revealed that he also rescues children abducted in northern Uganda.


title: Sam Childers

text: In 2011, Relativity Media released a biopic about Childers entitled "Machine Gun Preacher", which was based on Childers' book "Another Man's War". The film was written by Jason Keller and directed by Marc Forster. The cast featured Gerard Butler in the title role, Michelle Monaghan as Childers' wife Lynn, and Michael Shannon as his best friend Donnie.


title: Sam Childers

text: In 2014, a documentary with the same title was produced by Angels of East Africa, and filmed/edited by Australians Kevin Evans and Zac Simpson. It was released globally by Heritage Films in Australia and in North America by Vision Films (US).


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers did a speaking tour of UK churches, organisations, businesses, rehab centers, and prisons in 2018. He was interviewed on video in Tamworth, UK.


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers has faced criticism over his actions and representation of himself. "Foreign Policy" cast doubt on Childers' stories of rescue, stating that "[i]t would take a miracle for all of Childers’s claims to be completely true." It also asserted that the operations of other aid workers are imperiled by Childers' actions. Additionally, the SPLA distanced itself from Childers, stating via a spokesman that "The SPLA does not know Sam Childers."


title: Sam Childers

text: In 2014, Childers' home and ministry properties were the subjects of a raid by the FBI and the IRS. In 2019, Childers was cleared of all charges by the FBI and the IRS.


title: Sam Childers

text: Other criticism includes allegations that orphanages started by Childers have been poorly run, and that Childers has not made a visit in years. A "Vanity Fair" profile compared Childers' demeanor toward some villagers as "bullying."


title: Sam Childers

text: Childers' NGO Angels of East Africa (AOEA) employs 300 people in a security company in Kampala, Uganda, and around 200 in his orphanages and other projects. He owns and operates training centers for displaced young people (mostly victims of war), restaurants, accommodations, a large truck stop and service center in northern Uganda, and a 1,000-acre farm in Nwoya.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani (, ), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, Goizha and Qaiwan Mountains in the northeast, Baranan Mountain in the south and the Tasluja Hills in the west. The city has a semi-arid climate with very hot dry summers and cold wet winters.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: From its foundation Sulaymaniyah was always a center of great poets, writers, historians, politicians, scholars and singers, such as Nalî, Mahwi, and Piramerd. The modern city of Sulaymaniyah was founded in 1784 by the Ottoman-Kurdish prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban, who named it after his father Sulaiman Pasha. Sulaymaniyah was the capital of the historic principality of Baban from 1784 to 1850.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: The region of Sulaymaniyah was known as "Zamwa" prior to the foundation of the modern city in 1784. The capital of the Kurdish Baban principality (1649–1850), before Sulaymaniyah, was a territory named "Qelaçiwalan". At the time of the Babani's rule there were major conflicts between the Safavid dynasty and the Ottoman Empire. Qelaçiwalan became a battleground for the two rivals.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Being of strategic importance and lying deep inside Safavid territory, there was concern that Qelaçiwalan would be attacked and captured if the Babani did not give the Safavids military support, as both Sultan Mahmud II and Nader Shah were trying to gain the support of the dispersed Kurdish Emirates. This obliged Mahmud Pasha of Baban in 1781 to think about moving the center of the emirate to a safer place. He chose Melkendî, then a village but now a district in central Sulaymaniyah, to construct a number of "" for his political and armed units.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In 1783, Ibrahim Pasha Baban became ruler of the emirate and began the reconstruction of a city which once constructed by Ottoman Sultan Sulaiman (the name of Sulaimaniyah came from his name) new city which would become its capital. In 1784 he finished erecting a number of palaces for trade called "Qeyserîs" and bazaars, which were also used as baths, and began inviting people from the surrounding villages and emirates to move to the newly established city. Soon Melkendî, which was originally intended to be the city itself, instead became one of its quarters. The new city of Sulaymaniyah was named after Sulaiman Baba, who was the first Baban prince to gain control of the province of Şarezûr. Sulaiman Baba invaded the neighboring Kurdish vassaldom of Ardalan, defeating their forces in 1694. Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II assigned him the district of Baban.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In the early 1800s refugees from Ardalan moved to Sulaymaniyah, including Mastura Ardalan, the widow of Xosraw Xanî Erdalan, the ruler of the kingdom. Erdalan wrote an account of Kurdish history in Persian and was buried in Sulaymaniyah when he died in 1848.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: From 1922 to 1924, Sulaymaniyah was the capital of the Kingdom of Kurdistan, a short-lived unrecognized state declared by Iraqi Kurds following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In 1820, only 36 years after the creation of the city, a British man named Rech visited the city and estimated that its population was more than ten thousand, containing 2,144 families of which 2,000 were Muslim, 130 Jewish, and 14 Christian.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Ottoman documents from 1907 suggest that there were 8,702 Muslim and 360 non-Muslim residents living in the city at that time.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: The "Peshkawtin" newspaper which was distributed in Sulaymaniyah in 1920 estimated its population to be around ten thousand.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: According to Iraqi government documents, by 1947 the number of residents had increased to 23,475; by 1998 to 548,747, and in 2015 to an estimated 656,100. The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani estimated the number of inhabitants in 2016 at 800,000


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: The city is located in northern Iraq and Southern Kurdistan. Of the main population centers in the country, it is characterized by its cooler summer temperatures and its rainier winters. Average temperatures range from . In the winters, there can be a significant amount of snow. Snow falls every year or two.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: The University of Sulaymaniyah was opened in 1968 with instruction in Kurdish, Arabic, and English. It has faculties in engineering, agriculture, the arts, science, and medicine. It is the largest university in the Kurdistan Region. A second university, Sulaimani Polytechnic University was established in 2012, also teaching in Kurdish, English and Arabic.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In 2007 The American University of Iraq – Sulaimani, (AUI-S) was a new addition to the American universities in the Middle East, graduating its fifth class in 2016. Instruction at this private, not-for-profit liberal arts university is in English only, featuring a US-accredited program in English as a Second Language (ESL). There are a number of other private universities.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Two independent newspapers "Hawlati" and "Awena" and two independent political magazines "Lvin" and "Shock", are published and distributed in Sulaymaniyah city. Since 2016, there exists an International Film Festival in the city which is organized by the College of Fine Arts of the University of Sulaymanya.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Sulaymaniyah is the only city in South Kurdistan that regularly celebrates World Music Day or Fête de la Musique. In one trip to the city, a journalist working for the BBC wrote about Sulaymaniyah's distinct culture:"Culture is hugely important to the Kurdish people, especially in Sulaymaniyah, but there is a strong pull to the west—modernisation and consumerism—driven perhaps by the satellite televisions they have had access to since they started running their own affairs...And at the university, students mill around the campus, chattering with each other and doing some last-minute cramming for their exams. The war only stopped lectures for a few weeks. There are probably more women than men and they are happy to air their views to anyone who asks."


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Since 2003, Sulaymaniyah has experienced a growing local economy. Its economy today relies on tourism, agriculture and a number of small factories, most of which are involved in the building trade.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In 2004 the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis in Iraq released an in-depth survey of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate in which they surveyed each city. In this survey, one can see the economic boom of 2003 mentioned earlier.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: Sulaymaniyah attracted more than 15,000 Iranian tourists in the first quarter of 2010, many drawn by the fact it is not subject to strict laws faced at home. Newroz 2010 drew an exodus of Iranian tourists choosing to celebrate the event in the region.


title: Sulaymaniyah

text: In recent years, many people in Sulaymaniyah have distanced themselves from Kurdish nationalism as the Kurdistan Workers Party is experiencing a surge.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began; it is one of the eight original franchises. The team is owned by Robert Sarver, who also owns the NBA team Phoenix Suns.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: The Mercury have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in fifteen of its twenty-four years in Phoenix. The franchise has been home to players such as former UConn Diana Taurasi, Rutgers grad Cappie Pondexter, former Temple power forward Candice Dupree, former Baylor center Brittney Griner, and Australian guard Penny Taylor. In 1998, 2007, 2009, 2014, and 2021 the Mercury went to the WNBA Finals; they lost to Houston in 1998, but won the title in 2007, 2009, and 2014 over Detroit, Indiana, and Chicago respectively.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: With a cast that included hall-of-famer Nancy Lieberman, and possible future hall-of-famers Michele Timms of Australia, and Jennifer Gillom, hyper-active star Bridget Pettis, and outspoken coach Cheryl Miller, the Mercury quickly established itself as a major franchise. In the very first WNBA season, the Mercury posted a 16–12 record and reached the first WNBA playoffs. The Mercury lost to the New York Liberty, though, in those playoffs.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In 1998, the Mercury again qualified for the playoffs, posting a 19–11 record. The Mercury defeated the Cleveland Rockers to reach the WNBA Finals for the first time. In a hard-fought series, the Mercury fell 2 games to 1 to the defending champion Houston Comets.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In 1999, the Mercury missed the playoffs, posting a 15–17 record. In 2000, the Mercury finished 20–12, but got swept by the Los Angeles Sparks. The team descended into turmoil after the season, as coach Miller left and the original core group of players broke up, via retirement or trades, and the team stopped being a playoff contender.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: From 2001 to 2004, the Mercury were at the bottom of the WNBA. Fielding miserable teams, the Mercury were never competitive. The Mercury went through coach after coach, and nothing worked. During the lean years, the franchise remained in the news as forward Lisa Harrison would become a sex symbol. Playboy Magazine offered her money to pose in their magazine. She would decline the offer.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: After a horrible 2003 season, in which the Mercury posted an 8–26 record, the Mercury won the #1 overall choice in the 2004 WNBA Draft, and select coveted former UConn star Diana Taurasi. Taurasi went on to win the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award in the 2004 season, as the Mercury posted a better 17–17 record. The Mercury posted a 16–18 record in 2005, missing the playoffs again.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: Former NBA coach Paul Westhead became the Mercury's head coach prior to the 2006 season and brought his up-tempo style to Phoenix. Westhead was the first WNBA coach to have won a previous NBA championship (1980 LA Lakers). The Mercury also drafted Cappie Pondexter with the #2 overall selection in the 2006 WNBA Draft. The addition provided Taurasi with a solid #2 player. Westhead's run and gun offense quickly became The Mercury's trademark and the franchise would soon set new league records for points scored.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: The 2006 season was a positive one for the Mercury, as they posted a winning record for the first time since 2000, at 18–16. The Mercury competed for the playoffs all year, but fell just short of a postseason berth.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: As the 2007 season came, the Mercury were poised and hungry for a deep playoff run. The Mercury would run away with the Western Conference, posting their best record in franchise history at 23–11, as well as clinching the #1 seed. The Mercury set a record by averaging 89.0 points in a season during 2007. In their first playoffs since 2000, the Mercury made quick work of the Seattle Storm in the first round, blowing them out in two games (Game 1: 101–84, Game 2: 95–89). In the Western Finals, the Mercury swept the San Antonio Silver Stars in a closer series (Game 1: 102–100, Game 2: 98–92), advancing to the WNBA Finals for the first time in nine years. In the Finals, the Mercury faced the defending 2006 champions Detroit Shock. The two teams split the first two games in Detroit. Coming back home, the Mercury suffered a letdown in game 3, losing 88–83. Down 2–1, the Mercury had to win game 4 or lose. Game 4 came down to the final seconds, but the Mercury edged out the Shock 77–76, with Cappie Pondexter scoring 26 points, and forced a Game 5 in Detroit. In Game 5, Phoenix won by a score of 108–92. Penny Taylor scored a game high 30 points in Game 5, and went 18-for-18 from the line. The Mercury won the series and their first championship with a 108–92 Game 5 victory, becoming the first WNBA team to win a championship on the road. Cappie Pondexter was named the WNBA Finals MVP, and averaged 22.0 points and 5.6 assists in the series. On November 7, 2007, The Mercury announced the hiring of Corey Gaines as head coach to replace the departing Paul Westhead.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In 2008, the Mercury started slowly and never really found a groove, finishing the season with a disappointing record of 16–18, well out of the playoff picture in a tough Western Conference. The Mercury became the first team in WNBA history with the dubious honor of failing to qualify for the playoffs after winning the WNBA Finals the year before.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: However, a year later, the Mercury were back to what they were two years before. The Mercury clinched the top spot in the playoffs along with the number one seed in the Western Conference. The Mercury defeated the 2008 conference champion San Antonio Silver Stars in the first round, winning the very exciting series 2–1 after losing the first game on the road. The Mercury then defeated the Los Angeles Sparks in the conference finals, winning 2–1 in a series that ended Lisa Leslie's career. The Mercury then went on to beat the Indiana Fever 3–2 in the best of 5 series to capture the second title in their franchise history. Diana Taurasi captured the WNBA Finals MVP Award. All-star guard Cappie Pondexter was traded to the New York Liberty amid some controversy in the offseason; All-Star Candice Dupree joined the duo of Taurasi and Penny Taylor as the Mercury looked to repeat in 2010.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: It was not easy, however, as the Mercury faced a few bad losing streaks throughout the 2010 season. The team managed to finish 15–19, good for second place in the Western Conference. Phoenix swept San Antonio in the first round of the Playoffs, but lost to the eventual champion Seattle Storm in the conference finals.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: After a hectic offseason for Diana Taurasi, most of the Mercury team was rested and ready to play. The team started the 2011 season with a surprising 0–3 record, but flew back into playoff contention, entering the All-Star break with a 10–5 record. Ultimately, they recovered to gain the third seed in the 2011 WNBA Playoffs, and upset the Seattle Storm in the opening round, closing an 18-point deficit to win on Seattle's home floor, allowing the Mercury to reach its third straight conference finals. Unfortunately, for the team, they came up short against the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, losing in two games.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: Coming off the 2012 WNBA season in which the Phoenix Mercury franchise finished with the second worst record in the WNBA, a 7–27 mark, Phoenix received the 2013 WNBA draft lottery and secured the top overall pick. Once the 2013 WNBA Draft arrived in April 2013, the Mercury used the top overall pick on two time Women's College Basketball Wooden award winner Brittney Griner. However, the Mercury lost to the Lynx in the Conference round of the playoffs.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: The following season the Mercury under the guidance of new coach Sandy Brondello went on to set an all time WNBA record for wins in a season, with 29, and breezed through the 2014 playoffs to claim their 3rd WNBA Championship.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: On February 3, 2015, Diana Taurasi announced that she would sit out the 2015 WNBA season at the request of her Russian Premier League team, UMMC Ekaterinburg. The team offered Taurasi to pay her more than her WNBA salary to skip the 2015 WNBA season. For the 2014 WNBA season, Taurasi made just under the league maximum of $107,000. But she makes 15 times that - approximately $1.5 million - playing overseas.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In 2016, the WNBA switched to a playoff format involving single elimination games in the first two rounds. The eighth-seeded Mercury upset the Indiana Fever in the First Round and New York Liberty in the Second Round to reach the Semifinals. However, they lost the Semifinals to the Minnesota Lynx.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In 2017, the Mercury once again sailed through the first two rounds of the playoffs, winning their games against the Seattle Storm and Connecticut Sun. Again, they lost in the Semifinals, this time to the Los Angeles Sparks.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: 2018 saw the Mercury win both single-elimination playoff games for the third year in a row with victories against the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun, giving Diana Taurasi a 13–0 record in winner-take-all elimination games in her career. In the semifinals, the Mercury came up short against the Seattle Storm in the decisive fifth game, giving Taurasi her first ever loss in a winner-take-all elimination game.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: In June 2009 the Mercury and WNBA announced a sponsorship agreement with identity theft protection service LifeLock to place that company's logo on their jerseys through the 2013 season, making the Mercury among the first non-soccer franchises in the major leagues of North America to place a company logo on their uniforms. For the 2014 season and going forward, the Mercury will wear jerseys sponsored by Casino Arizona and Talking Stick Resort.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: Currently, some Mercury games are broadcast on Bally Sports Arizona. The broadcaster for the Mercury games is Kevin Ray.


title: Phoenix Mercury

text: All games (excluding blackout games, which are available on ESPN3.com) are broadcast to the WNBA LiveAccess game feeds on the league website. Furthermore, some Mercury games are broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, CBS Sports Network and ABC. The WNBA has reached an eight-year agreement with ESPN, which will pay right fees to the Mercury, as well as other teams in the league.


title: Pavlov's House

text: Pavlov's House ( tr. "Dom Pavlova") was a fortified apartment building which Red Army defenders held for 60 days against the "Wehrmacht" offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege.


title: Pavlov's House

text: It gained its popular name from Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, who commanded the platoon that seized the building and defended it during the long battle.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The importance of the building has been contested. The fame of the building might be due to the fact that it was not at the center of the October fighting, which had shifted to the north of Stalingrad. This allowed journalists to visit Pavlov's house more easily than buildings nearer the main German assaults. The first article about "Pavlov's House" appeared on 31 October 1942.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The house was a four-story building in the center of Stalingrad, built perpendicular to the embankment of the river Volga and overseeing the "9th January Square", a large square named for Bloody Sunday. In late September 1942, between 30 and 50 soldiers of the 42nd Guards Regiment, 13th Guards Rifle Division secured the large apartment blocks from German control, following its recapture by four soldiers four days beforehand which Yakov Pavlov himself led.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The position was quickly fortified under the command of Lieutenant Ivan F. Afanasiev, who ordered the men to lay landmines in all approaches to the square, barbed wire around the perimeter of the apartment block, and to position multiple machine guns in the windows as well as a PTRS anti tank rifle. The Soviets also had large amounts of artillery support from the opposite side of the Volga. Supply and communication trenches were created leading from the rear of Pavlov’s House to the river bank of the Volga, which received supply from supply vessels which were often shelled by German artillery when crossing the river.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The strategic benefit of the house was that it defended a key section of the Volga bank. The tactical benefit of the house was its position on a cross-street, giving the defenders a line of sight to the north, south and west. After several days, reinforcements and resupply arrived for Pavlov's men, bringing the unit up to a 25-man understrength platoon and equipping the defenders with machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and mortars.


title: Pavlov's House

text: In keeping with Stalin's Order No. 227—"not one step back"—Sergeant Pavlov was ordered to fortify the building and defend it to the last bullet and the last man. Taking this advice to heart, Pavlov ordered the building to be surrounded with four layers of barbed wire and minefields, and set up machine-gun posts in every available window facing the square. In the early stages of the defense, Pavlov discovered that an anti-tank rifle—a PTRS-41—he had mounted on the roof was particularly effective when used to ambush unsuspecting German tanks; once the tanks had approached to within range of the weapon, their thin turret-roof armor was exposed to AT rifle fire from above, and they were unable to elevate their weapons enough to retaliate.


title: Pavlov's House

text: For better internal communication, Pavlov's soldiers breached the walls in the basement and upper floors, and dug a communications trench to Soviet positions outside. Supplies were brought in via the trench or by boats crossing the river, defying German air raids and shelling. Nevertheless, food and especially water was in short supply. Lacking beds, the soldiers tried to sleep on insulation wool torn off pipes but were subjected to harassing fire every night in order to try to break their resistance.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The Germans attacked the building several times a day. Each time German infantry or tanks tried to cross the square and to close in on the house, Pavlov's men laid down a withering barrage of machine gun and AT rifle fire from the basement, the windows and the roof. The defenders, as well as the civilians hiding in the basement, were eventually relieved by counter-attacking Soviet forces after holding out from 27 September to 25 November 1942.


title: Pavlov's House

text: It has been argued that whilst the house was heavily fortified, there were limited assaults against it and it was amongst the first buildings in Stalingrad to be restored after the war, having received comparatively limited damage. German archives do not support the claim for heavy fighting for the building, and Soviet military archives attach no particular importance to the house as a defensive structure. Whilst the building was originally captured by Pavlov, the commander of the position was Lieutenant Afanasev. The garrison was disbanded on the night of November 24 with troops returning to their original units. These units were then sent on the offensive with Pavlov, Afanasev. Many members of the house's garrison were killed and wounded whilst assaulting the German held "Milk House" on 26 November.


title: Pavlov's House

text: Sources conflict on the date at which the siege began, and the date at which the Soviet reinforcements reached the building and lifted the siege.


title: Pavlov's House

text: "[...] the defenders of Pavlov's House who participated in defense from 26 September 1942 till 25 November 1942." (60 days)


title: Pavlov's House

text: "One of the most famous episodes of the Stalingrad battle was the defence of 'Pavlov's house', which lasted for fifty-eight days."


title: Pavlov's House

text: Pavlov's House became a symbol of the stubborn and dogged resistance of the Soviet forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, which eventually ended in a decisive victory for the Soviet forces after months of fighting and heavy casualties on both sides. The inability of the German blitzkrieg to make headway against such grinding and self-sacrificial attrition warfare made the failure to capture Pavlov's House (despite numerous attempts) stand out as a symbol of resistance against a supposedly superior force.


title: Pavlov's House

text: Vasily Chuikov, commanding general of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, later joked that the Germans lost more men trying to take Pavlov's House than they did taking Paris.


title: Pavlov's House

text: Pavlov's "House" was rebuilt after the battle and is still used as an apartment building today. There is an attached memorial constructed from bricks picked up after the battle on the East side facing the Volga.


title: Pavlov's House

text: A Russian TV documentary in 2009, "Legendary Redoubt", (Легендарный редут) on the Russian Channel One reported on Pavlov's House.


title: Pavlov's House

text: The last member of Pavlov's group, Kamoljon Turgunov from Turakurgan District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan died on 16 March 2015, aged 93.


title: Pavlov's House

text: After the war Pavlov communicated little with his ex-comrades, with many of them bewildered by his fame and in disagreement with the story that had been built around Pavlov. In 1985 a memorial was erected, listing the names of the garrison.


title: Donal Gibson

text: Donal Gibson is an American actor and the younger brother of award-winning actor/director Mel Gibson.


title: Donal Gibson

text: Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York. He has done voice acting in television shows such as "ReBoot" and "Justice League Unlimited". His most notable voice acting role was as Captain John Smith in Disney's "", a role which was played by his brother Mel in the first film, "Pocahontas".


title: Donal Gibson

text: Aside of voice acting, Donal has also appeared for minor roles in films starring his brother Mel, such as "Maverick", "Braveheart", and "Conspiracy Theory", as well as major motion pictures not starring his brother such as "The Punisher", "Fatal Bond" and "Immortal Beloved".


title: Furigana

text: Furigana is most often written in hiragana, though in certain cases it may be written in katakana, Roman alphabet letters or in other, simpler kanji. In vertical text, "tategaki", the furigana is placed to the right of the line of text; in horizontal text, "yokogaki", it is placed above the line of text, as illustrated below.


title: Furigana

text: These examples spell the word "kanji", which is made up of two kanji characters: ("kan", written in hiragana as ) and ("ji", written in hiragana as ).


title: Furigana

text: Furigana may be added by character, in which case the furigana character(s) that correspond to a kanji are centered over that kanji; or by word or phrase, in which case the entire furigana text is centered over several kanji characters, even if the kanji do not represent equal shares of the kana needed to write them. The latter method is more common, especially since some words in Japanese have unique pronunciations ("jukujikun") that are not related to readings of any of the characters the word is written with.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana fonts are generally sized so that two kana characters fit naturally over one kanji; when more kana are required, this is resolved either by adjusting the furigana by using a condensed font (narrowing the kana), or by adjusting the kanji by intercharacter spacing (adding spaces around the kanji). In case an isolated kanji character has a long reading—for example (where reads , "tazusa")—the furigana may instead spill over into the space next to the neighboring kana characters, without condensing or changing spacing. Three-kana readings are not uncommon, particularly due to "yōon" with a long vowel, such as ; five kana are required for and six for , the longest of any character in the Joyo kanji. Very long readings also occur for certain kanji or symbols which have a "gairaigo" (loan word) reading; the word "centimeter" is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space) and has the seven-kana reading ("senchimētoru") (it can also be written as the kanji , though this is very rare); another common example is "%" (the percent sign), which has the five kana reading ("pāsento"). These cause severe spacing problems due to length and these words being used as units (hence closely associated with the preceding figure).


title: Furigana

text: When it is necessary to distinguish between native Japanese "kun'yomi" pronunciations and Chinese-derived "on'yomi" pronunciations, for example in kanji dictionaries, the kun'yomi pronunciations are written in hiragana, and the on'yomi pronunciations are written in katakana. However, this distinction is really only important in dictionaries and other reference works. In ordinary prose, the script chosen will usually be hiragana. The one general exception to this is "modern" Chinese place names, personal names, and (occasionally) food names—these will often be written with kanji, and katakana used for the furigana; in more casual writing these are simply written in katakana, as borrowed words. Occasionally this style is also used for loanwords from other languages (especially English). For example, the kanji (literally "one horn beast") might be glossed with katakana , "yunikōn", to show the pronunciation of the loanword "unicorn", which is unrelated to the normal reading of the kanji. Generally, though, such loanwords are just written in straight katakana.


title: Furigana

text: The distinction between regular kana and the smaller character forms (yōon and sokuon), which are used in regular orthography to mark such things as gemination and palatalization, is often not made in furigana: for example, the usual hiragana spelling of the word ("kyakka") is , but in furigana it might be written . This was especially common in old-fashioned movable type printing when smaller fonts were not available. Nowadays, with computer-based printing systems, this occurs less frequently.


title: Furigana

text: Various word processing or typesetting software programs, such as Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, etc. have features for adding ruby text, especially Japanese furigana. Among formatting features are different rules for aligning the kana over or to the right of the base text, usually either when the base text string is longer than the furigana string or vice versa. Extra spaces may be needed depending on the size of the shorter string (either the ruby string or the base string) relatively to the longer one.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana are most commonly used in works for children, who may not have sufficiently advanced reading skills to recognize the kanji, but can understand the word when written phonetically in hiragana. Because children learn hiragana before katakana, in books for very young children, there are hiragana furigana next to the katakana characters. It is common to use furigana on all kanji characters in works for young children. This is called in Japanese.


title: Furigana

text: Numeric characters used for counting (e.g. "ni-hon" "two long things"; "futatsume" "second"; "dai-ni kan" "book 2"; "ni-pēji" "page 2"; etc.) are usually not tagged with furigana. Exceptions include a few cases such as 一人/１人 "hitori" "one person" and 二人/２人 "futari" "two people", which may be tagged with separate kana for each character (/), or non-separated kana for the whole word (/), depending on the style of the publisher in question; or characters for numerals greater than 1,000 (千), such as 万 (10,000), 億 (100,000,000), etc. Numeric words in established compounds (e.g. "ippo" "step"; "hitome" "sight; attention"), however, are generally tagged with furigana.


title: Furigana

text: Many children's, shōnen and shōjo manga use furigana (again however, rarely on numerals). Shōnen and shōjo manga tend to have furigana for all non-numeric characters, while some manga (such as early volumes of "Doraemon" and other manga published by Shogakukan), may also ignore furigana on elementary-grade kanji or easy words. Seinen and josei manga ignores furigana most of the time, even on the names of the characters if they're common names, although some publishers may still routinely use furigana for the first mentions of important characters' names in a volume or chapter. There are also books with a phonetic guide (mainly in hiragana but sometimes in rōmaji) for Japanese learners, which may be bilingual or Japanese only. These are popular with foreigners wishing to master Japanese faster and enjoy reading Japanese short stories, novels or articles.


title: Furigana

text: Due to the small type used for furigana, for maximum readability, some manga publishers may use regular kana instead of small kana. For example, はっしん "hasshin" may be spelled はつしん *"hatsushin" instead.


title: Furigana

text: Some websites and tools exist which provide a phonetic guide for Japanese web pages (in hiragana, rōmaji or kiriru-moji); these are popular with both Japanese children and foreign Japanese learners.


title: Furigana

text: In works aimed at adult Japanese speakers, furigana may be used on a word written in uncommon kanji; in the mass media, they are generally used on words containing non-Jōyō kanji.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana commonly appear alongside kanji names and their romanizations on signs for railway stations, even if the pronunciation of the kanji is commonly known. Furigana also appear often on maps to show the pronunciation of unusual place names.


title: Furigana

text: Japanese names are usually written in kanji. Because there are many possible readings for kanji names, including special name-only readings called nanori, furigana are often used to give the readings of names. On Japanese official forms, where the name is to be written, there is always an adjacent column for the name to be written in furigana.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana may also be used for foreign names written in kanji. Chinese and Korean names are the most common examples: Chinese names are usually pronounced with Japanese readings and the pronunciation written in hiragana, while Korean names are usually pronounced with Korean readings and the pronunciation written in katakana.


title: Furigana

text: Kanji and kanji compounds are often presented with furigana in Japanese-language textbooks for non-native speakers.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana are also often used in foreign-language textbooks for Japanese learners to indicate pronunciation. The words are written in the original foreign script, such as hangul for Korean, and furigana is used to indicate the pronunciation. According to Ministry of Education guidelines, and the opinions of educators, the use of Japanese furigana should be avoided in English teaching due to the differences in pronunciation between English and Japanese. For instance, the word "birthdate" might be glossed in furigana as ("bāsudeito"), which corresponds to an imperfect pronunciation.


title: Furigana

text: Some writers use furigana to represent slang pronunciations, particularly those that would be difficult to understand without the kanji to provide their meaning.


title: Furigana

text: Another use is to write the kanji for something which had been previously referenced, but write furigana for () or (), meaning "that". This means that the actual word used was "that", but the kanji clarify for the reader what "that" refers to. Another way to use it is to tag () onto words or names for places, to convey something along the line of, for example, "here (at this hospital)" () or "here (in LA)" ().


title: Furigana

text: Furigana unrelated to the kanji they are assigned to are quite often used to convey certain effects, rather than to denote a phonetic guide, especially in manga, anime, and games both video and tabletop. This usage is known as "gikun" (see also Kanji#Special readings). The specific types of effects vary: furigana could be used to visually reinforce complex ideas without having to use long expressions; to annotate strange, foreign, rarely seen text; to use more artistic or more explanatory spellings for regular words (see Kanji#Gikun); or simply for shorthand for base text abbreviation, thanks to the small type of furigana. For example, the word "nightmare" may be assigned with "shinjitsu" "truth" rather than its true reading, "akumu", to convey the meaning of "nightmarish truth". Some authors may even use furigana that means the opposite of what the base text does to reinforce an effect, such as the complicated relationship between characters. For example, "shin'yū" "close friend" may be tagged with "raibaru" "rival", to mean "you're my rival, but also my friend"; or conversely, "kōtekishu" "eternal rival" may be tagged with "tomo" "friend". Some manga make use of the furigana renditions of foreign words (especially obscure ones) as the intended reading of a term, and the more familiar kanji for the meaning of such a term. For example, may be assigned with "burakku majikku", the rendition of the English "black magic", to convey a foreign, exotic feel; with "sutēshon" "station"; with "hanīmūn" "honeymoon". This is sometimes done conversely, for example, by using "kissu" "kiss", the more familiar term, as furigana to convey meaning, and "bēze" "", the exotic term, as base text. For shorthand purposes, abbreviations such as may be used to make the regular kana spelling that is too long smaller type.


title: Furigana

text: In karaoke it is extremely common for furigana to be placed on the song lyrics. The song lyrics are often written in kanji pronounced quite differently from the furigana. The furigana version is used for pronunciation.


title: Furigana

text: Also, because the kanji represent meaning while the furigana represent sound, one can combine the two to create puns or indicate meanings of foreign words. One might write the kanji for "blue", but use katakana to write the pronunciation of the English word "blue"; this may be done, for example, in Japanese subtitles on foreign films, where it can help associate the written Japanese with the sounds actually being spoken by the actors, or it may be used in a translation of a work of fiction to enable the translator to preserve the original sound of a proper name (such as "Firebolt" in the Harry Potter series) in furigana, while simultaneously indicating its meaning with kanji. A similar practice is used in native fiction to clarify extended meanings. For example, in a work of science fiction, some astronaut could use the word , "furusato", meaning "my hometown", when referring to planet Earth. To clarify that for the reader, the word "furusato" (hometown) might be written in hiragana over the kanji for "chikyū" (Earth).


title: Furigana

text: Okurigana are kana that appear inline at normal size following kanji stems, typically to complete and to inflect adjectives and verbs. In this use they may also help to disambiguate kanji with multiple readings; for example, (, "agaru") vs. (, "noboru"). Unlike furigana, the use of okurigana is a mandatory part of the written language.


title: Furigana

text: In the written style known as "kanbun", which is the Japanese approximation of Classical Chinese, small marks called "kunten" are sometimes added as reading aids. Unlike furigana, which indicate pronunciation, "kunten" indicate Japanese grammatical structures absent from the "kanbun", and also show how words should be reordered to fit Japanese sentence structure.


title: Furigana

text: Furigana are sometimes also used to indicate meaning, rather than pronunciation. Over the foreign text, smaller-sized Japanese words, in kana or kanji, corresponding to the "meaning" of the foreign words, effectively translate it in place. While rare now, some late 19th–early 20th century authors used kanji as furigana for loanwords written in katakana. This usage is called in Japanese, since "furigana" implies the use of "kana". For example, "ririkku" "lyric" may be tagged with "kashi" "lyrics" for clarification rather than for phonetic guidance.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a pan-European nationalist, far-right political ideology asserting the right of European ethnic groups and white peoples to Western culture and territories claimed to belong exclusively to them. Originating in France as Les Identitaires ("The Identitarians"), with its youth wing Generation Identity, the movement expanded to other European countries during the early 21st century. Building on ontological ideas of the German Conservative Revolution, its ideology was formulated from the 1960s onward by essayists such as Alain de Benoist, Dominique Venner, Guillaume Faye and Renaud Camus, who are considered the main ideological sources of the movement.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Identitarians promote concepts such as pan-European nationalism, localism, ethnopluralism, remigration, or the Great Replacement, and they are generally opposed to globalisation, multiculturalism, Islamization and extra-European immigration. Influenced by New Right metapolitics, they do not seek direct electoral results, but rather to provoke long-term social transformations and eventually achieve cultural hegemony and popular adhesion to their ideas.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Some Identitarians explicitly espouse ideas of xenophobia and racialism, but most limit their public statements to more docile language. Strongly opposed to cultural mixing, they promote the preservation of homogeneous ethno-cultural entities, generally to the exclusion of extra-European migrants and descendants of immigrants. In 2019, the Identitarian Movement was classified by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremist.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The movement is most notable in Europe, and although rooted in Western Europe, it has spread more rapidly to the eastern part of the continent through conscious efforts of the likes of Faye. It also has adherents among white nationalists in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The United States–based Southern Poverty Law Center considers many of these organisations to be hate groups.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Identitarian ideology is generally believed to be derived from the Nouvelle Droite, a French far-right philosophical movement that was formed in the 1960s in order to adapt traditionalist, ethnopluralist and illiberal politics to a post-WWII European context and distance itself from earlier far-right ideologies like fascism and Nazism, mainly through a form of pan-European nationalism. The Nouvelle Droite opposes liberal democracy and capitalism, and is hostile to multiculturalism and the mixing of different cultures within a single society. Although it is not necessarily supremacist, it is racialist because it identifies Europeans as a race. Strategies and concepts promoted by Nouvelle Droite thinkers, such as ethnopluralism, localism, pan-European nationalism, and the use of meta-politics to influence public opinion, have shaped the ideological structure of the Identitarian movement.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Nouvelle Droite has widely been considered a neo-fascist attempt to legitimise far-right ideas in the political spectrum, and in some cases to recycle Nazi ideas. According to political scientist Stéphane François, the latter accusation, "though relevant in certain ways, [remains] incomplete, as it (purposely) [shuns] other references, most notably the primordial relationship to the German Conservative Revolution." The original prominence of the French nucleus gradually decreased, and a nebula of similar movements which were grouped under the term "European New Right" began to emerge across the continent. Among them was the Neue Rechte of Armin Mohler, also largely inspired by the Conservative Revolution, and another ideological source for the Identitarian movement. Consequently, connections have been suggested between the worldview of Martin Sellner, one of the biggest figures of the movement, and the theories of Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt. Leading Identitarian Daniel Friberg has likewise claimed influences from Ernst Jünger and Julius Evola.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Through their think tank GRECE, Nouvelle Droite figures like Alain de Benoist and Guillaume Faye aimed to imitate Marxist meta-politics, especially the tactics of cultural hegemony, agitprop and entryism which, according to them, had allowed left-wing movements to gain cultural and academic dominance from the second part of the 20th century onward. Dominique Venner and his magazine "Europe-Action", which is considered the "embryonic form" of the Nouvelle Droite, along with the writings of Saint-Loup, are conducive to the emergence of the Identitarian movement, by redefining the idea of European nationalism on the "white nation" rather than the "nation state".


title: Identitarian movement

text: The neo-Völkisch movement Terre et Peuple, which was founded in 1995 by Nouvelle Droite writers Pierre Vial, Jean Haudry and Jean Mabire, is generally considered a precursor of the Identitarian movement. In the early 21st century, Nouvelle Droite ideas influenced far-right youth movements in France through groups such as Jeunesses Identitaires (founded in 2002 and succeeded by Génération Identitaire in 2012) and Bloc Identitaire (2003). These French movements exported their ideas to other European nations, turning themselves into a pan-European movement of loosely connected Identitarian groups. In the 2000s and 2010s, thinkers led by Renaud Camus, Guillaume Faye, along with members of the Carrefour de l'Horloge, introduced the Great Replacement and remigration as defining concepts in the movement.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Scholar A. James McAdams has described the Identitarian movement as a "second generation" in the evolution of European far-right foundational critique of liberal democracy during the post-war era: "the first of these generations, congregated around the members of the French Nouvelle droite (New Right), defined difference as a right ('a right to difference') to which all persons were entitled by virtue of their shared humanity. A second generation, epitomized by the pan-European Identitarian movement of the early 2000s, replaced the language of rights with the less exacting claim to respect the differences of others, especially those based on ethnicity. Finally, in response to the degeneration of Identitarian thinking into outright xenophobia and racism, a third generation of theorists emerged in the 2010s with the expressed aim of restoring the respectability of far-right thought." According to scholar Imogen Richards, "while in many respects [Génération Identitaire] is characteristic of the 'European New Right' (ENR), its spokespersons' various promotion of capitalism and commodification, including through their advocacy of international trade and sale of merchandise, diverges from the anti-capitalist philosophizing of contemporary ENR thinkers."


title: Identitarian movement

text: Identitarianism can be defined by its opposition to globalisation, multiculturalism, Islam and extra-European immigration; and by its defence of traditions, pan-European nationalism and cultural homogeneity within the nations of Europe. The concept of "identity" is central to the Identitarian movement, which sees, in the words of Guillaume Faye, "every form of [humanity’s] homogenisation [as] synonymous with death, as well as sclerosis and entropy". Scholar Stéphane François has described the essence of Identitarian ideology as "mixophobic", that is the fear of ethnic mixing.


title: Identitarian movement

text: According to philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff, the Identitarian 'party-movements' generally share the following traits: a call to an 'authentic' and 'sane' people, which a leader is claiming to embody, against illegitimate or unworthy elites; and a call for a purifying break with the supposedly 'corrupt' current system, in part achieved by 'cleaning up' the territory from elements perceived as 'non-assimilable' for cultural reasons, Muslims in particular. Following Piero Ignazi, Taguieff classifies those party-movements as a new "post-industrial" far-right, distinct from the "traditional" nostalgic far-right. Their ultimate goal is to enter mainstream politics, Taguieff argues, as "post-fascists rather than neo-fascists, [and as] post-nazis rather than neo-nazis."


title: Identitarian movement

text: Scholars have also described the essence of Identitarianism as a reaction against the permissive ideals of the '68 movement, embodied by the baby-boomers and their perceived left-liberal dominance on society, which they sometimes label "Cultural Marxism".


title: Identitarian movement

text: Inspired by the metapolitics of Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci via the Nouvelle Droite, Identitarians do not seek direct electoral results but rather to influence the wider political debate in society. Metapolitics is defined by Nouvelle Droite theorist Guillaume Faye as the "social diffusion of ideas and cultural values for the sake of provoking profound, long-term, political transformation." In 2010, Daniel Friberg established the publishing house Arktos Media, which has grown since that date as the "uncontested global leader in the publication of English-language Nouvelle Droite literature." Some Identitarian parties have nonetheless contested elections, as in France or in Croatia, but so far with no success.


title: Identitarian movement

text: A key strategy of the Identitarian movement is to generate large media attention by symbolically occupying popular public spaces, often with only a handful of militants. The largest action to date, labelled "Defend Europe", occurred in 2017. After crowdsourcing more than $178,000, Identitarian militants chartered a ship in the Mediterranean Sea to ferry rescued migrants back to Africa, observe any incursions by other NGO ships into Libyan waters, and report them to the Libyan coastguard. In the event, the ship suffered an engine failure and had to be rescued by another ship from one of the NGOs rescuing migrants.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The European Identitarian movements often use a yellow lambda symbol, inspired by the shield designs of the Spartan army in the movie "300", based on the comic book by Frank Miller.


title: Identitarian movement

text: According to ethnographer Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, Identitarians advocate "an ostensibly non-hierarchical global separatism to create a 'pluriversum', where differences among peoples are preserved and celebrated." Political scientist Jean-Yves Camus agrees and defines the movement as being centred around the Nouvelle Droite concept of ethnopluralism (or 'ethno-differentialism'): "each people and culture can only flourish on its territory of origin; ethnic and cultural mixing ("métissage") is seen as a factor of decadence; multiculturalism as a pathogenic project, producing crime, loss of bearings and, ultimately, the possibility of an 'ethnic war' on European lands, between 'ethnic Europeans' and non-native Maghrebi Arabs, in any case Muslims."


title: Identitarian movement

text: The pairing of Muslim immigration and Islam with the concept of ethnopluralism is indeed one of the main bases of Identitarianism, and the idea of a future ethnic war between whites and immigrants is central for some Identitarian theorists, especially Guillaume Faye, who claimed in 2016 that "the ethnic civil war, like a snake's baby that breaks the shell of its egg, [was] only in its very modest beginnings". He had earlier preached "total ethnic war" between "original" Europeans and Muslims in "The Colonization of Europe" in 2000, which earned him a criminal conviction for incitement to racial hatred. This emphasis on ethnicity, shared by Pierre Vial and his call to an "ethnic revolution" and a "war of liberation", is however opposed by other Identitarian thinkers and groups. Alain de Benoist disavowing Faye's "strongly racist" ideas regarding Muslims after the publication of his 2000 book.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Identitarians generally dismiss the European Union as "corrupt" and "authoritarian", while at the same time defending a "European-level political body that can hold its own against superpowers like America and China." According to scholar Stéphane François, Identitarian geopolitics should be seen as a form of "ethnopolitics". In the Identitarian vision, the world would be structured into different "ethnospheres", each dominated by ethnically related peoples. They promote ethnic solidarities between European peoples, and the establishment of a confederation of regional identities that would eventually replace the various nation states of Europe, which are seen as an inheritance from the "dubious philosophy of the French Revolution". Influenced by Renaud Camus' Great Replacement theory, Identitarians lament an alleged disappearance of the European peoples through a drop in a birth rate and uncontrolled immigration from the Muslim world.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The movement is strongly opposed to the politics and philosophy of Islam, which some critics describe as disguised Islamophobia. Followers often protest what they see as an Islamisation of Europe through mass immigration, claiming it is a threat to European culture and society. As summarised by Markus Willinger, a key activist of the movement, "We don't want Mehmed and Mustapha to become Europeans." This theory is connected to the ideas of the Great Replacement, a conspiracy theory which claims that a global elite is colluding against the white population of Europe to replace them with non-European peoples, and remigration, a project of reversing growing multiculturalism through a forced mass deportation of non-European immigrants (often including their descendants) back to their supposed place of racial origin, regardless of their citizenship status. Génération Identitaire has made frequent use of the term "Reconquista", in reference to expulsion of Muslims and Jewish people from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Identitarians do not share, however, a common vision on liberalism. Some regard it as a part of European identity "threatened by Muslims who do not respect women or gay people", whereas others like Daniel Friberg describe it as the "disease" that contributed to Muslim immigration in the first place.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The movement has been described as being a part of the global alt-right, or as the European counterpart of the American alt-right. Hope Not Hate (HNH) has described Identitarianism and the alt-right as "ostensibly separate" in origin, but with "huge areas of ideological crossover". Many white nationalists and alt-right leaders have described themselves as Identitarians, and according to HNH, American alt-right influence is evident in European Identitarian groups and events, forming an amalgamated "International Alternative Right". Figures within the Identitarian movements and alt-right often cite Nouvelle Droite founder Alain de Benoist as an influence. De Benoist rejects any alt-right affiliation, although he has worked with Richard B. Spencer, and once spoke at Spencer's National Policy Institute. As Benoist stated, "Maybe people consider me their spiritual father, but I don't consider them my spiritual sons".


title: Identitarian movement

text: According to Christoph Gurk of Bayerischer Rundfunk, one of the goals of Identitarianism is to make racism modern and fashionable. Austrian Identitarians invited radical right-wing groups from across Europe, including several neo-Nazi groups, to participate in an anti-immigration march, according to Anna Thalhammer of "Die Presse". There has also been Identitarian collaboration with the white nationalist activist Tomislav Sunić.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The main Identitarian youth movement is Génération Identitaire in France, originally a youth wing of Bloc Identitaire before it split off in 2012 to become its own organisation. The association Terre et Peuple ("Land and People"), which represents the Völkisch leaning of the Nouvelle Droite, is seen as a precursor of the Identitarian movement. Political scientist Stéphane François estimated the size of the Identitarian movement in France to be 1,500–2,000 in 2017.


title: Identitarian movement

text: An undercover investigation conducted by "Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit" into the French branch, which aired on 10 December 2018, captured GI activists punching a Muslim woman whilst saying "Fuck Mecca" and one saying if ever he gets a terminal illness he will purchase a weapon and cause carnage. When asked by the undercover journalist who would be the target he replies "a mosque, whatever". French prosecutors have launched an inquiry into the findings amidst calls for the group to be proscribed.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Identitäre Bewegung Österreich (IBÖ) was founded in 2012. They have sometimes used the concept of a "War Against the '68ers"; i.e. people whose political identities are seen by Identitarians as stemming from the social changes of the 1960s, what would be called baby-boomer liberals in the US.


title: Identitarian movement

text: On 27 April 2018 the IBÖ and the homes of its leaders were searched by the Austrian police, and investigations were started against Sellner on suspicion that a criminal organisation was being formed. The court later ruled that the IBÖ was not a criminal organisation.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The movement also appeared in Germany and converged with preexisting circles, centered on the magazine "Blue Narcissus" () and its founder , a martial artist and former German Karate Team Champion, who according to Gudrun Hentges – who worked for the official Federal Agency for Civic Education – belongs to the "elite of the movement". It became a "registered association" in 2014. Drawing upon thinkers of the Nouvelle Droite and the Conservative Revolution such as Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt or the contemporary Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin, it played a role in the rise of the PEGIDA marches in 2014–15.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Identitarian movement has a close linkage to members of the German New Right, e.g., to its prominent member Götz Kubitschek and his journal "Sezession", for which the Identitarian speaker Martin Sellner writes.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In August 2016 members of the Identitarian movement in Germany scaled the iconic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and hung a banner in protest at European immigration and perceived Islamisation. In September of the same year, members of the Identitarian movement erected a new summit cross in a "provocative" act (as the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported) on the Schafreuter, after the original one had to be removed because of damage by an unknown person.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In June 2017, the PayPal donations account of the Identitarian "Defend Europe" was locked, and the Identitarian account of the bank "Steiermärkische Sparkasse" was closed.


title: Identitarian movement

text: On 11 July 2019, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency, formally designated the Identitarian Movement as "a verified extreme right movement against the liberal democratic constitution." The new classification will allow the BfV to use more powerful surveillance methods against the group and its youth wing, Generation Identity. The Identitarian Movement has about 600 members in Germany.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In July 2017, a Facebook page for Generation Identity UK and Ireland was created. A few months later, in October 2017, key figures of the Identitarian movement met in London in efforts to target the United Kingdom, and discussed the founding of a British chapter as a "bridge" to link with radical movements in the US. Their discussions resulted in a new British chapter being officially launched in late October 2017 with Tom Dupre and Ben Jones as its co-founders, after a banner was unfurled on Westminster Bridge reading "Defend London, Stop Islamisation".


title: Identitarian movement

text: On 9 March 2018, Sellner and his girlfriend Brittany Pettibone were barred from entering the UK because their presence was "not conducive to the public good".


title: Identitarian movement

text: Prior the ban, Sellner intended to deliver a speech to the Young Independence party, though they cancelled the event, citing supposed threats of violence from the far-left. Prior to being detained and deported, Sellner intended to deliver his speech at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. In June 2018 Tore Rasmussen, a Norwegian activist who had previously been denied entry to the United Kingdom, was working in Ireland to establish a local branch of Generation Identity.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In August 2018, the leader of GI UK Tom Dupre resigned from his position after UK press revealed Rasmussen, who was a senior member in the UK branch, had an active past in neo-Nazi movements within Norway.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Generation Identity UK has been conferencing with other organisations, namely Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement. Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement is known for its involvement in the deadly 11–12 August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States and its antisemitism. Jacob Bewick, an activist with GI, had been exposed as a member of proscribed terror organisation National Action and was spotted at an NA march in 2016. At an after conference event, one GI UK member told a Hope not Hate informant that two members of the fascist National Front (and former NA members) were present.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The UK branch was condemned by the wider European movement on Twitter when it held its second annual conference and had invited numerous controversial alt-right speakers. Speaking alongside the UK's new leader Ben Jones was alt-right YouTuber Millennial Woes and "Nouvelle Droite" writer Tomislav Sunić.


title: Identitarian movement

text: This controversy led to a number of members leaving the organisation in disgust at what they perceived to be a shift towards the "Old Right". This led to concern that the British version may become more radicalised and dangerous. Simon Murdoch, Identitarianism researcher at Hope not Hate, said: "Evidence suggests we will be left with a smaller but more toxic group in the UK, open to engagement with the more antisemitic, extreme and thus dangerous elements of the domestic far right".


title: Identitarian movement

text: According to Unite Against Fascism, the Identitarian Movement in the UK is estimated to have a membership of less than 200 activists as of June 2019.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In Sweden, the organisation (active from 2004 to 2010), which founded the online encyclopedia Metapedia in 2006, promoted Identitarianism.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The influence of Identitarian theories has been noted in the Sweden Democrats' slogan "We are also a people!".


title: Identitarian movement

text: The founder of the far-right Croatian party Generation of Renovation has stated that it was originally formed in 2017 as that country's version of the alt-right and Identitarian movements.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The separatist party Som Catalans claims to defend the "identity of Catalonia" against "Spanish colonialism and the migrant invasion", as well as the "islamisation" of the Spanish autonomous community. Similar stances are also found in Spanish nationalist parties, such as Identitarios, which align themselves with the European Identity and Democracy Party.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In Belgium, in 2018, the State Security Service saw the rise of in the context of Identitarian groups emerging throughout Europe. A Europol terror report mentioned "Soldaten van Odin" and the defunct group "La Meute".


title: Identitarian movement

text: In the Netherlands, was founded in 2012. Its main goal is "preservation of the national identity". Training their members at camps in France, their protests in the Netherlands attract tens of participants.


title: Identitarian movement

text: In Flanders, the website Voorpost is an ethnic nationalist ("volksnationalist") group founded by Karel Dillen in 1976 as a splinter from the Volksunie.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Voorpost pursues an irredentist ideal of a Greater Netherlands, a nation state that would unite all Dutch-speaking territories in Europe.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The organisation has staged rallies on various topics, against Islam and mosques, against leftist organizations, against drugs, against pedophilia, and against socialism.


title: Identitarian movement

text: There was a small group in Australia called Identity Australia around March 2019, which described itself as "a youth-focused identitiarian organisation dedicated to giving European Australians a voice and restoring Australia's European character", and published a manifesto detailing its beliefs, but its website is non-operational.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Dingoes are an Australian group who were described in a 2016 news report as "young, educated and alternative right", and were compared to the Identitarian movement in Europe. Members do not reveal their identity. National Party MP George Christensen and One Nation candidate Mike Latham were both interviewed on the Dingoes podcast, called "The Convict Report", but Christensen later said that he would not have done it if he had known about their extremist views. The podcast also featured a New Zealand man who ran the Dominion Movement, who was later arrested for sharing information that threatened NZ security.


title: Identitarian movement

text: New Zealand had hosted the Dominion Movement, which labelled itself as "a grass-roots Identitarian activist organisation committed to the revitalisation of our country and our people: White New Zealanders". The website for the group shutdown alongside New Zealand National Front in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019. In late 2019, the Dominion Movement was largely replaced by a similar white supremacist group called Action Zealandia, after its co-founder and leader, a New Zealand soldier, was arrested for sharing information that threatened NZ security.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, was a believer in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, named his manifesto after it, and donated €1,500 to Austrian Identitarian leader Martin Sellner of Identitäre Bewegung Österreich (IBÖ) a year prior to the terror attacks. An investigation into the potential links between Tarrant and IBÖ was conducted by then Austrian Minister of the Interior Herbert Kickl. Other than the donation, no other evidence of contact or connections between the two parties has been found. The Austrian government is considering dissolving the group. The shooter also donated €2,200 to Génération Identitaire, the French branch of the Generation Identity. Tarrant exchanged emails with Sellner with one asking if they could meet for coffee or beer in Vienna and sent him a link to his YouTube channel. This was confirmed by Sellner, but he denied interacting with Tarrant in person or knowing of his plans. The Austrian government later opened an investigation into Sellner over suspected formation of a terrorist group with Tarrant and the former's fiancée Brittany Pettibone who met Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The now-defunct neo-Nazi Traditionalist Youth Network/Traditionalist Worker Party was modelled after the European Identitarian movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement in the United States labels itself Identitarian, and is part of the alt-right. Richard Spencer's National Policy Institute is also a white nationalist movement, which advocates an American version of Identitarianism called "American Identitarianism". The SPLC also reports that the Southern California-based Rise Above Movement "is inspired by Identitarian movements in Europe and is trying to bring the philosophies and violent tactics to the United States".


title: Identitarian movement

text: On 20 May 2017, two non-commissioned officers with the U.S. Marines were arrested for trespassing after displaying a banner from a building in Graham, North Carolina, during a Confederate Memorial Day event. The banner included the Identitarian logo, and the phrase "he who controls the past controls the future", a reference to George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", along with the initialism YWNRU, or "you will not replace us". The Marine Corps denounced the behaviour and investigated the incident. A marine spokesperson commented to local news: "Of course we condemn this type of behavior ... we condemn any type of behavior that is not congruent with our values or that is illegal." Both men pleaded guilty to trespassing. One received military administrative punishment. The other was discharged from the corps.


title: Identitarian movement

text: The Canadian organisation Generation Identity Canada was formed in 2014, and was renamed IDCanada in 2017. The organisation has distributed material across the country, such as in Hamilton, Ontario, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Peterborough, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and in Quebec.


title: Identitarian movement

text: La Meute (French for "The Pack") is a Québécois nationalist pressure group and identitarian movement fighting against illegal immigration and radical Islam. The group was founded in September 2015 in Quebec by two former Canadian Armed Forces members, Éric Venne and Patrick Beaudry, both of whom have left the group. La Meute announced it would prefer "to become large enough and organized enough to constitute a force that can't be ignored". The group has been attacked by anti-fascists in Montreal. A parallel protest encampment was set up in Gatineau, Quebec, during the larger Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. Steeve Charland of Grenville, Quebec, was arrested and charged in relation to the protests. Charland was reported as one of the leaders of La Meute in opposition to Canada’s decision to open its borders to Syrian refugees. During the “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa, Steeve Charland acted as the leader and spokesperson for the Farfadaas, a group that opposes COVID-19 health measures and whose members are recognizable by their leather vests marked with an expletive hand gesture.


title: Identitarian movement

text: Political scientist Cas Mudde has argued in 2021 that although Identitarians claim to share the slogan "0% racism, 100% identify" and officially subscribe to ethnopluralism, "the boundaries between biological and cultural arguments in the movement have become increasingly porous." An investigation led by political scientist Gudrun Hentges came to the conclusion that the Identitarian movement is ideologically situated between the French National Front, the Nouvelle Droite, and neo-Nazism.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Curtain: Poirot's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1975 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year, selling for $7.95.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", but it reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in "Dumb Witness" in 1937. The fictional detective dies at the end. It was adapted for television in 2013.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: It is the last novel published by Christie before her death. "Sleeping Murder," published posthumously, is her final novel.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: A specific person is unsuspected of involvement in five murders by both the police and family of the victims. In all cases, there was a clear suspect. Four of these suspects have since died (one of them hanged); in the case of Freda Clay, who gave her aunt an overdose of morphine, there was too little evidence to prosecute. Poirot calls on his old friend, the recently-widowed Hastings, to join him in solving this case. Poirot alone sees the pattern of involvement. Poirot, using a wheelchair due to arthritis, and attended by his new valet Curtiss, will not share the name of the previously unsuspected person, using X instead. X is among the guests at Styles Court with them. The old house is a guest hotel under new owners, Colonel and Mrs Luttrell. The guests know each other, with this gathering initiated when Sir William Boyd-Carrington invites the Franklins to join him for a summer holiday stay. The five prior murders took place in the area, among people known to this group.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Elizabeth Cole tells Hastings that she is a sister of Margaret Litchfield, who confessed to the murder of their father in one of the five cases. Margaret has died in Broadmoor Asylum and Elizabeth is stigmatised by the trauma. Three incidents occur in the next few days, showing the imprint of X. First, Hastings and others overhear an argument between the Luttrells. Shortly afterwards, Luttrell wounds his wife with a rook rifle, saying he mistook her for a rabbit. Mrs Luttrell recovers, and the incident has a good effect on their marriage. Next, Hastings is concerned that his daughter Judith spends time with Major Allerton, a married man. While Hastings and Elizabeth are out with birdwatcher Stephen Norton, Norton sees something through his binoculars that disturbs him. Hastings assumes it has to do with Allerton. When his attempts to persuade Judith to give Allerton up merely antagonise her, the worried father plans Allerton's murder. He falls asleep while waiting to poison Allerton, relieved he took no action when he awakes the next day. Last, Barbara Franklin, wife of Judith's employer, Dr Franklin, dies the following evening. She was poisoned with physostigmine sulphate, an extract from the Calabar bean that her husband researches. Poirot's testimony at the inquest, that Mrs Franklin had been upset and that he saw her emerge from Dr Franklin's laboratory with a small bottle, persuades the jury to return a verdict of suicide.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Norton is still concerned over what he saw days earlier when out with Hastings and Cole. Hastings advises Norton to confide in Poirot. They meet in Poirot's room. That night, Hastings is awakened by a noise and sees Norton entering his bedroom. The next morning, Norton is found dead in his locked room with a bullet-hole in the centre of his forehead, the key in his dressing-gown pocket and a pistol nearby.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: When Hastings tells Poirot that he saw Norton return to his room the night before, Poirot says it is flimsy evidence, not having seen the face: the dressing-gown, the hair, the limp, can all be imitated. Yet, there is no man in the house who could impersonate Norton, who was not tall. Poirot dies of a heart attack within hours. He leaves Hastings three clues: a copy of "Othello", a copy of "John Ferguson" (a 1915 play by St. John Greer Ervine), and a note to speak to his longtime valet, Georges. After Poirot is buried at Styles, Hastings learns that Judith has all along been in love with Dr Franklin. She will marry him, and leave to do research in Africa. When Hastings speaks to Georges, he learns that Poirot wore a wig and that Poirot's reasons for employing Curtiss were vague.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Four months after Poirot's death, Hastings receives a manuscript in which Poirot explains all. X was Norton, a man who had perfected the technique of which Iago in "Othello" (and a character in Ervine's play) is master: applying just such psychological pressure as is needed to provoke someone to commit murder, without his victim realising what is happening. Norton had demonstrated this ability, with Colonel Luttrell, with Hastings, and Mrs Franklin. Poirot intervened with sleeping pills in Hastings' hot chocolate that night, to avert a disastrous rash action. Ironically, Hastings had unwittingly intervened in Mrs. Franklin's plan to poison her husband, by turning a revolving bookcase table while seeking a book to solve a crossword clue ("Othello" again), thus swapping the cups of coffee, so Mrs Franklin poisoned herself. Poirot could not prove this. He sensed that Norton, who had been deliberately vague about whom he had seen through the binoculars, would hint that he had seen Franklin and Judith, to implicate them in the murder of Mrs Franklin, not inadvertent suicide as it was. This explains Poirot's testimony at her inquest, to ensure the police would stop their investigation.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Given his very weak heart, Poirot conceives that he must end the string of murders by killing Norton. Poirot invites Norton for hot chocolate: at their meeting, he tells Norton what he suspects and his plan to execute him. Norton, arrogant and self-assured, insists on swapping cups: anticipating this move, Poirot had drugged both cups, knowing that he had a higher tolerance for a dose that would incapacitate Norton. Poirot moves the sleeping Norton back to his room using the wheelchair: Poirot could walk all along, one reason he needed a new valet who was unaware of that for this last case. Then, being the same height as Norton, he disguises himself as Norton by removing his wig and false moustache, ruffling up his grey hair, then donning Norton's dressing-gown and walking with a limp. Having Hastings establish that Norton was alive after he left Poirot's room, Poirot shoots Norton, leaves the pistol on the table and locks the room with a duplicate key. Poirot then writes his story, and ceases to take his amyl nitrite heart medicine. He cannot say it was right to commit murder, but on balance he was sure he prevented yet more instigated by Norton. His last wish for Hastings is typical for Poirot, the matchmaker: he suggests that Hastings should pursue Elizabeth Cole.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: In a review titled "The last labour of Hercules", Matthew Coady in "The Guardian", on 9 October 1975, wrote that the book was both "a curiosity and a triumph". He repeated the tale of the book being written some thirty years before and then stated that "through it, Dame Agatha, whose recent work has shown a decline, is seen once more at the peak of her ingenuity." Coady called Captain Hastings the "densest of Dr Watsons [but]... never has the stupidity of the faithful companion-chronicler been so cunningly exploited as it is here." Coady summarised the absolute basics of the plot and the questions raised within it and then said,In providing the answers, the great illusionist of crime fiction provides a model demonstration of reader manipulation. The seemingly artless, simplistic Christie prose is mined with deceits. Inside the old, absurd conventions of the Country House mystery she reworks the least likely person trick with a freshness rivalling the originality she displayed nearly 50 years ago in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". For the egotistic Poirot, hero of some 40 books… it is a dazzlingly theatrical finish. 'Goodbye, cher ami', runs his final message to the hapless Hastings. 'They were good days.' For addicts, everywhere, they were among the best.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Two months later, Coady nominated "Curtain" as his "Book of the Year" in a column of critic's choices. He said, "No crime story of 1975 has given me more undiluted pleasure. As a critic, I welcome it, as a reminder that sheer ingenuity can still amaze."


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Maurice Richardson in "The Observer" of 5 October 1975 summed up: "One of her most highly contrived jobs, artificial as a mechanical birdcage, but an unputdownable swansong."


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Robert Barnard, in "A Talent to Deceive", less favourably writes:Written in the 'forties, designed for publication after Christie's death, but in fact issued just before it. Based on an idea toyed with in "Peril at End House" (chapter 9) – a clever and interesting one, but needing greater subtlety in the handling than Christie's style or characterisation will allow (the characters here are in any case quite exceptionally pallid). In fact, for a long-cherished idea, and as an exit for Poirot, this is oddly perfunctory in execution.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Being their last case together, mention is made of earlier cases. Hastings became involved in the first Styles investigation in 1916, at which time he was thirty years old. He married at the end of the next Poirot novel, "The Murder on the Links", mentioned twice in this novel, as Hastings is now a widower.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Poirot mentions that once in Egypt he attempted to warn a murderer before the person committed the crime. That case is the one retold in "Death on the Nile". He mentions that there was another case in which he had done the same thing: almost certainly that retold in "Triangle at Rhodes" (published in "Murder in the Mews" in 1937). In "The A.B.C. Murders", Inspector Japp says to Poirot: "Shouldn't wonder if you ended by detecting your own death;" an indication that the idea of "Curtain" had already formed in the author's mind in 1935. On 6 August 1975, "The New York Times" published a front-page obituary of Poirot with a photograph to mark his death.


title: Curtain (novel)

text: Hastings also mentions "the case of Evelyn Carlisle" as he speculates over a possible hidden financial motive for X's actions, referring to "Sad Cypress" which centred on the revelation of money as a motivation for the crime.