title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay then uploads 'Entry #19', where he states that like Alex, he had been constantly filming himself and recording the footage to a hard drive but had largely found nothing of importance. The actual footage of 'Entry #19' shows a specific moment from the hard drive, where it showcases The Masked Man breaking into Jay's home and watching him sleep, before him and Jay both disappear for multiple hours. After Jay shares this entry, totheark posts a response video wherein they show where Jay was during those missing hours.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay then uploads the 'Entry #19.5', where he analyzes the items he found during his first visit at Brian's house. He finds that the pill bottle he had taken is now empty, though it was full when he discovered it at Brian’s house. He also finds that bullet casing he had taken is missing. Jay suspects that The Masked Man is behind this. Jay then reviews Alex's drawings and finds a message that mentions a tower written on the back of one page.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay decides to visit the park where some filming from "Marble Hornets" took place and enters a red tower there, where he finds a hidden tape. Footage on the tape shows Alex leaving Seth to die in an abandoned building after being attacked by The Operator. Alex later states on the tape that all of the cast and crew of "Marble Hornets" are "gone". Jay attempts to return to Brian's house for any other possible clues, before being attacked by The Masked Man, and it causes a chase scene. This ends with Jay being teleported to the place where Seth had died, and Jay is attacked by The Operator, which breaks his camera and causes Jay to quit. After this, he uploads his final bit of footage of some weird stuff happening within his apartment, i.e. him going through one room, then disappearing for multiple hours. Totheark hacks onto the Marble Hornets channel, which features The Masked Man, where totheark threatens Jay by saying that this is no longer a game for them, and that they will be coming for him.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Totheark's threat causes Jay to run from his home and reside at nearby hotels. At one of these hotels, he finds out on the news that his apartment had been burned down, not that long after Jay had ran away. When trying to leave his current hiding spot, Jay receives a tape at his door that contains footage of Alex and his girlfriend, Amy Walters (Bethann Williams), at Amy’s home. In the video, The Operator appears, leading Alex to urge Amy to run before the tape ends. Jay uploads this tape as 'Entry #26', and gives a message in case he does not return: He will find Alex, and he won't give up.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Seven months after 'Entry #26' is posted to YouTube, an amnesiac Jay wakes up in a hotel room in an unknown location, with a chest-mounted camera. He learns that he was initially only booked for one night in the hotel, but decides to stay longer to get his bearings and gain information about the hotel and its surrounding area.


title: Marble Hornets

text: At the hotel, Jay encounters a young woman, Jessica Locke (Jessica May), who is initially very curious and inquisitive about him. Jay realizes that Jessica is the only other guest he has seen at the hotel and becomes suspicious of her after hearing strange noises coming from her room. In a later conversation with Jessica, Jay is caught in a lie about why he is staying at the hotel. Jessica seems to grow suspicious of Jay in response.


title: Marble Hornets

text: In another conversation with Jessica, she asks Jay if he is feeling alright and experiencing any memory loss. When Jay lies and denies any strange experiences, Jessica reveals to Jay that she also woke up in the hotel with missing memories. Jay realizes that he and Jessica are having similar experiences and encourages her to gather her belongings so that they can leave the hotel together.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay enters Jessica’s room while he thinks she is preparing to leave, only to find the room empty. He discovers a slip of paper with a combination on it. Jay uses the combination to unlock the safe in his hotel room, in which he finds a large amount of video tapes and a hard drive. When Jay opens the safe, The Masked Man runs into the room and attempts to attack him. Jay knocks him down with a flashlight, and escapes the hotel with all of the tapes and the hard drive in it, while also leaving Jessica behind.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The tapes and hard drive in the safe are revealed to contain footage that details the events of the previous seven months that Jay has no memory of.


title: Marble Hornets

text: In the first few tapes that Jay watches, it shows him going to the return address shown on the package he received in 'Entry #26". The first trip is unsuccessful, however, when he goes back a second time, he has a run-in with Alex for the first time in nearly 4 years. They explore the area a bit, before they are attacked by The Masked Man. They wrestle him to the ground, and unmask him to be Tim, one of the core actors in Marble Hornets, and Alex breaks his leg with a rock. Jay and Alex meet up to discuss everything, and they form an alliance to presumably try and find Amy, who has gone missing following the attack in 'Entry #26".


title: Marble Hornets

text: In one of the tapes, it shows Jay waiting outside of his car for a phone call from Alex. Alex calls him, and tells him to meet up at Rosswood Park the next day, which is an area near the hotel that Jay awoke in at the start of the season. While sleeping in his car, a hooded figure passes by Jay's car with a camera. In the totheark video responding to this, it confirms that totheark was the culprit.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay goes to Rosswood Park, and decides to walk through the woods while waiting on Alex. During this time, Jay is attacked by The Operator, which forces him to drop his camera and run away. While Jay is skimming through this footage, he finds out that the camera was picked up by someone wearing a black mask and beige hoodie, known as The Hooded Man, or by the fandom, 'Hoody'. This man is presumably the one behind the totheark account, as this figure appeared sitting by a tree in a previous entry, and the totheark video responding to it said "did you see me?"


title: Marble Hornets

text: On a whim, Jay decides to look through the hard drive to see if anything is on it. Looking through it, Jay finds out that it belongs to Alex, and he finds footage taking place at the same time of the camera being rescued by The Hooded Man. Alex meets with Jay in the forest, and after Jay says he doesn't want to look for Amy at that moment, Alex shows signs of severe impatience, arrogance, and generally being uncooperative, even though all of the tapes presented Alex as being a victim, or a nice guy.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Alex drives Jay to a nearby hotel, but they go to the house where Amy disappeared. While they're talking, Alex decides to call Amy's roommate, which turns out to be Jessica. Jay learns that Jessica was unintentionally dragged into the situation, instead of just being a bystander who was experiencing the same effects.


title: Marble Hornets

text: While looking more on the hard drive, it becomes apparent that Alex has been lying to Jessica about finding Amy, and has also been frequently visited by The Operator, and it seems they're in some sort of alliance as well. This becomes evident in one of the hard drive files when Alex noticed The Hooded Man/totheark stalking outside of his house, which causes Alex to chase after him. The Hooded Man leads him to a forest, where Alex is jumped by both Tim and The Hooded Man, but before they can kill him, The Operator presumably saves Alex by scaring the two masked men off.


title: Marble Hornets

text: In the next tape, it shows Jay breaking into Alex's home due to distrust, but Alex catches him. They have an argument, before Jay notices that The Operator is inside the home right behind them, and Jay runs off. Alex stays however. Jay and Alex meet at a parking lot where they have an argument, and they quit working together. Jay forces Alex to give him Jessica's phone number, and Alex does under pressure. Jay calls Jessica to ask her about where Amy is, but when Jessica asks about Alex finding Amy, they both realize Alex has been lying. This causes Jay to begin stalking Alex.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The stalking spans over multiple months, but one of the tapes shows Alex going into Rosswood Park. Jay follows him in, but runs away when he thinks Alex notices him. The footage from Alex shows what happened afterward, and it shows Alex’s increasingly severe paranoia and suspicion of Jay becoming extremely apparent when he bludgeons a stranger to death with a rock after mistaking them for Jay. After Alex kills the man, The Operator appears and seems to remove the body from the premises.


title: Marble Hornets

text: A while later, Jay breaks into Alex's home again while he isn't there, and steals a tape from him. This tape shows footage of when Marble Hornets was in production, where Alex and Brian go to an abandoned hospital to film some scenes. While there, they are attacked by The Operator, but Brian survives. He picks up Alex's camera and begins searching for him, but instead, Brian finds Tim laying on the floor during a coughing fit, but once again Brian is attacked by The Operator. The last bit of footage shows Brian's body being dragged away by Alex, showing that Alex and The Operator might've had some sort of alliance even back during production.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The last tape shows Alex luring Jay and Jessica into the woods at the park under the guise of having something to show them involving Amy. After leading them onto an upper floor of an abandoned structure, Alex holds Jay and Jessica at gunpoint. He reveals that he is aware of Jay’s stalking and is preparing to shoot them when he is attacked and subdued by Tim. Jay and Jessica escape and book rooms at the aforementioned hotel, where they suffer an attack by The Operator and sustain memory loss as a result. Jay concludes that after seeing all of this footage, it is very noticeable that he shouldn't trust Alex, but still wants to find him. While in present day, Jay finds Tim outside of an antique shop. Jay says that he will keep us updated, and that he has a plan.


title: Marble Hornets

text: With no leads in finding either Alex or Jessica, Jay tracks down Tim for multiple days until he is able to meet up with him. When they do, Tim remembers nothing of Jay, other than the movie. So, Jay wants to meet up with him under the pretense of finishing "Marble Hornets".


title: Marble Hornets

text: A little while later, Tim calls Jay, saying that he remembers shooting behind the scenes footage for the movie, and that he will give Jay the tapes if he can find them. The next time they meet up, Tim gives Jay the aforementioned BTS tapes. In the first one Jay watches, it shows Alex, Tim and Brian at Tim's house, where they plan on making the soundtrack for the movie. The power goes out, and while exploring in the darkness, The Operator is seen. Tim doesn't notice, however. When Tim comes back to the group, The Operator walks into the room, and presumably attacks them.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Most of the other tapes contain general BTS footage, but in one of them, Tim mentions there being an abandoned hospital where they can film. One of the last tapes shows Tim and Alex going to the hospital, but while there, Alex sees an annex, and wants to go there instead. When Tim denies going there, Alex gets aggressive towards him, but still agrees to explore the current hospital. When Tim leaves to go use the restroom, Alex picks up a pipe and knocks him out. The camera drops and The Operator is seen, meaning The Operator's influence had a hand in the sudden attack.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The last tape picks up the same night, where Tim explores the abandoned building in complete darkness. He escapes, but instead of going home, he goes to the annex Alex found. While hiding there, he spots Alex with another pipe, but Alex doesn't find him. Tim suffers another coughing fit, where a frame of The Operator appears, and the camera glitches out. Jay notes that the annex is identical to the hospital in Season 2, where Brian was attacked.


title: Marble Hornets

text: A few days after, Jay and Tim meet up once again and decide to go to the hospital. When they get there, Jay backs out and wants to go to the annex instead. Tim agrees unwillingly. While exploring, they hear a few noises of debris falling, which makes Jay increasingly paranoid. While Jay and Tim are having an argument about the movie, they encounter The Hooded Man. Jay chases after him, and notices that The Hooded Man led him to a maintenance tunnel, Tim convinces Jay to not go down there, and they leave.


title: Marble Hornets

text: A few nights after the exploration, Tim calls Jay, saying that they need to talk. When they meet up, Tim punches Jay in the face, furious at him. He states that he found the Marble Hornets YouTube account, and that he realizes his true intentions. Tim blames Jay for everything that has happened, and says that he was getting better before Jay meet with him. He yells at him for uploading all footage of him as The Masked Man, claiming that it was all Alex's and The Operator's fault for him being that way. The argument ends with Tim saying he wants nothing to do with Jay anymore.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Totheark uploads a video response, entitled 'Reference', where it is shot inside of the maintenance tunnel, with the audio being distorted clips of Tim yelling at Jay. The Masked Man's mask appears in the darkness, and the text "TRUTH WITH LIGHT' appears, with the code 'LIES IN DARK'. This causes Jay to return to the maintenance tunnel by himself, as he has a hunch that The Hooded Man led him there for a specific purpose. While in the annex next to the tunnel, he finds a message written from The Hooded Man, which says "HE IS A LIAR. FOLLOW ME."


title: Marble Hornets

text: While exploring in the tunnel, he finds a long-legged doll, which was last seen in Season 1, where The Masked Man first attacked Jay. Beside the doll is a folder with the text 'LIAR' on it. On further inspection, the folder has medical documents about Tim. When Jay tries to escape, he is attacked by The Operator, but he manages to get out with everything.


title: Marble Hornets

text: 'Entry #60.5' is uploaded, where it is an analysis video of everything inside of the folder. In it, it has several documents dating back to many years ago about Tim, where it is revealed that he suffers from seizures, a history with headaches, insomnia, depression, and many other things. A picture was also left in the folder, which is of Tim and Jay arguing, with the text "WATCHING" written. Jay decides to take a break, due to being at a dead-end.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Totheark uploads 'observation', which is footage of The Hooded Man stalking outside of Tim's home. A few days after this, 'Entry #61' is uploaded, where Jay says that footage not from him was uploaded to the channel a few hours beforehand. The aforementioned footage is footage of The Hooded Man breaking into Tim's house, and stealing his medication from his home, causing Tim to have a psychological breakdown. Afterwards, Tim slowly limps his way out of the room, and The Hooded Man tells Jay that this is his fault, and that Tim has gone somewhere. This is Jay's only chance to get information.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay goes to Rosswood Park, where he thinks Tim might be. While exploring, Jay encounters Tim in his masked state. They chase for a while, until Jay finds a hiding spot, which doesn't last for long. Tim catches up to Jay, and drags him away, afterward The Hooded Man picks up the camera. The screen distorts, and it shows the next morning, where Jay and Tim are now in a defunct shack in Rosswood.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Totheark uploads 'Isolation' where The Hooded Man tells Jay and Tim to 'meet again soon'. The next Entry is exactly that, where Jay and Tim meet up to discuss everything. They form an alliance under one condition: they'll work together, as long as it means finding Jessica.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Tim and Jay head to Rosswood Park, with Tim wearing the chest-mounted camera, where Tim confirms that he does not remember anything while in his masked state. After not being able to find the shack they had awoken from, they decide to head into the tunnel from Season 2, where Alex killed a man. While in there, Jay gets a call from Alex, telling him to leave. After which, Tim falls to the ground in a coughing fit, and The Operator attacks them, which causes Jay to leave Tim there. When Jay makes it back to the parking lot, Tim is somehow already in his car, and he drives away.


title: Marble Hornets

text: However, the next Entry is from Tim's chest-camera footage, and it shows what happens when you're the target of a severe Operator attack. After Tim is left by Jay, Tim is teleported through multiple areas, i.e. a seemingly endless water area where he isn't able to come up and breath, a forest, being dragged through forests, hanging upside down from trees, and ending up in a concrete world where the man that Alex killed is. After Tim somehow manages to escape, he is teleported into his car and, seemingly in a dazed state, drives to the annex. While there, Tim suffers through schizophrenic and psychological breakdowns, presumably suffering another Operator attack that we can't directly see. Afterward, Tim gets his pill bottle and attempts to overdose, and passes out after finding the message on the wall from The Hooded Man.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The next morning, Tim and Jay meet up. Tim gives Jay the chest-camera, and asks Jay if they can go to the annex for one last time, to discuss things. While there, Tim reveals that he was formerly committed to the mental hospital when he was a kid due to hallucinations that he fears were caused by The Operator, and he also fears that he's the reason The Operator spread to everyone on the filmset, which is why he never wants to go to the hospital.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Before leaving, Jay and Tim search the annex for any last things so they can leave the hospital for good. While searching, they encounter The Hooded Man, but he doesn't them. The Hooded Man goes into one of the rooms of the building and checks on something, before disappearing into the forest.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The thing that The Hooded Man had left was a tape, showcasing the aftermath of Tim passing out due to the pills in the annex. Alex had come to the annex in the hopes of finding either Tim, Jay or The Hooded Man. After exploring, Alex hears Tim coughing in the distance, and The Hooded Man knocks him out with a pipe. The Hooded Man ties Alex to a chair, where Tim runs out and beats Alex up to the point of him on the brink of unconsciousness.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The Hooded Man searches his pockets and finds Alex's gun, but The Operator appears and disrupts The Hooded Man's plans. A few days later, Jay and Tim head onto the road to the old filming locations from Alex's movie to try and find any clues left there. While at the red tower from Season 1, they find burned tapes left in one of the sink holes. After getting two of the tapes to work, they find that Alex had constantly lied to Amy, tried to tackle The Operator--much in the same way Jay did in Season 2--and had attacked Jay and tried to kill him after receiving the tapes at the start of the series.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay and Tim go to Alex's old house, where the 'Jay Attack' had taken place. While looking in the basement of the place, the time suddenly skips to night, and The Operator attacks them in the basement. They make it outside, but Tim is transported about 100 yards away from Jay, who is now suffering from a seizure in front of the house. When Tim makes it there, The Operator attacks Tim, but he stands up to him. After Tim stands up to him, The Operator disappears, and Jay and Tim make it back to the car, with Jay seemingly in a permanent dazed state.


title: Marble Hornets

text: While hiding out in a hotel, The Hooded Man uploads footage onto the YouTube account, showing him running out of the stolen pills. He breaks into Tim's house to get more, but finds a tape that wasn't left by him. Before he can take it, Alex is shown coming out of Tim's attic, showing that Alex is waiting for them to return.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Back at the hotel, Tim and Jay have a discussion about what Jay doesn't remember, and Tim assumes that the reason The Operator backed away was because of Tim's medication, which Tim had been giving to Jay and is possibly the reason why he is no longer dazed.


title: Marble Hornets

text: When they go back to Tim's house, they find a picture of Amy in the attack, with text on the back of it implying that The Hooded Man had kidnapped Alex and put him in an abandoned college. Tim steals the tape that was found by The Hooded Man, and hides it away from Jay. Jay finds it and snatches it from him, before running away. The tape shows that Tim (in his masked state) and The Hooded Man are the ones responsible for Jessica's disappearance in Season 2. They set Jessica up in the woods, where Tim goes back to the hotel to attempt to get Jay, which is where he was hit with a flashlight. Jessica and The Hooded Man encounter Alex, where The Hooded Man is shot at, but not hit. Alex leads Jessica to the tunnel where he attempts to kill her, but she steals the gun from him, and Alex is beaten up by The Hooded Man. Jessica, running into the woods to hide, encounters The Operator, who attacks her. With this revelation, and Jay thinking Tim is fully responsible and knowledgeable, causes a breakdown in Jay and Tim's working relationship.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Jay, with full intent to attack Tim now, goes to Tim's house to kill him. Tim gets the jump on him and ties him up in zip-ties, and steals his knife. Tim says that he's going to the college found on the back of the Amy photo, without Jay. While gone, The Hooded Man enters Jay's home, and frees him, leaving his camera with Jay too. Now, going to the hospital without one-another, they explore on their own. Jay is attacked by The Hooded Man, finds hostage photos of Alex, and stalks Tim around, while Tim explores through multiple areas of the college to find either The Hooded Man or Alex. The next morning, having spent the night at the college, Jay sees Tim run out of one of the buildings. He goes to explore, and is found and shot by Alex, fatally wounding him. Jay sits down in a random room, and is taken by The Operator.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Tim, now on his own, finds Jay's laptop and finds a mysterious file on it. It shows Jay the day after getting the Jessica tape, exploring Rosswood Park to retrace Alex and Jessica's steps. Jay is attacked by The Operator, and suffers a personality and motive change, going from apologetic and helping Tim, to violent and wanting to kill Tim.


title: Marble Hornets

text: While at the college, Tim is taunted by The Hooded Man with pills and his mask, before both of them are attacked by The Operator and sent on a chase scene, while teleporting through multiple areas of the series. Tim is teleported to his house, where he sees Jay's dead body. Tim and The Hooded Man are teleported back to the college, where The Hooded Man knocks Tim down. He attempts to hide under a window seal, but Tim grabs a pipe and puts it in the air, which scares The Hooded Man, and causes him to fall down to the ground, killing him.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Tim gets a tape from The Hooded Man's dead body, which shows Alex's Marble Hornets audition tape. Brian shows up with Tim, and they try out for the movie. The hoodie that Brian wears is the same one that The Hooded Man wore, confirming that Brian had been totheark, and had died from falling.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Tim, realizing all of the deaths are in someway Alex's fault, attempts to lure him to his home, but Alex burns down his house, saying "if you want to settle this, you know where I'll be". During Tim's final confrontation with Alex at the college, Alex reveals that he wants to kill anyone who has ever come into contact with The Operator, as he believes this will prevent the spread of The Operator's influence, and that he has already killed Amy, Sarah, and Seth in addition to Jay, knows that Brian is dead, and believes that Jessica is also dead. This means that Alex and Tim are the only remaining survivors of the recording of "Marble Hornets", and that Tim is therefore Alex's last remaining target, after which he intends to kill himself. In the ensuing struggle, Tim finally manages to kill Alex by stabbing him multiple times in the throat. Alex's final words to Tim are that if he knows of any others who have come into contact with the Operator, then he should kill them and then kill himself as Alex had intended to do.


title: Marble Hornets

text: Four days later, Tim disposes of his mask and reunites with Jessica, who had survived the events of the hotel, despite Alex having thought otherwise. Tim had kept her hidden before this point in order to protect her from any further danger. Tim's final encounter with Jessica ends ambiguously; Tim lapses into a coughing fit as the camera distorts and then cuts to black. When the footage resumes, Tim is alone, driving away and stopping at an intersection while sirens can be heard in the distance. With no indication whether or not Tim had acted on Alex's final words following the affect of The Operator and killed Jessica while planning his own suicide, or if the medication taken by both Tim and now Jessica had allowed them to overcome The Operator and survive, the final image of the series is a text card that simply states: "Everything is fine".


title: Marble Hornets

text: Wagner and DeLage began working on the webseries after reading about the Slender Man mythos and because both liked the ease of creating a YouTube series. The initial budget for the series was about $500, which the two used to create the first 26 episodes. They decided against making a set time for each entry, as they both determined that the characters filming the entries would not consider the length of the episode and that the random entry times would help add to the realism. The entire series is edited with the software Sony Vegas Pro and Adobe Premiere.


title: Marble Hornets

text: After its release the series' popularity grew, drawing comparisons to "Lonelygirl15" and "iChannel". In 2013, "Dread Central" named "Marble Hornets" one of their "Top 10 Horror Fan Films", noting that while it "isn’t technically a film" it still contained an "interwoven examination of the mythical Slender Man" and that they felt it was "what quality fanfare and found footage is really all about." Early during the airing of season 1, the series received praise from Roger Ebert.


title: Marble Hornets

text: In May 2014, the developers launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the DVD release of the third season. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with the original goal of $8000 in donations being exceeded by $76,271. These funds went towards further projects, including a box set and new supplementary material in the form of scenes from Alex Kralie's "Marble Hornets".


title: Marble Hornets

text: In February 2013, "Variety" announced that plans were underway to produce a film adaptation of "Marble Hornets". They also announced that the script would be written by Ian Shorr, that James Moran would direct, and that Doug Jones would be portraying the Operator in the film. In October of the same year, Wagner announced on his blog that the movie had finished filming and it would not be a continuation of the YouTube series but would be set within the same universe.


title: Marble Hornets

text: The film, titled "", was released on video on demand on April 7, 2015, starring Doug Jones, Alexandra Breckenridge, and Alexandra Holden. The film opened in select theaters on May 15, 2015. Critical reception for "Always Watching" was predominantly negative.


title: Chonmage

text: The is a type of traditional Japanese topknot haircut worn by men. It is most commonly associated with the Edo period (1603–1867) and samurai, and in recent times with sumo wrestlers. It was originally a method of using hair to hold a samurai kabuto helmet steady atop the head in battle, and became a status symbol among Japanese society.


title: Chonmage

text: In a traditional Edo-period , the top of the head is shaved. The remaining hair was oiled and waxed before being tied into a small tail folded onto the top of the head in the characteristic topknot.


title: Chonmage

text: The origins of the can be traced back to the Heian period. During this period, aristocrats wore special cap like crowns as part of their official clothing. To secure the crown in place, the hair would be tied near the back of the head.


title: Chonmage

text: Between the 1580s (towards the end of the Warring States period, 1467–1615) and the 1630s (the beginning of the Edo period, 1603–1867), Japanese cultural attitudes to men's hair shifted; where a full head of hair and a beard had been valued as a sign of manliness in the preceding militaristic era, in the ensuing period of peace, this gradually shifted until a beard and an unshaven pate were viewed as barbaric, and resistant of the peace that had resulted from two centuries of civil war. This change was also enforced during the Japanese invasion of Joseon (1592–1598), where some Japanese commanders forced the submitted Koreans to shave their heads to this hairstyle, as a method of converting their identities to that of Japanese.


title: Chonmage

text: A shaven pate (the ) became required of the samurai classes by the early Edo period, and by the 1660s, all men, commoner or samurai, were forbidden from wearing beards, with the deemed mandatory.


title: Chonmage

text: Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men. With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the .


title: Chonmage

text: The sumo style of the is slightly different, in that the pate is no longer shaved. However, the hair may be thinned in this region or the crown of the head shaved, called , to allow the topknot to sit more neatly.


title: Chonmage

text: All professional sumo wrestlers wear a as soon as their hair is long enough to do so. Sumo wrestlers with status are required on certain occasions, such as during a , to wear their hair in a more elaborate form of topknot called an or ginkgo leaf style, where the end of the topknot is splayed out to form a semicircle, resembling a hand fan (). Given the uniqueness of the style in modern Japan, the Sumo Association employs specialist hairdressers called to cut and prepare sumo wrestlers' hair.


title: Chonmage

text: The is of such symbolic importance in sumo that snipping it off is the centerpiece of a wrestler's retirement ceremony. Dignitaries and other important people in a wrestler's life are invited to take one snip, with the final one taken by his trainer. For most wrestlers who never reached a sekitori rank, his retirement ceremony will be the only time he wears the more elaborate .


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Vladimir Putin, current president of Russia, has owned seven dogs; since 2014, he has owned four dogs. His fondness of dogs has led to dogs becoming a notable political gift in Russian diplomatic relations.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: When Putin took office, the Putin family had two poodles, Tosya and Rodeo. They reportedly stayed with his ex-wife Lyudmila after their divorce.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Konni (1999–2014) was a female black Labrador Retriever. Konni was born in 1999 and presented to Putin in December 2000. Konni was often seen at Putin's side, and was sometimes allowed to attend meetings when he greeted world leaders during visits to Russia.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Putin was being updated on the progress of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) in 2007 when he inquired whether he would be able to buy a device hooked into GLONASS that would allow him to keep track of his dog, Konni. The collar was demonstrated on Konni on 17 October 2008, thus making Konni the first recipient of a GLONASS-enabled pet collar.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Buffy, a caramel and white Bulgarian male 10-week-old shepherd Karakachan dog, was given to President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Bulgaria in November 2010 by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. The name 'Buffy' was chosen by a five-year-old boy during a nationwide competition.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Yume, a 3-month-old female Akita puppy, arrived in Moscow from Tokyo, Japan, in July 2012, as the Akita Prefecture's gift to show gratitude for assistance from Russia after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. 'Yume' means 'dream' in Japanese.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: In 2016, the Japanese government offered Putin a male Akita puppy as a companion for Yume, but this gift was declined.


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Verni was a birthday gift from Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, President of Turkmenistan, during a meeting in Sochi in October 2017. The puppy is an Alabai, a top Turkmen-bred variety of the Central Asia


title: Pets of Vladimir Putin

text: Pasha () is a Šarplaninac puppy that was given to Putin from Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić during an official visit in January 2019.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.


title: Fruit preserves

text: There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method of preparation, type of fruit used, and place in a meal. Sweet fruit preserves such as jams, jellies, and marmalades are often eaten at breakfast with bread or as an ingredient of a pastry or dessert, whereas more savory and acidic preserves made from "vegetable fruits" such as tomato, squash or zucchini, are eaten alongside savory foods such as cheese, cold meats, and curries.


title: Fruit preserves

text: There are several techniques of making jam, with or without added water. One factor depends on the natural pectin content of the ingredients. When making jam with low pectin fruits like strawberries either high pectin fruit like orange can be added, or additional pectin in the form of pectin powder, citric acid or citrus peels. Often the fruit will be heated gently in a pan to release its juices (and pectin), sometimes with a little added water, before the sugar is added. Another method is to macerate the fruits in sugar overnight and cooking this down to a syrup.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The term "preserves" is usually interchangeable with "jams" even though "preserves" contain chunks or pieces of the fruit whereas "jams" in some regions do not. Closely related names include: "chutney", "confit", "conserve", "fruit butter", "fruit curd", "fruit spread", "jelly", "cheese" and "marmalade".


title: Fruit preserves

text: Some cookbooks define preserves as cooked and gelled whole fruit (or vegetable), which includes a significant portion of the fruit. In the English-speaking world, the two terms are more strictly differentiated and, when this is not the case, the more usual generic term is 'jam'.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The singular "preserve" or "conserve" is used as a collective noun for high fruit content jam, often for marketing purposes. Additionally, the name of the type of fruit preserves will also vary depending on the regional variant of English being used.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Cheong is a name for various sweetened foods in the form of syrups, marmalades, and fruit preserves in Korean cuisine. It is used as a tea base, as a honey-or-sugar substitute in cooking, and as a condiment.


title: Fruit preserves

text: There are liquid varieties such as "maesil-cheong" (plum syrup), jam-like varieties such as "yuja-cheong" (yuja marmalade), and conserve-like varieties such as "mogwa-cheong" (preserved quince).


title: Fruit preserves

text: A chutney is a relish of Indian origin made of fruit, spices and herbs. Although originally intended to be eaten soon after preparation, modern chutneys are often made to be sold, so require preservatives – often sugar and vinegar – to ensure they have a suitable shelf life. Mango chutney, for example, is mangoes reduced with sugar.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Confit, the past participle of the French verb "confire", "to preserve", is applied both to preservation of meats, and to fruits or vegetables seasoned and cooked with honey or sugar till jam-like. Savory confits, such as those made with garlic or fennel, may call for an oil, such as virgin olive oil, as the preserving agent.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Konfyt (Afrikaans: "jam" or "fruit preserve") is a type of jam eaten in Southern Africa. It is made by boiling selected fruit or fruits (such as strawberries, apricots, oranges, lemons, watermelons, berries, peaches, prickly pears, or others) and sugar, and optionally adding a little ginger to enhance the flavor. The origin of the term is obscure, but it is theorized that it came from the French. The word is also based on the French term "confiture" via the Dutch "confident" (meaning candied fruit).


title: Fruit preserves

text: A conserve, or whole fruit jam, is a preserve made of fruit stewed in sugar. Traditional whole fruit preserves are particularly popular in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) where they are called varenye, the Baltic region where they are known by a native name in each of the countries (, , , ), as well as in many regions of Western, Central and Southern Asia, where they are referred to as murabba. In Southeast Europe, another version called slatko is made. In Greece, such confections are called spoon sweets and are commonly offered to guests, along with a glass of water, as a gesture of hospitality. Outside of this geographical region, whole-fruit preserves are known in France as confitures.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The making of conserves can be trickier than making a standard jam; it requires cooking or sometimes steeping the fruit in the hot sugar mixture for just long enough to allow the flavor to be extracted from the fruit, and sugar to penetrate it, but not so long that the fruit breaks down and liquefies. This process can also be achieved by spreading the dry sugar over raw fruit in layers, and leaving for several hours to penetrate into the fruit and soak the water out, then heating the resulting mixture to bring it just to the set point. As a result of this minimal cooking, some fruits are not particularly suitable for making into conserves, because they require cooking for longer periods to avoid issues such as tough skins and spoiling. Currants and gooseberries, and a number of plums are among these fruits.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Because of this shorter cooking period, not as much pectin will be released from the fruit, and consequently conserves, particularly if home-cooked, will sometimes be slightly softer set than some jams.


title: Fruit preserves

text: There is an alternative definition of a conserve: a preserve made from a mixture of fruits or vegetables. Conserves in this sense may also include dried fruit or nuts.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Fruit butter, in this context, refers to a process where the whole fruit is forced through a sieve or blended after the heating process.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Fruit butter are generally made from larger fruits, such as apples, plums, peaches, or grapes. Cook until softened and run through a sieve to give a smooth consistency. After sieving, cook the pulp ... add sugar and cook as rapidly as possible with constant stirring.… The finished product should mound up when dropped from a spoon, but should not cut like jelly. Nor should there be any free liquid.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Fruit curd is a dessert topping and spread usually made with lemon, lime, orange, or raspberry. The basic ingredients are beaten egg yolks, sugar, fruit juice and zest which are gently cooked together until thick and then allowed to cool, forming a soft, smooth, flavorful spread. Some recipes also include egg whites or butter.


title: Fruit preserves

text: In the United States the FDA has "Requirements for Specific Standardized Fruit Butters, Jellies, Preserves, and Related Products", "fruit spread" is not defined.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The term is sometimes used for a jam or preserve with no added sugar, but there are many foodstuffs described as "fruit spreads" by leading manufacturers that do contain added sugar.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Jam refers to a product made of whole fruit cut into pieces or crushed, then heated with water and sugar until it reaches "jelling" or "setting" point, which is achieved through the action of natural or added pectin. It is then sealed in containers.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Jam making became "a great new industry" in 19th century England, at which point English jam makers were jam makers for the world, thriving after the repeal of sugar duties in 1874.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Pectin is mainly D-galacturonic acid connected by α (1–4) glycosidic linkages. The side chains of pectin may contain small amounts of other sugars such as L-fructose, D-glucose, D-mannose, and D-xylose. In jams, pectin thickens the final product via cross-linking of the large polymer chains.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Recipes without added pectin use the natural pectin in the fruit to set. Tart apples, sour blackberries, cranberries, currants, gooseberries, Concord grapes, soft plums, and quinces work well in recipes without added pectin.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Other fruits, such as apricots, blueberries, cherries, peaches, pineapple, raspberries, rhubarb, and strawberries are low in pectin. In order to set, or gel, they must be combined with one of the higher pectin fruits or used with commercially produced or homemade pectin. Use of added pectin decreases cooking time.


title: Fruit preserves

text: "Freezer jam" is uncooked (or cooked less than 5 minutes), then stored frozen. It is popular in parts of North America for its very fresh taste.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The category of fruit preserve referred to as a jelly (from the French "gelée") is a clear or translucent fruit spread made by a process similar to that used for making jam, with the additional step of filtering out the fruit pulp after the initial cooking.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Good jelly is clear and sparkling and has a fresh flavor of the fruit from which it is made. It is tender enough to quiver when moved but holds angles when cut.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The characteristic clarity and jellied consistency of a jelly are qualities it shares with the gelatin-based dessert also called jelly.


title: Fruit preserves

text: High pectin fruits such as quinces, apples or redcurrants are used for making jelly. In the United States, jellies made from strawberries or concord grapes are most preferred and are used for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Fruit jellies may be used in a meal or dish in a similar way to jam. Some jellies, such as redcurrant, or mint, are classic accompaniments to roasted meats such as turkey, game, and lamb.


title: Fruit preserves

text: A traditional method for filtering the fruit from the liquid in a jelly is through the use of a muslin or stockinette "jelly bag", suspended by string from an upturned stool over a bowl to allow the straining to occur gently under the action of gravity. Jellies need to be strained very slowly and gently to ensure the clarity of the result, as forced straining by squeezing or pressing can lead to cloudiness in the jelly.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Pectin is essential to the formation of jelly because it acts as a gelling agent, meaning when the pectin chains combine, they create a network that results in a gel. The strength and effectiveness of the side chains and the bonds they form depend on the pH of the pectin, the optimal pH is between 2.8 and 3.2.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. It can be produced from lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins, sweet oranges, bergamots and other citrus fruits, or any combination thereof. Marmalade is distinguished from jam by the inclusion of citrus peel, and the use of more water, in which respect it resembles a jelly. It is distinguished from a jelly by containing pieces of fruit peel.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the bitter Spanish Seville orange, "Citrus aurantium" var. "aurantium", prized for its high pectin content, which gives a good set. The peel has a distinctive bitter taste which it imparts to the preserve.


title: Fruit preserves

text: In general, jam is produced by taking mashed or chopped fruit or vegetable pulp and boiling it with sugar and water. The proportion of sugar and fruit varies according to the type of fruit and its ripeness, but a rough starting point is equal weights of each. When the mixture reaches a temperature of 104 °C (219 °F), the acid and the pectin in the fruit react with the sugar, and the jam will set on cooling. Most home cooks work by trial and error rather than temperature measurement, bringing the mixture to a "fast rolling boil", watching to see if the seething mass changes texture, and dropping small samples on a plate to see if they run or set.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Commercially produced jams are usually produced using one of two methods. The first is the open pan method, which is essentially a larger scale version of the method a home jam maker would use. This gives a traditional flavor, with some caramelization of the sugars. The second commercial process involves the use of a vacuum vessel, where the jam is placed under a vacuum, which has the effect of reducing its boiling temperature to anywhere between 65 and 80 °C depending on the recipe and the end result desired. The lower boiling temperature enables the water to be driven off as it would be when using the traditional open pan method, but with the added benefit of retaining more of the volatile flavor compounds from the fruit, preventing caramelization of the sugars, and of course reducing the overall energy required to make the product. However, once the desired amount of water has been driven off, the jam still needs to be heated briefly to for safety, to kill pathogens that would otherwise proliferate.


title: Fruit preserves

text: During commercial filling it is common to use a flame to sterilize the rim and lid of jars to destroy any yeasts and molds which could cause spoilage during storage. Steam is commonly injected immediately before lidding; when the steam condenses after lidding it creates a vacuum which both helps prevent spoilage and pulls down a tamper-evident "safety button" when used.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The high sugar content makes jam keep for exceedingly long times before unsealing the packaging, and for a long time at room temperature after opening, as fruit preserves are typically of low water activity. Glass or plastic jars are often used to store jam that is not all to be used at once, as a replaceable tightly-fitting lid can be used. Other methods of packaging jam, especially for industrially produced products, include cans and plastic packets, especially used in the food service industry for individual servings.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Under the Processed Products Regulations (C.R.C., c. 291), jams, jellies, citrus marmalade, and preserves are defined. Each must contain a minimum percentage of the named fruit and a minimum percentage of water-soluble solids. Jams "shall be the product made by boiling fruit, fruit pulp or canned fruit to a suitable consistency with water and a sweetening ingredient", jellies "shall be the product made by boiling fruit juice or concentrated fruit juice that is free from seeds and pulp with water and a sweetening ingredient until it acquires a gelatinous consistency."


title: Fruit preserves

text: In Canada, fruit jam is categorized into two types: fruit jam and fruit jam with pectin. Both types contain fruit, fruit pulp or canned fruit and are boiled with water and a sweetening ingredient. Both must have 66% water-soluble solids. Fruit jam and fruit jam with pectin may contain a class II preservative, a pH adjusting agent or an antifoaming agent. Both types cannot contain apple or rhubarb fruit.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Though both types of jam are very similar, there are some differences in fruit percent, added pectin, and added acidity. Fruit jam must have at least 45% fruit and may contain added pectin to compensate for the natural pectin level found in the fruit. Fruit jam with pectin need only contain 27% fruit and is allowed to contain added acidity to compensate for the natural acidity of the fruit.


title: Fruit preserves

text: In Canada, the Food and Drug Regulations of the Food and Drugs Act of Canada categorizes jelly into two types: jelly, and jelly with pectin. Jelly may be made from the fruit, the fruit juice, or a fruit juice concentrate, and must contain at least 62% water-soluble solids. Jelly may contain an acid ingredient that makes up for any lack in the natural acidity of the fruit, a chemical to adjust the pH, and/or an antifoaming agent. Jelly with pectin must be made with a minimum of 62% water-soluble solids and a minimum of 32% juice of the named fruit, and may contain an acid ingredient that compensates for the lack in the natural acidity of the fruit; the additional juice of another fruit; a gelling agent; food color; a Class II preservative (such as benzoates, sorbates, or nitrites); a chemical to adjust the pH; and/or an antifoaming agent.


title: Fruit preserves

text: In the European Union, the jam directive (Council Directive 79/693/EEC, 24 July 1979) set minimum standards for the amount of "fruit" in jam, but the definition of fruit was expanded to take account of several unusual kinds of jam made in the EU. For this purpose, "fruit" is considered to include fruits that are not usually treated in a culinary sense as fruits, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins; fruits that are not normally made into jams; and vegetables that are sometimes made into jams, such as rhubarb (the edible part of the stalks), carrots, and sweet potatoes. This definition continues to apply in the new directive, Council Directive 2001/113/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Extra jam is subject to somewhat stricter rules that set higher standards for the minimum fruit content (45% instead of 35% as a general rule, but lower for some fruits such as redcurrants and blackcurrants), specifying the use of unconcentrated fruit pulp, and forbidding the mixture of certain fruits and vegetables with others.


title: Fruit preserves

text: Extra jelly similarly specifies that the proportion of fruit juice or aqueous extracts in the finished product must not be less than that laid down for the manufacture of extra jam.


title: Fruit preserves

text: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published standards of identity in 21 CFR 150, and treats jam and preserves as synonymous, but distinguishes jelly from jams and preserves. All of these are cooked and pectin-gelled fruit products, but jellies are made from fruit juice, without seeds and pulp, while jams and preserves are gelled fruit that may include the seeds and pulp. The United States Department of Agriculture offers grading service based on these standards.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine (September 10, 1965), also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an African-American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death in 1965. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messenger" early in his life. He founded the International Peace Mission movement, formulated its doctrine, and oversaw its growth from a small and predominantly black congregation into a multiracial and international church. Due to his ideology, many consider him to be a cult leader.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine claimed to be God. He made numerous contributions toward his followers' economic independence and racial equality. He was a contemporary of other religious leaders such as Daddy Grace, Charles Harrison Mason, Noble Drew Ali, James F. Jones (also known as Prophet Jones), Wallace Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad and Jim Jones.


title: Father Divine

text: Little is known about Father Divine's early life, or even his real given name. Father Divine and the peace movement he started did not keep many records. Father Divine himself declined several offers to write his biography, saying that "the history of God would not be useful in mortal terms". He also refused to acknowledge relationship to any family. Newspapers in the 1930s had to dig up his probable given name: George Baker. This name is not recognized by the Library of Congress, and from 1979, there is no further use of that name as a heading for Father Divine in libraries' catalogs.


title: Father Divine

text: Federal Bureau of Investigation files record his name as George Baker alias "God". In 1936 Eliza Mayfield claimed to be Father Divine's mother. She stated that his real name was Frederick Edwards from Hendersonville, North Carolina, and he had abandoned a wife and five children, although Mayfield offered no proof and claimed to not remember his father's name. Father Divine replied that "God has no Mother."


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's childhood remains a contentious point. Some, especially earlier researchers, suppose that he was born in the Deep South, most likely in Georgia, as the son of sharecroppers. Newer research by Jill Watts, based on census data, finds evidence for a George Baker Jr. of appropriate age born in an African-American enclave of Rockville, Maryland, called Monkey Run. If this theory is correct, his mother was a former slave named Nancy Baker, who died in May 1897.


title: Father Divine

text: Most researchers agree that Father Divine's parents were freed black slaves. Notoriously poor records were kept about this generation of African Americans, so controversy about his upbringing is not likely to be resolved. On the other hand, he and his first wife, Peninniah (variant spellings: Penninah, Peninnah, Penniah) claimed that they were married on June 6, 1882.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine was probably called George Baker around the turn of the century. He worked as a gardener in Baltimore, Maryland. In a 1906 sojourn in California, Father Divine became acquainted with the ideas of Charles Fillmore and the New Thought movement, a philosophy of positive thinking that would inform his later doctrines. Among other things, this belief system asserted that negative thoughts led to poverty and unhappiness. Songwriter Johnny Mercer credited a Father Divine sermon for inspiring the title of his song "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive".


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine attended a local Baptist Church, often preaching, until 1907, when a traveling preacher named Samuel Morris spoke and was expelled from the congregation. Morris, originally from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, had a soft-spoken and uncontroversial sermon until the end, when he raised his arms and shouted, "I am the Eternal Father!" This routine had him thrown out of many churches in Baltimore, and was apparently unsuccessful until Morris happened upon the receptive Father Divine.


title: Father Divine

text: In his late 20s, Father Divine became Morris's first follower and adopted a pseudonym, "The Messenger". The Messenger was a Christ figure to Morris's God the Father. Father Divine preached with Morris in Baltimore out of the home of former evangelist Harriette Snowden, who came to accept their divinity. Morris began calling himself "Father Jehovia".


title: Father Divine

text: Divine and Father Jehovia were later joined by John A. Hickerson, who called himself Reverend Bishop Saint John the Vine. John the Vine shared the Messenger's excellent speaking ability and his interest in New Thought.


title: Father Divine

text: In 1912, the three-man ministry collapsed, as John the Vine denied Father Jehovia's monopoly on godhood, citing 1 John 4:15 to mean God was in everyone:


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine parted ways with his former associates. Denying that Father Jehovia was God, and saying that not everyone could be God, he declared that he himself was God, and the only true expression of God's spirit.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine traveled south, where he preached extensively in Georgia. In 1913, conflicts with local ministers led to him being sentenced to 60 days in a chain gang. While he was serving his sentence, several prison inspectors were injured in an auto accident, which he viewed as the direct result of their disbelief.


title: Father Divine

text: Upon his release, he attracted a following of mostly black women in Valdosta, Georgia. He taught celibacy and the rejection of gender categorizations.


title: Father Divine

text: On February 6, 1914, several followers' husbands and local preachers had Divine arrested for lunacy. This actually expanded his ministry, with reporters and worshipers deluging his prison cell. Some whites even began calling on him.


title: Father Divine

text: Former Mercer University professor and lay preacher, J. R. Moseley of Macon, Georgia, befriended Divine and arranged for J. B. Copeland, a Mercer alum and respected Valdosta lawyer, to represent him "pro bono". Moseley was interested in what he termed "this unusual man" in his autobiography "Manifest Destiny"."


title: Father Divine

text: Decades later, in the 1930s, Moseley met Divine in New York City when he received word that the man going by that name might in fact be the same person he met in Georgia. Father Divine was found mentally sound in spite of "maniacal" beliefs. He had given no name when arrested and was tried as "John Doe (alias God)".


title: Father Divine

text: In 1914, Father Divine traveled to Brooklyn, New York, with a small number of followers and an all-black congregation. Although he claimed to be God incarnate fulfilling biblical prophecy, he lived relatively quietly.


title: Father Divine

text: He and his disciples formed a commune in a black middle-class apartment building. He forbade sex, alcohol, tobacco and gambling among those who were living with him. By 1919, he had adopted the name Reverend Major Jealous Divine. "Reverend Major" was chosen as a title of respect and authority, while "Jealous" was a reference to Exodus 34:14, where the Lord says he is a "jealous god" and that God's name is Jealous. His followers affectionately called him Father Divine.


title: Father Divine

text: In this period, Father Divine was married to a follower, Peninniah (variant spellings: Penninah, Peninnah, Penniah), who was a few years older than he was. Like Father Divine, her early life is obscure, but she is believed to be from Macon, Georgia. The date of the marriage is unknown but probably occurred between 1914 and 1917.


title: Father Divine

text: In addition to lending her dignified look to Father Divine, Peninniah served to defuse rumors of impropriety between him and his many young female followers. Both Penninah, who was often called "Mother Divine", and Father Divine would assert that the marriage was never physically consummated.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine and his disciples moved to Sayville, New York (on Long Island), in 1919. He and his followers were the first black homeowners in town. Father Divine purchased his 72 Macon Street house from a resident who wanted to spite the neighbor he was feuding with. The two neighbors, both German Americans, began fighting when one of them changed his name from Felgenhauer to Fellows in response to anti-German sentiment. His neighbor taunted him, and the feud escalated until Fellows decided to move. As a final insult, he specifically advertised his home for sale to a "colored" buyer, presumably to lower his neighbors' property value.


title: Father Divine

text: In this period, his movement underwent sustained growth. Father Divine held free weekly banquets and helped newcomers find jobs. He began attracting many white followers as well as black. The integrated environment of Father Divine's communal house and the apparently flaunted wealth of his Cadillac infuriated neighbors.


title: Father Divine

text: Members of the overwhelmingly white community accused him of maintaining a large harem and engaging in scandalous sex, although the Suffolk County district attorney's office found the claims baseless. In order to try to please his neighbors, he had a sign posted at his driveway warned guests: NOTICE—Smoking—Intoxicating Liquors—Profane Language—Strictly Prohibited. Contrary to the charges of Sayville residents, Angels claimed that Father Divine prohibited singing after eight o'clock and by ten o'clock had closed all windows and blinds." Nonetheless, the neighbors continued to complain.


title: Father Divine

text: On May 8, 1931, a Sayville deputy arrested and charged Father Divine with disturbing the peace. Remarkable during the Depression, Father Divine submitted his $1000 bail in cash. The trial, not as speedy as the neighbors wanted, was scheduled for late fall, allowing Father Divine's popularity to snowball for the entire Sayville vacation season.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine held banquets for as many as 3000 people that summer. Cars clogging the streets for these gatherings bolstered some neighbors' claims that Father Divine "was" a disturbance to the peace and furthermore was hurting their property values.


title: Father Divine

text: On Sunday, November 15, at 12:15 am, a police officer was called to Father Divine's raucously loud property. By the time state troopers, deputies and prison buses were called in, a mob of neighbors had surrounded the compound. Fearing a riot, the police informed Father Divine and his followers that they had fifteen minutes to disperse. Father Divine had them wait in silence for ten minutes, and then they filed into police custody.


title: Father Divine

text: Processed by the county jail at 3 am, clerks were frustrated, because his followers often refused to give their usual names and stubbornly offered the "inspired" names they adopted in the movement. Seventy-eight people were arrested altogether, including fifteen whites. Forty-six pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and incurred $5 fines, which Father Divine paid with a $500 bill, which the court was embarrassingly unable to make change from. Penninah, Father Divine, and thirty followers resisted the charges.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's arrest and heterodox doctrines were sensationally reported. The New York frenzy made this event and its repercussions the single most famous moment of Father Divine's life. Although mostly inaccurate, articles on Father Divine propelled his popularity. By December, his followers began renting buildings in New York City for Father Divine to speak in. Soon, he often had several engagements on a single night. On December 20, he spoke to an estimated 10,000 in Harlem's Rockland Palace, a spacious former basketball venue, Manhattan Casino.


title: Father Divine

text: By May 1932, meetings were regularly held at the Rockland and throughout New York and New Jersey. Father Divine had supporters in Washington state, California and throughout the world thanks to New Thought devotees like Eugene Del Mar, an early convert and former Harlem journalist, and Henry Joerns, the publisher of a New Thought magazine in Seattle. Although the movement was predominantly black, followers outside the Northeastern United States were mostly middle class whites.


title: Father Divine

text: In this period of expansions, several branch communes were opened in New York and New Jersey. Father Divine's followers finally named the movement: the International Peace Mission movement.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's trial was held on May 24, 1932. His lawyer, Ellee J. Lovelace, a prominent Harlem African American and former US attorney had requested the trial be moved outside of Suffolk County, due to potential jury bias. The court acquiesced, and the trial took place at the Nassau County Supreme Court before Justice Lewis J. Smith. After a long trial, with many witnesses, "Justice Smith instructed the jury to ignore the statements made by witnesses not present on the night of the raid. Smith's order invalidated most of the testimony in Father Divine's favor and severely crippled the defense."


title: Father Divine

text: The jury found him guilty on June 5 but asked for leniency on behalf of Father Divine. Ignoring the jury's request, Justice Smith lectured on how Father Divine was a fraud and "menace to society" before issuing the maximum sentence for disturbing the peace: one year in prison and a $500 fine.


title: Father Divine

text: Smith, 55, died of a heart attack days later on June 9, 1932. Father Divine was widely reported to have commented on the death, "I hated to do it." He wrote to his followers, "I did not desire Judge Smith to die. ... I did desire that MY spirit would touch his heart and change his mind that he might repent and believe and be saved from the grave."


title: Father Divine

text: The impression that Justice Smith's death was divine retribution was perpetuated by the press, which failed to report Smith's prior heart problems and implied the death to be more sudden and unexpected than it was.


title: Father Divine

text: During his brief prison stay, Father Divine read prodigiously, notably on the Scottsboro Nine. After his attorneys secured release through an appeal on June 25, 1932, he declared that the foundational documents of the United States of America, such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, were inspired. Father Divine also taught that contemporary leaders strayed from these ideals, but he would become increasingly patriotic through his life.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine moved to Harlem, New York, where he had accumulated a significant following in the black community. Members, rather than Father Divine himself, held most deeds for the movement, but they contributed toward Father Divine's comfortable lifestyle. Purchasing several hotels, which they called "Heavens", members could live and seek jobs inexpensively. He opened one hotel "near Atlantic City, New Jersey, so that blacks could access the beach."


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine and the Peace Mission, became the largest property owners in Harlem at one point in time. The movement also opened several budget enterprises, including restaurants and clothing shops, that sold cheaply by cutting overheads. These proved very successful in the depression. Economical, cash-only businesses were part of Father Divine's doctrine.


title: Father Divine

text: By 1934, branches had opened in Los Angeles, California, and Seattle, Washington, and gatherings occurred in France, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia, but the membership totals were drastically overstated in the press. "Time" magazine estimated nearly two million followers, but the true figure of adherents was probably a few tens of thousands and a larger body of sympathizers who attended his gatherings.


title: Father Divine

text: Nonetheless, Father Divine was increasingly called upon to offer political endorsements, which he initially did not. For example, New York mayoral candidates John P. O'Brien and Fiorello H. LaGuardia each sought his endorsement in 1933, but Father Divine was apparently uninterested.


title: Father Divine

text: An odd alliance between Father Divine and the Communist Party of America began in early 1934. Although Father Divine was outspokenly capitalist, he was impressed with the party's commitment to civil rights. The party relished the endorsement, although contemporary FBI records indicate some critics of the perceived huckster were expelled from the party for protesting the alliance.


title: Father Divine

text: In spite of this alliance, the movement was largely apolitical until the Harlem Riot of 1935. Based on a rumor of police killing a black teenager, it left four dead and caused over $1 million in property damage in Father Divine's neighborhood. Father Divine's outrage at this and other racial injustices fueled a keener interest in politics. In January 1939, the movement organized the first-ever "Divine Righteous Government Convention", which crafted political platforms incorporating the Doctrine of Father Divine. Among other things, the delegates opposed school segregation and many of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's social programs, which they interpreted as "handouts".


title: Father Divine

text: On December 16, John Hunt, a white millionaire and disciple from California calling himself John the Revelator, met the Jewett family of Denver, Colorado. He kidnapped their 17-year-old daughter Delight and took her back to California without her parents' consent. Renaming her "Virgin Mary", John the Revelator began sexual relations with her. He announced that she would give birth to a "New Redeemer" by "immaculate conception" in Hawaii.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine summoned Hunt to New York, separated the couple and chastised his eccentric follower. The Jewetts, finding their daughter apparently brainwashed into believing she was literally the Virgin Mary, demanded compensation. After the movement's attorneys conducted an internal investigation, they refused. Outraged, the Jewetts offered their story to William Randolph Hearst's "New York Evening Journal", an established critic of the movement.


title: Father Divine

text: After a manhunt and trial, John Hunt was sentenced to three years and adopted a new name, the "Prodigal Son". Father Divine publicly endorsed the conviction of John the Revelator, contrary to some expectations (some followers expected him to once again "smite" the judge). The scandal brought bad publicity to Father Divine. News coverage implied his followers were gullible and dangerous.


title: Father Divine

text: In March 1937, Penninah fell ill in Kingston, New York. Father Divine rarely comforted her on what was widely believed to be her deathbed. He kept running the church, only visiting her once in Kingston, again causing bad publicity. Penninah, however, claimed that she was not seriously ill or in pain.


title: Father Divine

text: On April 20, 1937, a violent outburst occurred in a meeting when two men tried to deliver Father Divine a summons. One of the men, Harry Green, was stabbed as Father Divine fled. Father Divine went into hiding to evade authorities.


title: Father Divine

text: During this time, one of Father Divine's most prominent followers, called Faithful Mary, defected and took control of a large commune, which was technically in her name. Of the Father she said, "he's just a damned man." She furthermore alleged that he defrauded his followers to maintain a rich lifestyle for himself. Faithful Mary also made a number of sexual allegations, including a charge that Father Divine coerced women to have sex with key disciples.


title: Father Divine

text: In early May 1937, Father Divine was located and extradited from Connecticut and faced criminal charges in New York. That summer, Hearst's Metronone newsreel distributed mocking footage of Father Divine's followers singing outside police headquarters, "Glory, glory, hallelujah! Our God is in our land!"


title: Father Divine

text: Later in May 1937, an ex-follower called Verinda Brown filed a lawsuit for $4,476 against Father Divine. The Browns had entrusted their savings with Father Divine in Sayville back in 1931. They left the movement in 1935 wishing to live as husband and wife again, but were unable to get their money back. In light of their evidence and testimony from Faithful Mary and others critical of the movement, the court ordered repayment of the money. However, this opened up an enormous potential liability from all ex-devotees, so Father Divine resisted and appealed the judgment.


title: Father Divine

text: In 1938, Father Divine was cleared of criminal charges and Mother Divine recovered. Faithful Mary, impoverished and broken, returned to the movement. Father Divine made her grovel for forgiveness, which she did. By the late 1930s, the movement stabilized, although it had clearly passed its zenith.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's political focus on anti-lynching measures became more resolved. By 1940, his followers had gathered 250,000 signatures in favor of an anti-lynching bill he wrote. However, passage of such statutes came slowly in New York and elsewhere.


title: Father Divine

text: The Verinda Brown lawsuit against Father dragged on and was sustained on appeal. In July 1942, he was ordered to pay Brown or face contempt of court. Instead, Father Divine fled the state and re-established his headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He still visited New York, however. State law forbade serving subpoenas in New York on Sunday, so he often spoke on the Sabbath day in Harlem, the Promised Land (his Kingston commune), and Sayville.


title: Father Divine

text: After moving to Philadelphia, Father Divine's wife Penninah died. The exact date is not known, because Father Divine never talked about it or even acknowledged her death. However, it occurred sometime in 1943, and biographers believe Penninah's death rattled Father Divine, making him aware of his own mortality. It became obvious to Father Divine and his followers that his doctrine might not make one immortal as he asserted, at least not in the flesh.


title: Father Divine

text: In 1944, singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer came to hear of one of Divine's sermons. The subject was "You got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative". Mercer said, "Wow, that's a colorful phrase!" He went back to Hollywood and got together with songwriter Harold Arlen ("Over the Rainbow"), and together they wrote "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive", which was recorded by Mercer and the Pied Pipers in 1945. It was also recorded by Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters that same year.


title: Father Divine

text: After his first wife died, Father Divine married a white Canadian woman called Edna Rose Ritchings in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 1946. The ceremony was kept secret even from most members until Ritching's visa expired. Critics of the movement believed that Father Divine's seemingly scandalous marriage to 21-year-old Ritchings would destroy the movement. Instead, most followers rejoiced, and the marriage date became a celebrated anniversary in the movement. To prove that he and Ritchings adhered to his doctrine on sexual abstinence, Father Divine assigned a black female follower to be her constant companion.


title: Father Divine

text: He claimed that Ritchings, later called "Mother S. A. Divine", was the reincarnation of Penninah. Reincarnation was not previously part of Father Divine's doctrine and did not become a fixture of his theology. Followers believed that Penninah was an exceptional case and viewed her "return" as a miracle.


title: Father Divine

text: Going into the 1950s, the press rarely covered Father Divine, and when it did, it was no longer as a menace, but as an amusing relic. For example, light-hearted stories ran when Father Divine announced Philadelphia was capital of the world and when he claimed to inspire invention of the hydrogen bomb. Father Divine's predominantly lower-class following ebbed as the economy swelled.


title: Father Divine

text: In 1953, follower John Devoute gave Father Divine Woodmont, a 72-acre (0.3 km) hilltop estate in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. This French Gothic manor served as his home and primary site of his increasingly infrequent banquets until his death in 1965.


title: Father Divine

text: As his health declined, he continued to petition for civil rights. In 1951, he advocated reparations to be paid to the descendants of slaves. He also argued in favor of integrated neighborhoods. However, he did not participate in the burgeoning American civil rights movement because of his poor health and especially his dislike of the use of racial labels, denying he was black.


title: Father Divine

text: On September 10, 1965, Father Divine died of natural causes at his Woodmont estate. His widow and remaining followers insist his spirit is still alive and always refer to Father Divine in the present tense. Believers keep the furnishings of Father Divine's personal rooms at Woodmont just as they were as a shrine to his life.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's widow Edna Rose Ritchings became the spiritual leader of the movement. In 1972, she fought an attempt by Jim Jones to take over the movement's dwindling devotees. Jones based some of his doctrines on the International Peace Mission movement and claimed to be the reincarnation of Father Divine. Although a few members of the Mission joined the Peoples Temple after Jones made his play for leadership of the movement, the power push was, in terms of its ultimate objective, a failure.


title: Father Divine

text: That Jones was 34 years old at the time of Father Divine's death made his claims of being a new incarnation rather hard to sustain - Jones claimed Divine's spirit had entered his body upon the passing of the elder man - and Ritchings was left unimpressed by Jones' impassioned rhetoric. Jones' custom of tape-recording all his sermons was copied from Divine, who "spoke" to his followers via archived sermon tapes once ill health forced him to cease speaking at meetings.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine was a slight, black man at a diminutive . Through most of his life, he maintained a fastidious appearance and a neat mustache that he kept well groomed, his hair was invariably neatly combed, and since his days in Sayville, New York, he almost always wore a suit in public.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine was said to be very charismatic. His sermons were emotionally moving and freely associated between topics. His speech was often peppered with words of his own invention like "physicalating" and "tangiblated". An attendee at a Harlem "kingdoms" meeting in the 1930s recalled that he rhythmically intoned "Tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions. Tens, hundreds, ... millions." Although this seemed nonsense to the visitor, he reported that at the end the true believers chanted, "Yes, he's God. Yes he's God."


title: Father Divine

text: Other eccentricities were drawn from his doctrine. For example, nearly every sermon began with the greeting and exhortation "Peace!" Father Divine believed that "peace" should replace "hello".


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine preached of his divinity even before he was known as "Father Divine" in the late 1910s. His doctrine taught that his life fulfilled all biblical prophecies about the second coming, regarding himself as Jesus Christ reborn. Father Divine also lectured that Christ existed in "every joint" of his follower's bodies, and that he was "God's light" incarnated in order to show people how to establish heaven on earth and to show them the way to eternal life. For example:


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine and his followers capitalized pronouns referring to him, much like "LORD" translated from the tetragrammaton is capitalized in the English Bible.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine's definition of God became quite celebrated at the time because of its unusual use of language: "God is not only personified and materialized. He is repersonified and rematerialized. He rematerialized and He rematerialates. He rematerialates and He is rematerializatable. He repersonificates and He repersonifitizes."


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine can be considered part of the New Thought movement; indeed, many of his white followers came from this tradition.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine was particularly concerned with the downtrodden of society, including but not limited to Blacks. He was opposed to people accepting welfare. He believed in capitalism, and "In his opinion, capitalism was not at fault; the individual was to blame for the depression." He thought Americans could make it better if they had positive thoughts and channeled God's spirit.


title: Father Divine

text: Scholars disagree about whether Father Divine, an African American, was a civil rights activist, but he certainly advocated some progressive changes to race relations. For example, because he believed that every human was accorded equal rights, he believed that all members of lynch mobs ought to be tried and convicted as murderers. Father Divine's anti-lynching campaigns resonated in the black ghettos where his congregations lived, and he got over a quarter million people to sign his anti-lynching proposals.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine advocated that followers think of themselves as simply Americans. He believed that America was the birthplace of the "Kingdom of God", which would ultimately encompass truths of all religious principles, promoting equality and brotherhood. The movement was supportive of the United States Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and particularly the Bill of Rights as inspired documents, believing that they outlined a more ideal life.


title: Father Divine

text: Toward this life, followers of Father Divine owned and managed property collectively. The movement strove to alleviate poverty by feeding the poor and through education in written English, which the movement believed was the "universal language".


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine established an "International Modesty Code" which forbids smoking, drinking, and profanity. Additionally, it forbade tips, bribes, receiving presents, and "undue mixing of the sexes", along with women wearing slacks or short skirts and men wearing short sleeves.


title: Father Divine

text: Although Father Divine himself was married, the movement discouraged marriage, along with any excessive mingling of the sexes. In the "Heavens" and other living spaces the movement maintained, separate areas existed for men and women.


title: Father Divine

text: Father Divine advocated a number of economic practices, which his followers abided by. He opposed life insurance (which converts were to cancel), welfare, social security, and credit. Thus, the movement advocated economic self-sufficiency. His insistence that his followers refuse welfare not related to employment was estimated to have saved New York City $2 million during the Depression.


title: Father Divine

text: Business owners in the movement named their ventures to show affiliation with Father Divine, and obeyed all of these practices. They dealt only in cash, refusing credit in any of its forms. Each was to sell below competitor's prices while refusing any sorts of tips or gratuities. Finally, they refrained from trade in alcohol or tobacco.


title: Father Divine

text: Some biographers, such as Robert Weisbrot, speculate that Father Divine was a forerunner to the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s, heavily influenced by his upbringing in the segregated South. Others, such as Jill Watts, reject not only this characterization, but also the theory that Father Divine grew up in the Deep South. Watts asserts that Rockville was less oppressive than the South or even Baltimore, Maryland, and believes his civil rights positions are unintelligible without evaluating them in the context of the Doctrine of Father Divine.


title: Father Divine

text: Edna Rose Ritchings (Mother Divine) conducted services for the old and dwindling congregation until her death. The movement owns several properties, such as Father Divine's Gladwyne estate Woodmont, his former home in Sayville, New York, and the Circle Mission Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia, which also houses the movement's library.


title: Father Divine

text: Chapters exist in Pennsylvania and possibly elsewhere, but the movement is not centralized and exists through a number of interrelated groups.


title: Father Divine

text: In 2004, "Gastronomica" magazine published an article about Mother S. A. Divine and the movement's feasts.


title: Father Divine

text: In 2000, the Divine Lorraine Hotel near Temple University on North Broad Street was sold off by the international Peace Mission movement. It was a budget hotel with separate floors for men and women in accord with Father Divine's teachings. The Divine Tracy Hotel in West Philadelphia was sold in 2006.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: Ranjith Balakrishnan (born 5 September 1964) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist, producer, and actor who works in Malayalam cinema. Ranjith made his directorial debut in 2001 with "Ravanaprabhu", the sequel to "Devaasuram". His films "Thirakkatha" and "Indian Rupee" won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam in 2008 and 2011 respectively. He is also the current chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: Ranjith was born in Balussery in Kozhikode, Kerala. He graduated from the School of Drama and Fine Arts, Thrissur, in 1985.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: Ranjith's entry into Mollywood was accidental, he was inspired by his friend, the late film producer and director Alex I. Kadavil, in whose residence he had stayed for his debut in the film industry. In 1987, he made his debut as a writer in "Oru Maymasa Pulariyil", produced by Alex I. Kadavil and directed by V. R. Gopinath. In 1988, Ranjith made his formal entry into the film world by writing the story for "Orkkapurathu", an adventure film directed by Kamal, with Mohanlal in the lead role. The immediate success of "Orkkapurathu" brought Ranjith several opportunities to work in films. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ranjith wrote scripts for several small budget films, mainly for Kamal, including "Peruvannapurathe Visheshangal" (1989), "Pradeshika Varthakal" (1989) and "Pookkalam Varavayi" (1991).


title: Ranjith (director)

text: Another director with whom Ranjith worked during this period was Viji Thampi. This team released "Witness" (1988), "Nanma Niranjavan Sreenivasan" (1990), "Nagarangalil Chennu Raparkam" (1989) and "Kaalalpada" (1990), all with Jayaram in the lead role. In 1992, he wrote "Neelagiri" for I. V. Sasi, which underperformed at the box office. This was followed by "Johnnie Walker", directed by Jayaraj, which was noted for its different filmmaking style and was a commercial success at the box office.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: 1993 was significant in Ranjith's career: "Devasuram", his film based on the life of his father-figure, Mullassery Rajagopal, turned out to be a huge box office hit. With Mohanlal in the lead and directed by I.V. Sasi, "Devasuram" was both critically and commercially acclaimed; Mohanlal's performance was lauded and it opened a new genre of feudal stories in Malayalam cinema. Within two months of the release of "Devasuram", Ranjith's next movie, "Maya Mayuram" (directed by Sibi Malayil and again starring Mohanlal) was released, but was not as successful. According to Ranjith, "Maya Mayuram" is one of his best films and its failure affected him greatly. Ranjith mentioned in an interview that several directors passed on the opportunity to make "Maya Mayuram", and it was Mohanlal who convinced Sibi Malayil to get involved.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: After writing "Yadavam" (directed by Jomon and starring Suresh Gopi), Ranjith worked with Shaji Kailas for "Rudraksham", again starring Suresh Gopi, who was at the peak of his career. This film generated significant hype in the market as Shaji Kailas-Suresh Gopi was a hot selling team at the time, but the loose script and clichéd humorless dialogues led to "Rudraksham" becoming a flop. His next piece of work, "Rajaputhran", directed by Shajun Karyal, again with Suresh Gopi in the lead, became a superhit.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 1997, Ranjith teamed up again with Shaji Kailas for "Asuravamsham", starring Manoj K Jayan and Biju Menon; the film yielded an average commercial response. Towards the end of 1997, Ranjith penned "Aaraam Thampuran", which went to become one of the biggest hits of his career. This film was also a turning point in the career of Mohanlal, and with it Ranjith gained a reputation as a commercially viable scriptwriter. Then came "Kaikudanna Nilavu", in 1998, directed by Kamal, starring Jayaram, yet another average grosser. In 1998 Ranjith scripted "Summer in Bethlehem", directed by Sibi Malayil, starring Suresh Gopi and Jayaram, a super hit. In 1999, Ranjith and Shaji Kailas produced the film "Ustaad", directed by Sibi Malayil, starring Mohanlal.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: The year 2000 began with the release of "Narasimham", directed by Shaji Kailas. With Mohanlal playing the lead role, this film became one of the biggest hits ever in the history of Malayalam cinema at the time. Yet again in 2000, together with Director Shaji, Ranjith repeated history: his Onam release "Valliettan" starring Mammooty was a commercial success. This was his last script for Shaji Kailas and with this film Ranjith became the most successful scriptwriter of the time.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 2001, Ranjith made his directorial debut with "Ravanaprabhu", the sequel to "Devasuram". With Mohanlal appearing in dual roles as father and son, this film turned out to be another blockbuster. In 2002 Ranjith came back with another blockbuster, "Nandanam", starring Navya Nair and a new face, Prithviraj Sukumaran. Ranjith produced this film along with his friend, actor Siddique. "Nandanam", revolving around an innocent girl, her love for Lord Sri Krishna and her beau, was an entirely different and unexpected theme from Ranjith at the time. Despite the film not having a big star cast, fights, or punchy dialogues and being shelved after some pre-production activities it became a hit.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 2003 Ranjith directed "Mizhi Randilum", starring Dileep and Kavya Madhavan, another family drama, which failed to impress the masses, but was critically acclaimed. In the same year Ranjith scripted "Ammakilikood", directed by Padmakumar with Prithviraj in the lead role, which also got the cold shoulder from the public. In 2004 Ranjith teamed up with Mammooty for "Black", which was a complete commercial entertainer targeting the fans of Mammootty. "Chandrolsavam", starring Mohanlal, followed in 2005. Ranjith believes that it was not a bad film. He said, "Mohanlal fans expected too much. I don't think it was a bad film. Many who watched it on DVD called to say they were surprised it did not do well. Fans come in with pre-conceived notions on how the actor will be in the movie and the kind of story it will be, hence they could not grasp the poetic element in the film."


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 2006, he scripted and directed "Prajapathi", starring Mammootty, was also blasted by critics, and was another disastrous movie. His next venture was an offbeat film "Kaiyoppu". Though a flop at the box office, "Kaiyoppu" brought critical appreciation from far corners and that compelled Ranjith to work with plots and themes without any commercial ingredients. Notably, its lead actor Mammootty received no payment to act in the film as the script impressed him so much.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 2007, Ranjith teamed up with Joshiy for the big budget film "Nasrani" starring Mammootty. His next directorial feature was the musical-comedy "Rock & Roll", starring Mohanlal. In 2008 Ranjith directed "Thirakkatha", based on actress Srividya's life, which won the National Award for the Best Malayalam Feature Film. Starring Anoop Menon and Priyamani, the movie featured Prithviraj and Samvrutha Sunil in important supporting roles. The movie was able to bring out the best in the actors. In 2009 Ranjith directed and wrote the script for "Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha", which was critically acclaimed. Ranjith also introduced about thirty Malayalam stage artists through this film. In the same year he came up with another unique creation, "Kerala Cafe" — a fusion of ten different short films by ten directors. The different segments in the movie were conceived and connected based on the concept of "Yatra", or journey.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: In 2010 Ranjith wrote the story for the film "Penpattanam", directed by V. M. Vinu. He then scripted and directed, "Pranchiyettan and the Saint", starring Mammootty, which was also widely accepted by movie fans and the people of Kerala. It became the most popular film of the year and was also a commercial success. "Pranchiyettan and the Saint" is now considered one of the best comedy films in Malayalam cinema and has over the years attained a cult status. During this time, Ranjith also received a highly coveted appointment as the School Director for Cochin Media School. He also appeared as judge in "Mammootty the Best Actor Award – II", an acting talent-hunt reality show aired on the television channel Asianet. In 2011, Ranjith scripted and directed a critically acclaimed satirical film "Indian Rupee" starring Prithviraj, which was well received by the critics and also a commercial success. His next film, "Spirit", primarily focused on the increasing habits of alcoholism in Kerala. Starring Mohanlal in the lead role, the film was critically acclaimed and a box office success. He then produced and scripted for G. S. Vijayan's Mammootty-starring "Bavuttiyude Namathil" in 2012, which was an average at the box office. His next film with Mammootty, "Kadal Kadannoru Mathukkutty", underperformed at the box office.


title: Ranjith (director)

text: "Njaan", based on the novel "K T N Kottoor: Ezhuthum Jeevithavum" by T P Rajeevan and featuring Dulquer Salmaan in the lead role, was released on 19 September 2014. He also produced "Munnariyippu" starring Mammootty in the lead role. The film became one of the highest grossers of the year. In 2015 he directed "Loham", starring Mohanlal, which received mixed reactions from critics.


title: Culottes

text: Culottes are an item of clothing worn on the lower half of the body. The term can refer to either split skirts, historical men's breeches, or women's under-pants; this is an example of fashion-industry words taken from designs across history, languages and cultures, then being used to describe different garments, often creating confusion among historians and readers. The French word "culotte" is (a pair of) panties, pants, knickers, trousers, shorts, or (historically) breeches; derived from the French word "culot", meaning the lower half of a thing, the lower garment in this case.


title: Culottes

text: In English-speaking history culottes were originally the knee-breeches commonly worn by gentlemen of the European upper-classes from the late Middle Ages or Renaissance through the early nineteenth century. The style of tight trousers ending just below the knee was popularized in France during the reign of Henry III (1574–1589). Culottes were normally closed and fastened about the leg, to the knee, by buttons, a strap and buckle, or a draw-string. During the French Revolution of 1789–1799, working-class revolutionaries were known as the ""sans-culottes"" – literally, "without culottes" – a name derived from their rejection of aristocratic apparel. In the United States, the first five presidents, from George Washington through James Monroe, wore culottes according to the style of the late 18th century.


title: Culottes

text: European military uniforms incorporated culottes as a standard uniform article, the lower leg being covered by either stockings, leggings, or knee-high boots. Culottes were a common part of military uniforms during the European wars of the eighteenth-century (the Great Northern War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War).


title: Culottes

text: Historical Japanese field workers and military samurai wore "hakama" that were sometimes tight at the bottom as French military culottes. Wider bifurcated wrap-skirt hakama were for horse-back riding. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century European women introduced culottes cut with a pattern looking like long hakama, hiding their legs while riding horses. Today Aikido and Kendo masters wear long hakama, to hide their feet from opponents.


title: Culottes

text: In modern English, the use of the word culottes can mean a close fitting pair of pants ending at the knees, such as Lady Diana Spencer popularised during the early 1980s. The term is used as such in the United Kingdom and Canada. In this sense, culottes are similar to the American knickerbockers (knickers), except whereas the latter are loose in fit. Culottes can also, in some cases, describe a split or bifurcated skirt or any garment which "hangs like a skirt, but is actually pants." During the Victorian Era (mid- to late-nineteenth century European culture) long split skirts were developed for horseback riding so that women could sit astride a horse with a man's saddle rather than riding side-saddle. Horse-riding culottes for women were controversial because they were used to break a sexual taboo against women riding horses when they were expected to hide their lower limbs at all times. Later, split skirts were developed to provide women more freedom to do other activities as well, such as gardening, cleaning, bike riding, etc. and still look like one is wearing a skirt.