Pay It Forward (film)
Pay It Forward is a 2000 American romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It is set in Las Vegas, it chronicles 12-year-old Trevor McKinney's launch of a goodwill movement known as "pay it forward". Directed by Mimi Leder and written by Leslie Dixon, it stars Haley Joel Osment as Trevor, Helen Hunt as his alcoholic single mother Arlene McKinney, Kevin Spacey as his physically and scarred social studies teacher Eugene Simonet; the film was released on October 20, 2000 to mixed reviews, with most critics praising the acting, writing and cinematography but criticizing the story and accusing it of excessive emotional manipulation in its ending. Trevor begins 7th grade in Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable program based on the networking of good deeds, he calls his plan "pay it forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for three others rather than paying the favor back.
However, it needs to be a major favor. Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to "pay the favor forward" by doing favors for three other people, so on, along a branching tree of good deeds, his first good deed is to let a homeless man named Jerry live in his garage, Jerry pays the favor forward by doing car repairs for Trevor's mother. Trevor's efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into drug addiction, but Jerry pays his debt forward by talking to a suicidal woman, about to jump off a bridge. Meanwhile, Trevor's mother Arlene confronts Eugene about Trevor's project after discovering Jerry in their house. Trevor selects Eugene as his next "pay it forward" target and tricks Eugene and Arlene into a romantic dinner date; this appears to fail until Trevor and Arlene argue about her love for Ricky, her alcoholic ex-husband, she slaps him in a fit of anger. The two adults are brought together again when Trevor runs away from home and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him. After finding Trevor, Arlene begins to pursue Eugene sexually.
Eugene has deep burn marks visible on his neck and face, he resists Arlene's overtures out of insecurity. When they sleep together, he is seen to have extensive scarring all over his torso. Arlene accepts Eugene's physical disfigurement and forms an emotional bond with him, but abandons their relationship when Ricky returns to her, claiming to have given up drinking, his return and her acceptance of it angers Eugene, whose own mother had a habit of taking his abusive, alcoholic father back. When Arlene attempts to explain to Eugene that she believes Ricky has changed for good, Eugene explains that his father intentionally burned him by knocking him unconscious pouring gasoline over him and igniting it, he warns her of Ricky's potential to abuse Trevor. When Ricky drinks again and resumes his abusive behavior, Arlene realizes her mistake and forces him to leave. Trevor's school assignment marks the beginning of the story's chronology, but the opening scene in the film shows one of the favors in the "pay it forward" tree, in which a man gives a car to Los Angeles journalist Chris Chandler.
As the film proceeds, Chris traces the chain of favors back to its origin as Trevor's school project. After her date with Eugene, Arlene paid Jerry's favor forward by forgiving her own mother, for her mistakes in raising Arlene, Grace, homeless, helps a gang member escape from the police; the gang member saves a girl's life in a hospital, the girl's father gives Chris his new car. Chris identifies Trevor as the originator of "pay it forward" and conducts a recorded interview in which Trevor describes his hopes and concerns for the project. Eugene, hearing Trevor's words, realizes; as Eugene and Arlene reconcile with an embrace, Trevor notices his friend, being bullied by gangster-like children, as he has several times before. He pays it forward to Adam by rushing into the scene and fighting the bullies while Eugene and Arlene rush to stop him. One of the bullies stabs Trevor in the abdomen with it; the bullies run away and Trevor is taken to the hospital, where he dies from his injuries. This news is reported on television as well as the fact that the movement is spreading across the country.
Kevin Spacey as Eugene Simonet. He is Trevor's social studies teacher, an and physically scarred man; as a teenager, he still has burns visible on his face and torso. He begins the film as a shy recluse, self-conscious about his deformities, but he enters a relationship with Trevor's mother Arlene and overcomes his fears, he sets an assignment to Trevor's class. He is changed from the novel, where he was an African-American man named Reuben St. Clair, injured in the Vietnam War. Helen Hunt as Arlene McKinney, she is Trevor's single mother who works at both a casino and a strip club. She has a past history of abusive relationships with her absent husband Ricky, she enters a relationship with Eugene, with his and Trevor's help manages to overcome her alcoholism and abuse
Luke the Evangelist
Luke the Evangelist is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical Gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which would mean Luke contributed over a quarter of the text of the New Testament, more than any other author. Prominent figures in early Christianity such as Jerome and Eusebius reaffirmed his authorship, although a lack of conclusive evidence as to the identity of the author of the works has led to discussion in scholarly circles, both secular and religious; the New Testament mentions Luke a few times, the Pauline Epistle to the Colossians refers to him as a physician. Since the early years of the faith, Christians have regarded him as a saint, he is believed to have been a martyr having been hanged from an olive tree, though some believe otherwise. The Roman Catholic Church and other major denominations venerate him as Saint Luke the Evangelist and as a patron saint of artists, bachelors, surgeons and butchers.
Many scholars believe that Luke was a Greek physician who lived in the Greek city of Antioch, Turkey in Ancient Syria, although some other scholars and theologians think Luke was a Hellenic Jew. Bart Koet, a researcher and professor of theology, has stated that it was accepted that the theology of Luke–Acts points to a gentile Christian writing for a gentile audience, although he concludes that it is more plausible that Luke–Acts is directed to a community made up of both Jewish and gentile Christians because there is stress on the scriptural roots of the gentile mission. Gregory Sterling, Dean of the Yale Divinity School, claims that he was either a Hellenistic Jew or a god-fearer, his earliest notice is in Paul's Epistle to Philemon—Philemon 1:24. He is mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and 2 Timothy 4:11, two works ascribed to Paul; the next earliest account of Luke is in the Anti-Marcionite Prologue to the Gospel of Luke, a document once thought to date to the 2nd century, but which has more been dated to the 4th century.
Helmut Koester, claims that the following part, the only part preserved in the original Greek, may have been composed in the late 2nd century: Luke, was born in Antioch, by profession, was a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and followed Paul until his martyrdom, he died at the age of 84 years. Epiphanius states that Luke was one of the Seventy Apostles, John Chrysostom indicates at one point that the "brother" Paul mentions in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians 8:18 is either Luke or Barnabas. If one accepts that Luke was indeed the author of the Gospel bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of his personal life can be reasonably assumed. While he does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry, he uses the word "we" in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was there at those times. There is similar evidence that Luke resided in Troas, the province which included the ruins of ancient Troy, in that he writes in Acts in the third person about Paul and his travels until they get to Troas, where he switches to the first person plural.
The "we" section of Acts continues until the group leaves Philippi, when his writing goes back to the third person. This change happens again. There are three "we sections" in Acts, all following this rule. Luke never stated, that he lived in Troas, this is the only evidence that he did; the composition of the writings, as well as the range of vocabulary used, indicate that the author was an educated man. A quote in the Epistle to the Colossians differentiates between Luke and other colleagues "of the circumcision." 10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does the cousin of Barnabas. 11 Jesus, called Justus sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, they have proved a comfort to me.... 14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, Demas send greetings. Colossians 4:10–11, 14; this comment has traditionally caused commentators to conclude. If this were true, it would make Luke the only writer of the New Testament who can be identified as not being Jewish.
However, not the only possibility. Although Luke is considered to have been a gentile Christian, some scholars believe him to have been a Hellenized Jew; the phrase could just as be used to differentiate between those Christians who observed the rituals of Judaism and those who did not. Luke's presence in Rome with the Apostle Paul near the end of Paul's life was attested by 2 Timothy 4:11: "Only Luke is with me". In the last chapter of the Book of Acts attributed to Luke, there are several accounts in the first person affirming Luke's presence in Rome, including Acts 28:16: "And when we came to Rome..." According to some accounts, Luke contributed to the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Luke died at age 84 in Boeotia, according to a "fairly early and widespread tradition". According to Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Greek historian of the 14th century, Luke's tomb was located in Thebes, whence his relics were transferred to Constantinople in the year 357; the Gospel of Luke does not name its author.
The Gospel was not written
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is a men's professional basketball league in North America. It is considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world; the NBA is an active member of USA Basketball, recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player; the league was founded in New York City on June 1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League; the league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in New Jersey; the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada.
On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now refers to as the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. Prior to the 1948–49 season, however, NBL teams from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Rochester jumped to the BAA, which established the BAA as the league of choice for collegians looking to turn professional.
On August 3, 1949, the remaining NBL teams–Syracuse, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan and Waterloo–merged into the BAA. In deference to the merger and to avoid possible legal complications, the league name was changed to the present National Basketball Association though the merged league retained the BAA's governing body, including Podoloff. To this day, the NBA claims the BAA's history as its own, it now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, does not recognize NBL records and statistics. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1953–54, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Syracuse Nationals, all of which remain in the league today.
The process of contraction saw. The Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, to St. Louis in 1955; the Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons relocated from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957. Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, he remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several African-American players did play in the league that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954.
If a team does not attempt to score a field goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new single game records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports; the 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966; this championship streak is the longest in NBA history. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969; the domination totaled nine of the ten championship banners of the 1960s.
Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises; the Chicago Packers (now Wa
Cyclops (Marvel Comics)
Cyclops is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is a founding member of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the comic book The X-Men. Cyclops is a member of a subspecies of humans known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Cyclops can emit powerful beams of energy from his eyes, he can not control the beams without the aid of special eyewear. He is considered the first of the X-Men, a team of mutant heroes who fight for peace and equality between mutants and humans, one of the team's primary leaders. Cyclops is most portrayed as the archetypal hero of traditional American popular culture—the opposite of the tough, anti-authority antiheroes that emerged in American popular culture after the Vietnam War. One of Marvel's most prominent characters, Cyclops was rated #1 on IGN.com's list of Top 25 X-Men from the past forty years in 2006, the 39th in their 2011 list of Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
In 2008, Wizard Magazine ranked Cyclops the 106th in their list of the 200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time. In a 2011 poll, readers of Comic Book Resources voted Cyclops as 9th in the ranking of 2011 Top Marvel Characters. James Marsden has portrayed Cyclops in the first three and the seventh X-Men films, while in the 2009 prequel film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he is portrayed as a teenager by actor Tim Pocock. In 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, a younger version of him is portrayed by Tye Sheridan. Sheridan will reprise his role in Dark Phoenix. Sheridan's Cyclops made a cameo in Deadpool 2. Cyclops first appeared in The X-Men #1, he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, has been a mainstay character of the X-Men series. Lee said that Cyclops and Beast were his two favorite X-Men, elaborating that "I love tortured heroes—and he was tortured because he couldn't control his power." Dubbed "Slim Summers", by The X-Men #3 his name was changed to "Scott", with "Slim" becoming a nickname. Scott Summers is the first of the X-Men recruited by Professor X.
Xavier views Scott as one of his most prized pupils. From time to time, Scott's extreme loyalty to Xavier has cost him dearly in his relationships with others. Dave Cockrum created the Starjammers, including Corsair, convinced X-Men writer Chris Claremont to use the characters for this series. In order to provide a plausible excuse for the Starjammers to make repeat appearances in X-Men, they decided to make Corsair the father of Cyclops. Summers remained a member of the team up through Uncanny X-Men #138. After departing the main cast, he was a recurring character in the series until Uncanny X-Men #201, after which he was featured in the launch of a new series by Marvel; this new series, X-Factor, launched in 1986 and starred the original X-Men team of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast and Angel. Scott stayed with the X-Factor title through X-Factor #70. In October 1991, Summers returns to the X-Men to launch X-Men #1; this series was the second of two X-Men titles and featured Cyclops, Gambit, Psylocke and Beast as Blue team.
Cyclops has been featured in another title launch with the second introduction of a new X-Men series Astonishing X-Men. Astonishing X-Men features Cyclops, Shadowcat, Emma Frost, Beast as a team. Throughout this time, Cyclops continued to make appearances in Uncanny X-Men Marvel has used Cyclops to launch variant series of X-Men titles most notably Ultimate X-Men and New X-Men. Cyclops has appeared in limited series including Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, X-Men: The Asgardian Wars, the second series of Astonishing X-Men, X-Men: The Search for Cyclops, his own self-titled series Cyclops, X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1. In 1991, writer Brian K. Vaughan worked on the self-titled series Cyclops #1–4. In 2000, Joseph Harris wrote the four-issue run titled X-Men: The Search for Cyclops that dealt with Cyclops's return after merging with Apocalypse in the events of the Twelve from Uncanny X-Men #377. During Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men, Cyclops adopts a new attitude unfamiliar to most accustomed fans.
After Emma Frost's psychic intervention at the mansion, he temporarily loses his powers after owning up to his self-inflicted, traumatic past. This prompted an interview with Whedon in Wizard magazine #182; when asked if Cyclops didn't have his powers any more, Whedon replied: No, he doesn't have his powers. Well, he had a choice to either be out of control or bury them, he can't use them. That's pretty much it, but the thing that would be fun is that, with no powers, he's going to be the best that he's been. That's. Been the team leader and the team washout in terms of popularity, he was defined by Jean so much, I just think that this guy is so interesting in his struggle against mediocrity. When it's all laid on the line, when you find out the thing that's been holding him back from being just a complete bad ass has been himself all his life, that he's been lying to everyone, including himself, about who he is-that should be freeing; the Scott we're going to see is going to be a little bit different.
This guy is either out of control or in control of something we're not used to. I wanted him to be an unabashed tough guy, he is shooting people and turning much into a lead
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university in Los Angeles. It became the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the third-oldest undergraduate campus of the 10-campus University of California system, it offers 337 graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. UCLA enrolls about 31,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate students and had 119,000 applicants for Fall 2016, including transfer applicants, making the school the most applied-to of any American university; the university is organized into six undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, four professional health science schools. The undergraduate colleges are the College of Science; as of 2017, 24 Nobel laureates, three Fields Medalists, five Turing Award winners, two Chief Scientists of the U. S. Air Force have been affiliated with UCLA as researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 39 to the Institute of Medicine, 124 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974. UCLA is considered one of the country's Public Ivies, meaning that it is a public university thought to provide a quality of education comparable with that of the Ivy League. In 2018, US News & World Report named UCLA the best public university in the United States. UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pac-12 Conference; the Bruins have won 126 national championships, including 116 NCAA team championships, more than any other university except Stanford, who has won 117. UCLA student-athletes and staff won 251 Olympic medals: 126 gold, 65 silver, 60 bronze. UCLA student-athletes competed in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception and won a gold medal in every Olympics the U. S. participated in since 1932. In March 1881, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California.
The Los Angeles branch of the California State Normal School opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The facility included an elementary school where teachers-in-training could practice their technique with children; that elementary school is related to the present day UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the branch campus became independent and changed its name to Los Angeles State Normal School. In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood. In 1917, UC Regent Edward Augustus Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the Normal School, began to lobby the State Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California campus, after UC Berkeley, they met resistance from UC Berkeley alumni, Northern California members of the state legislature, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus.
However, David Prescott Barrows, the new President of the University of California, did not share Wheeler's objections. On May 23, 1919, the Southern Californians' efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which transformed the Los Angeles Normal School into the Southern Branch of the University of California; the same legislation added the College of Letters and Science. The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Letters and Science students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College, under Moore's continued direction. Under University of California President William Wallace Campbell, enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25 acre Vermont Avenue location; the Regents searched for a new location and announced their selection of the so-called "Beverly Site"—just west of Beverly Hills—on March 21, 1925 edging out the panoramic hills of the still-empty Palos Verdes Peninsula.
After the athletic teams entered the Pacific Coast conference in 1926, the Southern Branch student council adopted the nickname "Bruins", a name offered by the student council at UC Berkeley. In 1927, the Regents renamed the Southern Branch the University of California at Los Angeles. In the same year, the state broke ground in Westwood on land sold for $1 million, less than one-third its value, by real estate developers Edwin and Harold Janss, for whom the Janss Steps are named; the campus in Westwood opened to students in 1929. The original four buildings were the College Library, Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building, the Chemistry Building, arrayed around a quadrangular courtyard on the 400 acre campus; the first undergraduate classes on the new campus were held in 1929 with 5,500 students. After lobbying by alumni, faculty and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree in 1933, the doctorate in 1936, against continued resistance from UC Berkeley. A timeline of the history can be found on its website, as well
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons with 264 episodes from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, it was followed by four TV films. Among the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, it averaged more than 30 million viewers per week in its prime, was a staple of the CBS Sunday night lineup for a decade. In syndication, the series is still successful throughout the world. Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes and 12 Emmy Awards for her work on Murder, She Wrote, she holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for Best Actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Murder, She Wrote, with those nominations netting her four Golden Globe awards. The series received three nominations in the Outstanding Drama Series category at the Emmys, it was won twice.
After the series finished in 1996, four TV movies were released between 1997 and 2003. In 2009, a point-and-click video game was released for the PC platform, followed in 2012 by a sequel. A spin-off book series continues publication at present. Series producers Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link thought Lansbury would be perfect for the part of Jessica Fletcher but did not think that she would be interested in a television series. Earlier, she had acted in two film adaptations of Agatha Christie's mystery novels: as Salome Otterbourne in Death on the Nile and as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd; when the latter film did poorly—despite an all star cast including Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis—the offer for Lansbury to reprise Miss Marple in three more films never materialized. When she made it known she would be available if the right project came along, the trio of creators sent her the script and immediately, Lansbury felt she could do something with the role of Jessica Fletcher.
With Murder, She Wrote debuting on Sunday, September 30, 1984, the producers were able to parlay their "mystery writer/amateur detective" premise into a 12-year hit for CBS. It made Lansbury, known for her motion picture and Broadway stage work, a household name for millions of television viewers; the title comes from Murder, She Said, the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel 4:50 from Paddington. The show revolves around the day-to-day life of Jessica Fletcher, a childless, retired English teacher who becomes a successful mystery writer. Despite fame and fortune, Jessica remains a resident of Cabot Cove, a small coastal community in Maine, maintains her links with all of her old friends, never letting her success go to her head. Exterior shots of Cabot Cove were filmed in California; the fictional "Cabot Cove" name for the series' coastal town was derived from the name of an actual bay harbor inlet in Kennebunkport, located near the town's center, on the road where motels and lobster shack dives are located.
The show starts with a preview of the episode's events, with Jessica stating: "Tonight on Murder, She Wrote..." Jessica invariably proves more perceptive than the official investigators of a case, who are always willing to arrest the most suspect. By piecing the clues together and asking astute questions, she always manages to trap the real murderer. Murder occurred with such regularity in her vicinity that the term "Cabot Cove syndrome" was coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations. Indeed, if Cabot Cove existed in real life, it would top the FBI's national crime statistics in numerous categories, with some analysis suggesting that the homicide rate in Cabot Cove exceeds that of the real-life murder capital of the world. Jessica's relationship with law enforcement officials varies from place to place. Both sheriffs of Cabot Cove resign themselves to having her meddle in their cases. However, most detectives and police officers do not want her anywhere near their crime scenes, until her accurate deductions convince them to listen to her.
Some are happy to have her assistance from the start because they are fans of her books. With time, she makes friends in many police departments across the U. S. as well as with a British police officer attached to Scotland Yard. At the start of season eight, more of the stories were set in New York City with Jessica moving into an apartment there part-time in order to teach criminology. In August 1988, Lansbury expressed weariness of her commitment to the series as she was not sure, at 63, that she could continue at the pace now required of her. Thus, She Wrote went into its fifth season that fall with the distinct possibility that it would cease production at the end of it and the series finale would air in May 1989. A solution was worked on, which enabled Lansbury to continue but give her time to rest; this enabled some secondary characters to get significant stories. For the next two seasons, Lansbury reduced her appearances in several episodes, only appearing at the beginning and the end, to introduce stories starring several friends of Jessica, like PI Harry McGraw, reformed thief Dennis Stanton or MI5 agent Michael Hagarty.
The "experiment" ended in 1991. The next year, Lansbury took on a more extensive role in production as she became one of the series' executive producers. By the end of the 1994–95 season, She Wrote's 11th season, Lansbury again was considering retirement due to her advancing age.
Slovaks
The Slovaks are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture and speak the Slovak language. In Slovakia, c. 4.4 million are ethnic Slovaks of 5.4 million total population. There are Slovak minorities in Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in the United States and the United Kingdom, collectively referred to as the Slovak diaspora; the name Slovak is derived from *Slověninъ, plural *Slověně, the old name of the Slavs. The original stem has been preserved in all Slovak words except the masculine noun; the first written mention of adjective slovenský is in 1294. The original name of Slovaks Slovenin/Slovene was still recorded in Pressburg Latin-Czech Dictionary, but it changed to Slovák under the influence of Czech and Polish language; the first written mention of new form in the territory of present-day Slovakia is from Bardejov. The mentions in Czech sources are older; the change is not related to the ethnogenesis of Slovaks, but to linguistic changes in the West Slavic languages.
The word Slovak was used later as a common name for all Slavs in Czech and Slovak language together with other forms. In Hungarian "Slovak" is Tót, an exonym, it was used to refer to all Slavs including Slovenes and Croats, but came to refer to Slovaks. Many place names in Hungary such as Tótszentgyörgy, Tótszentmárton, Tótkomlós still bear the name. Tóth is a common Hungarian surname; the Slovaks have historically been variously referred to as Slovyenyn, Sclavus, Slavus, Winde, Wende, or Wenden. The final three terms are variations of the Germanic term Wends, used to refer to any Slavs living close to Germanic settlements; the early Slavs came to the territory of Slovakia in several waves from the 5th and 6th centuries and were organized on a tribal level. Original tribal names are not known due to the lack of written sources before their integration into higher political units. Weakening of tribal consciousness was accelerated by Avars, who did not respect tribal differences in the controlled territory and motivated remaining Slavs to join together and to collaborate on their defense.
In the 7th century, Slavs founded larger tribal union: Samo's empire. Regardless of Samo's empire, the integration process continued in other territories with various intensities; the final fall of the Avar Khaganate allowed new political entities to arise. The first such political unit documented by written sources is the Principality of Nitra, one of the foundations of common ethnic consciousness. At this stage in history it is not yet possible to assume a common identity of all Slovak ancestors in the territory of eastern Slovakia if it was inhabited by related Slavs; the Principality of Nitra become a part of a common state of Moravians and Slovaks. The short existence of Great Moravia prevented it from suppressing differences which resulted from its creation from two separate entities, therefore a common "Slovak-Moravian" ethnic identity failed to develop; the early political integration in the territory of present-day Slovakia was however reflected in linguistic integration. While dialects of early Slovak ancestors were divided into West Slavic and non-West Slavic, between the 8th and 9th centuries both dialects merged, thus laying the foundations of a Slovak language.
The 10th century is a milestone in the Slovak ethnogenesis. The fall of Great Moravia and further political changes supported their formation into a separate nation. At the same time, with the extinction of the Proto-Slavic language, between the 10th and 13th centuries Slovak evolved into an independent language; the early existence of the Kingdom of Hungary positively influenced the development of common consciousness and companionship among Slavs in the Northern Hungary, not only within boundaries of present-day Slovakia. The clear difference between Slovaks and Hungarians made adoption of specific name unnecessary and Slovaks preserved their original name, used in communication with other Slavic peoples. In political terms, the medieval Slovaks were a part of the multi-ethnic political nation Natio Hungarica, together with Hungarians, Germans and other ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. Since a medieval political nation did not consist of ordinary people but nobility, membership of the privileged class was necessary for all these peoples.
Like other nations, the Slovaks began to transform into a modern nation from the 18th century under the idea of national romanticism. The modern Slovak nation is the result of radical processes of modernization within the Habsburg Empire which culminated in the middle of the 19th century; the transformation process was slowed down by conflict with Hungarian nationalism and the ethnogenesis of the Slovaks become a political question regarding their deprivation and preservation of their language and national rights. In 1722, Mich
