The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough in Inner London. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies 5 miles north-east of Charing Cross; the borough is named after its principal district. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly regarded as being part of east London, with the northwest belonging to north London; the London Plan issued by the Greater London Authority assigns whole boroughs to sub-regions for statutory monitoring and resource allocation purposes. The most recent iteration of this plan assigns Hackney to the ‘East’ sub-region, while the 2008 and 2004 versions assigned the borough to ‘North’ and ‘East’ sub-regions respectively; the modern borough was formed 1965 by the merger of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney with the much smaller Metropolitan Boroughs of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch. Hackney is bounded by Islington to the west, Haringey to the north, Waltham Forest to the north-east, Newham to the east, Tower Hamlets to the south-east and the City of London to the south-west.

Hackney was one of the host boroughs of the London Olympics in 2012, with several of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park venues falling within its boundaries. In the 13th century the name appears as Hackenaye or Hacquenye, but no certain derivation is advanced; the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names discusses the origin of the name. The first surviving records of the place name are as Hakeneye; the ‘ey’ suffix certainly refers to an island. This was once a much wilder place than today; the Dictionary suggests that the ‘Hack’ element may derive from: The Old English ‘Haecc’ meaning a hatch – an entrance to a woodland or common. Or alternatively from ‘Haca’ meaning a hook, in this context, a bend of the river. Given the island context, the ‘hatch’ option is unlikely to be correct, so the favoured'Haka's Island' or the'Island on the bend' seem more likely; the place name will have referred to just the island or both the island and the manor of the same name based around it. Subsequently, the name Hackney was applied to the whole ancient parish of Hackney.

In the Iron Age and until after the Roman period, the River Lea was considered to separate the territories of the Catuvellauni to the west of the river from the Trinovantes to the east. The Romans built the Roman road, Ermine Street, which runs through the modern borough under the names Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road amongst others. In the Anglo-Saxon period, the River Lea separated the core territories of the East Saxons from the Middle Saxons they controlled; this continuity of this natural boundary from pre-Roman period may be a result of the differing Saxon groups taking control of pre-defined territories. After both areas were brought under the control of Alfred the Great, the river became the boundary between the historic counties of Middlesex and Essex. In the Tudor period, the lands of religious orders were put up for sale, thus Hackney became a retreat for the nobility around Hackney Homerton. Henry VIII's Palace was by Lea Bridge roundabout today. Sutton House, on Homerton High Street, is the oldest surviving dwelling in Hackney built in 1535 as Bryck Place for Sir Ralph Sadleir, a diplomat.

The village of Hackney flourished from the Tudor to late Georgian periods as a rural retreat. The first documented "hackney coach"—the forerunner of the more generic "hackney carriage"—operated in London in 1621. Current opinion is that the name "hackney," to refer to a London taxi, is derived from the village name. Construction of the railway in the 1850s ended Hackney's rural reputation by connecting it to other parts of the city and stimulating development. London's first Tudor theatres were built at Shoreditch; the Gunpowder Plot was first exposed nearby in Hoxton. In 1727 Daniel Defoe said of the villages of Hackney All these, except the Wyck-house, are within a few years so encreas'd in buildings, so inhabited, that there is no comparison to be made between their present and past state: Every separate hamlet is encreas'd, some of them more than treble as big as formerly; this town is so remarkable for the retreat of wealthy citizens, that there is at this time near a hundred coaches kept in it.

The parish church of St John-at-Hackney was built in 1789, replacing the nearby former 16th-century parish church dedicated to St Augustine. Notable residents from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries included Robert Aske, William Cecil, Samuel Courtauld, Samuel Hoare, Joseph Priestley and Thomas Sutton. Many grand houses stood in Stamford Hill. Alfred Hitchcock made many of his first films in Hoxton at the Gainsborough Studios in Poole Street. Following exte

Hysterical realism called recherché postmodernism, is a term coined in 2000 by English critic James Wood to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, careful, detailed investigations of real, specific social phenomena on the other. Wood introduced the term in an essay on Zadie Smith's White Teeth, which appeared in the July 24, 2000 issue of The New Republic. Wood uses the term pejoratively to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues "vitality at all costs" and "knows a thousand things but does not know a single human being." He decried the genre as an attempt to "turn fiction into social theory," and an attempt to tell readers "how the world works rather than how somebody felt about something." Wood points to Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon as the forefathers of the genre, which continues, Wood says, in writers like David Foster Wallace. In response, Zadie Smith described hysterical realism as a "painfully accurate term for the sort of overblown, manic prose to be found in novels like my own White Teeth and a few others was sweet enough to mention".

Smith qualified the term, explaining that "any collective term for a supposed literary movement is always too large a net, catching significant dolphins among so much cannable tuna." She noted "David Foster Wallace's mammoth beast Infinite Jest was heaved in as an exemplum, but it is five years old, is a world away from his delicate, entirely'human' short stories and essays of the past two years, which shy away from the kind of totalising theoretical and thematic arcs that Wood was gunning for. If anyone has learned a lesson about the particularities of human existence and their separation from social systems, it is Wallace." Wood's line of argument echoes many common criticisms of postmodernist art generally. In particular, Wood's attacks on DeLillo and Pynchon echo similar criticisms other critics had lodged against them a generation earlier; the "hysterical" prose style is paired with "realistic"—almost journalistic—effects, such as Pynchon's depiction of 18th century land surveys in Mason & Dixon, Don DeLillo's treatment of Lee Harvey Oswald in Libra.

Yet as Zadie Smith notes, "People continue to manage this awesome trick of wrestling sentiment away from TV's colonisation of all things soulful and human, I would applaud all the youngish Americans—Franzen, Foster Wallace, Moore for their small but, to me, significant triumphs. They work to keep both sides of the equation -- heart -- present in their fiction. If you find them obtuse, they can be accused of cliché...". Some books described as examples of hysterical realism are: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon Underworld by Don Delillo White Teeth by Zadie Smith The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2666 by Roberto Bolaño The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie Zadie Smith Salman Rushdie David Foster Wallace Don Delillo Thomas Pynchon American realism Genre studies History of modern literature Literary realism Literary theory Magic realism Maximalism Realism US novelists must now abandon social and theoretical glitter, says James Wood, The Guardian Thesis critical of Wood's definition and analysis of Hysterical Realism

George Francis Musso was an American football lineman, playing both offensive guard and tackle as well as defensive middle guard. His twelve-year career in the National Football League was spent with the Chicago Bears. Musso was the son of a coal miner who starred in high school sports in Collinsville and was therefore offered an athletic grant to attend James Millikin University, his father, who planned to pull him out of school after he completed his "primary" education, grudgingly allowed George to attend college. Musso attended Millikin University and was a standout in football, basketball and track. Millikin was in the "Little 19" conference that included such teams as Eureka and Augustana. In 1929, Musso played against future President Ronald Reagan, who played guard for Eureka College and weighed about 175 pounds. Musso was larger than most linemen of his era, playing college ball at 6' 2", 255 pounds. In 1933, Musso played in the East-West All-Star game, held in Chicago. Halas, who had doubts the small school Musso could make it in the NFL, offered Musso a $90 a game contract.

Musso agreed and, although he struggled at first, became the centerpiece of the Bears line for 12 years. One reason the Bears of that era were called "Monsters of the Midway" was their imposing size—Musso, who played professionally at 270 pounds, was one of the largest Bears and one of the largest players in the league, his teammates called him "Moose." He played. He was the first to win All-NFL at two positions, he played middle guard or nose tackle on defense his entire career. Musso captained the Chicago Bears for nine seasons, playing on the line with other NFL notables as Link Lyman, Joe Kopcha, Walt Kiesling, Bulldog Turner, Joe Stydahar, Danny Fortmann, he played with the Bears winning four. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. Of note, in 1935 as an NFL lineman, Musso played against Gerald Ford of Michigan in the 1935 College All-Star game. Without a doubt, Musso is the only NFL player, to have played against two U. S. Presidents. Musso retired to Edwardsville and began a restaurant business.

He served as the Madison County, Illinois and treasurer from the 1950s through the 1970s. He died in his home in Edwardsville in 2000. Pro Football Hall of Fame: Member profile George Musso at Find a Grave