Pétanque is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports, along with raffa, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls and crown green bowling. All of these sports share something in common, in that players or teams play their boules/balls towards a target ball. In Pétanque the objective is to score points by having boules closer to the target than your opponent after all boules have been thrown; this is achieved by projecting boules closer to the small target ball, called a cochonnet, or by hitting the opponents' boules away from the target, while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground. The game is and best played on hard dirt or gravel, it can be played in dedicated facilities called boulodromes. The current form of the game originated in 1907 or 1910 in Provence, France; the French name pétanque comes from petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats, meaning'feet fixed' or'feet planted'. Boules games have a long history, dating back through the Middle Ages to ancient Rome, before that to ancient Greece and Egypt.

In France in the second half of the 19th century a form of boules known as jeu provençal was popular. In this form of the game players ran three steps before throwing a boule. Pétanque developed as an offshoot or variant of jeu provençal in 1910, in what is now called the Jules Lenoir Boulodrome in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles. A former jeu provençal player named Jules Lenoir was afflicted by rheumatism so severe that he could no longer run before throwing a boule. In fact, he could stand. A good friend named. In order to accommodate his friend Lenoir, Pitiot developed a variant form of the game in which the length of the pitch or field was reduced by half, a player, instead of running to throw a boule, stationary, in a circle, they called the game pieds tanqués, "feet planted", a name that evolved into the game's current name, pétanque. The first pétanque tournament was organized by Ernest Pitiot, along with his brother Joseph Pitiot, in 1910 in La Ciotat. After that the game spread and soon became the most popular form of boules in France.

Before the mid-1800s, European boules games were played with solid wooden balls made from boxwood root, a hard wood. The late 1800s saw the introduction of cheap mass-manufactured nails, wooden boules began to be covered with nails, producing boules cloutées. After World War I, cannonball manufacturing technology was adapted to allow the manufacture of hollow, all-metal boules; the first all-metal boule, la Boule Intégrale, was introduced in the mid-1920s by Paul Courtieu. The Intégrale was cast in a single piece from a bronze-aluminum alloy. Shortly thereafter Jean Blanc invented a process of manufacturing steel boules by stamping two steel blanks into hemispheres and welding the two hemispheres together to create a boule. With this technological advance, hollow all-metal balls became the norm. After the development of the all-metal boule, pétanque spread from Provence to the rest of France to the rest of Europe, to Francophone colonies and countries around the globe. Today, many countries have their own national governing bodies.

In France, the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal has more than 300,000 licensed members. There are strong national federations in Germany and England. Petanque is played in many nations with histories of French colonial influence in Southeast Asia, including Laos, Vietnam and Puducherry, India, as well as some parts of Africa. Today, some of the strongest players in the world come from Thailand. Pétanque was featured at the 2015 All-Africa Games, which were hosted by the Republic of Congo, a former French colony. Petanque is not played in the Americas. There is a Canadian petanque federation based in Québec. In the United States the Federation of Petanque USA reports; as of December 1, 2015, FPUSA counted 2141 members in the US, in 52 affiliated clubs. On the international level, the governing body of petanque is the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal, it was founded in 1958 in Marseille and has about 600,000 members in 52 countries as of 2002. In popular culture: The game makes an appearance in the 1966 French crime film Le deuxieme souffle.

Pétanque appears in Season 4 Episode 20 of the American sitcom “The Cosby Show” in 1988. There are a number of important world championship tournaments; the FIPJP world championships take place every two years. Men's championships are held in even-numbered years, while Women's and Youth championships are held in odd-numbered years; the best-known international championship is the Mondial la Marseillaise à Pétanque, which takes place every year in Marseille, with more than 10,000 participants and more than 150,000 spectators. The largest annual tournament in the United States is the Petanque Amelia Island Open, held in each year in November at Amelia Island, Florida. La British Open is a major Pétanque tournament held in the United Kingdom. So far, this attracts players from across the Europe. Pétanque is not an Olympic sport, although the Confédération Mondiale des Sports de Boules—which was created in 1985 by several international boules organizations specif

"If I Was Your Girlfriend" was the second single from American musician Prince's 1987 double album Sign o' the Times. The song was only a minor hit in America, it was from the Camille project of 1986, to be released under the guise of Prince's alter ego named Camille. The song is delivered from an androgynous male perspective to a woman, wherein Prince explores the possibilities of a more intimate relationship if he were his lover's platonic girlfriend. Trouser Press names the song as one of the album's highlights, noting that it "redefines a relationship in a mature way." It is believed that "If I Was Your Girlfriend" deals with the jealousy Prince felt at the close bond shared between girlfriend/fiancée Susannah Melvoin with her twin sister Wendy. Musically, the song features Prince's pitched-up, androgynous vocals over a sparse bass and drum machine pattern, punctuated by a keyboard line; the opening seconds include a sound collage that includes an orchestra tuning up, a salesman and a sample of Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March".

According to engineer Susan Rogers, a rare technical error on her part led to distortion—albeit only on certain words. As recounted in Alex Hahn's book Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince, Rogers thought Prince "was going to rip my head off" for the mistake. Yet, after hearing the playback, Prince loved the effect, featured on the released version; the song was released on May 6, 1987, reached number 67 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was more successful in the UK, reaching number 20 on the chart in that country; the B-side to the track was another "Camille" track, "Shockadelica". The track was written in response to an album of the same name by former Time member, Jesse Johnson. Prince heard Johnson's album before its release, commented that a great album should have a great title track. Johnson disagreed, so Prince recorded the track and had it played on a Minneapolis radio station before the release of Johnson's album; the public perception would be that Johnson was copying Prince's idea, this caused tension between Johnson and Prince.

When the "Camille" project was scrapped in favor of Crystal Ball, "Shockadelica" again made the cut, but was deleted from the track list when the set was trimmed to Sign "☮" the Times. The track was released as a B-side, on The Hits/The B-Sides. 7" single A. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" – 3:46 B. "Shockadelica" – 3:3012" single A. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" – 4:54 B. "Shockadelica" – 6:12 "If I Was Your Girlfriend" was covered on the TLC album, CrazySexyCool, released in 1994, on their FanMail Tour. The song was covered by Eels during their tours of 1997 and 1998, their version was made commercially available on their 2008 rarities compilation Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks and Unreleased 1996–2006. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" was covered by Martin Rossiter, released in 2012 on a cover EP called The Defenestration of Prince and Others. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" was covered by B. Slade, as "Girlfriend", on the 2012 album Stunt B%$@H. Prince – Composer, Producer Mobb Deep sampled the song on their 1996 pre-Hell on Earth song "Young Luv".

Chicano rapper Lil Rob samples ``. In 2003, the Jay-Z/Beyoncé Knowles single, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" used several lines of "If I Was Your Girlfriend", Prince was credited as one of the writers. 2Pac sampled a live performance of "If I Was Your Girlfriend" for his song "Thugs Get Lonely Too". The song was recorded in 1993 but did not see official release until 2004, when the Prince samples were removed. George Clinton sampled "If I Was Your Girlfriend" for his song, "Heaven", off of his 2008 album George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and the B-side "Shockadelica" both appear in Demi Moore's 1996 film, Striptease. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Thomas Hannaford Hurd was an officer of the Royal Navy, who rose to the rank of captain, becoming the second Hydrographer of the Navy, a Superintendent of Chronometers and a Commissioner on the Board of Longitude. Hurd Peninsula is named. Hurd joined the navy on 1 September 1768, serving as an able seaman aboard HMS Cornwall, under the command of Captain Molyneux Shuldham, he served on the Newfoundland and North American stations between 1771 and 1774, part of the time aboard the armed vessel HMS Canceaux, under Lieutenant Henry Mowat. While with Canceaux Hurd helped Samuel Holland conduct hydrographic surveys. Hurd passed his lieutenant's examination on 1 March 1775, went on to serve aboard Lord Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle. Howe appointed Hurd as lieutenant of HMS Unicorn on 30 January 1777. Unicorn was a frigate under the command of Captain John Ford. Being free of barnacles she was able to capture a great deal of enemy shipping and Hurd as Lieutenant gathered a large amount of prize money. After Unicorn's return to England she was one of the small squadron engaged under Captain Sir James Wallace in setting fire to three enemy ships and taking the French ship Danae, a brig and a sloop as prizes in a minor battle on 13 May 1779 off the French coast at Cancale.

In the Battle of the Saintes off Dominica, on 12 April 1782, Hurd was second lieutenant of the Hercules from which he was moved into HMS Ardent. Ardent was one of the prizes. Hurd helped sail her back to England under Richard Lucas; the battle was a victory for Admiral Sir George Great Britain. Following this Hurd suffered on the ill-fated return journey from Jamaica—with Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves—where there were large losses due to a hurricane. Howe recommended Hurd for the post of surveyor-general of Cape Breton, to which he was appointed in 1785, but was dismissed the following year by lieutenant-governor Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres. Hurd was sent to carry out the first exact survey of Bermuda in 1789, a task that took him nine years. On 18 August, 1795 he was promoted to the rank of commander, serving as captain of HMS Bermuda and HMS Spencer, before returning to HMS Bermuda, he received promotion to post captain on 29 April 1802. In 1804, he conducted a survey of the harbour of its surrounding coast.

In May 1808, following the death of Alexander Dalrymple, Hurd was the second person to be appointed hydrographer to the admiralty. In the following 15 years, Hurd organised a regular system of surveys and the improved productivity was marked, he is credited with making sure that his maps, funded by the military, were made available for civilian use by the merchant navy. The Hurd Peninsula is in the South Shetland Islands, it was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961, for Thomas Hurd, RN. Hurd was chosen. Hurd's Deep in the English Channel was named after him; when Hurd died on 29 April 1823, he was a superintendent of chronometers and a commissioner for the discovery of longitude. Hurd was survived by his wife and he left plantations in both America and the West Indies