Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different implements; the various generic and formal historical styles of writing are called "hands" while an individual's style of penmanship is referred to as "handwriting". The earliest example of systematic writing is the Sumerian pictographic system found on clay tablets, which developed around 3200 BC into a modified version called cuneiform, impressed on wet clay with a sharpened reed; this form of writing evolved into an ideographic system and to a syllabic system. Developing around the same time, the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics began as a pictographic script and evolved into a system of syllabic writing. Two cursive scripts were created, shortly after hieroglyphs were invented, demotic in the seventh century BC. Scribes wrote these scripts on papyrus, with ink on a reed pen; the first known alphabetical system came from the Phoenicians, who developed a vowel-less system of 22 letters around the eleventh century BC.
The Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet around the eighth century BC. Adding vowels to the alphabet, dropping some consonants and altering the order, the Ancient Greeks developed a script which included only what we know of as capital Greek letters; the lowercase letters of Classical Greek were a invention of the Middle Ages. The Phoenician alphabet influenced the Hebrew and Aramaic scripts, which follow a vowel-less system. One Hebrew script was only used for religious literature and by a small community of Samaritans up until the sixth century BC. Aramaic was the official script of the Babylonian and Persian empires and ‘Square Hebrew’ developed from Aramaic around the third century AD; the Romans in Southern Italy adopted the Greek alphabet as modified by the Etruscans to develop Latin writing. Like the Greeks, the Romans employed stone, metal and papyrus as writing surfaces. Handwriting styles which were used to produce manuscripts included square capitals, rustic capitals and half-uncials.
Square capitals were employed for more-formal texts based on stone inscriptional letters, while rustic capitals freer and efficient. Uncials were rounded capitals that were developed by the Greeks in the third century BC, but became popular in Latin manuscripts by the fourth century AD. Roman cursive or informal handwriting started out as a derivative of the capital letters, though the tendency to write and efficiently made the letters less precise. Half-uncials were lowercase letters, which became the national hand of Ireland. Other combinations of half-uncial and cursive handwriting developed throughout Europe, including Visigothic, Merovingian. At the end of the eighth century, Charlemagne decreed that all writings in his empire were to be written in a standard handwriting, which came to be known as Carolingian minuscule. Alcuin of York was commissioned by Charlemagne to create this new handwriting, which he did in collaboration with other scribes and based on the tradition of other Roman handwriting.
Carolingian minuscule was used to produce many of the manuscripts from monasteries until the eleventh century and most lower-case letters of today's European scripts derive from it. Gothic or black-letter script, evolved from Carolingian, became the dominant handwriting from the twelfth century until the Italian Renaissance; this script was not as clear as the Carolingian, but instead was narrower and denser. Because of this, the dot above the i was added in order to differentiate it from the similar pen strokes of the n, m, u. Also, the letter u was created as separate from the v, used for both sounds. Part of the reason for such compact handwriting was to save space. Gothic script, being the writing style of scribes in Germany when Gutenberg invented movable type, became the model for the first type face. Another variation of Carolingian minuscule was created by the Italian humanists in the fifteenth century, called by them littera antiqua and now called humanist minuscule; this was the rounded version of Carolingian minuscule.
A cursive form developed, it became slanted due to the quickness with which it could be written. This manuscript handwriting, called cursive humanistic, became known as the typeface Italic used throughout Europe. Copperplate engraving influenced handwriting as it allowed penmanship copybooks to be more printed. Copybooks first appeared in Italy around the sixteenth century. Other manuals were produced by Dutch and French writing masters in the century, including Pierre Hamon. However, copybooks only became commonplace in England with the invention of copperplate engraving. Engraving could better produce the flourishes in handwritten script, which helped penmanship masters to produce beautiful examples for students; some of these early penmanship manuals included those of Edward Cocker, John Seddon, John Ayer. By the eighteenth century, schools were established to teach penmanship techniques from master penmen in England and the United States. Penmanship became part of the curriculum in American schools by the early 1900s, rather than just reserved for specialty schools teaching adults penmanship as a professional skill.
Several different penmanship methods hav
Christopher Claus Andersen is an American professional basketball player for Power In The Big 3 League. Nicknamed "Birdman", Andersen was born in Long Beach, grew up in Iola and played one year at Blinn College. Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues, he played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. He received a two-year ban from the NBA in 2006 for violating the league's drug policy, but was reinstated on March 4, 2008, re-signed with the Hornets the next day, he returned to Denver in 2008, remained with the team until 2012. He won a championship with them that same year, he and Oliver Lafayette are the only Blinn students to play in the NBA. He now plays for Power in the Big3 league. Andersen is the second of the three children of corrections officer and Danish immigrant Claus Andersen and Linda Holubec, a Tennessee native who worked as a waitress at the Port Hueneme naval base, played basketball in high school.
In 1982, when Andersen was four, his family moved to Texas, using a loan from the Texas Veterans Land Board to purchase a 10-acre plot in unincorporated Iola, about 100 miles north of Houston. The Andersens lived off the land, with Linda working on low-end jobs and relying on the help of neighbors and Linda's brother, a Navy supply boat captain. During Andersen's middle school years, he and his siblings were sent to a group home in Dallas for three years. During high school, Andersen was convinced to take up basketball by the varsity basketball coach, who said the sport could give him a chance at a college scholarship. Andersen could not get the grades to attend the University of Houston, but went to Blinn College in Brenham, where the coach was the father of Andersen's high school coach, he played one season with the Blinn Buccaneers, leading the National Junior College Athletic Association players in blocks. Convinced that he could play professionally, Andersen dropped out of Blinn in 1999, not knowing he had to apply for the NBA draft to get picked up.
Andersen's high school coach arranged for him to play a series of exhibition games with the semi-professional Texas Ambassadors, a game in China led Andersen to get an offer to join the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association. In March 2000, he joined the New Mexico Slam of the International Basketball League where he averaged just 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in six regular-season games and four playoff games. That year, he joined the Dakota Wizards of the IBA but left before the season started, he joined the Fargo-Moorhead Beez of the IBA where he played seven games before being released in January 2001. That year, he joined the Sugarland Sharks of the Southwest Basketball League. In July 2001, Andersen joined the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2001 NBA Summer League. On September 28, 2001, he signed with the Phoenix Suns. However, he was waived by the Suns on October 7, 2001. On October 31, 2001, he was selected with the first overall pick by the Fayetteville Patriots in the NBA Development League's inaugural draft.
Andersen became the first D-League player called up by an NBA team, signing with the Denver Nuggets on November 21, 2001 after just two games for Fayetteville. He became one of the top per-minute rebounders and shot-blockers in the league. During the 2002 Rocky Mountain Revue, teammates Junior Harrington and Kenny Satterfield nicknamed Andersen "Birdman" for his arm span and penchant for aerial acrobatics. On September 29, 2003, he re-signed with the Nuggets. On July 19, 2004, Andersen signed a multi-year deal with the New Orleans Hornets, he appeared in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest during the 2005 All-Star Weekend for the second year in a row, where he unsuccessfully tried the same dunk eight times at the Pepsi Center. Following the effects of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the Hornets moved to Oklahoma City for the 2005–06 season and temporarily became the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. In 2005 -- 06, Andersen managed just 32 games, averaging 4.8 rebounds per game. On January 25, 2006, Andersen was disqualified from the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy by testing positive for a banned substance.
Andersen's suspension fell under the league's category of "drugs of abuse", violation of, possible grounds for expulsion from the NBA under the league's collective bargaining agreement. Andersen attempted to appeal the ruling through arbitration, but the arbitrator ruled to uphold his dismissal in March 2006; as Andersen waited for his reinstatement, effective January 2008, he was helped by a lawyer friend in Denver, Mark Bryant, who became his adviser. Andersen spent a month in a rehab clinic in Malibu, worked out and coached a boys' basketball team in Denver. On March 4, 2008, the NBA Players Association granted Andersen's request to be reinstated as an NBA player; the reinstatement was effective and the rights to his services belonged to his former team, the New Orleans Hornets, who re-signed him on March 5, 2008 for the rest of the 2007–08 season. On July 24, 2008, Andersen signed a one-year deal with the Denver Nuggets. Andersen finished the 2008–09 season second in the league in blocks per game with 2.5 despite playing only 20.6 minutes per game.
On July 8, 2009, Andersen re-signed with the Nuggets on a five-year deal. On July 17, 2012, the Nuggets waived Andersen via the amnesty clause. Nuggets General Manager Masai Ujiri, a friend of Andersen, reluctantly made the transaction in order to remove $9 million from the team's payroll cap to avoid the luxury tax. Before he was waived by the Nuggets, Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra had lobbied Pat Riley to
Robert Lee Owens III was an African-American composer and actor. Owens was born in Denison, but grew up in Berkeley, California. Owens began playing piano at age 4, composing at age 8, performing at age 10. After serving in the U. S. Army during World War II, Owens used the G. I. Bill to pursue musical education in Europe, he studied under Jules Gentil and Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in Paris between 1946-1950. In 1952, he debuted as a concert pianist in Copenhagen, he continued his studies under Grete Hinterhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music between 1953-1957. Owens returned to the United States in 1957 to teach music at Albany State College in Georgia. During this time, he began setting the poems of Langston Hughes to music. In 1959, he relocated to Germany. In Germany, he got a job as a film actor, was soon in demand as a film and stage actor and pianist. Owens's only completed opera, Kultur! Kultur!, was premiered in Ulm, Germany, in 1970. Owens died January 2017 in Munich.
Owens wrote and performed his First Piano Concerto with Berkeley’s Young Peoples’ Symphony at the age of 15. He wrote many songs throughout his long career, using the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Waring Cuney, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes. In 2006, he wrote the Idomeneo Quartet for oboe and strings, based on Mozart's opera of the same name. A collection of Owens's published works, concert programs and reviews and other memorabilia resides at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. International Lifetime Achievement Award, from the National Association of Negro Musicians The Preisträger International Lifetime Achievement Award from AnDante Kulturmagazin "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award for lifetime achievement in opera, from the National Opera Association Friend of the Arts, Kappa chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota Artist-in-residence at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Texas Southern University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Dunbar Music Archive Fields of Wonder: Exploring the Langston Hughes Song Cycles of Robert Owens List of Owens's songs from Lieder.net Robert Owens Biography from Afrovoices.com
J. L. Stifel & Sons was an American textile and jeans manufacturing brand which became prominent from 1835 to 1956 and a precursor one in indigo-dyed cotton calicos. Smoother than canvas or denim but resistant, calico made success in workwear clothing. Typical calicos such as polka dots and dotted lines on bandanas and ticking were the most popular motifs. In 1833, Johan Ludwig Stifel, a young and poor German immigrant came to the United States after having been an apprentice dyer and calico printer in his homeland. Walking barefoot to preserve his shoes, he reached the burgeoning city of Wheeling in West Virginia and began to work for a local farm; however his interest in textile dying returned and in 1835, he spent all his savings on a single bolt of unbleached cotton from the local mill, hand-dyed and sold it repeated the process another time. A new business was about to blossom. Wheeling, as a growing industrial city, notably in the steel and cigar sectors required a large workforce and cheap and reliable garments.
Johan Ludwig Stifel decided to convert this demand in a business opportunity giving birth to a prosperous enterprise. Meanwhile, having been married to Barbara Becht, in 1859, his sons Louis and William joined the company which turned into J. L. Stifel & Sons. In the beginning of the twentieth century the third generation of Stifels was operating a 70,000 square foot manufacturing plant employing 50 workers; the brand logo, a boot with the word “stifel” inside, was adopted. J. L. Stifel & Sons was associated with quality and their products were exported to Latin America, the Philippines, India and Africa reaching its peak with a monthly production of 3,5 million yards of clothes
Brian Huskey is an American actor and writer. He co-stars in the TBS comedy People of Earth, his other roles include Chet on the Adult Swim comedy series Childrens Hospital, Mr. Neighbor/Jim on Mr. Neighbor's House, Victor on the Comedy Central series Another Period. Huskey was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, did not meet his biological father until he was 17, he attended Charlotte Country Day School for the entirety of grade school, graduating in 1987. He attended University of North Carolina at Greensboro, graduating with a degree in English and minor in photography. Around this time he began to play bass guitar in the band. Huskey relocated to New York City to attend photo school and worked as a photographer's assistant, he met and was roommates with Rob Corddry. Huskey studied and performed improvisational comedy during the start of the original Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City and had each of the "UCB4" as teachers. From there, he appeared in comedy sketches on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for many years and was a panelist on VH1's Best Week Ever.
At UCB, Huskey was a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Naked Babies, with comedians Rob Corddry, Seth Morris and John Ross Bowie. He has since worked on Corddry's Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital, playing the role of Chet the creepy EMT worker, as well as alter ego Mark Splorn. Huskey appeared as correspondent Duncan Birch on the IFC cable news satire Onion News Network. Other programs in which Huskey co-starred include Free Radio. Huskey appeared on the sitcoms Selfie and The Real O'Neals, he made some notable early television appearances in a series of commercials opposite Molly Erdman in a campaign for Sonic Drive-In. Both actors would be fired from this role as the result of an Onion News Network veterans parody he wrote and performed. Huskey has appeared in commercials for Wendy's, and, in 2011, "The Swagger Wagon" ad campaign for the Toyota Sienna, he has appeared in a campaign for Bai Brands alongside Justin Timberlake. Huskey has made many guest appearances on comedy programs including Community and Recreation, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, Worst Week, Happy Endings, Animal Practice, The Inbetweeners and Veep.
He has appeared in films such as Superbad, Step Brothers, Semi-Pro, Meet Dave. He starred in the YouTube miniseries If Google Was A Guy on the YouTube channel CollegeHumor, acting as an anthropomorphic visualization of the search engine Google. In 2014, Huskey co-wrote the film A Better You, with UCB co-founder Matt Walsh. Huskey starred in the film and Walsh directed, he has been on many podcasts, including as a recurring character on Womp It Up! as the stepfather of one of the main characters. Brian Huskey on IMDb Upright Citizens Brigade Theater profile
Control Enthusiast is a comedy tour by British comedian Sarah Millican. The tour began on 9 February 2018 in Powys, Wales at The Hafren, concluded on 13 April 2019 in Calgary, Canada at the Bella Concert Hall; the tour consisted of 141 shows across Europe and North America. A live recording of the tour was released on DVD in December 2018. Steve Bennett of Chortle gave a positive review of the Canterbury show, stating that Millican's "normality is key to her appeal her audience see themselves reflected in her", he concluded by saying that Millican "excels" in her writing, "with plenty of acidic punchlines to win over a crowd". Elle May Rice of The Liverpool Echo gave the Liverpool show three out of five stars and a mixed review, saying that it was "unashamedly filthy shocking" yet criticised that "the show started shakily". However, Clive Davis of The Times gave the show a negative review, stating that "you have to be a die-hard fan to enjoy her latest show, which rambles around familiar themes" and gave two out of five stars