Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is by far the greatest, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, his rolling flood of eloquence, characteristics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable." His poems can however, seem difficult and peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they "are reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning"; some scholars in the modern age found his poetry perplexing, at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader and his work is unread among the general public. Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the poet's role. Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of the vicissitudes of life, but he articulates a passionate faith in what men can achieve by the grace of the gods, most famously expressed in the conclusion to one of his Victory Odes: His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the classical period.

Five ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindar's life. One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD; the other four are collections that weren't finalized until some 1600 years after his death: Commentaries on Pindar by Eustathius of Thessalonica. Although these sources are based on a much older literary tradition, going as far back as Chamaeleon of Heraclea in the 4th century BC, they are viewed with scepticism today: much of the material is fanciful. Scholars both ancient and modern have turned to Pindar's own work – his victory odes in particular – as a source of biographical information: some of the poems touch on historic events and can be dated; the 1962 publication of Elroy Bundy's ground-breaking work Studia Pindarica led to a change in scholarly opinion—the Odes were no longer seen as expressions of Pindar's personal thoughts and feelings, but rather as public statements "dedicated to the single purpose of eulogizing men and communities."

It has been claimed that biographical interpretations of the poems are due to a "fatal conjunction" of historicism and Romanticism. In other words, we know nothing about Pindar's life based on either traditional sources or his own poems. However, the pendulum of intellectual fashion has begun to change direction again, cautious use of the poems for some biographical purposes is considered acceptable once more. Pindar was born in circa 518 BC in a village in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, his father's name is variously given as Daiphantus, Pagondas or Scopelinus, his mother's name was Cleodice. It is told that he was stung on the mouth by a bee in his youth and this was the reason he became a poet of honey-like verses. Pindar was about twenty years old in 498 BC when he was commissioned by the ruling family in Thessaly to compose his first victory ode, he studied the art of lyric poetry in Athens, where his tutor was Lasos of Hermione, he is said to have received some helpful criticism from Corinna.

The early-to-middle years of Pindar's career coincided with the Persian invasions of Greece in the reigns of Darius and Xerxes. During the invasion in 480/79 BC, when Pindar was forty years old, Thebes was occupied by Xerxes' general, who with many Theban aristocrats subsequently perished at the Battle of Plataea, it is possible. His choice of residence during the earlier invasion in 490 BC is not known, but he was able to attend the Pythian Games for that year, where he first met the Sicilian prince, nephew of Theron of Acragas. Thrasybulus had driven the winning chariot and he and Pindar were to form a lasting friendship, paving the way for his subsequent visit to Sicily. Pindar seems to have used his odes to advance his, his friends', personal interests. In 462 BC he composed two odes in honour of Arcesilas, king of Cyrene, pleading for the return from exile of a friend, Demophilus. In the latter ode Pindar proudly mentions his own ancestry, which he shared with the king, as an Aegeid or descendant of Aegeus, the legendary king of Athens.

The clan was influential in many parts of the Greek world, having intermarried with ruling families in Thebes, in Lacedaemonia, in cities that claimed Lacedaemonian descent, such as Cyrene and Thera. The historian Herodotus considered the clan important enough to deserve mention. Membership of this clan contributed to Pindar's success as a poet, it informed his political views, which are marked by a conservative preference for oligarchic governments of the Doric kind. "Pindar might not claim to be an Aegeid since his'I' statements do not refer to himself. The Aegeid clan did however have a branch in Thebes, his reference to'my ancestors' in Pythian 5 could have been spoken on behalf of both Arcesilas and himself – he may have used this ambivalence to establish a person

Miss London Ltd. is a 1943 British, black-and-white, musical, war film, directed by Val Guest and starring Arthur Askey and Evelyn Dall. It was produced by Maurice Ostrer, Fred Gunn and Gainsborough Pictures; this musical comedy playing in wartime London, stars Arthur Askey as Arthur Bowman alias Miss London, the name of the escort agency he inherited from his mother. Soon he is joined by his new American partner, Terry Arden, as she inherited the other half of the Agency from her parents, who just arrived from abroad; the first thing she accomplishes is to clean up the office, together with her partner. They have to renew the files of escort-Ladies. In order to do so, each of them goes searching in different places. Arthur Bowman is assigned to the railway station and he finds railway clerk Gail Martin to hire; the opening sequence of the film features the latter singing "The 8.50 Choo Choo For Waterloo Choo" at Waterloo station before she is recruited by Bowman for his agency. As usual, Ronald Shiner's character of Sailor Meredith plays a decisive role.

The film features a surreal self-parodying sequence in which Bowman, in order to gain entrance to a hotel, pretends to be the famous Arthur Askey, using some of his choice catchphrases. Other spoofs include Askey and Dall doing a routine as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and, with Shiner in addition, as the three Marx Brothers. Arthur Askey as Arthur Bowman Evelyn Dall as Terry Arden Anne Shelton as Gail Martin Richard Hearne as Commodore Joshua Wellington Max Bacon as Romero Jack Train as Joe Nelson Peter Graves as Captain Michael "Rory" O'More Jean Kent as The Encyclopedia Girl Ronald Shiner as Sailor Meredith Iris Lang Virginia Keiley Una Shepherd Sheila Bligh Noni Brooke Patricia Owens as Miss London Hilda Campbell Russell as Cabaret Singer Evelyn Dall and Anne Shelton – "A Fine How Do You Do" Evelyn Dall – "Keep Cool Calm and Collected" Arthur Askey – "The Moth" Arthur Askey – "I'm Only Me" Anne Shelton – "You Too Can Have a Lovely Romance" Anne Shelton – "The 8.50 Choo Choo" Anne Shelton – "If You Could Only Cook" "My Father Was a Yes Man" Miss London Ltd. on IMDb Miss London Ltd. at AllMovie

Safari Cinema was an entertainment venue at 225 London Road in Broad Green, Croydon. It was opened in 1936, closed in 2004; the building was demolished in 2005, was described at the time as "the last of the historic cinemas from the Golden Age left in Croydon". It was known as the Savoy, ABC Croydon and the Cannon. Opened on March 9, 1936, by Associated British Cinemas, it was designed by William R. Glen and seated 2,300, it was a fair distance from the town centre. Lighting in the large spacious auditorium was indirect from troughs on the ceiling. On March 31, 1953, an electrical fault resulted in a fire that destroyed the auditorium. Post-war building restrictions were still in force and it reopened with a utilitarian appearance on December 27, 1953. In July 1958 it closed to allow a more extensive reconstruction to take place; when it reopened as the ABC on October 19, it was lavishly appointed. Tripling caused the next closure, from May to November 1972; the rear circle became 650-seat screen 1, with the stalls split into screen 2 and 3.

All had simple unadorned decor. Renamed Cannon in 1986 and Safari in the late 1990s, it closed in 2004 and was demolished in March and April 2005, it closed because of opening of a Warner Village cinema in the Grants entertainment venue. Safari had been known as a Bollywood cinema, showing many Bollywood films as well as Hollywood blockbusters. After the closure Warner Village reserved one screen for Bollywood filmsThe decision to demolish the cinema did not proceed without controversy, with local residents and patrons of the cinema remarking that the cinema "is the last of the historic cinemas from the Golden Age left in Croydon." Developers planned to demolish the building and replace it with 138 apartments, including 52 key worker shared-ownership flats. The plan was dependent on the issuance of planning permission; this was duly granted and in September 2007 development was underway. Overstrand Ltd are the owners of the site, with Ian Hutchinson as the developer. Subsequently, the developers applied to Croydon Council for permission to construct 47 additional apartments on the site of the derelict Total/Elf/Fina petrol station on London Road