Table Talk

Informal conversation at or as if at a dining table; especially, the social talk of a celebrity recorded for publication. Collections of such conversations exist from as early as the 3rd century AD, and the term has been in use in English since about the 16th century. The practice of recording conversations and sayings of the famous became especially popular in the 17th century.

Prophets, The Lives Of The

Pseudepigraphal collection (not in any scriptural canon) of folk stories and legends about the major and minor biblical prophets and a number of other prophetic figures from the Old Testament books of I Kings, II Chronicles, and Nehemiah. The work demonstrates the popularity of religious and philosophical biography in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern areas

Biblical Literature, Texts and manuscripts

In referring to manuscript text types by their place of origin, one posits the idea that the major centers of Christendom established more or less standard texts: Alexandria; Caesarea and Antioch (Eastern); Italy and Gallia plus Africa (Western); Constantinople, the home for the Byzantine text type or the Textus Receptus. While such a geographical scheme has become

Southampton, William Fitzwilliam, Earl Of

A son of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Aldwarke, near Rotherham, Fitzwilliam was a companion in boyhood of Henry VIII and was knighted for his services at the siege of Tournai in 1513. Later he was treasurer of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey's household and was sent several times to France

Seljuq

During the 10th-century migrations of the Turkish peoples from Central Asia and southeast Russia,

Pozzo Di Borgo, Charles-andr�, Count

A native of Corsica, Pozzo favoured its political incorporation into France and, after Corsica was declared a d�partement

Alen�on Lace

French �Point D'alen�on, � needle lace made in the French city of Alen�on, one of the centres designated by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of finance under Louis XIV, for aid in his effort to make French laces financially and artistically competitive with imported laces. Venetian workers, experts in making point de Venise, were brought in to instruct the local needlewomen, who quickly learned

Hume, John

Originally

Wage And Salary

Toward the end of the 19th century, marginal-productivity analysis was applied not only to labour but to other factors of production as well. It was not a new idea as an explanation of wage phenomena, for Smith had observed that a relationship existed between wage rates and the productivity of labour, and Johann Heinrich von Th�nen, a German economist, had worked out a

Shamanism, Personal characteristics and selection

Scholars generally agree that the shaman acquires his profession through inheritance, learning, or an inner call, or �vocation,� but each of these terms requires some qualification. �Inheritance� means that the soul of a dead shaman or the so-called shaman illness is inherited. �Learning� here does not usually mean the study of exact knowledge and explicit dogma, for the

Bowerman, Bill

American coach, inventor, and entrepreneur who while serving (1949 - 72) as coach of the track team at the University of Oregon led teams to four National Collegiate Athletic Association titles (1962, 1964, 1965, and 1970) and coached 24 NCAA individual champions; in his quest to give his runners an edge, Bowerman experimented with creating a lighter outsole and fashioned the modern-day �waffle� running

Dandenong Ranges

Military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Marxist-Leninist (CPP-ML), which is a Communist organization dedicated to achieving power in the Philippines by means of revolutionary insurrection. The CPP-ML was originally a Maoist faction that broke away from the largely passive, Soviet-oriented Philippine Communist Party in 1968 - 69 and formed the New People's

Melanesian Culture

The beliefs and practices of those indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands grouped as Melanesia. The islands include (generally from west to east) the island of New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagoes; the Solomon Islands and the Santa Cruz Islands; New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands; Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides); Fiji;

Rabbit Hair

The fibre of the Angora rabbit (so named for the resemblance of its pelt to that of the Angora goat) is produced mainly in France and England. A silky, delicate white fibre, it is prized

Gag Rule

In U.S. history, any of a series of congressional resolutions that tabled, without discussion, petitions regarding slavery; passed by the House of Representatives between 1836 and 1840 and repealed in 1844. Abolition petitions, signed by more than 2,000,000 persons, had inundated Congress after the establishment of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833). Gag rules, supported by proslavery congressmen,

Fuchu

City, Tokyo Metropolis (to), Honshu, Japan, on the Tama-gawa (Tama River). The capital of Musashi Province about the 7th century AD, it flourished as a post town and regional commercial and administrative centre. Fuchu declined when it was bypassed by the railway between Tokyo and Tachikawa (1889), but it revived with the arrival of two other railways in the late 1920s and the construction

Augsburg Confession

Latin �Confessio Augustana, � the 28 articles that constitute the basic confession of the Lutheran churches, presented June 25, 1530, in German and Latin at the Diet of Augsburg to the emperor Charles V by seven Lutheran princes and two imperial free cities. The principal author was the Reformer Philipp Melanchthon, who drew on earlier Lutheran statements of faith. The purpose was to defend the Lutherans

Mammeri, Mouloud

Mammeri was reared in the Kabylian mountains but was educated in Morocco, Paris, and Algiers, after which he was drafted into the French army to fight in World War II. He later became a professor at the University of

Mun River

Thai �Mae Nam Mun� main river system of the Khorat Plateau, in eastern Thailand. The Mun rises in the San Kamphaeng Range northeast of Bangkok and flows east for 418 miles (673 km), receiving the Chi River, its main tributary, and entering the Mekong River at the Laotian border. Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani are the chief towns on its banks. The river is seasonally navigable below Ubon

Black Panther Party

Original name �Black Panther Party For Self-defense,� American black revolutionary party founded in 1966 in Oakland, Calif., by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party's original purpose was to patrol black ghettoes to protect residents from acts of police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all blacks, the exemption of blacks from the draft and from

Giovanni Di Paolo (di Grazia)

Painter whose religious paintings maintained the mystical intensity and conservative style of Gothic decorative painting against the trend, progressively dominant in the art of 15th-century Tuscany, toward scientific naturalism and classical humanism. One of the last practitioners of the tradition of medieval painting,

Atwater, Wilbur Olin

Upon completing his undergraduate work at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., Atwater continued his studies at Yale University, where his Ph.D. thesis discussed for the first time how chemical techniques could be applied to food. After further study in Germany,

Likud

In full �Likud-Liberalim Leumi�, Hebrew �Unity-National Liberals� right-wing Israeli political party. It was founded in September 1973 to challenge the Israel Labour Party, which had governed the country since its independence in 1948, and first came to power in 1977, with Menachem Begin as prime minister. Thereafter, Likud alternated in government with the Labour Party, forming coalitions with minor parties, especially those with an ultrareligious

Rio De Janeiro

Estado (�state�) of southeastern Brazil, bounded by the states of Esp�rito Santo (north), Minas Gerais (west), and S�o Paulo (southwest), while to the east lies the Atlantic Ocean. It is named for the city of Rio de Janeiro, the state capital, which was the capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960 and remains the nation's main centre for cultural events, leisure, and tourism. It is Brazil's second largest

Carnivore, Natural history

Almost all cats are strictly carnivorous and feed on small mammals and birds or on the larger herbivorous artiodactyls like deer and various types of antelope. The fishing cat (Felis viverrina) feeds largely on fishes and clams or snails and thus fits into a slightly different niche from that of most cats. The flatheaded cat (Felis planiceps) is the only felid known

Writ

In common law, order issued by a court in the name of a sovereign authority requiring the performance of a specific act. The most common modern writs are those, such as the summons, used to initiate an action. Other writs may be used to enforce the judgment of a court (attachment, delivery) or to require a lower court to furnish certain records (error) or perform a certain act

Bothnia, Gulf Of

Swedish �Bottniska Viken, �Finnish �Pohjan Lahti, � northern arm of the Baltic Sea, between Sweden (west) and Finland (east). Covering an area of about 45,200 square miles (117,000 square km), the gulf extends for 450 miles (725 km) from north to south but only 50 to 150 miles (80 to 240 km) from east to west; it is nearly closed off by the �land (Ahvenanmaa) Islands (south). Its maximum depth is 965 feet (295 m) in the west-central portion; its average depth is only about 200 feet (60 m). Because

Bridel, Philippe-sirice

While serving as a pastor at Basel, Ch�

Hill, A.v.

In full �Archibald Vivian Hill� British physiologist and biophysicist who received (with Otto Meyerhof) the 1922 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the production of heat in muscles. His research helped establish the origin of muscular force in the breakdown of carbohydrates with formation of lactic acid in the