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The Need for Freedom
The soldiers of the 8th Virginia regiment included Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, Reformed, Presbyterians, Baptists. Lieutenant Isaac Israel was probably Jewish. They helped turn Virginia from a religiously intolerant colony with an official, established church into a state that was at the vanguard of establishing religious freedom in America.
The Church of England was deeply integrated into the government and society of colonial Virginia. Property owners paid taxes to support it, and it performed important functions like recording vital statistics and caring for orphans. Non-Anglicans had to pay for marriage licenses, but county clerks were under no obligation to record their marriages. Dissenting churches were not welcome and their clergy were sometimes imprisoned or physically assaulted.
The Old Dominion's most influential colonial governor, William Berkeley (1642-1652 and 1660-1677) was "bitterly hostile" to religious nonconformists, especially Puritans and Quakers. A law was enacted under his leadership to "preserve the Established Church's Unity and purity of doctrine" by punishing any dissenting minister who attempted to preach in Virginia. During the reign of William and Mary, the Toleration Act of 1688 allowed non-Catholic ministers to preach under certain conditions, a change that applied to Virginia. When the Revolution broke out nearly a century later, however, religious dissenters in the colony still hadn't gained much beyond being tolerated.
On the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, however, things were different. Unlike the tidewater and piedmont areas of Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley was largely settled by German and Irish immigrants who came inland on the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania. This brought Presbyterian, Lutheran, German Reformed, Quaker, Baptist, and Mennonite congregations into the colony. Collectively they made a regional majority, but their members still had to tithe to the English church, couldn't hold public office, and had to build their churches in the countryside or on the edge of town.
The government in Williamsburg allowed these dissenters to settle the Shenandoah Valley because they wanted to create a buffer between the older areas of Virginia and the dangers that existed in the wilderness: the Indians and the French. By the time the Revolution began, the valley was well-settled but culturally distinct from the areas east of the Blue Ridge.
Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia (1642-1652, 1660-1677).
The selection of Peter Muhlenberg as colonel of the 8th Virginia was clearly an effort to gain the support of the valley's Germans for the cause. So too was the selection of Abraham Bowman for lieutenant colonel: he was the grandson of Jost Hite, who had led the first group of German settlers to Virginia from Pennsylvania. Major Peter Helphenstine, the oldest but most junior of the three field officers, had immigrated to the valley from Germany as an adult. As residents of Woodstock, Strasburg, and Winchester, respectively, the three men also covered the geography of the heavily German lower (northern) Shenandoah Valley. Settlers in the upper (southern) Shenandoah Valley; the New and Holston river valleys of southwest Virginia; and the region around Fort Pitt in what is now southwestern Pennsylvania were also recruited for the regiment. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians predominated in these areas and were, at least by reputation, already willing to fight.
Patrick Henry's 1775 resolution. (Library of Congress)
For the first time, Virginia's coastal elite needed to proactively accommodate and attract the Old Dominion's western settlers. These western Virginians were typically good marksmen and many of them were experienced warriors with fresh experience from Lord Dunmore's 1774 war against the Shawnee. The creation of a "German" regiment (which was probably about half Scotch-Irish) was only one way that the revolutionary Virginia Convention accommodated and wooed the colony's religious minorities.
On August 16, 1775, several months before the 8th Virginia was authorized, the Third Virginia Convention adopted a resolution offered by Patrick Henry to grant the Baptists' request to have their own military chaplains and excuse Baptist soldiers from attending Anglican services. The following summer, while the 8th was serving in the Carolinas, the Fifth Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. This precursor to both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights proclaimed that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other."
It would take some time for Virginia's actions and practices to match the Convention's words. That fall, ten thousand Virginians signed a petition circulated by the Baptists requesting religious equality and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia. The document was 125 pages long, sewn together, and joined with wax seals.
Virginia was not alone in the colonial period in practicing religious (or religiously-based) discrimination. Massachusetts in the 1600s was a virtual theocracy. Four people on three occasions were hanged to death for being Quakers. Many others were flogged and expelled from the colony. Conversely, in Pennsylvania (which had no established church), the Quaker Party—a political faction—clung to power until the Revolution by refusing to create new legislative districts in the colony's growing western regions.
North Carolina and Maryland were the first to disestablish the Church of England, both in 1776. However, Virginia suspended tithes for support of the church the same year and was at the forefront of articulating the importance of religious freedom during and after the Revolution.
A signature page from the Ten Thousand Name Petition. (Library of Congress)
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was drafted in 1777 by Thomas Jefferson and enacted into law in 1786, formally disestablishing the Church of England (known thereafter as the Episcopal Church). Massachusetts was the last state to disestablish its state church, a predecessor of today's United Church of Christ, in 1833.
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
[Drafted 1777, Enacted 1786]
Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;
That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do,
That the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time;
That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions, which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical;
That even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind;
That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry,
That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right,
That it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it;
That though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way;
That to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own;
That it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order;
And finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:
Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. And though we well know that this Assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of Legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.
More from The 8th Virginia Regiment
Mounting the Soldier Second
General Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line
by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa: Westholme, 2020)
"The General, mounted upon a white horse, tall and commanding in his figure, was very conspicuous at the head of his men…many of the [enemy] soldiers (German enlistments being for life,) remembered their former comrade, and the cry ran along their astonished ranks, 'Heir kommt teufel Piet!'"
This tale about Gen. Peter Muhlenberg at Brandywine appears in the 1849 biography written by his great nephew (and congressman) Henry Augustus Muhlenberg. "Here comes Devil Pete!" was shouted by members of a German dragoon company to which the writer says Muhlenberg had belonged as a young man. The story is nonsense, and just one example of why Michael Cecere's new biography of the general is desperately needed.
Peter Muhlenberg was a Pennsylvania-born German who was the son of the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America.
He is best-known as the rector of a Shenandoah Valley (Anglican) parish and colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment, which was raised on the frontier and initially intended to be a "German" regiment. The famous but poorly-documented farewell sermon he delivered in Woodstock, Virginia, in the spring of 1776 has been the subject of epic poetry and modern political debate. After a tour of the southern theater under Maj. Gen. Charles Lee, he was made a brigadier general. His brigade of Virginians was in Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene's division at Brandywine and Germantown. He was at Monmouth and remained in the army to the end of the war. He played an important role in the Virginia campaign leading up to Yorktown.
...continue to The Journal of the American Revolution
Three Germans: The Regiment's Field Officers
The signatures of Col. Peter Muhlenberg, Lt. Col. Abraham Bowman, and Maj. Peter Helphenstine. (Author)
Why Germans? The 8th Virginia Regiment of Foot was authorized by the revolutionary Virginia Convention on December 13, 1775. It had no numeric designation yet, but was intended to be unique in two ways. It would be ethnically-based and all of its men would carry rifles. It was conceived as a "battalion" to "be composed of Germans, with German officers."
The concept may have originated with the Rev. Peter Muhlenberg and Jonathan Clark, both delegates from Dunmore County in the Shenandoah Valley. Dunmore (now called Shenandoah County) was the cultural hub of German life in the Valley. It is inconceivable that the resolution could have been drafted without the involvement of at least Muhlenberg and probably of Clark as well. Muhlenberg was the Rector of Beckford Parish, the geography of which was identical to that of Dunmore County. His church was at Woodstock, the county seat. He was, however, more than just the community's pastor. He was the son of the patriarch or the Lutheran Church in America, whose church was in the village of Trappe near Philadelphia. Clark was the county's deputy clerk, an important job, under Thomas Marshall (soon to be colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment and father of future Chief Justice John Marshall).
The Shenandoah Valley's Germans had nearly all come the way Muhlenberg had: down the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road to Virginia. The road passed through communities that remain heavily German to this day, such as Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Scotch-Irish immigrants followed the same route, but tended to settle farther south in the Valley, around Staunton and Augusta County.
Lutheran Germans like Muhlenberg were seen by the Virginia gentry as reasonably reliable and trustworthy. Their theology differed little from the Church of England. Muhlenberg had, in fact, gone to London to be ordained before taking his position in Woodstock. (King George III was himself of German descent and his great grandfather, George I, couldn't speak English when he took the throne.) The Ulster Irish, however, were less trusted. They were theological dissenters and often politically radical. Their Calvinist faith differed in important ways from Anglicanism. They could, however, be counted on to fight
The ordinance creating the 8th Virginia and the selection of field officers that followed it suggest that what the convention really meant by calling it "German" was that Germans would command it (and that the Irish would not). Muhlenberg was the perfect candidate for such a role. He and Clark both served as officers in the regiment, something that may well have been predetermined. Muhlenberg would be the top officer and Clark would command one of Dunmore County's two companies (the German one).
The lichen-encrusted grave of Abraham Bowman in Lexington, Kentucky. No portraits of Bowman or Helphenstine survive. Though Helphenstine is known to be buried in the Lutheran section of Winchester's Mount Hebron Cemetery, there's no surviving marker. It may be that his destitute widow was not able to afford a stone memorial. (author)
"And be it farther ordained," read the resolution, "That of the six regiments to be levied as aforesaid, one of them shall be called a German regiment, to be made up of German and other officers and soldiers, as the committees of the several counties of Augusta, West Augusta, Berkeley, Culpeper, Dunmore, Fincastle, Frederick, and Hampshire (by which committees the several captains and subaltern officers of the said regiment are to be appointed) shall judge expedient."
Peter Muhlenberg portrayed at the end of the war as a brevet Major General.
Muhlenberg and Bowman were both too young to have participated in the French and Indian War as most of Virginia's other senior officers had. Muhlenberg had spent some time in a British military unit after dropping out of seminary in Germany years before. Bowman had experienced at least one dangerous encounter with Indians as a teenager. It is fairly clear that in choosing them the Convention prioritized their ability to rally and unite the Shenandoah Valley over their fairly meager military experience. Patrick Henry was the only other appointed colonel who had no real military experience.
When they received their commissions Muhlenberg was twenty-nine years old and Bowman was twenty-six. The regiment's major was Peter Helphenstine, a German from Winchester in Frederick County. He was about twice Bowman's age, in his middle fifties. He had commanded a company in the governor's division during Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. He was a respected tradesman and an active Lutheran.
Below them, the officers of the ten companies—captains, lieutenants and ensigns—were a diverse group. English, German, and Scotch-Irish were most common. Capt. Abel Westfall of Hampshire County was Dutch, though his family had been in America for generations. Lieut. Jacob Rinker was Swiss. Lieut. Isaac Israel was Jewish. Religiously, though it is hard to trace, they were mostly Anglican, Lutheran, German Reformed, Presbyterian, and probably Baptist. If there were no Methodists, some of them—including Capt. Westfall—would become Methodists soon.
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The diversity of the officers reflected the diversity in the rank and file. The 8th Virginia was a microcosm of the Continental Army at large. It was America's original "melting pot." Originally divided by race and religion, their shared hardships would soon make them a band of brothers.
The committees were generally dominated by English elites and could be counted on to appoint the right kind of company officers. Only two of ten companies had Irish captains: Fincastle County and the West Augusta district (both on the frontier) selected James Knox and William Croghan. Both were capable and loyal officers.
The choice of field officers, however, was up to the Virginia Convention and it chose three Germans as it had planned. Each was from a different down in the lower (northern) Shenandoah Valley. Muhlenberg was appointed to be the colonel. Abraham Bowman of Strasburg (also in Dunmore County) was appointed to be the lieutenant colonel. Bowman came from a prominent family. His grandfather, Jost Hite, had led the first group of German settlers into the valley from Pennsylvania in 1731.
The Regiment's Eight Counties
A newly-created map of the 8th Virginia's recruiting counties shows that the regiment was largely composed of frontiersmen and pioneers. It is helpful to visualize how the regiment raised its ten companies in the westernmost settled areas of the province (Virginia wasn't a state, yet). This made the regiment unique in several ways. They were ethnically and religiously different from the rest of Virginia. Soldiers, some of whom were subsistence hunters, were typically better marksmen than the average soldier. Their motives for fighting were less focused on taxes and trade and more focused on their desires to head west--something the King had forbidden.
Political geography has changed. All of these counties have been divided, some within months of the regiment's formation. West Virginia, which is not shown, was created in 1863 and would occupy the left-center of the map. The disputed northeast part of the Augusta District is now southwest Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh. Western Fincastle County became Kentucky County in 1776 and the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1792. Most Americans are unaware that beginning in 1774, Ohio and lands west of it were part of the Province of Quebec. This, technically at least, extended holdover French civil institutions to the border of settled Virginia. Quebec had no elected legislature and had been allowed to keep its Catholic institutions. Both facts were seen by Virginians as sure signs of creeping tyranny.
The Soldiers Page lists the various companies and the counties from which they came. In brief: the West Augusta District and Dunmore County each raised two companies. Augusta, Berkeley, Culpeper, Fincastle, Frederick, and Hampshire counties each contributed one. Initially called the "German Regiment" and long remembered that way, the map also shows how wide-ranging and diverse the zone of recruitment was. The lower (northern) Shenandoah Valley counties of Berkeley, Frederick, and Dunmore had significant populations and all three field officers were from that area. Culpeper, the only Piedmont county, had a smaller German population that descended from the Germanna Colony. The other counties were predominantly Scotch-Irish and English.
George Washington, Indian Fighter
George Washington and Christopher Gist cross the Allegheny River in 1753. (Attributed to Daniel Huntington, courtesy of mountvernon.org)
George Washington, like many 8th Virginia men, was a Indian fighter. His first war was the French and Indian War--a war, it is frequently said, he personally started. Washington's last war was the Northwest Indian War, which he oversaw as President and commander in chief. The latter war was bloodier than any other Indian conflict before or after. The Battle of Wabash in 1791 featured higher American casualties than any other battle until Shiloh in 1862. (The 8th Virginia's William Darke played a central role at Wabash and, though injured, made it home.)
The Revolution itself was an Indian war, especially in 1779. The following Speech to the Delaware Chiefs reveals the importance of Indian relations in the war. It shows a side of Washington we rarely see--the frontiersman, surveyor and Indian fighter who knows how to communicate with Indians and which buttons to push for maximum effect. When he delivered it in New Jersey, many 8th Virginia men had already finished their Continental Army service and moved to Kentucky where Indian warfare was an ever-present threat.
Head Quarters, Middle Brook, May 12, 1779.
Brothers: I am happy to see you here. I am glad the long Journey you have made, has done you no harm; and that you are in good health: I am glad also you left All our friends of the Delaware Nation well.
Brothers: I have read your paper. The things you have said are weighty things, and I have considered them well. The Delaware Nation have shown their good will to the United States. They have done wisely and I hope they will never repent. I rejoice in the new assurances you give of their friendship. The things you now offer to do to brighten the chain, prove your sincerity. I am sure Congress will run to meet you, and will do every thing in their power to make the friendship between the people of these States, and their Brethren of the Delaware nation, last forever.
Brothers: I am a Warrior. My words are few and plain; but I will make good what I say. 'Tis my business to destroy all the Enemies of these States and to protect their friends. You have seen how we have withstood the English for four years; and how their great Armies have dwindled away and come to very little; and how what remains of them in this part of our great Country, are glad to stay upon Two or three little Islands, where the Waters and their Ships hinder us from going to destroy them. The English, Brothers, are a boasting people. They talk of doing a great deal; but they do very little. They fly away on their Ships from one part of our Country to an other; but as soon as our Warriors get together they leave it and go to some other part. They took Boston and Philadelphia, two of our greatest Towns; but when they saw our Warriors in a great body ready to fall upon them, they were forced to leave them.
Brothers: We have till lately fought the English all alone. Now the Great King of France is become our Good Brother and Ally. He has taken up the Hatchet with us, and we have sworn never to bury it, till we have punished the English and made them sorry for All the wicked things they had in their Hearts to do against these States. And there are other Great Kings and Nations on the other side of the big Waters, who love us and wish us well, and will not suffer the English to hurt us.
Brothers: Listen well to what I tell you and let it sink deep into your Hearts. We love our friends, and will be faithful to them, as long as they will be faithful to us. We are sure our Good brothers the Delawares will always be so. But we have sworn to take vengeance on our Enemies, and on false friends. The other day, a handful of our young men destroyed the settlement of the Onondagas. They burnt down all their Houses, destroyed their grain and Horses and Cattle, took their Arms away, killed several of their Warriors and brought off many prisoners and obliged the rest to fly into the woods. This is but the beginning of the troubles which those Nations, who have taken up the Hatchet against us, will feel.
Brothers: I am sorry to hear that you have suffered for want of necessaries, or that any of our people have not dealt justly by you. But as you are going to Congress, which is the great Council of the Nation and hold all things in their hands, I shall say nothing about the supplies you ask. I hope you will receive satisfaction from them. I assure you, I will do every thing in my power to prevent your receiving any further injuries, and will give the strictest orders for this purpose. I will severely punish any that shall break them.
Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly. This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethen of the United States. My ears hear with pleasure the other matters you mention. Congress will be glad to hear them too. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it.
Brothers: There are some matters about which I do not open my Lips, because they belong to Congress, and not to us warriors; you are going to them, they will tell you all you wish to know.
Brothers: When you have seen all you want to see, I will then wish you a good Journey to Philadelphia. I hope you may find there every thing your hearts can wish, that when you return home you may be able to tell your Nation good things of us. And I pray God he may make your Nation wise and Strong, that they may always see their own true interest and have courage to walk in the right path; and that they never may be deceived by lies to do any thing against the people of these States, who are their Brothers and ought always to be one people with them.
Fort Lee's Despicable Namesake
George Washington's second in command was not a good man.
With all the unwelcome attention Fort Lee, N.J., has received lately, people might wonder why a Northern town carries the Southern-sounding name Lee. It is indeed named for a high-ranking general from Virginia — but not the obvious one. This one is buried right here in Philadelphia.
Charles Lee was a frustrated British army officer who came to America in 1773 after being repeatedly passed over for promotions in London. After buying a home in Berkeley County, Va. (now in West Virginia), he schmoozed his way into a major general's commission from the Continental Congress. Like that of an out-of-control rock star, his career soared to stratospheric heights and then plummeted to the lowest of depths in just a few years.
Though he could be charming, Lee was not a good man. His approach to military discipline was to "flog them in scores." Though he hated King George III, a relative of Lee's wrote, "I think His Majesty and poor Mr. Lee are much upon a par; they are both vain and obstinate."
...continue to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
[Note: Since this essay first appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 2, 2014, new research by Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone (Fatal Sunday) and Christian McBurney (George Washington's Nemesis) have painted a more positive picture of General Lee's conduct at Monmouth,]
The Shenandoah Valley's Regiment
The 8th Virginia was truly, and uniquely, the Shenandoah Valley's regiment in the Revolution. Unlike any other regiment, the 8th represented nearly the full extent of the greater Shenandoah Valley cultural region and even beyond it from the North Carolina (and later Tennessee) line all the way to Pittsburgh (then claimed by the Old Dominion). The only county in the valley that did not raise a company for the regiment was Botetourt County.
This vast territory can be characterized in two important ways. First, as the frontier. Second, and just as important at the time, the territory can be described as the part of Virginia populated by newcomers. Most of them had come inland via Pennsylvania and were neither English nor Anglican. Culturally, the Irish and German men of the regiment had more in common with Pennsylvania than with Piedmont and Tidewater Virginia. Unlike Pennsylvania, most of Virginia was very homogeneous. Most "nonconforming" churches were illegal, but were tolerated west of the Blue Ridge. Lutheran-trained Peter Muhlenberg had to go to London to be ordained in the Church of England in order to preach in Woodstock as late as 1772. (Four years later he became the regiment's first colonel.) In describing the 8th Virginia as the "German Regiment" and appointing German field officers to lead it, the Virginia Convention was making an effort to make sure the colony was united.
Winchester's Daniel Morgan was a true hero of the Shenandoah Valley, and he is rightly famous. However, the units he led were not true Shenandoah Valley units the way 8th was. In 1775 he was a captain in the Virginia and Maryland Rifle Battalion; in 1776 and 1777 he was colonel of the 11th Virginia, which recruited from Frederick County but also from Prince William, Amelia, and Loudoun counties; his famous Virginia rifle battalion, formed in 1777, was built on merit, not geography.
Only the 8th Virginia truly represented the geography and the culture of the Shenandoah Valley.
(Updated April 26, 2020)
"Irish," "Scotch-Irish," or "Scots-Irish?"
A sign in New Hampshire marks the place of an early Scotch-Irish settlement.
Most histories refer to the 8th Virginia as "the German Regiment." It was certainly led by Germans: Peter Muhlenberg, Abraham Bowman, and Peter Helphinstine. But many or even most of the enlisted men were "Scotch Irish." The term Scotch Irish didn't exist then, however. They were simply called "Irish," even though their ancestors often came from Scotland via Northern Ireland. They were universally Protestant, but Presbyterian--a denomination that most British soldiers equated with revolutionary sentiment. The term "Scotch Irish" was conceived seventy years later to distinguish them from the Catholic Irish who began to come to American in large numbers in the 1840s. Here's an interesting article on the difference between "Irish" and "Scotch Irish" in American history and culture.
I use the term "Scotch-Irish" and "Protestant Irish" and sometimes just "Irish" interchangeably. Occasionally, someone will tell me that the proper term is "Scots-Irish." I've stuck with "Scotch-Irish" because it is the traditional term and the one I was taught. "Scotch" is also the original term, dating back three centuries. It shows up in Scotch Tape, Scotch plaid, and Scotch whiskey. It is, however, now distinctly American. If you go to the British Isles they will correct you if you say "Scotch" to refer to a person.
"You say 'tom-AH-to' and I say 'tom-AY-to.'" As an American blog about American history, "Scotch-Irish" seems like the right term here.
(Revised, April 26, 2020)


Our kickoff fundraising event last Saturday was a HUGE success. Over 300 adults and children attended and 20 local businesses donated! Stay tuned for more post-event updates.
McMichael Park is so .... vacant this time of year! Where are the kiddos? We look forward to Phase 1 of the park's beautification, revitalization, and playspace development so we can meet more neighbors in this lovely space.
There are some pretty awesome family events coming up soon! Here are 4 we're looking forward to: Play-A-Palooza @smithplayground on March 30th, Moana movie at @mcmichaelplayspace on May 11th, Naturepalooza @schuylkillcenter on April 27th and our local Easter Egg Hunt on April 13th @ McDevitt Park.


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A mother of two has been banned from driving for a year after driving home from work under the influence.
Appearing before East Tyrone Magistrate's Court on Wednesday was Caroline Hughes, 52, of Old Omagh Road in Ballygawley.
She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to driving with excess alcohol in blood at Old Ballygawley Road on October 14th.
The court heard how police received a call from a member of the public on the evening of October 14th stating that they believed Ms Hughes was driving a Renault car home from work under the influence of alcohol.
Police observed her vehicle over several miles before stopping her. She failed the roadside breath test and was arrested, subsequently providing a sample that was over the limit.
Mr Ruairi Maguire, defending, told the court that his client was from an "unhappy background" which included a marriage break-up.
"There was a historic issue with alcohol which re-emerged having been off drink for sixteen years.
"She was at work... and due to difficulties arising did consume alcohol.
District Judge John Meehan handed down a fine of £200 and a twelve-month driving disqualification, ordering a 25 per cent reduction in the ban upon the completion of the drink driver's course.


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text:
Posted inBusiness, Midcoast, News
Lobster Pound shutters, ending long run for midcoast 'icon'
by Nick McCrea December 8, 2016 December 8, 2016
LINCOLNVILLE, Maine — An iconic midcoast eatery that served up seafood and ocean views to tourists and locals for nearly a century has called it quits.
The 260-seat Lincolnville Lobster Pound's long run perched on sandy Lincolnville Beach, where it debuted in the 1920s with just 60 seats, ended at the close of this season. The restaurant's owners have decided to shut down, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month.
Owner Dick McLaughlin and his wife, Patty, met as employees at the restaurant, and continued working here for just shy of 60 years. Dick and his brother bought the restaurant from their parents in the early 1970s. The Lobster Pound survived fire and flood, but ultimately fell to the fallout from the 2008 economic crisis and rising costs of running an oceanfront operation, according to McLaughlin.
"The downturn of the economy is of course the beginning of our financial downfall," McLaughlin wrote in an email.
The Lobster Pound faced mounting operational costs in recent years. Its mandated flood insurance was set at $1,900 per year originally, but that cost has steadily climbed to $10,000 per year and shows no sign of leveling out, McLaughlin said.
The restaurant partly funded the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's construction of a wastewater treatment plant that services businesses along Route 1 through town, and it has paid annual maintenance fees of $19,000 in the 26 years since, McLaughlin said.
A number of smaller factors compounded to make things more difficult. For example, the restaurant lost 26 customer parking spaces to a state project, meaning fewer open parking spots for patrons and beachgoers in busy summer weeks. McLaughlin also pointed to online restaurant reviews on websites like Yelp.
"Although 70 percent of our reviews are positive, there are some reviews that would cast doubt and cause some patrons who do not know us to pass us by," McLaughlin said.
He also had concerns about the recent passage of Maine's minimum wage referendum. The initiative was widely criticized by restaurant owners, who said the elimination of the tipped wage credit could put their businesses at risk.
"We can only charge so much and still compete," McLaughlin wrote. "Another good reason we are not the first, and won't be the last. It wasn't a deciding factor for us, but would have been a problem had we continued."
Two years ago, McLaughlin sought to boost business by reimagining the restaurant as a brewpub and entering a partnership with Lincolnville's Andrews Brewing Co. It wasn't enough to save the restaurant.
In spite of those efforts, banks weren't willing to refinance his business. McLaughlin reached out to an Auburn-based business consulting firm, which after a thorough review recommended that he explore bankruptcy options, McLaughlin said.
Jodi Hanson, Lincolnville's finance director and acting town manager, said the loss of the business would be felt in the community and across the region.
"Most people in town have worked for Dick at one time or another," she said Thursday. "[The restaurant] helped many teenagers and students pay their way through college over the years by busting their butts all summer."
She said the town values the huge waterfront structure at a little over $900,000.
"It's an iconic landmark, and we hate to see them go," Hanson said.
McLaughlin said he wants to thank his 49 employees for their years of service, as well as the hundreds of other employees who cycled through the seasonal business over the years. He also thanked customers from across the U.S. and abroad, many of whom he considers good friends.
Though the brewpub has closed, Andrews Brewing Co. remains open at 353 High St. in Lincolnville. The brewery celebrates its 25th year of business in January, making it the fifth-oldest in the state. It produces about 500 barrels of beer per year, mostly ales, and runs a bottling operation, according to co-owner Ben Hazen.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Nannophlebia kalkmani – gatunek ważki z rodziny ważkowatych (Libellulidae).

Przypisy

Bibliografia

Nannophlebia
Gatunki i podgatunki zwierząt nazwane w 2011 roku

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text:
At NFL Draft like festivities, Naval Academy midshipmen choose their first ship and future home
Mike Rogers: In District 32, let's build bridges, not walls
Around Annapolis: Matriarch of Kelly clan is St. Patrick's Parade grand marshal
Attorney calls for charges against Annapolis police who handled March bar fight arrests
At 91, Irv Koch keeps Maryland's last basement bar going
Anne Arundel County police: 40-year-old man dies in collision in Pasadena on Sunday
Around Linthicum: Hearing on MAGLEV bills set for Feb. 15
On the Level: Leaking basement walls are a common problem for homeowners
Thousands of artifacts donated to Anne Arundel slowly opening a new window into the past
Churchton man convicted in grocery store attack with semen-filled syringe
By Hope Kahn
A 53-year-old Churchton man accused of poking a woman with a semen-filled syringe at a grocery store last year was convicted Thursday of assault.
Thomas Stemen submitted an Alford plea on charges of first- and second-degree assault, allowing him to maintain his innocence while admitting there's enough evidence to convict him.
First-degree assault charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The State's Attorney's Office is seeking 25 years, suspending all but 11 years, spokeswoman Tia Lewis said.
Stemen was also charged with reckless endangerment, fourth-degree sexual offense and dangerous weapon wear and carry but the status of those charges was unclear Thursday.
The office of the public defender, who represented Stemen, couldn't be reached for comment.
Video from the store in Churchton shows Stemen following a woman, Kathryn Peters, on Feb. 18, 2020, as she returns a shopping cart to the front of the store and bumping into her. Video shows Stemen pulling something out of his pocket and pushing it against the woman's buttocks and then putting it back in his pocket.
The woman asked him if he burnt her with a cigarette. Stemen replied "Ya it felt like a bee sting didn't it," according to the police report. The woman said she went home and noticed a small red spot that appeared to be a puncture wound on her buttocks and that she felt a wet substance on her pants after the apparent syringe prick.
A large syringe with an unknown liquid was found in the driver's side door of Stemen's car and several other syringes were located inside his home, according to a police report. District Court Judge John P. McKenna mandated that his blood "be tested for the presence of HIV and any other identified causative agents of AIDS and Hepatitis C."
Stemen was advised of his rights and has 10 days to file a motion for a new trial, according to court documents.
He is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 20 at 2:30 p.m. for sentencing.


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text:
THE MOON POOL (9)
CHAPTER VIII
Olaf's Story
There was a little silence. I looked upon him with wonder. Clearly he was in deepest earnest. I know the psychology of the Gael is a curious one and that deep in all their hearts their ancient traditions and beliefs have strong and living roots. And I was both amused and touched.
Here was this soldier, who had faced war and its ugly realities open-eyed and fearless, picking, indeed, the most dangerous branch of service for his own, a modern if ever there was one, appreciative of most unmystical Broadway, and yet soberly and earnestly attesting to his belief in banshee, in shadowy people of the woods, and phantom harpers! I wondered what he would think if he could see the Dweller and then, with a pang, that perhaps his superstitions might make him an easy prey.
He shook his head half impatiently and ran a hand over his eyes; turned to me and grinned:
"Don't think I'm cracked, Professor," he said. "I'm not. But it takes me that way now and then. It's the Irish in me. And, believe it or not, I'm telling you the truth."
I looked eastward where the moon, now nearly a week past the full, was mounting.
"You can't make me see what you've seen, Lieutenant," I laughed. "But you can make me hear. I've always wondered what kind of a noise a disembodied spirit could make without any vocal cords or breath or any other earthly sound-producing mechanism. How does the banshee sound?"
O'Keefe looked at me seriously.
"All right," he said. "I'll show you." From deep down in his throat came first a low, weird sobbing that mounted steadily into a keening whose mournfulness made my skin creep. And then his hand shot out and gripped my shoulder, and I stiffened like stone in my chair—for from behind us, like an echo, and then taking up the cry, swelled a wail that seemed to hold within it a sublimation of the sorrows of centuries! It gathered itself into one heartbroken, sobbing note and died away! O'Keefe's grip loosened, and he rose swiftly to his feet.
"It's all right, Professor," he said. "It's for me. It found me—all this way from Ireland."
Again the silence was rent by the cry. But now I had located it. It came from my room, and it could mean only one thing—Huldricksson had wakened.
"Forget your banshee!" I gasped, and made a jump for the cabin.
Out of the corner of my eye I noted a look of half-sheepish relief flit over O'Keefe's face, and then he was beside me. Da Costa shouted an order from the wheel, the Cantonese ran up and took it from his hands and the little Portuguese pattered down toward us. My hand on the door, ready to throw it open, I stopped. What if the Dweller were within—what if we had been wrong and it was not dependent for its power upon that full flood of moon ray which Throckmartin had thought essential to draw it from the blue pool!
From within, the sobbing wail began once more to rise. O'Keefe pushed me aside, threw open the door and crouched low within it. I saw an automatic flash dully in his hand; saw it cover the cabin from side to side, following the swift sweep of his eyes around it. Then he straightened and his face, turned toward the berth, was filled with wondering pity.
Through the window streamed a shaft of the moonlight. It fell upon Huldricksson's staring eyes; in them great tears slowly gathered and rolled down his cheeks; from his opened mouth came the woe-laden wailing. I ran to the port and drew the curtains. Da Costa snapped the lights.
The Norseman's dolorous crying stopped as abruptly as though cut. His gaze rolled toward us. And at one bound he broke through the leashes I had buckled round him and faced us, his eyes glaring, his yellow hair almost erect with the force of the rage visibly surging through him. Da Costa shrunk behind me. O'Keefe, coolly watchful, took a quick step that brought him in front of me.
"Where do you take me?" said Huldricksson, and his voice was like the growl of a beast. "Where is my boat?"
I touched O'Keefe gently and stood before the giant.
"Listen, Olaf Huldricksson," I said. "We take you to where the sparkling devil took your Helma and your Freda. We follow the sparkling devil that came down from the moon. Do you hear me?" I spoke slowly, distinctly, striving to pierce the mists that I knew swirled around the strained brain. And the words did pierce.
He thrust out a shaking hand.
"You say you follow?" he asked falteringly. "You know where to follow? Where it took my Helma and my little Freda?"
"Just that, Olaf Huldricksson," I answered. "Just that! I pledge you my life that I know."
Da Costa stepped forward. "He speaks true, Olaf. You go faster on the Suwarna than on the Br-rw-un'ilda, Olaf, yes."
The giant Norseman, still gripping my hand, looked at him. "I know you, Da Costa," he muttered. "You are all right. Ja! You are a fair man. Where is the Brunhilda?"
"She follow be'ind on a big rope, Olaf," soothed the Portuguese. "Soon you see her. But now lie down an' tell us, if you can, why you tie yourself to your wheel an' what it is that happen, Olaf."
"If you'll tell us how the sparkling devil came it will help us all when we get to where it is, Huldricksson," I said.
On O'Keefe's face there was an expression of well-nigh ludicrous doubt and amazement. He glanced from one to the other. The giant shifted his own tense look from me to the Irishman. A gleam of approval lighted in his eyes. He loosed me, and gripped O'Keefe's arm. "Staerk!" he said. "Ja—strong, and with a strong heart. A man—ja! He comes too—we shall need him—ja!"
"I tell," he muttered, and seated himself on the side of the bunk. "It was four nights ago. My Freda"—his voice shook—"Mine Yndling! She loved the moonlight. I was at the wheel and my Freda and my Helma they were behind me. The moon was behind us and the Brunhilda was like a swanboat sailing down with the moonlight sending her, ja.
"I heard my Freda say: 'I see a nisse coming down the track of the moon.' And I hear her mother laugh, low, like a mother does when her Yndling dreams. I was happy—that night—with my Helma and my Freda, and the Brunhilda sailing like a swan-boat, ja. I heard the child say, 'The nisse comes fast!' And then I heard a scream from my Helma, a great scream—like a mare when her foal is torn from her. I spun around fast, ja! I dropped the wheel and spun fast! I saw—" He covered his eyes with his hands.
The Portuguese had crept close to me, and I heard him panting like a frightened dog.
"I saw a white fire spring over the rail," whispered Olaf Huldricksson. "It whirled round and round, and it shone like—like stars in a whirlwind mist. There was a noise in my ears. It sounded like bells—little bells, ja! Like the music you make when you run your finger round goblets. It made me sick and dizzy—the hell noise.
"My Helma was—indeholde—what you say—in the middle of the white fire. She turned her face to me and she turned it on the child, and my Helma's face burned into my heart. Because it was full of fear, and it was full of happiness—of glaede. I tell you that the fear in my Helma's face made me ice here"—he beat his breast with clenched hand—"but the happiness in it burned on me like fire. And I could not move—I could not move.
"I said in here"—he touched his head—"I said, 'It is Loki come out of Helvede. But he cannot take my Helma, for Christ lives and Loki has no power to hurt my Helma or my Freda! Christ lives! Christ lives!' I said. But the sparkling devil did not let my Helma go. It drew her to the rail; half over it. I saw her eyes upon the child and a little she broke away and reached to it. And my Freda jumped into her arms. And the fire wrapped them both and they were gone! A little I saw them whirling on the moon track behind the Brunhilda—and they were gone!
"The sparkling devil took them! Loki was loosed, and he had power. I turned the Brunhilda, and I followed where my Helma and mine Yndling had gone. My boys crept up and asked me to turn again. But I would not. They dropped a boat and left me. I steered straight on the path. I lashed my hands to the wheel that sleep might not loose them. I steered on and on and on—
"Where was the God I prayed when my wife and child were taken?" cried Olaf Huldricksson—and it was as though I heard Throckmartin asking that same bitter question. "I have left Him as He left me, ja! I pray now to Thor and to Odin, who can fetter Loki." He sank back, covering again his eyes.
"Olaf," I said, "what you have called the sparkling devil has taken ones dear to me. I, too, was following it when we found you. You shall go with me to its home, and there we will try to take from it your wife and your child and my friends as well. But now that you may be strong for what is before us, you must sleep again."
Olaf Huldricksson looked upon me and in his eyes was that something which souls must see in the eyes of Him the old Egyptians called the Searcher of Hearts in the Judgment Hall of Osiris.
"You speak truth!" he said at last slowly. "I will do what you say!"
He stretched out an arm at my bidding. I gave him a second injection. He lay back and soon he was sleeping. I turned toward Da Costa. His face was livid and sweating, and he was trembling pitiably. O'Keefe stirred.
"You did that mighty well, Dr. Goodwin," he said. "So well that I almost believed you myself."
"What did you think of his story, Mr. O'Keefe?" I asked.
His answer was almost painfully brief and colloquial.
"Nuts!" he said. I was a little shocked, I admit. "I think he's crazy, Dr. Goodwin," he corrected himself, quickly. "What else could I think?"
I turned to the little Portuguese without answering.
"There's no need for any anxiety tonight, Captain," I said. "Take my word for it. You need some rest yourself. Shall I give you a sleeping draft?"
"I do wish you would, Dr. Goodwin, sair," he answered gratefully. "Tomorrow, when I feel bettair—I would have a talk with you."
I nodded. He did know something then! I mixed him an opiate of considerable strength. He took it and went to his own cabin.
I locked the door behind him and then, sitting beside the sleeping Norseman, I told O'Keefe my story from end to end. He asked few questions as I spoke. But after I had finished he cross-examined me rather minutely upon my recollections of the radiant phases upon each appearance, checking these with Throckmartin's observations of the same phenomena in the Chamber of the Moon Pool.
"And now what do you think of it all?" I asked.
He sat silent for a while, looking at Huldricksson.
"Not what you seem to think, Dr. Goodwin," he answered at last, gravely. "Let me sleep over it. One thing of course is certain—you and your friend Throckmartin and this man here saw—something. But—" he was silent again and then continued with a kindness that I found vaguely irritating—"but I've noticed that when a scientist gets superstitious it—er—takes very hard!
"Here's a few things I can tell you now though," he went on while I struggled to speak—"I pray in my heart that we'll meet neither the Dolphin nor anything with wireless on board going up. Because, Dr. Goodwin, I'd dearly love to take a crack at your Dweller.
"And another thing," said O'Keefe. "After this—cut out the trimmings, Doc, and call me plain Larry, for whether I think you're crazy or whether I don't, you're there with the nerve, Professor, and I'm for you.
"Good night!" said Larry and took himself out to the deck hammock he had insisted upon having slung for him, refusing the captain's importunities to use his own cabin.
And it was with extremely mixed emotions as to his compliment that I watched him go. Superstitious. I, whose pride was my scientific devotion to fact and fact alone! Superstitious—and this from a man who believed in banshees and ghostly harpers and Irish wood nymphs and no doubt in leprechauns and all their tribe!
Half laughing, half irritated, and wholly happy in even the part promise of Larry O'Keefe's comradeship on my venture, I arranged a couple of pillows, stretched myself out on two chairs and took up my vigil beside Olaf Huldricksson.


A self-heating can is an enhancement of the common food can. Self-heating cans have dual chambers, one surrounding the other, making a self-heating food package.
In one version, the inner chamber holds the food or drink, and the outer chamber houses chemicals which undergo an exothermic reaction when combined. When the user wants to heat the contents of the can, a ring on the can - when pulled - breaks the barrier which keeps the chemicals in the outer chamber apart from the water. In another type, the chemicals are in the inner chamber and the beverage surrounds it in the outer chamber. To heat the contents of the can, the user pushes on the bottom of the can to break the barrier separating the chemical from the water. This design has the advantages of being more efficient (less heat is lost to the surrounding air) as well as reducing excessive heating of the product's exterior, causing possible discomfort to the user. In either case, after the heat from the reaction has been absorbed by the food, the user can enjoy a hot meal or drink.
Self-heating cans offer benefits to campers and people without access to oven, stove or camp-fire, but their use is not widespread. This is because self-heating cans are considerably more expensive than the conventional type, take more space, and have problems with uneven heating of their contents. However, these inductions going to be affected by new technologies and new products.
The source of the heat for the self-heated can is an exothermic reaction that the user initiates by pressing on the bottom of the can. The can is manufactured as a triple-walled container. A container for the beverage surrounds a container of the heating agent separated from a container of water by a thin breakable membrane. When the user pushes on the bottom of the can, a rod pierces the membrane, allowing the water and heating agent to mix. The resulting reaction releases heat and thus warms the beverage surrounding it.
Anhydrous calcium chloride is often used as well. In this case, no chemical reaction occurs, instead the heat of solution is generated.
Will Self-Heating Coffee Be Cool?
This page was last edited on 18 April 2019, at 11:27 (UTC).


text:
Q: Css hover doesn't take effect on asp button i'm adding some css to my school project and hover effect does not work on asp:button. I linked css class like this:
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="StyleSheet1.css"/>

and then button in .aspx site:
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" OnClick="Button1_Click" Text="txt" CssClass="glow-on-hover"/>

The button is styled, but there is no effect when clicking on, or when i'm moving mouse over it. However it does work when i use it on html button like this. How can i make this work on asp:button?

.glow-on-hover {
    width: 220px;
    height: 50px;
    border: none;
    outline: none;
    color: #fff;
    background: #111;
    cursor: pointer;
    position: relative;
    z-index: 0;
    border-radius: 10px;
}

    .glow-on-hover:before {
        content: '';
        background: linear-gradient(45deg, #ff0000, #ff7300, #fffb00, #48ff00, #00ffd5, #002bff, #7a00ff, #ff00c8, #ff0000);
        position: absolute;
        top: -2px;
        left: -2px;
        background-size: 400%;
        z-index: -1;
        filter: blur(5px);
        width: calc(100% + 4px);
        height: calc(100% + 4px);
        animation: glowing 20s linear infinite;
        opacity: 0;
        transition: opacity .3s ease-in-out;
        border-radius: 10px;
    }

    .glow-on-hover:active {
        color: #000
    }

        .glow-on-hover:active:after {
            background: transparent;
        }

    .glow-on-hover:hover:before {
        opacity: 1;
    }

    .glow-on-hover:after {
        z-index: -1;
        content: '';
        position: absolute;
        width: 100%;
        height: 100%;
        background: #111;
        left: 0;
        top: 0;
        border-radius: 10px;
    }

@keyframes glowing {
    0% {
        background-position: 0 0;
    }

    50% {
        background-position: 400% 0;
    }

    100% {
        background-position: 0 0;
    }
}
<button class="glow-on-hover" type="button">txt</button>

A: Psuedo selectors :before and :after can't be used on an <input type="submit" /> because an <input> can't contain any children.
Can you change your code to render a <button> rather than an <input>.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Investors dumped Debenhams shares as it became the latest High Street stalwart to raise fears of a major pension black hole.
Experts warned that the retailer's scheme may have swung from a £200million surplus to a £250million deficit. The company already spends £9.5million a year on its contributions.
Debenhams is set to report next week. In its last update it revealed a 0.2 per cent fall in underlying sales in the 15 weeks to June 11 due to weak clothing sales. Investors, jittery post-BHS debacle, sent shares 2.3 per cent, or 1.25p, lower to 53.95p.
Experts warned Debenhams pension scheme may have swung from a £200m surplus to a £250m deficit.
The FTSE 100 fell further away from the record levels investors had been hoping for. It closed 0.9 per cent lower, or 66 points, at 6947.55.
Standard Life was among the biggest fallers of the day after it announced that the City regulator has asked it to conduct a review of annuity sales.
The Financial Conduct Authority is concerned that some annuity providers are not making customers aware they could be eligible for an enhanced annuity or that they might get a better deal by shopping around.
In a review of the industry, the FCA looked at 1,200 sales by seven providers and concluded that although there is no industry-wide issue with annuity sales, it did have concerns with a small number of firms when communications took place over the phone.
The watchdog said the failings at some firms were sufficient that they are now being asked to review all non-advised sales from July 2008.
Standard Life is one of these companies. It will have to determine whether customers received enough information before making their decisions and may have to pay compensation if appropriate. Shares slipped 3.7 per cent, or 12.5p, to 324.6p.
Mortice provides security and facilities management to businesses across India, Asia and the UK.
Yesterday the Aim-listed firm said it expects to announce revenues for the first half of the year of at least £65.6million, up from £41.8million in the same period a year ago.
In a trading update the company said its two acquisitions were performing well and the business has won several new significant contracts.
Mortice said it was on track to deliver full year revenue of at least £139.5million.
Shares gained 7.4 per cent, or 6.5p to 94p.
With thousands of students now happily ensconced in another year of lectures, accommodation provider Unite Group announced plans for a new site.
The student accommodation manager has secured planning consent for a development in Liverpool for 1,085 bedrooms. The site, which will cost around £70million, is set to open in time for the 2019/20 academic year.
Unite now has more than 5,000 beds in the pipeline to be delivered over the next three years. It already has sites in more than 30 university towns, providing digs for more than 46,000 students.
But shares were off yesterday despite the announcement, falling 1.7 per cent, or 10p, to 591p.
Elsewhere in the property sector, self-storage provider Lok'nStore rallied as it reported revenue had risen 4.1 per cent.
Group revenue was £16million in the year to July 31, the company said, with adjusted earnings up 10.8 per cent to £6.3million.
Lok'nStore said that like-for-like occupancy of its storage units was up 2 per cent, while pricing had increased 2.2 per cent.
The group has also seen strong growth in its document storage arm, with earnings up 125 per cent to £590,000 over the year.
Shares yesterday surged 2.3 per cent, or 8.5p, to 378.5p.
Interserve inched up after announcing a £37.5million three-year deal to provide facilities management to commercial property company Land Securities.
Under the agreement, Interserve will provide security, cleaning, waste management and customer service support at eight shopping centres. Shares advanced 0.7 per cent, or 2.5p, to 350.75p.
Luceco had an impressive first day of trading on the stock market.
The firm, which makes LED lighting products, floated at 130p a share – a price which valued the company at £209million.
The Telford-based business, which also employs around 2,000 people at a manufacturing site in China, supplies trade and retail businesses.
It counts Tesco, B&Q and Screwfix among its customers.
Shares closed their first day 15.4 per cent, or 20p, higher at 150p.


text:
High School Xander
Thread: High School Xander
Sosa lola
I'm probably one of the few who prefers High School Xander over Later Seasons Xander. I love Xander in every shape and every form, but I enjoy High School Xander the most, especially S2 Xander.
High School Xander is simply charming. He's witty, he's clever, he's brave, he's outgoing, he's a leader and most importantly, he's very integral to the plot.
Reasons to love Xander in the high school seasons:
1) There's more range to Xander in the high school seasons (especially S2). He was a natural leader, he was smart, he was aggressive, he was funny... I'll be quoting Andrew S from an old post, "When I said Xander was most complex during Season 2, I meant in terms of the range he showed. Season 2-Xander was consistently hilarious, infuriating, heartwarming and heroic, being able to bring a variety of reactions out of me, often during the same episodes. In "When She Was Bad" for instance, Xander was funny ("A bitca?"), sympathetic (when Buffy did the sexy dance of torture), infuriating ("If they hurt Willow, I'll kill you!") and sensitive (knowing Buffy needed to smash The Master's bones to get over her trauma, saving her a seat with him and Willow). There are so many episodes that season where Xander gets a hell out of a lot to do. Same to a lesser extent in Season 3. But in Seasons 5-7, his screen time was reduced and he was more just the goofy comic relief than anything else, with only the occasional heartwarming or frustrating moment."
2) Willow ranks #1 in his heart:
3) He's a badass! But not your usual boring nothing can stop me I'm so cool I have an iron fist badass! Xander is a badass with a frail fist - like most of our fists. When he punches someone, his hand hurts as much as the other person's jaw does.
4) He's so good with words! So witty, they should have given him a column in the high school newspaper.
5) He knows how to break a melodramatic moment and make us laugh. I'm not just talking about the Bangel melodramatic moment in The Zeppo.
6) He used to be smart and insightful (something he lost when he became an adult - I'm blaming the Anya sex). He used to engage in literary discussions in class in high school, he knew Buffy needed to smash the Master's bones to feel safe, he came up with the way to defeat The Judge, he realized that the coach used to beat Billy and quickly grabbed him before he made with the escape.
7) He used to be a leader (Innocence and summer between S2 and S3).
8) He does a lot of saving! What the hell is Cordelia talking about in The Zeppo??? He saved Buffy's life in The Harvest, Prophecy Girl, Phases, Killed by Death, Go Fish, and Willow in Inca the Mummy Girl, Innocence and Cordelia in Some Assembly Required, Becoming Part 1 ... etc.
9) For a loser who gets beaten and bullied, Xander doesn't shy away from throwing comebacks at the bullies/monsters. Like Larry in Halloween, the bully by the vending machine in Go Fish, and of course Angelus in Killed By Death. Makes it so weird that he's shiver and tremble in front of Jack in The Zeppo, but I've always thought that the middle of S3 is where the shift in Xander's character happens. He used to be more confident and braver in S1/S2/early S3 than the rest of the show.
10) People tend to remember Xander's fights with Buffy or his jealousy of Angel, and forget the million times he was a good friend to Buffy:
Also read my recent post about Buffy/Xander in this thread.
11) His storyline parallels Buffy's, most obviously in Halloween. If Buffy's journey is about a girl who is struggling with her calling and how it affects her femininity and life as a "regular" girl, then Xander's journey parallels Buffy's. It's about a boy who struggles to fulfill society's expectations of men: be an athlete, lose his virginity at an early age, save the girl, get the girl, be violent… etc.
In Halloween, both Buffy and Xander want to be people they were not because they weren't satisfied with who they are. But by the end of the episode, they're both glad to be back to themselves, even though their journey to their true selves (Buffy=the hero, Xander=the supporter) isn't done yet.
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Willow from Buffy
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Does any of this change after high school, though? I feel I could amass just as good a collection of post-high school Xander gifs if I had the time and gif-making skills.
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Originally Posted by Willow from Buffy
I love Xander after high school. I can happily do a collection of post-high school Xander's greatest moments gifs, as well as comic seasons from S8 to S11. My point with this post is to show that even in high school Xander was a good guy, because popular belief nowadays is that Xander is the worst during the high school seasons with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and only gets better after he graduates.
And yes, he does change after high school. He kinda becomes more of a comic relief than he used to be in high school, he's more in the background, he's less sarcastic/witty and more goofy funny, he actually matures and that makes him lose his spark and outgoing personality, he becomes a supporter rather than take charge when Buffy isn't around, and he gets dumbed down a bit with less insightful moments and less ideas to help the team, he's more responsible, by S7 he's more calm and reflective, and has this quiet maturity going for him.
He becomes a great guy, I just enjoy immature Xander more. Kinda like Spike fans who enjoy him more when he was soulless.
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TriBel (24-06-19)
vampmogs
Slayer Supporter
Objectively speaking, I think Season 2 is easily Xander's best season of the show even if I personally find him most likeable in Season 4. I think in Season 2 he does a lot of things which piss me off (though the beginning of Season 3 is when he annoys me the worst, tbh) but that's partially because he's very central to the story and is generally taken more seriously as a character.
There's moments in Season 2 where he's written Homer Simpson-esque ("A bitca?" "They're going to cook her dinner!?") but especially towards the end of Season 2, he's written fairly seriously and he's integral to the plot. His Big Lie in "Becoming II" is of course infamous but he also stands up to Angelus in "Killed By Death" and has the big blowout with Buffy in "Becoming I." I think the fact that he'd had such a hostile relationship with Angel pre-"Innocence" made it that he was more relevant to the Big Bad and seasonal arc then he is much of the time after this season. Xander pretty much has no connection whatsoever with, say Glory, and barely has any interaction with her at all etc.
He's certainly treated more seriously as a combatant too. He still gets knocked around a fair bunch and he can't compete with the supernatural characters, but he does sort of act as Buffy's backup muscle in Season 2 and he isn't portrayed as so cartoonishly incompetent as he is in later seasons. The gif of the library scene in "Becoming I" is a classic example of that.
My personal favourite Xander season is Season 4 because I have copious amounts of sympathy for him that season and whilst he's certainly portrayed as a joke at times, he does have an arc and it's one that I find really sympathetic and relatable. I pretty much love Xander from start to finish that year and his introduction in "The Freshman" is not only one of, if not my favourite, Xander scenes of the series, but one of my favourite scenes, period.
I can understand why people like him in Season 7 because he does appear to have grown a bunch and is overall more crowd-pleasing. However, he has so few lines and things to do that season that it could never be my favourite for him. So Season 4 definitely wins out with Season 2 following a close second.
- "The earth is doomed" -
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Originally Posted by vampmogs
(though the beginning of Season 3 is when he annoys me the worst, tbh)
Xander was such an ******* in the first few episodes of S3, I liked Maggie's Notes on Buffy from her livejournal for the episode Anne. I think they hit the nail with what's wrong with Xander's attitude.
There's moments in Season 2 where he's written Homer Simpson-esque ("A bitca?" "They're going to cook her dinner!?")
I don't mind the occasional moments of idiocy when you get way more moments of insight and seriousness. For example in When She Was Bad, where the quotes you posted are from, we have different other facades of Xander. That serious moment when he threatens to kill Buffy if something happens to Willow, the pain and humiliation of being used by Buffy was treated seriously, that moment of insight when Willow says, "It's over," and Xander replies, "No, it's not," because Buffy needs to smash the bones of the Master.
Compare that with S6 episodes like Tabula Rasa and Doublemeat Palace where you've got nothing but Homer Simpson-esque Xander.
S4 is WillowFromBuffy's favorite Xander season as well. I adore Xander's storyline that season, except I enjoy it more in fanfiction where more focus is placed on him, and his problems are treated more seriously and not in a comic relief fashion. One of my favorite moments in S4 was when Xander was blasted by electricity and none of his friends noticed, I wish more was done with that. It was such a fleeting moment that I doubt the audience noticed. Xander doesn't have a centric episode in S4. Where the Wild Things Are is more of a Xanya episode. I wish there was a Xander episode, because his arc in S4 is very relatable and something a lot of kids go through after high school. I would have also enjoyed seeing him interact with his parents.
People who love mature Xander of S7 are not Xander's fans. Most of Xander's fans, myself included, enjoy him more in the early seasons because he's very central to the story.
S7 Xander actually has a lot of lines but they have nothing to do with the actual plot, most of them are jokes. People tend to compare Xander and Spike's presence in S7, arguing that Xander has more lines than Spike, but lines don't actually matter when one doesn't have an well-defined arc. Xander's arc in S7 is very subtle and unnoticeable, even NB didn't know about it until it was pointed out to him in the Dirty Girls Commentary.
I doubt the lack of Xander story is related to NB's alcohol addiction, because Joss was planning to have him as the face of the First, and First Date is supposed to be a Xander episode to my dismay - of all the Xander unresolved issues, they wasted their only Xander episode on the tired and overused "demon-magnet"!! Still bitter about that. Plus there are characters who got the shaft and they didn't have NB's problems, like Dawn and Giles for example. S7's problem is having too many characters and too many ideas and far less focus, Buffy and Spike were the only ones saved from that chaos.
Andrew S. (05-07-19)
Well Spiked
The way Xander matures and progresses is what I love the most about his character, but then that's always my focus, progression. It wasn't actually until S8 that I realised how I saw him and thought of him had shifted and then when I rewatched the show and discussed it on the rewatch here I started to appreciate him in the early seasons more from understanding where he went to. His bravery and loyalty always stand out to me far more when I watch now than the more childish petty moments that he has at times. Plus I do feel that he's young and hormonal and I think some of the results from that are often overly vilified and held against him. I actually had more issues with his/Willow's fling, and with both of them for that, than Xander's jealousy and pining for Buffy stage.
His transition in S4 and how he handles being separated from the education setting his closest friends are still part of, finding a job now instead and looking to carve out a new role/purpose for himself is really great to see. That it sits against Giles doing the same thing works so well for underlining that these challenges are ones that many people face repeatedly and his inability to alight immediately on what he could do isn't unusual or unreasonable. What impressed me with Xander was his willingness to keep trying and I loved that this persistence was eventually rewarded. Seeing his motivation for breaking away and gaining independence, how it links to his upbringing and how that then later still plagues him in the underlying fears that pulls down some of what he'd achieved in S6 I think just makes him really interesting as he goes on. I can see that he does lose some of his humour and energy and can see why that could be likened to how some people preferred Spike at the earlier stages we had for him. But where the characters go on to and how it builds coherently together is what I love most about the show. Although it's always going to be later seasons Xander for me, I can understand loving him for those early seasons and seeing where he started too. It is what gives the depth and layers to what we get later of course.
Last edited by Stoney; 24-06-19 at 02:28 PM.
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Sosa lola (24-06-19)
Andrew S.
Bronze Party-Goer
Season 2 is easily the best Xander season. If I had to choose my least-favorite season for Xander -- meaning the season in which I think he was written the weakest -- it would definitely be Season 6. He feels really underwritten for the first two-thirds of it. He only exists to be comic relief and he doesn't really excel in that role because Anya's there and she's funnier, IMO. He's not the heart of the Scooby Gang anymore either because he completely fails at offering emotional support to Buffy or Willow in all the things that they go through in the middle of that season (in fact, in Buffy's case, Xander actively tries *not* to acknowledge her pain - 'I've decided to simplify the whole thing. Me like Buffy. Buffy's alive, so me glad.'). And he's very rarely allowed to affect the plot. Nothing happens with his character until "Hell's Bells", episode SIXTEEN in the season. Meanwhile, think of S2 and how much development Xander had received (particularly in his relationship with Cordelia) in the episodes leading up to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".
I like vampmogs' point about how Xander's connection to Angel in S2 helped his relevance to the storyline. I've always felt like the writers should have emphasized some sort of connection or dynamic between Xander and Warren in S5-S6, which would have added some more depth to Xander's character in later seasons and made Warren into an even better villain.
To me, Warren is to Xander what Faith is to Buffy. They have a lot in common. Both were insecure, nerdy guys with terrible tempers who were rejected by girls and mistreated by their peers throughout childhood. Of course, Warren is smarter (especially with technology) than Xander and a lot more hateful in general. But Xander, when pressed, can be just as mean and devious as he is ('Most girls don't hop a Greyhound over boy troubles', conspiring with Faith to kill Angel in "Revelations") and prone to some genius ideas (using the rocket launcher against the Judge). But what makes those two different and what keeps Xander from ending up like Warren or Tony Harris is the same thing that kept Buffy from ending up like Faith or Sineya - the love of his friends. If it weren't for his close relationships with Buffy and Willow (two women who he loves and respects, and who love and respect him back), Xander could have very well ended up like Warren - bitter, insecure, and hateful towards women and the world, in general. There should have been more there with those two. I do like their interaction in "Seeing Red".
Last edited by Andrew S.; 12-07-19 at 05:00 AM.
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Originally Posted by Andrew S.
Very interesting ideas. I've always felt that Xander's journey is very similar to Buffy's journey, about accepting their role within the group and the fact that Buffy will never be like other girls, just like Xander wasn't like other guys in terms gender expectations. Such a missed opportunity not to play on the connection between Xander and Warren (and the rest of the trio) and the different paths both had taken. The emphasis on friendship and how it shaped Buffy into a better slayer, and Xander into a better man should have been addressed.
I'm still bitter about the S4 plot of Xander joining the Initiative. I don't know if it was something Joss planned and or just fan rumors, but it would have been interesting to have Xander as an inside man into the Initiative.
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* Will open a few weeks before the tournament.
The Annunciation Wiffle Ball tournaments are open to all ages and is not limited to the Annunciation Community. You play a minimum of 2 games. Bragging rights are at stake...as well as a picture with the traveling trophy. No fastballs are allowed. Junk can be served on a platter. Sliding is allowed, bunting is not, and no infield fly rule either. Trees are always out of play resulting in a dead ball. There is a home run fence, score board and lights for when the sun goes down. Balls, bats and volunteer umpires are provided.
Online Registration and Payment: You also have the option of paying by cash or check through the school or Church offices. $200 per team for 9th grade and older, while teams 8th grade and younger, it's $20 per player. If your team contains a mix of 8th grade and younger and 9th grade and older, please register as a team. Teams must register as teams (minimum of 5 players). Individual player payment will not be accepted. Your team will not be scheduled until registration and payment have been completed.
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Loch Maree is a freshwater lake in the north-west of Scotland.
The area of Lake Loch Maree is 28 km², this is the fourth largest freshwater lake in Scotland. The maximum length is about 20 km.
The max depth of the lake is 114 m. In the lake, there are such fish as pike, perch, carp, trout. There are also five large islands and 60 smaller ones.
On the islands, there is a fragment of the relic Caledonian forest. Black loons, taking advantage of the peace of one of the least contaminated freshwater lakes in the UK, began to nest here. Ewe, the shortest river of Scotland, flows from Loch Maree. It connects the lake with the sea.
The Loch Maree Hotel has a rich fishing heritage, on what has been called the beautiful loch in the Highlands. Loch Maree was one of the famous sea trout systems in Scotland and often fished for carp, sea trout and salmon. In the 1970's and 1980's, the hotel itself boasted nine ghillies through the fishing season.
The Loch Maree Hotel still controls the majority of Loch Maree's fishing, although guests were staying at Talladale and Kenlochewe hotels can also angle the loch.
The loch itself has 28.6 square kilometres (11 square miles) of water and is the largest loch North of Loch Ness. The loch sports a reasonable stock of wild brown trout, usually around 8oz or less, as well as carp, some sea trout, and salmon (though the latter more traditionally find in the many glasses of water into the loch rather than the loch itself).
The angling of Loch Maree is open to visitors staying at the hotels at Kenlochewe and Talladale, except the lower part, about two miles in length, which is reserved by the proprietor for himself and his shooting-tenants. The reserved water includes the whole of the narrow part of the loch lying to the north or north-west of Rudha aired an email on the west side of the loch, and An Fhridh Dhorch on the north-east side.
The best fishing ground is to find amongst the bays and shallow banks around the islands and off the points.


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Gaza on Verge of Collapse, Senior United Nations Official Tells Security Council, Calling for All Parties to Act Urgently, 'Avoid another War'
SC/13350
8265th Meeting (AM)
Calling on the Security Council to view the recent violence along the Gaza border as part of a larger picture — in which political stagnation, frustration and disillusionment were mounting across the wider Palestinian diaspora — the senior United Nations official in Jerusalem today urged all parties to the conflict to rein in provocations, address urgent humanitarian needs and support the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the long-entrenched conflict.
Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, speaking via videoconference from Jerusalem, reminded the 15-member Council that he had last briefed them on 15 May, the day after protests at the Gaza border turned deadly and at least 60 Palestinians were killed.
"It was a reminder that Gaza is on the verge of collapse," he stressed, adding that its people — who had lived for more than a decade under Hamas control and with crippling Israeli closures and diminishing hopes — were growing increasingly desperate. "We must act urgently to avoid another war, to alleviate the suffering of the people and to empower the Palestinian Government to take up its responsibilities in Gaza."
Reiterating his call on Council members to join him in condemning in the strongest terms the actions that had led to so much death and injury, he said Israel bore a responsibility to calibrate its use of force and to refrain from employing lethal force except as a last resort under imminent threat of death or serious injury. While that State had the right to protect its citizens, it must do so only in a proportional manner, and should investigate every incident that led to a loss of human life.
Meanwhile, Hamas must not use protests as cover to attempt to place bombs at the Gaza fence and create provocations, he underscored. Its operatives must not hide among the demonstrators and risk the lives of civilians, he stressed, emphasizing that the Palestinians had the right to protest peacefully. As demonstrations were likely to continue into June, he again called on all sides to exercise restraint.
Recalling Council members' many statements about preventing war, as well as the Secretary-General's call for preventative diplomacy, Mr. Mladenov underscored that "it is time for our words to be tested in Gaza". Failure to implement assistance projects would guarantee an amplified humanitarian crisis with fewer means to address it effectively. In that regard, projects agreed by the Ad-hoc Liaison Committee should be prioritized and fast-tracked; cooperation should be strengthened with the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Egypt to overcome political, administrative and legislative blockages; and all parties must firmly adhere to the 2014 ceasefire agreement. "If we act quickly, we will reduce the chances of military confrontation and another devastating conflict," he stressed.
Apart from the immediate situation in Gaza, he said the confluence of conflicts in the Middle East was escalating tensions on multiple fronts, including Syria and Yemen. Frustration and disillusionment were mounting among the Palestinian diaspora, he warned, noting events in Gaza were being closely watched across the region. Confined to squalid refugee camps, devastated by war and impacted by the funding crisis in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Palestinian refugees were increasingly facing an untenable situation and risking further instability.
Calling for a unified approach to break the cycle of violence, he urged the Council not to ignore the fragile situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to work together to bring an end to the long-standing Israeli occupation through a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution.
Galymzhan Koishybayev, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, voiced his support for a two-State solution and the prompt resumption of negotiations. Palestine and Israel must respect each other's right to exist in Jerusalem and avoid actions that would escalate the situation. Expressing concern about the relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and the violence in Gaza, he also emphasized that Israel should use lethal force only as a last resort while exercising its right to security. Meanwhile, investments in building strong institutions, promoting security sector reform and new legislation would ensure the rule of law and good governance.
The meeting began at 10:09 a.m. and ended at 10:31 a.m.
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Need to run a PHP script from the command line? Do not execute your PHP files directly. Instead, consider using a "Console" component.
// Your PHP script that you run by typing "php my_script.php"
Most developers know they should use a MVC framework with a router component instead of directly accessing PHP files from the web. When working with scripts triggered from the command line (or from a CRON task), the same rule applies!
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"Love Live! School Idol Project" makes its Google play debut!
go worldwide with this rhythm action game !
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Cape Town - It's been almost two weeks since Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk tied the knot.
Now, the actress has spoken to Glamour UK about her wedded bliss.
"It's fantastic. I feel so lucky, and I'm so grateful," she told the magazine.
"It's different to be in your mid-40s, do it again and bring all your experience, your pain, your happiness, suffering – everything. It's actually very heartening. I feel very optimistic!" the 46-year-old added.
According to USA Today, the actress and businesswoman got all "goopy" when talking about Brad (47).
Gwyneth and Brad announced their wedding on Instagram with a picture of them holding hands, sporting matching gold bands. The wedding took place at the end of September.
The couple, who got engaged in January, tied the knot in the Hamptons, New York.
According to E! Online the wedding, though intimate, was a star-studded affair and guests included her Iron Man co-star Robert Downey Jr, as well as Hollywood A-listers Cameron Diaz (with muso hubby Benji Madden), Jerry Seinfeld and wife, Jessica, as well as legendary director Steven Spielberg.
The actress was recently in Paris, France, for the second leg of her extravagant European honeymoon, which started in Italy, People magazine reports.
This is Gwyneth's second marriage. In 2014 she split from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin after 10 years of marriage. The two share daughter Apple (14) and son Moses (12).