The Goon Show

The Goon Show is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show, a title inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by a Popeye character.

The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.

The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription Services (TS). It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions were frequently edited to avoid controversial subjects.NBC began broadcasting the programme on its radio network from the mid-1950s. The programme exercised a considerable influence on the development of British and American comedy and popular culture. It was cited as a major influence by The Beatles and the American comedy team The Firesign Theatre as well as Monty Python and many others.

Enforcer (ice hockey)

Enforcer is an unofficial role in ice hockey. The term is sometimes used synonymously with "fighter", "tough guy", or "goon". An enforcer's job is to deter and respond to dirty or violent play by the opposition. When such play occurs, the enforcer is expected to respond aggressively, by fighting or checking the offender. Enforcers are expected to react particularly harshly to violence against star players or goalies.

Enforcers are different from pests, players who seek to agitate opponents and distract them from the game, without necessarily fighting them. The pest's primary role is to draw penalties from opposing players, thus "getting them off their game", while not actually intending to fight the opposition player (although exceptions to this do occur). Pests and enforcers often play together on the same line, usually the fourth line.

National Hockey League

Presently in the NHL, teams generally do not carry more than one player whose primary role is enforcer. Enforcers can play either forward or defense, although they are most frequently used as wingers on the 4th forward checking line. Prized for their aggression, size, checking ability, and fists, enforcers are typically less gifted at skill areas of the game than their teammates. Enforcers are typically among the lowest scoring players on the team and receive a smaller share of ice time. They are also not highly paid compared to other players, and tend to move from team to team.

Guardians of the Oglala Nation

The Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) was a private paramilitary group active on the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the early 1970s.

Formation

On November 10, 1972, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed several resolutions in response to the Bureau of Indian Affairs building takeover. One criticized the American Indian Movement (AIM) for the destruction of records in the building takeover; another authorized the tribal president, Dick Wilson, “to take whatever action that he felt would be necessary to protect the lives and property and to insure the peace and dignity of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.”

Wilson soon used this authority to create a new private police force, which critics called “the goon squad.” Members adopted the label as an acronym. The GOONs were financed through the tribal government. Peter Matthiessen alleges funding came through misappropriation of a federal highway safety program.

GOONs soon were accused of intimidation of, and violence against, Wilson's political opponents.

Spade

A spade is a tool primarily for digging or removing earth and fixing soil. Early spades were made of riven wood. After the art of metalworking was discovered, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the introduction of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving earth, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency.

Etymology

"tool for digging," Old English spadu "spade," from Proto-Germanic *spadan (cognates: Old Frisian spada "a spade," Middle Dutch spade "a sword," Old Saxon spado, Middle Low German spade, German Spaten), from PIE *spe-dh-, from root *spe- (2) "long, flat piece of wood" (cognates: Greek spathe "wooden blade, paddle," Old English spon "chip of wood, splinter," Old Norse spann "shingle, chip;" see spoon (n.)).

"A spade differs from a two-handed shovel chiefly in the form and thickness of the blade" [Century Dictionary]. To call a spade a spade "use blunt language, call things by right names" (1540s) translates a Greek proverb (known to Lucian), ten skaphen skaphen legein "to call a bowl a bowl," but Erasmus mistook Greek skaphe "trough, bowl" for a derivative of the stem of skaptein "to dig," and the mistake has stuck [see OED].

Tarka the Otter (film)

Tarka the Otter is a film released in 1979, based on the novel of the same name by Henry Williamson. Tarka the Otter was voted 98th in Channel 4’s poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films.

Production

The role of Tarka was played by an otter called Spade.

Tarka and me (a ripple of ancient sunlight)

The principal animal handler for the film, Peter Talbot, published an e-book called 'Tarka and me' with the sub-title 'a ripple of ancient sunlight'. The sub-title alludes to Williamson's view of nature being uniquely connected by this story to that of Gavin Maxwell. Talbot trained at the Otter Trust under Philip Wayre. In 1976, he was invited by film producers David Cobham and Bill Travers to hand rear a baby otter called Spade for the title role. The Author's note for 'Tarka and me' explains... "...A little over ten years ago I was contacted by a Channel 4 researcher who had been tasked with investigating a classic old animal film called Tarka the Otter. I was puzzled why and he told me that film had just won an award in a family movie category but, finding nothing written anywhere about the animals in the film, he had noticed my name on the credits. A year or so later I heard the sad news that another of my friends, from the Tarka period, had fallen silent and the shock prompted me into a decision to write it all down. The story belongs to them. It happened over a period of two years in the latter part of nineteen seventies whilst filming Henry Williamson’s classic novel. The film featured an otter called Spade as Tarka in real-time as he grew up and, for the duration as his minder, Tarka the Otter became a way of life for us both..."

Spade (disambiguation)

A spade is a digging and gardening tool.

Spade or Spades may also refer to:

Arts and entertainment

Places

People

Internet

The Internet is the global system of interconnected mainframe, personal, and wireless computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, Usenet newsgroups, telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing.

Although the Internet protocol suite has been used by academia and the military industrial complex since the early 1980s, rapid adoption of its use was driven by events of the late 1980s and 1990s such as more powerful and affordable computers, the advent of fiber optics, the popularization of HTTP and the Web browser, and a push towards opening the technology to commerce. Internet use grew rapidly in the West from the mid-1990s and from the late 1990s in the developing world. In the 20 years since 1995, Internet use has grown 100-times to reach over one third of the world population, leading to its services and technologies being incorporated into virtually every aspect of contemporary life. The impact of the Internet has been so immense that it has been referred to as the "8th continent".