P. T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me", and his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers". Barnum is widely, but erroneously, credited with coining the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute".

Born in Bethel, Connecticut, Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties, and founded a weekly newspaper, before moving to New York City in 1834. He embarked on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called "Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", and soon after by purchasing Scudder's American Museum, which he renamed after himself. Barnum used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee mermaid and General Tom Thumb. In 1850 he promoted the American tour of singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights. After economic reversals due to bad investments in the 1850s, and years of litigation and public humiliation, he used a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker, to emerge from debt. His museum added America's first aquarium and expanded the wax-figure department.

Clarendon (typeface)

Clarendon is a slab-serif typeface that was created by Robert Besley for Thorowgood and Co. (or Thorowgood and Besley) of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. It was apparently named after the Clarendon Press in Oxford.

The typeface was published in 1845 after Besley, an employee of the foundry since 1826, was made a partner in the firm. Due to its popularity, Besley registered the typeface under Britain's Ornamental Designs Act of 1842. The patent expired three years later, and other foundries were quick to copy it. Besley was nonetheless successful in business, and became the Lord Mayor of London in 1869. Clarendon is considered the first registered typeface.

Clarendon types proved extremely popular in many parts of the world, in particular for display applications such as posters printed with wood type. They are therefore commonly associated with wanted posters of the American Old West.

Revivals

The original Clarendon became the property of Stephenson Blake in 1906, who marketed a release named Consort, cutting some additional weights (a bold and italics) in the 1950s. The original matrices and punches were transferred to the Type Museum collection when Stephenson Blake left the printing business in 1996.

Pâté

Pâté is a mixture of cooked ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste. Common additions include vegetables, herbs, spices, and either wine or brandy (often cognac or armagnac). Pâté can be served either hot or cold, but it is considered to develop its fullest flavor after a few days of chilling.

Variations

In French or Belgian cuisine, pâté may be baked in a crust as pie or loaf, in which case it is called pâté en croûte, or baked in a terrine (or other mold), in which case it is known as pâté en terrine. Traditionally, a forcemeat mixture cooked and served in a terrine is also called a terrine. The most famous pâté is probably pâté de foie gras, made from the livers of fattened geese. Foie gras entier is fattened goose liver cooked and sliced, not made into pâté. Pâté en croûte is baked with the insertion of "chimneys" on top: small tubes or funnels that allow steam to escape, thus keeping the pastry crust from turning damp or soggy. Baked pâté en croûte usually develops an air bubble under the crust top as the meat mixture shrinks during baking; this is traditionally dealt with by infusing semi-liquid aspic in the hollow space before chilling.

Taking the piss

Taking the piss is a Commonwealth term meaning to take liberties at the expense of others, or to be unreasonable. It is often used to mean (or confused with) taking the piss out of, which is an expression meaning to mock, tease, ridicule, or scoff. It is also not to be confused with "taking a piss", which refers to the act of urinating. Taking the Mickey (Mickey Bliss, Cockney rhyming slang) or taking the Michael is another term for making fun of someone. These terms are most widely used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Usage

The term sometimes refers to a form of mockery in which the mocker exaggerates the other person's characteristics; pretending to take on his or her attitudes, etc., in order to make them look funny. Or it may be used to refer to a ruse where a person is led to believe something is true that is not (usually a fairly unbelievable story) for the purpose of ridicule of the subject.

The phrase is in common usage throughout British society, employed by headline writers in broadsheet gazettes and tabloids as well as colloquially. It is also used in English speaking countries such as Australia.

PT

PT, Pt, or pt may stand for:

Places

Types of places

Mathematics, science, and technology

Mathematics

Pâté (film)

Pâté is a short film by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win several prestigious awards including NYU's Wasserman Award, the Fielle d'Or at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, The Grand Jury Prize at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, Award for Excellence from New York Magazine and the Special Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival.

Plot summary

Pâté is a dark story about an aristocratic family struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Amongst a landscape of desolation, two young children, Otto and his sister Vera, hunt daily for food. Meanwhile, at home in an abandoned ship, their delusional Mother clings onto the faded glory of their former aristocratic lives, aided by her shiftless Maid.

Full of memories, their life is a shadow of the past as each character copes with the grind of daily survival. When the malevolent Mister Griswald, the only man to survive the apocalypse, drops in for dinner, he sets in motion the final act - revealing the shocking secret of their survival.

Switch

In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The mechanism of a switch may be operated directly by a human operator to control a circuit (for example, a light switch or a keyboard button), may be operated by a moving object such as a door-operated switch, or may be operated by some sensing element for pressure, temperature or flow. A relay is a switch that is operated by electricity. Switches are made to handle a wide range of voltages and currents; very large switches may be used to isolate high-voltage circuits in electrical substations.

Description

The most familiar form of switch is a manually operated electromechanical device with one or more sets of electrical contacts, which are connected to external circuits. Each set of contacts can be in one of two states: either "closed" meaning the contacts are touching and electricity can flow between them, or "open", meaning the contacts are separated and the switch is nonconducting. The mechanism actuating the transition between these two states (open or closed) can be either a "toggle" (flip switch for continuous "on" or "off") or "momentary" (push-for "on" or push-for "off") type.