Lotna

Lotna is a Polish war film released in 1959 and directed by Andrzej Wajda.

Overview

This highly symbolic movie is both the director's tribute to the long and glorious history of the Polish cavalry, as well as a more ambiguous portrait of the passing of an era. Wajda was the son of a Polish Cavalry officer who was murdered by the Soviets during the Katyn massacre.

The horse Lotna represents the entire Romantic tradition in culture, a tradition that had a huge influence in the course of Polish history and the formation of Polish literature. Lotna is Wajda's meditation on the historical breaking point that was 1939, as well as a reflection on the ending of an entire era for literature and culture in Poland and in Europe as a whole. Writing of the film, Wajda states that it "held great hopes for him, perhaps more than any other." Sadly, Wajda came to think of Lotna "a failure as a film."

The film remains highly controversial, as Wajda includes a mythical scene in which Polish horsemen suicidally charge a unit of German tanks, an event that never actually happened.

Speed (1936 film)

Speed is a 1936 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer action film starring James Stewart in his first starring role, and Wendy Barrie. Although only a low-budget "B" movie, the film was notable for its realistic cinematography by Lester White, incorporating scenes from the Indianapolis 500 race and on-location shooting at the Muroc dry lake bed, used for high-speed racing by "hot rodders" in the 1930s. Advance publicity trumpeted that Stewart drove the specially-prepared "Falcon" to 140 mph (230 km/h).

Plot

Auto mechanic Terry Martin (James Stewart), the chief car tester for Emery Motors in Detroit, is working on his own time to perfect a revolutionary design for a new carburetor. Automotive engineer Frank Lawson (Weldon Heyburn) is a rival for the attention of Jane Mitchell (Wendy Barrie), who has just been hired to work in the publicity department. Terry has little formal education and resents inferences that his knowledge of cars is inferior to that of the trained Lawson. He nearly loses his job when he makes a jealous spectacle of himself at a company dinner dance that Jane attends with Frank.

Speed (ride)

Speed is an amusement ride design produced by the Dutch company KMG.

It is commonly referred to as KMG Booster, due to its similarity with the Fabbri Booster ride.

It has become an extremely common ride on European travelling funfairs, particularly in the UK. This is due to a combination of the ride's spectacular visual impact, and its highly practical operation. The ride can be transported on only one trailer, and requires just three hours to build up.

Design and operation

The ride is primarily a 37-metre arm, connected midway to the main support of the ride. Two sets of two seats are mounted at the end of each arm, back to back. Each four-seat assembly can swing through 360 degrees.

The arm rotates at up to 13 revolutions per minute, producing an acceleration of 3.5 g on the riders.

Incidents

The Politically Incorrect Guide

The Politically Incorrect Guide is a book series by Regnery Publishing presenting conservative or so-called "politically incorrect" beliefs on various topics. Each book is written by a different author and generally presents a conservative or libertarian viewpoint on the subject at hand. The series was the brainchild of Jeffrey Rubin, then editor of the Conservative Book Club, Regnery's sister company within Washington, DC-based Eagle Publishing.

Content

Each Politically Incorrect Guide contains the following:

Pig (song)

"Pig" is a Dave Matthews Band song from the album Before These Crowded Streets. The song evolved from an earlier tune entitled "Don't Burn the Pig", which was written about a television program Dave Matthews viewed in England where pigs were burned to test their reaction to pain. After 11 live performances between 1996 and 1998, "Don't Burn the Pig" was recorded in the studio during the Before These Crowded Streets sessions, and then the song reworked itself into "Pig", with the same notion in mind; however, it interpreted more of a carpe diem theme.

A 33-second studio jam is heard at the end of the studio track, based on "Deed Is Done", an early song by the band, and "Anyone Seen the Bridge?", a segue jam that debuted live in 1996.

Dave Matthews Band has performed "Pig" since 1998, up through the summer of 1999. The song did not return to live set lists until spring 2002, where it was played the most during that year than any other year. Since the song's debut, "Pig" has been played 159 times; however, it still remains a rarity among the band's set lists.

Spoons

Spoons, also known as Pig or Tongue, is a fast-paced game of matching and occasional bluffing. It is played with an ordinary pack of playing cards and several ordinary kitchen spoons or other objects.

Spoons is played in multiple rounds, and each player's objective is to grab a spoon. No spoon may be grabbed until one player has collected a four of a kind, but once the first player to get a four of a kind has grabbed a spoon, all players may immediately reach out to attempt to grab a spoon. No player may grab more than one spoon at a time. As in the game musical chairs, there is always one fewer spoon than there are players, so one player will always be left without a spoon. Depending on the variety of game being played, that player either loses the game and is eliminated, or continues playing but loses a point.

Playing the game

Preliminaries

The game Spoons can be played with 3 or more players, using one or more decks of 52 ordinary playing cards and a number of spoons totalling one fewer than the number of players. Even though the game is famous for the usage of spoons, virtually anything can be used. The spoons are placed in the center of the table in a circle with handles pointing outward so that they may be easily grabbed by any of the players. One person is designated first dealer and deals four cards to each player. The dealer will use the remaining cards to draw from.