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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Every Arnold Scream From Every Arnold Movie


Delusions & Grandeur - A mad mans contribution to the Oxford dictionary (Part 3)



A Lasting Friendship


For some time, Murray knew that Minor was in some way associated with the Broadmoor asylum, because his letters were addressed, W. C. Minor, Broadmoor. Crowthorne, Berkshire. However, according to Winchesters article, The First Meeting between James Murray and William Chester Minor: Some New Evidence,  it was assumed that Minor was a medical officer or possibly the director of the institute. Thus, one could imagine Murrays surprise when in 1889 he learned from visiting Harvard College librarian, Dr. Justin Winsor, that Dr. Minor was actually a patient. Murray also learned the reason why he was detained in the mental institution and was greatly affected by the story. Murray held Minor and his work in great esteem, despite Minors past transgressions, so in 1891 he decided to pay him a visit at the asylum.

That January, Murray boarded a train to Crowthorne where he met the director of the asylum. The men traveled to Broadmoor where Murray met Minor. They became acquainted over a pleasant lunch. Murray spent the better part of the day with Minor, mostly in his cell and found him to be a delightful person.

Murray later described Minor in a letter to a friend as rational, cultured, intellectual, artistic and of high moral character. He was particularly impressed with the degree of remorse he felt for his crime and that he developed a friendship with the widow of his victim, whom he financially supported. Murray thoroughly enjoyed his visit and vowed to return.

Over the years, Murray often visited Minor at Broadmoor. The two men found they had a great deal in common and were intellectual equals. Interestingly, they even looked similar -- both men wore a long white beard and moustache, had a gentle disposition and shimmering kind eyes. The two developed a friendship that would last many years.

Eventually, however, Murray began to notice Minors mental decline. It became increasingly apparent that his friend was losing grip of reality. Minors delusional state intensified over time, as did his paranoia and anxiety. Minor recounted with horror his nightly delusions, where men would come from beneath the floor and from the rafters, taking him sometimes in an airplane to far off destinations and using him sexually before returning him back to his cell.

Murray pitied his friend and tried on occasion to arrange his transfer to America, where he could be cared for by his brother. He believed that being locked away without any family contact was unfair and unjust treatment. In 1902, 68-year-old Minor was Broadmoors longest staying resident, having been confined there for 30 years. Murray doubted he would pose any harm to anyone or himself. Or would he?


A Cruel Fate


Near the turn of the century there were organizational changes made at Broadmoor, which led to the hiring of a new and stricter director. Dr. Bryan was disliked by most of the inmates because of his callous and brusque character. Minor also disliked him because he was less personable than the previous director, whom he liked immensely.

Not long after the new director took control of the facility, Minor slipped into a deep depression. He ate irregularly and showed little interest in having visitors, something he used to enjoy. Minor was so unhappy that he refused even to work on the one thing that brought him the most pleasure -- the dictionary.

In December 1902, Minors depression turned into violent aggression. His hostility was not directed at anyone at the institution, but at himself. In a fit of desperation and anger, he mutilated himself in the most gruesome way. Minor took a penknife and amputated his penis.

No one knew why he resorted to such extreme measures. Some speculated that self-hate or.guilt for having lustful thoughts motivated him to harm himself. However, only Minor knew why and he kept his reasons to himself.

After a month in the infirmary, Minor made a partial recovery and retained some functional use of his organ. Yet, other aspects of his physicality began to worsen. He grew exceedingly weak from various flu-like illnesses that plagued him. He also started to lose his vision. It was during this time that Dr. Bryan considered moving him to another facility closer to his family, where he could live out the rest of his days.

With the help of Murray, Minor was secured passage back to America in 1910. Minors brother Alfred sailed to London to escort him to the United States where he was to be interned at St. Elizabeths Asylum in Washington, D.C. It was the same asylum where he had resided 42 years earlier.

Minor realized when he departed on the boat to America that he would probably never see his closest friend Murray again. Although it saddened the two men greatly, they both knew that Minor was better off in America near his family. After Minors departure, Murray returned back to his editing position at Oxford where he began work on the letter T. It was the last letter he would ever work on.

On July 26, 1915, Murray died of heart failure as a result of pleurisy. Following his death, Murray was recognized as one of the centurys best wordsmiths. A friend and colleague named Burchfield described him as the founder of the art of historical lexicography. He had worked a total of 35 years on the dictionary, often putting in 14-hour days. Unfortunately, he didnt live long enough to see its completion. According to the OED, the work to which he had devoted his life represented an achievement unprecedented in the history of publishing anywhere in the world.

Minor may have been one of the last of Murrays friends to learn of his death. He was thousands of miles from London, both physically and mentally. His delusions worsened, as did his health. In 1918, Minor was diagnosed dementia praecox, which is now called paranoid schizophrenia.

One year after he had been formally diagnosed, Minor was transferred from the hospital to an asylum for the elderly in Hartford, Connecticut. He was no longer considered harmful and the director at the new facility allowed Minor to walk the grounds. One day after a walk on a particularly stormy day, Minor caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. On March 26, 1920, Minor, 85, succumbed to the illness and was buried in relative obscurity in New Havens Evergreen Cemetery -- a sad fate for one of the most productive contributors of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Minor, like Murray never saw the completion of the dictionary. It was another eight years before the first full edition was published. Upon its completion, the dictionary consisted of ten volumes, which contained more than 400,000 words and phrases. It is considered to be one of the most remarkable literary masterpieces of the century and the ultimate authority on the English language.


Bibliography


BBC News (March 2003), Profile: Broadmoor Mental Hospital.

BBC.co.uk (2004), Broadmoors Word Finder.

Murray, K. M. Elizabeth (1995). Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary. Yale University Press.

Dr. William Chester Minor & the O.E.D.

Italie, Hillel (October 1998). Tale of Two Logolepts.

Oxford English Dictionary Official Website. History of the Dictionary.

Smithsonian Magazine,    The Strange Case of the Surgeon of Crowthorne. September 1998 Issue.

South London Chronicle (February 1872). Frightful Murder in Lambeth.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia. William Chester Minor.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Oxford English Dictionary.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia.  Battle of the Wilderness.

Williams, Robyn (January 2002). The Oxford Dictionary Saga. Interview with author Noel Cruz. Transcript

Winchester, Simon (1998). The First Meeting Between James Murray and William Chester Minor: Some New Evidence. Oxford English Dictionary June 1998 Newsletter.

Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the OxfordEnglish Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers. U.S.A.

Delusions & Grandeur - A mad mans contribution to the Oxford dictionary (Part 2)



Broadmoor


On April 17, 1872, Minor was admitted to Broadmoor and interned in Block 2, the most comfortable wing of the asylum, which housed the least dangerous criminals. He was given permission to reside there because he was a well-educated gentleman of high social stature. He was given two adjoining cells and allowed items of luxury that most residents were refused. He was granted permission to have books, which he kept in a bookcase, specially made for him, a writing desk, chairs, his flute and art supplies so that he could paint. Moreover, he was even permitted to have other inmates clean his living quarters.

Even though Minor had special privileges, he was unable to leave the hospital. It was difficult for him to adjust to the reality that he would be locked up the rest of his life.   While in the asylum, Minor had ample time to think about his past transgressions. He regretted killing George and wanted desperately to make amends. He began by writing a letter to Georges widow, apologizing for the sadness he caused her and their children. He also sent money to the family, hoping he could at least alleviate their financial problems.

Mrs. Merrett was a gracious woman and accepted Minors apology and financial assistance. She realized he was not in control of himself at the time of the murder. She even visited Minor at the asylum on many occasions, sometimes bringing parcels with her, such as books.   

Minor was a book enthusiast and spent long hours reading the many books that he collected. He was especially fond of antique books, which he had delivered from rare bookstores in London. The money he used to purchase the items came from his pension, which was controlled by one of his brothers living in America. Reading provided an escape for Minor and a means of pursuing his scholarly interests.

One day in the early 1880s, while reading one of the books given to him by Mrs. Merrett, he came across an advertisement for volunteers to help with compiling words, quotations and definitions for the New Oxford Dictionary. Minor was greatly excited by the ad and responded immediately to the editors of the dictionary. He hoped that in volunteering his services, he could be of use once again and be a part of something significant. He didnt realize at the time that he would become one of its most prolific and valuable contributors.


A Monument to the English Language


Since the advent of the first English dictionary by Robert Cawdrey in the early 17th century, there was no record of the English language in its entirety. That is, until a group of scholarly lexicographers from the Philological Society of London undertook the enormous task in late 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) website, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Richard Chenevix Trench, initially proposed the idea in 1857 to the Philological Society of London. He suggested in two papers presented to the society that the English language dictionaries available at the time were incomplete and deficient. Trench believed that a new English dictionary should be constructed that encompassed every word in the language with accompanying quotes that stated its origin and use. However, it was a monumental task.

Trench chose two men to start up the project, Herbert Coleridge, who became the dictionarys first editor, and Frederick Furnivall. The two men immediately began enlisting the help of several hundred volunteers. They needed as many people as possible to assist with the reading of thousands of books, in order to amass a collection of English words.The work was tedious and time consuming, and the interest of many volunteers began to wane after a short time. The project proved to be more difficult than anyone imagined and many believed that the dictionary would never be completed. To make matters worse, mismanagement of the project and the death of Coleridge one year later, further delayed work on the dictionary.

In 1879, a new editor was assigned to the project: James Murray, a Scottish lexicographer teacher and philologist. Murray made three strategic moves soon after assuming the position. He constructed a workroom known as the Scriptorium to be used for editing purposes; he began to enlist new volunteers to help with the project; and he employed the use of a reading program in order to assemble as many English words as possible.

While the Scriptorium was being built, Murray sent out an advertisement appealing for readers, which was circulated throughout London. It was one of Murrays ads that caught Minors attention. Soon after Minor responded to the appeal, he was accepted as a volunteer. He began his new job by reading, collecting words and quotations. It was a position that would occupy him for the rest of his life.

According to Winchester, Minor developed a unique system for gathering words and quotes. Minor constructed elaborate, alphabetically categorized word lists, which served as an index. He then collected quotations and citations for each word he gathered. Minors system proved to be of great help to Murray and his staff because he simplified the collection method and sped the pace of the project.
A quote from a submission slip that Minor had sent to Murray - 

        a1548 Hall Chron., Hen. IV. (1550) 32b,
        Duryng whiche sickenes as Auctors write
        he caused his crowne to be set on the
        pillowe at his beddes heade.  - OED

Nevertheless, the construction of the dictionary was taking longer than previously expected. It took approximately five years after Murray became editor for the first part of the dictionary to get published. The volume consisted of 352 pages and included the letter A to Ant. It was difficult for anyone at the time to estimate precisely how long it would take for the completion of the dictionary in its entirety. Some believed that it would take at least 20 years to complete and others believed it could be done in less time. In actuality, it would take almost a half-century before the first 100 installments were published ending with the letter Z.


James A. H. Murray


James Augustus Henry Murray was born in 1837 in Denholm, Scotland, the first-born son of a tailor. Murray and his siblings who followed were brought up in a strict religious household. Little is known of Murrays early childhood other than he had a passion for learning.

Murray spent a great deal of his youth seeking information on everything and anything he could get his hands on. By his early teens, he learned several languages, including Greek, French, Latin, Hebrew, Russian and Italian. He also took a great interest in archeology, geology, philology, politics, astronomy, botany, religion, history and geology. He amassed a remarkable amount of information in a relatively short period of time. Most of what he learned was self-taught.

At the age of 17, Murray became the assistant headmaster at the Hawick United School and, several years later, he advanced to the position of headmaster. He joined the Mutual Improvement Institute and delivered his first lecture, entitled Reading, its Pleasures and Advantages.   He also lectured on language, phonetics and archeology.

In 1861, Murray met and married a schoolteacher named Maggie Scott. Two years later, they had Anna, their first and only child. Not long after the birth, the young family was destroyed by a series of tragic events: Anna died in infancy and Maggie developed tuberculosis. The couple moved from Scotland to London where Murray secured a job as a bank clerk. They hoped that the change of environment would improve Maggies health, but it did not. Her condition steadily worsened and she died in 1864.

Following Maggies death Murray continued his pursuit of knowledge. It was his way of escaping the pain of losing his family. He began to research various dialects and languages, concentrating on those unique to the British Isles. Murray was so interested in languages that by the time he was in his late twenties, he had mastered approximately two-dozen languages and was in the process of learning more. Yet, his activities were temporarily interrupted when he was introduced to Ada Ruthven.

Ada and Murray shared many common interests and, after a brief courtship, the couple married. K. M. Elizabeth Murray, the granddaughter of James Murray suggested in her book, Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary, that the couple enjoyed a happy relationship, one which produced 11 children. 

By the time Murray was in his 30s, he began to take more of an interest in philology and during the late 1860s, he joined the Philological Society of London. He began teaching at the Mill Hill School. Despite his busy schedule, he found time to work on his book, The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, which was published in 1868. He also began editing manuscripts by Frederick Furnivall, the secretary of the Philological Society, dealing with historical English texts. During their work on the texts, the two men developed a friendship that would endure many years.

Since 1861, Furnivall managed the dictionary project, yet it was not a position for which he was well suited. Winchester wrote that although he was, clearly committed to his work on the dictionary he simply lacked the personal qualities necessary to lead it. Realizing his deficiencies, Furnivall tried to persuade Murray to fill his position as editor.

However, the delegates of the Oxford University Press were hesitant to accept him. They were concerned that Murray didnt have the skills to manage the project. Moreover, Murray and the Oxford Delegates squabbled over editorial guidelines and the details of his contract. Although it took several years, Murray was finally granted the position of editor in 1879.

For years, Murray and his staff worked diligently on the dictionary, sorting and categorizing as many as 1,000 quotation slips a day. It took approximately nine years to complete the first volume ending with the letter B, which was published in 1888. In recognition for his work, he earned an honorary doctorate from Durham University. It would be one of many honorary degrees he would receive from scholarly institutions.

In October 1897, Oxford University Delegates held a grand dinner party to honor Murray for 18 years of hard work. His contribution was by any standard a remarkable achievement. Many of those involved in producing the dictionary were present at the dinner, except for one key person.

Over the years, Murray corresponded with one of the projects most prolific contributors, Dr. William Chester Minor. On occasion, Murray would ask Minor for help concerning various words, for which he had difficulty finding appropriate quotes. Time and time again, Minor delivered, often providing more information than expected.

Murray was impressed with Minors accuracy, speed, efficiency and dedication to the job. In fact, according to a BBC article, Broadmoors Word-Finder, Murray considered Minors contribution to be so significant that he could easily have illustrated the last four centuries [of words] from his quotations alone. Consequently, many were surprised when Minor failed to show up at the Oxford English Dictionarys who's who event of the decade celebrating their most esteemed editor, James Murray. Only Murray knew the reason why Minor was unable to come to the event

Delusions & Grandeur - A mad mans contribution to the Oxford dictionary (Part 1)

The Lambert Tragedy


On February 17, 1872, at about 2 a.m., George Merrett, 34, left his home on Cornwall Roadin Lambeth, London, and headed off in the dark toward the Red Lion Brewery. There he shoveled and stoked the coal that brewed the barley malt. It was a labor-intensive job that required him to wake up at unusually early hours and work long shifts, often in hot conditions. Although the work was demanding and paid a pittance, he was able to feed his family -- if just barely.   

George and his wife Eliza had six children ranging from 12 months to 13 years old and another child on the way. They lived in utter poverty in what was one of the most undesirable areas of London. However, the Merretts were grateful that they at least had a steady, if meager, income. They made the most of the little they had.

That cold morning, George walked his usual route to work. He headed down Belvedere Roadtoward the entrance of Tennison Street. As he made his way to the wall that encircled the brewery, he heard piercing shouts that cut through the dark silence of the winter morning. The shouts grew louder, closer and angrier as George walked on. When he looked back to locate the source of the noise, he realized they were coming from a man running toward him.

George turned to run away. He may have heard the first gunshot zing past him. The bullet just missed, but the next ones would find their target. Within seconds, two bullets ripped through Georges neck.

Several officers on duty overheard the gunshots and ran to the scene, where they found George lying in a pool of blood. He was taken to St. Thomass Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The authorities didnt have to look far to find the murderer.

One of the officers at the scene saw a suspicious man nearby and asked him where the shots had originated. According to a South London Chronicle article from 1872, the stranger exclaimed that he had shot him. The man was immediately taken to the Tower Street police station.

During questioning, police learned that the assailant was unlike any criminal they had ever dealt with. The murderer, 37-year-old William Chester Minor, was an American who had recently moved to Lambeth several months earlier. To their surprise, they also learned that he was an army surgeon of considerable means with a record of mental instability.

Minor claimed that he accidentally mistook George for someone else. He believed that George was one of the many Irish militants who came to him nightly from his bedroom ceiling and from under his bed to assault him. Clearly, Minor suffered from delusions.

The police were troubled by Minors mental state and began to wonder whether he was fit to stand trial. Scotland Yard detectives decided to dig deeper into Minors past. They soon realized that he was a complex individual with a tragic history.


The Early Years


In June 1834, William Chester Minor was born in a mission clinic on the island of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, an island nation located off the coast of India. He was the son of American Congregationalist missionaries who settled in Celyon several months earlier. Two years after Williams birth, they had a baby girl named Lucy.

Not long after William Minor turned 3, his mother died of tuberculosis. Two years later, his father met and married an American missionary from New York. The family expanded with six more children, two of whom died young. They lived in Manepay where Williams father then worked as a printer and his mother-in-law ran the local school.

During his youth, Minor exhibited a love of knowledge. He was an avid reader, took an interest in learning the local languages, and enjoyed playing the flute. He appeared to be extremely bright and his parents hoped that he would continue his education back in America where his chances of success were greater than in Ceylon.

There was another reason why his parents were eager to have him move back to America. They feared that the young Ceylonese girls were distracting him from his studies. Minor, like many young men, had a strong sexual interest in girls and his parents thought that the temptation would be too much for him. When Minor turned 14, they decided to send him to live with his uncle Alfred in New Haven, Connecticut.

While there, Minor blossomed academically. He was accepted to Yale University where he studied medicine, worked hard and remained focused on his studies. When he was 29, Minor graduated with a medical degree in comparative anatomy. Shortly thereafter he joined the Union Army at the height of the Civil War as an assistant surgeon.

In 1864, Minor was stationed in Virginia where he doctored soldiers wounded in the bloody Battle of the Wilderness. Aside from his medical duties, Minors superiors instructed him to carry out punishments on fugitive soldiers, many of who were Irish immigrants. The gruesome task involved branding convicted soldiers with a molten hot iron in the shape of the letter D for deserter. Not only was the punishment excruciatingly painful, but it was a mark that would shame the soldier for his entire life.

Minor abhorred the cruel task of punishing runaway soldiers and it greatly affected his emotional sensibility. In fact, it was believed to have been the source of the mental problems that plagued him throughout his lifetime. Following the battle, Minor developed an intense fear of Irish people. He was convinced that many of the soldiers he had punished would seek him out and exact revenge. He made great efforts to avoid all Irish people, just in case one of them was a vindictive soldier out to get him. Eventually, Minors fears would evolve into paranoia.


Descent into Madness


Between the mid to late 1860s, Minor worked at several hospitals in Virginia and New York as an assistant surgeon under contract for the Army. He immersed himself in his job and began working long hours, earning the rank of captain.

Although Minor was excelling professionally, his mental health began to show signs of deterioration. He became increasingly anxious, constantly fearful of hooligans attacking him. According to Simon Winchesters The Professor and the Madman, he even began to carry a gun illegally, when out of uniform. Moreover, Winchester suggested that Minor, embarked on a career of startling promiscuity, which led to his needing treatment for a variety of venereal infections. Minors friends and colleagues began to notice that he was becoming increasingly agitated and aggressive.


Minors behavior became more bizarre and unpredictable over time. It was so severe that it caught the attention of his superiors, who became concerned for his welfare. In 1868, Minor was transferred to an isolated Army base named Fort Barrancas in Florida. His superiors hoped that a reduction in workload would diminish his strange behavior. However, his mental state degenerated even more and he began to suffer from delusions.

That same year, Minor was admitted to a U.S. government hospital for the insane, known then as St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he remained for a year and a half. Upon his release, he was formally retired from the Army and granted full pay and pension for having served honorably. In the fall of 1871, Minor boarded a steamer for London in the search of rest and relaxation.

Minor took up temporary residence at a hotel in Londons West End before settling into a rental flat in Lambeth. Although many considered Lambeth sleazy, it served his purpose well. He had easy access to brothels, which he frequented continuously. His sexual urges became compulsions and he spent a majority of his time seeking female companionship, as well as cures for the sexually transmitted diseases he often contracted. His compulsive behavior was yet another sign of his deteriorating mental state.

During this time, Minor began to hallucinate almost daily. He believed that Irish militants were hiding under his bed, coming through his windows and from the ceilings during the night. He complained to people that they would attack him and make him perform vulgar sexual acts. He also claimed that they would threaten to kill him before disappearing into the night. 

Although Minors complaints were initially alarming, most dismissed his experiences as delusions and the ranting of a mad man. However, he seemed harmless, so few paid attention to him or his unusual behavior. It was only after the death of George Merrett that they took Minors mental illness seriously.

Minors murder trial took place in April 1872 at Kingston Assizes court in Surrey. During the proceedings, the jury learned of Minors history of mental illness. It was clear that during the time of the murder he was not in control of his behavior and after a brief trial he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. On April 6, he was judged a certified criminal lunatic and sentenced to the Broadmoor mental hospital, then called a criminal lunatic asylum to be held in custody until Her Majestys Pleasure be known. He would later become Broadmoors longest resident.

Monday, November 22, 2010

My Front Yard


The season finale of Venture Bros with Pulp playing at the end..... Fucking Amazing!


And now.... Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

With Michael Cera



With Jimmy Kimmel



With Jon Hamm



With Natalie Portman



With Bradley Cooper



With Charlize Theron



With Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien, and Andy Dick



With Ben Stiller




With Steve Carell
With Sean Penn



With Bruce Willis


Dublin 8 December 1909 - To NORA



My sweet little whorish Nora I did as you told me, you dirty little girl, and pulled myself off twice when I read your letter. I am delighted to see that you do like being fucked arseways. Yes, now I can remember that night when I fucked you for so long backwards. It was the dirtiest fucking I ever gave you, darling. My prick was stuck in you for hours, fucking in and out under your upturned rump. I felt your fat sweaty buttocks under my belly and saw your flushed face and mad eyes. At every fuck I gave you your shameless tongue came bursting out through your lips and if a gave you a bigger stronger fuck than usual, fat dirty farts came spluttering out of your backside. You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I fucked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole. It is wonderful to fuck a farting woman when every fuck drives one out of her. I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women. It is a rather girlish noise not like the wet windy fart which I imagine fat wives have. It is sudden and dry and dirty like what a bold girl would let off in fun in a school dormitory at night. I hope Nora will let off no end of her farts in my face so that I may know their smell also.

You say when I go back you will suck me off and you want me to lick your cunt, you little depraved blackguard. I hope you will surprise me some time when I am asleep dressed, steal over to me with a whore's glow in your slumberous eyes, gently undo button after button in the fly of my trousers and gently take out your lover's fat mickey, lap it up in your moist mouth and suck away at it till it gets fatter and stiffer and comes off in your mouth. Sometimes too I shall surprise you asleep, lift up your skirts and open your drawers gently, then lie down gently by you and begin to lick lazily round your bush. You will begin to stir uneasily then I will lick the lips of my darling's cunt. You will begin to groan and grunt and sigh and fart with lust in your sleep. Then I will lick up faster and faster like a ravenous dog until your cunt is a mass of slime and your body wriggling wildly.

Goodnight, my little farting Nora, my dirty little fuckbird! There is one lovely word, darling, you have underlined to make me pull myself off better. Write me more about that and yourself, sweetly, dirtier, dirtier.

JIM