VINCENT LEONARD PRICE JR: THE KING OF TERROR GENRE

Vicent Price

Halloween is coming and The Grandma is preparing this important event. Today, she has been buying some pumpkins, chesnuts and sweet wine to celebrate this amazing day. 

While she was buying these products, The Grandma was remembering one of her favourite actors, Vincent Price, the king of terror genre, an actor with an extensive career who is well-known by the young generations for his appearance in Michael Jackson's Thriller and who died on a day like today in 1993.

After going shopping, The Grandma has been also studying a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 21), in fact, the last lesson of this manual.

More information: Collocations I & II

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911-October 25, 1993) was an American actor, known for his performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller, and comedy. He appeared on stage, television, radio, and more than one hundred films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, and one for television. Born and raised near St. Louis, Missouri, Price also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Price was an art collector and consultant, with a degree in art history, lecturing and writing books on the subject. Additionally, he was the founder of the eponymous Vincent Price Art Museum in California. He was also a noted gourmet cook.

Vicent Price

Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of the four children. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented Dr. Price's Baking Powder, the first cream of tartar-based baking powder, and secured the family's fortune.

Price was of English descent and was a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in Colonial Massachusetts, being born on the Mayflower while it was in Provincetown Harbor. Price had some Welsh ancestry as well.

Price attended the St. Louis Country Day School, as well as Milford Academy in Milford, Connecticut. In 1933, he graduated with a degree in art history from Yale University, where he worked on the campus humor magazine The Yale Record. 

After teaching for a year, he entered the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, intending to study for a master's degree in fine arts. Instead, he was drawn to the theater, first appearing on stage professionally in 1934. His acting career began in London in 1935, performing with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre.

In 1936, Price appeared as Prince Albert in the American production of Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina, which starred Helen Hayes in the title role of Queen Victoria.

More information: Biography

Price started out in films as a character actor. He made his film debut in Service de Luxe (1938) and established himself in the film Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger. He played in the movie Brigham Young (1940), in Wilson (1944), and in The Song of Bernadette (1943), and as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944).

His first venture into the horror genre, for which he became best known, was in the Boris Karloff film Tower of London (1939). The following year Price portrayed the title character in The Invisible Man Returns, a role he reprised in a vocal cameo at the end of the horror-comedy spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein released in 1948.

Vicent Price

Price reunited with Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Dragonwyck (1946). There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948) and The Bribe (1949), with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Charles Laughton.

His first starring role was in the biopic The Baron of Arizona (1950). He was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in The Saint, which ran from 1947 to 1951.

In the 1950s, Price moved into horror films, with a starring role in House of Wax (1953) as a homicidal sculptor, the first 3-D film to land in the year's top ten at the North American box office. His next roles were The Mad Magician (1954), the monster movie The Fly (1958) and its sequel Return of the Fly (1959).

That same year, he starred in a pair of well-loved thrillers by producer-director William Castle: House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Tingler. He appeared in the radio drama Three Skeleton Key, the story of an island lighthouse besieged by an army of rats. He first performed the work in 1950 on Escape and returned to it in 1956 and 1958 for Suspense.

More information: Eating Vincent Price

In the 1960s, Price achieved a number of low-budget filmmaking successes with American International Pictures (AIP) starting with the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).

He starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), the first adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. He starred in comedy films, notably Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and its sequel Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966). In 1968 he played the part of an eccentric artist in the musical Darling of the Day.

Vicent Price

Price often spoke of his pleasure playing Egghead in the Batman television series.

During the early 1970s, Price hosted and starred in BBC Radio's horror and mystery series The Price of Fear. Price accepted a cameo part in the Canadian children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario, on the local television station CHCH. In addition to the opening and closing monologues, his role in the show was to recite poems about the show's various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes.

He appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he portrayed one of a pair of serial killers. That same year Price appeared as himself in Mooch Goes to Hollywood. Price was an admirer of the works of Edgar Allan Poe and in 1975 visited the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, where he had his picture taken with the museum's popular stuffed raven.

More information: Ranker

Price recorded dramatic readings of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone.

He starred for a year in the early 1970s in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. In October 1976, Price appeared as the featured guest in an episode of The Muppet Show.

In 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights. The play is set in a Parisian theatre on a night about one year before Wilde's death. The original tour of the play was a success in every city it played except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed the role of Wilde at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado, on the same stage from which Wilde had spoken to miners about art some 96 years before. He would eventually perform the play worldwide.

Vicent Price

In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price.

That same year, Price performed a sinister monologue on the title track of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. A longer version of the rap, sans the music, along with some conversation can be heard on Jackson's 2001 remastered reissue of the Thriller album.

In 1983, Price played the British spoof horror film Bloodbath at the House of Death. He appeared in House of the Long Shadows, which teamed him with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine. Although Price had worked with each of the actors at least once in previous decades, this was the first time all had teamed up. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective in 1986.

More information: Legacy

From 1981 to 1989, Price hosted the PBS television series Mystery! In 1985, he provided voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul, who aided Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and the gang in recapturing 13 evil demons. 

A lifelong rollercoaster fan, Price narrated a 1987 thirty-minute documentary on the history of rollercoasters and amusement parks including Coney Island. During this time (1985–1989), he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser.

In 1989, Price was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990).

In 1992, Price recorded the narration for Disneyland Paris's Phantom Manor, but the narration was shortly removed and replaced with an narration entirely in French by Gérard Chevalier. But they had left in Vincent Price's infamous laughter as a tribute to Price. However, in 2018, it was announced that during the renovation, they will be adding back Price's narration into the attraction.

More information: Yale News

It's as much fun to scare as to be scared.

Vincent Price

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE OPENS TO TRAFFIC

The Grandma is immersed in reading. Today, she has gone to the library to search some information about The George Washington Bridge, which was inaugurated on a day like today in 1931.

Before going to the public library, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 20).

More information: Word formation 2

The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River and connecting between the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City with the borough of Fort Lee in New Jersey.

The George Washington Bridge

As of 2016, the George Washington Bridge carried over 103 million vehicles per year, making it the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge. It is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state government agency that operates infrastructure in the Port of New York area.

The George Washington Bridge is also informally known as the GW Bridge, the GWB, the GW, or the George, and formerly as the Fort Lee Bridge or Hudson River Bridge.

A bridge across the Hudson River was first conceived in 1906. In early 1925, the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey voted to allow for the planning and construction of such a bridge. Construction on the George Washington Bridge started in October 1927; the bridge was ceremonially dedicated on October 24, 1931, and opened to traffic the next day.

More information: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The opening of the George Washington Bridge contributed to the development of Bergen County, New Jersey, in which Fort Lee is located. The current upper deck was widened from six to eight lanes in 1946. The six-lane lower deck was constructed beneath the existing span from 1958 to 1962 because of increasing traffic flow.

The George Washington Bridge, an important travel corridor within the New York metropolitan area, has an upper level that carries four lanes in each direction and a lower level with three lanes in each direction, for a total of 14 lanes of travel. The speed limit on the bridge is 72 km/h. The bridge's upper level also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic. US 46, which lies entirely within New Jersey, terminates halfway across the bridge at the state border with New York. At its eastern terminus in New York City, the bridge continues onto the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, part of I-95, connecting to the Cross Bronx Expressway.

The George Washington Bridge

The George Washington Bridge was designed by chief civil engineer Othmar Ammann, design engineer Allston Dana, and assistant chief engineer Edward W. Stearns, with Cass Gilbert as consulting architect. 

It connects Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. The bridge carries 14 lanes of traffic, seven in each direction, on two levels; the upper level contains eight lanes while the lower level contains six lanes. The current upper level opened in 1931, and is 27 m wide. The upper level originally had six lanes, though two more lanes were added in 1946. Although the lower level was part of the original plans for the bridge, it did not open until 1962.

More information: NJ

The upper level has a vertical clearance of 4.3 m, and all trucks and other oversize vehicles must use the upper level. Trucks are banned from the lower level, which has a clearance of 4.1 m. All lanes on both levels are 2.59 m wide. Vehicles carrying hazardous materials  are prohibited on the lower level due to its enclosed nature. HAZMAT-carrying vehicles may use the upper level, provided that they conform to strict guidelines as outlined in the Port Authority's Red Book.

There are two sidewalks on the upper span of the bridge, one on each side. However, cyclists and pedestrians can usually only utilize the southern sidewalk.

The George Washington Bridge measures 1,450 m long and has a main span of 1,100 m. Accounting for the height of the lower deck, the bridge stretches 65 m above mean high water at its center, and 59 m above mean high water under the New York anchorage. The bridge's main span was the longest main bridge span in the world at the time of its opening in 1931, and was nearly double the 560 m of the previous record holder, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. It held this title until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937.

The George Washington Bridge

The George Washington Bridge's total width is 36 m. The suspension towers on each side of the river are each 184 m tall. 

The bridge also contains two anchorages for the main cables. The anchorage on the New York side is a concrete structure, while the anchorage on the New Jersey side is bored directly into the cliff of the Palisades.

The George Washington Bridge is supported by a total of 105,986 wires. There are four main cables, which suspend the upper deck and are held up by the suspension towers. Each main cable contained 61 strands, with each strand made of 434 individual wires, for a total of 26,474 wires per main cable. The cables were then covered by a sheath of weather-resistant steel. The bridge uses a wire-cable design of suspension, wherein the vertical suspender wires are attached directly to the main cables and the deck directly.

More information: New Jersey Monthly

The original design for the George Washington Bridge's suspension towers called for them to be encased in concrete and granite. The granite was supposed to help support the steel structure of the towers, but because this design was yet untested, Ammann ultimately decided that the structure of the towers should be made entirely of steel, with the granite serving only as a facade.

The towers would have also contained elevators to carry sightseers to the top of each tower. However, the facades were postponed as a cost-cutting measure after the start of the Great Depression in 1929, midway through the bridge's construction. The entire weight of the bridge was supported by the steel structure, and the purely decorative masonry could be added at a later date. 

The George Washington Bridge

Even though the steel towers had been left that way for cost reasons, aesthetic critiques of the bare steel towers were favorable. Several groups, such as the American Institute of Steel Construction, believed that covering the steel framework with masonry would be both misleading and fundamentally ugly.

The masonry facades were ultimately never built; the exposed steel towers, with their distinctive criss-crossed bracing, have become one of the George Washington Bridge's most identifiable characteristics.

Since 1947 or 1948, the bridge has flown the world's largest free-flying American flag, measuring at 27 m long, 18 m wide, and 200 kg. Until 1976, the flag was taken out of a garage in New Jersey and manually erected on national holidays. During the United States' bicentennial, a mechanical hoisting system was installed, and the flag was stored along the bridge's girders when not in use.

More information: Stuff Nobody Cares About

It is hoisted on special occasions when weather allows, and appears on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. 

Governors of New Jersey and New York

Since 2006, the flag is also flown on September 11 of each year, honoring those lost in the September 11 attacks. On events where the flag is flown, the tower lights are lit from dusk until 11:59 p.m.

Emergency Medical Services are provided by the Port Authority's Tunnel and Bridge Agents, who periodically conduct drills on the bridge.

The bridge sits near the sites of Fort Washington in New York and Fort Lee in New Jersey, which were fortified positions used by General George Washington and his American forces as they attempted to deter the occupation of New York City in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. Unsuccessful, Washington evacuated Manhattan by crossing between the two forts.

The George Washington Bridge was dedicated on October 24, 1931, with a ceremony attended by 30,000 guests. The opening ceremony was accompanied by a show from military airplanes, as well as speeches from politicians including New Jersey governor Morgan Foster Larson and New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The first people to cross the George Washington Bridge were reportedly two elementary school students who roller-skated across the bridge from the New York side. Pedestrians were allowed to walk the length of the George Washington Bridge between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. The bridge was formally opened to traffic the next day.

More information: The Bowery Boys

I find that it's best to take one step at a time 

and cross each bridge as they come to you. 

Michael Stuhlbarg

1707: THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN MEETS

Scotland & England

Today, The Grandma has continued resting at home after an intensive wekend with Tonyi Tamaki and Claire Fontaine. She wanted to read a new event and she has chosen when The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707. It was the beginning of the Union between England and Scotland, a political act that could change in a few years because we live in the 21st century and it's time to historic nations to emerge with power and return to bright again.

Before reading about the Acts of Union, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 19).

More information: Word formation 1

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts created a new unified Kingdom of Great Britain and dissolved the separate English and Scottish parliaments in favour of a single parliament, located in the former home of the English parliament in the Palace of Westminster, near the City of London. This lasted nearly a century, until the Acts of Union 1800 merged the separate British and Irish Parliaments into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom with effect from 1 January 1801.

More information: United Kingdom Parliament

Following the Treaty of Union in 1706, Acts of Union ratifying the Treaty were passed in both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, which created a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts dissolved both parliaments, replacing them with a new parliament, referred to as the Parliament of Great Britain, based in the home of the former English parliament.

The House of Commons in the reign of Queen Anne

All of the traditions, procedures, and standing orders of the English parliament were retained, as were the incumbent officers, and members representing England comprised the overwhelming majority of the new body.

It was not even considered necessary to hold a new general election. While Scots law and Scottish legislation remained separate, new legislation was thereafter to be enacted by the new parliament.

After the Hanoverian King George I ascended the British throne in 1714 through the Act of Settlement of 1701, real power continued to shift away from the monarchy. George was a German ruler, spoke poor English, and remained interested in governing his dominions in continental Europe rather than in Britain. He thus entrusted power to a group of his ministers, the foremost of whom was Sir Robert Walpole, and by the end of his reign in 1727 the position of the ministers, who had to rely on Parliament for support, was cemented. 

More information: The History of Parliament

George I's successor, his son George II, continued to follow through with his father's domestic policies and made little effort to re-establish monarchical control over the government which was now in firm control by Parliament. By the end of the 18th century the monarch still had considerable influence over Parliament, which was dominated by the English aristocracy, by means of patronage, but had ceased to exert direct power: for instance, the last occasion on which the Royal Assent was withheld was in 1708 by Queen Anne.

George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland

At general elections the vote was restricted to freeholders and landowners, in constituencies that had changed little since the Middle Ages, so that in many rotten and pocket boroughs seats could be bought, while major cities remained unrepresented, except by the Knights of the Shire representing whole counties.

Reformers and Radicals sought parliamentary reform, but as the French Revolutionary Wars developed the British government became repressive against dissent and progress towards reform was stalled.

George II's successor, George III, sought to restore royal supremacy and absolute monarchy, but by the end of his reign the position of the king's ministers, who discovered that they needed the support of Parliament to enact any major changes, had become central to the role of British governance, and would remain so ever after.

During the first half of George III's reign, the monarch still had considerable influence over Parliament, which itself was dominated by the patronage and influence of the English nobility. Most candidates for the House of Commons were identified as Whigs or Tories, but once elected they formed shifting coalitions of interests rather than dividing along clear party lines. 

More information: Historic UK

At general elections the vote was restricted in most places to property owners, in constituencies which were out of date and did not reflect the growing importance of manufacturing towns or shifts of population, so that in the rotten and pocket boroughs seats in parliament could be bought from the rich landowners who controlled them, while major cities remained unrepresented. 

Reformers like William Beckford and Radicals beginning with John Wilkes called for reform of the system. In 1780, a draft programme of reform was drawn up by Charles James Fox and Thomas Brand Hollis and put forward by a sub-committee of the electors of Westminster. This included calls for the six points later adopted by the Chartists.

George III, King of Great Britain

The American Revolutionary War ended in the defeat of a foreign policy seeking to forcibly restore the thirteen American colonies to British rule which King George III had fervently advocated, and in March 1782 the king was forced to appoint an administration led by his opponents which sought to curb royal patronage.

In November 1783 he took the opportunity to use his influence in the House of Lords to defeat a bill to reform the British East India Company, dismissed the government of the day, and appointed William Pitt the Younger to form a new government. Pitt had previously called for Parliament to begin to reform itself, but he did not press for long for reforms the king did not like. Proposals Pitt made in April 1785 to redistribute seats from the rotten boroughs to London and the counties were defeated in the House of Commons by 248 votes to 174.

In the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, Radical organisations such as the London Corresponding Society sprang up to press for parliamentary reform, but as the French Revolutionary Wars developed the government took extensive repressive measures against feared domestic unrest aping the democratic and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution and progress toward reform was stalled for decades.

In 1801, the Parliament of the United Kingdom was created when the Kingdom of Great Britain was merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union 1800.

More information: BBC

Parliament of the country is the repository of the sovereign will 

of the people, and its successful functioning is a joint responsibility 

of both the government and the Opposition.

Pratibha Patil

VERA CASLAVSKA: DIGNITY AGAINST SOVIET DOMINION

Yesterday, The Grandma was resting at home all day after an intensive weekend. She preferred to stay alone at home and read a good book. She chose a biography, in that case, the biography of Věra Čáslavská, a Czech artistic gymnast who she adores.

Before reading this interesting book, The Grandma studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 18).

More information: Education and learning  I , II & III

Věra Čáslavská (3 May 1942-30 August 2016) was a Czechoslovak artistic gymnast and Czech sports official. She won a total of 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968 including seven Olympic gold medals, four world titles and eleven European championships.

Věra Čáslavská

Čáslavská is the most decorated Czech gymnast in history and is one of only two female gymnasts, along with Soviet Larisa Latynina, to win the all-around gold medal at two consecutive Olympics.

In addition to her gymnastics success, Čáslavská was known for her outspoken support of the Czechoslovak democratization movement and her opposition to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. 

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, she took this protest to the world stage by quietly looking down and away while the Soviet national anthem was played during the medal ceremonies for the balance beam and floor exercise event finals. While Čáslavská's actions were applauded by her compatriots, they resulted in her becoming a persona non grata in the new regime. She was forced into retirement and for many years was denied the right to travel, work and attend sporting events.

More information: Věra Čáslavská Foundation

Čáslavská's situation improved in the 1980s after the intervention of members of the International Olympic Committee, and following the Velvet Revolution her status improved dramatically. During the 1990s she held several positions of honor, including a term as president of the Czech Olympic Committee.

Born in Prague and originally a figure skater, Čáslavská debuted internationally in 1958 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, winning a silver medal in the team event. Her first international title came the following year at the European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she won gold on the vault and silver on the balance beam.

Věra Čáslavská

She first participated in the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, winning a silver medal with the Czechoslovak team, and then won bronze in the all around event at the 1961 European Championships.

She fought for the all-around title at home in the 1962 World Championships, held off only by Larisa Latynina, and managed to win her first world title, in the vault. She did not compete at the 1963 European Championships in Paris. Between 1964 and 1968 Čáslavská won 19 individual gold medals in major international competitions. She was at her peak at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, winning the overall title and taking gold medals in the balance beam and the vault, in addition to another silver medal in the team event.

At the 1966 World Championships, Čáslavská defended her vault title, winning a team gold, breaking the Soviet monopoly in that event, and became all-around world champion. Čáslavská dominated the 1965 and 1967 European Championships, taking all five individual titles and scoring perfect scores of 10 in 1967.

Prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Čáslavská lost her training facility due to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Instead, she used potato sacks as weights and logs as beams whilst training in the forests of Moravia.

More information: BBC

She was again dominant at the 1968 Summer Olympics, winning medals in all six events. She defended her all-around title and won additional gold medals on the floor, uneven bars and vault, as well as two silvers, for the team competition and balance beam. Her use of the Jarabe tapatío as the music for her floor routine and her subsequent marriage in the city made her immensely popular with the Mexican crowd.

Čáslavská's wins at the 1968 Olympics were particularly poignant because of the political turmoil in Czechoslovakia. She had publicly voiced her strong opposition to Soviet-style Communism and the Soviet invasion, and had signed Ludvik Vaculík's protest manifesto Two Thousand Words in the spring of 1968. 

Věra Čáslavská

Consequently, to avoid being arrested, she spent the weeks leading up to the Olympics hiding in the mountain town of Šumperk, and was only granted permission to travel to Mexico City at the last minute.

At the Olympics, where she once again faced Soviet opposition, Čáslavská continued to subtly voice her views. After she appeared to have won the gold medal on floor outright, the judging panel curiously upgraded the preliminary scores of Soviet Larisa Petrik, and declared a tie for the gold instead. 

All of this occurred on the heels of another very controversial judging decision that cost Čáslavská the gold on beam, instead awarding the title to Soviet rival Natalia Kuchinskaya. Clearly disheartened and angered by the politics that favored the USSR, she protested during both medal ceremonies by quietly turning her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem.

More information: Czech Radio

Čáslavská was revered by Czech people for her brave demonstration on the world's biggest stage, and she was awarded Czechoslovakia's Sportsperson of the Year award in 1968, for the fourth and final time. Her federation, however, was none too pleased.

For her consistent support of the Czechoslovak democratization movement, the so-called Prague Spring, in 1968, and during the purges which followed the Soviet-led invasion in August 1968, she was deprived of the right to travel abroad and participate in public sport events both in Czechoslovakia and abroad. Čáslavská was effectively forced into retirement, and was considered a persona non grata for many years in her home country.

Věra Čáslavská

Czechoslovak authorities refused to publish her autobiography, and insisted that it be heavily censored when it was released in Japan. She was granted leave to work as a coach in Mexico, but reportedly only when the Mexican government threatened to cease oil exports to Czechoslovakia. 

In the late 1980s, following pressure from Juan Antonio Samaranch, the then president of the International Olympic Committee, who had presented her with the Olympic Order, Čáslavská was finally allowed to work as a gymnastics coach and judge in her home country.

After the fall of Communism, the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, Čáslavská's status improved dramatically. She became President Havel's adviser on sports and social matters and Honorary President of the Czech-Japan Association. Later, after leaving the President's Office, she was elected President of the Czech Olympic Committee. In 1995, she was appointed to the IOC membership committee.

Čáslavská received numerous accolades for her contributions to the sport of gymnastics. In addition to the Olympic Order, she was awarded a 1989 Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy by UNESCO and was noted at the ceremony for her exemplary dignity. In 1995, she was honored with the Czech Republic's Medal of Merit. She was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2010, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class. She was also presented a 17th-century katana and a ceremonial kimono from the Japanese emperor.

In 2014, she was the joint recipient, with AP journalist Iva Drapolova, of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award, awarded annually by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and Global Panel Foundation, for outstanding civic courage.

More information: The Telegraph

Gymnastics has become degraded as 

the participants have become younger. 

Once it was a sport of grace for women, 

never for little girls.
 

Věra Čáslavská

VISITING THE MODERNISM PARTY IN THE COLÒNIA GÜELL

Castellers de Sants & The Grandma

Today, The Grandma has had an intensive day. In the morning, she has visited some old friends who are members of Castellers de Sants, a human towers group which celebrates its 25th anniversary.

In the afternoon, The Grandma has gone to Colònia Güell to visit the Modernism party. She has been with Claire Fontaine and Tonyi Tamaki and they have spent a nice afternoon talking with an old friend, Cristina Poppins. She has realized that she has done in 2018 the same travel that Eusebi Güell did in 1890, from Sants to Santa Coloma de Cervelló.

During the travel from Sants to the Colònia Güell, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 17).

More information: Feelings and opinions

Colònia Güell (Güell's Colony) is a population center located in the Baix Llobregat region. Belongs to the municipality of Santa Coloma de Cervelló. It stands out to be one of the largest colonies of the Llobregat, due to its architectural quality and because it is exclusively driven by steam power in its origins, compared to other colonies, mainly driven by hydraulic energy.

The construction maker Francesc Berenguer i Mestres and the architect Joan Rubió i Bellver took part in the construction. Antoni Gaudí projected the church, in which Berenguer, Rubió and Canaleta also worked.

The Grandma in the Colònia Güell

It has been declared a Cultural Good of National Interest, in the category of Historic Ensemble in 1991. The church, otherwise called the crypt of Gaudí, has been declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 2005.

More information: UNESCO

The Church of Colònia Güell is an unfinished work by Antoni Gaudí. It was built as a place of worship for the people in a manufacturing suburb in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, near Barcelona. Colònia Güell was the brainchild of Count Eusebi de Güell; however, with Güell losing profits from his business, the money was depleted and only the crypt was completed.

More information: Colònia Güell

Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, 1st Count of Güell (15 December 1846-8 July 1918) was a Catalan entrepreneur who profited greatly from the industrial revolution in Catalonia in the late 19th century. He married Luisa Isabel Lopez y Bru, a daughter of Antonio López y López first Marquis of Comillas, in 1871 and the couple had ten children. One of Güell's daughters, Isabel Güell i López, became a noted composer.

Güell was born in Barcelona and was the son of Joan Güell i Ferrer, a wealthy industrialist from Torredembarra who had amassed considerable riches during his stay in Cuba and thanks to the numerous activities established at his return in Barcelona. His mother, Francesca Bacigalupi i Dolcer, was a member of an ancient merchant family from Genoa who had moved to Catalonia in the late 18th century.

The Grandma & Eusebi Güell in the Colònia Güell

Güell took over his father's business, which was predominantly in textiles, and added to the family's wealth.  

Güell met the young architect, Antoni Gaudí, following a visit to the World Fair held in Paris in 1878, where he had seen Gaudí's work at the Spanish Pavilion. The pair become lifelong friends and associates and found that they had mutual interests, including religion, both were devout Catholics. 

Güell became a Mediciesque patron to architect Antoni Gaudí. Their many collaborations began at the start of Gaudí's career, when Güell saw Gaudí as the man who could provide him with uniquely designed buildings.

Among Güell's early commissions for the aspiring architect were the Bodega Güell, winery, at Garraf, the Pavellons Güell and Park Güell which was originally the Güell family home and only later bequeathed to the state.

Download Colònia Güell Guide

In 1890, Güell moved his textile factory from Sants to Santa Coloma de Cervelló, north of Barcelona. There he established a worker's colony along the lines of the British worker's colonies which had been built in the late nineteenth century. The colony or village at Santa Coloma, now known as Colònia Güell, was built with high socialist ideals; homes with larger than average rooms, wide windows and good ventilation so that the textile workers and their families could enjoy comfortable living conditions. 

Old memories in the Colònia Güell

The village was to be relatively self-contained and included shops, cafes, a theatre, library and a school, only for boys. In 1890, Gaudí was commissioned to build a church and crypt on the hill overlooking the village.

However, Güell ran into financial difficulties and the project was eventually abandoned. In spite of its unfinished status, the work is a masterpiece and demonstrates many of Gaudí's signature architectural devices including catenary arches and tessellated finishes. The village, which is still fully operational boasts many fine examples of modernist architecture.

Reportedly on one occasion Gaudí said to Güell, Sometimes I think we are the only people who like this architecture. Güell replied, I don't like your architecture, I respect it.

in 1900, Güell bought land in Gràcia, Barcelona and employed Gaudí to build an estate for the rich. At that time, the area was considered to be remote and the project failed to realize commercial success. Only two houses were built. In 1923, the Güell family gave the land to the city, as Park Güell.

King Alfonso XIII ennobled Eusebi Güell as count in 1908. He died in his house in Park Güell in 1918.

More information: The Culture Trip

Anything created by human beings 

is already in the great book of nature.

Antoni Gaudí

ENJOYING BARTOMEU ROSSELLÓ-PÒRCEL IN SANT CUGAT

18th National Poetry Festival

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have travelled to Sant Cugat del Vallès to listen to a wonderful event of the 18th National Poetry Festival dedicated to the Majorcan poet Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel.

With the collaboration of the Mallorcan writer Biel Mesquida and the Majorcan singer Maria del Mar Bonet, Claire and The Grandma has enjoyed with songs and poems written by Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel but also by his closer friends Josep Palau i Fabre and Salvador Espriu.

During the travel from Cornellà de Llobregat to Sant Cugat del Vallès, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 16).

More information: Money I & II

 

Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel (3 August 1913 in Palma, Majorca-5 January 1938 in El Brull, Barcelona) was a Majorcan poet, who wrote in Catalan. He completed his bachelor's degree in arts and philosophy in Barcelona and his PhD degree in Madrid. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. His poetry is well-recognized and admired by critics and readers, especially his hermetic poems with fire like a symbolic element.

Download Thirteen Poems by Bartomeu Rossello-Pòrcel

Salvador Espriu i Castelló (July 10, 1913-February 22, 1985) was a Catalan poet who wrote most of his works in Catalan. Espriu was born in Santa Coloma de Farners, Catalonia, Spain. He was the son of an attorney. He spent his childhood between his home town, Barcelona, and Arenys de Mar, a village on the Maresme coast.

Rosselló-Pòrcel, Palau i Fabre and Espriu

At the age of sixteen, he published his first book, Israel, written in Spanish. In 1930 he entered the University of Barcelona, where he studied law and ancient history.

While traveling (1933) to Egypt, Greece and Palestine, he became acquainted with the countries that originated the great classical myths, and which would be so influential in his work.

During his acceptance of the International Catalonia prize, renowned literary critic Harold Bloom called Espriu an extraordinary poet by any international standard, and later said The Nobel committee is guilty of many errors, and one of those was not to have given the prize to Salvador Espriu. I believe he deserved it.

More info: Visat-Salvador Espriu

Josep Palau i Fabre (Barcelona, April 21, 1917-February 23) was a  Catalan poet and writer. He was a representative of Catalan literature during the post-World War period and a world expert on the work of Pablo Picasso.

The son of a painter and decorator, towards the end of the 1930s Fabre began his literary career by writing poetry. He studied Arts at the University of Barcelona, and, during the 1950s, he was an active collaborator in various literary magazines such as Poesia and Ariel as well as being an editor at the La serena publishing house. 

Maria del Mar Bonet and Biel Mesquida

A scholarship from the French government drew Fabre to Paris in 1945, where he lived until 1951. Afterward, he revoked his Spanish citizenship so that he could be classified as a political refugee.

In addition to poetry, he wrote plays, short stories and essays, among them it is worth mentioning those on Pablo Picasso. His fictional world draws on eroticism, showing strong dimensions other than those of the standard idea of reality and harshly criticising the idea of a self-satisfied, mediocre society. 

Fabre was, moreover, an active translator, translating into Catalan works by Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud, Honoré de Balzac, and the book Letters of a Portuguese Nun. His own books have been translated into several languages.

Fabre died at the Hospital de la Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona aged 90 years and was buried in the municipal cemetery in Caldes d'Estrac.

More information: Visat-Josep Palau i Fabre

Sant Cugat del Vallès is a town and municipality north of Barcelona in Catalonia. Known as Castrum Octavianum in antiquity, which literally means the castle of Octavianus, it is named after Saint Cucuphas, who is said to have been martyred on the spot now occupied by its medieval monastery. The final part of its toponym, del Vallès, is a reference to the historical county where the town is situated, Vallès.

 Clay and lime. Windows
of the house closed,
When I return, from the afternoon,
turning me up.

Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel