James C. Petrillo (March 16, 1892 - October 23, 1984) was the prominent leader of the United States of America's labor union of professional musicians.
James Caesar Petrillo was born in Chicago, Illinois. Though in his youth Petrillo played the trumpet, he finally made a career out of organizing musicians into the union starting in 1919.
Petrillo became president of the Chicago local of the musician's union in 1922, and was president of the American Federation of Musicians from 1940 to 1958. He continued being the prime force in the Union for another decade; in the 1960s he was head of the Union's "Civil Rights Division", which saw to the desegregation of the local unions and the venues where musicians played.
Petrillo dominated the union with absolute authority. His most famous actions were banning all commercial recordings by union members from 1942 - 1944 and again in 1948 to pressure record companies to give better royalty deals to musicians; these were called the Petrillo Bans.
Petrillo's reputation even got him a now obscure pop-culture mention in the 1950 Warner Brothers animated short Hurdy-Gurdy Hare starring Bugs Bunny. The cartoon ends with Bugs making large amounts of money by having a [presumably non-union] monkey turn a street organ, during which he quips, "I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this!"
The Petrillo Bandshell, in Chicago's Grant Park, is named after James Petrillo.

Biography
Black's weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular weblogs for left wing politics in the United States. that the FEC might not apply the act's "media exemption" to blogs, which he regarded as equivalent to other forms of media including online magazines.

Recurring content

Black is one of two real-life people portrayed by actors on The West Wing. The other was Lawrence Lessig.

Samoan can refer to:
The Samoan Islands, and island chain made up of:

• Samoa
  American Samoa
  The Samoan people
  The Samoan language
  Samoan American

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous U.S. editions The Guinness Book of World Records), is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of world records, both human achievements and the extreme of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series.

Origins
Recent editions have focused on record feats by human competitors. Competitions range from obvious ones such as weightlifting to the more entertaining such as longest egg-throwing distance or the number of hot dogs that can be consumed in ten minutes - although eating contest and beer and alcohol consumption entries are no longer accepted, possibly for fear of litigation. Besides records about competitions, it contains such facts as the heaviest tumor, the most poisonous plant, the shortest river (Roe River), the longest-running drama (Guiding Light), the longest serving members of a drama series (William Roache for Coronation Street in the UK, Kate Ritchie and Ray Meagher for Home and Away in Australia), the world's most successful salesman (Joe Girard) and the only brother and sister to have solo number one singles in UK chart history (Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield). Many records also relate to the youngest person who achieved something, such as the youngest person to visit all nations of the world, being Maurizio Giuliano.
On 9 January 2007, Guinness announced it was working with AskMeNow to offer mobile access to the Guinness World Records databases. The company has been collaborating with the UK-based firm Texperts for several years already, and it offers both companies exclusive access to their database.

Museums

Ashrita Furman of Queens, New York, who is generally recognized as the individual with the most current records, although Guinness no longer counts having the most records as a Guinness record itself.
List of world records
Ripley's Believe It or Not!

This article is about the White Mountains of New Hampshire. For other uses of the term, please see White Mountains (disambiguation).
The White Mountains are a mountain range that covers about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and New York City.
Most of the area is public land, including the White Mountain National Forest as well as a number of state parks. Its most famous peak is Mount Washington, which at 6,288 feet (1916 m) is the highest mountain in the Northeastern U.S. and home to the fastest winds (231 mph or 372 km/h, over 100 m/s, in 1934) measured on the surface of the earth. Mount Washington is one of a group called the Presidential Range, many of which are named after U.S. presidents and other prominent Americans.
The range included the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation on Cannon Mountain that resembled the craggy profile of a man until it fell in May 2003. It remains the state symbol of New Hampshire. The range also includes a natural feature dubbed "The Basin." The Basin area consists of a granite bowl, twenty feet in diameter, fed by a waterfall, worn smooth by the Pemigewasset River. The areas around "The Basin" are also popular spots for swimming in the ice cold mountain fed water.
The range is known for the system of huts for hikers, operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The Appalachian Trail crosses the area from southwest to northeast.
The range is crossed by two north-south highway routes (U.S. Route 3 and Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch, and New Hampshire Route 16 through Pinkham Notch), and two east-west roads (the Kancamagus Highway, part of New Hampshire Route 112, through Kancamagus Pass, and U.S. Route 302 through Crawford Notch). The White Mountains includes several smaller groups including the Presidential Range, Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter-Moriah Range, Kinsman Range and Pilot Range.



Literature

Four-thousand footers
White Mountains Region
List of mountains in New Hampshire
List of notches in New Hampshire
Vegetation of New England

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947 in Astoria, New York City) is an American singer-songwriter.
Usually known professionally simply as Melanie, she is best known for her hits, "Brand New Key", "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma". Melanie has sold over 25 million records over the course of her career.

Early career
In 1976 Melanie released one album on Atlantic Records, Photograph, which was overseen by Ahmet Ertegün. The album was praised by the New York Times as one of the year's best, although it was largely ignored by the public. It was re-issued on CD in 2005 with an additional disc of unreleased material. In the 1980s the Quaker Oats Company used a version of "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" in their commercials for Instant Oatmeal, with the revised lyrics "Look what they've done to my oatmeal". In 1989 she won an Emmy Award for writing the lyrics to "The First Time I Loved Forever", the theme song for the Beauty and the Beast.
Melanie has released almost one album a year since 1969. With one exception, her albums have been produced by her husband, Peter Schekeryk. Her three children — Leilah, Jeordie and Beau-Jarred — are also musicians. Beau-Jarred is a guitarist and accompanies his mother on tour.
Melanie's most recent album, Paled by Dimmer Light, was released in 2004. It was co-produced by Peter and Beau-Jarred Schekeryk and includes the songs "To Be the One", "Extraordinary", "Make It Work" and "I Tried to Die Young". In early 2005 most of Melanie's back-catalogue was re-released on the Internet-only music label ItsAboutMusic.com. After a series of disagreements the relationship between the artist and the label was severed. From 2007, the majority of Melanie's albums were available for download from her official website.
Melanie was recently invited by Jarvis Cocker to perform at the Meltdown (festival) at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Her sold-out performance received critical acclaim with The Independent claiming "it was hard to disagree that Melanie has earned her place alongside Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Marianne Faithfull in the pantheon of iconic female singers. Meltdown was all the better for her presence". The concert was filmed for a DVD entitled Melanie: For One Night Only to be released in September 2007.

Later career
Melanie identifies herself politically as a Libertarian rather than anything else, stating: "I'm a total Libertarian, and I am not a Democrat, a Socialist, or a Republican." For a short while, in the beginning of her career, Melanie was a follower of Meher Baba and this influenced many of her songs (such as, "Love to Lose Again" and "Candles in the Rain"). Over time she became disenchanted with other followers and then disassociated herself from Meher Baba. Recently she had a life-altering experience with Amma, the hugging saint from India.
Melanie currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

Personal
Many notable artists have covered Melanie's compositions:

Ray Charles released a cover of Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" in 1972. The song has also been covered by Billie Jo Spears.
The New Seekers covered several of Melanie's songs; "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", "Beautiful People" and "The Nickel Song" among them.
In 1971 Mott The Hoople covered "Lay Down" on their Wildlife album. In 1999, American artist Meredith Brooks covered the song with backing vocals by Queen Latifah. The song was also covered by Max Sharam in 1995 and became a Top 40 hit in Australia.
Emiliana Torrini covered "I Really Loved Harold" on her 1996 album Merman. She has also recorded a version of "Lay Down".
The 2003 Australian hip-hop track "The Nosebleed Section" by The Hilltop Hoods sampled Melanie's "People In The Front Row".
Will Oldham (also known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) covered Melanie's "(Some Say) I Got Devil" on his 2006 album The Brave and the Bold.
An 11-year old Björk covered Melanie's 'Christopher Robin' in Icelandic on her debut album, Björk.
Cissy Houston has covered Melanie's "Any Guy".
Macy Gray, Dolly Parton and Cher have all performed "Brand New Key" in concert (the latter on The Sonny And Cher Show).
Country singer Deana Carter covered "Brand New Key" on her 1999 Top 10 album Everything's Gonna Be Alright.
Yugoslav rock band Bajaga i Instruktori released a cover of Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma", with lyrics in Serbian, named "Vidi šta sam ti uradio od pesme, mama" in 1985.
The cellist band Rasputina covered "Brand New Key" on their album Thanks for the Ether.
Female-fronted punk trio The Dollyrots covered "Brand New Key" on their album Because I'm Awesome
Alison Moyet performs Melanie's 'Momma Momma' on her live DVD One Blue Voice. Singles

Lyrics for the theme song of the Beauty and the Beast television series.
Recorded "I've Got New York" on The 6ths' Hyacinths and Thistles, 2000

Michael Barone (b. 1944 in Highland Park, Michigan) is an American political analyst and commentator. He is best known for being the principal author of The Almanac of American Politics, a reference work concerning US governors and federal politicians, and published biannually by National Journal. The Almanac contains documentation on the history, demographics, and political culture of each state and congressional district. Mr. Barone is a regular television commentator on U.S. elections and political trends.

Career
Mr. Barone is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and a frequent contributor for the Fox News Channel. Barone's stated political views are generally conservative. He has said he is not a religious believer, although he is sympathetic to and respectful of socially conservative religious believers.
One of the emphases of his commentary has been immigration. Perhaps partly as a result of his being a descendant of Italian immigrants, Barone takes an optimistic view of contemporary immigration into the US. He says that Hispanic immigration has parallels to the Italian experience and that, given the right circumstances, that current and future Hispanic and other immigrants can become Americanized and assimilated, just as the Italians were.
He is the author of several books:

Our Country : the shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan (Free Press, 1990)
The New Americans : how the melting pot can work again (Regnery Pub., 2001)
Hard America, Soft America : competition vs. coddling and the battle for the nation's future (Crown Forum, 2004)
Our First Revolution: the remarkable British uprising that inspired America's founding fathers (Crown Publishers, 2007), a history of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and how it led to the the American Revolution.