(Encyclopedia) Maginn, WilliamMaginn, Williamməgĭnˈ [key], 1793–1842, Irish writer. Some of his best stories and essays appeared in Blackwood's Magazine. His short story “Bob Burke's Duel with Ensign…
(Encyclopedia) Windsor LocksWindsor Lockswĭnˈzər [key], town (1990 pop. 12,358), Hartford co., N Conn., on the Connecticut River; settled 1663, set off from Windsor and inc. 1854. Once a tobacco-…
U.S. politician, public officialBorn: 1946Birthplace: New York City Whitman was elected Governor of New Jersey (which has off-year elections) in 1993 and served in the post until 2000 when…
(Encyclopedia) nutation, in astronomy, a slight wobbling motion of the earth's axis. The causes of nutation are similar to those of the precession of the equinoxes, involving the varying attraction…
(Encyclopedia) GothamGothamgŏthˈəm [key], name for New York City first used by Washington Irving and others in the Salmagundi Papers, with satirical reference to Gotham, England, where the wise men…
(Encyclopedia) hairdressing, arranging of the hair for decorative, ceremonial, or symbolic reasons. Primitive men plastered their hair with clay and tied trophies and badges into it to represent…
(Encyclopedia) Breuer, Lee,1937-2021, American theater director, b. Philadelphia, PA, as Esser Leopold Breuer. Theatrical director and cofounder of experimental theater troupe, the Mabou Mines,…
(Encyclopedia) vaudevillevaudevillevôdˈvĭl [key], originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. Similar…
(Encyclopedia) reggae, Jamaican popular music that developed in the 1960s among Kingston's poor blacks, drawing on American “soul” music and traditional African and Jamaican folk music and ska (a…