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commercial paper

(Encyclopedia)commercial paper, type of short-term negotiable instrument, usually an unsecured promissory note, that calls for the payment of money at a specified date. Because it is not backed by collateral, comme...

Rubinstein, Anton Grigoryevich

(Encyclopedia)Rubinstein, Anton Grigoryevich əntônˈ grîgôrˈyəvĭch ro͞oˈbĭnstīn [key], 1829–94, Russian pianist, composer, and educator. As a piano virtuoso he was celebrated for his perfect technique ...

Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in

(Encyclopedia)Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in tsouˈ shyĕˈchĭnˈ [key], 1715–63, Chinese novelist. He is the author of Story of the Stone (or A Dream of Red Mansions), which is considered China's greatest novel. After his ...

Récamier, Juliette

(Encyclopedia)Récamier, Juliette zhülyĕtˈ rākämyāˈ [key], 1777–1849, celebrated French beauty and social figure, née Jeanne Françoise Julie Adelaïde Bernard. At 15 she married Jacques Récamier, a weal...

obscenity

(Encyclopedia)obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the wo...

Villanovan culture

(Encyclopedia)Villanovan culture, the culture of a people of N Italy in the early Iron Age (c.1100–700 b.c.). The term is derived from the town of Villanova, near Bologna, where the first excavations of a Villano...

Winchell, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Winchell, Walter, 1897–1972, journalist and broadcaster, b. New York City as Walter Winchel. He performed in vaudeville, and adopted a marquee's misspelling of his surname. After serving two years i...

bilingual education

(Encyclopedia)bilingual education, the sanctioned use of more than one language in U.S. education. The Bilingual Education Act (1968), combined with a Supreme Court decision (1974) mandating help for students with ...

Carman, Bliss

(Encyclopedia)Carman, Bliss kärˈmən [key], 1861–1929, Canadian poet, b. Fredericton, N.B. He studied at the universities of New Brunswick and Edinburgh and at Harvard. While at Harvard (1886–88) he began a f...

Bliss, Tasker Howard

(Encyclopedia)Bliss, Tasker Howard, 1853–1930, American army officer and statesman, b. Lewisburg, Pa., grad. West Point, 1875. He was (1898) chief of staff to Gen. James H. Wilson in the Puerto Rico campaign of t...