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Leyner, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Leyner, Mark, 1956–, American writer, b. Jersey City, N.J. His hyperliterate postmodernist short stories, collected in I Smell Esther Williams (1983), My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (1990), and To...

Mitchell, Joni

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Joni, 1943–, Canadian-American songwriter, singer, guitarist, poet, and painter, b. MacLeod (now Fort Macleod), Alta., as Roberta Joan Ander...

Lumet, Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Lumet, Sidney lo͞o-mĕtˈ [key], 1924–2011, one of the great American film directors of the 20th cent., b. Philadelphia. A child actor in New York's Yiddish radio and theater and (1935–41) on Bro...

carnivore

(Encyclopedia)carnivore kärˈnəvôrˌ [key], term commonly applied to any animal whose diet consists wholly or largely of animal matter. In animal systematics it refers to members of the mammalian order Carnivora...

lightship

(Encyclopedia)lightship, moored vessel bearing lights and other signal devices to guide ships and warn of hazards to navigation. Lightships are generally stationed at points where a lighthouse cannot be erected; th...

Hobson, John Atkinson

(Encyclopedia)Hobson, John Atkinson, 1858–1940, English economist and journalist. He achieved wide popularity as a lecturer and writer. Criticizing classical economics, which centered on man's mechanical response...

Escoffier, Georges Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Escoffier, Georges Auguste zhôrzh ôgüstˈ ĕskôfyāˈ [key], 1846–1935, French authority on cooking. Regarded by some as the greatest chef in history, he went to work at the age of 13 in his unc...

Brodie, Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Brodie, Bernard, 1910–78, American military strategist, b. Chicago. Brodie edited The Absolute Weapon (1946), the first book on nuclear strategy, and was a strategic theorist at the Rand Corporation...

mushroom

(Encyclopedia)CE5 The poisonous mushroom Amanita mushroom, type of basidium fungus characterized by spore-bearing gills on the underside of the umbrella- or cone-shaped cap. The name toadstool is popularly rese...

Hoffman, Dustin

(Encyclopedia)Hoffman, Dustin hŏfˈmən, hôfˈ– [key], 1937–, American actor, b. Los Angeles. Not glamorous in the manner of earlier stars, Hoffman began on Broadway, but gained widespread popularity with his...