title: Empress Dowager Cixi

texts:
 the continuation of the Qing dynasty, rather than allowing it to be overthrown. Cixi turned once more to Li Hongzhang to negotiate. Li agreed to sign the Boxer Protocol, which stipulated the presence of an international military force in Beijing and the payment of £67 million (almost $333 million) in war reparations. The United States used its share of the war indemnity to fund the creation of China's prestigious Tsinghua University. The Guangxu Emperor and Cixi did not return to Beijing from Xi'an until roughly 18 months after their flight. Return to Beijing and reforms

In January 1902, <mask>, the Guangxu Emperor, the empress and the rest of the court made a ceremonious return to Beijing.At the railhead at Chengtingfu, Cixi and the court boarded a 21-car train to convey them the rest of the way to the capital. In Beijing, many of the legation women turned out to watch the procession from the Beijing railway station to the Forbidden City, and for the first time, commoners were permitted to watch as well. Once back in the palace, Cixi implemented sweeping political reforms. High officials were dispatched to Japan and Europe to gather facts and draw up plans for sweeping administrative reforms in law, education, government structure, and social policy, many of which were modeled on the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. The abolition of the examination system in 1905 was only the most visible of these sweeping reforms. Ironically, Cixi sponsored the implementation of the New Policies, a reform program more radical than the one proposed by the reformers she had beheaded in 1898. In


title: Empress Dowager Cixi

type: original

texts:
 an attempt to woo foreigners, Cixi also invited the wives of the diplomatic corps to a tea in the Forbidden City soon after her return, and in time, would hold summer garden parties for the foreign community at the Summer Palace.In 1903, she acquiesced to the request of Sarah Conger, wife of Edwin H. Conger, the U.S. Ambassador to China, to have her portrait painted by American artist Katharine Carl for the St. Louis World's Fair. Between 1903 and 1905, Cixi had a Western-educated lady-in-waiting by the name of Yu Deling, along with her sister and mother, serve at her court. Yu Deling, fluent in English and French, as well as Chinese, often served as translator at meetings with the wives of the diplomatic corps. In 1903, Cixi allowed a young aristocratic photographer named Yu Xunling, a brother of Yu Deling, to take elaborately staged shots of her and her court. They were designed to convey imperial authority, aesthetic refinement, and religious piety. As the only photographic series taken of <mask> – the supreme leader of China for more than 45 years – it represents a unique convergence of Qing court pictorial traditions, modern photographic techniques, and Western standards of artistic portraiture.The rare glass plates have been blown up into full-size images, included in the exhibition "The Empress Dowager" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Xuantong era

Empress Dowager <mask> died in the Hall of Graceful Bird at the Middle Sea () of Zhongnanhai, Beijing, on 15 November 1908, after having installed Puyi as the new emperor on 14 November

masks: Cixi Cixi


title: Empress Dowager Cixi

texts: 1908. Her death came only a day after the death of the Guangxu Emperor. Radicals greeted the news with scorn. The anarchist Wu Zhihui, who had leveled some of the most vitriol at Cixi in life, wrote from exile in Paris of the "vixen empress and vermin emperor" that "their lingering stench makes me vomit." On 4 November 2008, forensic tests concluded that the Guangxu Emperor died from acute arsenic poisoning. China Daily quoted an historian, Dai Yi, who speculated that Cixi may have known of her imminent death and may have worried that the Guangxu Emperor would continue his reforms after her death. It was reported in November 2008 that the level of arsenic in his remains was 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people.Empress Dowager Cixi was interred amidst the Eastern Qing tombs,  east of Beijing, in the Eastern Ding Mausoleum (), along with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Empress Dowager Ci'an lies in the Puxiangyu Eastern Ding Mausoleum (; lit. "Tomb East of the Ding Mausoleum in the Broad Valley of Good Omen"), while Empress Dowager Cixi built herself the much larger Putuoyu Eastern Ding Mausoleum (; lit. "Tomb East of the Ding Mausoleum in the Putuo Valley"). The Ding Mausoleum (lit. "Tomb of Quietude"), where the Xianfeng Emperor is buried, is located west of the Dingdongling. The Putuo Valley owes its name to Mount Putuo, one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China.Empress Dowager <mask>, unsatisfied with her tomb, ordered its destruction and reconstruction in 1895. The new tomb was a complex of temples, gates, and pavilions, covered with gold leaf, and with gold and


title: Empress Dowager Cixi

texts:
 gilded-bronze ornaments hanging from the beams and the eaves. In July 1928, <mask>'s tomb was plundered by the warlord Sun Dianying and his army as part of the looting of the Eastern Mausoleum. They methodically stripped the complex of its precious ornaments, then dynamited the entrance to the burial chamber, opened Cixi's coffin, threw her corpse (said to have been found intact) on the ground, and stole the jewels contained in the coffin. They also took the massive pearl that had been placed in the empress dowager's mouth to protect her corpse from decomposing (in accordance with Chinese tradition). Sun Dianying claimed the desecration was revenge for the death of his ancestor Sun Chengzong in 1638. Puyi had his grandmother's remains reburied.After 1949, the complex of Empress Dowager <mask>'s tomb was restored by the Chinese government. Appraisal

For many years, the mainstream view of Empress Dowager Cixi was that she was a devious despot who contributed in no small part to China's slide into corruption, anarchy, and revolution. Cixi used her power to accumulate vast quantities of money, bullion, antiques and jewelry, using the revenues of the state as her own. The long-time China journalist Jasper Becker recalled that "every visitor to the Summer Palace is shown the beautiful lakeside pavilion in the shape of an elegant marble pleasure boat and told how Cixi spent funds destined for the imperial navy on such extravagant fripperies—which ultimately led to Japan's victory over China in 1895 and the loss of Taiwan". Yet even after the violent anti-foreign Boxer movement and


title: Empress Dowager Cixi

texts:
 Review of Books that Chang's claims "seem to be minted from her own musings, and have little to do with what we know was actually going in China".Although Crossley was sympathetic to restoring women's place in Chinese history, she found "rewriting Cixi as Catherine the Great or Margaret Thatcher is a poor bargain: the gain of an illusory icon at the expense of historical sense". Titles and honours

Titles
 During the reign of the Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820–1850):
 Lady Yehe Nara (from 29 November 1835)
 During the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861):
 Noble Lady Lan (; from 26 June 1852), sixth rank consort
 Imperial Concubine Yi (; from 28 February 1854), fifth rank consort
 Consort Yi (; from 27 April 1856), fourth rank consort
 Noble Consort Yi (; from January/February 1857), third rank consort
 During the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861–1875):
 Empress Dowager <mask> (; from 22 August 1861)
 During the reign of the Xuantong Emperor (r. 1908–1912):
 Grand Empress Dowager Cixi (; from 14 November 1908)
 Empress Xiaoqinxian (; from 16 November 1909)

Honours
 Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown (Empire of Japan). Family
 Father: Yehenara Huizheng (; 1805–1853)
 Paternal grandfather: Jingrui ()
 Paternal grandmother: Lady Gūwalgiya
 Mother: Lady Fuca
 Maternal grandfather: Huixian ()
 Three younger brothers
 Second younger brother: Guixiang (; 1849–1913), served as first rank military official (), and held the title of a third class duke (), the father of Empress Xiao Ding Jing (1868–1913)
 One younger sister
 Second younger sister: Wanzhen


title: Empress Dowager Cixi

texts:
 California, Berkeley. Online resource.Zhang, Zhan. "Cixi and Modernization of China." Asian Social Science 6.4 (2010): 154+. online

External links

 <mask>, Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908, Photographs, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. Cixi (Character) IMDb List of films in which she is a character. Jone Johnson Lewis,Empress Cixi About.com Women's History. Cixi – Biography of Dowager Empress of China Cixi or Tz'u-hsi at womenshistory.about.com
 Isaac Taylor Headland, Court Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and People, (New York, F.H.Revell, c1909). Amanda Bensen, "Cixi: The Woman Behind the Throne", Smithsonian.com (1 March 2008). Describes the rethinking of Cixi, with further links. 1835 births
1908 deaths
Chinese grand empresses dowager
Qing dynasty empresses dowager
Women leaders of China
Qing dynasty imperial consorts
Qing dynasty regents
Chinese people of the Boxer Rebellion
Manchu people
Qing dynasty politicians from Beijing
Grand Cordons of the Order of the Precious Crown
19th-century Chinese people
20th-century Chinese people
19th-century viceregal rulers
19th-century women rulers
20th-century Chinese heads of government
20th-century women rulers
19th-century rulers in Asia
20th-century rulers in


title: Maja Trochimczyk

texts: <mask> (born <mask>; 30 December 1957 in Warsaw, Poland, other name: Maria Anna Harley) is an American music historian, writer and poet of Polish descent. She published six poetry books: Rose Always – A Love Story, 2017;  Miriam's Iris, or Angels in the Garden, 2008; Slicing the Bread: Children's Survival Manual in 25 Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2014); Into Light: Poems and Incantations; The Rainy Bread – Poems from Exile,, 2016; an anthology Chopin with Cherries, 2010), and a multi-faith anthology Meditations on Divine Names. Her poems and photographs appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including: Clockwise Cat,", "Ekphrasis, Epiphany Magazine,", the Lily Review, Loch Raven Review, Magnapoets, Quill and Parchment, Phantom Seed, poeticdiversity, Sage Trail, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, The Original Van Gogh's Ear Anthology, Poetry Super Highway, The Scream Online, The Houston Literary Review, and other venues. She may be heard discussing her poetry on KPFK's Poets' Cafe, interviewed by Lois P. Jones in 2011. Video recordings of Trochimczyk's poetry are found on YouTube channel of Moonrise Press and Poetry LA. As a music historian, she published six books of music studies and essays: After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music (USC, 2000); The Music of Louis Andriessen  (Routledge, 2002) including interviews with the composer and analyses of his music; Polish Dance in California (Columbia UP, East European Monographs, 2007); A Romantic Century in Polish Music,; Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide. Co-edited with William Smialek in the series Routledge Music Bibliographies (New York: Routledge, 2015).and Lutoslawski: Music and Legacy a

masks:
Maja Trochimczyk
Maria Anna Trochimczyk


title: Maja Trochimczyk

texts:
 collection of essays about Witold Lutoslawski, co-edited with Stanislaw Latek and published jointly by Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada (Montreal) and the Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci (Krakow, Poland) in 2014.,

In 2001, she created a site on Polish folk dance at the USC Polish Music Center, with entries about various Polish dance types and folk dance groups active in California. An article in the Cosmopolitan Review shows the unwitting dependence of folk dance movement in America on Stalinist aesthetics and ideology. <mask> wrote 18 book chapters and 27 peer-reviewed articles on music and culture, listed on her website with publication details, publications before 2000 appeared under the name of Maria Anna Harley. Her study of Gorecki's ideas of motherhood and his Third Symphony was published in The Musical Quarterly in 1998 and reprinted in a special issue of the Polish Music Journal dedicated to Gorecki in 2003. Her work on spatial music and its composers, such as Henry Brant or Iannis Xenakis, appeared in: American Music, Computer Music Journal, The PDF of her doctoral dissertation, "Space and Spatialization in Contemporary Music: History and Analysis, Ideas and Implementations" (McGill University, 1994), is available from Moonrise Press. An article on Grazyna Bacewicz and Picasso was issued by the Journal of Musicological Research.. <mask>'s work on Bartok's concept of nature and his birdsong portrayals appeared in Studia Musicologica and Tempo. Zbigniew Skowron's book Lutoslawski Studies included her chapter on Witold Lutoslawski's musical symbols of death, while Halina Goldberg's The Age of Chopin featured a study of extreme nationalism in

masks: Trochimczyk Trochimczyk


title: Maja Trochimczyk

texts:
 the reception of Chopin, associated with the concept of the "Polish race.".A presenter at the Second and Third International Chopin Congresses in Warsaw, Poland (in 1999 and 2010 respectively), she published articles in their proceedings.,. She maintains a popular Chopin blog, Chopin with Cherries. <mask> also wrote about Chopin reception by women composers in the Polish Review (2000), and by poets in the Polish-American Studies. The latter journal issued her study of the image of Paderewski, explored earlier in the Polish Music Journal. A recent research interest is the immigration of Polish composers to America, discussed in a chapter in Anna Mazurkiewicz's East Central Europe in Exile, vol. 1, and in Polin, vol. 19, Polish-Jewish Relations in North America.She also edited the proceedings of the first conference on Polish Jewish Music held in 1998 at USC for the Polish Music Journal.
. Eva Mantzouriani's Polish Music after 1945 included <mask>'s chapter on the events of 1968. A recipient of fellowships/awards from McGill University, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Southern California, Polish American Historical Association, and American Council of Learned Societies, Dr. <mask> served as poet laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles in 2010–2012, and as the President of the Helena Modjeska Arts and Culture Club in Los Angeles in 2010–2012. For the Club, she organized over 30 events (lectures, concerts, film screenings, and receptions) during her tenure, documented on the blog, modjeskaclub.blogspot.com. Among other activities, she presented the Modjeska Prizes to eminent Polish actors, Jan Nowicki, Barbara Krafftowna, and

masks: Trochimczyk Trochimczyk Trochimczyk


title: Maja Trochimczyk

texts: Anna Dymna. As the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, she wrote a monthly column for a community paper, The Voice of the Village. She continued poetic activities in the local community as member of the Planning Committee of the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga, as well as the owner of the Moonrise Press. Simultaneously, she has held the position of an officer and newsletter editor of the Polish American Historical Association since 2009,.In 2011 she became a member of the editorial board of the Ecomusicology Newsletter of the Ecomusicology Study Group of the American Musicological Society. In 2012, <mask> received a medal from the Ministry of Culture and the Arts of Poland for the promotion of Polish culture. Her volunteering has also been recognized by the City and County of Los Angeles. In 2013, she was nominated to serve as Chair of Culture Committee in the Polonia Advisory Board for the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles. In 2015, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Polish American Historical Association and in 2016 the Creative Arts Prize from the same organization for her poetry volumes about Polish civilian experience in WWII and its aftermath, Slicing the Bread and The Rainy Bread. Books Into Light: Poems and Incantations. Collection of spiritual poems and meditations.(Los Angeles: Moonrise Press, 2016). Color paperback. .Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide. Co-edited with William Smialek. Series Routledge Music Bibliographies (New York: Routledge, 2015). .The Rainy Bread - Poems from Exile. (Los Angeles: Moonrise Press, 2016).Poetry Collection – poems about Polish experience during WWII and its


title: Maja Trochimczyk

texts:
 Jadwiga. "Pięc tysięcy stron o muzyce. Rozmowa z Mają Trochimczyk," [Five thousand pages about music. An interview with <mask> <mask>].Interview in Polish, in News of Polonia (March 2004), The Summit Times (February 2004), and Głos/Voice (April 2004), reprinted in Bialy Orzel/White Eagle (May 2007). Kanski, Elizabeth. "A Tribute to Chopin in Verse," review of Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse in Polish American Journal, September 2010, p. 21. Makowski, Jenna. Review of Polish Dance in Southern California in Journal of Folklore Research, November 2008. Thomas, G. Murray. Review of Miriam's Iris, or Angels in the Garden in Poetix.net, February 2010.Woods, Christopher. Review of Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse in Contemporary World Literature, February 2011
Reklewska-Braun, Zofia, review of "Slicing the Bread" Poetry Chapbook (Georgetown, KY: Finishing Line Press, 2014), in Goniec, March 2015
Boss, Sally, review of "Slicing the Bread" Poetry Chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2014), in the Sarmatian Review, April 2015, p. 1931–1932. Strybel, Robert, review of "Slicing the Bread" Poetry Chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2014), in the Polish American Journal, January 2015. Kozaczka, Grazyna, review of "Chopin with Cherries" and "Meditations on Divine Names" anthologies in The Polish Review,'' vol. 58, no. 4 (2013): 108–110. 1957 births
Living people
American music historians
University of Warsaw alumni
McGill University School of Music alumni
American women historians
Writers from Warsaw
Writers from Los Angeles
Polish emigrants to the United States
American women poets
Women writers about music
Historians of Polish Americans
Historians from

masks: Maja Trochimczyk


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
<mask> (, ; born 2 March 1965) is a former British politician. A former member of the Liberal Democrats, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the 2010 general election. He was the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007. <mask> stood unsuccessfully for the position of President of the party in 2004 and 2008. He was also unsuccessful in a bid to become the Liberal Democrats' nominee in the 2012 London mayoral election. Beyond his political work, <mask> has also been in the public eye through his appearances on several television shows and as a result of his personal relationships with ITV weather presenter Siân Lloyd and with pop star Gabriela Irimia of The Cheeky Girls, which drew considerable media attention. Early life
<mask>'s parents were from Estonia, but after the Soviet occupation under Joseph Stalin, they fled to Northern Ireland.<mask> was born in Bangor, County Down, the elder son of Liivi <mask> (née Vedo) and physicist Uno <mask> (19 October 1926 – 6 May 2005), and grew up there with sister Urve <mask> (born 1960, a psychotherapist) and brother Endel "Tal" <mask> (12 April 1968 – 21 November 2005, a musician). His grandfather was Ernst Julius <mask>, an Estonian astronomer who worked at Armagh Observatory. <mask> was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution before going on to the University of Bristol, where he completed a degree in philosophy. He served as the President of the University of Bristol Union (1985–86) and as a member of the National Executive of the National Union of Students (1987–88). In 1988, <mask> joined Procter & Gamble in Newcastle upon Tyne as a brand assistant. He became corporate training and organisation development manager in 1991 and was promoted to be global human resources training manager in 1996. <mask> was elected to the Liberal Democrats' Federal Executive Committee in 1991.He was elected

masks:
Lembit Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik
Öpik


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 as a councillor on Newcastle City Council in 1992. <mask> stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for Newcastle upon Tyne Central in the 1992 general election and for Northumbria in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Parliamentary and party career

Member of Parliament
At the 1997 general election, the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, Alex Carlile, retired and <mask> successfully stood as the Lib Dem candidate. He retained the seat at the 2001 general election and at the 2005 general election, increasing his share of the vote by 3.5% in 2001 and by a further 1.8% in 2005, giving him a majority of 7,173 over the Conservative candidate. However, he lost his seat to the Conservative Glyn Davies following a 13.2% swing in Montgomeryshire at the 2010 general election. Öpik served as the Liberal Democrat spokesman on education (1997), Northern Ireland (1997–2007), Wales (2001–07), business (2007), and housing (2007–08). During the 2001–05 Parliament, <mask> was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons.He was the joint chair of the Middle Way Group, a cross-party parliamentary group which supported the regulation, rather than the banning, of fox hunting. Welsh party leadership
<mask> became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in 2001 following the retirement of Richard Livsey. He stood down in 2007 and was succeeded by Mike German. Campaigns for party presidency
In September 2004, <mask> stood for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats but was defeated by Simon Hughes. The party president chairs a number of party committees and also represents the party at official functions. In 2008, a campaign amongst grassroots party members backing him as a successor to Hughes, under the slogan "I Pick Öpik", emerged at the party's 2008 spring conference in Liverpool. On 24 September, <mask> announced that he was standing down as the party's housing spokesman to concentrate on a campaign for

masks: Öpik Öpik Öpik Öpik Öpik Öpik


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 party president.However, in the party ballot in November, <mask> was defeated by Baroness Scott of Needham Market by 20,736 votes to 6,247. Support for party leadership candidates
In successive Liberal Democrat leadership contests, Öpik gained a reputation for backing campaigns that soon collapsed, leading some to talk of the "curse of Lembit" making his backing undesirable. In 1999, he was one of only two of the party's 46 MPs to back the abortive leadership campaign of Don Foster. Foster abandoned his campaign before nominations even closed, and backed Charles Kennedy, the eventual winner, instead. During the 2006 leadership contest, <mask> was initially a strong supporter of Kennedy, who then stood down. <mask> subsequently became campaign manager for Mark Oaten. However, Oaten quickly withdrew from the contest, having failed to attract enough support from within the parliamentary party; his only backers were Öpik and Baroness Ludford.In the 2007 leadership election, <mask> declared his backing for Nick Clegg, and when Clegg won the election Öpik said "My man won, so the curse of Öpik has at last become a blessing". Öpik supported Jenny Randerson in the 2008 contest for leadership of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Randerson lost to Kirsty Williams. Öpik supported Tim Farron in the 2015 Liberal Democrat leadership election, who eventually won with a margin of 13%. Expenses row and criticism
In May 2009 The Daily Telegraph published details of <mask>'s parliamentary expenses claims. It showed that in 2008–2009 he claimed £23,083 in second home allowances out of public funds, including various items of furniture and a £40 summons charge for non-payment of Council Tax. Öpik told The Telegraph "I am willing to pay back the £40" but did not offer to repay anything else.The Telegraph also outlined a rejected expense claim he had attempted to make for £2,499 for a plasma screen television, after which he bought one costing £750. 2010 and beyond
<mask> lost


title: Lembit Öpik

texts: his seat in parliament at the 2010 general election when he was defeated in his constituency of Montgomeryshire by Glyn Davies of the Conservative Party by 13,976 votes to 12,792. This represented a swing of 12.5% against Öpik and a swing of 13.8% in favour of the Conservatives in the constituency. <mask> put himself forward to be the Liberal Democrats' nominee for mayor of London in the 2012 mayoral election, however in the first round of the party's selection ballot, he came fourth with 252 votes and was eliminated from the process. <mask> was a candidate for the Liberal Democrats' federal executive committee in 2012 but was not elected. He also expressed an interest in becoming the Liberal Democrats' candidate for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria Police in 2012. However he was ruled ineligible because he did not have a residence in the region.Late in 2012 he joined Leadenhall Consulting, a human resources consulting firm specialising in the insurance and financial sectors, as an associate director responsible for developing training. On joining the firm, Opik explained that training is his "first love". Öpik is a long-time supporter of the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG UK) and a keen motorcyclist. On 23 November 2013 it was announced that Öpik had joined MAG as director of communications and public affairs. In the post he will work on behalf of motorcyclists in the UK and Europe. He presents programmes on BBC Radio Kent every Friday morning from 9:00 where he hosts the topical Kent Midmorning phone-in, and every Sunday from 11:00 where he presents a news panel format, digesting the week's local, national and international stories, looking at the newspapers, welcoming expert guests and politicians for discussions as well as taking calls from listeners. He also regularly stands in for Julia George on other weekday mornings.Since 2010, he has broadcast for Press TV, including hosting a news satire show and a number of

masks: Öpik Öpik


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 political news programmes. He currently hosts A Simple Question. On 24 June 2018 <mask> was elected as the chairman of the Parliament of Asgardia during the first parliamentary session in Vienna, Austria. "The birth of the new space nation Asgardia" was announced in a press conference in Paris, France, on 12 October 2016 The project is officially called the "Space Kingdom of Asgardia". In the autumn of 2018 Öpik considered participating in Estonian elections. He said he had been asked to consider being either a member of the Estonian parliament, or to consider running as president. "One position is just to be a member of parliament, which I would not mind doing", he said."The other position is president of Estonia. It is more than just a non-executive role—I could make quite a big splash. I have not got a campaign plan but I have said I would be interested. It's not an appointed job, I would have to stand for it." In 2021, <mask> was reported to have been expelled from the Liberal Democrats following his appearance at a Conservative Party meeting as the sole speaker in an event called "How to Stop the Lib Dems, an insiders guide on how the Lib Dems plan their campaigns." Personal life, charity and creative activities

Public appearances
<mask> has appeared several times on the BBC satirical current affairs quiz show Have I Got News for You, including an appearance on the day after he lost his parliamentary seat. He has also appeared on the BBC's Question Time and Any Questions?Away from politics he has also appeared on Stand Up for the Week, Al Murray's Happy Hour, All Star Mr and Mrs, Loose Women, Bargain Hunt Famous Finds, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Come Dine with Me, Celebrity Juice and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! In June 2010 he made his debut as a comedian at the Backstage Comedy Club in London's West End. It was described by one audience member as "not fantastic, but not completely awful". Öpik also gained media attention

masks: Öpik Öpik Öpik


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 for his part in a music video by unsigned band The Good Suns. The video featured the politician dancing and miming lyrics to their debut song Pop Wound. In March 2012, Öpik began collaborating with rock band Adam and the Asbos on their action/adventure sci-fi film Adam and the Asbos: The Movie. In April and May 2012, he made appearances in a professional wrestling promotion, appearing from the audience to confront wrestler Kade Callous for cheating; Öpik was in turn challenged to appear in a later tag team match, which ended with Öpik "black and blue".In August 2016 <mask> Opik performed in the comedy 'Rocking Your Vote' in which he played himself. The play was on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The main actor was the 2015 MP candidate Will Goodhand (Channel 4's Beauty and the Geek, 99 Club stand-up). The comedy was composed by Olly Nelken (Pigbag, Royal Marines Band). In 2021, he has been a contributor to GB News. Writings and journalism
In 2009 <mask> <mask> published an article in The Guardian named "We need a cosmic plan" about risks of asteroid impact on Earth. Earlier, in 1999, he called on the government to invest between £500,000 and £1m annually in tracking asteroids to avert catastrophe.He wrote a column in the (now defunct) Daily Sport newspaper earning him up to £5,000 a year. With Hilary Bird and Ulvi Mustmaa, he is the author of the Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians, published by Oval Books in June 2010. In March 2012, Öpik released his first collaborative work with Edward Joyce, The Alternative View, a book discussing the future of the Liberal Democrats in the UK, including a call for the then party leader Nick Clegg to step down as Leader of The Liberal Democrats, but to remain deputy prime minister in the coalition government. The book's cover pays tribute to The Orange Book, although Öpik has often been considered a member of the 'social liberal', left wing of the party. His book All at Sea, a tale about a curious cruise, was

masks: Lembit Lembit Öpik


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 published in 2015. Personal life and charity work

Öpik speaks fluent English, Estonian and German. Talking about the 2004 Parliamentary Language Challenge, he said that he could "get by" in French and Welsh and was intending to become fluent in the Welsh language.In 2003 he was a "day president" at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, held at Meifod within his constituency; this required him to make a speech in Welsh, for which he was coached by his then girlfriend, Siân Lloyd. On 13 April 1998 <mask> came close to death in a paragliding accident. He fell  onto a Welsh mountain in his constituency and broke his back in 12 places, as well as his ribs, sternum and jaw. This experience caused him to take a keen interest in the Spinal Injuries Association, of which he is a member. He later underwent a series of surgical procedures to correct the damage to the bones in his face. Despite the accident, he continued with his interest in aviation. He talked about the accident to the July 2010 edition of Flaps Podcast, where he recounted his accident and its aftermath.He has since become a glider pilot at the Midland Gliding Club in Shropshire. He holds a pilot's licence and spoke for British gliding in the House of Commons. <mask> also rides motorcycles (he was the chair of the all-party parliamentary motorcycling group when he was an MP), and since November 2013, he has been employed as the campaigns and communications director for the Motorcycle Action Group. Öpik supports the English football club Leicester City. His mother lives in the city of Leicester. He participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice to raise money for charity. Sport Relief Does The Apprentice was part of Sport Relief, the Comic Relief/BBC charity initiative that aired on 12 and 14 March 2008.In 2006 he became president of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, following his father's death from the disease the previous year. He and ITV weather presenter Siân Lloyd appeared on


title: Lembit Öpik

texts:
 Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April 2006, winning £64,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Action for Children. The couple came close to marrying, but she ended the relationship in October 2006 and made unflattering comments about Öpik in her autobiography, A Funny Kind of Love. According to Lynn Barber, the author's "main purpose seems to have been demolishing love-rat Lembit". <mask> later became involved with then-24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of pop music double-act The Cheeky Girls. They split up in July 2008 after a "difficult period" in the relationship.At the age of 52 he had a daughter, born in June 2017, with his partner Sabina Vankova. Later that year she was reported to have left him. The couple had a second daughter in November 2020. Electoral record of <mask> Öpik

References

External links

 <mask> Opik MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
 <mask> <mask> MP profile at the site of Welsh Liberal Democrats
 Times Online Student Section: Lembit Opik Interview with Lembit Opik
 Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Lembit Opik MP
 TheyWorkForYou.com – Lembit Öpik MP
 The Public Whip – Lembit Öpik voting record
 BBC News – Politics: Lembit Opik profile 10 February 2005
 Evening Standard (London); "Lembit and his Very Cheeky Family"
 Guardian article on election 27 April 2010
 www.politics.co.uk: Opik urges tactical voting against Liberal Dems
 Flaps Podcast, July 2010

1965 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Bristol
Welsh libertarians
Councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne
People from Northern Ireland of Estonian descent
British male professional wrestlers
Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies
People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
People from Bangor, County Down
Politicians from Northern Ireland
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
Welsh-speaking politicians
Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British

masks: Öpik Lembit Lembit Lembit Öpik


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
<mask> (1914 – March 1981) was an English journalist whose magazines and reporting opened Continental cycle racing to fans in Britain. <mask> covered 18 Tours de France from 1956. He worked for the British weekly, The Bicycle and then started and edited the monthlies Coureur (later Sporting Cyclist) and International Cycle Sport. He also wrote a number of books. Cycling origins
<mask> began cycling with the Colchester Rovers club when he was 14. He and a friend, Alf Kettle, were between the towns of Kelvedon and Coggeshall when they took a wrong turning into a farm track by moonlight, riding by the light of acetylene lamps. Kettle called Wadley "Willy", because it was what all new members were called.He said it was "like the Tour de France". It was the first time <mask> had heard of the race, which was still in the era of daily stages that started at dawn and rode on unsurfaced roads. He wanted to know more. He went to the world track championships in Paris when he was 19 and came home starry-eyed over riders like Jeff Scherens and Lucien Michard. He ordered the daily paper L'Auto, which organised the Tour, from a newsagent in Colchester. The man warned him it cost 1½d (1p or about 3 US cents) and that the cost was extravagant. Journalism
<mask> joined The Bicycle soon after it started, in February 1936, and became the magazine's foreign correspondent.The paper opened in opposition to Cycling, to counter Cyclings perceived establishment views, which included not covering massed racing on the open road after the Second World War and giving what some readers saw as little attention to professional cycling, such as the Tour de France.

masks:
John Borland Wadley
Wadley
Wadley
Wadley
Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 Cycling was originally dismissive of a breakaway organisation, the British League of Racing Cyclists and campaigned against it and did little to cover its races; The Bicycle saw itself as neither for or against the BLRC but saw massed-start racing an exciting part of cycle-racing. The Bicycle appeared on Tuesday rather than the Friday of its rival. <mask> translated reports in French and Belgian papers, and cuttings sent by the magazine's correspondent at L'Auto and cycled around the Continent reporting the races he saw and writing accounts of the riders he had met. Adrian Bell, the British publisher who compiled a collection of <mask>'s work, wrote:

And so began a pattern of working life and, with it, a unique style of writing about cycling that <mask> was to maintain, to a greater or lesser extent, for more than 20 years. When not required for race-reporting duties in England, he would load the panniers of his bicycle – spare clothes and maps in one, a portable typewriter in the other – and take to the roads of France, Belgium Holland. Whatever the route, it was of his choosing.And back would come the reports – of major Tours, French classics, frenetic kermesses over the Belgian pavé, or six-day dramas on the steep banking of indoor velodromes – or interviews with current riders or with those whose exploits had once made cycling history, or simply touring features that depicted the appealing variety of the terrain through which he travelled. During one two-month tour in the spring of 1954, he submitted 3,000 words a week; there was simply nothing like it in the English cycling press. <mask> left the magazine two years later and joined

masks: Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 the press department of the bicycle maker, Hercules, which was sponsoring prominent British riders to break long-distance records. From there he was conscripted into the services at the start of the Second World War. With the return of peace, he became one of three press officers for the sport's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale when the Olympic Games were held in London in 1948. He then rejoined The Bicycle and stayed until it closed in 1955. That year he started work on a monthly magazine, initially called Coureur but then, because a magazine with a similar title already existed, Sporting Cyclist.Sporting Cyclist
<mask> recalled of his redundancy: "I saw more cycling... than in four far-from-dull years on The Bicycle. As the programme included my first all-the-way Tour de France, I had enough material in hand to write a book... The dream, however, was to bring out a continental-style all-cycling magazine." In late 1956, <mask> secured the backing of the publisher Charles Buchan, former football captain of Arsenal and England, who wanted a companion to his magazine, Football Monthly. <mask> told Buchan that he had a proposal which would never make him rich but wouldn't disgrace him, an approach so novel that Buchan was interested from the start. Issue number one was written by <mask>, who had also taken most of the photographs. It was produced at the home of Peter Bryan, <mask>'s editor at The Bicycle, with help from a photographer, Bill Lovelace, and a designer, Glenn Steward.They too had worked at The Bicycle. Sporting Cyclist introduced Continental racing through the Franco-American writer, René de Latour. His role

masks: Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 was "friend of the stars", providing insights into Continental racing at a time when Cycling concentrated on domestic issues. The cycle parts importer and advertiser, Ron Kitching, wrote:

This was a real innovation and an instant success. It was filled with exciting stories of both home and overseas events, written not only by <mask> himself but also by the top cycling writers of the day – like René de Latour, Harry Aspden, Charles Ruys and Dick Snowden, Geoffrey Nicholson and David Saunders. The last edition was in April 1968, volume 12, number 4. Sporting Cyclist was by then owned by Longacre Press, which had bought Buchan's publications.Longacre also published Cycling and the two merged. The assistant editor, Roy Green, who had joined in 1960, left Sporting Cyclist to join Amateur Photographer. <mask> set up another magazine, International Cycle Sport, which after 199 issues in 17 years also failed, by which time <mask>'s contract as editor had long since not been renewed. International Cycle Sport

International Cycle Sport was the idea of Kennedy Brothers, a printing company in Keighley, Yorkshire owned by three brothers. It was the first English-language cycling magazine printed in colour, with a colour cover and several colour pages inside. The contents were those which would have appeared in the next Sporting Cyclist. Wadley's assistant editor, John Wilcockson, said: "We were thrilled with the first issue that came off the presses, even though the colour reproduction was pretty awful."One of the pictures, of the Belgian rider Patrick Sercu was printed the wrong way round. <mask> wrote in his first leading article:

I had

masks: Jock Wadley Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 launched [Sporting Cyclist] because I knew the cycling world wanted it. There was never any suggestion that it would make a lot of money for anybody. Yet within a few years, after a series of mergers and takeovers, Sporting Cyclist found itself under the control of a giant publishing organisation whose business, understandably, was to make money. A small monthly magazine supported by what it considered to be a "dying industry" was obviously of little interest to such a concern, and its eventual merger with Cycling was simply a matter of time. When the decision was taken I and my most able assistant Roy Green were given the chance of carrying on with the combined publication, but neither accepted the offer. The magazine was produced in a basement office in Kingston upon Thames Surrey, rented from Maurice Cumberworth, race director of the Milk Race.Kennedy Brothers, however, failed and a receiver passed its assets to another Yorkshire printer, Peter Fretwell. The magazine was among the assets. Fretwell's company was also struggling and the receiver hoped to make one strong company out of two weak ones. Wilcockson said:

Peter Fretwell was a tough-minded businessman, the antithesis of the mild-mannered <mask>. The two men didn't get on... The arrangement worked for a while, but Fretwell soon decided that he could do without <mask>. I was prepared to go too, but my 'father' [<mask>] said no... Well, within a year, I was fired too.Adrian Bell wrote:

So the saying goes, you can never walk the same road twice. ICS was not Sporting Cyclist in full-colour guise. In the first place it never had the same breadth of coverage. Secondly, not only was

masks: Wadley Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 it more narrowly focused, it contained fewer articles, and they were mainly written by professional journalists. In its text and the use of full-page colour photography, it was closer to a contemporary monthly cycling journal; it was never a diary written by clubmen for clubmen. Tour de France
<mask> <mask> covered 18 Tours de France not only for his magazine but for the London Daily Telegraph. The paper then decided to send its specialist cycling reporter, David Saunders.Until then Saunders had not wanted to spend a month of each summer away from home. The new arrangement ended <mask>'s newspaper career and halted the occasional contributions he made to BBC Radio, where he reported on noisy short-wave and telephone links from races such as the world championship and Bordeaux–Paris, a race from which he reported the victory of the British rider, Tom Simpson. It also ended <mask>'s habit of following the Tour in the car of French journalist colleagues and he covered his 19th Tour by bike and wrote a book called My Nineteenth Tour de France. His years at the Tour de France earned him the race's medal. He received it from the organisers Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan at Carpentras in 1970. For many years he had been the only permanent English-speaking reporter on the Tour and the race press officer, Louis Lapeyre, who for many years refused to speak to any anglophone journalists let alone do it in English, finally negotiated with them through Wadley. Tom Simpson
Few cyclists featured in <mask>'s writing as much as Tom Simpson, the first Briton to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.<mask>'s first encounter with him was in 1955

masks: Jock Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 while he was at a training camp in Monaco sponsored by the derailleur-maker, Simplex. The camp was run by the former Tour rider, Charles Pélissier. <mask> went there to report, specifically on a promising Irish rider called Seamus Elliott, who had won his place as a prize in the previous year's Tour of Ireland. Many cyclists unable to attend the camp wrote to Pélissier, asking his advice. <mask> translated them into French for him. One said:

Dear Sir, I am writing to you hoping you will give me some advice on racing and training for the 1955 season. I am 16 years old, and have raced on the track and also massed start road races, competing in between, in time trials.In my first track event I gained 3rd place, in road races I have won 2 prizes and in time trials I have won 4 prizes. My positions in time trials were 11th, 8th, 15th, 7th. I have done 25 miles in 1hr 34 seconds, which is the fastest time for a 16-year-old in England this year. I would like to know, if you think it is advisable to compete in so many different events, and also what greatest mileage I should race. I have been told that if I race often, I will burn myself out, and will be no good when I get older, do you think this is true. Yours in sport, Thomas Simpson, HARWORTH & DIST. C.C.There is no evidence of a reply from Pélissier, who didn't speak English, although <mask> suggested in Sporting Cyclist in 1965 that he may have done. Writing style
Martin Ayres, one of several who wrote their first articles for Sporting Cyclist and went on to edit cycling magazines of their own, said that <mask>'s discursive, first-person style looked simple but "I tried to copy <mask>'s

masks: Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Jock


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 style once or twice when I was editor of Cycling, but when I did it, it just seemed like name-dropping.' Adrian Bell wrote:

This consistent use of the first person in his articles is crucial to understanding the appeal of his writing. Regardless of whether he was composing an account of a race, interviewing an old-time, retired cyclist, or describing a leisurely tour, he always used this technique. Events were not reported as if they were simple objective facts, nor were they sensationalised; always we saw them through his eyes and ears. He offered us his thoughts, his emotions and his immediate impressions at the moment of their happening, and if those impressions needed to be revised in the light of later revelations, he did that, too, and explained why... Good letter-writers, so they say, are basically good conversationalists and, by all accounts, J. B<mask> was certainly that.Long-distance riding
<mask> always rode in Hush Puppy shoes, which he said hurt his feet less than conventional cycling shoes. He rode long distances both in races such as 24-hour time-trials – he rode just short of 400 miles in the North Road event when he was 59 – and outside competition. His first book, My 19th Tour de France, starts: "I had practised and thoroughly enjoyed what I had for so long been preaching. Instead of lazing 3,000 miles in a press car, I had pedalled 1,750 on a bike. Instead of scribbling 400 words a night and phoning them through to Fleet Street, I have taken my time in writing 90,000 and sent them to the printers." His fondness for France led him to join the Union Sportif at Créteil, in the Paris suburbs. That led to his riding the

masks:
. Wadley
Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 1,200 km challenge, Paris–Brest–Paris, which he recorded in another book, Old Roads and New.His writing inspired riders around the world. In Britain it led to the creation of Audax UK to provide a means for British riders to take part. In Canada said the long-distance enthusiast Eric Fergusson:

Here in British Columbia, "Brestward Ho!" [title of the chapter recounting Paris–Brest–Paris] did indeed make its mark. After reading the story, local cycling legend John Hathaway committed to ride the Audax version of PBP in 1976. While in France, he met the randonneur PBP organiser Robert Lepertel and was persuaded to come back for the next randonneur PBP in 1979. Three years later Hathaway returned to France with fellow randonneur pioneers Dan McGuire, Gerry Pareja, and Wayne Phillips to participate in (and complete!)PBP '79 marking the birth of randonneur cycling in British Columbia, and indeed, in Canada. There was a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of BC Randonneurs at the club's annual general meeting in September 2003. At this event Gerry Pareja... held up a copy of Old Roads and New. With the "Brestward Ho!" chapter in mind Gerry suggested that: 'This book probably had more to do with getting English-speaking cyclists to become interested in PBP than anything else written about it.' <mask> rode the Brevet des Randonneurs des Alpes, a mountain challenge, in 1973. It was run as a time-trial over the col de Glandon, the Croix de Fer, the Telegraphe and the Galibier.The race started in Grenoble at 2 am. <mask> had hoped to meet Pierre Brambilla, who lost the Tour de France on the last day in 1947. He was attacked, against a tradition

masks: Wadley Wadley


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 that the race leader would be left to ride to Paris in glory, by the Frenchman Jean Robic. <mask> had met Brambilla but never remembered to ask the truth of the story that he was so upset by his defeat that he buried his bike in his garden. Graeme Fife wrote: "Brambilla caught <mask> on the approach to the Galibier. <mask> thought the Italian veteran (now 53 years old) would have been miles ahead, but he'd overslept and set out an hour late. He offered to give <mask> a tow up the Galibier; <mask> declined and Brambilla flew off.<mask> remembered the buried bicycle story and called out, but too late... the chance to confirm or scotch missed." Death
<mask> remained disillusioned at the closure of Sporting Cyclist – "the only time I saw him angry", said Peter Bryan – and at being fired from International Cycle Sport and at the mixed success of his book-publishing venture. He died in March 1981 and his ashes were scattered on the col du Glandon in the Alps. His widow, Mary, had asked that his ashes be scattered on the route of the Tour. They were taken by a group of readers led by the British enthusiast, Neville Chanin. They scattered them on Bastille Day during the Tour de France. Chanin wrote:

We dined well that night [before the scattering of ashes] but then we usually do.This meal was a special one: our table was laid for eight, yet fellow diners noted only seven lads present. They watched in silence as we drank a toast to the unoccupied chair at the head of our table... It seemed logical and fitting that <mask> should attend his final Tour with a bunch of British clubmen... We – the seven of us – had each taken a turn in carrying the

masks: Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Wadley Jock


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 remains of our Sporting Cyclist over the mountain roads he knew so well and now Chris would carry him up the Glandon – two hours of real climbing. I'd chosen a special spot on the Glandon because, in 1973 on his 59th birthday, <mask> had climbed that pass while riding the Brevet Randonneur des Alpes. Dave was first to the summit and had descended the 13km to locate the spot in the Défilé de Maupas where the Torrent des Sept Laux comes crashing down from seven lakes higher up the mountain, forming a spectacular waterfall. He had already gathered a selection of mountain flowers and arranged them in a plastic bottle and was making a simple cross as I arrived... Our intentions had been announced on Radio Tour and the organisers had positioned a gendarme nearby to ensure that our scattering of his ashes was not interrupted. It was sad and silent.Peter Bryan said: "<mask>'s beautiful turn of phrase could be applied equally to a touring theme or race report, and he carried you, the reader, along with him as though you were riding and hearing his words borne from the front saddle." Ron Kitching said:

He wasn't ruthless enough to be a businessman, he just floated through life absorbing the cycling scene and reflecting it in his articles and books. I don't think <mask> ever worked as such, he just put down in words what his thoughts were. <mask> was a real gentleman but he did tend to wander off. We were sponsoring the Tour of the North and International Cycle Sport was one of the sponsors. He turned up on his bike, just pottering about. He seemed more interested in riding his bike than covering the race.Which was his downfall, really. An annual

masks: Jock Wadley Jock Jock


title: Jock Wadley

texts:
 road race is held near Colchester each summer in <mask>'s memory. <mask> had been president of the Colchester Rovers. A collection of his writing was published in 2002: From the pen of J. B<mask>, ed: Adrian Bell, Mousehold Press, Norwich. References

1914 births
1981 deaths
English male journalists
British sports journalists
English sportswriters
Cycling in the United Kingdom
Cycling journalists
Cycling writers
English male

masks:
Wadley
Wadley
. Wadley


title: Robin Friday

texts: <mask> (27 July 1952 – 22 December 1990) was an English footballer who played professionally as a forward for Reading and Cardiff City during a career that lasted four years in the mid-1970s. His on-field performances were regarded as excellent, and he won Reading's player of the year award in both of his full seasons there, as well as being the leading goal scorer. However, his habit of unsettling opponents through physical intimidation contributed to a heavily tarnished disciplinary record, and his personal life was one of heavy smoking, drinking, womanising and drug abuse. Despite his short career, he remains prominent in the memory of Reading and Cardiff supporters, both as a player and a personality. He has been voted Reading's best ever player three times. Born and raised in Acton, West London, <mask> was scouted, but not retained, by four professional clubs during his teenage years. He appeared for local semi-professional sides in the Isthmian League until he joined Charlie Hurley's Fourth Division Reading team in 1974; quickly becoming a key player, he helped Reading to win promotion to the Third Division during the 1975–76 season.As his drug habit intensified, Friday's form began to dip in the first half of the 1976–77 season, leading Reading to sell him to Second Division side Cardiff City around the New Year. <mask> travelled to join his new team by train without a valid ticket and had to be bailed by the Cardiff manager Jimmy Andrews before he signed for the club. He performed strongly on his debut, but afterwards his form declined and his personal life caused him to repeatedly miss matches altogether. Following a number of incidents, on and off

masks:
Robin Friday
Friday
Friday


title: Robin Friday

texts:
 the field—including kicking Mark Lawrenson in the face —Friday retired from football in December 1977, aged 25. He died in Acton in 1990, aged 38, after suffering a heart attack. The strongest aspects of Friday's game were his ball skills, footballing intelligence and physical and mental strength. Andrews labelled Friday "the complete centre-forward", and, along with numerous contemporaries, retrospectively rated Friday as good enough for the England national team.In a 2004 BBC poll, <mask> was voted the top "all-time cult hero" for both Reading and Cardiff City. The Cardiff-based band Super Furry Animals dedicated their 1996 single "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" to his memory. Early life and non-League career

Childhood

<mask> and his twin brother, Tony, were born on 27 July 1952 in Acton, west London. Their parents, Alf <mask>, a driver for a laundry firm, and his wife Sheila, were both born in Acton and had married a year before, both aged 20, having met three years earlier. Sheila's father, Frederick Riding, had played professional football for Brentford before the Second World War. The Fridays lived with Sheila's family until moving into a prefab of their own in Acton Green when <mask> and Tony were aged two; they moved to a maisonette in South Acton in 1962 when it was found that the prefab was sinking. <mask> and Tony were later described by their mother as having been remarkably close, rarely arguing or fighting.A noticeable difference in personality was that <mask> was shy, whereas Tony was more confident. The twins attended their first professional match at the age of two, when their father took them to a Brentford match at Griffin Park. From the age

masks:
Friday
Robin Friday
Friday
Robin
Robin
Robin


title: Robin Friday

texts: of four Alf took both boys to play football at a local park every afternoon. Around the age of ten, <mask> possessed notable ball-skills, and according to his father could flick an orange up onto his neck, balance it and then let it roll it back down his body and catch it on his foot. As well as football, <mask> played cricket to a high standard, boxed and played tennis. Despite their many similarities and common interest in sports and football in particular, the twins were wildly different in academic terms: while Tony did well at school, <mask> was uninterested and according to his brother "was always bunking off, having birds around the park". <mask> was scouted by numerous London sides during his teenage years, joining Crystal Palace's school of excellence at 12 or 13, then moving on to Queens Park Rangers aged 13 and then to Chelsea, with whom he attended the 1967 FA Cup Final; as one of the club's youth players, he was part of the team's official party.However, Friday's individual style of play and refusal to change his game resulted in each of these clubs losing patience with him. The twin brothers joined a men's team, the Acton British Legion Reserves, aged 14, and in some matches would play alongside their father. Tony played in midfield, and <mask> up front, but according to Tony his brother was better as a goalkeeper than a forward: "He was a brilliant goalkeeper. He had no fear ... But he obviously preferred banging them in at the other end". Around this time <mask> became interested in music, dancing and attending concerts; he also had a talent for drawing, but suddenly abandoned this interest at 15. <mask> became more outgoing than his brother

masks: Friday Robin Friday Friday Robin Robin Robin


title: Robin Friday

texts:
 and started taking drugs in his mid-teens.He left school at 15, a year before Tony, and began training as a plasterer. Borstal, first marriage and the Isthmian League

Friday lasted two months as a plasterer before moving on to become first a van driver for a grocery firm, then a window cleaner. His laid-back attitude and indifference was already clear: in his father's words, "he didn't care". Friday regularly stole by this time, but despite numerous convictions, did not go to a detention centre until he was 16. Having been caught stealing what Tony recalled to be "a car radio or something", he was released almost immediately because he suffered from asthma. However, after he re-offended three months later he was sent to Feltham Borstal where he served 14 months. During his time there, Friday became stronger and fitter and also starred for the Borstal football team.He was selected for the prison league's all-star men's team, still aged 16, and allowed out of Borstal to train and play with Reading's youth team, for which he appeared three times in the South East Counties League during the 1968–69 season. After his release, <mask> returned to Acton, where he had a girlfriend called Maxine Doughan and a baby daughter called Nicola. Maxine was of mixed race. The local controversy surrounding the interracial relationship caused the couple and their circle of friends to be socially isolated, and led to a physical attack on the group one night in an Acton public house. Despite this, and the opposition by both sets of parents—Alf refused to even attend the wedding—they married, both aged 17. Friday did not take his marital commitments seriously and continued to


title: Robin Friday

texts: womanise, drink heavily and take narcotics. A friend who played for Walthamstow Avenue, a semi-professional Isthmian League club from north-east London, took Friday along to training one day in early 1971.Friday played well enough for Walthamstow to sign him the same day on wages of £10 per week. Many of his new teammates were asphalters from east London, and Friday soon joined them in that trade. <mask> made his debut for Walthamstow on 27 March 1971, against Bromley, coming off the bench to set up Walthamstow's equaliser. His first goal came on 17 April, when playing against Tooting & Mitcham he once again appeared as a substitute and scored a header late in the game. He joined west London club Hayes in December 1971 after scoring twice against them in an Isthmian League match. Hayes offered £30 per week, and were also based closer to his home in Acton. A near-fatal accident at work in July 1972 caused Friday to undergo extensive surgery; while working on a roof in Lambeth, a hoist rope became stuck on the scaffold he was working on.The Hayes forward attempted to free the rope but fell and landed on a large spike: the spike went up through one of his buttocks, through his stomach and narrowly avoided a lung. Not only was Friday strong enough to pull himself off the spike, he recovered from his injuries within three months and returned to the Hayes team in October 1972. Friday was known at Hayes for his excessive drinking, and on one occasion the team started a match a player short because Friday had not turned up. When he finally arrived, eighty minutes after kick-off, his intoxication was obvious, but he was still sent onto the pitch with the match still


title: Robin Friday

texts:
 goalless. The opposition paid him little attention and Friday scored a late winning goal. Hayes were drawn to play Football League Fourth Division club Reading in the FA Cup's second round on 9 December 1972; the team managed to draw 0–0 at Reading and earn the right to a replay at home, which they lost 1–0 three days later. Although Hayes had lost, the interest of Reading manager Charlie Hurley was piqued.Hurley travelled to Hayes more than once to watch Friday. Having researched the player's background, he was cautious about signing him, but was impressed all the same by his on-field performances. The 1972–73 season was Friday's most prolific non-League year in terms of goals. He briefly joined Enfield early in the 1973–74 season and scored against Hayes in an FA Cup tie before returning to west London in December 1973. Having also been approached by Third Division side Watford, <mask> signed for Hurley's Reading side in January 1974 for £750. He had scored 46 goals in 67 appearances for Hayes over his two spells there, but during his three Isthmian League seasons had been sent off seven times. <mask> signed as an amateur, meaning that although he would be contracted to Reading he would be able to continue appearing for Hayes and working as an asphalter in London; he would train part-time with Reading and play for their reserve team.Professional career

Reading

1973–74

In Hurley's words, <mask> "trained like he played"; "he had no other way of playing". His new manager had to take him out of training on occasion because of the injuries he would inflict on his own teammates in his effort to win. By late January 1974, Reading were on a run of 14 games with

masks: Friday Friday Friday


title: Robin Friday

texts: only two victories, while Friday had performed strongly in three reserve matches. Hurley registered the amateur forward to play in the Football League on 23 January 1974 and gave him his first-team debut four days later. Friday turned in a performance away at Northampton Town that the Reading Evening Post called "outstanding" as Reading drew 3–3. The team then travelled to Barnsley on 3 February, having not won away from home in four months. After Barnsley led 2–0 at half-time, <mask> scored his first League goal with a header just after the break to make the score 2–1.Reading immediately offered a professional contract, which Friday signed on 6 February 1974. His new salary was half what he had earned as an asphalter. Friday's technical ability made him very popular among Reading supporters and pressmen alike. The Reading Evening Post report of Reading's 4–1 victory over Exeter City on 10 February 1974, Friday's first match as a professional, described his performance as "sheer magic" as he scored twice. The report also called Friday's first goal of the day "glorious": he collected the ball wide on the left wing, took it past four Exeter defenders and then fired the ball low and hard into the opposite corner from the edge of the penalty area. Friday was conspicuous in the professional ranks for never wearing shin pads, and for his resistance to physical harm; no matter how badly he was hurt he would always get up and continue. After sustaining a calf injury against Exeter, he returned for the team's next game, away at Lincoln City on 17 February.Friday was repeatedly and cynically fouled by the opposing players and sustained injuries necessitating five


title: Robin Friday

texts: minutes on the sideline late in the first half. However, he recovered, returned to the game and set up both Reading goals as his side prevailed by a score of two goals to nil. The team's next game, on 24 February 1974, was at home against Doncaster Rovers, and with Friday playing a key role Reading won 5–0. In particular, Friday scored a goal after 17 minutes described by the Evening Post reporter as "magical": with the score 1–0 to Reading, Friday received the ball near the edge of the penalty area, at a tight angle, and coolly kicked the ball with the outside of his boot low across goal, towards the far post. Although it appeared to be heading yards wide of the net, the ball suddenly curved in at the last possible moment—"right around the goalie", in the phrase of Reading F.C. historian David Downs—and clipped the goalpost before nestling in the back of the net. "The team that has been transformed by <mask> has now scored a remarkable 16 goals in five games," reported the Evening Post, "and the highlight of this joyous afternoon was a goal by Friday that was worth anyone's admission money on its own."Despite his immediate impact on the pitch and the upturn in Reading's form, Friday's off-the-field activities unsettled some of his teammates. Most tolerated his lifestyle because of his importance to the team, but some, particularly defender Tommy Youlden, were sceptical. He drank extremely heavily, favouring American Colt 45 malt liquor, and his antics during his drinking sessions caused many landlords to lose patience with him. For example, Friday was barred from Caversham's Crown public house after he ended a night there leaping between the tables and


title: Robin Friday

texts: dancing on the bar. The Boar's Head in Reading banned him on ten separate occasions. One night, after the pubs closed, Friday and a friend, Rod Lewington, went to an all-night club called Churchill's where they could continue drinking. When they entered, <mask>, wearing a long overcoat and hobnail boots, walked onto the dancefloor and removed the coat to reveal that he was wearing nothing underneath.He then began to dance, completely naked apart from the boots. Although Churchill's, described by Lewington as "the worst club that has ever been in Reading", tolerated such behaviour, the town's fashionable Sindlesham Mill nightclub did not, regularly barring Friday for his bizarre activities, including a dance he invented called "the elephant" which consisted of turning the pockets of his jeans inside out and undoing his flies to expose himself. He and his friends would regularly drink all day, though he was able to exert some self-control; according to his friend Syd Simmonds, Friday would obey Hurley's instruction not to drink for 48 hours before each game. However, he would play his prized heavy metal records very loudly at any time of the day or night and take LSD with casual indifference. Hurley attempted to calm Friday down by moving him into an apartment above the football club's elderly ex-groundsman, but to no avail: "Even if it was three in the morning, the first thing would be to get the music playing", Simmonds later said. "We had an old boy living below us ... the ex-groundsman at Reading. He was coming up to 80 and he had a dog's life in the flat.Pounding music, people knocking on the door, girls throwing stones at the windows. Poor old sod."


title: Robin Friday

texts: against Tranmere Rovers, who occupied third spot; internationally experienced referee Clive Thomas took charge of the game. Friday, who had already scored 18 goals that season, rose to the occasion with an effort that has been described by many sources as one of the greatest ever scored.With the score 2–0 to Reading, the goalkeeper Steve Death threw the ball to the right back Gary Peters, who spotted <mask> standing near the left-hand corner of the opposing penalty area. Peters passed high and diagonally across the pitch towards his forward, who jumped into the air and used his chest to cushion the ball and knock it into the air with his back to goal, about 25–30 yards away from the net. As Friday landed, he ferociously powered the ball towards goal, kicking over his shoulder and turning after the ball had gone. The shot flew straight into the top-right-hand corner of the net, stunning the crowd, players and Thomas, the referee, who put his hands over his head in disbelief. "I'll never forget it", Thomas recalled. "It was the sheer ferocity of the shot on the volley ... over his shoulder. ...If it hadn't gone into the top corner of the net it would have broken the goalpost. Even up against the likes of Pelé and Cruyff, that rates as the best goal I have ever seen." Reading went on to win the game 5–0. When Thomas told Friday after the game that he had never seen a better goal, the Londoner replied, "Really? You should come down here more often, I do that every week." Reading moved to within one point of promotion on 19 April 1976 with a 1–0 home victory over Brentford. Friday set up the game's only goal, beating three players before hitting the post with his


title: Robin Friday

texts: shot; Ray Hiron scored from the rebound.<mask> scored a powerful left-footed volley during the first half of a 2–2 draw away against Cambridge United two days later. The result secured Third Division football for Reading. At the celebratory dinner after the game, the Reading captain Gordon Cumming saw some fluted wine glasses, and voiced his admiration: "I wouldn't mind a few of them for home", he said. "Give us a few minutes and I'll get them for you", replied Friday. Going around the dining room and picking them off the tables, he stole a whole boxful of the glasses, which he managed to sneak out of the hotel and onto the team coach, but much to Cumming's annoyance he then decided to keep them for himself. With 22 goals for the year, 21 in the league, Friday was once more Reading's top goalscorer and for the second consecutive season the team's player of the year. After Reading were promoted, Waller met with the players on 4 June 1976 to discuss their contracts for the 1976–77 season.The wages offered to the Reading players were far lower than they had been expecting, causing the team's morale to fall drastically. "We got screwed by the club", midfielder Eamon Dunphy later claimed. "We didn't get what we had been promised." Friday was so offended by the low salary offered that he handed in a transfer request, telling the Evening Post that the club's directors clearly did not share his ambition. "They would be happy to stroll along in the bottom half of the Third Division forever", he said. The row over the new contracts continued throughout the off-season, while Friday planned his second wedding; he had been formally divorced from Maxine after years of


title: Robin Friday

texts:
 scouts".<mask> was so angry at his team's performance that he broke into the Mansfield dressing room and defecated in the team bath. Reading's asking price stood at £50,000, and the first transfer offer came from Second Division side Cardiff City around mid-December. Cardiff boss Jimmy Andrews bid £28,000, half of his offer a year before, which Reading's directors accepted, wanting the troublesome player off their hands as quickly as possible. <mask> was reluctant to go to the Welsh club, saying that it was too far from home, that he wanted to go to a First Division team and that he wanted more money than was being offered; however, when Hurley told him that unless he went to Cardiff he would be released, he agreed and travelled to Wales on 30 December 1976. Cardiff City

1977

On arrival at Cardiff Central railway station, <mask> was arrested by the British Transport Police for having travelled from Reading with only a platform ticket. Andrews bailed his new player out of police custody and took him to Ninian Park to sign the contract. Despite the manner of Friday's arrival, and although he knew there "had to be something wrong with him", the Cardiff manager was still happy with his purchase, describing the £28,000 transfer as "an absolute steal".After a long night of drinking the night before his Cardiff debut, <mask> lined up against Fulham on 1 January 1977. The Fulham defence included former England captain Bobby Moore, but Friday marked his first match for the Welsh club with two goals; he also squeezed Moore's testicle during the game as Cardiff won 3–0. Andrews was so happy with Friday's performance that he phoned Hurley two days later, on Monday

masks: Friday Friday Friday Friday


title: Robin Friday

texts: transfer fee to Cardiff, so he would have to go back and continue playing there. Unhappy living so far from home, Friday began to travel back to London at weekends; he avoided paying rail fares by knocking on locked toilet doors and shouting, "Tickets, please! ", pretending to be the ticket inspector.When the occupant passed his ticket under the door to be checked, Friday would pick it up, walk off and use it for himself. Paul Went also recalled an incident during training when he had thrown a ball out from goal and accidentally hit Friday on the back of the head. Steve Grapes, who was standing near the forward, started laughing, leading Friday to conclude that he had thrown the ball. Friday viciously punched Grapes in the jaw, striking him with such force that he wore a neck brace for two weeks afterwards. Late in Friday's first season in Wales, Cardiff took on Luton Town on 16 April 1977. Cardiff were in the relegation zone and had not won in seven games, while Luton were fifth in the table and challenging for promotion. After clashing repeatedly early in the match with Luton goalkeeper Milija Aleksic, Friday was lectured by the referee for a high tackle on the goalkeeper in the 36th minute.<mask> held out a hand to apologise, but Aleksic reacted angrily. When the free kick was taken, Friday ran back, stole the ball from Luton defender John Faulkner, broke away, rounded Aleksic and slotted the ball past him into the net. In celebration, Friday jogged back past the goalkeeper while giving him the V-sign. Cardiff won the match 4–2 and at the end of the season avoided relegation to the third tier only on goal difference. Meanwhile, without Friday, Reading were


title: Robin Friday

texts:
 waited for Lawrenson to attempt a slide tackle and then kicked him in the face. After receiving a red card, Friday left the ground with the game still going on; according to legend, before leaving he broke into the Brighton dressing room and defecated in Lawrenson's kit bag. Cardiff eventually lost 4–0."I am sick and tired of it", Andrews told the South Wales Echo on 1 November. "To be sent off in his first game back is as much as a man can stand". <mask> was transfer-listed and served a three-match suspension before making his final appearance on 10 December in Cardiff's 6–3 away defeat against Bolton. Liza was by now the mother of <mask>'s second daughter, Arabella, but around this time began divorce proceedings. <mask> claimed that he had had enough of people telling him what to do, and walked into Andrews's office on 20 December 1977 to announce that he was retiring from professional football. The club promptly released him and cancelled his contract. Post-retirement

After retiring, <mask> moved back to London and returned to work as an asphalter and decorator.Soon after <mask> left Cardiff, Reading manager Maurice Evans was presented with a petition, signed by 3,000 supporters, requesting that he attempt to re-sign Friday. Evans contacted Friday and told him: "If you would just settle down for three or four years, you could play for England". <mask> replied with the question "How old are you? ", and after Evans answered, continued: "I'm half your age and I've lived twice your life". Evans reflected, "You may well be right". <mask> trained with Brentford during the 1978–79 pre-season, but after regaining his fitness suddenly changed his mind and stopped

masks: Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday


title: Robin Friday

texts: "Player of the Millennium" from Reading in 1999, he was voted the top "all-time cult hero" for both Reading and Cardiff in a 2004 BBC poll; with similar polls taking place at each Premier League and Football League club, he was the only player to appear in the top three for two different sides. In 2007, a poll of fans run by Reading resulted in his once more being named the club's best ever. Later that year, when the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) canvassed Reading supporters for their all-time favourite, Friday won again. In a parallel PFA survey, Cardiff fans chose one of Friday's former teammates, Wales international defender Phil Dwyer.<mask> was ranked first in Channel 4's list of football "bad boys" in August 2007, while Football365 placed him at eighth place in a 2010 list of "wasted talents". Friday's style of play was based around his exceptional ball skills, described by Cardiff doctor Leslie Hamilton as "absolutely fabulous", and his instinctive footballing vision, which enabled him both to execute flamboyant individual moves and to create attacks for his teammates. Jimmy Andrews, his manager at Cardiff, later called Friday "the complete centre-forward" and placed him on a par with Alan Shearer, while Maurice Evans claimed that he could have played for England, and was at least on a level with international strikers he had worked with such as John Aldridge and Dean Saunders. This opinion was shared by Hamilton and Friday's Reading teammate John Murray, both of whom firmly declared in separate interviews that Friday would have been good enough for the England team had he "sorted his head out", in Hamilton's words. Friday was unselfish


title: Robin Friday

texts: and would take just as much pleasure out of setting up a goal scored by a teammate as netting one himself. He possessed fine ball control and dribbling skills, and could also shoot with both great power and sharp accuracy. The strong physical aspect of his game and exceptionally competitive, combative spirit combined with all of this to create a formidable forward player: such was his ability that his arrival transformed Reading into one of the division's best sides in a matter of weeks.Writing in 2010, Roger Titford stressed Friday's immediate and profound impact on the Reading team as a key factor in his lasting popularity: "It was like the comic-book stories that kids from <mask>'s era would have read", he wrote. "He was a ready-made star". On top of his technical talent, Friday was physically very strong and able to withstand sustained blows or injuries. According to Hamilton, he was also uncommonly fit despite his lifestyle. He boasted an exceptional work-rate, which Dwyer recalled gave any side including him a strong boost: "When he was in the line-up you'd have a centre-forward and a centre-half; not only would he be up there running them ragged, but when it broke down he'd be the first person to start tackling back". He was assisted in this by a smooth and effective sliding tackle which despite all of Friday's attacking skills Hurley considered one of the strongest parts of his game. Reading F.C.historian David Downs described Friday's style of play as "really quite bizarre. It was more or less <mask> standing in the middle and saying 'Give me the ball and I'll see what I can do with it'". On receiving the ball, he would then turn and either take on

masks: Robin Robin


title: Oh Eun-sun

texts:
<mask>un-sun (Korean: 오은선, Hanja: 吳銀善, born March 5, 1966) is a South Korean mountaineer. She was the first Korean woman to climb the Seven Summits. On April 27, 2010, she reached the summit of Annapurna; upon doing so, she claimed to have climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders, which would have made her the first woman to achieve this feat. However, her claim to have ascended Kangchenjunga was disputed by multiple experts. <mask> later admitted that she had stopped a few hundred meters before the summit of Kangchenjunga, and so the Korean Alpine Federation ruled that she had not summited. The mountaineering site ExplorersWeb considered Edurne Pasaban as the first woman to have successfully climbed all fourteen peaks. Early life
<mask> was born in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do.Before taking up climbing, she studied engineering at the University of Suwon in Gyeonggi Province. After completing the 14 eight-thousanders, she said she would take a break from climbing for three to four years. "The last few years have been too tiring, now I am going to rest," she said. She plans to attend graduate school and do charity work during her break. Race to complete all 14 eight-thousanders
On July 17, 1997, <mask> summitted Gasherbrum II without supplementary oxygen, completing her first climb to a summit of over 8,000 meters. Over the next several years, she attempted several eight-thousanders without success. In 2004, she climbed Mount Everest with the aid of supplementary oxygen.In 2006, she added scaling Shishapangma to her list of accomplishments. At the time, two women, Edurne Pasabán and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, had completed nine different eight-thousanders to <mask>'s three. In 2007, she conquered Cho Oyu and K2, bringing her total 8000ers to five. Two other women achieved their 10th such climb that year. In 2008, <mask> added four more 8000+ meter climbs, while the leaders in the chase for all 14 added only one each. On May 6, 2009, <mask> claimed to have summited Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain (see below). In

masks:
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title: Oh Eun-sun

texts:
 so doing, she became just the third woman to conquer the mountain and first from Korea.The accomplishment also made her the first woman to scale the world's five highest peaks. It was her 10th different 8000er. On August 3, 2009, <mask> reached the summit of Gasherbrum I after a twelve-hour climb from Camp 3. In April 2010, <mask> made her second attempt at climbing Annapurna, the last of the eight-thousanders. A previous attempt in October 2009 came up 500 meters short when a blizzard made further ascent impossible. As she approached the top, strong winds and snow delayed further ascent. On April 23, <mask> reached camp C3, located at 6,400 m, but was forced to retreat the next day due to wind.She announced that she would delay her summit attempt. On April 26, <mask> took 11 hours to climb from C2 (5,600m) to C4. On April 27, 2010, <mask> left camp C4 located at 7,200 meters on Annapurna. Thirteen hours later, she reached the summit at 3:15pm local time, completing her quest. Upon reaching the peak, she planted a South Korean flag, waved to the camera which was broadcasting the climb live, and thanked her fellow Koreans for being with her throughout the whole expedition. She was accompanied by five other climbers. Congratulating <mask> on her accomplishment, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak said, "She showed us what challenge means".<mask>na on May 3. Accomplishment disputed
<mask>'s 2009 summit of Kangchenjunga has been questioned, throwing her accomplishment into doubt. The dispute stems from a photograph said to have been taken by <mask> at the summit which is too blurry to confirm exactly where she stood when she took it. The photo is the only visible evidence she has of her ascent. After doubts were first raised in Korea, <mask> held a press conference in which she tearfully remarked that the blurriness "was unavoidable due to fog and a violent snowstorm." One of the Sherpas who accompanied her on the climb assured the media that he knew the layout of the mountain well from previous climbs and that <mask>

masks: Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Ohpur Oh Oh Oh Oh


title: Oh Eun-sun

texts: had indeed made the summit. In April 2010, <mask>'s main rival, Edurne Pasaban from Spain, who was also aiming to become the first woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, weighed in on the controversy.Pasabán spoke with <mask> and her team while descending Annapurna, Pasabán's thirteenth eight-thousander. After Pasabán spoke with Elizabeth Hawley upon descending, Hawley agreed to mark <mask>'s summit of Kangchenjunga as "disputed" in her Himalayan Database. On April 24, Hawley explained her decision, "The only picture that anyone has seen shows <mask> standing on bare rock. But Miss Pasabán (who was on the mountain at the same time) showed me a picture of her team on the summit, and they are standing on snow." She added that "of the three Sherpas that climbed with Miss <mask>, two have said she did not reach the summit." The latter comment apparently stems from conversations Pasabán had with said Sherpas while on Annapurna. Although her data is unofficial, Hawley is considered the final arbiter on such disputes.At the time of Hawley's death in 2018, she counted the record as valid, but had planned to do further research. Ferran Latorre, a Spanish climber, claimed that the green rope affixed to the mountain by <mask>'s team (visible in the picture) stopped 200 meters short of the summit. Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com, a website devoted to keeping mountaineering records, said, "It's all mixed up, you cannot say what is true and what's invented." On April 27, 2010, Nepal Mountaineering Association president Ang Tshering said, "We recognize [<mask>'s] achievement as the first woman climber to scale all the highest mountains in the world." 8000ers.com also credits <mask> with having completed all fourteen eight-thousanders. The Nepalese government also stated that it believes <mask> climbed Kangchenjunga. ExplorersWeb looked into the disputed summit in detail in 2009, before it made headlines, and concluded that the dispute was based largely on third parties confusing Go Mi-young's team, who was climbing at

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title: Oh Eun-sun

texts:
 the same time, with <mask>'s, and a misunderstanding about the starting point of <mask>'s final push.The organization concluded that "doubts about Miss <mask>'s Kanchen summit were not backed by enough fact", but said it would be happy to review any new evidence the involved parties had to offer. Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, also acknowledged <mask>'s achievement after meeting with her. Response
On April 26, <mask>'s sponsor responded on her behalf while she was climbing Annapurna. According to a press release by Black Yak, there were several teams on the mountain at the time and none of them doubted <mask>'s summit then. At the time, Pasabán herself wrote "Korean <mask>un Sun just reached the top in spite of the wind." The release goes on to say the Kangchenjunga summit is not visible by telescope even during good weather, so it was not surprising no one can visually verify <mask>'s summit. It states that <mask> was last seen at 8,400 m 3 hours and 40 minutes before the claimed summit time.Veteran climbers have said that that is a realistic time frame. Finally, according to the release, the final 200 meters of the mountain are "comparatively gentle, so fixed rope is not a necessary option". Others, including Pasabán, have scaled that portion of the mountain without the use of fixed rope. For her part, Pasabán remarked, "I am confused. Had I known this so-called race was going to be such a mess, I would have thought twice before getting involved." After descending from Annapurna, <mask> addressed the allegations on May 3. "I am really sad that it has come to this," she said.<mask> claimed that Korea's KBS Television had video and picture evidence of her summit that had not yet been made public. Rejecting Pasabán's claims, <mask> added, "I believe that according to Pasabán, some Sherpas told her that I hadn't climbed Kangchenjunga. But no names of the Sherpas have been mentioned. Why?" On May 4, Pasabán specified the names of seven Sherpas involved. She declined to give

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title: Oh Eun-sun

texts:
 these names earlier as some of these Sherpas were still working for <mask>. <mask> has no plans to re-climb Kangchenjunga.Acknowledgement by Hawley
On May 3, 2009, <mask> had an hour-long discussion with Elizabeth Hawley in Kathmandu, in which she asked <mask> about the details of her Kangchenjunga climb. At the conclusion of the interview, Hawley asked <mask> if she had really conquered all 14 eight-thousanders, to which <mask> replied. "Yes, I did." Hawley reportedly replied "Congratulations", indicating the feat would continue to be acknowledged. "<mask> will be credited for her climb to Kangchenjunga," she later told the press. "Her account was completely different from Pasabán's so I really don't know who is right," she added. Hawley's database will continue to list the climb as disputed unless Pasabán withdraws her complaint.Pasabán had previously said she would respect Hawley's decision either way. On May 23 Pasabán conceded that she was the second woman to climb world's 14 highest peaks, but still questioned whether <mask> actually held the record. Hawley stated "I think it's likely that Miss <mask>'s climb is going to be disputed for the rest of her life" and that evidence was "piling up" against her. Korean Alpine Federation statement
On August 26, 2010 the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) judged that <mask> "probably failed" to reach the top of Kangchenjunga. The KAF secretary general, Lee Eui-jae, said participants in the meeting all shared the view that <mask>'s photographs on Kangchenjunga did not "seem to match the actual landscape" and that "<mask>'s previous explanations on the process of her ascent to Kangchenjunga are unreliable". <mask> responded to the verdict by describing it as "a unilateral opinion" and adding that all participants in the meeting - seven Korean climbers who had scaled Kangchenjunga previously - "were climbers who had doubts about my achievement from the beginning, so their conclusion must have been already set". Hawley declared, "it would seem her only choice now is to go back

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title: Oh Eun-sun

texts:
 and climb it again with lots of clear photos".Next team to reach the peak

BBC News also reported on 27 August 2010 that "A member of the next team to reach the peak of Kangchenjunga, in May 2009, the Norwegian climber Jon Gangdal, says he found Ms <mask>'s Korean flag weighed down by stones, some 50m or 60m below the summit." Climbing strategy and inspiration
<mask> has used helicopters to travel between base camps, and employed teams to prepare for her ascents in advance. She is under the sponsorship of Black Yak, a South Korean outdoor product maker. She has been nicknamed "Iron Woman" and "Squirrel" for her climbing accomplishments. <mask> was criticized for failing to come to the aid of ailing Spanish climber Tolo Calafat, who died on Annapurna while waiting for help. <mask> responded that she was unaware that Calafat was sick until after she had descended and was no longer able to help. "We reached the summit around 3 p.m. and the Spanish climber got there an hour later.By the time we got back down to Camp 4 we were all exhausted," <mask> said, adding that she "really wanted" to help but was "not in a state to climb [the seven hours back] up the slopes and rescue him." <mask> lists former rival Go Mi-young, who plummeted to her death in 2009 after completing 11 eight-thousanders, as a source of inspiration. She has described mountain climbing as a sort of "addiction, which is much stronger than any drug." Mountaineering accomplishments

References

External links
 "Bravo! Oh Eun-sun" - Korea Times editorial on <mask>'s accomplishment, casting a personal light on the story
 Associated Press footage of <mask>'s summit of Annapurna
 ExWeb special report, part 1: <mask>un-Sun loses summit status at AdventureStats on Explorersweb. ExWeb Oh Eun-Sun special report, part 2: the Scoop on Explorersweb. 1966 births
Living people
South Korean mountain climbers
People from Namwon
Summiters of the Seven Summits
South Korean summiters of Mount Everest
South Korean sportswomen
University of Suwon alumni
South Korean

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title: James E. Ferguson

texts:
<mask>.  (August 31, 1871 – September 21, 1944), known as <mask>, was an American Democratic politician and the 26th Governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. He was indicted and impeached during his second term, forced to resign and barred from holding further Texas office. Unable to run under his own name, <mask> ran his wife's campaign for Governor; Miriam A<mask>, known as "Ma" <mask>, was twice elected as governor, serving two non-consecutive terms, from 1925 to 1927 and 1933 to 1935." In 1925, Miriam became the first female governor of Texas after campaigning as a stand-in for her husband,
and technically <mask><mask> became the first gentleman of Texas for her two terms. Early life
<mask> was born to the Reverend <mask><mask>, Sr., and <mask> near Salado in south Bell County, Texas. At age 12 he entered Salado College (a preparatory school) but was eventually expelled for disobedience. At 16, he left home and drifted through the states of the American West, working successively in a vineyard, a mine, a barbed wire factory, and at a grain ranch.After he returned to Texas, he studied law in Bell County and was admitted to the bar. On December 31, 1899, he married Miriam A. Wallace at her family home. In 1903, <mask> was elected as city attorney in Belton, Texas. In addition, he established Farmers State Bank. In 1906, he sold Farmers bank and established Temple State Bank. He also became active in the Democratic Party and managed several local political campaigns. He believed that "a Negro has no business whatever taking a part in the political affairs of the Democratic party, the white man's party."A part of his appeal as a candidate for governor was his support for white supremacy in the political process. First term as governor
In 1914, <mask> was elected as governor of Texas by

masks:
James Edward Ferguson Jr
Pa Ferguson
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. Ferguson
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. Ferguson
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. Ferguson
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title: James E. Ferguson

texts:
 running as an anti-prohibitionist Democrat. When the Democratic Party dominated the Texas political landscape, winning the Democratic primary often sealed the election results. <mask> was the only "wet" candidate in the Democratic primary and garnered all of the anti-prohibitionist votes over a plurality of "dry" candidates. Prior to his inauguration, <mask> conferred with officials at the University of Texas regarding appointments affecting learning and higher education. According to historian Dan Utley, <mask> planned to use state appointments as part of a spoils system to reward his political supporters. He tapped Reverend Allan <mask> to serve as State Librarian, despite his lack of training or experience in the field.The incumbent State Librarian was <mask>, who was a professional historian with years of experience as a librarian. The chair of the State Library and Historical Commission, <mask>. Barker, heard talk about these plans and intervened in support of Winkler. He convened the commission, and the body approved that Barker write a letter to the Governor-elect. The letter claimed that Winkler was the best person for the job. Meanwhile, Winkler fought for his job by enlisting the help of his colleagues. Other high-profile librarians voiced their support of Winkler, as did the son of an ex-governor, and a chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Second term as governor
After being re-elected in 1916, <mask> vetoed the appropriations for the University of Texas.The veto was retaliation against the university because of its refusal to dismiss certain faculty members whom <mask> found objectionable, including William Harding Mayes, former Texas Lieutenant Governor and founder and dean of the University of Texas School of Journalism. He had been an opponent of <mask> for the Democratic

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